Control

The pairing of an Intel Core i7-14700F with an AMD Radeon RX 570 in Control produces a combo rank of 1549 out of 1636 tested configurations. This places the system in the bottom 5% of all tested combos, a striking result given that the CPU alone sits in the 94th percentile of all processors. The data suggests a severe imbalance: a top-tier CPU paired with a mid-range GPU that struggles to keep up with the game's demands. Benchmark results indicate that the RX 570 is the definitive bottleneck, as the FPS scales almost entirely with resolution and settings changes.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1549 out of 1636 places this system in the 5th percentile of all tested combos for Control. This is a remarkably low position for a CPU that ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The Intel Core i7-14700F achieves an average benchmark score of 54097, placing it within 1.7% of its nearest rivals. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X scores 54450 (0.6% faster), the Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 54681 (1.1% faster), the Xeon Phi 7290 scores 53469 (1.2% slower), and the EPYC 7313P scores 53206 (1.7% slower). The CPU is clearly not the weak link.

On the GPU side, the AMD Radeon RX 570 scores 30158 on average, ranking in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are extremely close: the RTX 5060 scores 30109 (0.2% faster), the RX 7700 XT scores 30097 (0.2% faster), the Tesla M60 scores 29969 (0.6% faster), and the RTX 5070 Mobile scores 29928 (0.8% faster). Despite the GPU being in the 74th percentile, the combo's 5th percentile rank in Control indicates that the GPU's specific capabilities—or lack thereof—are catastrophic for this title. The 4 GB VRAM and GCN 4.0 architecture are likely the culprits.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this combo in Control?

A: The combo ranks 1549 out of 1636 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 5% of all tested combos.

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

A: The i7-14700F scores 54097 on average. The Ryzen 9 9900X is 0.6% faster, the 9900X3D is 1.1% faster, the Xeon Phi 7290 is 1.2% slower, and the EPYC 7313P is 1.7% slower.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 570 scores 30158 on average. The RTX 5060 is 0.2% faster, the RX 7700 XT is 0.2% faster, the Tesla M60 is 0.6% faster, and the RTX 5070 Mobile is 0.8% faster.

Q: What is the highest FPS achievable at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS at 1920x1080 is 55.1 FPS, achieved on Low settings. The lowest is 33.3 FPS on Ultra.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data strongly indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU is in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the combo ranks 1549th. The GPU is in the 74th percentile, but the FPS drops dramatically with resolution, indicating GPU limits.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent and predictable scaling pattern across resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 55.1 at 1080p to 43.8 at 1440p, and finally to 27.9 at 4K. This represents a 49.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the drop is from 38.1 to 26.8 to 17.0, a 55.4% reduction. Ultra settings see a drop from 33.3 to 24.3 to 16.3, a 51.1% reduction.

The fact that the FPS does not drop by a factor of four when moving from 1080p to 4K (which has four times the pixels) suggests that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound. Instead, the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are likely saturated. The 256-bit memory bus provides 224.0 GB/s, but Control's high-resolution textures and particle effects overwhelm this capacity. The CPU, with its 20 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock, is never the limiting factor here; the FPS scaling is entirely dictated by the GPU's workload.

Settings Recommendations

For a playable experience, the measured data points to 1080p Low as the best option, delivering 55.1 FPS. This is the only setting that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. If visual fidelity is a priority, 1080p High at 38.1 FPS is a viable trade-off, offering a significant visual upgrade over Low while maintaining a playable frame rate. 1080p Medium at 42.8 FPS is a middle ground.

At 1440p, only Low settings (43.8 FPS) remain above the 30 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 34.1 FPS, which is borderline, while High (26.8) and Ultra (24.3) fall below playable. At 4K, no setting is playable; the highest average FPS is 27.9 on Low, and Ultra drops to 16.3 FPS. The data suggests that users should stick to 1080p for this combo, as the GPU's 4 GB VRAM is insufficient for higher resolutions in Control.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Control is as follows:

At 1920x1080, Low settings yield 55.1 FPS, Medium 42.8 FPS, High 38.1 FPS, and Ultra 33.3 FPS.

At 2560x1440, Low settings yield 43.8 FPS, Medium 34.1 FPS, High 26.8 FPS, and Ultra 24.3 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low settings yield 27.9 FPS, Medium 20.4 FPS, High 17.0 FPS, and Ultra 16.3 FPS.

The relative cost of Ultra settings is consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra is 39.6% slower than Low. At 1440p, it is 44.5% slower. At 4K, it is 41.6% slower. This consistency indicates that the GPU's shading units and ROPs are being taxed uniformly, regardless of resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with 33 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 35443 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5003 in single-core. Its Geekbench scores are 16571 multi-core and 2711 single-core.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking and its proximity to rivals (all within 1.7%) confirm that it is a high-end processor. In Control, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw calls. Given that the combo ranks 1549th, the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor. The launch MSRP of the CPU is $359.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a GCN 4.0 architecture GPU with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It operates at a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. The GPU has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its pixel rate is 39.81 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 159.2 GTexel/s, with an FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS.

The GPU's 74th percentile ranking and its close rivals (within 0.8%) show it is a solid mid-range card. However, in Control, the 4 GB VRAM is a critical limitation. The game's high-resolution textures and effects quickly exhaust the memory, leading to the severe FPS drops observed at 1440p and 4K. The launch MSRP of the GPU is $169.