Control

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers a highly capable 1080p and 1440p experience in Control, with the data showing a clear performance ceiling at 4K. This combination places in the 2152nd position out of 3720 tested combos, indicating a solidly above-average pairing for this title, though the GPU’s 8 GB memory buffer and mid-range compute profile become the defining constraint at higher resolutions.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160 (4K), the most demanding preset that maintains an average of at least 60 FPS is Low, which produces an average of 66 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 47 FPS average, High falls to 42 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 36 FPS, so the 60 FPS threshold is strictly the domain of Low settings at this resolution.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the best playable preset is High, yielding an average of 62 FPS. This clears the 60 FPS bar by a narrow margin. Medium runs at 70 FPS, and Low reaches 98 FPS, but High is the most demanding setting that still stays above the playable threshold. Ultra fails to hit 60 FPS, averaging 54 FPS.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which delivers an average of 71 FPS. This is the only resolution where the full visual fidelity preset is playable. High runs at 82 FPS, Medium at 92 FPS, and Low at 130 FPS, but Ultra represents the ceiling for maximum quality while remaining comfortably above the threshold.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data indicates that the GPU is the dominant performance factor in Control, particularly as resolution increases. The scaling between resolutions shows a steep drop-off in frame rates when moving from 1440p to 4K: at High settings, the average FPS falls from 62 at 1440p to 42 at 4K, a reduction of roughly 32%. Similarly, at Medium settings, the average drops from 70 at 1440p to 47 at 4K, a decline of about 33%. This pattern strongly suggests that the Radeon RX 9060’s rendering throughput, rather than the CPU’s processing power, is the limiting factor at 4K.

The Intel Core i7-14700KF, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, provides ample headroom for the game’s physics and logic systems, as evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate reaches 71 FPS without apparent CPU bottlenecks. The CPU’s benchmark scores — including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and a single-core score of 6235 — place it in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, meaning it is far more powerful than what Control requires. The game’s release in 2019 means it was designed for hardware generations with far lower thread counts, so the 14700KF is unlikely to ever be the constraining component.

At 1080p, the gap between Low (130 FPS) and Ultra (71 FPS) settings demonstrates that the GPU is still the primary driver of performance, as the CPU can easily feed frames at both ends of the spectrum. The fact that the 4K Low preset (66 FPS) performs nearly identically to the 1440p High preset (62 FPS) further underscores that resolution scaling is the key variable, with the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth being the decisive factors.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the Intel Core i7-14700KF’s average benchmark score of 70163 is closely matched by several alternatives. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996, a negligible 0.2% difference, making it effectively identical in performance for this game. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.4% slower with a score of 69875, while the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X trails by 0.9% at 69515. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is actually 1% faster, scoring 70879. All four of these CPUs would produce virtually indistinguishable frame rates in Control, as the game is not CPU-bound with any of these processors.

For the GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 9060’s average benchmark score of 16014 places it in the 59th percentile among all GPUs. The nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which scores 16129, a 0.7% advantage. The AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862, just 1% lower, and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 15852, also 1% lower. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 is 2.1% behind at 15679. In practical terms, any of these GPUs would deliver nearly identical performance in Control, with the RTX 3060 Ti being the closest substitute for the RX 9060. The delta percentages are all within a 3% band, meaning the user would not perceive a meaningful difference between these options.

The Verdict

This PC can run Control, but the playable experience depends heavily on resolution. At 1920x1080, the system clears the 60 FPS threshold at every preset, including Ultra at 71 FPS average, making it fully playable at maximum quality. At 2560x1440, the system remains playable at High settings with a 62 FPS average, and also at Medium (70 FPS) and Low (98 FPS), but Ultra drops to 54 FPS, which fails the 60 FPS requirement. At 3840x2160, only Low settings achieve playable performance at 66 FPS average; Medium (47 FPS), High (42 FPS), and Ultra (36 FPS) all fall short.

The verdict data confirms that 1080p and 1440p are the target resolutions for this combination, with 4K requiring significant quality reductions to maintain smooth gameplay. The 8 GB VRAM capacity and 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth of the RX 9060 are adequate for the game’s demands at lower resolutions, but the 4K Ultra preset’s 36 FPS average indicates that the GPU simply lacks the raw compute power — 21.43 TFLOPS FP32 — for maximum settings at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 66 FPS
• Medium: Average 47 FPS, minimum 40 FPS, maximum 54 FPS
• High: Average 42 FPS
• Ultra: Average 36 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 98 FPS
• Medium: Average 70 FPS, minimum 59 FPS, maximum 80 FPS
• High: Average 62 FPS
• Ultra: Average 54 FPS

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 130 FPS
• Medium: Average 92 FPS, minimum 78 FPS, maximum 106 FPS
• High: Average 82 FPS
• Ultra: Average 71 FPS

The minimum FPS data points are only provided for Medium settings at each resolution. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 40 FPS shows notable frame dips below the average of 47 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 59 FPS is just below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating occasional stutter. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 78 FPS remains well above the playable threshold, suggesting a smoother experience overall.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination ranks 2152nd out of 3720 tested combos for Control. This places it in the upper-middle portion of the database, roughly in the 58th percentile of all tested configurations. The ranking reflects a system that is capable of running the game well at mainstream resolutions but does not reach the top tier of performance that would be expected from higher-end GPU pairings.

Given that the CPU is in the 94th percentile among all processors, the combination’s overall ranking is dragged down by the GPU, which sits in the 59th percentile. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would yield a significantly higher combo rank, as the CPU has substantial headroom remaining. Conversely, the GPU is the component that determines the playable settings ceiling, particularly at 1440p and 4K.

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 36, which is well below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The best playable setting at 4K is Low, which averages 66 FPS.

Q: What is the highest quality preset that maintains 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 produce an average of 62 FPS, making it the most demanding preset that clears the 60 FPS bar. Ultra at this resolution drops to 54 FPS average.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Intel Core i7-14700KF ranks in the 94th percentile among CPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks in the 59th percentile among GPUs. Frame rate drops of roughly 32-33% between 1440p and 4K at the same settings indicate GPU-bound performance.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to the RTX 3060 Ti in this game?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 16129, which is 0.7% higher than the RX 9060’s 16014. This difference is negligible, so both GPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Control.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1080p with High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average FPS is 82. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, and the minimum FPS at Medium settings is 78, indicating stable performance.

Q: Does the system ever drop below 60 FPS at 1440p Medium?

A: Yes. The measured minimum FPS at 2560x1440 Medium is 59, which is just below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The average is 70 FPS, so dips below 60 FPS are possible but infrequent.