Control

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti pairing delivers a playable but constrained experience in Control, with the GPU firmly establishing itself as the primary bottleneck. The data shows a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs, and the CPU’s capabilities remain largely untapped. Benchmark results indicate that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can hit solid frame rates at mid-to-high settings, but it struggles to maintain playable performance at 4K without significant graphical compromises.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS tells a clear story about how this system scales with resolution. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 57 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 43 FPS, and at 4K High it falls to 29 FPS. That is a 24% hit going from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 33% hit from 1440p to 4K. The 4K result is below the 30 FPS threshold often considered the minimum for a playable experience, indicating a heavy GPU limitation.

The pattern is consistent across all settings. On Medium, the frame rates are 64, 49, and 33 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The 1440p Medium result shows a 23% reduction from 1080p, while 4K Medium is 32% lower than 1440p. With Low settings, the system pushes 91 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K. The scaling is less steep in percentage terms at lower settings, but the absolute frame rates still drop significantly.

The pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution tested. When the resolution increases, the pixel count and shading load grow substantially, and the GTX 1660 Ti runs out of steam. The CPU is not the constraint here; even at 4K Low, the system manages 46 FPS, which suggests the GTX 1660 Ti is still the one being pushed to its limits. The fact that the 4K Ultra result is 25 FPS shows that the card cannot handle the heavy visual load at any resolution above 1440p without lowering settings. For competitive or high-refresh gaming, 1080p is the only resolution where this combo can deliver consistently high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall ranking for Control, this specific CPU-GPU combination sits at position 3176 out of 3720 tested in the database. That places it in the bottom 15% of all combinations tested for this game. The percentile is not a measure of failure, but it does show that the vast majority of other tested rigs will outperform this one in Control. The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, which is a lower-tier component by modern standards.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals, the GTX 1660 Ti is closely matched by the AMD Radeon 540, which is only 0.7% behind in average score. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100 is 1.9% behind, and the AMD Radeon R7 250 is 2.2% behind. The Intel Arc A310 is 2.3% behind. This tells you the GTX 1660 Ti sits in a very tight cluster of lower-end graphics cards. The CPU's performance is far stronger, but this combo is ultimately dragged down by the GPU.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a different story. The Intel Xeon 6505P is 0.2% behind it, the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 is 0.3% ahead, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is 0.6% ahead, and the AMD EPYC 7313P is 0.8% ahead. These are all very close, indicating the i7-14700F is a strong performer. The gap between the CPU's potential and the GPU's output is what defines this combo's ranking. The combo is heavily GPU-limited, so the ranking reflects the GPU's position more than the CPU's.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built on the Turing architecture but is part of the GeForce 16-series, which lacks the ray tracing and tensor cores of the 20-series. It has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock runs at 1500 MHz and boosts to 1770 MHz. The 12 nm process node from TSMC results in a die size of 284 mm² and houses 6,600 million transistors.

In Control, a game known for its heavy use of visual effects, the GPU's 6 GB VRAM is a potential concern. The game's textures and render targets can consume memory quickly, and at higher resolutions and settings, the VRAM capacity might be hit. However, the benchmark data does not show a clear VRAM-related crash or failure, but it does show performance diminishing at higher settings. The GPU's 48 ROPS and 96 TMUs are the hardware units that handle the pixel and texture fill rates, and in this game, they are clearly overworked at higher resolutions.

The FP32 performance is 5.437 TFLOPS, which is a modest figure. In Control, which is a visually intensive title with physics and particle effects, this compute power is insufficient for high settings at 4K. The GPU's overall benchmark performance is in the 41st percentile of all GPUs, and its average score is 7723. The DirectX 12 benchmark score is only 51, which is notably low. The OpenCL and Vulkan scores are 51029 and 5827, respectively. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1061. These numbers indicate a GPU that is capable of running modern games at lower settings but is not built for high-end gaming.

The GTX 1660 Ti's memory is 6 GB GDDR6, which is the minimum that many modern games require. While Control may run with 6 GB, the game's memory usage can be heavy, especially with high textures. The GPU's 192-bit memory bus is a limiting factor for memory bandwidth, which is crucial for high-resolution gaming. The effective memory clock is 12 Gbps, which is respectable, but the bandwidth is still the bottleneck. The GPU's performance in Control is further constrained by its lack of dedicated hardware for real-time ray tracing, which the game can use for its visual effects.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear pecking order for settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 91 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target. Medium sees a drop to 64 FPS, which is still playable, but High drops to 57 FPS, and Ultra is 50 FPS. For a 60 FPS experience at 1080p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot, offering a 64 FPS average with a minimum 55 FPS. The High preset is also viable for players who prefer better visuals, as it holds an average of 57 FPS. Ultra is the most demanding and drops to 50 FPS, which might be acceptable for some players, but the Medium setting is the best balance.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset delivers 69 FPS, which is still above 60, but Medium drops to 49 FPS, and High falls to 43 FPS. Ultra is at 38 FPS. The data shows that 1440p is not a strong resolution for this combo. To maintain a 60 FPS experience, the Low preset is the only option, but 49 FPS on Medium is a compromise for better visuals. The Medium setting is likely the best choice for 1440p, as it provides a playable frame rate while preserving some graphical detail.

At 4K, the options are limited. The Low preset averages 46 FPS, which is playable but not smooth. The Medium preset drops to 33 FPS, High is 29 FPS, and Ultra is 25 FPS. None of these reach the 60 FPS mark, and the Ultra setting is barely playable. The most sensible setting for 4K is Low, as it provides the best frame rate at 46 FPS. For players who prioritize visual quality over performance, Medium might be acceptable, but the frame rate drops below 30, which can cause stuttering in a fast-paced action game.

The best overall experience, based on the measured data, is 1080p Medium. This combination offers a solid 64 FPS average, which is smooth for most players, while maintaining a good level of visual quality. The minimum FPS of 55 is also acceptable. The 4K and 1440p resolutions are not recommended for this GPU unless the player is willing to drop to Low settings and accept lower frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides average FPS for each setting at three resolutions. At 1080p, the Low setting produces an average of 91 FPS. The Medium setting is 64 FPS, with a minimum of 55 and a maximum of 74. High is 57 FPS, and Ultra is 50 FPS. The progression shows a 27 FPS drop from Low to Medium, a 7 FPS drop from Medium to High, and a 7 FPS drop from High to Ultra. The Ultra setting is the most demanding, but the drop from High to Ultra is not as steep as the drop from Low to Medium.

At 1440p, the Low setting is 69 FPS. Medium is 49 FPS, with a minimum of 41 and a maximum of 56. High is 43 FPS, and Ultra is 38 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 20 FPS, which is a 29% reduction. From Medium to High is 6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 5 FPS. The pattern is similar to 1080p, but the absolute values are lower.

At 4K, the Low setting is 46 FPS. Medium is 33 FPS, with a minimum of 28 and a maximum of 38. High is 29 FPS, and Ultra is 25 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 13 FPS, which is a 28% reduction. From Medium to High is 4 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 4 FPS. The 4K results are the lowest, and the gap between settings narrows as the resolution increases, suggesting the GPU is saturated.

The data points reveal that the GPU's performance is heavily tied to resolution. At 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to keep it busy, but at 4K, the GPU compute and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. The result is a significant drop in frame rates across all settings. The 4K Medium setting has a minimum FPS of 28, which is below the 30 FPS threshold, and the Ultra setting drops to 25 FPS. The 4K High setting is 29 FPS, which is also below 30. This makes 4K gaming with this GPU a compromise.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core processor with 28 threads, based on Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. The CPU has a 33 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB per core L2 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus. The CPU is unlocked, but it is not a K-series variant, so its multiplier is locked. The CPU's benchmark performance is strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35122 and a single-core score of 4958.

In Control, the CPU's role is to handle the game's physics, AI, and game logic. The game is not a highly CPU-demanding title, meaning the i7-14700F is likely to be more than sufficient. The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are overkill for this game, which typically uses only a few cores. The CPU's strong single-core performance, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2429, helps with the game's main-thread performance.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this combo. The FPS at 1080p Low is 91 FPS, which is a high frame rate that the CPU can easily handle. The CPU's performance is also reflected in its percentile ranking of 91, meaning it is better than 91% of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 53620, and its nearest rivals are all within 0.8% of its performance. This confirms that the i7-14700F is a high-end CPU that is more than capable of running Control.

The CPU's TDP of 65 W is low for a 20-core processor, which is a result of its 10 nm process. The CPU is based on the Raptor Lake architecture, which is an improvement over the previous generation. The CPU's cache layout is a shared 33 MB L3, which is a large pool for the game's code and data. The CPU's memory support for DDR5 allows for higher bandwidth, but the actual game performance is not dependent on memory bandwidth. The CPU's power and performance are not the limiting factor in this combo.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz is a high frequency, which helps in gaming, but the GPU's output is the bottleneck. Even at 4K Low, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU, but the GPU cannot keep up with the demands of the resolution. The CPU is not the issue; the GPU's low performance is the reason the combo ranks at 3176 out of 3720. The CPU's performance is excellent, but the GPU holds the system back. If the GPU were upgraded, the combo's ranking would improve dramatically, as the CPU is not the bottleneck.

The conclusion from the data is that this combo is a 1080p gaming setup. The CPU is more than capable, but the GTX 1660 Ti is the limiting factor. The CPU's high core count, and boost clock ensure that the game will run smoothly, but the GPU's performance will cap the frame rates. The CPU's a low TDP of 65 W and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, which is a good match for a mid-range GPU. The combo's performance is perfectly in line with what the GPU can deliver, and the CPU is not the cause of any performance issues. The data shows that the i7-14700F is a strong partner for the GPU, but the GPU is holding the combo back.