Control

# Control — Intel Core i7-14700KF + AMD Radeon RX 580

The pairing of Intel's 20-core Core i7-14700KF with AMD's Polaris-era Radeon RX 580 produces a fascinating study in bottleneck dynamics within Control, a 2019 Action Adventure title. The measured data reveals a system where the GPU is almost entirely the limiting factor at higher resolutions, yet the CPU's headroom becomes apparent at 1080p. This combination ranks 1500th out of 1636 tested combos, placing it in the lower 8th percentile of all system configurations for this specific game, which is a notable underperformance given the CPU's 96th percentile standing among all processors.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about component balance. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 62.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 35 FPS at 3840x2160 — a 43.8% reduction in performance. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is even steeper: 48.2 FPS down to 35 FPS represents a 27.4% loss. This pattern strongly indicates that the RX 580's rendering pipeline is saturated well before the CPU becomes a concern.

At Ultra settings, the resolution scaling is equally punishing. The 38.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 27.8 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 18 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K Ultra is 52.8% — meaning the GPU loses over half its frame throughput just from pixel count increases. This is classic GPU-bound behavior, where the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus width are being overwhelmed by 4K's pixel workload.

Interestingly, the scaling between Medium and High settings at each resolution is relatively small compared to the resolution jumps. At 1440p, Medium produces 33.6 FPS while High yields 32 FPS — only a 4.8% difference. This suggests that within a given resolution, the GPU has some headroom for quality improvements, but the resolution itself is the dominant performance variable.

GPU Role

The RX 580's specifications explain much of the observed behavior. With a base clock of 1257 MHz and boost clock of 1340 MHz, the Polaris 20 chip operates at modest frequencies by modern standards. The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory running at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective) provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 256-bit interface — adequate for 1080p but clearly strained at 4K where the frame buffer demands escalate.

The GPU's 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13559, places it in the mid-pack historically. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (deltaPct 0) and GTX 950 (deltaPct 0.1), which underscores its age and position in the performance hierarchy. The 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s, but these figures translate to the observed 22.7 FPS at 4K High — a clear indication that Control's visual effects tax the GCN 4.0 architecture heavily.

The FP32 throughput of 6.175 TFLOPS is the theoretical ceiling, yet the measured data shows that real-world performance falls far short of what that number might suggest at 4K. This is consistent with a GPU that was designed for a different era of gaming, before Control's demanding volumetric effects and physics simulations became standard.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of playable experiences. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 62.3 FPS — the only configuration in the entire dataset that exceeds the 60 FPS threshold. This is the only setting where the combination achieves smooth, consistent gameplay. Medium settings drop to 46.7 FPS, which is playable but with noticeable frame pacing issues in action sequences.

For 1440p users, the situation is more constrained. Low settings produce 48.2 FPS, which is the best available at that resolution. High settings at 32 FPS and Ultra at 27.8 FPS are below the threshold for comfortable play. At 4K, even Low settings only manage 35 FPS, making this resolution impractical for anything beyond static scene observation.

The data suggests that the optimal experience is 1080p Low, where the 62.3 FPS average provides the only genuinely smooth gameplay. For users willing to accept lower frame rates, 1080p Medium at 46.7 FPS represents the best quality-to-performance tradeoff, as the jump to High (40.1 FPS) and Ultra (38.1 FPS) yields diminishing returns — only a 5.2% difference between Medium and Ultra at this resolution.

FAQ

Q: Is this combination capable of 4K gaming in Control?

A: The data shows it is not. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 18, and even at 4K Low it only reaches 35 FPS. No 4K setting achieves a playable frame rate.

Q: What is the best resolution for this system?

A: 1920x1080 is the only resolution where any setting reaches 60 FPS. Low settings at 1080p produce 62.3 FPS, while all 1440p and 4K configurations fall below 48.2 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Core i7-14700KF scores 70104 on average, which is essentially tied with the Core i7-14700K at 70074 (0% delta) and slightly behind the Ryzen 9 9950X at 70420 (deltaPct -0.4).

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile?

A: The RX 580 sits at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13559. Its closest competitor is the GTX 570 with a score of 13564.

Q: Does increasing settings from Low to Ultra have a consistent impact?

A: At 1080p, the drop from Low (62.3 FPS) to Ultra (38.1 FPS) is a 38.8% reduction. At 4K, the same settings change reduces FPS from 35 to 18, a 48.6% reduction, showing the GPU struggles more with quality settings at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the system rank among all tested combinations?

A: It ranks 1500th out of 1636 total combos for Control, placing it in the bottom 8.3% of all tested system configurations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings formidable specifications to this pairing: 20 cores, 28 threads, and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70104, places it in the top tier of processors. In Cinebench R23, it scores 44557 multi-core and 6290 single-core, while Geekbench shows 19287 multi-core and 2972 single-core. These are exceptional numbers that dwarf what the RX 580 can utilize in Control.

The CPU's nearest rivals illustrate its standing: the Core i7-14700K scores 70074 (0% delta), the AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69887 (deltaPct 0.3), and the Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420 (deltaPct -0.4). This clustering shows the 14700KF is at the center of the high-end CPU pack, with less than 1% variance from its closest competitors.

However, the measured FPS data reveals that this CPU power is largely untapped in Control. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 62.3 FPS while 4K Low only reaches 35 FPS — despite the CPU being identical in both scenarios — confirms the GPU is the bottleneck. The 20 cores and 28 threads are far more than Control requires, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. The L3 cache of 33 MB shared and 2 MB per-core L2 provide ample bandwidth for game logic, but this matters little when the rendering pipeline is saturated.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings spectrum shows: Low produces 62.3 FPS, Medium yields 46.7 FPS, High delivers 40.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 38.1 FPS. There is a 24.2 FPS spread between the lowest and highest quality settings, with the most significant single drop occurring between Low and Medium (15.6 FPS, or 25% reduction).

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers compress: Low gives 48.2 FPS, Medium drops to 33.6 FPS, High reaches 32 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 27.8 FPS. The spread narrows to 20.4 FPS, and notably, the gap between Medium and High shrinks to just 1.6 FPS — suggesting the GPU is already struggling to maintain quality differences.

At 3840x2160, performance collapses further: Low achieves 35 FPS, Medium drops to 25.1 FPS, High manages 22.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 18 FPS. The total spread is 17 FPS, but more tellingly, the difference between High and Ultra is only 4.7 FPS, indicating severe GPU limitations at this resolution.

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K at each setting follows a consistent pattern: Low drops 43.8%, Medium drops 46.3%, High drops 43.4%, and Ultra drops 52.8%. This consistency reinforces that the GPU is the primary constraint, with no setting able to escape the resolution penalty.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1500 out of 1636 tested combinations places it in the bottom 8.3% of all systems tested for Control. This is a remarkably low position given the CPU's 96th percentile standing, and it underscores how severely the RX 580 limits the overall experience.

The data implies that this pairing is fundamentally unbalanced for Control. The CPU has the capability to drive far higher frame rates — its benchmark scores suggest it could support systems scoring in the top quartile — but the GPU's 53rd percentile performance acts as a hard ceiling. The measured FPS figures across all resolutions and settings never exceed 62.3 FPS, which is a modest result for a CPU that ranks in the 96th percentile.

This rank also reflects the GPU's age relative to the game. Control's 2019 release date came two years after the RX 580's 2017 launch, and the game's demanding visuals expose the Polaris architecture's limitations. The combo's position in the bottom 10% of all tested systems suggests that users of this configuration would need to significantly reduce settings or resolution to achieve acceptable performance, as confirmed by the measured data showing only 1080p Low breaking the 60 FPS barrier.