Control

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is a combination that lands near the bottom of the database for Control, ranking 1410 out of 1636 tested combos. This is a CPU-heavy pairing where the processor’s strong multi-threading cannot compensate for the GPU’s limited memory bandwidth and shading throughput, resulting in playable frame rates only at 1080p with lower presets. The data shows a system that is clearly GPU-bound in this title, with the i7-14700F’s 20 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock providing ample headroom that the GTX 1660 SUPER simply cannot exploit at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Control?

A: The only resolution where this pairing achieves consistently smooth performance is 1920x1080. At 1080p, average FPS ranges from 53.2 on Ultra to 92.3 on Low, while 2560x1440 drops to between 40.0 and 71.3, and 3840x2160 falls to 25.6–46.5.

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

A: The i7-14700F scores 54,097 in the average benchmark, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X at 54,450 (a -0.6% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D at 54,681 (-1.1%). It is 1.2% ahead of the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 and 1.7% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER a strong performer relative to other GPUs?

A: No, it sits at the 55th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 14,286 is within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (14,389) and within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon Vega 11 (14,352), placing it in the lower-midrange tier.

Q: What is the largest FPS gap between settings at 1080p?

A: The difference between Low (92.3 FPS) and Ultra (53.2 FPS) at 1920x1080 is 39.1 FPS. This represents a 73.5% performance swing purely from settings, which is the biggest relative jump across any resolution.

Q: Does the GPU bottleneck the CPU in this game?

A: Yes, benchmark results indicate a severe GPU bottleneck. At 4K, the FPS drops to 25.6–46.5 regardless of settings, while the CPU’s 20 cores remain largely idle since the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 6 GB of VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot feed frames fast enough.

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank in the database?

A: This pairing ranks 1410 out of 1636 tested combinations for Control, placing it in the bottom 14% of all tested systems. The rank reflects the GPU’s age and position, not the CPU’s capability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the definitive limiting factor in this combo. With 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the GPU delivers 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is insufficient for Control’s texture-heavy environments at high resolutions. The card’s 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs produce a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s, but these figures translate to only 31.4 FPS at 4K High and 45.1 FPS at 1440p High.

The GPU’s boost clock of 1785 MHz is relatively high for the architecture, yet it cannot overcome the memory bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the card achieves 92.3 FPS, which shows the core is capable when pixel load is reduced. However, moving from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 28.1 FPS (down to 64.2), and Ultra drops further to 53.2. This steep scaling indicates that the 6 GB VRAM is being saturated, forcing the GPU to swap assets and stalling the rendering pipeline. The GPU’s 55th percentile standing among all GPUs confirms its mid-pack status, but within this specific game, its age shows more severely due to Control’s aggressive use of volumetric effects and high-resolution textures.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is vastly overqualified for this GPU pairing. With 20 cores, 28 threads, and a 5.40 GHz boost clock, the CPU scores 35,443 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5,003 in single-core tests, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4/DDR5 memory give it far more processing power than Control can utilize when paired with a GTX 1660 SUPER.

In practical terms, the CPU is never the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the system hits 92.3 FPS, which is still below what the i7-14700F can drive in less GPU-limited titles. The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, scores 54,450 average, only 0.6% higher, meaning the i7 is effectively tied with a modern flagship. However, this headroom is wasted here; the GPU’s 5.027 TFLOPS FP32 performance cannot translate the CPU’s 14,886 Cinebench R20 multi-core score into frame rate. The CPU’s 65W TDP and 10 nm process node make it efficient, but efficiency does not matter when the graphics card is the sole arbiter of performance.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the measured data points to 1920x1080 with Medium settings as the optimal balance. At this preset, the combo delivers 64.2 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings at 1080p yield 61.2 FPS, nearly identical, so the choice between Medium and High is marginal. Ultra at 1080p drops to 53.2 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action sequences.

At 1440p, Low settings provide 71.3 FPS, but this sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a modest resolution bump. Medium at 1440p falls to 49.6 FPS, and High sits at 45.1, both below the 60 FPS target. For 4K, no preset is recommendable; even Low only reaches 46.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 25.6 FPS, which is unplayable. The data suggests users should prioritize 1080p Medium or High, accepting that Ultra is a 17% performance hit over High for marginal visual gains. Given the GPU’s 6 GB VRAM limit, Medium is safer for texture streaming stability.

How This Combo Ranks

This combo’s rank of 1410 out of 1636 places it in the bottom tier of tested systems for Control. The percentile standings of its components tell the story: the CPU is in the 94th percentile of all processors, while the GPU is in the 55th percentile. This creates a massive mismatch where the system’s effective performance is dictated entirely by the weaker component.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing is closer to entry-level builds than mid-range ones. The GPU’s nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and Intel Iris Xe MAX—all have average scores within 0.7% of the GTX 1660 SUPER, meaning any combo with those GPUs would likely land in a similar rank. The CPU’s strength does not improve the rank because Control’s frame rate is GPU-bound; even a top-10 CPU would not move this combo significantly higher without a GPU upgrade. The rank reflects a system built around a 2019-era GPU, now end-of-life, paired with a 2024 CPU, creating an unbalanced platform.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the FPS ranges from 92.3 on Low to 53.2 on Ultra. The incremental drops are: Low to Medium loses 28.1 FPS (down to 64.2), Medium to High loses 3.0 FPS (down to 61.2), and High to Ultra loses 8.0 FPS (down to 53.2). The largest single step is Low to Medium, indicating that texture quality is the primary VRAM consumer.

At 2560x1440, performance drops significantly. Low yields 71.3 FPS, Medium 49.6, High 45.1, and Ultra 40.0. The gap between Low and Medium is 21.7 FPS, showing that the GPU struggles with increased pixel count plus medium textures. High to Ultra only costs 5.1 FPS, suggesting that shading effects are less taxing than resolution scaling.

At 3840x2160, all presets fall below playable thresholds. Low delivers 46.5 FPS, Medium 31.1, High 31.4, and Ultra 25.6. Interestingly, Medium and High are nearly identical (31.1 vs 31.4), indicating that at 4K, the GPU is so starved for bandwidth that settings adjustments have minimal impact. The 4K Low to Ultra spread is only 20.9 FPS, compared to 39.1 FPS at 1080p, proving that the GPU’s memory subsystem is the absolute limit.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p and 4K is severe and non-linear. At High settings, 1080p yields 61.2 FPS, 1440p drops to 45.1 (a 26.3% reduction), and 4K falls to 31.4 (a 48.7% reduction from 1080p). At Low settings, the scaling is even steeper: 92.3 FPS at 1080p, 71.3 at 1440p (down 22.8%), and 46.5 at 4K (down 49.6%).

This pattern clearly indicates a GPU-bound scenario. The i7-14700F’s 20 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock are unaffected by resolution changes, yet the frame rate drops by roughly half when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The GTX 1660 SUPER’s 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is the limiting factor; as resolution increases, the GPU must access more texture data per frame, and the 192-bit bus cannot keep up. The fact that 4K Medium (31.1 FPS) and 4K High (31.4 FPS) are nearly identical confirms that the GPU is not compute-bound but memory-bound. The 6 GB VRAM is also a constraint, as Control’s high-resolution textures likely exceed this capacity at 4K, forcing constant paging. The data shows no CPU involvement in this scaling; the processor is idle waiting for the GPU at every resolution.