Control

Control with the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 presents a dataset dominated by the GPU’s Pascal architecture. The measured frames per second across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a configuration where the GTX 1070 is consistently the performance boundary, with the i5-14600KF’s substantial compute headroom remaining largely untapped. The following analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, the GPU’s specific role, and the practical settings for playable performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating that the rendering load scales directly with pixel count, and the GTX 1070 has no spare capacity at higher resolutions. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 60.5 FPS; moving to 1440p High drops the average to 44.1 FPS, a decline of roughly 27%. Pushing further to 4K High yields 31.1 FPS, which is about 49% lower than the 1080p result. This pattern is not linear, but it clearly shows that each step up in resolution extracts a significant toll, with the 4K step being particularly punishing.

The limiting component is unambiguously the GPU. The i5-14600KF, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs and scores 32,889 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. In contrast, the GTX 1070 sits at the 51st percentile for GPUs, a middling position that reflects its age. When the resolution increases, the CPU’s workload per frame does not grow proportionally, while the GPU’s pixel and texture throughput requirements escalate. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches exactly 100 FPS, which suggests that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is still the bottleneck; if the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see a plateau across different settings at the same resolution, but instead we see a wide spread from 50.4 FPS at Ultra to 100 FPS at Low.

Quantifying the scaling, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution decreases. At 4K, the spread between Low (48.8 FPS) and Ultra (30.2 FPS) is 18.6 FPS. At 1440p, that spread grows to 34.3 FPS (72.2 vs. 37.9). At 1080p, the spread is 49.6 FPS (100 vs. 50.4). This behavior is classic GPU-bound scaling: at lower resolutions, the GPU has more headroom to render additional effects, so the settings have a larger relative impact. At 4K, the GPU is so saturated that even dropping from High to Low only recovers 17.7 FPS, and the difference between Medium (33 FPS) and High (31.1 FPS) is a mere 1.9 FPS, indicating that the card is struggling to fill the frame buffer regardless of quality.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070’s role in this pairing is defined by its memory subsystem and clock speeds, which are insufficient for Control’s demands at high resolutions. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a fundamental constraint; at 4K, the texture and geometry data required to fill the screen likely approaches or exceeds the available VRAM capacity, forcing the system to swap assets and causing the frame rate to sag. The measured 4K results, with all presets hovering between 30.2 and 48.8 FPS, strongly suggest that memory bandwidth, not raw compute, is the limiting factor at that resolution.

Clock speeds on the GPU are modest by modern standards: a base of 1506 MHz and a boost of 1683 MHz. These clocks, combined with 1920 shading units and a FP32 throughput of 6.463 TFLOPS, place the card in a performance tier that is now several generations old. The benchmark results corroborate this: the GTX 1070 scores 13,498 in Passmark G3D, which is only 0.7% higher than the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 and 1.4% higher than the GTX 1650 SUPER. This proximity to entry-level and professional cards underscores that the GTX 1070 is not a high-end part in 2024; it is a mid-range GPU that was released in 2016 with a launch MSRP of 379 USD.

In the context of Control’s results, the GPU’s role is to be the primary obstacle to higher frame rates. The i5-14600KF, with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz and a Passmark single-thread score of 4,273, is more than capable of feeding the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The fact that 1080p Low yields exactly 100 FPS — a round number that suggests a VSync or frame pacing cap — and that no preset at 1440p or 4K exceeds 72.2 FPS, indicates that the GPU’s rendering pipeline is the choke point. The GPU’s 256-bit memory bus and 8 GB capacity are simply not enough to maintain fluid performance at 4K, where even the Low preset cannot reach 50 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Why does the average FPS at 1080p Low hit exactly 100 FPS?

A: The measured data shows exactly 100.0 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is likely a frame rate cap, either from the game’s engine or the driver, as the GPU has sufficient headroom at this low resolution and settings combination to exceed that value, but the measurement caps at 100.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14600KF a bottleneck in this configuration?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 49,367, which is 0.4% higher than the Core i5-14600K and 0.6% higher than the Ryzen 9 5950X. Since the FPS scales dramatically with resolution and settings, the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60 FPS?

A: The only measured configuration that achieves 60 FPS or higher is 1920x1080 with High settings (60.5 FPS) and 1080p Low (100 FPS). At 1440p, the highest average is 72.2 FPS on Low, but that drops to 44.1 FPS on High. For a consistent 60 FPS experience, 1080p High is the maximum.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in raw performance?

A: The GTX 1070’s average benchmark score is 12,331, which is 1.3% lower than the GTX 880M and 1.4% lower than the GTX 1650 SUPER. It is only 0.7% higher than the Quadro K4200. This places it in a tight cluster of mid-range to older high-end cards.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The data suggests yes. At 4K, all presets yield average FPS between 30.2 (Ultra) and 48.8 (Low). The minimal difference between Medium (33.0) and High (31.1) indicates that the GPU is not just compute-bound but also likely memory-bandwidth or capacity-bound, as reducing settings has less impact than at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the GTX 1070’s performance consistent with its age and market position?

A: Yes. The GPU is end-of-life, launched in 2016, and sits at the 51st percentile of all GPUs. Its Passmark DirectX 12 score is 48, which is low, but its DirectX 11 score is 100, reflecting the architecture’s strength in older APIs that Control may partially rely on.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration shows its best performance. The Low preset delivers 100.0 FPS, which is the highest measured value across the entire dataset. Medium yields 67.6 FPS, High drops to 60.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 50.4 FPS. This is a usable range for most displays, with High being the only preset that sits just above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decline significantly. Low preset achieves 72.2 FPS, which is still smooth, but Medium drops to 54.6 FPS, High to 44.1 FPS, and Ultra to 37.9 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 24.4% reduction, while the step from Medium to High is a 19.2% reduction. This indicates that the GPU struggles with the additional pixel count and the quality effects.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal for playability. Low preset scores 48.8 FPS, which is the only preset above 40 FPS. Medium drops to 33.0 FPS, High to 31.1 FPS, and Ultra to 30.2 FPS. The differences between Medium, High, and Ultra are within 2.8 FPS of each other, suggesting that the GPU is completely saturated and the settings have diminishing returns. No preset at 4K reaches the 60 FPS target, and only Low approaches a playable 50 FPS.

The data also shows that the combo ranks 1397 out of 1636 possible combinations for this game, placing it in the bottom 15% of tested configurations. This rank, combined with the measured FPS, confirms that this is not a high-performance pairing for Control, but rather a legacy setup that can handle the game at lower resolutions and settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience for this hardware is at 1920x1080 with the High preset, which delivers 60.5 FPS. This is the only setting that balances visual quality with a frame rate that meets the standard 60 FPS target. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 100 FPS, but the visual sacrifices are significant, and the jump to Medium (67.6 FPS) is a better trade-off for those who prioritize quality over raw speed. Ultra at 1080p is not recommended, as it drops to 50.4 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and offers marginal visual gains over High.

For users with a 1440p monitor, the Low preset is the only playable option, yielding 72.2 FPS. However, this comes with severe visual downgrades. The Medium preset at 54.6 FPS is borderline, and if the user can tolerate a slightly lower frame rate, it provides a much richer visual experience. High and Ultra at 1440p are not recommended, as they fall into the 37.9 to 44.1 FPS range, which is below the smoothness threshold for action-adventure games.

At 4K, there is no good recommendation. The Low preset at 48.8 FPS is the highest average, but it still feels noticeably less smooth than 60 FPS. The Medium, High, and Ultra presets are all in the 30.2 to 33.0 FPS range, which is generally considered unplayable for a fast-paced game like Control. Users with a 4K display should either lower the resolution to 1440p or accept that this GPU cannot handle the game at that pixel count with acceptable performance. The data strongly suggests that the GTX 1070’s 8 GB of VRAM and 256-bit memory bus are insufficient for 4K, so the best course of action is to remain at 1080p or 1440p with adjusted settings.