Control

Control, the 2019 action-adventure title, is a demanding showcase of physics and particle effects. When paired with the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, the benchmark data reveals a system that is consistently GPU-limited across all tested resolutions and settings. The measured frame rates indicate that this combination delivers a highly playable experience at 1440p and even at 4K with adjustments, though the scaling patterns highlight where the performance ceiling lies.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly demonstrates the expected shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 232 FPS, which drops to 176 FPS at 1440p and further to 119 FPS at 4K. This represents a 24.1% decline from 1080p to 1440p and a 48.7% decline from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, indicating that while the GPU becomes progressively more stressed, the CPU is still keeping pace adequately at the lower resolutions.

Moving to High settings, the pattern shifts. At 1080p High, the system produces 146 FPS. At 1440p High, this falls to 111 FPS, a 24% reduction. At 4K High, the frame rate drops to 75 FPS, which is a 48.6% reduction from the 1080p baseline. The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High settings suggests that the rendering pipeline is uniformly GPU-bound, with the CPU overhead remaining relatively constant regardless of resolution.

The most telling data point comes from the Medium preset. Here, we have min/max FPS data available. At 1080p Medium, the average is 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 84 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS. The min FPS values scale proportionally with the averages, suggesting that frame pacing remains stable and that the GPU is the sole limiting factor. The 4K Medium minimum of 72 FPS is notably close to the 75 FPS average at 4K High, indicating that the GPU is nearing its throughput limit at this resolution.

The Ultra preset shows the steepest degradation. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 127 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it falls to 96 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it bottoms out at 65 FPS. The gap between 1080p Ultra and 1440p Ultra is 24.4%, while the gap between 1440p Ultra and 4K Ultra is 32.3%. This larger step between 1440p and 4K at Ultra settings confirms that the RTX 5070 Ti's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated by the combination of high pixel count and maximum visual complexity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this hardware configuration. At 4K, the High preset delivers 75 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Medium preset at 4K yields 84 FPS, a 12% improvement over High, while still maintaining a minimum frame rate of 72 FPS. Given that Control is an action-adventure game where responsiveness matters, the Medium preset at 4K appears to be the optimal choice for maintaining a consistent frame rate above the 60 FPS threshold.

For 1440p, the High preset provides 111 FPS, which is well within the range of high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p achieves 96 FPS, retaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while offering the maximum visual quality. Since the delta between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 13.5%, users with 144Hz displays might prefer High for the extra headroom, but Ultra remains a viable option.

At 1080p, all presets exceed 120 FPS. The Ultra preset produces 127 FPS, while High produces 146 FPS. The Low preset achieves 232 FPS, which is only relevant for competitive scenarios where every frame matters. For the majority of players at 1080p, the High preset at 146 FPS represents the sweet spot, offering nearly double the frame rate of 4K Ultra while providing a substantial visual upgrade over Low. The Medium preset at 165 FPS is also a strong candidate, given that its minimum FPS of 140 ensures no noticeable stutter.

The data suggests that the RTX 5070 Ti is powerful enough to handle Control at High settings in 1440p with ease, and at Medium settings in 4K without compromising the experience. Pushing to Ultra at 4K results in 65 FPS, which dips below the ideal threshold for a game with this level of environmental destruction and physics simulation.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable at 4K with this CPU/GPU combo?

A: The highest average frame rate at 4K is 119 FPS, achieved with the Low settings preset. The Medium preset yields 84 FPS, High yields 75 FPS, and Ultra yields 65 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 5070 Ti bottleneck the Intel Core i7-14700K in Control?

A: Yes, the benchmark results indicate a consistent GPU bottleneck. The frame rate scales significantly with resolution changes, while the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested settings, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra preset playable with this configuration?

A: The 4K Ultra preset produces an average of 65 FPS. While this is technically playable, it is the lowest average among all tested configurations and leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 4K provides 84 FPS and is a safer choice.

Q: How does the performance compare between 1440p High and 1080p Ultra?

A: The 1440p High preset yields 111 FPS, while the 1080p Ultra preset yields 127 FPS. The difference is 16 FPS, or 14.4%, making 1080p Ultra the faster option, though 1440p High offers a higher resolution with a still-playable frame rate.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 72 FPS, which occurs at 4K with the Medium preset. The 1440p Medium preset has a minimum of 106 FPS, and the 1080p Medium preset has a minimum of 140 FPS.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM of the RTX 5070 Ti show any signs of limitation in this game?

A: The data does not show any VRAM-related stutters or crashes. The frame rate scaling from 1440p to 4K is consistent with GPU compute limitations rather than memory capacity issues, given that the 16 GB capacity is likely sufficient for Control's textures.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ranks 389th out of 3,720 tested combos in Control. This places the system in the top 10.5% of all configurations tested, indicating that this pairing is significantly above average for this specific game. The rank of 389 suggests that while there are 388 combos that perform better, this setup outperforms the vast majority of tested hardware.

The CPU's individual percentile of 94 against all processors places it in the top 6% of CPUs, while the GPU's percentile of 86 against all GPUs places it in the top 14%. The discrepancy between these percentiles and the combo rank indicates that Control is a title where the GPU is the primary determinant of performance. The CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2160, ensures that it does not hold back the GPU in this scenario.

Compared to its nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database, the i7-14700K has an average benchmark score of 69,355. This is 0.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 9115, 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, 0.7% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, and 0.9% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F. These minuscule deltas indicate that the CPU is performing at the expected level for its class, and any performance differences in Control are likely attributable to the GPU.

For the GPU, the RTX 5070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 49,957. This is 0.1% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, 0.4% higher than the Intel Arc A550M, 2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, and 3.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. The ranking of 389 out of 3,720 combos reflects this mid-to-high-tier GPU performance, which is more than adequate for Control at most settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the primary performance driver in this configuration. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory operates at a 1750 MHz clock speed with an effective bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s across a 256-bit bus. This memory configuration is well-suited for Control's high-resolution textures and particle effects, which can consume significant memory bandwidth.

The GPU's boost clock of 2452 MHz, with a base clock of 2295 MHz, allows for substantial compute throughput. The FP32 performance of 43.94 TFLOPS is leveraged heavily in Control's physics simulations and visual effects processing. The 8,960 shading units and 280 texture mapping units provide the raw pixel and texture processing power necessary to maintain high frame rates at 1440p and 4K.

The RTX 5070 Ti's 70 ray tracing cores and 280 tensor cores are present but not specifically stressed in the measured data, as Control's standard rendering path does not require them. The benchmark results show that the GPU scales from 232 FPS at 1080p Low to 65 FPS at 4K Ultra, a range of 167 FPS, which underscores the GPU's sensitivity to resolution and settings changes.

The GPU's 86th percentile ranking against all GPUs, combined with its nearest rival scores, places it in a competitive position. Being only 2% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT in average benchmark score, the RTX 5070 Ti demonstrates that it is a capable high-end card. The 3.1% advantage over the RX 6800 XT further solidifies its standing. In Control specifically, the GPU's ability to maintain a 75 FPS average at 4K High shows that it has sufficient headroom for most gaming scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for this configuration provides a comprehensive view of performance across the resolution and settings matrix. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 232 FPS. The Medium preset averages 165 FPS, with a minimum of 140 FPS and a maximum of 190 FPS. The High preset averages 146 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 127 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 176 FPS. The Medium preset averages 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. The High preset averages 111 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 96 FPS. The 1440p Medium preset's minimum FPS of 106 is notably higher than the 4K High preset's average of 75 FPS, illustrating the significant performance cost of 4K resolution.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 119 FPS. The Medium preset averages 84 FPS, with a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. The High preset averages 75 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 65 FPS. The 4K Medium preset's maximum FPS of 97 is lower than the 1440p Ultra preset's average of 96 FPS, showing that even the best-case 4K scenario barely matches the worst-case 1440p scenario.

The differences between presets at each resolution are consistent. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 105 FPS, or 45.3%. At 1440p, the gap is 80 FPS, or 45.5%. At 4K, the gap is 54 FPS, or 45.4%. This consistency across resolutions confirms that the settings presets scale uniformly, with each step from Low to Ultra costing approximately the same percentage of performance regardless of resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K plays a supporting role in this configuration, ensuring that the RTX 5070 Ti is never starved of data. With 20 cores and 28 threads, the CPU provides substantial parallel processing capability. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensure high single-thread performance, which is critical for game logic and draw call submission. The CPU's architecture, Raptor Lake-R, is built on a 10 nm process, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration.

The CPU's benchmark scores demonstrate its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 33,440.5 in multi-core and 2,160 in single-core. These scores are reflected in its 94th percentile ranking against all CPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, has an average score of 69,515, which is only 0.2% higher than the i7-14700K's 69,355. This negligible difference means that in Control, a game that does not heavily utilize multi-threading, the CPU is not a differentiator.

The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide low-latency access to frequently used data. The 125 W TDP and the ability to boost to 5.60 GHz ensure that the CPU can handle the peak load of Control's physics calculations without thermal throttling, as evidenced by the stable frame rates across all tested settings.

In the context of Control, the CPU's role is to maintain high minimum frame rates. The data shows that the minimum FPS values at each resolution for the Medium preset are consistently around 85% of the average FPS. This indicates that the CPU is delivering consistent frame pacing, with no sudden drops that would occur if the CPU were a bottleneck. The CPU's performance is more than sufficient for this game, and the combo rank of 389 out of 3,720 is largely determined by the GPU's performance tier.