Control

# Control with Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a compelling Control experience, with the 24-core, 32-thread processor providing ample headroom while the 12 GB GDDR7 GPU carries the graphical load. This combination sits at rank 341 out of 1,636 tested combos, placing it comfortably in the top 21% of all configurations measured for this title. The data reveals a system that can handle Control at high refresh rates across most settings, though the 4K ultra preset demands compromises that the lower resolutions do not require.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows suggest that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1080p, High delivers 131.1 FPS, which is 18.3 FPS above the 112.8 FPS of Ultra and 18.3 FPS below Medium's 149.4 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 18.3 FPS, a noticeable 14% reduction, while the visual difference between these presets in a game like Control is often subtle given the title's art direction. At 1440p, High produces 97.4 FPS, which keeps gameplay smooth on standard 144Hz monitors, while Ultra drops to 87.8 FPS — still playable but with less margin. At 4K, High yields 65.9 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays, whereas Ultra falls to 58.9 FPS, dipping below that target.

The data suggests that Medium is a viable alternative for users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity. At 4K, Medium achieves 74.7 FPS, a 13.3% improvement over High, and at 1440p it reaches 112.2 FPS. Low settings push performance dramatically higher — 207.6 FPS at 1080p and 155.9 FPS at 1440p — but these come with significant visual compromises that undermine Control's atmospheric presentation. For the best experience per the measured data, High at 1440p appears optimal: it delivers nearly 100 FPS while retaining the graphical features that make Control's brutalist environments and physics-based destruction compelling. At 4K, High is the recommended preset, as it maintains playable performance without sacrificing the visual cohesion that Low settings disrupt.

GPU Role

The RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus with 672.0 GB/s bandwidth proves sufficient for Control's demands. The GPU's 6,144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 80 ROPs operate at a boost clock of 2512 MHz, producing 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s. These specifications translate directly into the measured performance: the 65.9 FPS at 4K High suggests the GPU is managing the rendering load without memory capacity constraints, as Control's textures and geometry fit comfortably within 12 GB at this resolution.

The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are relevant for Control's real-time ray tracing features, though the measured data does not isolate RT performance. The texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s enables the detailed surfaces that Control's environment art relies on, while the 80 ROPs handle the pixel throughput necessary for the game's particle effects and post-processing. The RTX 5070's 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs contextualizes its position: it outperforms the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 0.5% and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 0.7% in average benchmark scores, while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 by 0.2% and the RTX 3090 by 0.6%. The 250W TDP and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface indicate the card is designed for modern systems, and the 5 nm TSMC process with 31,100 million transistors on a 263 mm² die shows efficiency-focused engineering.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At High settings, the system produces 131.1 FPS at 1080p, 97.4 FPS at 1440p, and 65.9 FPS at 4K. This represents a 25.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 32.3% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear — the 4K resolution demands approximately 2.25 times the pixel count of 1440p, yet the FPS reduction is proportionally smaller, suggesting the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading resources are being utilized efficiently.

Low settings show the most dramatic scaling: 207.6 FPS at 1080p falls to 155.9 FPS at 1440p (a 24.9% drop) and then to 107.5 FPS at 4K (a 31.0% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across presets indicates that the limiting component remains the GPU at all resolutions, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom even at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The Intel Core i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads, boosting to 6.00 GHz, are clearly not constraining performance in this title. The 125W TDP processor with 36 MB of L3 cache and 2 MB L2 per core delivers the single-thread performance that Control's engine requires, evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p Low, the system sustains over 200 FPS without apparent CPU bottlenecks.

How This Combo Ranks

Ranked 341 out of 1,636 tested combinations, this pairing places within the 79th percentile of all configurations measured for Control. This position reflects the RTX 5070's 83rd percentile GPU ranking and the i9-14900K's 97th percentile CPU ranking, suggesting that the combo's overall standing is pulled down slightly by the GPU relative to the processor's exceptional performance. The CPU's average benchmark score of 79,824 places it nearly even with the AMD EPYC 7413 (80,041, a 0.3% difference) and slightly ahead of the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79,245, a 0.7% advantage) and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF (79,240, a 0.7% advantage).

The GPU's average benchmark score of 41,687 shows it trading blows with the RTX 3090, which scores 41,441 — the RTX 5070 leads by 0.6%. This proximity to a previous-generation flagship explains why the combo ranks as well as it does: the RTX 5070 delivers RTX 3090-class performance in Control while consuming less power and occupying a dual-slot form factor. The 341st rank among 1,636 combos means there are 340 configurations that perform better, predominantly those pairing higher-tier GPUs with comparable or superior CPUs. For a system built around the i9-14900K, the RTX 5070 represents a reasonable pairing that avoids the CPU bottleneck evident in lower-ranked combos.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p High provides the best balance, delivering 97.4 FPS — comfortably above 60 FPS while maintaining visual quality. At 4K High, performance drops to 65.9 FPS, which is playable but with less margin for demanding scenes.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to the RTX 3090 in this context?

A: The RTX 5070's average benchmark score of 41,687 is 0.6% higher than the RTX 3090's 41,441. In Control specifically, this translates to the 5070 handling the game's requirements with 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and a 672.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Does the i9-14900K bottleneck the RTX 5070 in Control?

A: No. The i9-14900K's 24 cores and 32 threads with a 6.00 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom. Even at 1080p Low, where the system produces 207.6 FPS, the CPU does not appear to limit performance, as the FPS scaling across resolutions follows GPU-bound patterns.

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

A: Low produces 155.9 FPS while Ultra produces 87.8 FPS at 1440p. This represents a 68.1 FPS difference, or a 43.7% reduction from Low to Ultra, showing the significant cost of maxing out settings.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this configuration?

A: Yes, at High settings the combo achieves 65.9 FPS at 4K, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra settings drop to 58.9 FPS, which may cause slight stuttering on 60Hz displays, while Low reaches 107.5 FPS for high-refresh 4K monitors.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 341st out of 1,636 tested combos for Control, placing it in the top 21% of all configurations measured. The CPU's 97th percentile ranking and GPU's 83rd percentile ranking contribute to this strong overall position.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces 207.6 FPS on Low, 149.4 FPS on Medium, 131.1 FPS on High, and 112.8 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 94.8 FPS spread, with each settings tier reducing performance by approximately 20-30 FPS. The 1080p results indicate that this resolution is well within the GPU's capabilities, with even Ultra settings exceeding 100 FPS for high-refresh-rate displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured values are 155.9 FPS on Low, 112.2 FPS on Medium, 97.4 FPS on High, and 87.8 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p results show a tightening of the performance spread between settings — the difference between Low and Ultra is 68.1 FPS, compared to 94.8 FPS at 1080p — indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at this resolution. The 67.6 FPS difference between 1080p Low and 1440p Low, and the 43.3 FPS difference between 1080p High and 1440p High, both reflect the increased pixel workload.

At 3840x2160, the results are 107.5 FPS on Low, 74.7 FPS on Medium, 65.9 FPS on High, and 58.9 FPS on Ultra. The 4K data reveals the most constrained scenario: only Low settings exceed 100 FPS, and Ultra fails to reach 60 FPS. The 48.6 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is proportionally smaller than at lower resolutions, confirming that the GPU is saturated and settings changes have diminishing returns as resolution increases. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: Medium offers a 10-15% FPS improvement over High, while Ultra demands a 10-15% FPS penalty relative to High.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K's specifications strongly influence the measured results, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. With 24 cores and 32 threads, the processor provides massive parallel throughput for Control's physics simulations and AI routines, which benefit from the 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core. The 3.20 GHz base clock and 6.00 GHz boost clock deliver the single-thread performance that game engines typically rely on for main-thread rendering commands, while the 80 KB of L1 cache per core ensures rapid access to frequently used data.

The CPU's benchmark scores contextualize its capability: the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 49,872 and single-core score of 7,040 demonstrate exceptional processing power. The Geekbench multicore score of 20,370 and single-core score of 3,064 further confirm this. The PassMark multithread score of 58,674 and single-thread score of 4,697 indicate balanced performance across both threaded and single-threaded workloads. The CPU's 97th percentile ranking among all processors means it outperforms 97% of CPUs in the database, and its nearest rivals — the AMD EPYC 7413, Intel Core i9-14900KF, and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF — all score within 0.9% of the i9-14900K's average of 79,824.

In Control specifically, the CPU's role is evident in the 1080p results. The 207.6 FPS at Low settings suggests the processor can feed the GPU faster than the GPU can render at this resolution, and the fact that 1080p Ultra still achieves 112.8 FPS indicates no CPU bottleneck even at maximum settings. The 24 cores handle Control's background tasks — such as the game's asynchronous loading and physics calculations — without impacting frame pacing, while the 32 threads provide headroom for streaming and system processes. The processor's support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with dual-channel configuration, ensures sufficient memory bandwidth for the game's data streaming requirements, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes provides ample bandwidth for the RTX 5070's data transfers. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 offers a fallback for display output, though the discrete GPU handles all rendering workloads in this configuration.