Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Evolve. Benchmark data shows this combination sits near the lower-middle of the performance spectrum, ranking 3151st out of 3700 tested combos. The GPU’s 6 GB of VRAM becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s six cores provide adequate headroom for this 2015 FPS title.

FAQ

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

A: At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 75 FPS on High and 96 FPS on Medium, making it the only resolution where all settings exceed 50 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low (83 FPS) and High (50 FPS) remain playable, while 3840x2160 drops below 50 FPS even on Low.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU scores 12986 on average, which is 0.4% higher than the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile and 0.4% higher than the RX 580, but 0.7% lower than the Tesla M2090. This places it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the CPU’s multi-threaded performance relative to similar chips?

A: The Ryzen 5 4600G scores 13593 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, placing it in the 71st percentile. It is 0.1% ahead of the Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE but 0.6% behind the Ryzen 3 8300GE in average benchmark score.

Q: Does the combo’s 6 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers only 20 FPS, and even Low settings yield just 47 FPS. The 192-bit memory bus and 336 GB/s bandwidth appear insufficient for 4K rendering in this title.

Q: Which preset offers the best balance at 1440p?

A: Medium at 2560x1440 provides 64 FPS average with a minimum of 55 FPS, offering smoother frame pacing than High (50 FPS) while maintaining higher visual quality than Low (83 FPS). This is the only 1440p setting with a recorded minimum above 60 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the combo at 1080p compared to 4K on High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average FPS is 75, which is 158% higher than the 29 FPS at 4K High. The scaling from 4K to 1080p is not linear, indicating a GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER operates with a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 1750 MHz, yielding 14 Gbps effective speed across a 192-bit bus, producing 336 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is the central factor in Evolve’s resolution scaling behavior.

At 1920x1080, the GPU’s 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs deliver 75 FPS on High, 96 FPS on Medium, and 123 FPS on Low. The jump from 1080p to 1440p reduces High preset performance by 33% (from 75 to 50 FPS), while Low drops 33% (from 123 to 83 FPS). Moving to 4K, High plummets to 29 FPS, suggesting the 6 GB VRAM buffer is being exceeded, forcing the GPU to rely on slower memory operations.

The GPU’s 53rd percentile ranking aligns with its position as a mid-range part from 2019. Its nearest rival, the RX 580, performs nearly identically (0.4% difference), confirming that Evolve is not particularly optimized for any specific architecture. The 157.1 GTexel/s texture rate and 85.68 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient for 1080p but struggle at 4K, where the pixel fill requirement quadruples.

For this game, the GPU is the limiting component at resolutions above 1080p. The data shows that at 4K Medium, the combo produces 37 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS, indicating frame drops below playable thresholds. The 12 nm TU116 chip, with 6,600 million transistors, does not have enough memory bandwidth to maintain fluid performance at 4K, even with reduced settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G provides six cores and twelve threads based on Zen 2 architecture, clocked at 3.70 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost. Its 8 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are adequate for a 2015 FPS title like Evolve, which was designed for earlier quad-core processors.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU’s strength in multi-threaded workloads: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 13593, while single-core reaches 1919. The PassMark multithread score of 15992 and 3DMark max threads score of 4889 indicate that the CPU has ample headroom for gaming, as Evolve likely uses fewer than six cores effectively. The 71st percentile ranking puts it above most contemporary budget processors, though its nearest rivals are all within 1% in average benchmark scores.

In actual gameplay, the CPU does not appear to bottleneck the GPU at 1080p, where the combo achieves 123 FPS on Low settings. This suggests that the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them at lower resolutions. However, at 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes, as the GPU’s memory bandwidth becomes the limiting factor. The 65 W TDP and 7 nm process node (9,800 million transistors) contribute to efficient operation, but this efficiency does not translate to higher frame rates in Evolve.

The CPU’s 12 threads are more than sufficient for this game’s workload, and the data shows no evidence of CPU-induced frame drops. The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium (81 FPS) and 1440p Medium (55 FPS) are both higher than the GPU’s average at 4K, reinforcing that the CPU is not the performance constraint in this combo.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal preset depends on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the Medium preset provides 96 FPS average with a minimum of 81 FPS, which is the best combination of smoothness and visual quality. High runs at 75 FPS, which is also playable, but Medium’s higher minimum makes it the safer choice for maintaining frame pacing during action sequences.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 64 FPS average with a 55 FPS minimum, making it the only 1440p setting that stays above 60 FPS for the average frame. High drops to 50 FPS, and while playable, it offers less margin for demanding scenes. Low runs at 83 FPS but sacrifices visual fidelity, which may not be necessary given Medium’s acceptable performance.

For 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. Low yields 47 FPS, Medium 37 FPS, High 29 FPS, and Ultra 20 FPS. If 4K is required, Low is the only viable option, but the low frame rates suggest that this resolution is not practical for this combo in Evolve. The 4K Medium preset’s minimum of 31 FPS indicates noticeable stuttering, making it unsuitable for competitive play.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. At 1080p, it produces 52 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p, it drops to 35 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 20 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra settings is disproportionate to the visual gains, particularly when Medium offers 96 FPS at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The Ryzen 5 4600G and GTX 1660 SUPER combination ranks 3151st out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 15% of all configurations. This low ranking is surprising given the individual components’ mid-range standing, suggesting that Evolve may be particularly demanding on the GPU’s memory subsystem or that the game is not well optimized for this hardware pairing.

The CPU’s 71st percentile ranking is significantly higher than the GPU’s 53rd percentile, indicating that the GPU is the weaker link in this combo for gaming purposes. In synthetic tests, the GPU’s nearest rival (RTX 3050 Ti Mobile) scores 0.4% higher, while the CPU’s nearest rival (Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE) scores 0.1% lower, confirming that both components are average for their respective categories.

The combo’s rank in this specific game is lower than would be expected from the components’ average benchmark scores alone. This discrepancy points to the game’s VRAM usage pattern, where the 6 GB buffer becomes insufficient at 4K, causing the GPU to underperform relative to its 3DMark scores. At 1080p, the combo’s performance is more in line with its ranking, achieving 123 FPS on Low, which is competitive for the hardware class.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its best results across all settings. Low settings yield 123 FPS average, Medium 96 FPS (minimum 81, maximum 110), High 75 FPS, and Ultra 52 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 71 FPS, indicating that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution but that Ultra settings impose a heavy cost.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low achieves 83 FPS, Medium 64 FPS (minimum 55, maximum 74), High 50 FPS, and Ultra 35 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low drops 33%, Medium 33%, High 33%, and Ultra 33%. This uniform scaling suggests a consistent GPU-bound workload.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles. Low produces 47 FPS, Medium 37 FPS (minimum 31, maximum 42), High 29 FPS, and Ultra 20 FPS. The 4K Medium preset’s maximum of 42 FPS is lower than the 1080p High average, showing how sharply performance degrades at this resolution. The lack of recorded minimums for Low, High, and Ultra at 4K suggests that frame pacing is inconsistent, with the GPU unable to maintain stable output.

The data reveals that the combo is capable of 60+ FPS only at 1080p on Medium and below, and at 1440p on Low. All other settings and resolutions fall below the 60 FPS threshold, with 4K being entirely unplayable for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p results in a consistent 33% FPS reduction across all settings. This uniform scaling indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to maintain frame rates if the GPU were faster. The 33% drop aligns with the pixel count increase (1080p has 2.07 million pixels vs 1440p’s 3.69 million, a 78% increase), but the FPS loss is less than the pixel increase, suggesting some efficiency gains at higher resolutions.

Moving from 1440p to 4K produces a more severe drop. High settings fall from 50 to 29 FPS (42% loss), Medium from 64 to 37 FPS (42% loss), and Low from 83 to 47 FPS (43% loss). This steeper decline indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth is exhausted at 4K, causing the frame rate to fall faster than the pixel count increase would predict. The 6 GB VRAM buffer is likely being exceeded, forcing the GPU to swap data in and out of system memory.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K on High settings shows a 61% total FPS loss (75 to 29 FPS). This is less than the 300% pixel increase, meaning the game does not scale perfectly with resolution, but the absolute performance at 4K is too low for practical use. The limiting component is clearly the GPU’s memory subsystem, as the CPU’s performance does not change with resolution and its 71st percentile ranking indicates it is not the bottleneck.

For users with 1080p displays, this combo offers a solid experience with the ability to run Medium settings at nearly 100 FPS. For 1440p displays, Medium settings are playable but require compromise. 4K displays are not recommended with this hardware for Evolve, as even Low settings fail to reach 50 FPS, and the frame pacing issues at 4K Medium (31 FPS minimum) would detract from the gameplay experience.