Evolve

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D presents an unusual mix of a mid-range 2020 processor with a flagship 2025 graphics card. For Evolve, a 2015 FPS title, the recorded data shows that this combination delivers playable frame rates across every resolution and preset tested. At 1080p Ultra, the average sits at 162 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 65 FPS, still above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The data indicates that the GPU carries most of the load at higher resolutions, while the CPU becomes more relevant at lower settings where frame rates exceed 200 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Evolve at 60 FPS?

A: Yes. The measured data shows that every resolution and preset combination tested, from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra, maintains an average frame rate at or above 60 FPS. The lowest recorded average is 65 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra.

Q: What is the best preset at 1080p for this combo?

A: Ultra settings at 1920x1080 produce an average of 162 FPS, which is the highest settings level tested and remains far above the 60 FPS threshold. Lower presets such as High (186 FPS), Medium (203 FPS), and Low (222 FPS) all exceed this as well.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F has an average benchmark score of 14185, placing it in the 68th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6756E, scores 14163, a difference of 0.2 percent. The AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115, which is 0.5 percent lower. The Intel Core 7 160UL scores 14232, 0.3 percent higher.

Q: What is the GPU's rank among all graphics cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs based on average benchmark scores. Its average benchmark score is 77712. The closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, scores 76904, which is 1.1 percent lower.

Q: Does the GPU bottleneck the CPU at any resolution?

A: The data does not indicate a bottleneck. At 4K, the frame rates scale consistently with settings, from 65 FPS at Ultra to 154 FPS at Low. At 1080p, the spread is narrower, from 162 FPS at Ultra to 222 FPS at Low, suggesting the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output even at lower resolutions.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested combinations in the database?

A: For Evolve, this CPU and GPU pair ranks 336th out of 3700 tested combos, placing it in roughly the top 9 percent of all recorded configurations.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the Intel Core i5-10400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D becomes clear when examining frame rates across resolutions and presets. At 3840x2160, the GPU is the dominant factor. The average frame rate moves from 65 FPS at Ultra to 94 FPS at High, then to 120 FPS at Medium, and finally to 154 FPS at Low. That is a 2.4x increase from Ultra to Low, driven almost entirely by the graphics card's workload reduction. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, has less influence at this resolution because the GPU is already producing high frame rates that do not stress the processor's single-thread performance.

At 2560x1440, the scaling is less dramatic but still shows the GPU's importance. Ultra averages 114 FPS, High reaches 162 FPS, Medium hits 177 FPS, and Low tops out at 194 FPS. The jump from Ultra to Low is roughly 1.7x, indicating that the GPU still has headroom, but the CPU begins to play a larger role as resolution drops and frame rates climb. The difference between Medium and Low at 1440p is only 17 FPS, suggesting that the CPU's ability to feed the GPU becomes a limiting factor at very high frame rates.

At 1920x1080, the CPU's role becomes more apparent. Ultra averages 162 FPS, High reaches 186 FPS, Medium hits 203 FPS, and Low peaks at 222 FPS. The gap between Ultra and Low is 60 FPS, a 1.37x increase. Interestingly, the gap between Medium and Low is only 19 FPS, and the gap between High and Low is 36 FPS. This compression at the top end indicates that the Core i5-10400F, with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz and a single-thread benchmark score of 688 in 3dmark, starts to limit the GPU's potential. The RTX 5090 D, with its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute, could likely produce even higher frame rates at Low settings if paired with a stronger CPU, but the measured data shows 222 FPS as the ceiling for this combo.

The scaling between resolutions confirms this pattern. At Ultra settings, moving from 1080p (162 FPS) to 1440p (114 FPS) results in a 30 percent drop, and moving to 4K (65 FPS) results in a 60 percent drop from 1080p. These reductions are typical of GPU-bound workloads. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p (222 FPS) to 1440p (194 FPS) is only 13 percent, and to 4K (154 FPS) is 31 percent. The smaller relative drops at Low settings indicate that the CPU is holding the GPU back at lower resolutions, preventing it from scaling to even higher frame rates. Overall, the GPU matters more at 4K and Ultra presets, while the CPU becomes the limiting factor at 1080p Low, where the frame rate ceiling is set by the processor's multi-thread performance.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i5-10400F, based on average benchmark scores, offer a range of alternatives with nearly identical computational performance. The Intel Xeon 6756E scores 14163, just 0.2 percent lower than the i5-10400F's 14185. This server-grade chip would behave similarly in Evolve, though its platform requirements differ. The AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115, 0.5 percent lower, and represents another server option. On the consumer side, the Intel Core 7 160UL scores 14232, 0.3 percent higher, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, 0.6 percent higher. These four rivals bracket the i5-10400F's performance within a narrow 1.1 percent range, meaning any of them would produce frame rates within a few percent of those recorded for this combo. For gaming at 1080p, where the CPU matters most, users could expect similar results from any of these processors.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, the nearest rivals are all within a 3.5 percent band of its average benchmark score of 77712. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT scores 76904, which is 1.1 percent lower. Despite being a mobile-oriented part, it would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Evolve. The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78940, 1.6 percent higher, offering a slight edge. Two NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants, one with 12 GB and one with 16 GB, score 79396 and 79605 respectively, 2.1 and 2.4 percent higher. These Tesla cards, designed for compute rather than gaming, would still produce similar results in this title given their comparable raw scores. In practice, any of these GPUs paired with the i5-10400F would yield frame rates within a few FPS of the measured values, with the RX 6850M XT and Tesla P100 models potentially averaging 1 to 2 FPS higher at each preset.

It is notably the RTX 5090 D's nearest rivals are not modern gaming flagships. The database's recorded scores place it alongside these mid-range and older compute cards, which suggests that average benchmark scores do not fully capture the 5090 D's gaming strengths. In Evolve, the measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (65 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (162 FPS) indicate that even a 1.1 percent slower GPU would still comfortably exceed 60 FPS at every setting. The practical difference between the 5090 D and its nearest rivals is negligible for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 336 out of 3700 tested configurations places this pairing in the top 9.1 percent of all recorded CPU and GPU combinations for Evolve. This rank reflects the combined strength of both components, but the GPU contributes more to this position. The RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile standing among all GPUs is the primary driver, while the i5-10400F's 68th percentile among CPUs is secondary. The rank suggests that while this combo is not near the top of the database, it outperforms the vast majority of tested systems.

To contextualize the rank, consider that 336 out of 3700 means 3364 other combos are slower, and only 335 are faster. The faster combos likely pair newer high-end CPUs with the RTX 5090 D or similar GPUs, avoiding the CPU bottleneck observed at 1080p Low. At 4K, however, the i5-10400F's lower CPU score has less impact, and the combo's rank is likely higher in GPU-bound scenarios. The recorded data does not break down the rank by resolution, but the frame rate scaling suggests that at 4K Ultra, this combo would compete with systems using faster CPUs, as the GPU is the sole bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the CPU's limitation becomes visible, and the combo would rank lower relative to systems with stronger processors.

Another way to interpret the rank is through the playable threshold. The database defines 60 FPS as playable. This combo clears that threshold at every resolution and preset, including the most demanding 4K Ultra setting. That means the rank of 336 is achieved while maintaining playability in all scenarios, which is a stronger result than a combo that ranks higher but fails to hit 60 FPS in some configurations. The data shows that Evolve is not a particularly demanding title for this hardware, and the combo's rank is more a reflection of the CPU's mid-range standing than any deficiency in the GPU.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Evolve? The recorded data answers affirmatively for all tested scenarios. At 3840x2160, the verdict lists High, Low, Medium, and Ultra as playable settings, all with average frame rates at or above 65 FPS. The Ultra preset, the most demanding, averages 65 FPS, which is 5 FPS above the 60 FPS playability threshold. At 2560x1440, all four presets are playable, with Ultra averaging 114 FPS and Low reaching 194 FPS. At 1920x1080, the same pattern holds, with Ultra at 162 FPS and Low at 222 FPS. There is no resolution or preset in the measured data that falls below 60 FPS.

The practical verdict is that this system provides a smooth experience across the board, but with caveats. At 4K Ultra, the 65 FPS average leaves little headroom for demanding scenes or background processes. The minimum FPS is not recorded for Ultra at 4K, so transient drops below 60 FPS are possible, though the average suggests they are unlikely to be frequent. At 1440p and 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that even significant drops would remain above the playability threshold. The 1080p Ultra average of 162 FPS is more than enough for high-refresh-rate monitors, while the 1440p Ultra average of 114 FPS suits 120 Hz displays.

The CPU's age does not prevent playability, but it does cap the maximum frame rates at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 222 FPS average is likely close to the limit of what the i5-10400F can feed to the RTX 5090 D. Users seeking maximum frame rates at 1080p for competitive play would find this combo adequate, but a newer CPU would push higher. For 4K gaming, the CPU is largely irrelevant, and the GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensure that Evolve's textures and geometry load without issue. Overall, this combo is a capable 60 FPS system at all settings, with the GPU doing the heavy lifting at higher resolutions.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that holds an average frame rate at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 65 FPS. High averages 94 FPS, Medium averages 120 FPS, and Low averages 154 FPS, but Ultra is the recommended choice since it delivers the maximum visual quality while remaining playable. The 65 FPS average provides a marginal buffer above the 60 FPS threshold, so users who prefer extra headroom might consider High at 94 FPS, but the data confirms Ultra is playable.

At 2560x1440, Ultra is again the best preset, averaging 114 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and offers a comfortable margin for demanding scenes. High averages 162 FPS, Medium 177 FPS, and Low 194 FPS, but none of these provide a visual quality advantage over Ultra that would justify sacrificing details. The 114 FPS average at Ultra is sufficient for most high-refresh-rate displays, though users with 240 Hz monitors might drop to High for a 48 FPS increase.

At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 162 FPS, making it the clear choice for the best settings. This is more than double the playability threshold and provides a buttery-smooth experience. High averages 186 FPS, Medium 203 FPS, and Low 222 FPS, but the visual improvements from Ultra are substantial, and the frame rate remains high enough for all but the most demanding esports scenarios. For users with 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors, Ultra is ideal. For those with 240 Hz or higher refresh rates, dropping to Medium or Low could yield higher frame rates, but the data shows that Ultra is the most demanding preset that stays above 60 FPS, and it does so with a wide margin.