Evolve

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a performance profile that scales predictably across Evolve’s preset ladder, with the data showing a clear tipping point between playable and unplayable territory depending on resolution. At 4K, the combo only clears the 60 FPS threshold on Low settings, while at 1440p it manages High, and at 1080p it can handle Ultra without dipping below the playable line. The measured FPS values—all averaged, with no min or max recorded—reveal a system that is consistently GPU-bound at higher resolutions but transitions into a more balanced state as pixel count drops.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the frame rate collapses under the weight of higher presets. Low settings produce an average of 61.9 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration that reaches the 60 FPS target. Medium drops to 46.0 FPS, High falls further to 38.7 FPS, and Ultra plunges to 24.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is substantial—37.3 FPS—indicating that the RX 6600 XT’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are overwhelmed by the most demanding settings at this resolution. The data shows a steep, near-linear decline: each preset step costs roughly 12-13 FPS, which suggests that the GPU’s shading units (2048) and texture units (128) are saturating quickly as visual complexity increases.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but with higher absolute numbers. Low delivers a strong 105.0 FPS average, Medium maintains 82.1 FPS, and High stays comfortably playable at 65.9 FPS. Ultra, however, breaks the chain with 43.5 FPS—a 22.4 FPS drop from High. This cliff is notable because it represents a 34% performance loss for what is typically a marginal visual upgrade. The 1440p results indicate that the combo has headroom at lower presets, but Ultra demands more from the RDNA 2.0 architecture than the 160 W TDP card can consistently provide.

At 1920x1080, the picture changes completely. Low runs at 158.5 FPS, Medium at 126.5 FPS, High at 98.5 FPS, and Ultra at 67.7 FPS. Every preset clears the 60 FPS threshold, and even the most demanding setting leaves 7.7 FPS of margin. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 90.8 FPS, which shows that the CPU—with its 6 cores and 12 threads boosting to 4.40 GHz—is not the limiting factor here; the GPU has enough pixel throughput to handle the full preset range. The data suggests that at 1080p, the RX 6600 XT’s 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 compute is the dominant force, while at 4K, the 128-bit memory bus becomes a bottleneck.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results across resolutions point to a system where the GPU is the primary constraint at high pixel counts, but the CPU’s role becomes more visible as resolution decreases. At 3840x2160, the difference between Low and Ultra is 37.3 FPS, which is almost entirely attributable to GPU workload—the i5-12400’s single-thread score of 910 in 3dmark and 3456 in Passmark is more than sufficient for Evolve’s FPS genre demands. The 4K Low result of 61.9 FPS versus the 1080p Ultra result of 67.7 FPS is telling: even at vastly different settings, the frame rates converge, indicating that the GPU is operating near its ceiling in both scenarios.

Scaling from 1440p to 1080p reveals the CPU’s contribution. At 1440p High, the average is 65.9 FPS; at 1080p High, it jumps to 98.5 FPS—a 49.5% improvement. This 32.6 FPS gain from reducing resolution by 36% (in pixel count) suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU faster than the GPU can render at 1440p, but at 1080p, the GPU is no longer waiting on pixel fill. The i5-12400’s multi-thread score of 15989 in Cinebench R23 and 18747 in Passmark multi-thread provides ample headroom for Evolve’s game logic, which is not particularly thread-hungry given its 2015 release date.

Preset scaling further clarifies the split. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 90.8 FPS, but the CPU’s 3dmark 16-thread score of 5873 remains constant across all settings. This implies that the CPU is not the bottleneck at 1080p—the GPU’s 64 ROPs and 331.4 GTexel/s texture rate are the deciding factors. Conversely, at 4K, the same preset change costs only 37.3 FPS, which is a smaller absolute drop because the GPU is already saturated at Low. The data indicates that Evolve at 4K is a pure GPU test, while at 1080p, the system behaves like a balanced gaming machine where both components contribute without either becoming a hard limit.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 3840x2160, the only playable option is Low, which averages 61.9 FPS. This is the single preset that stays at or above the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so with only 1.9 FPS of margin. Medium at 46.0 FPS is not viable, and High at 38.7 FPS is far too demanding. The verdict data confirms this: Low is the designated best setting at 4K, with no other preset qualifying as playable.

At 2560x1440, the most demanding preset that maintains 60 FPS is High, averaging 65.9 FPS. This leaves a 5.9 FPS buffer, which is comfortable but not excessive. Medium runs faster at 82.1 FPS, and Low is even quicker at 105.0 FPS, but High offers the best visual quality without sacrificing playability. Ultra at 43.5 FPS is disqualified, so High represents the ceiling for this resolution.

At 1920x1080, Ultra is the top choice, delivering 67.7 FPS. This is the only resolution where the full preset range is accessible—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra all clear 60 FPS. Ultra’s 7.7 FPS margin over the threshold is the smallest among the playable settings, but it is still sufficient. The data shows that 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, allowing maximum visual fidelity without needing to compromise on settings.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Intel Core i5-12400 sits close to the AMD EPYC 7643, which has an average score of 18697 against the i5-12400’s 18683—a negligible 0.1% difference. This means that in Evolve, a system with an EPYC 7643 would produce nearly identical frame rates at all resolutions, assuming the same GPU. The Intel Core i7-1355U is 0.3% faster on average, and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 is 0.7% faster, but these deltas are within run-to-run variance. The Intel Core i3-14100F is 0.9% slower, which would translate to roughly 1 FPS lower at 1080p Ultra, imperceptible in practice.

For the GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT’s average benchmark score of 24442 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (24277, 0.7% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (24236, 0.8% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24170, 1.1% slower). The Intel Arc A350M is 0.8% faster. In practical terms, swapping the RX 6600 XT for any of these GPUs would result in frame rate differences of less than 1 FPS at any given preset and resolution. The RTX 2080 SUPER, despite being a higher-tier card in other contexts, scores nearly identically in the aggregate benchmark data, suggesting that Evolve’s workload does not benefit from features like ray tracing or tensor cores, which the RX 6600 XT lacks.

The Verdict

This PC can run Evolve, but the experience depends entirely on resolution. At 1920x1080, the combo clears 60 FPS on every preset—Low at 158.5 FPS, Medium at 126.5 FPS, High at 98.5 FPS, and Ultra at 67.7 FPS—making it fully playable at the highest settings. At 2560x1440, High is the best playable option at 65.9 FPS, with Medium and Low also viable; Ultra is not playable at 43.5 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low at 61.9 FPS passes the threshold, and even then, the margin is razor-thin. The verdict data confirms these conclusions: 1080p offers the full preset range, 1440p offers three playable presets, and 4K offers just one. For a game from 2015, this is respectable performance, but the 4K Ultra result of 24.6 FPS shows that modern resolutions are too demanding for this GPU’s 8 GB frame buffer and 128-bit bus.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest playable preset at 3840x2160?

A: Low is the only playable preset at 4K, averaging 61.9 FPS. Medium drops to 46.0 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Can this combo run Evolve at 1440p on Ultra settings?

A: No. Ultra at 2560x1440 averages 43.5 FPS, which is 16.5 FPS below the playable threshold. High at 65.9 FPS is the best playable option.

Q: How much faster is the RX 6600 XT compared to the GTX 1630 in this game?

A: The RX 6600 XT has an average benchmark score of 24442, while the GTX 1630 scores 24277. The RX 6600 XT is 0.7% faster, which would translate to less than 1 FPS difference in Evolve.

Q: Does the i5-12400 bottleneck the RX 6600 XT at 1080p?

A: No. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 67.7 FPS, and the CPU’s single-thread score of 3456 in Passmark indicates sufficient headroom. The GPU is the limiting factor, as shown by the 90.8 FPS spread between Low and Ultra presets.

Q: What is the lowest playable FPS margin across all resolutions?

A: The smallest margin is at 4K Low, which averages 61.9 FPS—just 1.9 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1080p Ultra, the margin is 7.7 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Evolve?

A: It ranks 2672 out of 3700 tested combos, placing it in the 27.8th percentile of all systems tested for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination ranks 2672 out of 3700 tested combos for Evolve, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This ranking reflects the GPU’s 70th percentile standing among all GPUs and the CPU’s 72nd percentile among all CPUs, but the combined score does not simply average these—the measured FPS data shows that the GPU dominates performance at higher resolutions, which drags the overall rank down relative to combos with stronger graphics cards. The 4K Ultra result of 24.6 FPS is particularly damaging, as it places this system well behind any combo that can handle 4K at higher settings. However, the 1080p Ultra result of 67.7 FPS demonstrates that this is a competent 1080p machine, and the rank reflects that mixed capability. In the context of the 3700 tested systems, this combo is neither a top performer nor a weak one—it sits in the 27.8th percentile, meaning roughly 72% of tested systems are faster in Evolve, but it still provides a playable experience at 1080p and 1440p with appropriate settings.