Control

Control pairs a 14-core Intel Core i5-14600K with a 4 GB AMD Radeon RX 570, and the measured frame rates in this Action Adventure title reveal a system that is decisively GPU-bound. The data shows a combo that ranks 3549 out of 3720 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 5% of all combos. While the CPU sits in the 90th percentile among all processors, the GPU’s 74th percentile standing is not enough to overcome the demands of Control’s physics-heavy environments, resulting in playable but modest performance at 1080p and a steep decline as resolution climbs.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14600K brings 14 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz that boosts to 5.30 GHz. This Raptor Lake Refresh part, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, is a desktop-class processor with a 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Its benchmark pedigree is strong: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and a single-core score of 2064, with Geekbench results of 16673 multi-core and 2491 single-core. These numbers place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 48618 sits within 0.8% of rivals like the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and within 0.3% of the AMD EPYC 4345P.

In Control, however, the CPU’s role is secondary. The game’s destructible environments and physics simulations do leverage multi-threaded performance, and the i5-14600K’s 20 threads are more than adequate for this title. The measured FPS data shows no scenario where the CPU becomes the limiting factor; even at 1080p Low, where the GPU workload is lightest, the average frame rate is 57 FPS, which is far below what this CPU could theoretically deliver. The bottleneck is unambiguously the graphics card. The CPU’s high single-thread performance, evidenced by its PassMark single-thread score of 4270, ensures that game logic and draw call processing are never the constraint. In short, this processor is overqualified for the GPU it is paired with, and its capabilities are effectively untapped in every measured configuration.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip on a 14 nm process, featuring 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Its base clock is 1168 MHz with a boost of 1244 MHz, and it pairs 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s compute throughput is 5.095 TFLOPS FP32, and its pixel rate is 39.81 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 880 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 32084 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 42752 in Geekbench Vulkan, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 28766 is within 0.8% of the AMD Radeon RX 470 and within 1.2% of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000, indicating it is a mid-pack performer from a previous generation.

The GPU’s 4 GB VRAM is a critical limitation in Control. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 16, and at 4K High it is 18, with Medium at 21 and Low at 29. The VRAM capacity is likely exceeded at higher settings and resolutions, forcing texture streaming and causing severe frame rate penalties. The 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is also modest for 4K workloads. The data suggests that the RX 570’s architecture, while competent at 1080p, simply lacks the raw throughput and memory resources to handle Control’s visual fidelity at higher resolutions. The GPU is the clear bottleneck, as evidenced by the dramatic FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K, which is far steeper than what CPU limitations would produce.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Given the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend entirely on the target resolution and the user’s tolerance for frame rate variability. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 57 FPS, which is the only measured configuration that approaches smooth gameplay. The Medium preset drops to 40 FPS average with a minimum of 34 and a maximum of 46, which is playable but with noticeable dips. High and Ultra at 1080p produce averages of 36 and 31 FPS respectively, which are borderline for a demanding action game. The data indicates that Low at 1080p is the only preset that consistently stays above 50 FPS, making it the recommended choice for fluid gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the situation worsens. Low produces 43 FPS average, which is acceptable for slower-paced exploration but may feel sluggish in combat. Medium drops to 30 FPS with a minimum of 26, and High is at 27 FPS, with Ultra at 24 FPS. None of these are ideal, but Low is the least compromised. At 3840x2160, all presets are below 30 FPS, with Low at 29 FPS being the only option that approaches playability, while Ultra is a slideshow at 16 FPS. The recommendation is clear: for this combo, 1080p Low is the only setting that delivers a consistently smooth experience, and users should avoid 4K entirely unless they accept sub-30 FPS performance.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14600K holding back the AMD Radeon RX 570 in Control?

A: No. The CPU is in the 90th percentile of all processors, and its benchmark scores (Cinebench R23 multi-core 24491, single-core 2064) far exceed what Control requires. The measured FPS drops from 57 at 1080p Low to 16 at 4K Ultra, which is a GPU-bound pattern.

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

A: 1920x1080 is the only resolution where any preset reaches an average above 50 FPS, specifically Low at 57 FPS. At 2560x1440, the highest average is 43 FPS on Low, and at 3840x2160, no preset exceeds 29 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570’s average benchmark score is 28766, which is 0.4% below the AMD Radeon RX 6800M and 0.8% below the AMD Radeon RX 470. It is 0.7% above the AMD Radeon R9 M295X and 1.2% above the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000.

Q: Does increasing settings from Low to Ultra have a consistent impact across resolutions?

A: No. The drop from Low to Ultra is 26 FPS at 1080p (57 to 31), 19 FPS at 1440p (43 to 24), and 13 FPS at 4K (29 to 16). The absolute FPS loss shrinks at higher resolutions because the GPU is already overwhelmed.

Q: What does the combo’s rank of 3549 out of 3720 indicate?

A: It places this configuration in the bottom 5% of all tested combos. This is primarily due to the GPU’s age and 4 GB VRAM, not the CPU, which ranks in the 90th percentile.

Q: Is the RX 570’s memory bandwidth a limiting factor in Control?

A: The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, combined with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, is insufficient for higher settings. The measured 4K Ultra average of 16 FPS suggests the GPU is running out of memory and bandwidth, causing severe performance degradation.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is brutal for this combo. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 57 at 1080p to 43 at 1440p and then to 29 at 4K. That is a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the drop is from 36 to 27 to 18, a 50% reduction. At Ultra, it goes from 31 to 24 to 16, a 48% reduction. The consistency of this ~50% drop across all settings is a hallmark of a GPU-bound system. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU workload is resolution-independent. The fact that FPS halves as pixel count quadruples indicates the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors.

The data also reveals that the RX 570’s performance scales poorly with resolution because of its 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K, even Low settings push the GPU to its limit, yielding only 29 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is just 13 FPS, whereas at 1080p the gap is 26 FPS. This narrowing gap suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so saturated that settings changes have diminishing returns. The limiting component is unambiguous: the RX 570. The i5-14600K, with its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 20 threads, has ample headroom to feed the GPU at any resolution, but the GPU cannot keep up with the pixel workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 57 FPS, the only configuration in the entire dataset that exceeds 50 FPS. Medium yields 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 and a maximum of 46, providing a stable but lower experience. High drops to 36 FPS, and Ultra falls to 31 FPS. The 26 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p shows that settings have a meaningful impact when the GPU has some headroom.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 43 FPS, which is still playable but noticeably lower than 1080p. Medium averages 30 FPS with a minimum of 26 and a maximum of 35, making it the most variable preset at this resolution. High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra narrows to 19 FPS, indicating the GPU is becoming the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 29 FPS, Medium averages 21 FPS with a minimum of 17 and a maximum of 24, High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 16 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is just 13 FPS, confirming that the GPU is saturated. No preset at 4K reaches 30 FPS on average, making 4K effectively unplayable for this combo. The data shows a clear progression: 1080p Low is the only viable option, 1440p Low is marginal, and 4K is not recommended.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3549 out of 3720 tested combinations in Control. This places it in the bottom 4.6% of all configurations, which is a poor showing for a system with a top-tier CPU. The rank is heavily dragged down by the GPU, which is in the 74th percentile of all GPUs but is clearly insufficient for Control’s demands. The CPU, by contrast, is in the 90th percentile, and its synthetic benchmarks (Cinebench R23 multi-core 24491, Geekbench multi-core 16673) are among the highest in its class.

The rank of 3549 means that 171 other combos perform worse, but the vast majority of systems tested outperform this pairing. The data suggests that the i5-14600K is wasted on the RX 570 in this game, as the GPU cannot utilize the CPU’s capabilities. For comparison, the RX 570’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, such as the AMD Radeon RX 470 (which scores 28996, 0.8% higher), would likely produce similar results in Control, reinforcing that the GPU generation is the limiting factor. The combo’s rank is a clear warning that this GPU is not suited for modern action-adventure titles at higher resolutions, and users should expect to play at 1080p with reduced settings to achieve acceptable frame rates.