Control

Control with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 presents a clear study in system bottlenecking. The benchmark data shows a configuration where the CPU is far more capable than the GPU, placing the performance ceiling squarely on the graphics card. This combination ranks 1394 out of 1636 tested combos in this game, indicating a below-median standing driven almost entirely by the aging GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, confirming that the GTX 1070 is the limiting component. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system delivers 60.9 FPS average, which drops to 46.6 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 29.1 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 52% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings, a scaling pattern typical of a GPU that is saturated by pixel throughput demands.

The scaling behavior varies by settings preset. At Low settings, the drop from 99.4 FPS at 1080p to 73.7 FPS at 1440p to 51.2 FPS at 4K shows a more gradual decline, suggesting that lower graphical loads allow the GPU to maintain better efficiency across resolutions. At Ultra settings, the 1080p result of 51.7 FPS already shows strain, and the 4K result of 25.7 FPS indicates the card is simply overwhelmed. The data shows that resolution scaling penalties are most severe at 4K, where the GTX 1070's 256-bit memory bus and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth become the primary constraint.

Looking at the 1080p to 1440p transition, the average FPS loss across all settings is roughly 23-27%. The 1440p to 4K transition is much harsher, with losses of 37-38% across presets. This nonlinear scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU hitting its memory bandwidth ceiling, as the 8 GB GDDR5 frame buffer must service increasingly large render targets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is built on the Pascal architecture with a GP104 chip manufactured on a 16 nm process. Its base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz are modest by modern standards, and the 1920 shading units are tasked with all rendering work. The card's 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which the benchmark results show is insufficient for high-fidelity rendering at 4K.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it at the 51st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12331. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, scores 12241 with a deltaPct of 0.7, meaning the GTX 1070 is 0.7% faster. The GeForce GTX 880M and GTX 1650 SUPER are 1.3% and 1.4% slower respectively, while the Tesla K20Xm trails by 1.7%. These tight margins indicate the GTX 1070 sits in a crowded mid-range performance tier.

In Control specifically, the GPU's architecture shows its age. The game's use of advanced rendering techniques appears to strain the Pascal architecture, as evidenced by the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 48, which is notably lower than the DirectX 11 score of 100. The card supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but the benchmark data suggests Control's DX12 path is particularly demanding on this hardware.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1082 further confirms the GPU's limited modern API performance. The texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s are theoretical peaks that the measured FPS data shows are rarely approached in practice at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on settings optimization. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 99.4 FPS average, while Medium produces 67.3 FPS and High achieves 60.9 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 51.7 FPS. For competitive play or high refresh rate displays, Low at 1080p is the only preset that exceeds 90 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes dramatically. Low delivers 73.7 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 49.9 FPS and High to 46.6 FPS. Ultra falls to 39.2 FPS. The data suggests that 1440p users should stick to Low settings to maintain acceptable frame rates, as the jump from Low to Medium costs 23.8 FPS.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. Low manages 51.2 FPS, Medium 37.9 FPS, High 29.1 FPS, and Ultra 25.7 FPS. The 4K resolution is essentially not viable for smooth gameplay with this GPU, even at the lowest settings. The data indicates that Low at 1080p is the only preset that provides both high frame rates and reasonable visual quality, while 1440p Low is acceptable for those prioritizing resolution over smoothness.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 4K resolution?

A: Technically yes, but not at playable frame rates. The best 4K result is 51.2 FPS at Low settings, with High and Ultra dropping to 29.1 and 25.7 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 1080p?

A: Low delivers the highest average FPS at 99.4, while Medium (67.3 FPS) and High (60.9 FPS) offer progressively lower performance. Ultra drops to 51.7 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1070 scores 12331 on average, which is 0.7% faster than the Quadro K4200 (12241) and 1.3% faster than the GTX 880M (12490). The GTX 1650 SUPER scores 12504, making it 1.4% faster than the 1070.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor with a 5.50 GHz boost clock, placing it at the 97th percentile among all CPUs. The GPU is clearly the limiting factor.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the GTX 1070 have?

A: The card has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This appears to be a key constraint at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever worth using?

A: Only at 1080p, where it achieves 51.7 FPS. At 1440p (39.2 FPS) and 4K (25.7 FPS), the frame rates are too low for comfortable gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a formidable processor that easily keeps pace with the GTX 1070 in Control. With 20 cores and 20 threads, a base clock of 3.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, this Arrow Lake-S architecture chip provides far more compute headroom than the game requires. Its 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core ensure that all CPU-bound tasks are handled with minimal latency.

The CPU's benchmark results confirm its high-end positioning. It scores 50009 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 7060 in single-core, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 58838 and single-thread score of 4904. Its average benchmark score of 79102 places it at the 97th percentile among all CPUs. The nearest rival, the Core Ultra 7 265KF, scores 79240 with a deltaPct of -0.2, meaning the 265K is 0.2% faster. The Core i9-14900KF is also 0.2% slower, while the i9-14900K trails by 0.9% and the AMD EPYC 7413 by 1.2%.

Given this CPU's capabilities, it is virtually impossible for it to bottleneck the GTX 1070 in Control. The GPU's measured FPS figures are consistently below what the CPU could theoretically support, even at 1080p Low settings where the CPU would face its heaviest workload. The 20 threads handle the game's physics and AI tasks without strain, and the 5.50 GHz boost clock ensures single-threaded performance is more than adequate.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth further reduces any potential system-level bottlenecks. While the GTX 1070's PCIe 3.0 x16 interface is older than the CPU's Gen 5 support with 20 lanes, this does not appear to impact measured performance, as the GPU remains the primary constraint in all tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for Control with this configuration shows a clear hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 99.4 FPS average, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 67.3 FPS, then High at 60.9 FPS, and Ultra at 51.7 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 47.7 FPS, indicating that settings choices have a massive impact at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops are consistent across all presets. Low delivers 73.7 FPS, Medium 49.9 FPS, High 46.6 FPS, and Ultra 39.2 FPS. The Low setting remains the only option above 60 FPS, and the gap between Low and Medium is 23.8 FPS, showing that the Medium preset introduces significant rendering costs.

At 3840x2160, the results show a GPU that is completely out of its depth. Low achieves 51.2 FPS, which is the only preset above 40 FPS. Medium drops to 37.9 FPS, High to 29.1 FPS, and Ultra to 25.7 FPS. The 4K results across all settings are below the 1080p results by at least 48 FPS, confirming that the GTX 1070's 8 GB frame buffer and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth cannot handle 4K rendering in Control.

The data shows that the GTX 1070's performance in Control is heavily dependent on both resolution and settings, with the card's 51st percentile GPU ranking reflected in its inability to maintain high frame rates at modern resolutions. The CPU's 97th percentile ranking ensures it never becomes the limiting factor, making this a textbook GPU-bound configuration.