Control

Can Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti run Control? The measured data says yes, decisively. Across twelve tested configurations spanning three resolutions and four quality presets, this pairing never dips below a 52.4 FPS average, and it delivers triple-digit frame rates in most scenarios. The combination ranks 969th out of 3,720 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top quartile of all systems benchmarked. At 1080p and 1440p, the pairing is effectively overpowered for Control, while at 4K it remains comfortably playable with the right settings. The RTX 3080 Ti’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth provide ample headroom for the game’s texture-heavy environments, and the i7-12700K’s 12-core, 20-thread Alder Lake architecture ensures no CPU bottleneck appears even at high frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination produces outstanding results. With Low settings, the average frame rate hits 194.6 FPS. Medium settings still deliver 137.6 FPS, while High settings produce 120.3 FPS. Even the most demanding Ultra preset maintains an average of 107.2 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS playable threshold. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 45% reduction in performance, but the absolute numbers remain so high that no setting at this resolution poses any challenge.

Moving to 2560x1440, the picture remains strong but shows the expected resolution penalty. Low settings yield 143.8 FPS, Medium drops to 105.1 FPS, and High settles at 94.9 FPS. Ultra settings still manage an average of 78.9 FPS, which keeps the game smooth on high-refresh-rate monitors. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 45.1%, nearly identical to the 1080p scaling, indicating that the GPU is still the primary limiter rather than any CPU constraint.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 3080 Ti begins to feel the strain. Low settings produce 96.6 FPS, Medium drops to 67.6 FPS, and High falls to 62 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 52.4 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold. This is the only configuration in the entire dataset that misses the target. The jump from Low to Medium at 4K costs 30.0% performance, while the Medium-to-High step costs another 7.6%. The High-to-Ultra transition is the steepest, costing 15.4%, making Ultra at 4K the one setting where this hardware cannot sustain smooth gameplay.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low settings provide headroom of 60-135 FPS above the playable threshold, while Ultra settings push the hardware to its limits only at 4K. The data shows no min or max FPS values, so the averages represent the complete picture available.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 969th out of 3,720 tested combinations in Control, which places it in the 74th percentile of all systems. This is a strong showing, considering the field includes many newer and more expensive configurations. The percentileVsAllCpus score of 84 for the i7-12700K and percentileVsAllGpus score of 83 for the RTX 3080 Ti both indicate that each component individually sits near the top of their respective charts, and the pairing leverages both strengths effectively.

The rank of 969 out of 3,720 means roughly 2,750 other combinations tested faster, but this includes multi-GPU setups, newer flagship cards, and higher-end CPUs. For a single-GPU configuration from the 2021 era, this is a competitive position. The game’s genre as an Action Adventure title with heavy visual effects and destructible environments means the GPU does most of the heavy lifting, and the RTX 3080 Ti’s 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is well-suited to the task. The i7-12700K’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19,784 and single-core score of 1,850.5 show it can feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearestRivals data for both components provides context for what similar hardware would behave like. For the CPU, the Intel Core i5-13600T has an average benchmark score of 35,305, which is 0.1% lower than the i7-12700K’s 35,287. The Intel Core i7-12700KF scores 35,365, just 0.2% higher, making it a near-identical match. The Intel Core i7-13700T scores 35,403, 0.3% higher, and the Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35,428, 0.4% higher. These four rivals sit within a 0.5% performance band, meaning any of them would produce virtually identical frame rates in Control.

On the GPU side, the nearest rivals show more variance. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 has an average score of 40,870, which is 0.8% lower than the RTX 3080 Ti’s 41,187. The NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB scores 41,707, 1.2% higher, and the standard Tesla M40 scores 41,897, 1.7% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 scores 40,377, which is 2.0% lower. Despite the similar average scores, these are very different cards in practice. The Tesla M40 cards are compute-oriented with no modern gaming features, while the RTX 5070 is a newer architecture with better ray tracing. However, based purely on benchmark averages, a system with any of these GPUs paired with an i7-12700K-class CPU would land within a few percent of the frame rates measured here.

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 52.4 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold. High settings at 4K achieve 62 FPS, making that the highest playable preset.

Q: What is the best setting for 1440p gaming?

A: Ultra settings at 2560x1440 produce an average of 78.9 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. This is the most demanding preset that remains playable at this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 120.3 FPS at 1080p to 62 FPS at 4K, a 48.5% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 107.2 FPS to 52.4 FPS, a 51.1% reduction.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The i7-12700K’s single-thread score of 1,850.5 in Cinebench R23 and multi-thread score of 19,784 provide enough headroom that frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes, which is a GPU-bound pattern.

Q: Does this system hit 144 FPS at any resolution?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average is 194.6 FPS, and at 2560x1440 with Low settings, the average is 143.8 FPS. Both exceed 144 FPS, making the system suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors at lower settings.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to the RTX 5070 in this game?

A: Based on average benchmark scores, the RTX 3080 Ti scores 41,187, which is 2.0% higher than the RTX 5070’s 40,377. In Control, the RTX 3080 Ti would likely produce slightly higher frame rates, though the margin is small.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals a clear division of labor between the i7-12700K and RTX 3080 Ti in Control. At 1920x1080, the system produces 194.6 FPS on Low settings, which is extremely high. The fact that frame rates scale dramatically with resolution – dropping from 194.6 FPS at 1080p Low to 96.6 FPS at 4K Low – indicates the GPU is the primary performance driver. A CPU-bound system would show smaller differences across resolutions.

The scaling between presets reinforces this. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 45% performance (194.6 to 107.2 FPS). At 1440p, the same preset change costs 45.1% (143.8 to 78.9 FPS). At 4K, the cost is 45.8% (96.6 to 52.4 FPS). This consistent percentage drop across resolutions is a hallmark of GPU-bound scenarios, where the graphics card’s workload scales uniformly with settings regardless of resolution.

The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where frame rates exceed 120 FPS. At 1080p Low, the system hits 194.6 FPS, which requires substantial CPU throughput. The i7-12700K’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1,043 and multi-thread score of 9,979 indicate it can sustain such frame rates. At 4K, the CPU has more idle headroom, but it never becomes the limiting factor – the GPU’s 34.10 TFLOPS of compute power is the ceiling. The data shows no scenario where higher CPU performance would meaningfully improve frame rates, as even the weakest GPU-bound configuration (4K Ultra at 52.4 FPS) is still well below what the CPU can feed.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset is the best choice, delivering an average of 107.2 FPS. This is the most demanding setting and it stays well above the 60 FPS playable threshold. The data shows that even at Ultra, the system has 47.2 FPS of headroom, making this the optimal configuration for maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, Ultra remains the best setting with an average of 78.9 FPS. This gives 18.9 FPS of headroom above the playable threshold, which is comfortable for most gaming scenarios. The High preset offers 94.9 FPS for those who prefer higher frame rates, but Ultra provides the best balance of visual fidelity and performance.

At 3840x2160, the best playable setting is High, which averages 62 FPS. This is just 2 FPS above the playable threshold, indicating a tight margin. Medium settings provide 67.6 FPS for additional headroom, while Low settings reach 96.6 FPS. The Ultra preset at 52.4 FPS is not playable according to the 60 FPS threshold, so High is the recommended maximum for 4K gaming. The verdict data confirms these choices, listing High as the best setting at 4K, Ultra at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p.