Control

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a clear, tiered performance profile in Control, with results scaling predictably across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the combination is fully playable across every tested setting, with average frame rates ranging from 106.9 FPS on Low to 60.4 FPS on Ultra. The 2560x1440 results show a sharper drop-off: only the Low preset clears the 60 FPS threshold, posting 82.5 FPS, while Medium falls to 58 FPS and High to 54.1 FPS. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches playable status; the best result is 52.9 FPS on Low, with High at 34.6 FPS, Medium at 37.3 FPS, and Ultra at 32.4 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: the gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher pixel counts.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo is presented as average values only; no minimum or maximum frame times were recorded in the dataset. At 1920x1080, the spread across presets is substantial. Low settings produce 106.9 FPS, Medium drops to 79.7 FPS, High yields 67.7 FPS, and Ultra lands at 60.4 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 46.5 FPS, representing a 43.5% reduction in frame rate when moving from the least to most demanding preset. This indicates that at 1080p, the RX 6600 has enough headroom to absorb the increased load of higher settings, though the step from High to Ultra is relatively modest at 7.3 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns on the top-tier preset.

At 2560x1440, the same preset ladder shows a steeper decline. Low settings deliver 82.5 FPS, which is the only playable result at this resolution. Medium falls to 58 FPS, just 2 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold, while High manages 54.1 FPS and Ultra drops to 47.5 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 35 FPS, a 42.4% loss. Notably, the gap between Medium and High is only 3.9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 6.6 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a heavier burden on the GPU at this resolution than the step from Medium to High.

At 3840x2160, all results are below the 60 FPS threshold. Low settings produce 52.9 FPS, which is the best outcome at this resolution. Medium delivers 37.3 FPS, High drops to 34.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 32.4 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 20.5 FPS, a 38.8% reduction. The data reveals that the RX 6600's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K rendering in this title, as even the Low preset cannot sustain playable frame rates. The scaling from Medium to High is particularly small at 2.7 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is memory- or bandwidth-bound rather than compute-bound at this resolution.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, provide context for the i5-14600K's role in this combo. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698, which is 0.2% higher than the i5-14600K's 48618 average. The AMD EPYC 4345P scores 48470, a 0.3% deficit, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX scores 48287, 0.7% lower. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 scores 48995, 0.8% higher. These deltas are all within 1% of the i5-14600K's score, meaning that swapping to any of these CPUs would produce virtually identical frame rates in Control, assuming the GPU remains the same. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with a multi-thread score of 38682 in Passmark, indicates it is not the bottleneck in this pairing.

For the GPU, the Radeon RX 6600's nearest rivals show a similar tight cluster. The NVIDIA Quadro K6000 matches the RX 6600's 19036 average score exactly, with a 0% delta. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile scores 19049, a 0.1% difference, while the NVIDIA Tesla K20m scores 19089, 0.3% higher. The NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation scores 18954, 0.4% lower. These four alternatives would behave nearly identically to the RX 6600 in Control, with frame rate differences of less than 1% across the board. The GPU's 63rd percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the mid-range tier, which aligns with the measured results showing 1080p playability but 4K failure.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 60.4 FPS. This is a marginal pass, just 0.4 FPS above the playable threshold, but it is technically playable. The data shows that High at 67.7 FPS and Medium at 79.7 FPS also clear 60 FPS, but Ultra represents the best visual quality while maintaining playability.

At 2560x1440, the only preset that clears 60 FPS is Low, with an average of 82.5 FPS. Medium at 58 FPS falls short by 2 FPS, so it cannot be recommended for a consistent 60 FPS experience. The best settings for this resolution are therefore Low, which sacrifices visual fidelity for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. The best result is Low at 52.9 FPS, which is 7.1 FPS short of the threshold. Since the verdictByResolution field lists no playable settings for 4K, there is no recommended preset for this resolution. Any attempt to run Control at 4K with this combo will result in sub-60 FPS performance across all settings.

The Verdict

This PC can run Control at 1920x1080 with all presets, including Ultra, which averages 60.4 FPS. The verdictByResolution data confirms that High, Low, Medium, and Ultra are all playable at 1080p, with Ultra being the best option at exactly 60.4 FPS. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset clears 60 FPS, posting 82.5 FPS; all other presets fall below the threshold. At 3840x2160, no preset is playable, with the highest average being 52.9 FPS on Low. The data indicates that this combo is a solid 1080p performer, a marginal 1440p option only at the lowest settings, and unsuitable for 4K gaming in Control. The playable threshold is defined as 60 FPS, and the measured results show that the RX 6600's performance ceiling is reached at 1440p Low for this title.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Control at 1920x1080 with maximum settings?

A: Yes. The Ultra preset at 1920x1080 averages 60.4 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold by 0.4 FPS.

Q: What is the highest playable preset at 2560x1440?

A: Low is the only preset at 2560x1440 that reaches 60 FPS, with an average of 82.5 FPS. Medium falls to 58 FPS, which is below the threshold.

Q: Does this combo achieve 60 FPS at 3840x2160 on any settings?

A: No. The best result at 3840x2160 is 52.9 FPS on Low, which is 7.1 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold. No preset at this resolution is playable.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RX 6600's average benchmark score is 19036. The NVIDIA Quadro K6000 matches this exactly, while the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile scores 19049, the Tesla K20m scores 19089, and the RTX 2000 Ada Generation scores 18954. All deltas are within 0.4%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to limit performance at 4K?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, even the Low preset only reaches 52.9 FPS, while at 1920x1080 Low hits 106.9 FPS. This 54 FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 4K indicates the GPU is the primary constraint, as the CPU's performance is constant across resolutions.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 2560x1440?

A: High averages 54.1 FPS, while Ultra averages 47.5 FPS, a difference of 6.6 FPS. Both are below the 60 FPS playable threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2871 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the lower 23% of the database. The rank reflects the GPU's mid-tier position (63rd percentile among all GPUs) combined with the CPU's high-tier position (90th percentile among all CPUs). The pairing is unbalanced for this game: the CPU is far more capable than the GPU, as evidenced by the fact that at 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 106.9 FPS, but at 3840x2160 Ultra, it drops to 32.4 FPS. The 2871st rank indicates that most other tested combinations deliver better overall performance in Control, likely due to more powerful GPUs. The data suggests that this rank is driven primarily by the RX 6600's limitations at higher resolutions, rather than any CPU bottleneck.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals a clear division of labor between the CPU and GPU in this combo. At 1920x1080, the i5-14600K's strong single-thread performance (2064 in Cinebench R23 single-core) allows the RX 6600 to reach its full potential, as evidenced by the 106.9 FPS on Low settings. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, provide ample headroom for the game's physics and AI systems. However, as resolution increases to 2560x1440 and 3840x2160, the GPU's workload grows disproportionately. The RX 6600's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus, with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, become the limiting factor. This is visible in the scaling: at 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 46.5 FPS, but at 4K, the same move costs only 20.5 FPS. The diminishing delta at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is already saturated and cannot translate additional GPU load into proportionally lower frame rates because it is memory-bound.

At 2560x1440, the CPU's role remains secondary. The i5-14600K's multi-thread score of 24491 in Cinebench R23 ensures that it can feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck, but the RX 6600's compute throughput (8.928 TFLOPS FP32) is insufficient to maintain 60 FPS on Medium or higher presets. The 58 FPS result on Medium, just 2 FPS short of the threshold, suggests that a slightly faster GPU would cross the line, while a faster CPU would not change this outcome. At 3840x2160, the GPU is the dominant constraint across all presets. The fact that Low (52.9 FPS) and Ultra (32.4 FPS) differ by only 20.5 FPS, compared to a 46.5 FPS difference at 1080p, confirms that the GPU is operating at its absolute limit. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking means it could support a much more powerful GPU, but with the RX 6600, the pairing is GPU-bound at all resolutions above 1080p. For this game, the data shows that upgrading the GPU would yield far greater performance gains than upgrading the CPU, especially at 1440p and 4K.