Control

The Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination delivers a compelling 1080p experience in Control, but the data reveals a significant shift in system dynamics as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 185.4 FPS, which drops to 119.3 FPS at High settings and 102.7 FPS at Ultra. This 44.9% reduction from Low to Ultra at 1080p indicates that while the CPU is feeding frames efficiently, the GPU is already beginning to feel the pressure of higher graphical fidelity. Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern intensifies: the average at Low is 141.6 FPS, falling to 100.4 FPS at Medium and 77.4 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at High settings shows a 24% performance hit (119.3 to 90.7 FPS), which is a moderate drop, but the transition to 3840x2160 is where the limiting component becomes unmistakable.

At 4K, the RTX 3080 starts to struggle with the most demanding presets. The High preset yields an average of 59.6 FPS, while Ultra drops to 52 FPS. Interestingly, the Low preset at 4K still manages 93.5 FPS, which is higher than the Ultra preset at 1440p (77.4 FPS). This discrepancy underscores that the GPU’s raw throughput, not the CPU, is the primary bottleneck at 4K. The delta between Medium (66.6 FPS) and High (59.6 FPS) at 4K is a 10.5% reduction, while the jump from High to Ultra (52 FPS) is a further 12.7% loss. These diminishing returns suggest that the RTX 3080’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game’s demands, but the 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is being saturated by the pixel count. The data clearly shows that below 1440p, the i7-14700K’s 20 cores and 28 threads keep the pipeline full, but at 4K, the GPU’s architecture becomes the decisive factor.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results offer a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the High preset at 119.3 FPS provides an excellent balance, as it is only 13.8% slower than the Medium preset (133.1 FPS) but offers substantially better visual quality. Pushing to Ultra at 102.7 FPS is still perfectly playable and represents only a 13.9% drop from High, making it a viable choice for users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors who prioritize image fidelity. The Low preset at 185.4 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual detail for a marginal competitive advantage in a single-player action-adventure title.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. The High preset at 90.7 FPS is the sweet spot, offering smooth gameplay that comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 100.4 FPS is a reasonable alternative if users prefer extra headroom, but the 9.7 FPS difference is not transformative. Ultra at 77.4 FPS is still playable, though the 14.7% drop from High may be noticeable on fast-moving scenes. For 4K, the data suggests that High (59.6 FPS) is the practical ceiling for this combo. The Ultra preset at 52 FPS dips below the 60 FPS target, and the Medium preset at 66.6 FPS is the best choice for users who want to maintain a stable frame rate above 60 FPS. The Low preset at 4K (93.5 FPS) is not recommended, as it defeats the purpose of the resolution upgrade by removing the visual effects that define the game’s atmosphere. In summary, High at 1080p and 1440p, and Medium at 4K, deliver the most favorable balance between performance and visual quality based on the measured rows.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. In Control, its role is to maintain a high minimum frame rate and prevent CPU-bound stutters, particularly at lower resolutions. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 185.4 FPS, which is a strong indicator that the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution. The processor’s 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help with the game’s physics and AI calculations, which are often single-threaded in older titles like this 2019 release.

Comparing the i7-14700K to its nearest rivals, the data shows it is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-14700KF (deltaPct of 0) and slightly ahead of the AMD EPYC 9115 (0.3% faster). The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 0.5% faster in average benchmark scores, but this difference is negligible in real-world gaming. The processor’s 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that its single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6287, is more than adequate for Control’s engine. The 125 W TDP and 10 nm process node are not directly reflected in the FPS data, but the high boost clock of 5.60 GHz is likely the reason the combo can push 185.4 FPS at 1080p Low without the CPU becoming a bottleneck. At 4K, however, the CPU’s influence wanes, as the FPS differences between presets are entirely attributable to GPU load.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 achieves a combo rank of 483 out of 1636 tested combinations. This places it in the top 29.5% of all combos, which is a respectable position given the GPU’s age. The RTX 3080 was released in August 2020 and is now end-of-life, but its 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs shows it still holds its own. The combo’s rank is likely held back by the GPU’s 10 GB VRAM, which is below the 12-16 GB found in newer cards, and its 320 W TDP, which is high by modern standards.

The nearest GPU rivals for the RTX 3080 include the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, which has a 0.9% higher average benchmark score, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile, which is 1% lower. This suggests that the RTX 3080 is still competitive with mid-range current-gen cards, but it is outclassed by high-end options. The combo’s rank of 483 is influenced by the CPU’s strength (96th percentile) but also by the GPU’s relative age. In practice, this means that users with this combo will experience solid 1080p and 1440p performance, but they will need to compromise on settings at 4K, as the data shows. The rank confirms the i7-14700K’s ability to extract maximum performance from the RTX 3080, but it also highlights that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, featuring 8704 shading units and 68 RT cores. Its base clock of 1440 MHz and boost clock of 1710 MHz, combined with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, provide a memory bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. In Control, which is known for its heavy use of ray tracing and particle effects, the RTX 3080’s RT cores are beneficial, though the measured data does not isolate ray tracing performance specifically. The GPU’s 28,300 million transistors on an 8 nm Samsung process node deliver 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which is the raw horsepower that drives the frame rates.

The benchmark results show that the RTX 3080 scales predictably with resolution. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 119.3 FPS, which drops to 90.7 FPS at 1440p High (a 24% reduction) and 59.6 FPS at 4K High (a 34.3% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is compute-bound at higher resolutions. The 10 GB VRAM is sufficient for Control at all tested presets, as the game was released in 2019 and does not require the massive textures of newer titles. However, the GPU’s 80th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates that it is outclassed by newer models like the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile, which is 1% faster in average benchmarks. The RTX 3080’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, has a 0.2% higher average score, showing that the 3080 is still in the upper echelon of GPUs, but its end-of-life status means it will continue to fall behind as new generations are released. For Control, the GPU is the primary driver of performance at 4K, and the data shows that users should stick to Medium or High presets to maintain playable frame rates above 60 FPS.