Evolve

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 51.2 GB/s provide a solid foundation for feeding a high-end GPU in a fast-paced FPS like Evolve. The CPU's benchmark profile shows a 3DMark max-threads score of 4603 and a single-thread score of 696, indicating balanced multi-threaded and single-threaded capability. In the context of Evolve, which is a 2015 title, the game's engine is likely not optimized to use all 12 threads efficiently, so the single-thread performance becomes more critical for maintaining high frame rates.

The processor's average benchmark score of 18129 places it at the 76th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-11400, scores 18150, a delta of -0.1%, meaning the Ryzen 5 3600 is essentially neck-and-neck with that chip. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS is 0.2% ahead, while the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 is 0.2% behind. These tiny deltas indicate that the Ryzen 5 3600 sits in a very competitive performance tier. For Evolve, this means the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor at most settings, especially considering the game's age relative to the CPU's 2019 release date.

The measured FPS data supports this interpretation. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 225.7 FPS, which is high enough to suggest the CPU is keeping up with the GPU's output. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is significant — 225.7 FPS versus 126.5 FPS — but this delta is more attributable to GPU load than CPU limitations. The Ryzen 5 3600's 3DMark 16-thread score of 4605 and 8-thread score of 3844 show that it can handle substantial parallel workloads, but Evolve's engine likely benefits more from the 2-thread and 4-thread scores of 1361 and 2579, respectively, which indicate strong responsiveness in lightly-threaded scenarios.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings reveals a clear pattern for optimal gameplay. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 201.7 FPS, while High drops to 184.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 126.5 FPS. The jump from Medium to High is a 16.9 FPS loss, but the visual fidelity improvement may justify it for some players. However, the drop from High to Ultra is much steeper at 58.3 FPS, making Ultra a poor choice at 1080p unless the player prioritizes maximum eye candy over frame rate smoothness.

At 1440p, the Medium preset achieves 161.2 FPS, which is still well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on many monitors. High delivers 124.6 FPS, which is playable but slightly below that threshold. The Low preset hits 196.3 FPS, but the visual trade-off is substantial. For players with 144 Hz displays, Medium at 1440p offers the best balance, as it maintains a high frame rate while retaining more graphical detail than Low.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. Medium achieves 90 FPS, which is smooth for most players, while High drops to 70.2 FPS. Ultra falls to 48.6 FPS, which is borderline for a fast-paced FPS where quick reactions matter. Low at 118.1 FPS is playable but sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that relies on environmental awareness. The data suggests that Medium is the recommended preset at 4K, as it provides a playable frame rate without the severe visual degradation of Low. High is acceptable for players who prefer sharper textures, but the 19.8 FPS difference between Medium and High at 4K is noticeable.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data shows how the performance scales across resolutions. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 225.7 FPS at 1080p to 196.3 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of 29.4 FPS (13.0%). Moving to 4K Low, the FPS falls to 118.1, a further drop of 78.2 FPS (39.8%). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly stressed as pixel count rises, but the CPU still has headroom at 1080p and 1440p.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 201.7 FPS at 1080p, 161.2 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is 55.4% lower than the 1080p result, which is a larger percentage drop than at Low settings. This suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting component at Medium and above, as the increased graphical load from higher settings compounds with the resolution increase.

High settings show a more consistent scaling pattern: 184.8 FPS at 1080p, 124.6 FPS at 1440p, and 70.2 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 60.2 FPS (32.6%), and from 1440p to 4K is 54.4 FPS (43.7%). This non-linear scaling is typical of GPU-bound scenarios, where the rendering load increases disproportionately with resolution. The Ultra preset exhibits the most severe scaling: 126.5 FPS at 1080p, 86.4 FPS at 1440p, and 48.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 61.6% lower than 1080p Ultra, confirming that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at this preset.

The data indicates that the Ryzen 5 3600 is not the limiting factor in this combo for Evolve. The CPU's performance is sufficient to drive the GPU to its limits at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the high frame rates at those resolutions. Only at 4K with Ultra settings does the combo fall below 60 FPS, which is a GPU limitation given the RX 7900 XTX's architecture and the game's rendering demands.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Evolve to maintain a 60 FPS minimum?

A: The data shows that at 4K, even High settings (70.2 FPS) stay above 60 FPS, while Ultra (48.6 FPS) falls below. At 1440p and 1080p, all settings including Ultra (86.4 FPS and 126.5 FPS, respectively) remain above 60 FPS. Therefore, 4K High is the highest resolution and setting combination that maintains a 60 FPS average.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 3600 compare to its closest rival in overall benchmark performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 has an average benchmark score of 18129, while its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-11400, scores 18150. This represents a delta of -0.1%, meaning the two CPUs perform nearly identically. The AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS is 0.2% ahead, and the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 is 0.2% behind.

Q: Is the RX 7900 XTX's 24 GB of VRAM a factor in Evolve's performance?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 384-bit bus and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. For a 2015 game like Evolve, this VRAM capacity is far more than sufficient, as the game's textures and geometry were designed for GPUs with much less memory. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 31238, suggest that raw compute power, not VRAM, is the relevant factor.

Q: What does the combo rank of 331 out of 1695 indicate?

A: The combo rank of 331 out of 1695 means that this CPU-GPU pairing performs in the top 19.5% of all tested combinations for Evolve. This ranking places it well above average, indicating a strong overall match for the game.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XTX's performance compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 44019. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 580, scores 44195, a delta of -0.4%. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is 0.8% ahead, while the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 is 1.6% ahead. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is 2% behind.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings achieve 196.3 FPS, while Ultra achieves 86.4 FPS. This represents a difference of 109.9 FPS, meaning Ultra delivers 56.0% of Low's frame rate. This large gap highlights the significant performance cost of Ultra settings at this resolution.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process. It features a base clock of 1929 MHz, a boost clock of 2498 MHz, and a game clock of 2365 MHz. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6 memory operates at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) across a 384-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. This substantial bandwidth is critical for high-resolution rendering, as the data shows the GPU being the primary bottleneck at 4K.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial: 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS places it among the fastest consumer GPUs. In Evolve, a game from 2015, this GPU is vastly overqualified in raw terms, but the measured FPS data shows that even this hardware struggles at 4K Ultra (48.6 FPS), indicating that the game's rendering engine imposes significant overhead that is not fully mitigated by raw compute power.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its high-end positioning. Its Passmark G3D score is 31238, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6841. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 189573 and Vulkan score of 192597 show strong compute performance. The GPU's percentile rank of 85 places it in the top 15% of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 44019 is 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile and 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000. This performance tier explains why the combo achieves playable frame rates at 4K High (70.2 FPS) but falls short at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's 24 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor in Evolve, as the game's memory requirements are far below this capacity. Instead, the GPU's shading and texture processing rates are the relevant metrics. The 959.2 GTexel/s texture rate and 479.6 GPixel/s pixel rate directly influence how quickly the GPU can fill frames at high resolutions. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K aligns with these rates, showing that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of this combo's performance in Evolve across three resolutions and four settings presets.

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its highest frame rates. Low settings deliver 225.7 FPS, which is the maximum measured FPS across all configurations. Medium settings reach 201.7 FPS, a 24.0 FPS drop from Low. High settings produce 184.8 FPS, while Ultra settings fall to 126.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 99.2 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings impose a 44.0% performance penalty compared to Low. All 1080p results are well above 120 FPS, making this resolution ideal for high-refresh-rate displays.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low settings achieve 196.3 FPS, which is still excellent. Medium settings hit 161.2 FPS, a 35.1 FPS reduction from Low. High settings produce 124.6 FPS, which is above 120 FPS but below the 144 FPS threshold. Ultra settings fall to 86.4 FPS, which is the first preset in the data to drop below 100 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 109.9 FPS, with Ultra delivering 44.0% of Low's frame rate. This resolution is playable at all settings, but Ultra requires a compromise on smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings achieve 118.1 FPS, which is close to the 120 FPS mark. Medium settings reach exactly 90 FPS, providing a smooth experience for most players. High settings produce 70.2 FPS, which is above 60 FPS but may show stutter on some displays. Ultra settings fall to 48.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and not ideal for a fast-paced FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 69.5 FPS, with Ultra delivering 41.1% of Low's frame rate. This resolution is best suited to Medium settings, which offer a balance between visual quality and playability.

Across all resolutions, the data shows a consistent pattern: Ultra settings impose a severe performance penalty, while Low settings provide the highest frame rates. The combo's performance at 1080p and 1440p is sufficient for competitive play at most settings, while 4K requires dropping to Medium or High to maintain playable frame rates. The measured FPS values indicate that this CPU-GPU pairing is well-matched for Evolve, with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck only at 4K Ultra.