Control

Control, the 2019 action-adventure title, shows a demanding side at higher resolutions when paired with the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080. The benchmark data indicates that this combination is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring settings adjustments to maintain smooth performance. The GPU is the primary limiting factor at 4K, while the 16-core processor provides ample headroom at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 120 FPS at 1920x1080 to 91 FPS at 2560x1440, a 24% reduction, and then further to 61 FPS at 3840x2160, which is a 33% drop from 1440p. This scaling pattern is typical for a graphically intensive title where the RTX 5080's rendering workload increases significantly with pixel count.

The Low settings preset shows an even more pronounced scaling curve. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 190 FPS, which drops to 144 FPS at 1440p (a 24% decrease) and then to 97 FPS at 4K (a 33% decrease from 1440p). This consistent percentage drop across presets suggests that the game's engine scales predictably with resolution, and the RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory is not the bottleneck; instead, the raw pixel throughput and shading workload are the determining factors.

At Medium settings, the measured data includes minimum and maximum frame rates, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS and maximum of 155 FPS, indicating a tight frame delivery window. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 102 FPS with a min of 87 FPS and max of 117 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and maximum of 79 FPS, showing that the lower bound approaches the 60 FPS threshold.

The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, shows the steepest drop from 1080p to 4K. The average goes from 104 FPS at 1080p to 79 FPS at 1440p (a 24% reduction) and then to 53 FPS at 4K (a 33% reduction from 1440p). This 53 FPS average at 4K Ultra indicates that the RTX 5080 is fully saturated, and any additional graphical load would push the experience below playable levels.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU has significant headroom, as the frame rates scale almost linearly with the GPU's capabilities. The shift from 1080p to 1440p produces a consistent ~24% performance hit across all presets, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. The further drop to 4K, another ~33% from 1440p, reinforces this, with the RTX 5080's 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 performance being the limiting factor rather than the processor's capabilities.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, with its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for Control at 4K, as evidenced by the fact that the Low preset at 4K achieves 97 FPS, which is nearly double the Ultra preset's 53 FPS. The memory bandwidth is not a constraint; instead, the GPU's compute throughput, rated at 56.28 TFLOPS FP32, determines the frame rates.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 2295 MHz and boost of 2617 MHz, are relatively high for a mobile-class part, but the card's 360 W TDP indicates that it is a full-power desktop component. The 10752 shading units and 336 texture mapping units provide the raw geometry and pixel processing power needed for Control's physics-heavy environments. The 84 ray tracing cores are relevant for the game's real-time reflections, though the measured FPS data does not specify whether ray tracing is enabled.

The benchmark results show that the RTX 5080's performance in Control is strong but not class-leading within the database. It holds an 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 56083. Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 5080 is 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon 8060S, 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and 2.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE is 2.2% ahead of the RTX 5080. These small deltas suggest that in this game, the RTX 5080 performs roughly on par with upper-midrange AMD offerings, despite its higher absolute specifications.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity proves adequate across all tested settings. At 4K Ultra, the game likely uses a significant portion of memory for textures and geometry, but the absence of any min FPS anomalies in the Ultra preset (which has null min/max values) suggests no memory-related stuttering. The Medium preset's min FPS values, 59 FPS at 4K and 87 FPS at 1440p, indicate that the card maintains playable frame times without VRAM spillover.

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the High preset is the optimal choice, delivering an average of 61 FPS. The Medium preset also works, with an average of 69 FPS and a minimum of 59 FPS, but the High preset offers better visual quality with only a marginal average FPS cost. The Ultra preset at 4K, with its 53 FPS average, falls below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided for competitive or fast-paced play.

At 1440p, the High preset provides an excellent balance, achieving 91 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS standard and suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p, with 79 FPS average, is also a viable option for those prioritizing visual fidelity, as it remains comfortably above 60 FPS. The Low preset at 1440p, reaching 144 FPS, is unnecessary unless targeting very high refresh rates, as the visual compromise is significant.

For 1080p gaming, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice, as it delivers 104 FPS average while providing the full visual experience. The High preset at 120 FPS and Medium at 135 FPS are also options, but they do not offer enough performance headroom to justify the visual downgrade, since even the Ultra preset exceeds 100 FPS. The Low preset at 190 FPS is only relevant for extreme esports-style play, which is not typical for a single-player action-adventure title like Control.

The data shows that the RTX 5080's sweet spot in this game is 1440p High or Ultra, where it can maintain high frame rates without approaching the GPU's absolute limits. For 4K, High settings are the maximum recommended, as the 61 FPS average provides a stable experience, while the Medium preset's 69 FPS with a 59 FPS minimum is a safer choice for those sensitive to frame drops.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 730th out of 2888 tested combos in Control. This places it in the top 25% of all configurations tested, indicating a capable gaming system. However, the ranking is not exceptional, suggesting that many other CPU-GPU pairings outperform this one in this specific title.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 88 among all processors and the GPU's percentile ranking of 87 among all GPUs both contribute to this mid-tier placement. The combo's 730th rank out of 2888 means there are 2157 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in Control. This is likely due to the fact that the RTX 5080, while powerful, is not the absolute fastest GPU in the database, and the Core Ultra X9 388H, with its 16 cores and 16 threads, is more oriented toward productivity than pure gaming performance.

The CPU's nearest rivals show it performing nearly identically to several other high-end processors. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D has an average score 0.2% higher than the Core Ultra X9 388H, while the Intel Core i9-13950HX is 0.3% lower, the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 is 0.4% lower, and the Intel Core i5-13600 is 0.5% lower. These sub-1% differences indicate that the CPU is not a differentiating factor in this combo's ranking; the GPU's performance relative to other graphics cards is more influential.

The GPU's nearest rivals suggest that the RTX 5080 is positioned in a competitive mid-range segment. It performs 2.3% better than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X but 2.2% worse than the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE. This narrow performance band means that the combo's rank could shift significantly with different GPU choices, but within the tested configuration, the 730th position reflects a solid, upper-midrange gaming experience.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, with its 16 cores and 16 threads, provides robust processing power that is not fully utilized in Control. The processor's base clock of 2.10 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz, combined with 18 MB of shared L3 cache, deliver strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2200.5. This is critical for game logic and physics calculations, which are often single-threaded.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, shown by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911, are more than adequate for Control's background tasks. However, the game's frame rates at 1080p, ranging from 104 FPS at Ultra to 190 FPS at Low, indicate that the CPU can easily feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The fact that the frame rate drops by approximately 24% from 1080p to 1440p across all presets suggests that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

The CPU's architecture, Panther Lake, is built on a 3 nm process, and its memory support for LPDDR5X with a bandwidth of 153.6 GB/s is sufficient for gaming workloads. The 25 W TDP is notably low for a 16-core processor, indicating high power efficiency, but this does not translate to a gaming advantage in this title. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4280 and multi-thread score of 36811 place it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs, confirming its high-end status.

In the context of Control, the Core Ultra X9 388H's performance is essentially a non-factor. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (190 FPS) is likely near the game's engine limit, and the CPU's 16 threads ensure that any physics or AI computations do not bottleneck the rendering pipeline. The processor's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, with a 0.2% higher average score, would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in this game, reinforcing that the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 resolution, the combination delivers high frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves 190 FPS average, the Medium preset averages 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS and maximum of 155 FPS, the High preset averages 120 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 104 FPS. These numbers show that even at the highest settings, the system is well above the 60 FPS threshold, providing a smooth experience on standard 1080p monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected reduction. The Low preset averages 144 FPS, the Medium preset averages 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS and maximum of 117 FPS, the High preset averages 91 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 79 FPS. This resolution is the sweet spot for this combo, as even the Ultra preset maintains a frame rate that exceeds 75 FPS, suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The Low preset averages 97 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset drops to 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and maximum of 79 FPS, placing it right at the edge of the 60 FPS target. The High preset averages 61 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 53 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard. The data indicates that for 4K gaming, users must choose between High settings for a just-playable experience or Medium settings for a more stable frame rate with some visual compromises.

The Medium preset's min/max values across all resolutions provide the most detailed picture of frame consistency. At 1080p, the 115-155 FPS range shows a 40 FPS spread, which narrows to 87-117 FPS at 1440p (a 30 FPS spread) and 59-79 FPS at 4K (a 20 FPS spread). This tightening of the frame time distribution at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is working closer to its limits, reducing the variance but also lowering the average. The lack of min/max data for Low, High, and Ultra presets suggests that the benchmark methodology only captured these values for Medium, which is often the default "balanced" setting in games.