Control

# Control with Intel Core i7-13700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER

This pairing of a 16-core Raptor Lake processor and an Ada Lovelace GPU delivers a compelling Control experience across all resolutions, with the data showing a combo rank of 173 out of 1,636 tested configurations. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 672.3 GB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom, while the i7-13700K's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 5.40 GHz boost clock keep frame pacing consistent. The measured results reveal a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K performance remaining playable at most settings, though the Ultra preset at 4K dips below the 70 FPS threshold.

FAQ

Q: What average frame rate does this combo achieve at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 111.5 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which places it comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay while leaving headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: How does the i7-13700K compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-13700K posts an average benchmark score of 47,282, which is 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700KF (47,334) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4364P (47,131), indicating essentially identical performance among top contenders.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for Control at 4K?

A: The data shows the GPU handles 4K Ultra at 65.9 FPS average, and with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the memory subsystem provides 672.3 GB/s bandwidth—sufficient for this game's textures and effects at 3840x2160.

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 230.5 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 127.8 FPS—a difference of 102.7 FPS, showing that Ultra settings cost roughly 45% of the Low preset's frame rate.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested system configurations for Control?

A: The combination ranks 173rd out of 1,636 tested combos, placing it in the top 11% of all configurations benchmarked for this game.

Q: What is the GPU's synthetic benchmark percentile compared to all GPUs?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scores in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48,704—slightly behind the NVIDIA CMP 50HX by 0.7%.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that High settings provide the best balance of visual fidelity and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, High delivers 145 FPS average—sufficient for high-refresh-rate displays while maintaining the game's atmospheric lighting and particle effects. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 17.2 FPS (from 145 to 127.8), a relatively modest penalty that might be acceptable for players prioritizing maximum quality on 144Hz monitors.

At 1440p, High settings yield 111.5 FPS, which remains well above the 90 FPS threshold for responsive gameplay. Medium settings at this resolution produce 125.3 FPS, but the visual downgrade is noticeable in Control's physics-heavy environments. For 4K displays, High settings at 70.6 FPS is the recommended choice, as it stays above 60 FPS while Ultra drops to 65.9 FPS—a marginal 4.7 FPS difference that may not justify the additional rendering load.

The Low preset at 1440p (170 FPS) and 1080p (230.5 FPS) demonstrates the system's ceiling, but these settings strip away the volumetric lighting and reflective surfaces that define Control's aesthetic. The data indicates that Medium at 4K (80.7 FPS) is a viable alternative to High for players who prioritize frame rate stability over maximum detail, offering a 10.1 FPS improvement over High at that resolution.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's architecture plays a decisive role in Control's performance, with its AD103 chip built on a 5 nm process housing 45,900 million transistors. The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2340 MHz drive 8,448 shading units, 264 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The 66 RT cores and 264 tensor cores provide dedicated hardware for the game's ray-traced reflections and DLSS upscaling, though the measured data reflects native rendering without upscaling.

The 16 GB GDDR6X memory pool with 672.3 GB/s bandwidth proves adequate for Control's texture streaming at 4K, as evidenced by the 70.6 FPS average at High settings. The 256-bit memory bus and 21 Gbps effective memory clock deliver pixel rates of 250.6 GPixel/s and texture rates of 689.0 GTexel/s, which explains the GPU's ability to maintain playable frame rates even at Ultra settings—the 65.9 FPS at 4K Ultra suggests the memory subsystem is not the bottleneck. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 48,704 place it 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A2000, though 2% behind the Intel Arc A550M in synthetic tests.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 173 out of 1,636 tested configurations, this pairing sits comfortably in the upper echelon of systems benchmarked for Control. This ranking places it ahead of roughly 89% of all tested combos, reflecting the synergy between the i7-13700K's 16 cores and the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's raw throughput. The combo's position in the top 11% suggests that while there are faster configurations, this system delivers a high-end experience without requiring flagship components.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 93 among all processors indicates that the i7-13700K is a top-tier chip, while the GPU's 86th percentile shows slightly more headroom above the competition. The gap between these percentiles suggests the CPU is less likely to bottleneck the GPU in Control, a game that scales well with both multi-threaded physics and GPU compute. The measured FPS data supports this interpretation—at 1080p Low, the system reaches 230.5 FPS, indicating balanced performance where neither component dominates the frame rate ceiling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K brings 16 cores and 24 threads to Control, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz that boosts to 5.40 GHz under load. This Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide flexibility, though the measured results reflect a system configured for balanced performance.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-13700K achieves a multi-threaded score of 17,731 in Geekbench and 39,000 in Cinebench R23, with single-thread scores of 2,850 and 5,505 respectively. These numbers indicate strong per-core performance that benefits Control's physics calculations and AI routines. The CPU's 3DMark scores show scaling from 2,262 (2 threads) to 12,412 (max threads), demonstrating effective utilization of its core count. The 0.1% deltaPct from the i7-13700KF and 0.4% from the Intel Core i9-12900F suggest that the CPU is not leaving performance on the table—Control's frame rates at 1080p (127.8 FPS minimum at Ultra) indicate the processor keeps pace with the GPU's output.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 230.5 FPS on Low, 160.8 FPS on Medium, 145 FPS on High, and 127.8 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 102.7 FPS spread between the lowest and highest presets, with each step up in quality costing progressively less performance—Low to Medium costs 69.7 FPS, Medium to High costs 15.8 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 17.2 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured averages are 170 FPS on Low, 125.3 FPS on Medium, 111.5 FPS on High, and 93.7 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p results show a tighter grouping with a 76.3 FPS spread, reflecting the GPU becoming more of a limiting factor. At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 116.9 FPS on Low, 80.7 FPS on Medium, 70.6 FPS on High, and 65.9 FPS on Ultra—a 51 FPS spread that demonstrates diminishing returns from the CPU at higher resolutions.

The data reveals that Ultra settings at 1440p (93.7 FPS) provide a better experience than High at 4K (70.6 FPS), suggesting that players with 1440p high-refresh monitors can enable maximum quality while maintaining responsive frame rates. Conversely, the 4K Ultra result of 65.9 FPS hovers near the edge of playability, making High settings the safer choice for 4K displays.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p averages approximately 23% across all settings—from 145 to 111.5 FPS at High, 160.8 to 125.3 FPS at Medium, 230.5 to 170 FPS at Low, and 127.8 to 93.7 FPS at Ultra. This consistent scaling suggests the GPU is the primary constraint as resolution increases, with the CPU maintaining sufficient headroom to feed frames.

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a more pronounced average drop of 37%, with High settings falling from 111.5 to 70.6 FPS, Medium from 125.3 to 80.7 FPS, and Ultra from 93.7 to 65.9 FPS. The Low preset drops from 170 to 116.9 FPS, a 53.1 FPS reduction that highlights how even minimal settings cannot escape the 4K pixel count's demands on the GPU's 44.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

These scaling patterns indicate that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s becomes the limiting factor at 4K, particularly at Ultra settings where the 65.9 FPS result sits just above the playability threshold. The CPU's role diminishes at higher resolutions—the 16-core i7-13700K with its 30 MB L3 cache and 5.40 GHz boost clock can maintain frame pacing, but the GPU's rendering workload dominates the performance curve. Players targeting 4K should consider High settings as the practical ceiling, while 1440p Ultra provides the best combination of visual quality and performance headroom.