Control

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers a playable but heavily GPU-bound experience in Control, with performance that is decisively limited by the graphics card at every resolution. The data shows a stark and consistent pattern: as resolution scales from 1080p to 4K, average frame rates collapse by roughly 40-45%, confirming that the RX 570 is the primary bottleneck, while the 20-core, 28-thread i7-14700KF sits largely underutilized. This combination ranks in the bottom 5% of tested configurations for this title, making it a pairing that favors CPU-heavy workloads over modern graphically demanding games.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a textbook case of GPU-bound scaling. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 36 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 High drops that to 27 FPS, a 25% reduction. At 3840x2160 High, the average plummets to 18 FPS, which is exactly 50% of the 1080p performance. This linear degradation pattern—where each step up in resolution costs roughly a quarter to a third of the remaining frame rate—indicates that the Radeon RX 570's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated long before the CPU's capabilities come into play.

The scaling is even more pronounced when comparing Low settings across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 57 FPS, but at 1440p Low it falls to 43 FPS (a 24.6% drop), and at 4K Low it reaches only 29 FPS (a 49.1% drop from 1080p). This steep decline at lower settings is particularly telling: even when the graphical load is reduced, the GPU still cannot maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions, proving that the RX 570's raw compute throughput—5.095 TFLOPS FP32—is the limiting factor. The CPU, with its 5.60 GHz boost clock and 33 MB of shared L3 cache, is never the constraint in these scenarios.

The Medium settings data, which includes minimum and maximum FPS for some resolutions, further reinforces this analysis. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 30 FPS with a tighter 26-35 FPS range. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 21 FPS with a 17-24 FPS range. The narrowing of the FPS range at lower averages suggests the GPU is consistently hitting its performance ceiling, with frame times becoming more uniform as it runs at maximum utilization. In short, the resolution scaling data shows that this is a GPU-limited pairing across the board, with the i7-14700KF effectively idling relative to its potential.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is an exceptionally powerful processor, but its role in this Control configuration is almost entirely passive. With 20 cores, 28 threads, a base clock of 3.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, the CPU's compute headroom far exceeds what the RX 570 can feed it in this title. The benchmark data shows that the i7-14700KF scores 44,167 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6,235 in single-core, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. However, these strengths are irrelevant to the measured FPS, which is consistently low across all settings and resolutions.

The nearest rival comparison for the CPU highlights its raw power. The i7-14700KF's average benchmark score is 70,163, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69,996) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875). It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K by 1% (70,879). These margins are negligible in gaming terms, but they underscore that the CPU is not the bottleneck. In Control, the game's engine—which relies on physics and asynchronous compute—could theoretically benefit from the 28 threads, but the RX 570's 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs cannot translate that CPU capability into higher frame rates.

The data suggests the CPU's role is to provide a stable platform that never dips into bottleneck territory, even at 1080p Low where the GPU is most capable. At that setting, the system hits 57 FPS, which is the highest measured average across the entire dataset. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar FPS numbers across resolutions at Low settings, but instead the 4K Low result (29 FPS) is nearly half the 1080p Low result. This gap proves that the RX 570, not the i7-14700KF, dictates performance. The CPU's 125W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support are more than sufficient for this workload, but they are wasted in this pairing for a game like Control.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve in Control?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 57 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that approaches a smooth 60 FPS experience, though it does not reach it.

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

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages just 16 FPS. This is the lowest measured result and is effectively unplayable for any action-oriented gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 5.095 TFLOPS FP32 performance are insufficient for Control at higher resolutions, while the i7-14700KF's 20 cores and 28 threads remain underutilized, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops when resolution increases.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score is 28,766, which is 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28,580) and 1.2% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (28,421). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6800M by 0.4% (28,874) and the AMD Radeon RX 470 by 0.8% (28,996).

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for Medium settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 26, with a maximum of 35 and an average of 30.

*Q: Does the combo rank well compared to other tested configurations for Control?*

A: No, it ranks 3,549 out of 3,720 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame data places this pairing at 3,549 out of 3,720 tested combinations, which is a percentile ranking of approximately 95.4% from the bottom. This is a poor result for a game like Control, which was released in 2019 and is known for its demanding visual effects. To put this in perspective, the CPU alone is in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. However, the combination fails to leverage either component's strengths effectively for this title.

The rank suggests that the RX 570 is the primary drag on the system's overall performance. The GPU's nearest rivals—such as the RX 470 and R9 M295X—are all similarly aged parts with comparable performance, and none of them are modern enough to handle Control well at high resolutions. The i7-14700KF's nearest rivals (Ryzen 7 9700F, Ryzen 9 7940HX, Ryzen 9 7950X, Core Ultra 7 265K) are all high-end CPUs that would perform much better if paired with a stronger GPU. The fact that this combo ranks so low despite having a top-tier CPU indicates that the GPU is the sole determinant of gaming performance in this scenario.

For context, the data shows that the combo achieves 36 FPS at 1080p High, which is below the generally accepted 40 FPS threshold for playable action games. At 1440p and 4K, the results are even more marginal, with average FPS ranging from 16 to 43 depending on settings. This rank is a clear signal to any analyst that this pairing is fundamentally mismatched for modern gaming, prioritizing CPU compute power over the graphics throughput required by Control.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo's performance across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings yield an average of 57 FPS, Medium yields 40 FPS (with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46), High yields 36 FPS, and Ultra yields 31 FPS. The 26 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p shows the GPU's limited headroom, with even the lowest settings failing to hit 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages drop significantly: Low yields 43 FPS, Medium yields 30 FPS (with a minimum of 26 and maximum of 35), High yields 27 FPS, and Ultra yields 24 FPS. The Medium settings at 1440p show a 9 FPS range, which is the tightest of any measured configuration, indicating that the GPU is running near its thermal or power limits. The 150W TDP of the RX 570 is clearly being maxed out, as the frame rate consistency improves but the absolute performance suffers.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable: Low yields 29 FPS, Medium yields 21 FPS (with a minimum of 17 and maximum of 24), High yields 18 FPS, and Ultra yields 16 FPS. The 4K Medium data shows a 7 FPS range, which is the narrowest of all, but the average of 21 FPS is far too low for any real-time action. The 4 GB VRAM is likely causing texture thrashing at this resolution, as the 256-bit memory bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot keep up with the frame buffer demands. Overall, the measured FPS breakdown shows a system that can handle 1080p Low at near-60 FPS but degrades rapidly as resolution and settings increase.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo in Control are 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 57 FPS. This is the only configuration that approaches a smooth, playable experience, though it still falls short of 60 FPS. The additional headroom from Low settings at 1080p (57 FPS) compared to Medium (40 FPS) is a 42.5% improvement, making Low the clear choice for anyone prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity.

For users willing to accept lower frame rates for better visuals, 1920x1080 with Medium settings (40 FPS) is the next best option. This provides a more balanced experience, with the minimum FPS of 34 still remaining above the 30 FPS threshold for playability. However, High settings at 1080p (36 FPS) and Ultra (31 FPS) offer diminishing returns, as the visual improvements are not worth the additional performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the data suggests that only Low settings (43 FPS) are viable, with Medium (30 FPS) and High (27 FPS) falling below the 30 FPS minimum for comfortable gameplay. At 3840x2160, all settings produce averages below 30 FPS, making 4K unplayable regardless of configuration. The recommendation is therefore straightforward: stick to 1080p Low for the best experience, or 1080p Medium if visual quality is non-negotiable. The RX 570's 4 GB VRAM is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, and no settings adjustment can overcome that hardware constraint.