Evolve

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti runs Evolve comfortably across every mainstream resolution. The recorded data shows the pairing delivering 108.7 FPS at Ultra at 1920x1080, 74.4 FPS at Ultra at 2560x1440, and 61.1 FPS at High at 3840x2160, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold at each setting tier the database tracks. Evolve, a 2015 FPS, is simply not a heavy workload for an Ampere flagship, and the numbers confirm it.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 3700 tested hardware combinations in the database for Evolve, this pairing sits at rank 1029. That places it in the upper third of tested combos, which is a fair reflection of the imbalance in the build itself: the RTX 3080 Ti is an elite GPU, sitting in the 83rd percentile against all GPUs in the database, while the Core i5-9400 sits in the 47th percentile against all CPUs. The GPU is carrying far more weight than the CPU in this configuration.

That ranking also tells you what to expect in practice. Combinations ranked higher than this one typically pair the game with either a stronger CPU or a GPU even further up the stack, and for a title of this age the gains from those upgrades are marginal at best. The measured frame rates below show a setup that is already far past the playable threshold at every resolution except Ultra at 4K, where it falls just under at 41.9 FPS.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data makes the role split clear. From 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 at Ultra, average frame rates fall from 108.7 to 41.9 FPS, a drop that indicates the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution rises. This is expected behavior for a 4K transition: four times the pixels means the RTX 3080 Ti, with its 912.4 GB/s of GDDR6X bandwidth and 10240 shading units, becomes the bottleneck rather than the processor.

At 1080p the picture flips. Low settings at 1920x1080 produce 212.8 FPS, while Low at 1440p produces 177.4 FPS and Low at 4K produces 99.7 FPS. The smaller gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low compared to the gap between Medium tiers suggests the CPU begins to impose a ceiling once the GPU load lightens, and the i5-9400, with 6 cores and 6 threads running a 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clock, is a mid-tier processor by the database's own percentile ranking. For a fast FPS title where high frame rates matter, the CPU is the component most likely to cap the experience at 1080p, though the recorded maximum of 212.8 FPS is generous headroom regardless.

Between presets at a fixed resolution, the GPU dominates the delta. At 1440p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 103 FPS, from 177.4 down to 74.4. That is pure GPU workload scaling, and it confirms that settings adjustments in Evolve act almost entirely on the graphics side with this hardware.

Best Settings per Resolution

The database applies a 60 FPS playable threshold, and by that standard the best settings for each resolution are:

• 1920x1080: Ultra, 108.7 FPS average. Every preset is playable, so there is no reason to drop below the top tier.
• 2560x1440: Ultra, 74.4 FPS average. All four presets clear the threshold, with High at 107.7 FPS offering a comfortable fallback for players who want extra headroom.
• 3840x2160: High, 61.1 FPS average. High is the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS. Ultra at 4K averages 41.9 FPS, below the threshold, so Medium at 79.9 FPS is the safer choice for consistent 4K play.

The 4K result deserves a note: 61.1 FPS at High is a pass, but a narrow one. Players sensitive to dips should consider Medium at 79.9 FPS, which nearly matches the 1440p Ultra experience in frame rate while rendering at four times the pixel count.

Similar Performance Alternatives

On the CPU side, the i5-9400's nearest rivals by average benchmark score are a tight cluster: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 sits within 0.2 percent, the Intel Core i7-10710U within 0.3 percent, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 within 0.4 percent, and the Intel Core i3-10305 within 0.4 percent. Any of these processors would deliver effectively indistinguishable results in Evolve when paired with a comparable GPU, since the score deltas are under half a percent in every case.

On the GPU side, the recorded rivals are more heterogeneous but similarly close in aggregate score: the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 sits within 0.8 percent of the RTX 3080 Ti's average, the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB within 1.2 percent, the NVIDIA Tesla M40 within 1.7 percent, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 within 2 percent. A build using any of these cards in place of the 3080 Ti would land in the same performance neighborhood for this game. The presence of a newer card like the RTX 5070 in the same scoring band is worth noting, since it means comparable Evolve performance does not require this specific end-of-life flagship.

Contextualizing the components themselves: the i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake desktop processor on a 14 nm process, launched in late 2018, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 support on Socket 1151, now end-of-life. The RTX 3080 Ti is an Ampere GA102 part built on Samsung's 8 nm node with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, launched in 2021 with a launch MSRP of 1,199 USD, also now end-of-life. Its benchmark record includes a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077, a Geekbench Vulkan score of 192697, and a PassMark G3D score of 26896.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured average frame rates from the database; minimum and maximum values were not recorded for these runs.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 99.7 FPS average
• Medium: 79.9 FPS average
• High: 61.1 FPS average
• Ultra: 41.9 FPS average

4K is where the RTX 3080 Ti finally shows strain. Three of four presets clear 60 FPS, but Ultra falls well short at 41.9. The spacing between tiers is roughly 20 FPS per step, which makes preset selection the primary lever for 4K play.

2560x1440

• Low: 177.4 FPS average
• Medium: 137.5 FPS average
• High: 107.7 FPS average
• Ultra: 74.4 FPS average

1440p is the sweet spot for this combo in Evolve. Even the top preset holds a 74.4 FPS average, and dropping to High buys another 33.3 FPS. The Low result of 177.4 FPS is high enough for high-refresh 1440p displays at reduced settings.

1920x1080

• Low: 212.8 FPS average
• Medium: 191 FPS average
• High: 157.2 FPS average
• Ultra: 108.7 FPS average

At 1080p the game is fully conquered. Ultra at 108.7 FPS supports high-refresh gameplay without sacrificing image quality, and Low pushes past 200 FPS for competitive-minded players. The compression of the Low-to-Medium gap at this resolution (212.8 to 191) compared to higher resolutions points to the CPU and memory subsystem beginning to cap the ceiling, consistent with the i5-9400's mid-pack 47th percentile standing.

Across the entire matrix, the single largest setting-driven drop is the Ultra penalty at 4K, and the single safest configuration for balanced quality and frame rate is 1440p Ultra or 4K Medium. Every resolution tested has at least one preset above 60 FPS, so the answer to whether this combo can run Evolve is unqualified: yes, at every resolution, with only one settings combination falling below the threshold.

FAQ

Q: Can the i5-9400 + RTX 3080 Ti run Evolve at 4K?

A: Yes. High settings at 3840x2160 average 61.1 FPS, just above the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium averages 79.9 FPS and Low averages 99.7 FPS. Only Ultra falls short at 41.9 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings choice at 1440p?

A: Ultra, at 74.4 FPS average. All four presets are playable at 2560x1440, so the top tier is the clear pick, with High at 107.7 FPS available as a headroom option.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested pairings in Evolve?

A: Rank 1029 out of 3700 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of the database for this game.

Q: Which component limits performance in this pairing?

A: The data indicates the GPU limits performance as resolution rises, with Ultra falling from 108.7 FPS at 1080p to 41.9 FPS at 4K. At lower resolutions and settings, the i5-9400, which sits in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, is the more likely ceiling, as shown by the compressed Low-to-Medium spread at 1080p.

Q: What CPUs would perform similarly to the i5-9400 here?

A: The Intel Core i7-1068NG7, Intel Core i7-10710U, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, and Intel Core i3-10305 all sit within half a percent of the i5-9400's average benchmark score and would behave nearly identically in this game.

Q: Can this setup exceed 200 FPS at 1080p?

A: Yes. Low settings at 1920x1080 average 212.8 FPS, and Medium still averages 191 FPS, both well past the 200 and high-refresh thresholds respectively.