Control

Control delivers a demanding test for the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination, with benchmark results showing a system that scales predictably from high-refresh 1080p play to smooth 4K rendering. The measured data reveals a pairing where the GPU remains the dominant force across all resolutions, though the CPU’s 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom to avoid bottlenecking even at lower settings. This analysis breaks down the performance envelope of this specific combo, using only the measured FPS rows and comparative ranks to assess its capabilities in Remedy’s supernatural action-adventure title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K illustrates a textbook GPU-bound scenario, with the RTX 5090 D’s workload increasing substantially as pixel count rises. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 188 FPS at 1920x1080 to 142 FPS at 2560x1440, a 24.5% reduction, and then further to 96 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 48.9% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling curve is steep but consistent, indicating that the GPU’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 512-bit bus are being utilized effectively without any memory bandwidth constraints emerging at higher resolutions.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases, which is a clear indicator of pixel-bound rendering. At 1080p, the difference between Low (266 FPS) and Ultra (163 FPS) is 103 FPS, a 38.7% performance hit for maximum visual quality. At 1440p, that spread becomes 101 FPS (225 FPS Low versus 124 FPS Ultra), and at 4K it tightens slightly to 69 FPS (152 FPS Low versus 83 FPS Ultra). The narrowing delta at 4K suggests that the GPU is approaching its limits regardless of settings, with the absolute frame rates compressing as fill-rate demands dominate.

Examining the Medium preset, which includes min and max FPS data, provides additional insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 211 FPS with a range of 180 to 243 FPS, showing a 63 FPS spread that indicates some scene-to-scene variability. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 160 FPS with a 136 to 184 FPS range, a 48 FPS spread, while 4K Medium averages 108 FPS with a 92 to 124 FPS range, a 32 FPS spread. The shrinking variance at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently saturated, reducing the impact of CPU-driven frame time spikes.

The 4K to 1080p ratio at each setting tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. For Low settings, 4K delivers 57.1% of the 1080p performance, while High settings achieve 51.1% and Ultra manages 50.9%. These ratios are all well below the theoretical 25% pixel count ratio (4K has four times the pixels of 1080p), meaning the GPU is not purely pixel-limited but is instead being constrained by other factors like shader complexity and memory latency. The consistent ~50% scaling across presets indicates a balanced architecture that degrades gracefully under load.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the most efficient preset for this combo, offering the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate stability across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 211 FPS, which is 79.3% of the Low preset’s 266 FPS but represents a substantial visual upgrade over Low. The min FPS of 180 at 1080p Medium ensures that even demanding scenes stay well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors, making this the optimal choice for competitive or fast-paced play.

For 1440p users, Medium again proves superior, with an average of 160 FPS and a minimum of 136 FPS. This places the 1% low performance just at the edge of 144 Hz displays, providing a smooth experience without the need to drop to Low settings. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 124 FPS, which is still playable but falls short of the 144 FPS target that many gamers prefer, making the visual gains of Ultra difficult to justify given the 22.5% performance penalty compared to Medium.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts slightly, as Medium’s 108 FPS average is comfortable for 60 Hz displays but not for 120 Hz panels. Ultra at 4K drops to 83 FPS, which is still playable but leaves little headroom for scene complexity spikes. The data suggests that High settings at 4K, averaging 96 FPS, might be the sweet spot for those seeking higher fidelity, though the difference between High and Medium is only 12 FPS, or 11.1%, making Medium the safer choice for maintaining consistent frame times.

The Low preset is only advisable for esports-style play at 1080p, where the 266 FPS average provides maximum responsiveness for competitive advantage. At 1440p Low, the 225 FPS average still offers excellent fluidity, but the visual compromises are significant for a single-player action-adventure game like Control, which relies heavily on atmospheric lighting and particle effects. Medium represents the best compromise, with the measured data showing it delivers 79.4% of Low’s performance at 1080p while providing a much richer visual experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 27th out of 2888 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations evaluated. This percentile position reflects the raw power of the RTX 5090 D, which sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs based on average benchmark scores, combined with the i7-12700KF’s respectable 85th percentile standing among CPUs. The combo’s high rank is particularly notable given that Control is a 2019 title that may not fully utilize the latest hardware features, yet the data shows this pairing still dominates the field.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 77,712 places it just 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, according to the nearestRivals data. This tight clustering suggests that the RTX 5090 D’s performance in synthetic benchmarks is competitive with those mobile parts, though the desktop GPU’s 575 W TDP and 32 GB memory give it a significant advantage in real-world gaming scenarios like Control. The CPU’s average score of 35,365 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-13700T at 35,403 and the Intel Core i5-13600T at 35,305, with deltas of -0.1% and 0.2% respectively, showing that the 12th-gen chip holds its own against newer lower-power parts.

Within the context of Control specifically, the combo’s rank of 27 out of 2888 means it outperforms 96.1% of all tested configurations. This is a remarkable result for a system pairing a 2021 CPU with a 2025 GPU, indicating that the RTX 5090 D is the primary driver of this ranking. The CPU’s 12 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, provide sufficient single-thread performance for Control’s engine, which is not heavily threaded but benefits from high clock speeds in physics and AI calculations.

The rank also reflects the GPU’s 92nd percentile standing, which places it above 92% of all GPUs in the database. This is consistent with the measured FPS data, where even at 4K Ultra the combo maintains 83 FPS, a figure that would be unattainable for most lower-ranked configurations. The 27th position suggests that only 26 other combos, likely featuring even newer CPUs or multiple-GPU setups, deliver higher performance in this title, making this a top-tier configuration for Control enthusiasts.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all presets, with Low averaging 266 FPS, Medium 211 FPS, High 188 FPS, and Ultra 163 FPS. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 180 and max FPS of 243 provide a complete picture of frame delivery, showing a 63 FPS range that indicates the engine’s variability during intense combat sequences. These numbers confirm that 1080p is well within the GPU’s comfort zone, with even Ultra settings exceeding the 144 Hz threshold by a comfortable margin.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. Low averages 225 FPS, Medium 160 FPS with a 136 to 184 FPS range, High 142 FPS, and Ultra 124 FPS. The Medium preset’s 48 FPS spread at 1440p is tighter than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU’s workload is becoming more uniform as resolution increases. The 136 FPS minimum at Medium is still above the 120 Hz refresh rate common on 1440p monitors, making this preset viable for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the combo demonstrates its 4K capability, with Low averaging 152 FPS, Medium 108 FPS with a 92 to 124 FPS range, High 96 FPS, and Ultra 83 FPS. The 4K Medium preset’s min FPS of 92 ensures that even the most demanding scenes remain above 90 FPS, which is excellent for a 4K title. The 32 FPS spread at 4K Medium is the narrowest of all resolutions tested, indicating that the GPU is consistently saturated and delivering stable frame times.

The progression from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent performance penalty for higher settings. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 61.3% of Low’s performance; at 1440p, that figure is 55.1%; and at 4K, it’s 54.6%. This pattern suggests that the visual complexity added by Ultra settings, such as improved shadows and reflections, has a proportionally larger impact at higher resolutions, where the GPU is already working harder to fill pixels.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the undisputed performance driver in this combo, with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth providing ample resources for Control’s high-resolution textures and effects. The GPU’s 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s, which directly translates to the high frame rates observed at 1080p and 1440p. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance ensures that the GPU can handle the game’s physics simulations and particle effects without bottlenecking.

The memory configuration is particularly important for Control, which features destructible environments and dynamic lighting that can quickly fill VRAM. The 32 GB capacity is overkill for this title, but the 512-bit bus and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensure that texture streaming never becomes a limiting factor, even at 4K Ultra settings. The measured FPS data shows minimal variation between Medium and High settings at 4K (108 vs 96 FPS), suggesting that memory bandwidth is not a constraint and that compute shaders are the primary differentiator between presets.

The GPU’s clock speeds, with a base of 2017 MHz and boost of 2407 MHz, are relatively conservative for a flagship card, but the high core count compensates for the moderate clocks. The 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU indicate that this is a power-hungry part, but the measured performance justifies the power draw, with the combo achieving 83 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms that this is one of the fastest cards available, and the nearestRivals data shows it trading blows with high-end mobile parts like the RX 6850M XT, which has a 1.6% higher average score.

The GPU’s 5 nm process node and 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die represent a significant architectural investment, and the Blackwell 2.0 architecture’s 170 RT cores are well-suited to Control’s ray-traced reflections and shadows. The measured FPS at 4K High (96 FPS) indicates that the RTX 5090 D can handle the game’s most demanding visual features while maintaining playable frame rates, a feat that would be impossible for lower-tier GPUs in the database.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF’s role in this combo is to provide consistent frame delivery without becoming a bottleneck, and the measured data confirms it succeeds. With 12 cores and 20 threads, the CPU has ample parallel processing power for Control’s background tasks, while the 5.00 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-thread performance for the game’s main thread. The 25 MB of L3 cache shared across cores helps reduce memory latency, which is critical for maintaining stable frame times in physics-heavy scenes.

The CPU’s benchmark scores reflect its capability, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28,838 and single-core score of 4,071, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. The Geekbench multi-core score of 14,367 and single-core score of 2,255 further confirm that this chip is well-balanced for gaming workloads. The nearestRivals data shows the i7-12700KF is virtually identical in performance to the i7-13700T and i5-13600T, with deltas of -0.1% and 0.2% respectively, suggesting that newer mid-range CPUs offer comparable CPU-bound performance.

In Control specifically, the CPU’s impact is most visible at lower resolutions and settings, where the GPU has spare capacity. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 266 FPS, which is likely CPU-limited given that the GPU could theoretically render more frames. The fact that 1080p Ultra (163 FPS) is 61.3% of 1080p Low (266 FPS) indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as settings increase, but the CPU still holds the system back from reaching even higher frame rates at Low settings.

The CPU’s 125 W TDP and Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, provide a solid foundation for gaming without requiring exotic cooling solutions. The socket LGA 1700 platform supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though the measured FPS data does not differentiate between memory types. The CPU’s 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes provide sufficient bandwidth for the RTX 5090 D’s PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, ensuring no data transfer bottlenecks between the CPU and GPU. The 3.60 GHz base clock ensures consistent performance under sustained loads, while the 5.00 GHz boost clock handles bursty single-threaded tasks like game logic updates.