Control

Control, the 2019 action-adventure title, is a demanding showcase of visual effects and physics, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 reveals a configuration that is heavily skewed toward GPU dominance. The results show a system that delivers exceptional frame rates across all resolutions, but the scaling pattern makes it clear that the RTX 5090 is the primary engine driving performance, while the i5-14600K provides ample, but not unlimited, headroom. This pairing ranks 9th out of 1636 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, clearly identifying the GPU as the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 284.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 214.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a 24.8% reduction, and then further to 142.4 FPS at 3840x2160, a 50.0% drop from the 1080p baseline. This pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario; the CPU is capable of feeding frames at 1080p, but the RTX 5090's rendering workload at 4K becomes the bottleneck.

The trend is consistent across all settings presets. At High settings, performance decreases from 179.4 FPS at 1080p to 135.1 FPS at 1440p (a 24.7% drop) and then to 90.4 FPS at 4K (a 49.6% drop from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows a similar trajectory, moving from 157.2 FPS at 1080p to 117.2 FPS at 1440p and down to 79 FPS at 4K. The scaling between 1440p and 4K is remarkably consistent across all presets, with an average reduction of roughly 33-34%, which is close to the pixel count difference, further confirming that the GPU's fill rate and shader processing are the dominating factors at these resolutions.

The fact that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains a 79 FPS average indicates that the RTX 5090's immense compute resources are being fully utilized. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 63.4 FPS, which is significant, but the absolute performance remains high. This data suggests that for users targeting high refresh rate 4K displays, the RTX 5090 is the component that determines the ceiling, and the i5-14600K is not holding it back in a meaningful way at these settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the High preset offers the optimal balance of visual fidelity and performance for this configuration. At 2560x1440, High settings deliver a 135.1 FPS average, which is only 11.9 FPS lower than Medium but provides a substantial visual upgrade. At 3840x2160, High settings produce a 90.4 FPS average, which is a playable frame rate for a single-player action title, while the Ultra preset drops to 79 FPS, a 12.6% reduction that may not be worth the marginal visual gains.

For users with 1080p displays, the High preset is also the sensible choice, yielding 179.4 FPS. While Low settings achieve 284.9 FPS, the frame rate is already far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, making the visual downgrade unnecessary. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 199.5 FPS, but the jump to High is only a 10.1% performance cost for a noticeable improvement in texture and shadow quality. The Ultra preset at 1080p, with its 157.2 FPS average, is still exceptionally smooth, but the data indicates High is the sweet spot for this pairing, providing a robust frame rate buffer without sacrificing the game's atmospheric visual effects.

At 4K, the choice is more nuanced. The High preset's 90.4 FPS is comfortably above the 60 FPS standard, making it the recommended choice for a high-refresh-rate experience. The Medium preset's 101.5 FPS offers a 12.3% performance increase, which could be preferable for those seeking higher refresh rates on 4K displays. The data shows that the RTX 5090 is powerful enough to make even the Ultra preset viable at 4K, but the performance cost from High to Ultra is 11.4 FPS, a 12.6% drop, which is a significant margin for a game that is not a competitive esports title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, plays a supportive but crucial role in this configuration. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881 and a single-core score of 4642, indicate strong processing power, but the game's frame rates at lower resolutions reveal where its limits lie. At 1080p Low, the average frame rate of 284.9 FPS is likely approaching the CPU's maximum render capacity for this engine, as the GPU is no longer the primary constraint.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.30 GHz and a base clock of 3.50 GHz are key to its single-threaded performance, which is critical for game logic and draw call submission. The data suggests that this is sufficient to support the RTX 5090's output at 1440p and 4K, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. However, the fact that frame rates do not scale linearly from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (284.9 to 214.2 FPS) indicates that the CPU is still contributing to the frame time at lower resolutions, preventing the GPU from reaching its absolute maximum potential.

The CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and the Intel Core i5-14600KF, show a delta of 0.2% and -0.4% respectively, meaning the i5-14600K is statistically on par with these chips in general benchmarks. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and the dual-channel memory support are standard for this class, and the data shows that they do not bottleneck the GPU in this specific game. The CPU's performance percentile of 93 versus all CPUs reinforces that it is a high-end part that can comfortably feed the RTX 5090, even if it is not the absolute fastest option available.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-14600K and RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 9 out of 1636 tested combos in Control. This top-tier ranking places it in the 99.5th percentile of all configurations tested, indicating that it is one of the most capable systems for this game. The ranking reflects the sheer power of the RTX 5090, which is a dominant factor in the overall score, while the i5-14600K ensures that the system does not suffer from CPU-related frame drops.

The ranking is particularly impressive given that many other high-end combos likely feature more expensive CPUs, such as the Core i9 or Ryzen 9 series. The data shows that the i5-14600K's performance is sufficient to keep it in the top 10, which suggests that for this game, the GPU is far more important than the CPU. The 0.2% delta with the Ryzen 9 5950X in the CPU's general benchmarks shows that the i5-14600K is not leaving significant performance on the table, and the RTX 5090 is able to stretch its legs in this title.

This rank is a clear indicator that the pairing is extremely well-balanced for Control, with no single component acting as a severe bottleneck. The 9th place finish out of 1636 is a strong endorsement of this configuration's capability, and it suggests that users can expect top-tier performance in this title without needing to invest in a more expensive processor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed star of this configuration, and its specifications are staggering. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, it has a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is more than enough to handle the high-resolution textures and effects in Control. The GPU's boost clock of 2407 MHz and its 21760 shading units provide the raw compute power, resulting in a FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS.

The GPU's benchmark results, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 380114, place it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, shows a 0.1% delta, indicating that the standard RTX 5090 is essentially the pinnacle of current GPU performance. The massive 750 mm² die size and 92,200 million transistors are proof of the GPU's complexity, and the data shows that this complexity translates directly into frame rates.

In Control, the GPU's role is to handle the game's physics-based destruction and particle effects, which are heavily GPU-accelerated. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (79 FPS) is a direct result of the RTX 5090's ability to process these effects while maintaining high resolution. The GPU's performance is so dominant that even at 4K High, it maintains a 90.4 FPS average, which reflects its headroom. The fact that the GPU has a TDP of 575 W and requires a 950 W power supply indicates that it is a power-hungry component, but the performance it delivers in Control justifies this requirement.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average frame rate is 284.9 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K on the Ultra preset?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average frame rate of 79 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 135.1 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 117.2 FPS, a difference of 17.9 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows the GPU is the limiting factor, as frame rates drop significantly from 1440p to 4K (e.g., from 135.1 to 90.4 FPS on High), indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: Where does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Control?

A: This combo ranks 9th out of 1,636 tested combos in the game.

Q: What is the frame rate at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average frame rate is 154.6 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across all presets. Low settings produce an average of 284.9 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this resolution. Medium settings deliver 199.5 FPS, High settings achieve 179.4 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 157.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 127.7 FPS, showing that the RTX 5090 has massive headroom at this resolution, but the CPU may start to become a factor at the very low settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. Low settings provide 214.2 FPS, Medium settings yield 154.6 FPS, High settings reach 135.1 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 117.2 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 97 FPS, which is a significant reduction but still leaves all presets comfortably playable. The data shows that the GPU is now the clear bottleneck, as the CPU has more time to prepare frames.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are the most demanding. Low settings achieve 142.4 FPS, Medium settings produce 101.5 FPS, High settings deliver 90.4 FPS, and Ultra settings result in 79 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 63.4 FPS, which is the smallest absolute spread across the resolutions, confirming that the GPU is fully saturated. Even at the highest settings, the combo maintains a frame rate above 60 FPS, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming.