Evolve

The pairing of Intel's Core i5-9400 with AMD's Radeon RX 9070 is an unusual one for a 2015 release like Evolve: a six-core Coffee Lake CPU sitting in the 47th percentile of all processors in the database, feeding a modern RDNA 4 GPU in the 69th percentile. The mismatch is stark in principle, but the recorded data shows the game runs well anyway, with playable results at every resolution tested and maxed-out settings viable at two of the three.

Best Settings per Resolution

The recorded measurements define "best" as the most demanding preset that holds at or above the 60 FPS threshold, and the results favor the GPU heavily.

At 1920x1080, the answer is Ultra, with an average of 104 FPS. Nothing else needs to be considered here: even the top preset clears the threshold by a wide margin, with headroom to spare.

At 2560x1440, Ultra again qualifies, averaging 70 FPS. That is a comfortable result for a 60 FPS target, though the margin narrows compared to full HD.

At 3840x2160, Ultra falls short at 40 FPS average, and High also misses at 57 FPS. Medium is the best playable preset, delivering 73 FPS on average with a recorded minimum of 62 and a maximum of 84. That minimum figure matters: it confirms the framerate stays above the threshold even at the worst recorded moments, not just on average.

CPU and GPU Roles

Evolve is a game from early 2015, and its demands reflect that era. The scaling data makes the division of labor clear.

From 1920x1080 Ultra to 3840x2160 Ultra, the average falls from 104 FPS to 40 FPS, a drop of roughly 62 percent when pixel count quadruples. The same pattern holds at every preset: Medium goes from 191 to 73 FPS, High from 150 to 57, Low from 212 to 94. When framerates scale this sharply with resolution, the GPU is the limiting component, and the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher settings.

The counter-evidence appears at 1080p Low, where the average tops out at 212 FPS rather than climbing higher. That ceiling is consistent with a processor limit: the Core i5-9400, with six cores and six threads, a 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.10 GHz boost, eventually runs out of ability to feed the RX 9070 frames to draw. For practical play at 60 FPS, though, this is irrelevant. The i5-9400's single-core results (392 in Cinebench R20, 935 in R23, 1389 in Geekbench) are more than sufficient for a title of this vintage, and the game never pushes the CPU hard enough to matter at playable settings.

In short: at 1080p the CPU can become the limit only at extreme framerates on minimal settings, while at 1440p and 4K the RX 9070 does all the governing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are recorded averages from the database; minimum and maximum values are available only for Medium preset runs.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 94 FPS average
• Medium: 73 FPS average, 62 minimum, 84 maximum
• High: 57 FPS average
• Ultra: 40 FPS average

The 4K picture splits cleanly in half. Low and Medium clear the 60 FPS bar; High and Ultra do not. The Medium run's minimum of 62 FPS is the tightest squeeze in the entire dataset, sitting just two frames above the threshold, while its maximum of 84 shows the range the engine moves through. High at 57 is close enough that a player less strict about the threshold might accept it, but by the recorded standard it misses.

2560x1440

• Low: 166 FPS average
• Medium: 128 FPS average, 109 minimum, 148 maximum
• High: 101 FPS average
• Ultra: 70 FPS average

Every preset is playable at 1440p. Even Ultra's 70 FPS average clears the threshold, and Medium's floor of 109 FPS means the framerate never comes close to dropping below smooth territory. High at 101 FPS is arguably the sweet spot for players who want strong image quality with a large performance cushion.

1920x1080

• Low: 212 FPS average
• Medium: 191 FPS average, 163 minimum, 220 maximum
• High: 150 FPS average
• Ultra: 104 FPS average

Full HD is trivial for this hardware. Ultra averages 104 FPS, and the Medium run never dips below 163. The Low result of 212 FPS represents the practical ceiling of the configuration, where the Core i5-9400 rather than the RX 9070 sets the pace.

Across all twelve measurements, the spread between the best and worst results is enormous: 212 FPS at 1080p Low versus 40 FPS at 4K Ultra, a difference of more than a factor of five. That spread belongs almost entirely to the GPU side of the equation.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For readers assembling a system that behaves similarly in Evolve, the database's nearest-rival data points to direct substitutes on both sides.

On the CPU side, the Core i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 places it in a cluster of processors separated by fractions of a percent. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259, just 0.2 percent higher. The Intel Core i7-10710U sits at 2248, 0.3 percent lower. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 averages 2246, 0.4 percent below. The Intel Core i3-10305, at 2264, is 0.4 percent ahead. Any of these would deliver functionally identical framerates in a game where the CPU is rarely the constraint; the choice between them would come down to platform factors rather than Evolve performance.

On the GPU side, the RX 9070's average score of 23877 has its own tight neighborhood. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z averages 23736, 0.6 percent behind. The AMD Radeon RX 6800S scores 24063, 0.8 percent ahead. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile averages 23628, 1.1 percent behind, and the RTX 2080 SUPER leads at 24170, 1.2 percent up. All five cards would produce framerates within a frame or two of each other at any given preset and resolution in this title.

The RX 9070 itself is a 2025 release on TSMC's 4 nm process, built on the Navi 48 chip with 3584 shading units, 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, and 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. Its Passmark G3D score of 25381 and 3DMark Steel Nomad result of 6290 place it well above what a 2015 shooter requires, which is why the older neighboring cards also clear the bar.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 3700 hardware combinations tested in Evolve, the Core i5-9400 plus RX 9070 ranks 1211th. That places it in the top third of tested pairings, which tracks with what the raw numbers show: strong, consistent playability, but not record-setting performance for this title.

The rank reflects the CPU's mid-pack standing more than the GPU's. A faster processor would likely push the 1080p framerates higher and lift the combo's standing, but at the 60 FPS standard the results would look identical to the player. The RX 9070's 69th percentile standing among GPUs does the heavy lifting at 1440p and 4K, where the ranking was earned.

It is worth noting the generational spread here: a 2018 processor paired with a 2025 graphics card, running a game released in 2015. The database shows this works, but the ranking confirms the CPU is what keeps the combination from climbing higher.

FAQ

Q: Can the Core i5-9400 and RX 9070 run Evolve at 4K?

A: Yes, with settings adjustments. At 3840x2160, Medium is the best playable preset, averaging 73 FPS with a minimum of 62. High (57 FPS) and Ultra (40 FPS) both fall below the 60 FPS threshold, while Low averages 94 FPS.

Q: What is the highest settings preset this combo can use at 1440p?

A: Ultra. At 2560x1440 it averages 70 FPS, clearing the threshold. Every other preset is also playable, ranging up to 166 FPS at Low.

Q: Does the Core i5-9400 bottleneck the RX 9070 in this game?

A: Only at very high framerates on low settings at 1080p, where the average caps at 212 FPS. At normal settings and higher resolutions, framerates scale sharply with resolution (104 FPS at 4K Ultra down from 150 FPS at 1080p High when moving to 4K), indicating the GPU, not the CPU, is the limiting factor.

Q: How does this combination rank against other tested pairings for Evolve?

A: It ranks 1211th out of 3700 tested combinations, placing it in the top third.

Q: Which alternative CPUs would perform the same in this game?

A: The nearest rivals by average score are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2 percent faster), Intel Core i7-10710U (0.3 percent slower), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (0.4 percent slower), and Intel Core i3-10305 (0.4 percent faster). All would be effectively interchangeable here.

Q: Which GPUs would give similar framerates?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z, AMD Radeon RX 6800S, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER all sit within 1.2 percent of the RX 9070's average benchmark score and would deliver near-identical results in Evolve.