Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title that stresses both CPU and GPU, and the combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER produces a specific performance profile. The data indicates a system that is capable at lower resolutions but becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution scales, requiring careful settings adjustments for a smooth experience.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of the database, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 2152 out of 3720 tested combos for Control. That places it in the bottom half of all possible configurations, which is a direct reflection of the GPU's aging architecture when paired against a modern, high-end processor. The result is a bottleneck that limits the overall experience.

This rank is not a measure of the CPU's capability; the i7-14700KF is a top-tier processor, sitting in the 94th percentile of all CPUs tested. Its average benchmark score of 70163 places it just 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, which scores 69996, and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, which scores 69875. It is also 0.9% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, which scores 69515, and 1% behind the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, which scores 70879. The processor is clearly not the limiting factor.

Instead, the ranking is dragged down by the GPU. The RTX 2070 SUPER sits only in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282. This score is 1% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480), 1.2% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), 1.3% lower than the Intel Arc B570 (20556), and 1.5% lower than the Intel Arc A750 (20582). The result is a system that is significantly more powerful than the sum of its parts in this specific title, holding back the CPU's potential and placing it near the bottom quarter of all tested combos.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER serves as the primary rendering engine, and its specifications directly explain the performance ceiling observed in the measured data. It is built on the Turing architecture and utilizes the TU104 chip, fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. The GPU has a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, which are the speeds at which it operates during gaming.

Its memory configuration is a critical factor for Control. The GPU comes equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. This memory subsystem is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but can become a limiting factor at 4K Ultra settings, where the game's texture and geometry data can exceed the 8 GB capacity, leading to stuttering or texture pop-in.

The GPU's raw compute power is defined by its 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. It also features 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, which are designed to accelerate ray tracing and AI-based features, though their impact on this title is limited. The peak performance is rated at 9.062 TFLOPS for FP32 and 18.12 TFLOPS for FP16 (2:1), with a pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s. These figures suggest a capable mid-range card for its generation, but they are firmly in the past for a game that pushes modern hardware.

The benchmark results for the GPU show its overall standing. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1651. In Geekbench, it scores 83358 in OpenCL and 90637 in Vulkan. Its Passmark G3D score is 18169, and its Passmark GPU Compute score is 7557. These numbers, when considered alongside the fact that it is an end-of-life product, confirm that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the component that dictates the playable settings in Control.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable relationship between resolution and performance. As resolution increases, the average frame rate drops significantly, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings.

At 1080p (1920x1080), the system shows its strength. With Low settings, it achieves an average of 130 FPS. This drops to 92 FPS on Medium, 82 FPS on High, and 71 FPS on Ultra. These are all very playable numbers, and the system is likely not fully utilizing the CPU's potential at this resolution, as the GPU can keep up with the rendering demands.

Moving to 1440p (2560x1440), the impact of the GPU becomes more apparent. The average FPS drops to 98 on Low, 70 on Medium, 62 on High, and 54 on Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra is roughly a 45% reduction in frame rate, which is a significant hit but still leaves the game playable on most presets.

At 4K (3840x2160), the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The average FPS plummets to 66 on Low, 47 on Medium, 42 on High, and 36 on Ultra. The frame rate is nearly halved when moving from 1080p to 4K on every settings preset. The jump from 1440p to 4K is also steep, with a 25-30% performance penalty depending on the preset. The data shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER is struggling to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K, and only the Low preset manages to stay above the 60 FPS threshold. This scaling behavior confirms that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at high resolutions, while the i7-14700KF has ample headroom to handle the physics and AI calculations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Control with this hardware for a consistent 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where the system can consistently exceed 60 FPS on all presets, with an average of 71 FPS on Ultra. At 1440p, the High preset yields an average of 62 FPS, which is also above 60, but the Medium preset averages 70 FPS, offering a safer margin.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700KF or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER the limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU is in the 94th percentile of all processors, while the GPU is only in the 65th percentile. The steep FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are characteristic of a GPU bottleneck, as the CPU's workload does not scale proportionally with resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its closest rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 20282. This is 1% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480), 1.2% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), 1.3% lower than the Intel Arc B570 (20556), and 1.5% lower than the Intel Arc A750 (20582). It is a very close grouping, with all performance deltas being within 1.5%.

Q: What is the performance difference between the i7-14700KF and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X?

A: In the database, the Intel Core i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70163, which is 0.9% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X's score of 69515. This indicates that the Intel processor holds a slight performance edge over this specific rival in general computing benchmarks.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 4K with High settings?

A: The measured data shows that at 3840x2160 resolution with High settings, the system achieves an average of 42 FPS. This is below the standard 60 FPS target and suggests that 4K High settings will not provide a smooth experience.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 98 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 54 FPS. This represents a performance reduction of approximately 45% from Low to Ultra, showing that the Ultra preset is significantly more demanding on the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate.

For a 1080p display, the Ultra preset is the best choice. The system averages 71 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This allows the user to experience the game's full visual fidelity without sacrificing performance. The High preset at 1080p offers a higher average of 82 FPS, but the jump to Ultra is a relatively small 11 FPS penalty for a significant visual upgrade.

At 1440p, the Medium preset provides the best balance. It averages 70 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS, while the High preset dips to an average of 62 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Low preset reaches 98 FPS, but this sacrifices too much visual quality for a resolution where the Medium preset is already smooth. Ultra at 1440p should be avoided, as the 54 FPS average is below the target.

For 4K, the situation is more challenging. The Low preset is the only option that achieves a playable frame rate, averaging 66 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 47 FPS, and High and Ultra are not viable at 42 and 36 FPS respectively. Therefore, users with a 4K display should use the Low preset to maintain a smooth experience, or they should consider lowering the resolution to 1440p to unlock higher quality settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a high-end desktop processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. It features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This configuration is designed to handle both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads with ease. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 2 MB of L2 cache per core and 80 KB of L1 cache per core, ensures that data is readily available for the processor cores.

The CPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks is exceptional. It scores 44167 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6235 in single-core. In Geekbench, it achieves 21462 multi-core and 2578 single-core. Its Passmark multithread score is 52425, and its single-thread score is 4480. These scores place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 70163 is consistent with its top-tier rivals.

Despite its power, the CPU is not the primary driver of performance in Control. The game relies heavily on the GPU for rendering, and the data shows that the frame rate scales inversely with resolution, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. The i7-14700KF has more than enough processing power to feed the RTX 2070 SUPER at all tested resolutions. Its 20 cores and 28 threads are more than sufficient for the game's physics and AI calculations, and its high single-thread performance ensures that the game's logic is processed efficiently. In this configuration, the CPU is essentially waiting on the GPU, and its performance headroom is not being fully utilized. The system's overall rank of 2152 out of 3720 combos confirms this imbalance, highlighting that the GPU is the component that users should upgrade first to improve performance in this title.