Evolve

Evolve, the 2015 asymmetric FPS, presents a punishing workload for the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti pairing. The measured data reveals a system that is fundamentally constrained by its graphics card at every resolution, with the CPU’s substantial headroom left largely untapped. This combination ranks near the very bottom of all tested configurations, indicating that while the processor is modern and capable, the legacy GPU anchors the entire experience to playability levels that range from marginal to outright slideshow.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 exposes a severe performance cliff that is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 38 FPS at 1080p to 25 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 34.2%. Pushing further to 4K at High settings yields just 14 FPS, representing a 63.2% collapse from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the GTX 1050 Ti’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are being overwhelmed as the resolution increases, with the 4 GB GDDR5 frame buffer and 112.1 GB/s bus becoming the primary limiting factors.

The scaling behavior across all settings confirms this analysis. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 62 FPS at 1080p to 42 FPS at 1440p (a 32.3% drop) and then to 24 FPS at 4K (a 61.3% drop from 1080p). The nearly identical percentage losses between High and Low settings suggest that the GPU is saturated regardless of the visual complexity being rendered. The data shows that the Ryzen 5 5500X3D, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is not the bottleneck here; if it were, the frame rate would remain more constant across resolutions as the GPU workload increases.

The most telling evidence comes from the Ultra preset, which at 4K produces an average of just 10 FPS. This is a 61.5% drop from the 26 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. The gap between Medium and Ultra at 4K is also stark: 18 FPS versus 10 FPS, a 44.4% reduction for what is likely a modest increase in visual fidelity. The GTX 1050 Ti’s 2.138 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 44.54 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in this title, regardless of the CPU’s readiness.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured results, the optimal settings for this combo are heavily dependent on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 62 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches a smooth, competitive experience. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS, which is playable but with noticeable dips. High at 1080p drops to 38 FPS, and Ultra falls to 26 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for a fluid FPS experience.

For 2560x1440, the data strongly suggests that Low is the only viable option, producing 42 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p manages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS, which may be tolerable for slower-paced moments but will feel stuttery during combat. High at 1440p drops to 25 FPS, and Ultra is essentially unplayable at 17 FPS. At 3840x2160, no settings preset achieves a playable frame rate; the best case is Low at 24 FPS, with Medium at 18 FPS, High at 14 FPS, and Ultra at 10 FPS.

The recommendation is clear: for this combination, 1080p with Low settings is the only configuration that provides a consistently smooth frame rate above 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p is a compromise for those who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, but the minimum FPS of 41 indicates potential drops during intense monster encounters. At higher resolutions, users must accept that the experience will be a slide show, and the data does not support any settings adjustment that would salvage playability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the definitive performance ceiling for this system. Its specifications—768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 32 ROPs—are from the Pascal architecture on a 14 nm process, and they are woefully outdated for a 2015 title running on modern hardware. The GPU’s 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 112.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical constraint at higher resolutions where texture data exceeds this capacity. The benchmark results reflect this: the GPU’s percentile rank among all GPUs is only 25, placing it in the bottom quarter of the tested database.

The clock speeds of 1291 MHz base and 1392 MHz boost are modest, and the GPU’s average benchmark score of 4193 places it in direct competition with integrated and entry-level mobile parts. The nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R5 M330 (score 4170, a 0.6% delta) and the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M (score 4151, a 1% delta), confirming that the GTX 1050 Ti’s performance class is that of a low-end legacy part. Its DirectX 12 score of 26 and DirectX 11 score of 45 in Passmark are indicative of its struggles with modern API workloads, which is directly relevant to Evolve’s engine demands.

The GPU’s launch MSRP is 139 USD, and it is marked as end-of-life, with a successor in the GeForce 20 series. This context is essential: the hardware is not merely old, it is architecturally incapable of handling the shading and fill-rate requirements of this game at any resolution above 1080p with playable frame rates. The data shows that the GTX 1050 Ti is the sole reason for the system’s poor scaling and low absolute scores.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Evolve, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti ranks 2833 out of 2872 total combos. This places it in the bottom 1.4% of all tested configurations, a catastrophic result that underscores the mismatch between the modern CPU and the ancient GPU. The rank of 2833 means that only 39 other combinations perform worse, and those are almost certainly pairing similarly weak GPUs with even older or less capable processors.

This low ranking is entirely attributable to the GPU. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D itself is a high-performing part, with an average benchmark score of 37018 and a percentile rank of 85 among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (score 36945, a 0.2% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (score 36938, a 0.2% delta), indicating that the CPU is competitive with modern mid-range processors. However, when paired with a GPU that scores in the 25th percentile, the combined system is dragged down to the bottom of the rankings.

The data suggests that if the GTX 1050 Ti were replaced with a GPU even one tier higher, the combo rank would improve dramatically. The bottleneck is so severe that the CPU’s 96 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are irrelevant to the final frame rate. The delta between the CPU’s high percentile and the combo’s low percentile is the clearest possible indication that the graphics card is the sole limiting component, and any analysis of this system’s performance must center on that fact.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a Zen 3 (Vermeer) part on the 7 nm process, with 6 cores and 12 threads. Its base clock of 3.00 GHz and boost clock of 4.00 GHz are competitive, and its 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a significant asset for gaming workloads that benefit from large pools of fast memory. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong across the board: a Passmark multithread score of 20363, a single-thread score of 2941, and a physics score of 2282. These numbers place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, indicating that it is more than capable of feeding any modern GPU.

However, in Evolve, the CPU’s role is almost entirely passive. The measured frame rates are so low that the CPU never becomes a limiting factor. At 1080p Low with 62 FPS, the CPU has ample headroom to process game logic and physics. The Passmark data compression score of 230392 and integer math score of 60033 suggest that the CPU can handle complex calculations without breaking a sweat, but the GPU’s rendering pipeline is the bottleneck that caps the frame rate.

The CPU’s TDP of 105 W and socket AMD AM4 compatibility make it a drop-in upgrade for many existing systems, but in this specific combo, that potential is squandered. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, has a nearly identical average score (36945 vs 37018, a 0.2% delta), which means the 5500X3D’s performance is typical for its class. The data shows that the CPU is not the issue; rather, the GTX 1050 Ti’s 14 nm process and 3,300 million transistors are simply too few to render Evolve’s environments at acceptable speeds.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear hierarchy of settings. Low produces an average of 62 FPS, the only preset to exceed 60. Medium averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 and a maximum of 55, indicating a playable but variable experience. High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra averages 26 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 14 FPS (22.6%), while the gap between Medium and High is 10 FPS (20.8%), and between High and Ultra is 12 FPS (31.6%). This suggests that each settings tier has a significant cost, and the GPU’s limited compute resources are heavily taxed by even moderate increases in visual effects.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute values. Low averages 42 FPS, Medium averages 32 FPS (minimum 27, maximum 37), High averages 25 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low drops 32.3%, Medium drops 33.3%, High drops 34.2%, and Ultra drops 34.6%. This uniformity is a hallmark of a GPU-bound workload, where the resolution increase directly scales the number of pixels that the GTX 1050 Ti must process.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low averages 24 FPS, Medium averages 18 FPS (minimum 16, maximum 21), High averages 14 FPS, and Ultra averages 10 FPS. The minimum FPS of 16 at Medium settings is particularly telling, as it indicates that even the most conservative preset cannot maintain a stable frame rate at 4K. The data at 4K shows a 40% drop from Low to Medium, a 22.2% drop from Medium to High, and a 28.6% drop from High to Ultra. These steep declines at the highest resolution confirm that the GPU’s 4 GB memory buffer is being exhausted, leading to texture thrashing and catastrophic frame time spikes.