Control

Control, Remedy’s 2019 action-adventure, presents an interesting scaling pattern for the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti combination. The measured data shows a clear hierarchy across settings, with the frame rate deltas between presets revealing where the system’s headroom lies. At 1080p, the gap from Low to Ultra is 105 FPS, while at 4K, that same gap narrows to 54 FPS, indicating a shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution increases. This analysis walks through the measured rows to determine the optimal settings, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and how this combo ranks against other tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset depends heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate, but the data provides a clear verdict for each tier. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 127 FPS average, which is still well above the 60 FPS threshold and suitable for high-refresh displays. However, the Medium preset at 165 FPS offers a 38 FPS advantage over Ultra, with a minimum of 140 FPS ensuring consistent frame pacing. Given that the jump from Medium to High only yields 146 FPS (a 19 FPS drop from Medium), the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot for 1080p if aiming for maximum smoothness without sacrificing visual fidelity significantly. The Low preset’s 232 FPS is only useful for extreme competitive scenarios, but the visual cost in a game like Control, which relies on atmosphere, is prohibitive for most users.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 111 FPS is the most balanced choice. It maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while providing better visual quality than Medium (125 FPS) or Low (176 FPS). The Ultra preset drops to 96 FPS, which is still playable but begins to approach the threshold where frame drops become noticeable on 144Hz monitors. The Medium preset’s minimum of 106 FPS is reassuring, but the 14 FPS gain over High does not justify the reduction in graphical detail. Data suggests that High at 1440p provides the best experience for this combo, as it leverages the RTX 5070 Ti’s capabilities without pushing into diminishing returns.

For 3840x2160, the High preset at 75 FPS is the only reasonable choice for a smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 65 FPS is borderline, while Medium at 84 FPS and Low at 119 FPS sacrifice too much visual quality for a game that thrives on its particle effects and lighting. The 4K High setting maintains an average above 60 FPS, which is the baseline for console-like smoothness. The data shows that the gap between High and Medium at 4K is only 9 FPS, so users with G-Sync or FreeSync displays might prefer High for the visual uplift. Overall, the recommendation is to use High for 1440p and 4K, and Medium for 1080p if prioritizing frame rate, but Ultra is viable at 1080p if visual fidelity is paramount.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications align well with the measured results. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is crucial for Control at higher resolutions, as the game’s texture streaming and physics calculations demand substantial bandwidth. The 4K Ultra preset, which likely increases texture detail and shadow quality, still manages 65 FPS, indicating that the 16 GB frame buffer is sufficient to avoid capacity-related stutters, even if the average frame rate drops.

The GPU’s clock speeds—2295 MHz base and 2452 MHz boost—contribute to its raw throughput. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 49% reduction in average FPS across all settings (from 146 to 75 at High), which is consistent with a GPU-bound workload. The RTX 5070 Ti’s 8960 shading units and 70 RT cores are directly relevant to Control’s rendering, particularly in scenes with reflective surfaces and volumetric lighting. The FP32 performance of 43.94 TFLOPS suggests that the card has ample compute headroom, but the data shows that at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as the CPU’s 24 cores are not fully utilized.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reinforce its position: it ranks in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with a Passmark G3D score of 32974. When compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 5070 Ti is within 2% of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 3.1% ahead of the RX 6800 XT. This indicates that the card’s performance in Control is representative of its broader capabilities, with the 4K results showing a 15% drop from High to Ultra, which is a typical cost for the highest settings. The GPU’s 300 W TDP and 700 W suggested PSU are not directly measurable in the FPS data, but they explain why the card can sustain high clocks under load.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 60+ FPS on Ultra settings?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves 127 FPS average, and at 2560x1440 Ultra, it reaches 96 FPS. However, at 3840x2160 Ultra, the average drops to 65 FPS, which is still above 60 but close to the limit. Therefore, 1440p is the highest resolution where Ultra settings remain comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 Ti compare to its closest rival in this game?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 49957, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50001) and 0.4% higher than the Intel Arc A550M (49737). It trails the RX 6900 XT by 2% and leads the RX 6800 XT by 3.1%. These deltas are small, indicating that the card’s performance in Control is in line with its overall standing.

Q: Why does the 1080p Low preset show such a high frame rate (232 FPS)?

A: At 1080p Low, the GPU is not heavily burdened by visual effects, allowing the CPU to feed frames faster. The Intel Core i9-14900K’s single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2262.5) is sufficient to push the GPU to its limits, resulting in 232 FPS. This is a CPU-bound scenario, as evidenced by the fact that increasing settings to Medium drops the frame rate by 67 FPS, showing the GPU’s workload becoming more significant.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Medium and High settings at 4K?

A: The measured data shows a 9 FPS difference (84 FPS for Medium vs 75 FPS for High) at 3840x2160. This is a modest 12% reduction in frame rate, suggesting that High settings are preferable for the visual improvement without a major performance penalty. The minimum FPS is only recorded for Medium (72 FPS), but the average values indicate a stable experience on High.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 389th out of 3720 tested combinations, placing it in the top 10.5% of all configurations. This percentile ranking reflects the high-end nature of both the CPU and GPU, with the data showing that the combo outperforms the vast majority of systems in Control.

Q: Does the CPU’s 24 cores help in this game?

A: Control is not a heavily multi-threaded game, as indicated by the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K. The CPU’s multi-core performance (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5) is excellent, but the game’s engine likely utilizes fewer threads. At 1080p, the high single-core score (2262.5) is more relevant, as it allows the CPU to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are 232 (Low), 165 (Medium), 146 (High), and 127 (Ultra). The Medium preset records a minimum of 140 FPS and a maximum of 190 FPS, indicating a tight frame distribution. The Low preset’s 232 FPS is the highest in the entire dataset, but the lack of min/max values for Low, High, and Ultra means we only have the average to rely on. The transition from Low to Medium incurs a 67 FPS drop, which is the largest single-step reduction at 1080p, suggesting that Medium enables significant graphical features like improved shadows and reflections.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 176 (Low), 125 (Medium), 111 (High), and 96 (Ultra). The Medium preset shows a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS, which is a 37 FPS variance, indicating some scene-dependent fluctuation. The drop from Low to Medium is 51 FPS, slightly less than at 1080p, as the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor. The Ultra preset at 96 FPS is the first point where the average falls below 100 FPS, but it remains playable. The High preset’s 111 FPS is a solid middle ground, and the data shows a consistent 14-15 FPS gap between Medium, High, and Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 119 (Low), 84 (Medium), 75 (High), and 65 (Ultra). The Medium preset records the only min/max values at 4K: a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. This 25 FPS variance is larger than at lower resolutions, reflecting the increased load on the GPU. The drop from Low to Medium is 35 FPS, which is the smallest absolute drop across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU is heavily saturated. The Ultra preset at 65 FPS is the lowest average in the dataset, but it still maintains a playable frame rate. The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the frame rate drops more steeply with each settings increase, with the gap between Low and Ultra shrinking from 105 FPS at 1080p to 54 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ranks 389th out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 89.5th percentile. This is a strong showing, but the ranking is not top-tier, suggesting that higher-end GPUs (like the RTX 5080 or 5090) or more optimized CPUs could push the frame rates higher. The CPU itself ranks in the 95th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79097, and is within 0.3% of the Intel Core i9-14900KF. The GPU, ranking in the 86th percentile, is the weaker link in this pairing, with an average score of 49957.

The combo’s 389th rank out of 3720 means that 3331 other combos perform worse, which reflects the system’s overall capability. However, the data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor in Control, as the CPU’s performance is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The nearest rival combos would likely feature the RTX 5070 Ti with a slightly slower CPU, or the i9-14900K with a faster GPU, both of which would shift the FPS results. The rank is consistent with the GPU’s 86th percentile, indicating that the combo’s performance is primarily dictated by the GPU’s capabilities. For a game like Control, which is visually demanding, the rank reflects the GPU’s ability to handle the rendering load, and the CPU’s high single-core score ensures that it does not hold the GPU back at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its architecture, Raptor Lake, features a large 36 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache, which helps with data locality in games. The CPU’s single-core performance is exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2262.5 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4697. This is directly relevant to Control, as the game’s physics and AI systems often rely on a single main thread.

The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the CPU has a significant impact. The Low preset’s 232 FPS suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU at rates exceeding 200 FPS, but the drop to 165 FPS at Medium indicates that the GPU’s workload increases. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes, as the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. The multi-core performance, while impressive (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5), is not fully utilized in this game, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate does not scale with the number of cores.

The CPU’s 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory mean that it can be paired with fast memory, which could further improve minimum frame rates. However, the data shows that the CPU’s 32 threads are not a limiting factor; the game is more sensitive to the GPU’s shading and rasterization capabilities. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-14900KF, is only 0.3% faster in average benchmark score, indicating that the integrated UHD Graphics 770 and other differences have minimal impact on gaming performance. In Control, the CPU’s role is to maintain high frame rates at low resolutions and to avoid introducing stutters at higher resolutions, which it does effectively.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system’s bottleneck characteristics. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 146 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p (a 24% reduction) and then to 75 at 4K (a 32% reduction from 1440p). This is a classic GPU-bound curve, where the performance degradation accelerates as the pixel count increases. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 71 FPS, or 49%. At Low settings, the same progression shows 232 FPS at 1080p, 176 at 1440p, and 119 at 4K, representing a 49% drop from 1080p to 4K (113 FPS). The fact that the percentage drop is similar across settings suggests that the GPU is consistently the limiting factor, even at Low settings where the CPU has more headroom.

At Medium settings, the scaling is 165 FPS (1080p), 125 FPS (1440p), and 84 FPS (4K), with a 49% total drop. For Ultra, the figures are 127, 96, and 65 FPS, respectively, also a 49% drop. This uniform scaling across all settings is a strong indicator that the RTX 5070 Ti’s memory bandwidth and compute throughput are the primary constraints. The 4K results show that the GPU is fully saturated, as the difference between Low and Ultra at 4K shrinks to 54 FPS, compared to 105 FPS at 1080p. This is because at 4K, even Low settings require significant GPU resources to fill the pixel count, leaving less headroom for the CPU to influence the frame rate.

The data also shows that the CPU’s influence wanes as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU’s high single-core score allows the GPU to reach 232 FPS on Low, but at 4K, the same settings yield 119 FPS, which is a 49% reduction. This indicates that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, not the CPU. The conclusion is that the system is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where the CPU and GPU work in tandem to deliver high frame rates, but at 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, and users should expect to compromise on settings to maintain playable frame rates.