Control

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Control. The data indicates a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU's headroom becomes apparent only at 1080p. This combination sits in the 34th percentile of tested configurations for this title, meaning 65% of combos perform better, but the results are consistent and predictable across the settings grid.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly demonstrates where the limiting component lies. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 77 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 58 FPS, a 25% reduction. At 4K, the average falls to 39 FPS, a 49% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling curve is classic GPU-bound behavior — the RX 6650 XT is running out of pixel throughput as resolution climbs, while the i7-14700KF has ample headroom to feed it.

The pattern holds across all settings. At Low settings, the system goes from 122 FPS at 1080p to 93 FPS at 1440p (a 24% drop) and then to 63 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop from 1080p). The consistency of these percentages — roughly 25% and 50% reductions respectively — indicates that the GPU’s shading units, texture rate, and memory bandwidth are the constraining factors. The 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus on the RX 6650 XT become more stressed as the pixel count increases, which is reflected in the diminishing returns at 4K.

Interestingly, the gap between 1440p and 4K is larger than the gap between 1080p and 1440p in absolute terms. At High settings, the 1440p to 4K drop is 19 FPS (from 58 to 39), while the 1080p to 1440p drop is also 19 FPS (from 77 to 58). This suggests that 4K is pushing the GPU past its efficient operating range. The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS is barely playable, and even 4K Medium at 44 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that most builders target. For this combo, 1080p is the native resolution sweet spot, with 1440p being viable for those willing to drop settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 122 FPS, which is far beyond what a 60 Hz or even 144 Hz display needs. However, the jump to Medium is substantial — 87 FPS — while only sacrificing a modest amount of visual fidelity. Given that Medium at 1080p is 10 FPS faster than High at 1080p (87 vs 77), the Medium preset is the best balance of smoothness and image quality for this resolution.

For 1440p, the recommendation shifts. High at 58 FPS is borderline for competitive play but perfectly playable for a single-player action-adventure title like Control. Dropping to Medium yields 66 FPS, which is a safer margin above 60 FPS. The data shows that Low at 1440p produces 93 FPS, but the visual downgrade is severe. The optimal choice is Medium at 1440p — it provides 66 FPS with a 56 FPS minimum, which is acceptable for the genre, while High at 58 FPS risks dipping below 60 FPS in intense scenes.

At 4K, no setting provides a fully smooth experience. Ultra is 34 FPS, High is 39 FPS, and Medium is 44 FPS with a 38 FPS minimum. Even Low at 63 FPS struggles to hold 60 FPS consistently. For 4K, the data suggests that Medium is the highest playable preset — 44 FPS is tolerable for a story-driven game, but builders should expect to use adaptive sync or accept lower frame pacing. The 38 FPS minimum at 4K Medium indicates potential stutter in combat-heavy sequences. If 4K is a priority, the recommendation is to use Medium and accept the trade-off, as the jump to High only gains 5 FPS while the jump to Ultra loses 10 FPS.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K smoothly?*

A: No. The best 4K result is 63 FPS at Low settings, but Medium drops to 44 FPS and Ultra falls to 34 FPS. The 4K High preset averages 39 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the highest settings preset that maintains 60+ FPS at 1080p?

A: Medium at 1080p delivers 87 FPS, while High drops to 77 FPS. Low produces 122 FPS. Medium is the highest preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS with a 74 FPS minimum.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p compared to 1080p?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 77 FPS at 1080p to 58 FPS at 1440p, a 25% reduction. At Low, it drops from 122 to 93 FPS. The 1440p Medium preset yields 66 FPS with a 56 FPS minimum.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions. The frame rate scales consistently with resolution changes, and the 4K results show severe degradation that is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The i7-14700KF’s high single-thread and multi-thread scores are not fully utilized in this title.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 1440p Medium, and is it stable?

A: The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 56, with an average of 66 and a maximum of 76. This indicates a 20 FPS spread, which is reasonable for a dynamic game, but the minimum is close to the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance at higher resolutions?

A: The data suggests so. The 4K results show a dramatic drop-off compared to 1440p, and the 280.3 GB/s bandwidth on a 128-bit bus is insufficient for 4K textures. The 4K Ultra preset at 34 FPS indicates the GPU is running out of memory bandwidth.

How This Combo Ranks

In Control, this specific configuration ranks 2438 out of 3720 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 34% of all systems. This is a below-average result for a game that is known to be demanding on GPU resources. The ranking reflects the RX 6650 XT’s position in the GPU hierarchy — it sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, but Control’s heavy use of visual effects and particle physics appears to penalize the card more than average.

The CPU, by contrast, is a top-tier performer. The i7-14700KF ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70163. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (0.2% faster), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.4% faster), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (1% slower). The CPU’s performance is not the issue — it has a 20-core, 28-thread configuration with a 5.60 GHz boost clock. The problem is that Control does not scale well with this kind of CPU power, and the GPU becomes the limiting factor at every resolution tested.

The combo’s rank of 2438 suggests that many other GPU+CPU pairings deliver better results in this specific game. The RX 6650 XT’s nearest rivals — the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, AMD FirePro D300, and AMD FirePro W7000 — are professional workstation cards with different driver optimizations, so they are not representative of gaming alternatives. The practical takeaway is that this combo is geared toward 1080p gaming, and its ranking reflects that it cannot compete with higher-end GPUs at higher resolutions in Control.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT plays the decisive role in this game’s performance, and its specifications explain the measured results. The card has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 280.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The 128-bit bus is narrow for a modern GPU, and this becomes a bottleneck at 4K where the frame buffer demands more memory transactions. The card’s 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are adequate for 1080p, but the 10.79 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is not enough to drive 4K at high settings.

The clocks are relatively high — the base clock is 2055 MHz, the game clock is 2410 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2635 MHz. These clocks help at 1080p, where the card achieves 122 FPS at Low settings. However, the boost clock cannot compensate for the memory bandwidth limitation at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 34 FPS is a clear indicator that the GPU is overwhelmed, not the CPU.

The card’s 32 ray tracing cores are present, but Control’s implementation of ray tracing is not reflected in the measured data — the fact pack does not include RT-specific benchmarks. The 176 W TDP and dual-slot design are modest, but the performance is what matters here. The GPU’s percentile rank of 65 among all GPUs puts it in the mid-range, and its average benchmark score of 19765 is close to its nearest rivals, which are all within 1% of its score. This suggests that the RX 6650 XT is a consistent performer, but it lacks the raw power to push Control beyond 1080p/1440p territory.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full data set shows a consistent pattern across all settings and resolutions. At 1080p, the averages are 122 FPS (Low), 87 FPS (Medium), 77 FPS (High), and 67 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset has a measured minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS, giving a 26 FPS range. This is the only preset at 1080p with complete min/max data, and it shows that the frame pacing is stable enough for smooth gameplay.

At 1440p, the averages drop to 93 FPS (Low), 66 FPS (Medium), 58 FPS (High), and 51 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset at 1440p has a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS, a 20 FPS spread. This is a tighter range than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is more consistently loaded at this resolution. The High preset at 58 FPS is just below the 60 FPS target, and the Ultra preset at 51 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action.

At 4K, the results are marginal. The averages are 63 FPS (Low), 44 FPS (Medium), 39 FPS (High), and 34 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 51 FPS, a 13 FPS spread. This is the tightest range of any resolution, which indicates that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling at 4K. The Low preset at 63 FPS is the only 4K configuration that approaches 60 FPS, but it likely sacrifices significant visual quality.

The data reveals that the sweet spot for this combo is 1080p Medium, which delivers 87 FPS with a 74 FPS minimum. For 1440p, Medium at 66 FPS is the best balance. At 4K, the system is not viable for consistent 60 FPS gameplay, and builders should consider this a 1080p/1440p card for Control. The i7-14700KF provides more than enough CPU headroom, but the RX 6650 XT’s memory bandwidth and compute power are the constraining factors across the board.