Control

Control, Remedy’s 2019 action-adventure, remains a demanding showcase for hardware due to its physics-heavy environments and real-time ray tracing options. The pairing of the Intel Core i9-14900K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER produces a consistent experience across resolutions, but the data reveals distinct scaling characteristics that point to where the bottleneck shifts. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, focusing on how the CPU and GPU interact under varying loads.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate trajectory from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable curve, but the magnitude of the drop is telling. At 1080p with High settings, the combo delivers 135.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average falls to 103.5 FPS, a reduction of roughly 23.7%. The jump to 4K High yields 66.5 FPS, which represents a further 35.7% decline from the 1440p figure. This steepening drop indicates that the RTX 4070 SUPER becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The data at Low settings confirms this diagnosis. At 1080p Low, the system hits 214.8 FPS, a figure that likely approaches the CPU’s practical limit for this game’s draw calls. At 1440p Low, the average is 160.6 FPS, and at 4K Low, it is 109.4 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 1440p Low is 54.2 FPS, while the delta between 1440p and 4K Low is 51.2 FPS. This relatively consistent gap across the lower settings suggests that the i9-14900K’s 24 cores and 32 threads are not the limiting factor here; instead, the GPU’s rendering throughput dictates the pace even when graphical load is light.

For Ultra settings, the scaling is more severe. The 1080p Ultra average is 116.3 FPS, dropping to 87.5 FPS at 1440p and 61.5 FPS at 4K. The percentage loss from 1080p to 4K is about 47.1%, which is significant but not linear. This non-linear drop implies that memory bandwidth and shader occupancy on the RTX 4070 SUPER are being saturated at higher resolutions. The card’s 504.2 GB/s bandwidth and 12 GB GDDR6X frame buffer are adequate for 1440p, but 4K Ultra pushes the architecture closer to its ceiling. The data shows that Control is heavily GPU-bound at 4K, while the CPU headroom remains substantial even at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s specifications directly explain its behavior in this title. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, the card operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. These frequencies, combined with 7168 shading units, allow for strong raw throughput, but the 192-bit memory bus and 12 GB capacity are the defining constraints at high resolutions. The measured scores reflect this: a Passmark G3D score of 29995 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627 place the card in the 84th percentile among all GPUs.

In Control, the GPU’s role shifts from balanced at 1080p to dominant at 4K. At 1080p High, the 135.6 FPS average suggests the GPU is still capable of feeding frames faster than the CPU can process, given the i9-14900K’s single-thread performance. However, the gap between 1080p and 1440p Medium (153.3 FPS vs 117.2 FPS) indicates that the GPU’s texture and pixel throughput starts to throttle beyond 1080p. The 4K Ultra result of 61.5 FPS is particularly telling—it is below the 66.5 FPS High result at the same resolution, showing that the additional shading and texture work in Ultra settings exacts a measurable toll on the card’s resources.

The VRAM capacity of 12 GB is sufficient for Control’s textures, but the bus width is the weak point. At 4K, the card’s pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are utilized heavily. The data suggests that while the RTX 4070 SUPER is not overwhelmed, it is also not operating with spare capacity. The 35.48 TFLOPS FP32 performance is high, but the memory subsystem cannot always keep the compute units fed at 4K Ultra, which explains the 61.5 FPS average. For players targeting 1440p, the card offers a strong performance tier, but 4K Ultra requires compromises in settings.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific CPU-GPU pairing achieves a rank of 279 out of 1636 total combos for Control. This places it in the top 17.1% of all configurations, which is a strong showing given the game’s age and the hardware’s mid-to-high-end positioning. The rank is influenced by the CPU’s exceptional multi-threaded capabilities, which are not fully leveraged by Control’s engine, but the GPU’s performance is the deciding factor.

The i9-14900K itself ranks in the 97th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79824. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7413 with a score of 80041 (a delta of -0.3%) and the Intel Core i9-14900KF with a score of 79245 (a delta of 0.7%). These margins are negligible, meaning the CPU is not the source of variance in game performance. For the GPU, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s average benchmark score is 42576, with nearest rivals like the NVIDIA RTX A6000 at 42653 (delta -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE at 42723 (delta -0.3%). Again, the deltas are under 2%, indicating that the GPU performs as expected for its class.

The combo rank of 279 suggests that while this pairing is not at the absolute top, it outperforms the majority of systems. The data implies that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the bottleneck in Control, as the CPU’s benchmark scores are far above the GPU’s relative percentile. If the GPU were upgraded, the rank would likely improve significantly, but as configured, the system is balanced for 1440p gaming rather than 4K domination.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo’s capabilities across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 214.8 FPS, Medium 153.3 FPS, High 135.6 FPS, and Ultra 116.3 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 98.5 FPS, which is a 45.9% reduction. This large spread indicates that the GPU is still responsive to settings changes at this resolution, but the CPU ensures that even Ultra stays above 100 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 160.6 FPS, Medium 117.2 FPS, High 103.5 FPS, and Ultra 87.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 73.1 FPS, a 45.5% reduction, which is similar to 1080p. However, the absolute numbers are lower, showing that the GPU’s fill rate is being taxed. The High and Ultra settings both remain above 85 FPS, which is smooth for most displays.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 109.4 FPS, Medium 76.2 FPS, High 66.5 FPS, and Ultra 61.5 FPS. The Low setting is the only one that clears 100 FPS, and Ultra falls below 62 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter on 60 Hz panels with demanding scenes. The spread from Low to Ultra is 47.9 FPS, a 43.8% reduction. This smaller percentage drop compared to lower resolutions suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling, where additional settings only marginally affect the frame rate because the shader and memory resources are already saturated.

The data shows a clear pattern: the i9-14900K has ample headroom in all scenarios, while the RTX 4070 SUPER’s performance scales predictably with resolution but less so with settings at 4K. For competitive play at 1080p, the Low preset’s 214.8 FPS offers high refresh rates, while the 1440p High preset’s 103.5 FPS is a solid balance for visual quality and smoothness.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1440p High yields 103.5 FPS, which is above the 100 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while 4K High drops to 66.5 FPS. Based on the measured scores, 1440p is the optimal resolution for balancing visual quality and frame rate.

Q: Does the Intel Core i9-14900K bottleneck the RTX 4070 SUPER in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 97th percentile, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872. The FPS differences between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (54.2 FPS drop) are not consistent with a CPU bottleneck, as the GPU’s rendering limits are reached first.

Q: How much performance is lost from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The 1080p High average is 135.6 FPS, while the 4K High average is 66.5 FPS. This represents a loss of 69.1 FPS, or approximately 50.9% of the 1080p performance.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Control?

A: Yes. The measured results show that the game runs at 4K Ultra with 61.5 FPS, and no memory-related issues are indicated in the data. The 12 GB GDDR6X capacity is adequate for this title’s asset requirements.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 279th out of 1636 total combinations, placing it in the top 17.1% of all tested systems. This indicates it outperforms the vast majority of configurations, though it is not at the extreme high-end.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low delivers 160.6 FPS, while Ultra delivers 87.5 FPS. The difference is 73.1 FPS, meaning Ultra is about 45.5% slower than Low, but still maintains a playable frame rate.