Control

# Control, Intel Core i7-14700KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti combination delivers strong performance in Control, a 2019 Action Adventure title that remains demanding at high resolutions. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets show a system that is firmly GPU-bound at 4K, while at 1080p the CPU’s 20 cores and 5.60 GHz boost clock keep frame rates exceptionally high. The data indicates a well-balanced pairing for this title, with the RTX 3080 Ti’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth proving sufficient for the game’s visual effects.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals the expected scaling curve for a demanding action game. At 1080p Low, the system produces 192 FPS average, which drops to 145 FPS at 1440p and 98 FPS at 4K, a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This steep drop indicates that at 1080p, the RTX 3080 Ti is not the limiting factor; the CPU’s strong single-thread performance (6,235 points in Cinebench R23 single-core) keeps the pipeline fed, and the GPU has headroom to spare.

Moving to Medium settings, the 1080p average of 136 FPS falls to 103 FPS at 1440p and 70 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure represents a 48.5% decline from 1080p, nearly identical to the Low preset’s scaling. This consistency suggests that the game’s rendering load scales uniformly with resolution, and that the GPU becomes the primary constraint as pixel count increases. The High preset shows a similar pattern: 121 FPS at 1080p, 92 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K, a 48.8% drop from 1080p to 4K.

The Ultra preset, however, tells a slightly different story. At 1080p, the system averages 105 FPS; at 1440p it drops to 80 FPS; at 4K it falls to 54 FPS. The 4K figure is 48.6% lower than 1080p, which is in line with the other presets. However, the absolute gap between Medium and Ultra at 4K is 16 FPS (70 vs. 54), while at 1080p the gap is 31 FPS (136 vs. 105). This narrowing gap at 4K indicates that the GPU’s compute resources, 34.10 TFLOPS FP32 and 80 RT cores, are being saturated by the higher resolution, making the incremental cost of Ultra settings relatively smaller in percentage terms.

The scaling data strongly suggests that the RTX 3080 Ti is the limiting component at 4K across all presets. The CPU, with its 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 70,163, has ample headroom. At 4K Ultra, the 54 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold, but the Medium preset at 70 FPS provides a comfortable margin. The 1440p results are more balanced, with even Ultra maintaining an 80 FPS average, indicating that this resolution is the sweet spot for maximizing visual quality without sacrificing fluidity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process. The GPU contains 28,300 million transistors across a 628 mm² die, with 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs. Its base clock of 1365 MHz boosts to 1665 MHz, while the 12 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) across a 384-bit bus, yielding 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Control, the GPU’s memory subsystem plays a critical role. The game’s destructible environments and particle effects demand substantial memory throughput, and the 912.4 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and physics calculations do not bottleneck the rendering pipeline. The 12 GB capacity is also sufficient for 4K Ultra settings, where the 54 FPS average indicates the GPU is compute-limited rather than memory-limited. The measured results show no min FPS data for 4K Ultra, but the 4K Medium preset records a 59 FPS minimum against an 80 FPS maximum, suggesting that frame pacing remains consistent even under load.

The GPU’s benchmark scores corroborate its in-game performance. It achieves 26,896 in Passmark G3D and 15282 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a percentile ranking of 83 among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 41,187 places it within 0.8% of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870) and 1.2% behind the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (41,707). The RTX 3080 Ti sits 2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377) in average score. These relative positions indicate that the GPU is a strong performer in its class, but not at the very top of the hierarchy.

The ray tracing capabilities of the RTX 3080 Ti, with 80 dedicated RT cores and 320 tensor cores, are relevant to Control’s visual effects. While the measured FPS data does not isolate ray tracing performance, the 34.10 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 186.5 GPixel/s pixel rate suggest that the GPU can handle the game’s lighting and reflection effects at 1440p with ease. The 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS, however, shows that even this powerful GPU struggles to maintain 60 FPS with all settings maxed at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the gameplay experience. At 4K, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with a 70 FPS average and a 59 FPS minimum. The High preset drops to 62 FPS average, which is acceptable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 54 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay at this resolution.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 92 FPS average, which is excellent for a game like Control with its fast-paced combat and physics-driven environments. The Ultra preset at 80 FPS is also viable, offering additional visual fidelity without compromising fluidity. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Medium preset at 103 FPS provides the best combination of smoothness and visual quality.

At 1080p, all presets exceed 100 FPS, with Low hitting 192 FPS, Medium at 136 FPS, High at 121 FPS, and Ultra at 105 FPS. The Ultra preset is fully playable at this resolution, and the 105 FPS average ensures that even the most chaotic scenes remain responsive. The Low preset’s 192 FPS is useful for competitive play or for players who prioritize maximum frame rates, but the visual downgrade is significant.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the recommended starting point for most players. It provides the highest average FPS at each resolution among the presets that maintain 60 FPS or higher at 4K. The Medium preset’s 136 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K represent a consistent 20-30% improvement over High settings, with a minimal visual impact in most scenes. For players with 4K displays, Medium is the only preset that consistently stays above 60 FPS, making it the default choice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 192 FPS, providing an exceptionally smooth experience. The Medium preset averages 136 FPS, with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS, showing tight frame pacing. The High preset averages 121 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 105 FPS. All four presets at 1080p exceed the 100 FPS mark, indicating that the CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads are more than sufficient for this game’s physics and AI workloads at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show the GPU’s influence. The Low preset averages 145 FPS, a 24.5% reduction from 1080p. The Medium preset averages 103 FPS, with a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 118 FPS. The High preset averages 92 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 80 FPS. The 1440p results indicate that the RTX 3080 Ti can handle the increased pixel count without significant frame rate drops, making this resolution ideal for high-refresh-rate gaming.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary constraint. The Low preset averages 98 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset drops to 70 FPS (minimum 59 FPS, maximum 80 FPS). The High preset averages 62 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 54 FPS. The 4K results show a clear hierarchy: Medium is the highest preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS, and even its minimum of 59 FPS is close to the threshold. The Ultra preset’s 54 FPS average is 22.8% lower than Medium, demonstrating the significant performance cost of the highest quality settings at 4K.

The data also reveals the scaling efficiency of each preset. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drop is approximately 24-26% across all presets. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is approximately 32-33% for Low and Medium, 33% for High, and 32.5% for Ultra. This consistent scaling pattern indicates that the game’s rendering pipeline scales linearly with resolution, and that neither the CPU nor the GPU introduces unexpected bottlenecks at any resolution.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Control?*

A: The 2560x1440 resolution offers the best balance, with the High preset averaging 92 FPS and the Ultra preset at 80 FPS. At 4K, only the Medium preset (70 FPS average) stays above 60 FPS, while 1080p delivers over 100 FPS on all presets.

*Q: Can this system run Control at 4K with ray tracing enabled?*

A: The measured data does not include ray tracing-specific results. However, the 4K Ultra preset (which likely includes the highest quality settings) averages 54 FPS, indicating that the RTX 3080 Ti’s 80 RT cores are sufficient for playable frame rates but not for consistent 60 FPS at maximum settings.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41,187, placing it 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870) and 2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377). It trails the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (41,707) by 1.2% and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (41,897) by 1.7%.

*Q: What is the CPU’s performance percentile, and how does it affect Control?*

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70,163. In Control, this translates to frame rates exceeding 100 FPS at 1080p across all presets, indicating the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution.

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest minimum FPS at 4K?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 has a minimum FPS of 59, which is the only min FPS data recorded for 4K. The High and Ultra presets do not have min FPS data, but their averages of 62 and 54 FPS respectively suggest lower minimums.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Low (192 FPS) is 82.9% faster than Ultra (105 FPS). At 1440p, Low (145 FPS) is 81.3% faster than Ultra (80 FPS). At 4K, Low (98 FPS) is 81.5% faster than Ultra (54 FPS).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz boosts to 5.60 GHz, and it features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, with ECC memory support and a PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes.

In Control, the CPU’s role is primarily to handle game logic, physics calculations, and AI processing. The game’s destructible environments and telekinetic combat mechanics place significant demands on the CPU, but the i7-14700KF’s high single-thread performance, 6,235 points in Cinebench R23 single-core and 4,480 in Passmark single-thread, ensures that these tasks are processed without introducing frame rate drops. The multi-threaded performance is equally strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,167 and a Passmark multithread score of 52,425.

The benchmark results show that the CPU is well ahead of its nearest rivals in synthetic tests. The i7-14700KF’s average benchmark score of 70,163 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69,996) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875). It also outperforms the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515) by 0.9%, while trailing the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (70,879) by 1%. These margins are small, indicating that the CPU is competitive with the latest offerings from both AMD and Intel.

The measured FPS data confirms that the CPU is not a limiting factor in Control. At 1080p Low, the 192 FPS average demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU with enough frames to saturate even the RTX 3080 Ti’s capabilities at lower resolutions. The consistent scaling from 1080p to 4K across all presets further indicates that the CPU maintains its performance regardless of resolution, allowing the GPU to become the sole bottleneck at higher pixel counts. The combination of high single-thread performance and robust multi-threading makes the i7-14700KF an excellent match for the RTX 3080 Ti in this title.