Control

Control (2019) is an Action Adventure title whose measured performance with the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile spans a wide range across resolutions and presets. The data set shows average frame rates from 53 FPS at 3840×2160 Ultra to 190 FPS at 1920×1080 Low, with the Medium preset providing the only complete minimum/maximum frame rate information at each resolution. This analysis examines how the CPU and GPU behave in this game, how the combination ranks against other tested systems, and which settings deliver the best experience based on the measured numbers.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates decline as resolution increases, but the rate of decline is not uniform across presets. At 1920×1080, the High preset averages 120 FPS, the Low preset 190 FPS, Medium 135 FPS, and Ultra 104 FPS. Moving to 2560×1440, the same presets drop to 91, 144, 102, and 79 FPS respectively. At 3840×2160, the values fall further: High 61, Low 97, Medium 69, and Ultra 53 FPS.

The gap between 1920×1080 and 3840×2160 is substantial. For the Low preset, the average drops from 190 to 97 FPS; for the High preset, it falls from 120 to 61. The Medium preset shows a similar pattern, with 135 FPS at 1080p and 69 FPS at 4K. This scaling behavior indicates that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The frame rate reductions correspond to the increasing pixel count, and the GPU's rendering workload grows accordingly.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values. At 1920×1080, the minimum is 115 FPS and the maximum 155; at 2560×1440, the minimum is 87 FPS and maximum 117; at 3840×2160, the minimum is 59 FPS and maximum 79. These numbers suggest that even at 4K, the frame time variance remains moderate, with the minimum staying within 59 FPS. The 59 FPS minimum at 4K Medium indicates occasional dips below the average of 69, but the overall range is narrow enough for a consistent experience.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16‑core, 16‑thread mobile processor with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi‑core score is 18911, and the single‑core score is 2200.5. The CPU's average benchmark score is 44466, which places it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (average score 44573, delta −0.2%), the Intel Core i9‑13950HX (44342, +0.3%), the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 (44309, +0.4%), and the Intel Core i5‑13600 (44240, +0.5%). These deltas are all under 0.5%, indicating that the 388H is statistically on par with those parts in general CPU benchmarks.

In Control, the CPU's influence is most visible at the low‑resolution, low‑preset end. At 1920×1080 Low, the measured average is 190 FPS, which is the highest value in the entire data set. This suggests that at this setting the CPU is not the bottleneck; the high frame rate is likely the result of the GPU being able to produce frames quickly, while the CPU's 16 threads and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide enough processing power for the game's logic. At 2560×1440 Low, the average is 144 FPS, and at 3840×2160 Low it is 97 FPS. The decline from 190 to 97 FPS as resolution increases indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor, not the CPU.

The CPU's strong single‑thread performance (Cinebench R23 single‑core 2200.5) is consistent with the game's ability to reach high frame rates at lower resolutions. The multi‑core score of 18911 also shows a capable processor, but the measured frame rates do not appear to be CPU‑limited at any resolution; the scaling pattern is dominated by GPU load.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides clear guidance for selecting a preset at each resolution. At 3840×2160, the Medium preset averages 69 FPS, while High averages 61 and Ultra 53. The Medium preset is the only one that exceeds the 61 FPS of the High preset, and it does so by a margin of 8 FPS. Since the Ultra preset drops below 60 FPS (53 FPS) and High sits exactly at 61 FPS, Medium is the most reasonable choice for 4K gaming: it delivers a higher average frame rate than High while still maintaining a visual quality level that is between Low and High.

At 2560×1440, the Medium preset averages 102 FPS, High 91 FPS, and Ultra 79 FPS. All three are above 60 FPS, so any preset is playable. Medium offers a 11 FPS advantage over High, and the 102 FPS average is smooth for most displays. The Low preset reaches 144 FPS, but that sacrifices visual quality. For a balanced experience at 1440p, Medium is a safe recommendation, though High remains a viable option for those prioritizing fidelity.

At 1920×1080, all presets exceed 104 FPS. Ultra averages 104 FPS, High 120 FPS, Medium 135 FPS, and Low 190 FPS. Since even Ultra is above 104 FPS, the choice depends on the player's preference for visual detail versus frame rate. The Medium preset at 135 FPS provides a good balance, as it is 15 FPS higher than High and 31 FPS lower than Low. For a high‑refresh display, Low or Medium would be preferable, while High or Ultra may be used when image quality is more important.

Overall, the Medium preset is the only one that remains above 60 FPS at 4K, and it also provides the highest average at 1440p and 1080p among the presets that still offer a meaningful visual quality. The data supports Medium as the recommended preset for this combination.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is ranked 1024th out of 3720 tested combos in Control. This rank indicates that a majority of the tested CPU‑GPU pairings achieve higher average frame rates in this game. The CPU itself is in the 88th percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU is in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Yet the combo's position is not as high as those percentiles would suggest, which points to the game's performance being influenced by factors beyond the raw CPU and GPU scores.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 44466, and the GPU's is 38349. Their nearest rivals in the database have average scores within 0.5% (CPU) and 0.9% (GPU) of these values, meaning that these parts are not outliers. The fact that the combo ranks 1024th out of 3720 suggests that other configurations, perhaps with different memory speeds, power limits, or driver optimizations, can achieve higher frame rates in Control. This is not a reflection of the hardware being weak, but rather that the game's performance is not solely determined by the raw compute scores.

The rank is also notable because it falls in the lower half of the list. While the CPU and GPU are both above the 80th percentile in their respective categories, the combo rank is below the 50th percentile. This discrepancy highlights the importance of system‑level factors and the specific behavior of the game engine.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile has 16 GB of GDDR7 memory, a 256‑bit memory bus, and a memory bandwidth of 896 GB/s. Its base clock is 975 MHz and its boost clock is 1500 MHz. The GPU contains 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, 96 ROPs, 60 RT cores, and 240 tensor cores. Its FP32 performance is 23.04 TFLOPS. The GPU's benchmark scores include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4952, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 166986, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 169754. In the Passmark suite, the GPU scores 27711 in the G3D test and 12134 in the compute test.

The GPU's percentile is 81, and its average benchmark score is 38349. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (score 38299, delta +0.1%), the RTX 4080 Mobile (38135, +0.6%), the MX570 A (38691, −0.9%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X (38706, −0.9%). These deltas are all within 0.9%, showing that the RTX 5080 Mobile performs similarly to these parts in synthetic benchmarks.

In Control, the GPU's role is clearly visible in the resolution scaling. The 1080p High preset averages 120 FPS, while 1440p High drops to 91 FPS and 4K High to 61 FPS. The Low preset follows a similar pattern, from 190 to 144 to 97. This consistent decline indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint at higher resolutions. The 16 GB VRAM and 896 GB/s bandwidth are ample for the game's textures, as the 4K Medium preset still maintains an average of 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS. The GPU's compute capabilities, as measured by the 23.04 TFLOPS FP32, are more than sufficient for a 2019 title, but the frame rate drop at 4K shows that the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the more critical factors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|---------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 61 | – | – |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 97 | – | – |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 69 | 59 | 79 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 53 | – | – |

| 2560x1440 | High | 91 | – | – |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 144 | – | – |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 102 | 87 | 117 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 79 | – | – |

| 1920x1080 | High | 120 | – | – |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 190 | – | – |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 135 | 115 | 155 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 104 | – | – |

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1920×1080 with Medium settings?

A: The average is 135 FPS, with a minimum of 115 and a maximum of 155.

Q: What is the lowest minimum frame rate recorded in the data set?

A: The lowest minimum is 59 FPS, which occurs at 3840×2160 with Medium settings.

Q: What is the combo rank of this CPU‑GPU pair in Control?

A: The combo ranks 1024th out of 3720 tested combos.

Q: What is the CPU's Cinebench R23 multi‑core score?

A: The score is 18911.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth?

A: The memory bandwidth is 896 GB/s.

Q: What is the CPU's boost clock?

A: The boost clock is 5.10 GHz.