Control

The Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination delivers a solid, if not spectacular, experience in Control. The pairing is well-balanced: the CPU sits in the 90th percentile of all processors, while the GPU ranks in the 61st percentile, meaning the processor has ample headroom to feed the graphics card in most scenarios. Benchmark results show this system can comfortably handle the game at 1080p with maximum settings, but higher resolutions require dialing back the preset to maintain smooth gameplay.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the composite benchmark scores, the i5-14600KF is closely matched with several other processors, meaning you would see nearly identical CPU-bound performance in Control. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 is the nearest rival, with an average score of 49,228 compared to the i5's 49,394 — a negligible 0.3% difference. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G trails by just 0.4% (49,196 score), while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is 0.8% behind (48,995). On the other side, the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 posts a score of 49,796, which is 0.8% higher. For practical purposes, all four of these CPUs would deliver effectively identical frame rates in Control, so any of them would serve as a like-for-like substitute if the i5-14600KF were unavailable.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 17,639 places it in a peculiar neighborhood. The AMD Radeon HD 7790 scores 17,666, which is 0.2% higher, making it the closest match. The AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics come in at 17,588 (0.3% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17,551) and Pro 460 (17,509) are 0.5% and 0.7% behind, respectively. These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, so in Control, you would be hard-pressed to notice any difference between the RTX 4060 and these alternatives in terms of raw rasterization throughput — though the RTX 4060 does bring its own feature set to the table.

Best Settings per Resolution

The most demanding preset that maintains at least 60 FPS on average varies by resolution, and the data shows clear breakpoints. At 1920x1080, the system has enough headroom to run the game at Ultra settings, where it averages 77 FPS. This is the best possible visual quality available in the game, and it stays well above the playable threshold. Dropping to High yields 88 FPS, Medium produces 99 FPS, and Low reaches 140 FPS, but none of those are necessary since Ultra already clears the bar comfortably.

Moving up to 2560x1440, the picture changes. The Ultra preset averages 58 FPS, which falls just short of the 60 FPS target. The most demanding playable setting here is High, which averages 67 FPS. Medium runs at 75 FPS, and Low hits 106 FPS, but High is the sweet spot for visual fidelity while staying above 60. At 3840x2160, the situation tightens further. High settings average only 45 FPS, Medium dips to 51 FPS, and Ultra drops to 39 FPS — none of which are playable by the 60 FPS standard. The only option that clears the threshold is Low, which averages 71 FPS. This is the single playable setting at 4K, and it represents a significant visual compromise compared to the lower resolutions.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions and presets reveals which component acts as the bottleneck in Control. At 1920x1080, the GPU is heavily utilized, but the CPU still keeps pace. Moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p, frame rates drop from 140 to 77 FPS — a 45% reduction — which indicates the GPU is doing progressively more work as the preset increases. The CPU's high single-thread performance (a Geekbench single-core score of 2,445 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,594) ensures it is not holding the graphics card back at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the GPU's load increases further. The gap between Low (106 FPS) and Ultra (58 FPS) is 48 FPS, and the fact that Ultra cannot sustain 60 FPS shows the RTX 4060 is the limiting factor. The CPU has plenty of headroom — its Passmark multithread score of 38,697 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32,544 are far above what Control demands. The transition from 1080p Ultra (77 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (58 FPS) is a 25% drop, which is roughly in line with the pixel count increase, confirming the GPU is the primary constraint.

At 3840x2160, the GPU bottleneck becomes severe. The RTX 4060's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is simply insufficient for high-detail rendering at this resolution. The High preset at 4K (45 FPS) is less than half the frame rate of High at 1080p (88 FPS). The CPU's role is diminished almost entirely at this resolution; even the Low preset (71 FPS at 4K) is more than double the frame rate of Ultra (39 FPS), showing that the graphics card's raw throughput — and not processor performance — dictates the outcome. In short, the i5-14600KF is never the bottleneck in this combination; the RTX 4060 is the deciding factor at every resolution above 1080p.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC can run Control, but the experience depends heavily on your display resolution. At 1920x1080, the system is fully capable of running the game at Ultra settings with an average of 77 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold with margin to spare. This is the ideal scenario for this combo — maximum visual quality and smooth gameplay. At 2560x1440, the verdict is still positive, but with a caveat: the most demanding playable preset is High, averaging 67 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p fall to 58 FPS, which is just below the playable threshold, so you would need to accept a slightly lower preset to stay smooth.

At 3840x2160, the verdict is mixed. The only playable setting is Low, which averages 71 FPS. Every other preset — Medium at 51 FPS, High at 45 FPS, and Ultra at 39 FPS — fails to reach 60 FPS. If you own a 4K monitor, you can play Control with this hardware, but you will have to sacrifice most visual features to do so. The data indicates this is a capable 1080p and 1440p machine for this game, with 4K playable only at the lowest settings. There is no scenario where this combo cannot run the game at all, but the 60 FPS target requires preset adjustments as resolution increases.

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average frame rate is 45 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The only playable setting at 4K is Low, which averages 71 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset to use at 1440p?

A: High is the most demanding preset that stays above 60 FPS at 2560x1440, averaging 67 FPS. Ultra averages 58 FPS, which is just short of the target.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The GPU is the primary constraint. At 1080p Ultra, the system averages 77 FPS, and the frame rate scales down as the preset increases (from 140 FPS at Low to 77 FPS at Ultra), indicating the RTX 4060 is doing the heavy lifting. The i5-14600KF has ample headroom, with a 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its closest rivals in this game?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score is 17,639. The AMD Radeon HD 7790 is 0.2% faster (17,666), while the AMD Radeon 780M is 0.3% slower (17,588). These differences are negligible in practice, so you would see nearly identical frame rates in Control.

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

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the system averages 99 FPS, with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS in the measured data.

Q: Does the Ultra preset at 1440p ever hit 60 FPS?

A: The average at 1440p Ultra is 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. The measured data does not include a minimum frame rate for this configuration, but the average indicates it is not reliably playable.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3,720 hardware combinations tested with Control, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 2,008th. That places it in the 54th percentile of all tested systems, meaning slightly more than half of the combinations tested perform better. Given the GPU's 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU's 90th percentile ranking, the combo's overall position is dragged down by the graphics card — the processor is clearly strong enough to support a faster GPU than the RTX 4060. For a game like Control that stresses the GPU heavily at higher resolutions, this rank is expected. The system is positioned to handle 1080p and 1440p well, but it is not among the top performers for high-refresh or 4K gaming, which is consistent with the measured frame rates showing sub-60 FPS performance at 4K for anything above Low settings.