Control

Control is a demanding Action Adventure title from 2019 that stresses both GPU and CPU depending on resolution, and the data for the Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 shows a system that scales predictably from esports-tier frame rates at 1080p to a playable but more demanding 4K experience. This combination, ranked 904th out of 3,720 tested combos in this game, demonstrates a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as pixel count increases, with the GPU taking on a more dominant role at higher resolutions while the processor maintains a solid foundation at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound curve that flattens as pixel count increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 193 FPS, but dropping to 1440p reduces that to 146 FPS, a 24% decrease, and at 4K the average falls to 98 FPS, a further 33% drop. This pattern indicates that at 1080p, the Intel Core i7-14700K has ample headroom to feed the RTX 4070, but as resolution climbs, the GPU’s rendering workload becomes the primary limiter.

The scaling becomes more pronounced when examining the High settings preset. At 1080p High, the average is 122 FPS; at 1440p High, it drops to 92 FPS; and at 4K High, it reaches 62 FPS. The step from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by 30 frames, while the step from 1440p to 4K reduces it by another 30 frames. This linear decline is typical of a game that relies heavily on pixel throughput, and the data suggests that the RTX 4070’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are fully engaged at 4K, where the GPU becomes the sole limiting factor.

Looking at the Ultra preset, the pattern holds. The system produces 106 FPS at 1080p Ultra, 80 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and 54 FPS at 4K Ultra. The relative drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 49% reduction, which is slightly steeper than the Low preset’s 47% reduction. This suggests that as settings increase, the GPU’s fixed resources are taxed more heavily, while the CPU’s performance remains relatively constant. The minimum frame rates at Medium settings also illustrate this: at 1080p Medium the minimum is 116 FPS, at 1440p Medium it is 88 FPS, and at 4K Medium it is 59 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 59 FPS is close to the 4K High average, showing that even a modest settings increase at 4K can push the system toward the edge of smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested CPU and GPU pairings for Control, this combination sits at rank 904 out of 3,720 combos, placing it in the top quarter of tested systems. This is a strong position, but not elite. The rank reflects the balance between the i7-14700K’s high-end processing power and the RTX 4070’s upper-midrange graphics capability. Compared to other combinations, the data indicates that the RTX 4070 is not the absolute fastest GPU, but the CPU is more than adequate to avoid holding it back at most resolutions.

The GPU’s average benchmark score places it at the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 37,648. This is a solid result, but the nearest rivals show a tight cluster. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 scores 37,628, just 0.1% behind, while the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 scores 37,507, a 0.4% difference. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile scores 38,135, which is 1.3% ahead. This suggests that the RTX 4070 is in a competitive tier, but not a dominant one. The CPU, however, sits at the 94th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 69,355. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 9115, scores 69,288 (0.1% behind), while the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69,515 (0.2% ahead). The i7-14700K is thus positioned at the very top of its class, with only negligible differences to the next-tier processors.

The rank of 904 out of 3,720 is interesting because it suggests that many other combos, likely those with more powerful GPUs, outperform this pairing in Control. The data does not show a single bottleneck, but the rank implies that the GPU is the component preventing a higher placement. In games like Control, which is known for its physics and particle effects, the CPU’s performance is critical, but the GPU’s raw fill rate and memory bandwidth determine the peak frame rates at high resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, with a chip of 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. The GPU has 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines, which are the core components that drive the frame rates seen in the benchmark. The boost clock is 2,475 MHz, and the memory clock runs at 1,313 MHz, effectively 21 Gbps. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory sits on a 192-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s.

This memory configuration is crucial for Control’s performance at 4K. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 54, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many consider smooth. The 12 GB frame buffer is likely sufficient for the game, but the bandwidth is a limiting factor. At 4K Low, the average is 98 FPS, which is a 44% increase over Ultra, showing that the GPU’s texture and pixel processing, rather than the CPU, is the main constraint. The pixel rate is 158.4 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 455.4 GTexel/s, which are strong numbers but not enough to maintain high frame rates at the highest settings at 4K.

The GPU’s FP32 compute is 29.15 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which Control can utilize. The 46 ray tracing cores are present, but the measured data does not specify whether ray tracing was enabled. The performance at 1440p High (92 FPS) and 1080p High (122 FPS) indicates that the GPU has enough raw power for high refresh rates at lower resolutions, but the 4K results show its limits. The card’s suggested PSU is 550 W, and its TDP is 200 W, which is modest for this class, but the benchmark results are what matter.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers a wide range of performance. With Low settings, the average is 193 FPS, making it suitable for high refresh rate displays. Medium settings yield 137 FPS, with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS. High settings drop the average to 122 FPS, while Ultra brings it down to 106 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 87 FPS, which is significant, but even at Ultra, the frame rate is above 100 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results remain robust. Low settings produce an average of 146 FPS, which is still excellent. Medium averages 104 FPS, with a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 119 FPS. High averages 92 FPS, and Ultra averages 80 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 25% across all settings, which is consistent with the GPU having more work to do.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more demanding. Low settings still manage an average of 98 FPS, which is playable. Medium averages 70 FPS, with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS, putting it on the edge of smoothness. High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only one below 60 FPS, indicating that this combo is best suited for 1440p gaming at high settings, or 4K at medium settings for a consistent 60+ FPS experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p High settings?

A: The average frame rate at 2560x1440 with High settings is 92 FPS, with no minimum or maximum values recorded.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 54 FPS. This is the lowest average in the dataset, and it falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate is 193 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum frame rates at 1080p Medium?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the minimum frame rate is 116 FPS and the maximum is 157 FPS, with an average of 137 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K. The frame rate drops significantly from 1080p to 4K, and the CPU’s high benchmark scores (94th percentile) indicate it is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among tested systems?

A: This combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 904th out of 3,720 tested combos in Control.

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. It has a 33 MB shared L3 cache, and its benchmark results place it at the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average score of 69,355. The CPU’s multi-core scores are strong: it scores 18,544 in Cinebench R20 multi-core and 33,440.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. The single-core scores are also impressive, with 2,617 in Cinebench R20 and 2,160 in Cinebench R23.

In Control, the CPU’s role is to handle the game’s physics and AI calculations, which are substantial. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 193 FPS, which indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor at that resolution. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 55% drop at Ultra settings, which is primarily due to the GPU’s workload. The CPU’s high boost clock and large cache help maintain high minimum frame rates, such as the 116 FPS minimum at 1080p Medium. The processor’s TDP is 125 W, and it supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, but the measured FPS does not specify which memory type was used.

The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, has an average score of 69,515, which is 0.2% higher. This indicates that the i7-14700K is essentially on par with one of the fastest consumer CPUs. In Control, this means the CPU can feed the RTX 4070 effectively at all resolutions, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The CPU’s performance is not the reason for the 54 FPS average at 4K Ultra; the GPU is the limiting component. The system’s rank of 904 out of 3,720 is more a reflection of the GPU’s tier than the CPU’s capability, as the CPU is in the top 6% of all processors tested.