Control

Control with the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER shows a clear GPU-bound experience at higher resolutions, with the CPU's headroom only becoming apparent at 1080p. The benchmark data indicates that this combination ranks in the 83rd percentile of tested configurations for this title, placing it solidly in the upper tier of systems. The measured frame rates demonstrate that the pairing is capable of delivering smooth gameplay across all tested settings, though the nature of the bottleneck shifts dramatically depending on the resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-limited scenario that becomes progressively more pronounced as pixel count increases. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the system produces 118 FPS, which drops to 89 FPS at 1440p and further to 60 FPS at 4K — a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4070 SUPER's rendering throughput is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, as the pixel workload grows faster than the GPU can compensate.

The Low settings preset tells an even more revealing story about the CPU's capability. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 214 FPS, which drops to 162 FPS at 1440p and 110 FPS at 4K. The 104 FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at Low settings versus the 58 FPS difference at Ultra settings suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than the GPU can render at high resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the frame rate is likely approaching the CPU's practical limit for this game engine, given the i7-14700K's strong single-threaded performance.

The Medium preset provides the most complete data with min and max FPS values, offering insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 152 FPS with a range of 130-175 FPS, while at 1440p Medium it averages 115 FPS (98-133 FPS), and at 4K Medium it averages 78 FPS (66-90 FPS). The consistent spread of roughly 30% between minimum and maximum FPS across resolutions suggests that frame time variance remains relatively stable regardless of resolution, indicating that the GPU is handling the workload consistently without unexpected spikes.

The scaling pattern between resolutions is nearly linear for the GPU-bound scenarios. From 1080p to 1440p, the Ultra preset drops from 118 to 89 FPS (a 25% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K it drops from 89 to 60 FPS (a 33% reduction). This non-uniform scaling hints that at 4K Ultra, the system is hitting a performance floor where the GPU's resources are fully saturated, whereas at 1440p there may still be some headroom in certain scenes. The data strongly suggests that for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, 1080p or 1440p are the target resolutions, while 4K is best suited for visually demanding single-player experiences where 60 FPS is acceptable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, is the dominant factor in this game's performance envelope. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Control's asset streaming at all tested settings. The benchmark results show that even at 4K Ultra, where the game demands the most from memory bandwidth, the system maintains a 60 FPS average, indicating that the memory subsystem is not causing severe bottlenecks.

The GPU's clock behavior — a base of 1980 MHz boosting to 2475 MHz — contributes to its compute throughput of 35.48 TFLOPS FP32. This raw compute power directly translates to the measured frame rates, particularly in the 4K results where the GPU is fully engaged. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are relevant for Control's use of real-time ray tracing and DLSS, though the measured FPS values in this dataset do not specify whether those features were enabled. The 80 ROPs and 224 TMUs ensure that texture filtering and pixel output keep pace with the shading workload.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with a Passmark G3D score of 29995. Its nearest rivals in the aggregate benchmark include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (deltaPct -0.1%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (deltaPct -1%), showing that the desktop RTX 4070 SUPER sits in a competitive position between professional and mobile flagship parts. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627 provides a synthetic reference point that aligns with the gaming performance observed in Control.

At 4K resolution, the GPU's role becomes even more critical. The jump from Medium (78 FPS) to High (69 FPS) to Ultra (60 FPS) shows a consistent 9-11 FPS penalty for each settings tier, which is characteristic of a GPU that is scaling predictably with shader complexity and texture resolution. The Low preset's 110 FPS at 4K demonstrates that when the render workload is minimized, the GPU can still deliver high frame rates, but the 50 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K underscores how much headroom exists in the settings presets for this card.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, provides ample processing power for Control's game logic and physics simulation. The CPU's architecture, Raptor Lake-R on a 10 nm process, features a boost clock of 5.60 GHz and a base clock of 3.40 GHz. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency for frequently accessed game data. The processor's 125 W TDP indicates its performance ceiling, which is rarely fully taxed in this GPU-bound title.

The CPU's benchmark results confirm its high-end positioning. With a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5 and a single-core score of 2160, the i7-14700K ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its Geekbench scores of 20767 (multi-core) and 2569 (single-core) reinforce this standing. The nearest rivals in aggregate CPU benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct -0.2%) and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (deltaPct -0.9%), showing that the i7-14700K is performance-competitive with AMD's latest offerings despite being from an earlier generation.

In Control, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the 214 FPS result likely approaches the engine's frame rate ceiling. The 52 FPS difference between 1080p Low (214 FPS) and 1440p Low (162 FPS) is larger than the 52 FPS difference between 1440p Low and 4K Low (110 FPS), suggesting that at 1080p the CPU is indeed the limiting factor. However, at higher settings presets, the GPU takes over as the primary constraint, evidenced by the smaller FPS deltas between resolutions at Ultra settings.

The single-threaded performance of the i7-14700K is particularly relevant for Control, as the game's core simulation loop typically runs on one or two threads. The Passmark single-thread score of 4472 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2160 indicate that the CPU can maintain high IPC, which prevents frame rate drops when the game's main thread becomes a bottleneck. The 28 threads also ensure that background tasks and secondary game systems do not starve the main rendering pipeline, contributing to the consistent frame times observed in the Medium preset data.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable at 1080p with this setup?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 214 FPS average. With Ultra settings at the same resolution, it drops to 118 FPS, showing that the GPU is still the primary constraint even at this lower resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 43223 places it within 0.1% of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43262) and within 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43667). Its Passmark G3D score is 29995.

Q: Is the i7-14700K a bottleneck at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No. At 4K Ultra, the system averages 60 FPS, and the performance scaling from 1440p to 4K (89 to 60 FPS) follows a GPU-bound pattern. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking and high single-thread scores leave it with headroom even at this demanding resolution.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded for this combo?

A: Minimum FPS data is only available for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 130 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 98 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it is 66 FPS. These values indicate that frame dips are consistent across resolutions.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i7-14700K scores 33440.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, which is within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515 average) and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875) in aggregate benchmarks. Its Passmark multithread score is 52392.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings produce 162 FPS while Ultra settings produce 89 FPS, a difference of 73 FPS. This 45% reduction from Low to Ultra is similar to the 44% reduction seen at 1080p (214 to 118 FPS), indicating consistent scaling across resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 639th out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 17% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the balance between a high-end CPU and a strong mid-to-high-end GPU, though it is not in the top tier reserved for flagship GPUs like the RTX 4090. The combo's position is driven primarily by the GPU's 83rd percentile standing, as the CPU's 94th percentile ranking provides more headroom than the GPU can fully utilize in this title.

The rank of 639 suggests that while this combo is very capable, there are 638 other configurations that deliver higher average frame rates in Control. These would likely include systems with more powerful GPUs paired with similar or lesser CPUs, as the game's GPU-bound nature at high resolutions means that a stronger graphics card would yield larger performance gains than a faster processor. The data indicates that the i7-14700K is not the limiting factor in this combo for Control, so upgrading to a higher-end CPU would not meaningfully improve the ranking.

The combo's placement relative to its 3720 tested counterparts can be understood through the resolution scaling data. At 4K Ultra, the 60 FPS average is a critical threshold for smooth gameplay, and the combo sits just above that line. Configurations ranked higher likely maintain higher frame rates at 4K Ultra, which would require GPUs with greater raw throughput than the RTX 4070 SUPER's 35.48 TFLOPS. Conversely, combos ranked lower would show more pronounced frame rate drops at 4K or struggle to maintain 60 FPS at 1440p Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 214 FPS average
• Medium: 152 FPS average (min 130, max 175)
• High: 135 FPS average
• Ultra: 118 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 162 FPS average
• Medium: 115 FPS average (min 98, max 133)
• High: 102 FPS average
• Ultra: 89 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 110 FPS average
• Medium: 78 FPS average (min 66, max 90)
• High: 69 FPS average
• Ultra: 60 FPS average

The data shows a consistent pattern across all settings presets: each resolution step down from 1080p to 4K costs approximately 25-35% of the frame rate. At Medium settings, where min/max data is available, the spread between minimum and maximum FPS is roughly 30-35 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K. This tighter range at 4K suggests that the GPU is operating at a more consistent utilization level, while at 1080p there may be occasional CPU-related frame time spikes that widen the variance.

The Low preset shows the largest absolute FPS values, with 214 FPS at 1080p being the highest measured result. This represents the practical ceiling for this combo in Control, likely limited by the game engine's draw call throughput or the CPU's single-thread performance. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 60 FPS, represents the most demanding scenario and shows that the combo meets the standard for smooth 4K gaming without relying on upscaling technologies.