Evolve

FAQ

Q: What is the strongest preset this combo can run at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, only Low settings clear the 60 FPS playable threshold. The measured average at Low is 72 FPS. Medium drops to 56 FPS average, High to 44 FPS, and Ultra to 31 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 84003 on average across all benchmark tests. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83807, a delta of 0.2% — effectively a tie. The AMD EPYC 7F72 is 1.3% ahead, while the AMD EPYC 4584PX and AMD EPYC 9135 are 1.1% and 1.2% behind, respectively.

Q: What is the RTX 4060's standing among all GPUs?

A: The GPU sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17639. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 7790, scores 17666, which is 0.2% higher. The AMD Radeon 780M trails by 0.3%.

Q: Does the game favor CPU or GPU at 1080p Ultra?

A: At 1920x1080 Ultra, the combo delivers 80 FPS average. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 54 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 31 FPS. The steep decline across resolutions points to the GPU being the limiting factor at Ultra settings, since raising resolution from 1080p to 4K more than halves the frame rate.

Q: Which settings are playable at 1440p?

A: Three presets clear 60 FPS at 2560x1440: Low at 127 FPS, Medium at 99 FPS, and High at 77 FPS. Ultra falls short at 54 FPS average.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: This CPU-GPU pairing ranks 2003 out of 3700 tested combos for Evolve, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data for Evolve reveals a clear division of labor between the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. At 1920x1080, the combination produces 190 FPS on Low, 147 FPS on Medium, 115 FPS on High, and 80 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 110 FPS spread, indicating that graphics settings heavily influence performance even at the lowest resolution tested.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern persists but with compressed headroom. Low delivers 127 FPS, Medium 99 FPS, High 77 FPS, and Ultra 54 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 73 FPS. At 3840x2160, the spread tightens further: Low manages 72 FPS, Medium 56 FPS, High 44 FPS, and Ultra 31 FPS — a 41 FPS difference between the lowest and highest presets.

The scaling between resolutions tells the GPU story. At Low settings, 1080p yields 190 FPS, 1440p yields 127 FPS, and 4K yields 72 FPS. That represents a 62% drop from 1080p to 4K at the same preset. At Ultra settings, the decline is steeper in relative terms: 80 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K — a 61% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The consistent percentage drops across resolutions indicate that the RTX 4060 is the primary bottleneck, as CPU-bound scenarios would show less resolution sensitivity.

The CPU's role becomes apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 190 FPS, which is high enough that the Core Ultra 9's 24 cores and 24 threads with a 5.80 GHz boost clock can feed the GPU efficiently. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 and single-core score of 7303 place it at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, so it is unlikely to stall even at high frame rates. However, the measured FPS data shows that at 4K High, the average drops to 44 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold — a GPU limitation rather than a CPU one.

At Medium settings, the only preset with min/max data, the pattern holds. At 1080p Medium, average FPS is 147 with min 125 and max 169. At 1440p Medium, average drops to 99 with min 84 and max 114. At 4K Medium, average falls to 56 with min 48 and max 65. The min FPS at 4K Medium (48) sits well below the playable threshold, confirming that the GPU cannot sustain 60 FPS at this resolution regardless of preset except for Low.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 3840x2160, the only preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Low, with a measured average of 72 FPS. Medium averages 56 FPS, which misses the threshold. Therefore, the best playable setting at 4K is Low.

At 2560x1440, three presets exceed 60 FPS: Low at 127 FPS, Medium at 99 FPS, and High at 77 FPS. The most demanding of these that remains playable is High, averaging 77 FPS. Ultra at 54 FPS does not qualify.

At 1920x1080, all four presets clear 60 FPS. Low averages 190 FPS, Medium 147 FPS, High 115 FPS, and Ultra 80 FPS. The best setting that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 80 FPS.

The verdictByResolution data confirms these selections: best settings are Low at 4K (72 FPS), High at 1440p (77 FPS), and Ultra at 1080p (80 FPS). In each case, the chosen preset is the highest quality option that maintains at least 60 FPS average.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rival is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which scores 83807 in average benchmarks versus 84003 for the 290K Plus — a 0.2% delta, meaning the 285K would deliver virtually identical frame rates in Evolve. The AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85072, which is 1.3% higher, so it may produce marginally better CPU-bound performance at 1080p Low where frame rates are highest. The AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090, 1.1% lower) and AMD EPYC 9135 (82980, 1.2% lower) are close enough that gameplay differences would be imperceptible.

On the GPU side, the AMD Radeon HD 7790 posts an average score of 17666, which is 0.2% higher than the RTX 4060's 17639. This places the HD 7790 as the closest equivalent in raw benchmark terms, though the architecture differences are substantial. The AMD Radeon 780M scores 17588, 0.3% lower, and would behave nearly identically in Evolve. The AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551, 0.5% lower) and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17509, 0.7% lower) round out the nearby alternatives, all within 1% of the RTX 4060's performance.

When considering a full system swap, pairing a Core Ultra 9 285K with a Radeon HD 7790 would yield benchmark scores within a fraction of a percent of this combo. The measured FPS in Evolve would likely match the values in the data, given the small deltas. Similarly, any combination of the listed rival CPUs and GPUs would produce FPS figures within the margin of error of the numbers reported here.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for Evolve is 2003 out of 3700 tested configurations. This places the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and RTX 4060 in the 54th percentile of all tested combos for this game — slightly above the median. The ranking reflects the balance between a high-end CPU at the 96th CPU percentile and a midrange GPU at the 61st GPU percentile.

The rank suggests that while the CPU is overqualified for Evolve, the GPU holds the overall combo back. Many lower-ranked CPUs paired with stronger GPUs would likely outperform this combination at higher resolutions. Conversely, the CPU's strength means that at 1080p Low, where the game is less GPU-bound, this combo punches above its overall rank. The 190 FPS result at 1080p Low is competitive with systems ranked much higher, because the CPU can sustain very high frame rates without bottlenecking.

At 4K Ultra, the rank is more indicative of the experience: 31 FPS is well below playable, and the combo falls behind configurations with more powerful GPUs. The ranking of 2003 out of 3700 aligns with the overall picture: this is a capable 1080p and 1440p machine, but not a 4K performer.

The Verdict

This PC can run Evolve at 60 FPS or higher at three resolutions with specific settings. At 1920x1080, every preset — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — clears the threshold, with Ultra delivering 80 FPS average. At 2560x1440, High settings produce 77 FPS average, making it the best playable option; Low and Medium also qualify at 127 FPS and 99 FPS, respectively. At 3840x2160, only Low reaches 72 FPS average; Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below 60 FPS.

The verdictByResolution data explicitly lists the playable settings: 4K supports only Low, 1440p supports High, Low, and Medium, and 1080p supports all four presets. For users targeting 60 FPS as the minimum acceptable performance, the safe configuration is 1080p Ultra (80 FPS), 1440p High (77 FPS), or 4K Low (72 FPS). Pushing beyond these settings at each resolution will result in frame rates below 60 FPS.

The CPU is not the limiting factor in any scenario. Even at 4K Ultra, where the combo manages 31 FPS, the bottleneck is the RTX 4060's rendering throughput, not the Core Ultra 9's processing power. The data supports this conclusion because the FPS drops consistently with resolution increases at every preset, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

3840x2160

• Ultra: 31 FPS average
• High: 44 FPS average
• Medium: 56 FPS average, min 48, max 65
• Low: 72 FPS average

2560x1440

• Ultra: 54 FPS average
• High: 77 FPS average
• Medium: 99 FPS average, min 84, max 114
• Low: 127 FPS average

1920x1080

• Ultra: 80 FPS average
• High: 115 FPS average
• Medium: 147 FPS average, min 125, max 169
• Low: 190 FPS average

The Medium preset is the only one with min and max values recorded across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the range is 125 to 169 FPS, a 44 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 84 to 114 FPS, a 30 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range tightens further to 48 to 65 FPS, a 17 FPS spread. This pattern indicates that frame time variance decreases as the GPU becomes more saturated, which is consistent with a GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions.

The jump from 1080p Low (190 FPS) to 1440p Low (127 FPS) represents a 33% reduction, while the jump from 1440p Low to 4K Low (72 FPS) is a 43% reduction. The non-linear scaling reflects the increasing pixel count and the RTX 4060's 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K, the memory subsystem and shader throughput of the GPU become the binding constraints, as evidenced by the 31 FPS result at Ultra.

For users with high-refresh displays at 1080p, the data shows that Medium settings (147 FPS) and even High settings (115 FPS) are viable for frame rates above 100. At 1440p, High at 77 FPS is suitable for 60 Hz panels, while Low at 127 FPS could feed a 120 Hz display. At 4K, the 72 FPS Low result is the only option that meets the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so with a modest margin of 12 FPS.