Control

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is a peculiar combination for testing Control: a 2026 flagship-class desktop processor with a 2019 mid-range Turing GPU. The benchmark data reveals a system where the GPU is almost certainly the bottleneck at every resolution, yet the CPU's raw compute headroom ensures that frame pacing remains consistent. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, contextualizes the GPU's role, and explains what the data says about the limiting component.

FAQ

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

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 130 FPS average. At 2560x1440 with Low settings, it drops to 98 FPS average. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, it falls to 66 FPS average. The data shows 1080p Low is the only configuration that clears 120 FPS, making it the smoothest option.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in this benchmark database?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 20282, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival is the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M with an average score of 20480, which is 1% higher. The Intel Arc B570 scores 20556 (1.3% higher), and the Intel Arc A750 scores 20582 (1.5% higher). The RTX 2070 SUPER sits slightly below all four listed rivals.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking, and what does that mean for gaming?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus ranks in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 93785. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6520P, scores 93786 (0% delta), while the AMD EPYC 4564P scores 95183 (-1.5% delta). This places the CPU in the top 4% of processors, indicating it is far more powerful than what Control requires.

Q: Does the measured FPS data show any frame rate minimums for medium settings?

A: Yes, the data includes min FPS only for Medium settings. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 92 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average is 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average is 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 54 FPS.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the RTX 2070 SUPER?

A: The launch MSRP is 499 USD. This is a single factual statement from the data; the CPU's launch MSRP is $299, but no pricing analysis is provided here.

Q: How does the GPU's memory bandwidth compare to its compute capabilities?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. Its FP32 compute is 9.062 TFLOPS, with a pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the 8 GB capacity may limit texture loading at 4K Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo spans three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a clear picture of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 130 FPS, followed by Medium at 92 FPS (minimum 78, maximum 106), High at 82 FPS, and Ultra at 71 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 38 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 10 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 11 FPS. This suggests diminishing returns as settings increase beyond Medium.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 98 FPS, which is a 24.6% drop from 1080p Low. Medium averages 70 FPS (minimum 59, maximum 80), High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium here is 28 FPS, while Medium to High is 8 FPS, and High to Ultra is 8 FPS. The pattern holds: the largest performance hit comes from moving from Low to Medium, while subsequent steps are smaller.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 66 FPS, which is a 49.2% drop from 1080p Low. Medium averages 47 FPS (minimum 40, maximum 54), High averages 42 FPS, and Ultra averages 36 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 19 FPS, Medium to High is 5 FPS, and High to Ultra is 6 FPS. At 4K, the Low preset is the only one that stays above 60 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 36 FPS, which is barely playable for a fast-paced action game.

The data also shows that the minimum FPS figures, only recorded for Medium settings, scale proportionally. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 78 FPS, which is 84.8% of the average. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 59 FPS, which is 84.3% of the average. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 40 FPS, which is 85.1% of the average. This consistency suggests that frame pacing is stable across resolutions, with no sudden stutters, even when the GPU is heavily loaded.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture, using the TU104 chip fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It contains 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die, with a transistor density of 25.0M per mm². The GPU has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. It also includes 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, which are relevant for Control's ray tracing and DLSS features, although the benchmark data does not specify whether these were enabled.

The base clock is 1605 MHz, with a boost clock of 1770 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz, effectively 14 Gbps, across a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is a critical constraint at higher resolutions. The GPU's pixel rate is 113.3 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 283.2 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 9.062 TFLOPS, while FP16 is 18.12 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio. The TDP is 215 W, requiring a 550 W suggested PSU and a dual-slot cooler with 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connectors.

In the context of Control, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM is likely the limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS is 36. The data shows a clear drop from 4K High (42 FPS) to 4K Ultra (36 FPS), a 14.3% reduction. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs means it is a mid-tier card by current standards, but it was designed for 1440p gaming when released. The measured FPS at 1440p High (62 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (54 FPS) supports this, as both are playable but not high-refresh territory.

The GPU's compute capabilities, specifically the 40 RT cores, are present but not directly quantified in the FPS data. The passmark DirectX 12 score is 67, which is low compared to the DirectX 11 score of 151, suggesting that the Turing architecture's DX12 performance is not its strongest suit. However, the Vulkan score of 90637 in Geekbench is higher than the OpenCL score of 83358, indicating better performance in Vulkan titles. Control uses DX12, so the relatively low passmark DX12 score of 67 may hint at why the GPU struggles at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, confirming that the GPU is the primary limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 130 at 1080p to 98 at 1440p (a 24.6% decrease), and then to 66 at 4K (a 49.2% decrease from 1080p). This pattern is expected for a GPU with 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, as the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 92 at 1080p to 70 at 1440p (a 23.9% decrease), and then to 47 at 4K (a 48.9% decrease from 1080p). The minimum FPS follows a similar trend: 78 at 1080p, 59 at 1440p (a 24.4% decrease), and 40 at 4K (a 48.7% decrease). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates that resolution scaling is uniform, with no setting causing a disproportionate penalty.

At High settings, the average FPS drops from 82 at 1080p to 62 at 1440p (a 24.4% decrease), and then to 42 at 4K (a 48.8% decrease from 1080p). At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 71 at 1080p to 54 at 1440p (a 23.9% decrease), and then to 36 at 4K (a 49.3% decrease from 1080p). The fact that all four settings show nearly identical percentage drops (around 24% for 1440p and 49% for 4K) strongly suggests that the GPU's raw throughput, not any specific setting, is the bottleneck.

This uniform scaling also rules out CPU limitations. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K would be much smaller, because the CPU load would remain constant while the GPU load increases. Instead, the FPS halves at 4K, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking and its 24 cores at 5.50 GHz boost clock provide far more compute than Control needs, so it is not the limiting factor at any resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p, the Low preset at 130 FPS average is the only option that exceeds 120 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh monitors. However, the Medium preset at 92 FPS average (minimum 78 FPS) offers a substantial visual upgrade with only a 29.2% FPS penalty, and the minimum of 78 FPS ensures no drops below 60 FPS. The High preset at 82 FPS is also playable, but the Ultra preset at 71 FPS averages is the lowest, and the gap between High and Ultra (11 FPS) is not worth the visual difference for most players.

At 1440p, the Low preset at 98 FPS is the only one that averages above 90 FPS, but the Medium preset at 70 FPS (minimum 59 FPS) is the sweet spot for a 60 Hz display. The minimum of 59 FPS is just under 60, which could cause occasional hitches. The High preset at 62 FPS is also viable, but the Ultra preset at 54 FPS is below 60, so it is not recommended for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that Medium or High at 1440p provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate.

At 4K, the Low preset at 66 FPS average is the only one that stays above 60 FPS, making it the only playable option for a 60 Hz display. The Medium preset at 47 FPS (minimum 40 FPS) is playable but may feel sluggish in action sequences. The High preset at 42 FPS and Ultra at 36 FPS are both below 45 FPS, which is generally considered too low for a fast-paced action game like Control. Therefore, for 4K, the Low preset is the only recommendation, and even then, the 66 FPS average is not stable enough for competitive play.

The data also shows that the difference between Low and Medium is the largest performance hit at every resolution, while the difference between High and Ultra is smaller. This suggests that the Medium preset includes a significant visual feature (possibly volumetric lighting or shadow quality) that taxes the GPU heavily. For players who want a smoother experience, dropping from Medium to Low yields a 41.3% FPS increase at 1080p, 40% at 1440p, and 40.4% at 4K. Conversely, moving from High to Ultra only costs 13.4% FPS at 1080p, 12.9% at 1440p, and 14.3% at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake Refresh codename. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU is built on a 3 nm process at TSMC, with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. Its cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing 115.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, and it uses the Intel Socket 1851.

In terms of benchmark scores, the CPU achieves 44253 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2439 in single-core. In Passmark, it scores 68574 in multithread and 5068 in single-thread. It also scores 804322 in data compression and 59097 in data encryption. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 93785, puts it just below the AMD EPYC 4564P (95183, -1.5% delta) and above the Intel Xeon 6520P (93786, 0% delta). These rivals are server-class processors, not gaming CPUs, which underscores the 270K Plus's workstation-grade compute.

For Control, the CPU role is minimal because the game is GPU-bound in this combo. The measured FPS drops by roughly 49% from 1080p to 4K, which is a classic GPU-bound signature. The CPU's 24 threads and 5.50 GHz boost clock are far beyond what Control requires, as the game was released in 2019 and is not known for heavy CPU multithreading. The Passmark physics score of 4064 and the single-thread score of 5068 indicate strong per-core performance, which is what matters for game logic and draw calls.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s is ample for feeding the GPU's 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, but the dual-channel DDR5 configuration is not a bottleneck. The 36 MB of L3 cache also helps with data locality, although Control's asset streaming is more likely to stress the GPU's VRAM. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking means that in any other game, this processor would be the dominant component, but in this specific combo, the RTX 2070 SUPER's 65th percentile ranking is the clear limiting factor.

The data also shows that the CPU's nearest rivals are all EPYC or Xeon server chips, which have different performance characteristics (higher core counts but lower single-thread speeds). The 270K Plus's single-thread score of 2439 in Cinebench R23 is what drives gaming performance, and it is more than sufficient for Control. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the reason for any FPS drop; instead, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 9.062 TFLOPS FP32 compute are the constraints. If the GPU were upgraded, the CPU could easily push higher frame rates, as its compute headroom is vast.