Control

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a solid 1080p experience in Control, but the data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 88.7 FPS, which drops to 70.2 FPS at 1440p and further to 47 FPS at 4K. That represents a 47% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The scaling pattern is consistent with a graphics-card-limited scenario: the RX 6700 XT’s 192-bit memory bus and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth struggle to feed the pixel throughput demanded by 4K, while the CPU has ample headroom to keep up.

The delta between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution further confirms this analysis. At 1080p, the spread from Low (141.1 FPS) to Ultra (77.9 FPS) is 63.2 FPS, showing that the GPU is doing heavy lifting even at modest resolutions. At 4K, the same spread narrows to 31.3 FPS (73.8 Low vs. 42.5 Ultra), which suggests that the GPU is saturated and setting changes have diminishing returns. The 4K Low result of 73.8 FPS is notably close to the 1440p High result of 70.2 FPS, implying that resolution scaling is more impactful than quality presets once the GPU is maxed out.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear trend: Control becomes progressively more demanding as resolution increases, and the RX 6700 XT is the limiting factor. At 1080p, the combo achieves 141.1 FPS on Low, 100.6 FPS on Medium, 88.7 FPS on High, and 77.9 FPS on Ultra. These numbers demonstrate that the GPU can handle 1080p with ease, even at maximum quality settings. The step from High to Ultra at 1080p costs only 10.8 FPS, which is a modest penalty for the visual upgrade.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates drop across the board: 108.1 FPS on Low, 76.1 FPS on Medium, 70.2 FPS on High, and 58.9 FPS on Ultra. The relative performance loss from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 23.4% at Low to 24.4% at Ultra, indicating that the GPU is scaling predictably with pixel count. However, the 4K results tell a different story: 73.8 FPS on Low, 51 FPS on Medium, 47 FPS on High, and 42.5 FPS on Ultra. The drop from 1440p to 4K is much steeper, with High settings falling from 70.2 to 47 FPS, a 33% reduction. This nonlinear scaling points to the GPU’s memory bandwidth as a critical constraint, as the 384.0 GB/s figure is insufficient for 4K’s 8.3 million pixels.

The data suggests that 4K is only viable at Low settings, where 73.8 FPS is playable but far from ideal. At 1440p, the combo offers a balanced experience, with High settings delivering 70.2 FPS and Ultra still maintaining 58.9 FPS. For users targeting 4K, the RX 6700 XT’s 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 160 TMUs are not enough to sustain high-quality visuals without dropping below the 60 FPS threshold.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, provides strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093 and Geekbench single-core score of 2333. In Control, which is a GPU-intensive title with moderate CPU demands, the i5-14400F does not appear to be a bottleneck at any tested resolution. The frame rates scale consistently with GPU load, and there is no evidence of CPU-limited behavior, such as frame rate plateaus across different quality settings.

The CPU’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) are sufficient for feeding the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. Control’s action-adventure gameplay involves complex particle effects and destructible environments, but the i5-14400F’s 10 cores handle these tasks without issue. The Passmark multithread score of 25783 and Cinebench R20 multicore score of 9203 place the CPU in the 88th percentile of all processors, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of installed CPUs. This headroom ensures that the GPU remains the limiting component, especially at 4K where the CPU’s workload is relatively lighter compared to pixel pushing.

The i5-14400F’s nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i7-12800H and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645, show similar average scores with deltas of 0% and 0.2%, respectively. This suggests that the CPU’s performance is well-matched to its price tier, and in Control, it provides a stable foundation for the RX 6700 XT without introducing frame pacing issues or stutter.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 77.9 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and offers the best visual fidelity. The High preset at 88.7 FPS is also excellent, providing a 10.8 FPS improvement over Ultra with only a minor reduction in image quality. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, the Medium preset at 100.6 FPS or Low at 141.1 FPS are viable options, though they sacrifice visual effects like ray-traced reflections and ambient occlusion.

At 1440p, the High preset is the sweet spot, achieving 70.2 FPS while maintaining good detail levels. The Ultra preset at 58.9 FPS is borderline, dipping slightly below 60 FPS, which may be noticeable on displays with variable refresh rate support. The Medium preset at 76.1 FPS offers a smoother experience with only modest visual compromises. For 1440p gaming, High is recommended as the best balance of performance and quality, as the data shows it delivers 19.3% more FPS than Ultra.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset at 73.8 FPS is the only option that stays comfortably above 60 FPS, but it significantly reduces texture quality and shadow detail. The Medium preset at 51 FPS and High at 47 FPS are playable but not ideal for fast-paced action sequences. Given the GPU’s limitations, 4K gaming with this combo is best reserved for Low or Medium settings, with a preference for Medium if the user can tolerate 51 FPS. The Ultra preset at 42.5 FPS is not recommended, as it falls well below the playable threshold for a game like Control, which features intense combat and environmental destruction.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this Intel Core i5-14400F + AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT pairing ranks 878th out of 1636 combos for Control. This places it in the 46th percentile, meaning it outperforms slightly less than half of all tested configurations. The ranking reflects the GPU’s mid-range positioning; the RX 6700 XT scores in the 77th percentile of all GPUs, but its performance in Control is constrained by the game’s demanding rendering techniques. The CPU’s 88th percentile ranking does not compensate for the GPU’s limitations, as the frame rates are ultimately GPU-bound.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the RX 6700 XT is closely matched with the AMD Radeon RX 6800, which has an average score 0.7% higher, and the NVIDIA RTX A5000, which is 1.3% higher. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 and RX 480 show scores 1% higher, though these are older architectures that likely excel in different workloads. This tight clustering indicates that the RX 6700 XT is a competitive mid-range option, but it does not stand out in Control specifically. The combo’s rank of 878 suggests that users seeking higher frame rates at 4K would need a more powerful GPU, while those targeting 1080p will find this configuration more than adequate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process and 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die. Its 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs provide a theoretical FP32 performance of 13.21 TFLOPS, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming. The GPU’s base clock of 2321 MHz and boost clock of 2581 MHz are aggressive for its class, and the 12 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 192-bit bus delivers 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is a known limitation for 4K gaming, as the bandwidth is lower than that of higher-tier cards like the RX 6800, which has a 256-bit bus.

In Control, the GPU’s role is dominant, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops at 4K. The 40 ray-tracing cores on the RX 6700 XT are present, but the game’s implementation of ray-traced reflections and shadows is demanding, and the measured data suggests that enabling these features at 4K would further reduce performance. The GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 19786 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 2435 place it in the 77th percentile of all GPUs, confirming its mid-range status. The pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s are adequate for 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU is overwhelmed, as shown by the 47 FPS result on High settings.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the RX 6800, which is 0.7% faster, and the RTX A5000, which is 1.3% faster. These small deltas indicate that the RX 6700 XT is well-positioned within its performance tier, but it does not have the headroom to handle 4K Ultra settings in Control. For users who prioritize resolution scaling, the data suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, and upgrading to a higher-bandwidth card would yield significant improvements at 4K.