Control

Control, the 2019 action-adventure title, places a heavy burden on its rendering hardware, and this specific pairing of an Intel Core i7-14700K with an AMD Radeon RX 580 produces a distinctly lopsided experience. The data shows a system where a top-tier processor is held firmly in check by a mid-range graphics card from a previous generation, resulting in frame rates that are playable only at the lowest settings and moderate resolutions. The benchmark results paint a clear picture of a bottleneck that is overwhelmingly on the GPU side of the equation.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in Control?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 65.1, achieved at the 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that breaks past the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K has an average benchmark score of 70074. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, scores 70104, a delta of 0%. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420, placing the 14700K just 0.5% behind it, while the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 scores 71056, making it 1.4% faster than the 14700K.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile relative to all other graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 580 sits in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, indicating it is a middle-of-the-road performer. Its average benchmark score is 13559, placing it directly alongside the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, which scores 13564 with a 0% delta.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game's performance?

A: The data strongly suggests the GPU is the limiting factor. The GPU's benchmark scores are in the 53rd percentile, while the CPU is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. The frame rates drop significantly with increased resolution, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combos for Control?

A: This specific combination of CPU and GPU ranks 1505 out of 1636 total tested combos for the game. This places it in the bottom 10% of all systems tested, highlighting its overall limitations in this specific title.

Q: How much faster is the 1080p Low preset compared to the 4K Ultra preset?

A: The 1080p Low preset delivers an average of 65.1 FPS, which is more than three times higher than the 19.1 FPS average achieved at the 3840x2160 Ultra preset. This demonstrates a drastic performance scaling cost for higher resolution and visual fidelity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a formidable processor, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with 20 cores and 28 threads. Its performance metrics are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 and a single-core score of 6287. It sits in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 70074 is effectively on par with the top-tier AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, which is only 0.5% faster. This is a CPU that has immense compute headroom.

However, in the context of Control, this headroom is largely irrelevant. The game's frame rates are not being dictated by the processor's ability to calculate physics or manage game logic; they are being dictated by the GPU's ability to render frames. The massive disparity between the CPU's 96th percentile standing and the overall combo's 1505th rank out of 1636 combos is a clear indicator of this. The i7-14700K is providing all the computational power the game needs, and it is waiting on the graphics card to catch up. The data implies that swapping in a much weaker CPU would likely result in a very similar frame rate, as the bottleneck is so firmly on the other side of the system.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combo provides a clear, if unflattering, roadmap for playability. The most critical target for a smooth experience is hitting 60 FPS, and the only way to achieve that is by using the Low preset at 1920x1080, which yields an average of 65.1 FPS. This should be considered the baseline for any playable session.

For those willing to accept lower frame rates in exchange for better visuals, the 1440p resolution presents a compromise. The Low preset at 2560x1440 delivers a still-playable average of 50.4 FPS. Pushing to High or Medium at this resolution drops the average to 32.7 and 34.1 FPS, respectively, which may be tolerable for slower-paced sections but will feel choppy in action sequences. The data clearly shows that the High, Medium, and Ultra presets at 4K are not viable, with all averages falling between 19.1 and 21 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is also a poor choice, with an average of just 24.6 FPS. Overall, the best experience is found at 1080p Low, with 1440p Low serving as a fallback for those who prioritize resolution over visual effects.

How This Combo Ranks

The overall ranking for this CPU-GPU combination in Control is 1505 out of 1636 tested combos. This is a remarkably low position, placing it in the bottom 8% of all systems tested. This rank is a direct consequence of the severe mismatch between the components. The CPU is an elite performer, but the GPU is a legacy part from 2017 that sits in the 53rd percentile of all graphics cards.

The data indicates that this pairing is fundamentally unbalanced for a demanding title like Control. While the i7-14700K is a top-5% processor, its capabilities are wasted when paired with a GPU that is merely average. The combo rank reflects the weakest link in the chain, and in this case, that is clearly the GPU. The system is not competitive with other tested combos, and its performance is more representative of a mid-range system from several years ago than a modern one featuring a 14th-gen Core i7 processor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the definitive bottleneck in this system. This GPU, based on the Polaris 20 chip and GCN 4.0 architecture, is a product of its time, with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its compute power is rated at 6.175 TFLOPS, which was respectable in 2017 but is now severely outclassed. Its benchmark scores confirm this, with a Passmark G3D score of 8813 and a 53rd percentile standing.

In Control, the RX 580's limitations are exposed immediately. The game's physics-based environments and particle effects demand significant GPU compute and fill rate, which this card struggles to provide. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's performance collapses as resolution increases. The difference between 1080p Low (65.1 FPS) and 4K Low (33.1 FPS) is a 49% drop in performance, which is a pure measure of the GPU's inability to handle the increased pixel count. The data suggests that this GPU is simply not powerful enough to run Control at higher settings, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combo's performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only playable option, with an average of 65.1 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 43.6 FPS, High to 41.2 FPS, and Ultra to 37.3 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, we see a significant drop across the board. The Low preset remains the most playable at 50.4 FPS. The Medium and High presets fall to 34.1 and 32.7 FPS, respectively, while the Ultra preset drops to a barely playable 24.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, the card is overwhelmed. The Low preset is the only one to reach 33.1 FPS, while Medium is at 21 FPS, High at 20.7 FPS, and Ultra at 19.1 FPS. The data shows a consistent and predictable decline in performance as both resolution and settings are increased.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is a textbook example of a GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 65.1 FPS at 1080p to 50.4 FPS at 1440p, a 22.6% decrease. Moving to 2160p, it drops further to 33.1 FPS, which represents a 49.2% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline is a direct result of the GPU having to render four times as many pixels at 4K compared to 1080p.

This scaling behavior is crucial for understanding the system's limitations. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a much smaller difference between resolutions, as the CPU's workload would remain constant. Instead, the data shows that performance scales almost inversely with pixel count, which conclusively points to the AMD Radeon RX 580 as the limiting component. The i7-14700K is ready and waiting, but the GPU simply cannot feed frames fast enough to take advantage of it.