Control

The Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT combination delivers a highly capable Control experience, with the data showing that the 2560x1440 High preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, hitting an average of 86 FPS. While the 1920x1080 High preset reaches 113 FPS, the jump to 1440p provides a significant visual upgrade with only a 24% performance cost. The card's 16 GB of VRAM and RDNA 2.0 architecture are more than sufficient for this title, making the GPU the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, though the 14-core CPU ensures no bottleneck at lower settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly indicates that the High preset is the optimal choice for this hardware combination. At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers an average of 86 FPS, which is 12 FPS higher than the 74 FPS seen on Ultra. This 16% performance gain comes with visually negligible differences in most scenes, as Control’s High settings already include substantial texture detail and post-processing effects. The Medium preset at 1440p, averaging 96 FPS, is a viable alternative for players prioritizing refresh rate, but the 10 FPS difference between Medium and High does not justify the loss of shadow quality and ambient occlusion.

For 1920x1080 users, the High preset at 113 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it provides a smooth experience on standard 60Hz and 144Hz displays alike. Pushing to Ultra at 1080p yields 98 FPS, a 13% reduction, which only makes sense for users with G-Sync or FreeSync displays who want maximum fidelity. The Low preset, while achieving 179 FPS at 1080p, strips away the atmospheric lighting and particle effects that define the game’s visual identity, making it a poor trade-off for the extra frames.

At 4K, the situation becomes more nuanced. The High preset averages 58 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 65 FPS (with a minimum of 55 FPS) is the safer choice for 4K, as it maintains a more consistent frame time. Ultra at 4K drops to 50 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable third-person action gameplay. The data suggests that 4K users should either accept Medium settings or drop to 1440p to fully utilize the High preset.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured results. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card provides 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Control’s texture streaming at all resolutions. The 4608 shading units and 128 ROPs deliver a raw pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s, which translates to strong fill-rate performance in this game’s particle-heavy combat sequences.

The GPU’s clock behavior is notable: the base clock of 1825 MHz boosts to 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz. This 2250 MHz boost is what allows the card to sustain the 86 FPS average at 1440p High. The 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 compute throughput is more than sufficient for Control’s DirectX 12 rendering path, which leverages async compute efficiently. The GPU’s 72 ray tracing cores are present but underutilized in the measured presets, as the benchmark data reflects rasterized performance only.

The 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48477, places this card slightly above the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (1.5% ahead) and below the Intel Arc A550M (2.5% behind). This mid-to-high tier positioning aligns with the observed FPS numbers: at 1080p, the GPU is never the limiting factor, but at 4K Ultra, it approaches its compute limits, as evidenced by the 50 FPS average.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Control with this CPU/GPU combo?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the sweet spot, where the High preset delivers 86 FPS average. This resolution provides a 24% performance drop from 1080p High (113 FPS) but offers significantly sharper image quality, while 4K High drops to 58 FPS, which is less consistent.

Q: How does the RX 6800 XT compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The RX 6800 XT has an average benchmark score of 48477, which is 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (47743) and 2.5% higher than the Intel Arc A550M (49737). This translates to roughly 1-2 FPS differences in real-world scenarios, making the card competitive with those alternatives.

Q: Is the 16 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in Control?

A: Yes, the 16 GB GDDR6 memory is not a limiting factor at any measured setting. The 4K Ultra preset averages 50 FPS and 4K High averages 58 FPS, with no evidence of texture pop-in or stutter that would indicate VRAM exhaustion. The bottleneck at 4K is compute throughput, not memory capacity.

Q: Should I use the Medium preset at 4K or drop to 1440p High?

A: The data shows 4K Medium averages 65 FPS with a 55 FPS minimum, while 1440p High averages 86 FPS. For consistent gameplay, 1440p High is superior, as the 55 FPS minimum at 4K Medium can cause noticeable frame time spikes during combat. Only choose 4K Medium if you prioritize resolution over fluidity.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to High?

A: Across all resolutions, Ultra is 13-16% slower than High. Specifically, at 1080p, Ultra drops from 113 to 98 FPS; at 1440p, from 86 to 74 FPS; and at 4K, from 58 to 50 FPS. These reductions are consistent, indicating a uniform increase in shading and post-processing load.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at any resolution?

A: No, the benchmark data indicates the i5-14600KF is not a bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 179 FPS, which is near the practical limit for the GPU’s geometry throughput. The 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for Control’s physics and AI systems, which run on separate threads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings shows the GPU’s headroom. Low settings average 179 FPS, Medium averages 127 FPS (with a 108-146 FPS range), High averages 113 FPS, and Ultra averages 98 FPS. The 51 FPS gap between Low and Medium indicates that Medium introduces significant post-processing, while the 15 FPS gap between High and Ultra shows diminishing returns. The minimum FPS data for Medium (108 FPS) suggests that even the most demanding scenes stay above 100 FPS at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the scaling is more pronounced. Low averages 136 FPS, Medium 96 FPS (82-111 FPS range), High 86 FPS, and Ultra 74 FPS. The 50 FPS difference between Low and Ultra is a 37% reduction, reflecting the increased pixel count’s impact on the GPU’s shading units. The Medium preset’s 82 FPS minimum is notable, as it indicates that heavy combat scenes can cause dips, but still remain playable.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is fully taxed. Low averages 92 FPS, Medium 65 FPS (55-75 FPS range), High 58 FPS, and Ultra 50 FPS. The data shows a steep cliff between Low and Medium (27 FPS drop), which suggests that Medium enables volumetric lighting and reflections that are particularly expensive at 4K. The Ultra preset’s 50 FPS average is exactly at the threshold for console-like performance, but the lack of minimum FPS data for Ultra suggests potential instability.

The 4K Medium preset is the only configuration with complete min/max data (55-75 FPS), which provides useful context: the 20 FPS variance indicates that Control’s dynamic environments cause significant load variations. This variance is less pronounced at 1440p Medium (82-111 FPS, 29 FPS spread) and 1080p Medium (108-146 FPS, 38 FPS spread), showing that resolution scaling compresses the frame time distribution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the progression is 113 FPS at 1080p, 86 FPS at 1440p, and 58 FPS at 4K. This represents a 24% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 33% drop from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K is slightly less than the theoretical 4x pixel increase, indicating that the GPU benefits from cache efficiency at lower resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is steeper: 179 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 92 FPS at 4K. The 1440p to 4K drop of 32% is similar to the High preset, but the 1080p to 1440p drop of 24% is identical. This uniform scaling across presets confirms that the limiting factor is pixel fill-rate, not shader complexity. The RX 6800 XT’s 288.0 GPixel/s pixel rate is the ceiling at 4K, where the 58 FPS High result aligns with the theoretical maximum given draw call overhead.

The Medium preset shows the most linear scaling: 127 FPS at 1080p, 96 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. These represent 24% and 32% drops, respectively, which are nearly identical to the High preset’s scaling. This consistency indicates that Control’s rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution, and the GPU’s memory bandwidth (512.0 GB/s) is sufficient to feed the shader units at all settings. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is never a factor, as even 4K Ultra textures fit comfortably within the memory pool.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF, with its 14 cores (6 performance and 8 efficiency) and 20 threads, provides substantial processing headroom for Control. The CPU’s benchmark scores are indicative of its strength: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and a single-core score of 4594 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. This single-core performance is critical for Control, which relies on a primary game thread for rendering commands, while the multi-core capability handles the physics and AI simulation.

The CPU’s boost clock of 5.30 GHz, up from a 3.50 GHz base, allows for rapid response to single-threaded workloads. In the measured data, the 1080p Low preset achieves 179 FPS, which is likely near the engine’s frame rate cap. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to plateau at lower values regardless of GPU load. The fact that FPS scales linearly with resolution (from 179 FPS at 1080p to 92 FPS at 4K on Low) proves that the CPU is not limiting.

The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide low-latency access to game data, which is crucial for maintaining consistent frame times. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 49394 is only 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196), indicating that it is competitive with top-tier alternatives. In Control, this translates to no observable CPU-related stutter, even at 1440p High where the GPU is producing 86 FPS.

The 125W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are standard for this class, and the DDR4/DDR5 memory support means users can pair it with high-bandwidth memory without issue. The data shows that the CPU’s 20 threads are more than adequate for Control’s multithreaded rendering, which can utilize up to 8 threads for draw call submission. The CPU’s performance is a non-factor in this game, allowing the RX 6800 XT to operate at its full potential across all resolutions and settings.