Control

Control, Remedy’s 2019 action-adventure, presents a demanding mix of physics-heavy combat and surreal environments. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, based exclusively on the provided data. The combination ranks 884th out of 1636 tested combos for this title, placing it in the middle of the pack. The following sections break down the benchmark results, offering a detailed look at how this hardware configuration handles the game across different resolutions and quality presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve a consistent 60+ FPS?

A: Based on the data, 2560x1440 with High settings delivers an average of 69.5 FPS, which is the highest resolution to comfortably clear the 60 FPS threshold. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only averages 72.9 FPS, but the Medium and High presets drop to 50 and 47.7 FPS respectively, making 4K a less reliable target for high frame rates.

Q: How much of a performance gain is there from choosing Low over Ultra settings?

A: The impact of settings is substantial. At 1920x1080, the average FPS increases from 76.7 on Ultra to 141.5 on Low, a jump of 64.8 FPS. This gap narrows at higher resolutions; at 3840x2160, the difference is 31.9 FPS, with Ultra averaging 41 and Low averaging 72.9. This indicates that the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor at 4K, reducing the relative cost of higher settings.

Q: Does this CPU and GPU combination bottleneck in this game?

A: The data suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions. The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is significant, and the performance scaling between Low and Ultra presets remains large even at 4K. The strong CPU benchmarks (93rd percentile) indicate it has ample headroom, so the measured frame rates are likely dictated by the RX 6700 XT's rendering capabilities.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The peak average FPS recorded is 141.5, which occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset. This is the only configuration in the data set that surpasses the 140 FPS mark, highlighting the combo's ability to deliver high refresh-rate gaming at 1080p when visual fidelity is reduced.

Q: How does the combo's overall rank in Control compare to its position in other potential workloads?

A: The combo ranks 884th out of 1636 combos, placing it in the 54th percentile for this game. This is a mid-pack result. The CPU alone is in the 93rd percentile and the GPU in the 77th percentile, suggesting that the game's specific demands, likely on the graphics card, pull the combined performance down from what the individual component scores might suggest.

Q: Is the RX 6700 XT's memory configuration a likely factor in the 4K results?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 3840x2160, the average FPS for the High preset is 47.7, and for Ultra it is 41. While the 12 GB capacity is likely sufficient, the bandwidth and bus width may contribute to the performance ceiling observed, as the frame rate does not scale linearly with the core clock speed when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear picture of how the quality presets affect performance. For players targeting the standard 60 FPS at 2560x1440, the High preset is the optimal choice, yielding an average of 69.5 FPS. This is the sweet spot, as the Medium preset offers only a modest increase to 77.7 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 58.6 FPS, falling below the desired threshold.

At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 91.6 FPS, which is a strong result for a smooth experience. The Medium preset provides a slight bump to 99.9 FPS, but the jump to Low (141.5 FPS) suggests the settings are heavily impacting the GPU load. For those with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset at 1080p is the only way to approach the 144 Hz mark, but the visual compromise is significant.

The 3840x2160 results are more challenging. The High preset averages 47.7 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The Low preset, at 72.9 FPS, is the only 4K setting that provides a consistently smooth frame rate. Given the data, the recommended path for the best balance of visual quality and performance is the High preset at 2560x1440, as it is the highest quality setting that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 91.6 at 1920x1080 to 69.5 at 2560x1440, a 24.1% decrease. Moving to 3840x2160 results in a further drop to 47.7 FPS, a 31.4% decrease from the 1440p figure. This steep decline as resolution increases indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT's rendering throughput is the limiting factor.

This is further supported by the Low preset data. At 1920x1080, the average is 141.5 FPS, which falls to 107.2 at 2560x1440 and then to 72.9 at 3840x2160. The percentage drops are consistent, showing that the GPU is proportionally stressed at each resolution step. The CPU, with its high single-thread and multi-thread scores, is not showing signs of bottlenecking, as the frame rate scales with pixel count rather than hitting a stable ceiling. The data implies that the RX 6700 XT is the primary component determining performance in Control, with its workload increasing directly with the number of pixels rendered.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global ranking for Control, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT sits at 884th place out of 1636 tested combos. This places it just past the middle of the field, indicating that while it is far from the top-tier configurations, it is also not a low-end performer. The rank suggests that a significant number of other CPU/GPU pairings are capable of higher frame rates in this specific title.

The CPU's individual performance is strong, with an average benchmark score of 49166, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core i5-14600KF, which is 0.4% faster, and it is 0.2% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. The GPU, however, is less exceptional, with an average score of 33721 and a percentile rank of 77. Its closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6800, which is 0.7% faster. The discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile and the mid-pack combo rank indicates that the GPU is holding back the overall potential of this system in Control.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is clearly the central piece in determining this combo's gaming performance. Its memory configuration includes 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. This is a substantial amount of memory, but the bus width may limit performance at high resolutions. The GPU is based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture and features a boost clock of 2581 MHz and a game clock of 2424 MHz.

The benchmark data shows that the GPU's performance in Control is directly tied to the settings preset. The FP32 performance is 13.21 TFLOPS, which is a measure of its raw compute power. The data shows a clear hierarchy where higher settings, which likely increase the use of its 2560 shading units and 160 TMUs, result in lower average FPS. The 4K results are particularly telling, as the Ultra preset only manages 41 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is fully saturated at that resolution and quality level. The RX 6700 XT's percentile rank of 77 versus the CPU's 93 reinforces that it is the limiting component in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive look at the performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 141.5 on Low to 76.7 on Ultra. The High and Medium presets sit in between at 91.6 and 99.9 FPS, respectively. This shows a wide performance envelope, with the Low preset offering nearly double the frame rate of Ultra.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 107.2 (Low), 77.7 (Medium), 69.5 (High), and 58.6 (Ultra). The gap between Low and Ultra narrows slightly, but the Ultra preset is the only one that fails to reach 60 FPS. At 3840x2160, the performance drops further, with averages of 72.9 (Low), 50 (Medium), 47.7 (High), and 41 (Ultra). Here, only the Low preset provides a consistently playable frame rate, while the other three presets are below the 60 FPS target.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K provides a robust foundation for this system, with 14 cores and 20 threads based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its high boost clock of 5.30 GHz and substantial 24 MB of shared L3 cache contribute to strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642. This is crucial for game logic and physics, which are often single-threaded.

However, the benchmark results in Control suggest that the CPU is not the primary constraint. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS is 141.5, which is a high score that indicates the CPU can feed the GPU effectively. The fact that the frame rate scales down consistently as resolution increases points to the GPU becoming the bottleneck. The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, shown by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881, ensure that background tasks and complex game systems do not cause frame drops. The data implies that the i5-14600K has sufficient headroom to prevent it from being a limiting factor, allowing the RX 6700 XT to be the sole determinant of the final frame rate.