Control

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a robust Control experience, but the ceiling varies sharply by resolution. At 1080p and 1440p, this combo crushes the 60 FPS threshold at every preset, while 4K requires a significant settings compromise to stay smooth. The data below breaks down exactly which settings to use, how this combo ranks against other tested hardware, and which component is doing the heavy lifting.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which averages 89.3 FPS. This is a strong result, leaving substantial headroom above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The scaling from High to Ultra is modest, dropping from 101.1 FPS to 89.3 FPS, indicating the GPU handles the extra visual load with relative ease.

Moving to 2560x1440, the best playable setting is also Ultra, averaging 68.5 FPS. This is just barely above the 60 FPS line, meaning the system is fully maxed out at this resolution. The gap between Medium (88.4 FPS) and Ultra (68.5 FPS) is significant, showing that the jump to Ultra costs roughly 20 FPS. If you want a safety margin, High at 75.8 FPS is a more comfortable choice, but Ultra remains technically playable.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The most demanding preset that maintains 60 FPS is Low, which averages 78.3 FPS. Medium dips to 58.7 FPS, just under the threshold, while High (50 FPS) and Ultra (41.6 FPS) fall well short. This is a classic 4K bottleneck: the RTX 3070’s 8 GB frame buffer and memory bandwidth are stretched thin, forcing a low preset to keep frame times consistent.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Intel Core i5-14600K sits in a tight cluster of processors. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H is essentially a dead heat, scoring only 0.2% lower in average benchmarks. The AMD EPYC 4345P is 0.3% faster, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX is 0.7% ahead. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 trails by 0.8%. For gaming, any of these would deliver nearly identical frame pacing in Control, as the game is far more GPU-bound at higher resolutions.

On the GPU side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070’s nearest competitors are a mixed bag. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is 0.7% slower in average score, making it the closest modern alternative. Interestingly, older cards like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (1% slower) and AMD Radeon HD 7970M (1.1% slower) appear in the list, though these are legacy parts with different feature sets. The NVIDIA Tesla K40c is 1.5% faster in raw compute but lacks the RTX 3070’s dedicated ray tracing and DLSS hardware, which matters for Control’s visual effects.

In practice, if you swapped the RTX 3070 for an RX 7600 XT, expect nearly identical frame rates in Control—within a couple of percent. The CPU’s rivals are similarly interchangeable, meaning this combo’s performance profile is well-represented by the numbers above.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Control at 4K with high settings?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is 50, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. Only the Low preset clears 60 FPS, averaging 78.3 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 1440p for this combo?

A: Ultra is the best playable preset at 2560x1440, averaging 68.5 FPS. This is the most demanding setting that stays above 60 FPS, though High at 75.8 FPS offers more headroom.

Q: How much performance drops when moving from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra?

A: At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average FPS is 89.3. At 2560x1440 Ultra, it drops to 68.5, a reduction of roughly 23%. This indicates a growing GPU load as pixel count increases.

Q: Is the RTX 3070 the limiting factor at 4K?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160, even Medium settings only reach 58.7 FPS, while High and Ultra fall to 50 FPS and 41.6 FPS, respectively. The GPU’s memory bandwidth and capacity are insufficient for high-fidelity 4K in this title.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: Medium at 1920x1080 averages 110.6 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and leaves room for high refresh rate displays.

Q: Does the CPU matter more at lower resolutions?

A: The data suggests the GPU dominates at all resolutions, but the CPU’s role is more visible at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 100 FPS on Medium and High. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as even the strongest CPU would not offset the 41.6 FPS Ultra result.

The Verdict

This PC can absolutely run Control, but the experience depends entirely on your display resolution. At 1920x1080, the verdict is a clear yes: every preset, including Ultra, clears 60 FPS, with the best setting (Ultra) averaging 89.3 FPS. At 2560x1440, the system also passes, with Ultra averaging 68.5 FPS, though it’s close to the line. At 3840x2160, the verdict is conditional: only Low settings are playable, averaging 78.3 FPS. Medium (58.7 FPS), High (50 FPS), and Ultra (41.6 FPS) all fail the 60 FPS test.

For a 1440p or 1080p gamer, this is a high-performance combo that can max out the game without compromise. For 4K, you’ll need to dial down to Low, which undermines the visual fidelity that makes Control’s environments impressive. The combination is best suited for 1440p Ultra, where the balance of image quality and performance is optimal.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data shows a clear division of labor. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are high enough (160.8 FPS on Low) that the CPU’s single-thread performance matters more, though the GPU still drives the differences between presets. The Core i5-14600K, with its boost clock of 5.30 GHz, is well-equipped for this scenario, as evidenced by its strong single-core Cinebench R23 score of 2064.

At 2560x1440, the GPU begins to dominate. The drop from Low (118.6 FPS) to Ultra (68.5 FPS) is a 50 FPS swing, entirely attributable to the RTX 3070’s shading units and memory bandwidth. The CPU’s role diminishes as the pixel count increases, but it still prevents any bottleneck—the system remains GPU-limited throughout.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is unquestionably the limiting factor. The RTX 3070’s 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB frame buffer are insufficient for high settings, resulting in sub-60 FPS performance on everything except Low. The CPU’s performance is nearly irrelevant here; upgrading the processor would yield no measurable gain, as the GPU is saturated.

Notably, the scaling between resolutions and presets reinforces this: from 1080p Ultra (89.3 FPS) to 4K Ultra (41.6 FPS), the frame rate drops by more than half, a clear sign of GPU-bound rendering. The CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads are more than adequate for Control’s demands, as the game does not scale heavily with multi-core performance—the i5-14600K’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 is far beyond what this title requires.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested combinations in the database, this pairing ranks 1589th out of 3720 combos. This places it in the 57th percentile of all systems tested, meaning it outperforms a majority of configurations but is far from the top tier. The rank reflects the RTX 3070’s age (released in 2020) and the i5-14600K’s mid-range positioning.

In the context of Control, this rank is slightly misleading. The game is nearly four years old at the time of this data, and the combo’s performance is more than adequate for the vast majority of players. The 1589 rank is dragged down by the GPU’s 4K struggles, but for 1080p and 1440p gaming, this system is in the upper echelon. The RTX 3070’s percentile of 61 among all GPUs and the CPU’s percentile of 90 among all CPUs indicate a balanced pairing, where the GPU is the weaker link but still capable.

Compared to the nearest rival combos, this system would perform within 1-2% of any alternative using the CPUs and GPUs listed earlier. The GTX 690, despite being older, is benchmarked nearly identically to the RTX 3070 in synthetic tests, but lacks modern features like DirectX 12 Ultimate and ray tracing support, which Control can utilize. The RX 7600 XT is the closest modern rival, offering similar frame rates but with less mature driver optimization for this specific title. Overall, this combo is a solid mid-to-high-range performer that excels at 1440p and handles 1080p with ease, with 4K being its only notable weakness.