Control

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frame rates show a predictable, steep decline as resolution climbs, but the pattern reveals that this pairing is firmly GPU-bound at every resolution tested. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 191 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 145.3 FPS, a reduction of roughly 24%. At 4K Low, the average falls to 99.7 FPS, which is 48% below the 1080p Low result. The scaling is consistent across all settings presets, but the gap between 1080p and 4K narrows as settings increase.

For High settings, the frame rate goes from 120.7 FPS at 1080p to 92.9 FPS at 1440p, then 60.2 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is exactly half of the 1080p High figure. Medium settings show a similar trajectory: 139.8 FPS at 1080p, 105.1 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce 103.5 FPS at 1080p, 80.5 FPS at 1440p, and 52.1 FPS at 4K.

The fact that even the heaviest preset (Ultra) stays above 100 FPS at 1080p, while the lightest preset (Low) drops to 99.7 FPS at 4K, indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti's rendering throughput is the primary constraint. The Core i9-14900K with its 24 cores and 32 threads is not the bottleneck here; if it were, we would see a plateau in frame rates regardless of resolution. Instead, the data shows a uniform downward slope across all settings, which is the signature of a GPU-limited workload. The 4K Ultra result of 52.1 FPS is particularly telling — it sits just above the 60 FPS threshold at 4K High, but falls short at Ultra, meaning the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are fully saturated at those settings.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific pairing of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ranks 442nd out of 1,636 tested combos in Control. That places it in the top 27% of all configurations, which is a solid result for a GPU that was released in 2021. The rank reflects the combination's overall performance across all measured settings and resolutions, not just peak frame rates.

The GPU's individual benchmark standing helps contextualize this rank. The RTX 3080 Ti sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41,224. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, scores 41,441 — a delta of -0.5%, meaning the 3080 Ti is essentially tied with the 3090 in synthetic tests. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 is 0.9% ahead, and the RTX 5070 is 1.1% ahead. These are negligible margins, indicating the 3080 Ti remains competitive in raw compute despite being a previous-generation part.

On the CPU side, the i9-14900K performs at the 97th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 79,824. Its nearest rival is the AMD EPYC 7413 at 80,041, which is only 0.3% faster. The i9-14900KF and Core Ultra 7 265KF are 0.7% slower, and the Core Ultra 7 265K is 0.9% slower. This puts the CPU in a class of its own for gaming workloads, which is why the combo's rank is limited almost entirely by the GPU.

The gap between the CPU's 97th percentile and the GPU's 83rd percentile explains why the combo does not rank higher. A stronger GPU would push this configuration significantly higher in the standings, but the 3080 Ti's performance ceiling caps the overall result.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Control?

A: The highest measured average is 191 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 52.1, which falls short of the 60 FPS target. At 4K High, it achieves 60.2 FPS, just barely clearing the threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti's average benchmark score is 41,224, which is 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090's 41,441. It also trails the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 by 0.9% and the RTX 5070 by 1.1%.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark percentile relative to all processors?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K sits at the 97th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,824.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination delivers the most balanced experience?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo produces 92.9 FPS, which is well above 60 FPS while still offering quality visuals. This provides a comfortable margin over the 4K High result of 60.2 FPS.

Q: Is the combo GPU-bound or CPU-bound at 1080p?

A: The data indicates GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 191 FPS, but at 4K Low it drops to 99.7 FPS. If the CPU were the limit, the frame rate would stay flat across resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience depends on the target resolution. For 4K displays, High settings are the clear choice: the combo averages 60.2 FPS, which is exactly at the standard 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. Ultra at 4K drops to 52.1 FPS, which is playable but noticeably below the threshold. Medium at 4K offers 71 FPS, which is smoother than High but at a visual quality cost that may not be worth the 18% frame rate increase.

At 1440p, High settings provide 92.9 FPS, which is an excellent balance of visual fidelity and responsiveness. Medium delivers 105.1 FPS, and Low reaches 145.3 FPS, but the jump from High to Medium is only a 13% improvement in frame rate. Ultra at 1440p yields 80.5 FPS, which is still comfortably above 60 FPS and may be preferred for users who prioritize image quality over raw frame rate.

For 1080p, the situation is different. Even Ultra settings produce 103.5 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 1080p hit 120.7 FPS, and Medium reaches 139.8 FPS. Since the GPU has headroom at this resolution, users can safely enable Ultra without sacrificing smoothness. The 191 FPS Low result is only relevant for competitive play where maximum frame rate is the sole objective, but the visual degradation is substantial.

The recommendation is to target 4K High for cinematic single-player experiences, 1440p High or Ultra for the best balance of quality and performance, and 1080p Ultra for maximum visual fidelity with no frame rate concerns.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low settings produce 191 FPS, Medium produces 139.8 FPS, High produces 120.7 FPS, and Ultra produces 103.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 87.5 FPS, representing a 46% drop when moving from the lowest to the highest preset. This is the largest absolute spread of any resolution, confirming that the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 145.3 FPS, Medium at 105.1 FPS, High at 92.9 FPS, and Ultra at 80.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 64.8 FPS, a 45% reduction. The relative drop between presets is similar to 1080p, but the absolute values are lower, indicating the GPU is working harder at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 99.7 FPS, Medium at 71 FPS, High at 60.2 FPS, and Ultra at 52.1 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 47.6 FPS, a 48% reduction. The 4K Low result is notably close to the 1080p Ultra result (99.7 FPS vs 103.5 FPS), which illustrates how much performance the GPU sacrifices when rendering four times the pixels.

The scaling efficiency between resolutions is consistent. Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by roughly 24-26% across all settings. Moving from 1440p to 4K reduces frame rates by roughly 31-35% across all settings. The larger drop at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become increasingly limiting as pixel count grows.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake architecture using a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. This processor sits at the 97th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,824.

In synthetic multithreaded tests, the i9-14900K scores 49,872 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 20,946 in Cinebench R20 multicore. Single-core performance is equally strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,040 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3,064. These results indicate that the CPU can handle both lightly-threaded gaming workloads and heavily-threaded productivity tasks without breaking a sweat.

Control is an Action Adventure game released in 2019, which means it was designed for the CPU and GPU generations of that era. The game's engine is not known for being exceptionally CPU-intensive at high resolutions, and the measured data confirms this: the frame rate scales consistently with resolution, which is a GPU-bound pattern. The i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads are far more than Control needs, even at 1080p Low where the combo hits 191 FPS.

The CPU's boost clock of 6.00 GHz is a key factor in ensuring that the GPU is never starved of draw calls or physics updates. Even at 1080p Low, where the frame rate is highest and CPU overhead is most likely to surface, the combo maintains 191 FPS without hitting a CPU ceiling. The data shows no evidence of CPU limitation at any resolution or settings combination tested.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is a GA102-based GPU from the Ampere architecture, manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 912.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, with memory clocked at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective). It contains 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, along with 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities are substantial: 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s. Its texture rate is 532.8 GTexel/s. In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 3080 Ti achieves a Passmark G3D score of 26,896 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 191,309. It sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs.

Control is a visually demanding game with heavy use of particle effects, physics, and destructible environments. The 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for 4K Ultra settings, where the combo produces 52.1 FPS. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s is critical for maintaining frame rates at higher resolutions, where texture streaming and buffer sizes increase dramatically.

The RTX 3080 Ti's performance relative to its nearest rivals is revealing. The RTX 3090 scores 41,441, which is only 0.5% higher, meaning the two GPUs are effectively interchangeable in this game. The RTX 5070 scores 41,687, just 1.1% higher. This indicates that the 3080 Ti, despite being from the GeForce 30-series, remains competitive with newer hardware in synthetic benchmarks. However, the GPU's 83rd percentile standing means there is a significant gap to top-tier cards, which is why the combo ranks 442nd out of 1,636 in Control.