Control

Control pairs the Intel Core i9-14900K with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, producing a combination that ranks 2090 out of 3720 tested combos in this game. The data reveals a system where the aging Pascal GPU is the clear performance ceiling, while the modern Raptor Lake CPU provides ample headroom that goes largely unused. Benchmark results indicate a wide performance spread across resolutions and settings, making the choice of preset as impactful as the choice of display resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Control based on the measured FPS?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo consistently achieves above 60 FPS across all settings, with an average of 73 FPS at Ultra and 133 FPS at Low. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset breaks the 100 FPS barrier, while High and Medium average 64 and 72 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the GTX 1080 Ti's performance compare to its nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti's average benchmark score of 15548 places it 1.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (score 15290) and 1.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (score 15283). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 by 0.8% (score 15679) and sits essentially level with the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (score 15521, deltaPct 0.2%).

Q: What is the CPU's multithreaded performance relative to its closest competitor?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K scores 58674 in the Passmark multithread test. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-14900KF, scores 79371 on average and is 0.3% faster, while the AMD EPYC 7413 is 1.2% ahead with an average score of 80041.

Q: Does the GTX 1080 Ti support modern graphics APIs needed for Control?

A: Yes, the GPU's API support includes DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which covers the requirements for Control. The benchmark results show DirectX 12 performance at a Passmark score of 66, while DirectX 11 scores 151.

Q: How much FPS does the combo lose when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 84 at 1920x1080 to 64 at 2560x1440, then to 43 at 3840x2160. This represents a 49% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the CPU's single-threaded performance indicator, and how does it compare to its multi-core score?

A: The i9-14900K achieves a Passmark single-thread score of 4697 and a multi-thread score of 58674. The single-thread score represents about 8% of the multi-thread score, indicating the CPU's strength in heavily threaded workloads, which is common for its 24-core, 32-thread configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, built on the Pascal architecture with a GP102 chip, brings 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus, delivering 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 1481 MHz boosts to 1582 MHz, and the memory runs at 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective). These specifications produce a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 11.34 TFLOPS.

In Control, the GPU's VRAM capacity of 11 GB is a notable asset, as the game's textures at 4K resolution can tax memory subsystems. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 shows the GPU struggling under Ultra settings with an average of 37 FPS, while High settings yield 43 FPS. This suggests that the GPU's raw compute power, not its memory capacity, is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the drop from High to Ultra (43 to 37 FPS) is more severe than the drop from Medium to High (48 to 43 FPS).

The GTX 1080 Ti's overall benchmark percentile sits at 58, meaning it outperforms 58% of all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 15548 places it in proximity to the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (0.2% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (0.8% behind), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (1.7% ahead). These close margins indicate that the GTX 1080 Ti, while from an older generation, still competes with mid-range cards from newer product stacks. The data implies that the GPU's Pascal architecture, lacking dedicated ray tracing cores, handles Control's standard rendering pipeline adequately but without the headroom for future titles.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for this combo reveal a clear hierarchy in settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 133 average FPS, Medium drops to 95, High to 84, and Ultra falls to 73. The jump from Low to Medium is a 28.6% performance reduction, while the jump from High to Ultra is only 13.1%, suggesting that Ultra offers diminishing returns relative to its cost.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low averages 101 FPS, Medium 72, High 64, and Ultra 55. Here, the drop from Medium to High (11.1%) is smaller than the drop from Low to Medium (28.7%), indicating that High might offer a better balance of visual quality and performance than Medium at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 55 FPS is borderline for smooth gameplay, while High at 64 FPS provides a more comfortable margin.

For the best experience per the measured rows, 1920x1080 with High settings (84 FPS) emerges as the sweet spot. It maintains a frame rate well above 60 while offering better visual fidelity than Medium (95 FPS) at a cost of only 11 FPS. At 2560x1440, High at 64 FPS is the highest preset that stays above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended choice for users who prioritize resolution over maximum settings. The 4K resolution at 3840x2160 should be avoided except for Low settings (68 FPS), as High (43 FPS) and Ultra (37 FPS) fall into unplayable territory for fast-paced action.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ranks 2090 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 56th percentile of all tested configurations. This middling rank reflects the significant imbalance between the CPU and GPU components. The i9-14900K sits in the 95th percentile against all CPUs, while the GTX 1080 Ti sits in the 58th percentile against all GPUs.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this pairing. The i9-14900K's nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database are the Intel Core i9-14900KF (0.3% faster), Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (0.6% faster), and AMD EPYC 7413 (1.2% faster), all of which would likely produce similar FPS results when paired with the same GPU. Conversely, the GPU's nearest rivals are all within 1.7% of its average score, indicating that swapping the GTX 1080 Ti for a GPU with similar benchmark scores would yield comparable performance in Control.

The rank of 2090 out of 3720 suggests that roughly 44% of tested combos perform worse than this configuration. Given the GPU's age and the game's release in 2019, the combo holds its own, but the rank also implies that upgrading the GPU would yield significantly better results than upgrading the CPU, which already represents one of the strongest available processors.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 across settings provides insight into the system's limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 133 at 1080p to 101 at 1440p (24.1% drop) and then to 68 at 4K (32.7% drop from 1440p). At High settings, the drop is from 84 at 1080p to 64 at 1440p (23.8%) and then to 43 at 4K (32.8% from 1440p).

The consistent pattern of roughly 24% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and 33% reduction from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU workload is largely resolution-independent. Instead, the FPS scales inversely with pixel count, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

At Ultra settings, the 4K average of 37 FPS represents only 50.7% of the 1080p Ultra average of 73 FPS. This steep decline suggests that the GTX 1080 Ti's 11 GB of VRAM and 484.4 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain performance at 4K with maximum settings. The GPU's 3584 shading units and 88 ROPs, while capable at lower resolutions, cannot sustain the fill rate required for 4K Ultra in Control.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a full range of playable frame rates. Low settings average 133 FPS, Medium averages 95 FPS with a range of 80 to 109 FPS, High averages 84 FPS, and Ultra averages 73 FPS. The Medium preset shows the widest variance between min and max FPS (29 FPS), suggesting moments of heavy load that cause frame dips.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 101 FPS, Medium averages 72 FPS with a range of 61 to 82 FPS, High averages 64 FPS, and Ultra averages 55 FPS. The Medium preset's min FPS of 61 is just above the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra falls below it. The variance at Medium is 21 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is more consistently saturated at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 68 FPS, Medium averages 48 FPS with a range of 41 to 56 FPS, High averages 43 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. Only the Low preset achieves a playable average, and even that sits below the 68 FPS average seen at 1080p Low. The Medium preset's min FPS of 41 indicates significant frame drops during intense scenes, making 4K gaming with this combo a compromise even at reduced settings.

The data shows that the GTX 1080 Ti's performance scales roughly linearly with the number of pixels, with no evidence of a VRAM capacity cliff at any resolution. This suggests that the 11 GB frame buffer is sufficient for Control's memory requirements, but the GPU's compute throughput limits high-resolution, high-settings performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K features 24 cores and 32 threads, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmarks show strong single-threaded performance with a Passmark score of 4697 and exceptional multi-threaded performance with a score of 58674.

In Control, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The game's engine, which prioritizes visual effects and physics, does not appear to scale heavily with CPU cores beyond a certain point. The i9-14900K's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5 and single-core score of 2262.5 indicate that the CPU can handle any game's thread scheduling demands. However, the measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the GPU load is lightest, the average FPS of 133 is well below what the CPU could theoretically support.

The CPU's 95th percentile ranking against all CPUs means it outperforms 95% of processors in general benchmarks. Its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i9-14900KF (0.3% faster) and AMD EPYC 7413 (1.2% faster), would likely show no measurable difference in Control when paired with the same GPU. The data implies that the i9-14900K is overkill for this game, providing far more processing power than the GTX 1080 Ti can utilize, and that any modern mid-range CPU would deliver nearly identical frame rates in this configuration.