Control

The pairing of Intel’s flagship Core i9-14900K with AMD’s Radeon RX 580 creates a striking imbalance in Control. The data shows a processor that can drive far more frames than this graphics card can physically render, particularly at higher resolutions. This analysis examines the measured FPS rows to understand where the bottleneck lies and what settings offer the most playable experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS reveals a severe dependency on resolution, confirming that the RX 580 is the limiting component in this pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 63 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 48 FPS, a 23.8% reduction. Pushing further to 4K reduces the average to 32 FPS, which is a 49.2% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep scaling curve is a classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario.

The pattern becomes even more pronounced when examining the High preset. At 1080p High, the average is 40 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 30 FPS (a 25% decrease), and at 4K High, it plummets to 20 FPS (a 50% decrease from 1080p). The consistent halving of performance from 1080p to 4K across settings indicates that the rendering pipeline is saturated. The i9-14900K is not the constraint here; if it were, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU workload per frame remains similar.

The data implies that the RX 580's 256-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are being overwhelmed by the pixel fill requirements of 4K. Even at the lowest settings, the GPU cannot maintain a fluid experience at 4K, suggesting that the sheer number of pixels, rather than the graphical features, is the primary hurdle. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is less punishing but still significant, reinforcing that this is a card designed for 1080p gaming in this title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580, built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, is the clear performance ceiling in this configuration. Its specifications paint a picture of a mid-range card from its era: 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a boost clock of 1340 MHz. The data shows that this hardware combination is insufficient for high-refresh or high-resolution gaming in Control.

The GPU's 32 ROPs and 144 TMUs are likely the physical limitations. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 18 FPS. This is a direct consequence of the GPU's pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s, which are simply not enough to process the geometry and effects at that resolution. The card's percentile ranking of 53rd among all GPUs highlights its position in the lower-middle tier of performance.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is not the primary issue in the measured data, as even the Low preset at 4K (32 FPS) struggles. This suggests the bottleneck is compute and fillrate, not memory capacity. The gap between the 1080p Low (63 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (35 FPS) is a 44.4% performance penalty, which reflects the cost of enabling advanced graphical features that stress the shading units and texture units. The RX 580 is end-of-life, and its performance in Control reflects its age, struggling to keep up with the demands of a 2019 title at modern resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual fidelity and playability is found at 1080p with the High preset. The data shows an average of 40 FPS at this configuration. While not hitting 60 FPS, it is a substantial improvement over the Medium preset's 45 FPS? No, actually High is lower than Medium. The data shows Medium at 45 FPS and High at 40 FPS. Therefore, the Medium preset offers a better balance, providing a 12.5% performance increase over High while likely retaining most visual quality.

For players targeting a smoother experience, the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that breaks the 60 FPS barrier, achieving an average of 63 FPS. This is the only measured setting where the game becomes fully fluid. The jump from Low to Medium is a 28.6% performance drop (from 63 to 45 FPS), which is a significant cost. The step from Medium to High is a smaller 11.1% reduction (from 45 to 40 FPS), while the step from High to Ultra is a 12.5% reduction (from 40 to 35 FPS).

At 1440p, the experience becomes marginal. The High preset yields 30 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for action sequences. The Low preset at 1440p provides 48 FPS, which is surprisingly playable and better than the 1080p High preset. The data suggests that players with a 1440p monitor should select Low settings to get a playable frame rate, as the Medium (34 FPS) and High (30 FPS) presets fall below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. 4K is not a viable option for this title with this GPU, as even the Low preset only manages 32 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i9-14900K and RX 580 holds a rank of 3399 out of 3720 tested combos for Control. This places it in the bottom 8.6% of all configurations, which is a surprisingly low position given the high-end CPU. This ranking reflects the GPU's limitations in this specific title. The data indicates that the overall system performance is dictated almost entirely by the graphics card.

This rank is particularly telling when considering the CPU's own benchmark scores. The i9-14900K sits in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, while the RX 580 sits in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. The massive disparity between these two percentile rankings explains the combo's low overall position. The system is essentially a supercomputer paired with a mid-range graphics card from 2017, and in a GPU-intensive game like Control, the result is a poor overall showing.

The combo's rank is not a reflection of the CPU's capabilities, but rather a warning about pairing a top-tier processor with an entry-level contemporary GPU. If the goal is to build a balanced system, the data suggests that this pairing squanders the potential of the i9-14900K in gaming scenarios that are heavily reliant on rasterization. The rank implies that most other CPU and GPU pairings tested on this site deliver a better experience in Control.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. With a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, it is one of the fastest consumer CPUs available, sitting in the 95th percentile of all processors. However, in the measured FPS data for Control, its role is largely passive.

The evidence of CPU headroom is clear when comparing the FPS at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 63 FPS. If the CPU were the bottleneck, this frame rate would likely be capped at a lower value, and we would see minimal improvement when lowering graphical settings. Instead, we see a significant increase from 35 FPS at 1080p Ultra to 63 FPS at 1080p Low, a jump of 80%. This indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor, and the CPU is capable of feeding it data faster than it can process it.

The i9-14900K's specifications, such as its 36 MB of L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory, are more than sufficient for this game. The data never shows a scenario where the CPU's multi-threading or single-core speed becomes a hindrance. Even at 4K, where the CPU has to manage more draw calls, the FPS is consistently low, pointing to the GPU's fillrate limits. The CPU is effectively waiting for the GPU to finish its work, a classic sign of a severe GPU bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data is derived directly from the measured FPS rows.

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 63 FPS average
• Medium: 45 FPS average (minimum 38 FPS, maximum 51 FPS)
• High: 40 FPS average
• Ultra: 35 FPS average

At 1080p, the spread between the lowest and highest preset is 28 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that achieves a 60+ FPS average. The Medium preset offers a 45 FPS average, which is a 28.6% drop from Low. The transition from Medium to High is a 5 FPS loss, and from High to Ultra is another 5 FPS loss, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 48 FPS average
• Medium: 34 FPS average (minimum 29 FPS, maximum 39 FPS)
• High: 30 FPS average
• Ultra: 26 FPS average

At 1440p, the Low preset manages a respectable 48 FPS. However, the Medium preset drops to 34 FPS, a 29.2% reduction. The High preset yields 30 FPS, and the Ultra preset produces 26 FPS. The performance cost of moving from Low to Medium is steep, and the higher presets all fall below 30 FPS, which is often considered the minimum for a playable experience.

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 32 FPS average
• Medium: 23 FPS average (minimum 19 FPS, maximum 26 FPS)
• High: 20 FPS average
• Ultra: 18 FPS average

At 4K, all presets produce an unplayable experience. The Low preset is the only one to break 30 FPS, but it is still below the standard for smooth gameplay. The Medium, High, and Ultra presets all sit in the 18-23 FPS range, indicating that the GPU is completely overwhelmed at this resolution. The difference between High and Ultra is only 2 FPS, suggesting a hard performance wall.

FAQ

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

A: The measured data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo can achieve a 60+ FPS average, and only on the Low preset. At 1440p, the best result is 48 FPS on Low, while 4K is not viable, with all presets averaging below 32 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K bottlenecking the AMD Radeon RX 580 in this game?

A: No. The data indicates the opposite. The GPU is the limiting factor. Evidence is the significant FPS increase when lowering settings from Ultra to Low at 1080p (35 to 63 FPS), which shows the CPU is not holding back the GPU.

*Q: How does the RX 580's VRAM affect performance in Control?*

A: The card has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory. The data suggests that VRAM capacity is not the primary bottleneck, as even the Low preset at 4K (which uses less VRAM) only achieves 32 FPS. The performance limitation is more likely due to the GPU's compute and fillrate capabilities.

Q: What is the highest preset that maintains a playable frame rate at 1440p?

A: According to the data, the Low preset is the only playable option at 1440p, with an average of 48 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 34 FPS, and High drops to 30 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to others tested?

A: The i9-14900K + RX 580 combo ranks 3399 out of 3720 tested combos for Control. This places it in the bottom 8.6% of all configurations, highlighting the severe performance imbalance caused by the GPU.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset averages 63 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 35 FPS. This represents a 28 FPS difference, or a 44.4% performance penalty for enabling the highest graphical settings.