Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title, and the pairing of an Intel Core i5-14400F with an AMD Radeon RX 570 produces a strictly limited experience. The measured data shows this combo ranks 1588th out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 3% of systems. This is not a configuration for high-refresh gaming; it is a 1080p setup that requires careful settings management to remain playable.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Control?

A: The data clearly favors 1920x1080. At this resolution, the Low preset achieves an average of 57.9 FPS, which is the only playable result across all tested settings. At 2560x1440, even Low drops to 41.6 FPS, and at 3840x2160, all presets fall below 30 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Core i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32508, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-12800H, scores 32513, a delta of 0%. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 is 0.2% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 is 0.2% faster.

Q: Is the GPU the limiting factor in this build?

A: Yes. The Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, scores 30109, which is 0.2% lower. While the CPU is strong, the GPU's 4 GB VRAM and GCN 4.0 architecture bottleneck performance in Control.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 57.9 FPS, while Ultra averages 31.9 FPS. This represents a 26 FPS drop, or roughly 45% less performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: Can this system handle 1440p gaming in Control?

A: Only marginally, and only on Low settings. At 2560x1440 with Low, the average FPS is 41.6. Medium drops to 29.1 FPS, and High falls to 25.2 FPS. For a smoother experience, 1080p is strongly recommended.

Q: How does the combo rank overall?

A: The combo ranks 1588th out of 1636 tested combos. This places it in the bottom 2.9% of all systems tested, indicating that it is far below the median performance level for this game.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the decisive bottleneck in this configuration. Its specifications are dated: a Polaris 20 chip on a 14 nm process, with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. The 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is insufficient for Control's higher resolutions and texture loads. The GPU's compute power is 5.095 TFLOPS, and it relies on PCIe 3.0 x16.

Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the limiting factor. In Control, the transition from 1080p Low to 1080p High only changes the average FPS from 57.9 to 37.9, a drop of 20 FPS. At 1440p, the same settings change drops from 41.6 to 25.2 FPS. The GPU's 32 ROPs and 128 TMUs are simply overwhelmed by the game's rendering demands at higher quality presets. The data suggests that the RX 570's performance ceiling in this title is around 60 FPS, and only at 1080p with the lowest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1588 out of 1636 is a clear indicator of its position. With only 48 combinations ranking lower, this system is near the very bottom of the database for Control. This is not a slight on the CPU; the Core i5-14400F is a strong processor with an average benchmark score of 32508, placing it in the 88th percentile. The issue is the GPU, which sits in the 74th percentile with an average score of 30158.

The delta between the CPU and GPU percentiles highlights the imbalance. A top-tier CPU paired with a mid-range GPU results in a system that is severely GPU-limited in gaming. In Control, the CPU has plenty of headroom, but the RX 570 cannot deliver the frames. The data shows that this combo is not competitive with the majority of systems, and users should expect performance closer to the lowest 3% of the database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the results are unplayable across all settings. Low averages 28.7 FPS, Medium 21.2 FPS, High 18.7 FPS, and Ultra 14.4 FPS. No preset reaches 30 FPS, making 4K a non-option.

At 2560x1440, the picture improves slightly but remains marginal. Low averages 41.6 FPS, which is acceptable for some, but Medium drops to 29.1 FPS, High to 25.2 FPS, and Ultra to 22.7 FPS. Only Low is consistently playable at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, the system finds its footing. Low averages 57.9 FPS, which is close to a 60 FPS target. Medium averages 38.5 FPS, High 37.9 FPS, and Ultra 31.9 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is a 19.4 FPS drop, while the difference between Medium and High is negligible (0.6 FPS). Ultra is playable but noticeably less smooth.

The data reveals an interesting pattern: at 1080p, Medium and High produce nearly identical results. This suggests that the GPU is not bound by the specific settings in those presets but rather by its raw shader and memory throughput. The Low preset reduces load enough to unlock a significant frame rate increase.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The L3 cache is 20 MB shared, and it supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Its benchmark scores are strong: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 21914, and single-core scores 3093. Geekbench multi-core is 11209, and single-core is 2333.

In Control, the CPU is not the limiting factor. The game is GPU-bound, and the i5-14400F has ample headroom to feed the RX 570. The CPU's 88th percentile ranking means it outperforms the vast majority of processors. However, this power is wasted in this pairing, as the GPU cannot utilize the CPU's full potential. The data shows that the bottleneck is firmly on the graphics side, and upgrading the CPU alone would yield no measurable benefit in this game.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration is 1920x1080 with the Low preset. This is the only settings combination that achieves an average above 55 FPS, hitting 57.9 FPS. This provides the smoothest experience and is the only setup that approaches a standard 60 Hz monitor's refresh rate.

If visual quality is a priority, the Medium preset at 1080p (38.5 FPS) is a viable compromise, offering a significant visual upgrade over Low for a 19.4 FPS loss. However, High at 1080p (37.9 FPS) offers almost no benefit over Medium, making it a poor choice. Ultra at 1080p (31.9 FPS) is playable but not recommended for fast-paced action.

At 1440p, only the Low preset (41.6 FPS) is worth considering. All other presets at 1440p drop below 30 FPS, which is not suitable for a game like Control. The 4K resolution is entirely unusable. For the best balance of frame rate and fidelity, stick to 1080p Low or Medium. The data is clear: this combo is designed for 1080p gaming, and pushing higher resolutions will result in a poor experience.