Evolve

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 presents a fascinating case for running Evolve, a 2015 FPS that nevertheless stresses modern hardware in predictable ways. The recorded data shows a system that is clearly capable at 1080p and 1440p, but which hits a hard wall at 4K. The measurements come directly from the database, with average FPS recorded for Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets across three resolutions. Notably, no minimum or maximum FPS values were captured for any configuration, so the analysis relies entirely on average frame rates. This combination sits at rank 2873 out of 3700 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which aligns with the RTX 2060's position as a capable but not flagship GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo is overwhelmingly strong. The Low preset achieves an average of 145.8 FPS, which is more than double the 60 FPS playability threshold. Medium pushes the average to 113.1 FPS, still far above the threshold, and High delivers 90.9 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 59.0 FPS, which is just barely below the 60 FPS line. The scaling from Low to Ultra is substantial, with a drop of 86.8 FPS between the two extremes, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor at the highest settings. However, the fact that High remains comfortably above 60 FPS suggests that the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU efficiently at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers. The Low preset averages 101.0 FPS, which is still excellent for a 1440p display. Medium drops to 78.2 FPS, and High comes in at 60.2 FPS, just barely clearing the playability threshold. Ultra falls to 43.6 FPS, which is well below the threshold and indicates that the rendering load at 1440p Ultra exceeds what the RTX 2060 can manage. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 57.4 FPS, a smaller absolute drop than at 1080p, but the relative penalty is similar. The data suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading throughput are being taxed more heavily as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes critical. The Low preset averages 56.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, making even Low unplayable under the database's definition. Medium drops to 43.0 FPS, High to 33.1 FPS, and Ultra to 20.9 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a steep decline of 35.2 FPS, and every preset fails to reach 60 FPS. The 4K results confirm that the RTX 2060's 6 GB of VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for Evolve at this resolution, regardless of how much the CPU can push frames.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: High is the highest preset that clears 60 FPS, but only at 1080p and 1440p. The 4K data shows no playable settings, and the database's verdict field lists no playable settings for 3840x2160. The average FPS values at 4K are uniformly below the threshold, with the closest being Low at 56.1 FPS, a shortfall of 3.9 FPS. This is a borderline miss, but it is still a miss.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Evolve at 1920x1080 on High settings?

A: Yes. The recorded average FPS at 1080p High is 90.9, which is well above the 60 FPS playability threshold. Even Ultra at 59.0 FPS is nearly playable, though it misses the threshold by 1.0 FPS.

Q: What is the best playable preset at 2560x1440?

A: The highest preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is High, with an average of 60.2 FPS. Low and Medium also clear the threshold, with 101.0 and 78.2 FPS respectively, but High offers the best visual quality among playable options.

Q: Is 3840x2160 playable with any settings?

A: No. All four presets at 4K fall below the 60 FPS threshold. The closest is Low at 56.1 FPS, which is still 3.9 FPS short. The database lists no playable settings for 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, scores 15283, which is nearly identical. The AMD Radeon 680M scores 15270, the RTX 3050 OEM scores 15199, and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 scores 15171. The RTX 2060 is ahead of all of them, but by less than 1% in each case.

Q: What is the CPU's position relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35365. The Intel Core i7-13700T scores 35403, which is 0.1% higher. The Intel Core i5-13600T scores 35305, which is 0.2% lower. The Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35428, which is 0.2% higher, and the Intel Core i7-12700K scores 35287, which is 0.2% lower. The differences are negligible.

Q: Does the combo rank high among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2873 out of 3700 combos. This places it in the lower 22% of the database, meaning most tested combinations perform better in Evolve specifically.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is High, with an average of 90.9 FPS. Ultra is not playable because it drops to 59.0 FPS, missing the threshold by 1.0 FPS. Given that High is 30.9 FPS above the threshold, there is significant headroom, but the database's verdict field confirms High as the best playable setting.

For 2560x1440, the best playable preset is also High, with an average of 60.2 FPS. This is a razor-thin margin of just 0.2 FPS above the threshold, making it technically playable but with no safety buffer. Low at 101.0 FPS and Medium at 78.2 FPS are also playable, but High offers the highest quality while still meeting the 60 FPS requirement. The 1440p High result is the closest call in the entire dataset.

For 3840x2160, there is no best settings entry because no preset reaches 60 FPS. The database's verdict field for 4K lists no playable settings, and the best settings field is null. The closest preset is Low at 56.1 FPS, but it fails to meet the threshold. Users targeting 4K would need to consider a different GPU or accept sub-60 FPS performance.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database are all Intel parts with nearly identical average benchmark scores. The Intel Core i7-13700T scores 35403, which is 0.1% higher than the i7-12700KF's 35365. The Intel Core i5-13600T scores 35305, which is 0.2% lower. The Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35428, which is 0.2% higher, and the Intel Core i7-12700K scores 35287, which is 0.2% lower. These four CPUs would deliver essentially the same frame rates in Evolve, since the differences in synthetic benchmarks are within noise. Swapping the i7-12700KF for any of these would not change the measured FPS in a meaningful way.

The GPU's nearest rivals are more diverse. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 scores 15283, which is 0.0% different from the RTX 2060's 15290. The AMD Radeon 680M scores 15270, which is 0.1% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM scores 15199, which is 0.6% lower. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 scores 15171, which is 0.8% lower. All four rivals are within 1% of the RTX 2060's score, so any of them would produce nearly identical results in Evolve. The GTX 580, despite being an older card, is the closest match in the database, which suggests that the RTX 2060's performance in this game is not uniquely tied to its Turing architecture features like ray tracing or DLSS, which Evolve does not use. The RX 7600, a much newer card, is also within 0.8%, indicating that Evolve's engine is not particularly sensitive to modern GPU improvements.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2873 out of 3700 tested combinations in Evolve. This places it in the 22nd percentile of all tested combos, meaning 78% of tested combinations perform better. This is a relatively low rank for a system with a 12-core CPU and a dedicated GPU, but it reflects the fact that the RTX 2060 is a mid-range card by modern standards. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus is 85, meaning it outperforms 85% of all CPUs in the database, but the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 58, meaning it outperforms only 58% of all GPUs. The combo rank is closer to the GPU's percentile, which indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint in Evolve. The 59.0 FPS result at 1080p Ultra reinforces this, as the CPU is clearly capable of feeding more frames, but the GPU cannot render them.

The Verdict

The Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 can run Evolve, but only under specific conditions. At 1920x1080, the system is fully playable on Low, Medium, and High presets, with High at 90.9 FPS being the best quality option that clears the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra at 59.0 FPS is a near miss, falling 1.0 FPS short. At 2560x1440, the system is playable on Low, Medium, and High, with High at 60.2 FPS being the best setting. This is a marginal pass, with only 0.2 FPS of headroom. At 3840x2160, the system is not playable on any preset, as even Low at 56.1 FPS fails to reach 60 FPS. The verdict by resolution is clear: 1080p is the sweet spot, 1440p is possible with careful settings, and 4K is out of reach. Users who prioritize 60 FPS should stick to 1080p High or 1440p High, but should avoid Ultra at any resolution.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals a clear division of labor between the CPU and GPU in Evolve. At 1920x1080, the CPU has significant headroom. The jump from Low at 145.8 FPS to High at 90.9 FPS is a 54.9 FPS drop, which is entirely attributable to increased GPU workload. The CPU's 3dmark_max_threads score of 9983 and cinebench_r23_multicore score of 28838 indicate strong multi-threaded performance, but Evolve likely does not use all 12 cores heavily. The single-thread scores, such as 3dmark_single_thread at 1043 and cinebench_r23_singlecore at 4071, are also strong, suggesting that the CPU can handle the game's main thread without bottlenecking. The fact that 1080p Ultra still achieves 59.0 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS target, further supports the idea that the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the GPU becomes more dominant. The drop from Low at 101.0 FPS to High at 60.2 FPS represents a 40.8 FPS decrease, and Ultra falls to 43.6 FPS. The CPU's performance is identical across resolutions, so the FPS changes are driven by the GPU's rendering load. The RTX 2060's fp32 throughput of 6.451 TFLOPS and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s are the likely constraints, as Evolve's environments require substantial pixel shading and texture sampling. The 6 GB VRAM capacity is also a factor, as 1440p Ultra may exceed the available memory, causing the GPU to swap data and reduce performance.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is overwhelmingly the bottleneck. The CPU could theoretically push more frames, but the GPU's pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s is insufficient for 4K at any setting. The fact that Low at 56.1 FPS is the best result, with a 3.9 FPS shortfall, indicates that even the most aggressive reductions in visual quality cannot overcome the GPU's raw pixel throughput limitations. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is a 35.2 FPS drop, which is smaller in absolute terms than at lower resolutions, but the starting point is already too low. The GPU's bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s is also a limiting factor, as 4K requires moving much more data per frame. In summary, the CPU is more than adequate for Evolve at all resolutions, but the GPU determines playability. At 1080p, the GPU is sufficient for High but not Ultra. At 1440p, the GPU is sufficient for High by a hair. At 4K, the GPU is not sufficient for any preset.