Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a robust experience in Evolve, with the data showing a clear hierarchy across its four graphics presets. At 1080p, the Low preset reaches an average of 197.8 FPS, while Medium and High follow at 180.3 FPS and 159.7 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset drops to 109.9 FPS, which is still highly playable but represents a significant 44% reduction from the Low setting. At 1440p, the same pattern holds: Low sits at 168.8 FPS, Medium at 138.6 FPS, High at 107.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 72.5 FPS. The 4K results are where the curve steepens dramatically, with Low producing 99.6 FPS, Medium 75 FPS, High 59.9 FPS, and Ultra only 42 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly suggests that the High preset offers the optimal balance for most users. At 1080p, High delivers 159.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any high-refresh-rate monitor, while providing substantially better visual fidelity than the Low preset. The gap between High and Ultra at 1080p is 49.8 FPS (159.7 vs 109.9), indicating that Ultra exacts a heavy performance toll for its visual gains. At 1440p, High maintains 107.1 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on standard displays, and it remains competitive even for 120Hz panels. The Medium preset, meanwhile, offers 180.3 FPS at 1080p and 138.6 FPS at 1440p, which is excellent for competitive play, but the visual downgrade from High may not be worth the extra 20.6 FPS at 1080p or 31.5 FPS at 1440p.

For 4K displays, the situation is more nuanced. High produces 59.9 FPS, which is just shy of the 60 FPS target, making it a borderline choice for those who prioritize smoothness over absolute fidelity. Medium at 75 FPS is a safer bet for 4K, offering a 15.1 FPS buffer over High while still looking respectable. The Low preset at 4K (99.6 FPS) is the only way to achieve high refresh rates at this resolution, but it sacrifices most of the graphical detail that makes Evolve visually engaging. The Ultra preset at 4K (42 FPS) is simply not viable for serious play, as it falls well below the 60 FPS standard. Benchmark results indicate that High at 1080p or 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo, with Medium as a fallback for 4K users.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its memory configuration plays a critical role in the 4K results. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory bandwidth is sufficient for Evolve’s textures at 4K, as evidenced by the 59.9 FPS average at High settings. However, the drop from High to Ultra at 4K (59.9 to 42 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset pushes the GPU’s compute resources harder than its memory subsystem, given that the 17.9 FPS difference cannot be attributed to VRAM capacity alone. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz, with a base of 1920 MHz, provides the raw throughput needed to sustain high frame rates, and the 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance is clearly the limiting factor at 4K Ultra.

The relationship between VRAM and settings is evident when comparing the 1440p and 4K results. At 1440p, the RTX 4070 easily handles High (107.1 FPS) and even Ultra (72.5 FPS), indicating that the 12 GB VRAM is not saturated at this resolution. At 4K, however, the Ultra preset’s 42 FPS average suggests that the GPU is hitting a compute wall rather than a memory wall, as the 12 GB capacity is still adequate for 4K textures in a 2015 title. The GPU’s pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s are the specifications that govern these settings, and the data shows that High settings at 4K are the practical ceiling for maintaining near-60 FPS performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 571st out of 1695 tested combinations in Evolve, placing it in the 66th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking is respectable given that the Ryzen 5 2600 is an older CPU, and it indicates that the RTX 4070 is carrying most of the performance load. The CPU’s percentile vs all CPUs is 77, while the GPU’s percentile vs all GPUs is 81, which suggests a slight imbalance where the GPU is the stronger component. The combo’s mid-pack ranking is notable because it shows that the RTX 4070 can overcome the Ryzen 5 2600’s limitations in this game, which is not always the case in CPU-bound titles.

The ranking becomes more meaningful when considering the GPU’s nearest rivals. The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37283, which is 0.6% below the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507) and 1.9% below the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (38008). This places the RTX 4070 in a competitive position, and the Evolve results reflect this, as the 4K High average of 59.9 FPS is consistent with a GPU that sits just below the top tier. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-1345U, has an average score of 19691, which is 0.4% ahead of the Ryzen 5 2600’s 19616. This marginal difference suggests that the CPU is not a significant bottleneck in this game, as the measured FPS at 1080p Low (197.8) approaches the GPU’s theoretical maximum output.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the data shows a clear progression across settings. Low produces 197.8 FPS, Medium 180.3 FPS, High 159.7 FPS, and Ultra 109.9 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium costs 17.5 FPS, while Medium to High costs another 20.6 FPS, and High to Ultra costs a substantial 49.8 FPS. This pattern indicates that the Ultra preset is disproportionately expensive in performance terms. At 1440p, the results are 168.8 FPS (Low), 138.6 FPS (Medium), 107.1 FPS (High), and 72.5 FPS (Ultra). The relative drops are consistent: Low to Medium loses 30.2 FPS, Medium to High loses 31.5 FPS, and High to Ultra loses 34.6 FPS. This suggests a more linear scaling at 1440p compared to 1080p.

The 4K results are markedly different. Low averages 99.6 FPS, Medium 75 FPS, High 59.9 FPS, and Ultra 42 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 24.6 FPS, Medium to High is 15.1 FPS, and High to Ultra is 17.9 FPS. The 4K data reveals that the GPU is the primary constraint, as the frame rate drops are more uniform across settings, with no single preset causing a disproportionate hit. The 1080p Ultra result of 109.9 FPS is interesting because it is higher than the 1440p High result of 107.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s rasterization capabilities are being taxed similarly across these two configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Evolve?

A: The data shows that 1440p High provides 107.1 FPS, which is a strong balance of visual quality and performance. 1080p High offers 159.7 FPS for higher refresh rates, while 4K High drops to 59.9 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of FPS?

A: At 1080p, Ultra (109.9 FPS) is 49.8 FPS slower than High (159.7 FPS). At 1440p, the difference is 34.6 FPS (72.5 vs 107.1), and at 4K, it is 17.9 FPS (42 vs 59.9). The performance cost of Ultra diminishes as resolution increases.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 the bottleneck in this system?

A: Yes, the GPU appears to be the limiting factor. The 4K results show significant drops across all settings, and the GPU’s percentile rank (81) is higher than the CPU’s (77), indicating the GPU is the stronger component.

Q: Can this combo achieve 120 FPS at 1440p?

A: Only with the Low preset, which averages 168.8 FPS. Medium (138.6 FPS) also exceeds 120 FPS, but High (107.1 FPS) and Ultra (72.5 FPS) fall short.

Q: What settings are recommended for a 60 Hz 4K display?

A: The High preset averages 59.9 FPS, which is borderline. Medium at 75 FPS provides a safer margin, while Low at 99.6 FPS is ideal for those who prioritize frame rate stability.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 571st out of 1695 combos, placing it in the top third of all tested configurations in Evolve.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. Its 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 46.9 GB/s memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but the benchmark results indicate that it is sufficient for Evolve. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 11186, and its single-core score is 1579, which places it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. In this game, the CPU’s role is to feed the RTX 4070 with enough data to keep the GPU busy, and the measured FPS suggests it does this effectively at 1080p, where the 197.8 FPS Low result approaches the GPU’s output ceiling.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show that it is not a performance outlier. The Intel Core i5-1345U scores 19691 (0.4% higher), while the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U scores 19508 (0.6% lower). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming, and the Evolve results reflect this. At 1080p, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that the FPS scales with GPU settings rather than CPU load. However, at 4K, the CPU’s 12 threads and 6 cores are not stressed, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The CPU’s 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are adequate for this pairing, and the data suggests that upgrading the CPU would yield minimal gains in Evolve.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 159.7 at 1080p to 107.1 at 1440p (a 32.9% reduction) and then to 59.9 at 4K (a 44.1% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is being pushed harder at higher resolutions. The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 197.8 FPS at 1080p, 168.8 FPS at 1440p (14.7% drop), and 99.6 FPS at 4K (41.0% drop from 1440p). The Medium preset drops from 180.3 to 138.6 (23.1%) and then to 75 (45.9%), while Ultra falls from 109.9 to 72.5 (34.0%) and then to 42 (42.1%).

The scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4070 is the limiting component at 4K, as the frame rate drops are proportionally larger from 1440p to 4K than from 1080p to 1440p. This is particularly evident in the High preset, where the 1440p result (107.1 FPS) is 67% of the 1080p result (159.7 FPS), but the 4K result (59.9 FPS) is only 56% of the 1440p result. The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal, as the Ryzen 5 2600’s performance is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck at any resolution. The data implies that users with 4K displays should accept the High or Medium presets, while 1080p and 1440p users can enjoy high refresh rates without compromising visual quality.