Control

# Control with Intel Core i5-14600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB

This combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB produces a specific performance profile in Control that lands near the bottom of the tested field. The combo ranks 3265 out of 3720 tested combinations, placing it in the 12th percentile of all tested systems for this game. That rank reflects a pairing where the GPU's 4 GB VRAM capacity and modest compute resources become the dominant constraint, while the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance remains largely underutilized at most settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 3265 out of 3720 places it in the lower tier of systems tested in Control. This positioning is primarily driven by the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities. The RTX 3050 4 GB sits at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, which is a mid-pack position, but when paired with Control's demanding rendering workload, the effective outcome is far below what the CPU alone could support.

Benchmark results indicate the CPU is not the bottleneck in this pairing. The i5-14600KF achieves a 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49394. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, scores 49228 (0.3% behind), while the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G scores 49196 (0.4% behind). The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 trails by 0.8% with a score of 48995. On the other side, the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 leads by 0.8% with a score of 49796. These margins are tight, showing the i5-14600KF is competitive with top-tier CPUs in synthetic workloads.

However, in Control, the measured FPS numbers tell a different story. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would normally have the most influence, the combo only reaches 83 FPS. At 1080p Ultra, that drops to 46 FPS. These figures are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 3050 4 GB's 7.127 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 192.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. The data shows the GPU's 50th percentile standing translates to bottom-quartile results in this specific title.

GPU Role

The RTX 3050 4 GB is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA107 chip, manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process. It contains 2048 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, along with 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores. The base clock runs at 1545 MHz with a boost clock of 1740 MHz. Memory operates at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The 4 GB GDDR6 memory capacity is the critical constraint in Control. At 4K resolution, the game's texture and buffer requirements exceed what this GPU can efficiently handle, which is reflected in the measured FPS. At 4K High, the combo averages 27 FPS; at 4K Ultra, it falls to 23 FPS. Even at 4K Low, the average is only 43 FPS. These numbers indicate the GPU is struggling with memory capacity and bandwidth at higher resolutions.

The GPU's pixel rate is 55.68 GPixel/s and texture rate is 111.4 GTexel/s, which are modest figures for a card in this class. The FP32 throughput of 7.127 TFLOPS is the same as FP16 (7.127 TFLOPS at 1:1 ratio), which is typical for Ampere consumer cards. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, meaning it has full API support for Control's rendering features.

At 1080p, the GPU's limitations are less severe but still present. The 4 GB VRAM becomes a factor when textures are set to High or Ultra, as the game attempts to load larger texture sets into memory. The measured FPS drop from 83 at Low to 46 at Ultra at 1080p suggests a combination of memory pressure and compute limits, with the gap between Medium (59 FPS) and High (53 FPS) being relatively small.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows clear scaling patterns across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 83 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 63 FPS (a 24% reduction), and at 4K Low it falls to 43 FPS (a 32% reduction from 1440p). This scaling behavior indicates the GPU is becoming progressively more constrained as pixel count increases.

For Medium settings, the progression is 59 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24%, and from 1440p to 4K is 33%. High settings show 53 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K — a 25% drop followed by a 33% drop. Ultra settings follow a similar pattern: 46 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K.

The consistent ~25% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and ~33% reduction from 1440p to 4K across all settings suggests the limiting component is the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth rather than the CPU. The i5-14600KF's 14 cores and 20 threads, with boost clocks up to 5.30 GHz, are more than capable of feeding the GPU at all tested resolutions. The fact that FPS drops proportionally with resolution indicates a GPU-bound scenario throughout.

The largest absolute gap between resolutions occurs at Low settings, where 1080p delivers 83 FPS but 4K only reaches 43 FPS — a 40 FPS difference. At Ultra, the gap is 23 FPS (46 to 23). This narrowing at higher settings suggests that as the game becomes more demanding, additional GPU resources are consumed by effects and geometry, leaving less headroom for resolution scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings produce an average of 83 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all configurations. Medium settings average 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and maximum of 68 FPS. High settings average 53 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 46 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 37 FPS, showing that Control's quality presets have a substantial impact on this GPU at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low settings average 63 FPS, which is still playable but 24% below the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 45 FPS (minimum 38, maximum 51), High settings average 40 FPS, and Ultra settings average 35 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 28 FPS, a slightly smaller spread than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the combo falls below comfortable playability thresholds for most presets. Low settings average 43 FPS, Medium averages 30 FPS (minimum 26, maximum 35), High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. Only the Low preset at 4K approaches a playable frame rate, and even that is marginal. The Medium preset's minimum of 26 FPS indicates significant frame time variance at 4K.

The data shows that the 1080p Medium preset (59 FPS average) provides a balanced experience, while 1080p High (53 FPS) is acceptable. At 1440p, only Low (63 FPS) achieves a consistently smooth frame rate. The 4K results are largely below 30 FPS except for Low, making this resolution impractical for this combo in Control.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor from the Raptor Lake Refresh generation. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 24 MB shared L3. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, with PCIe Gen 5 providing 16 lanes from the CPU.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's strengths. In Cinebench R23, it scores 32544 in multi-core and 4594 in single-core. Geekbench results are 17085 multi-core and 2445 single-core. PassMark tests show 38697 for multi-thread, 4273 for single-thread, 125982 for integer math, and 93048 for floating point math. These scores place it at the 90th percentile among all CPUs.

In Control, however, these CPU capabilities are not fully utilized. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (83 FPS) is the highest result, but even this is well below what the CPU could theoretically support. The fact that FPS scales down consistently with resolution — rather than staying flat or CPU-limited — confirms the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for Control's threading model, which typically scales well across multiple cores.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all within 1% of its average score. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 is 0.3% behind, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G is 0.4% behind, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is 0.8% behind. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 leads by 0.8%. These marginal differences in synthetic performance would have no measurable impact on Control's frame rates given the GPU bottleneck present in this combo.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo in Control is at 1080p with Medium settings, which delivers 59 FPS average with a minimum of 50 FPS. This configuration provides a smooth frame rate while maintaining visual quality above the Low preset. The 50 FPS minimum ensures that most scenes remain fluid, and the 68 FPS maximum shows there is headroom in less demanding areas.

For players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, 1080p High at 53 FPS is a viable alternative. The 6 FPS difference from Medium is relatively small, and the visual improvements from High settings are noticeable. However, the lack of minimum FPS data for High settings means frame time consistency cannot be verified from this dataset.

At 1440p, the only preset that maintains a comfortable frame rate is Low at 63 FPS. Medium at 45 FPS may be acceptable for some players, but the 38 FPS minimum suggests potential stuttering in demanding scenes. High (40 FPS) and Ultra (35 FPS) are below the threshold for smooth gameplay in a fast-paced action title like Control.

The 4K resolution is not recommended for this combo. Even Low settings only achieve 43 FPS, and Medium drops to 30 FPS with a 26 FPS minimum. Ultra at 23 FPS is effectively unplayable. Players with 4K displays should run the game at 1080p or accept significantly reduced quality settings.

The data indicates that the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance of performance and visual quality. The 59 FPS average is well within the playable range, and the minimum of 50 FPS provides confidence that the experience will remain smooth throughout the game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in Control?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings achieves 59 FPS average with a minimum of 50 FPS and maximum of 68 FPS. This is the only configuration that balances smooth gameplay with reasonable visual quality.

Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K?

A: The data shows 4K results are below 30 FPS for all presets except Low, which averages 43 FPS. Medium at 4K averages 30 FPS, High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. These frame rates are generally not suitable for an action game.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49394, which is 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228), 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196), and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48995). The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 leads by 0.8% with a score of 49796.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The CPU ranks at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 50th percentile. The FPS drops consistently from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, which indicates GPU-bound performance rather than CPU limitation.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings average 83 FPS while Ultra settings average 46 FPS. This is a 37 FPS difference, showing that Control's quality presets have a significant impact on this GPU configuration.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 3265 out of 3720 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the lower quartile of tested systems. This ranking reflects the GPU's limitations in this specific game rather than the CPU's capabilities.