Evolve

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces a fascinating dataset for Evolve, a 2015 FPS title. The benchmark results reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but exposes significant CPU limitations at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates to explain where the bottleneck lies and what it means for gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frames per second (FPS) show a pronounced and predictable drop as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop is highly dependent on the graphics preset. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 sees average FPS fall from 325.1 to 250.8, a reduction of 74.3 FPS (22.9%). Moving from 1440p to 3840x2160 at Low settings brings the average down further to 145.1 FPS, a steep 105.7 FPS (42.1%) decline. This scaling pattern indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is being tasked heavily at 4K, though the sheer headroom means the experience remains fluid.

The story changes dramatically at Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the system delivers 156.5 FPS average. At 1440p Ultra, this drops to 106.6 FPS, a 49.9 FPS (31.9%) decrease. The most significant relative drop occurs when jumping to 4K Ultra, where the average plummets to 59.9 FPS, a 46.7 FPS (43.8%) reduction from 1440p. This steep curve at Ultra settings suggests that the RTX 4090's rendering load is scaling superlinearly with pixel count, likely due to the increased complexity of shaders and effects at that preset.

The data shows that the limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 8400F is likely the primary constraint, as the FPS figures (up to 325.1 at Low) are exceptionally high but not scaling perfectly with the GPU's theoretical capability. At 4K, the RTX 4090 becomes the definitive bottleneck, with the CPU's role diminishing as the GPU's fill-rate and shading demands increase. The 4K Ultra result of 59.9 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS measurement in the entire dataset, highlighting that this resolution and preset combination is the most demanding scenario for this hardware pairing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 8000 series, based on the Zen 4 architecture and codenamed Phoenix. It operates with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 2,943 points in Cinebench R23 single-core and 20,851 points in multi-core, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs tested. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, has a virtually identical average benchmark score of 25,057, with a delta of 0%, indicating that the 8400F’s per-core performance is strong for its class.

In the context of Evolve, the CPU’s role is most evident in the 1080p results. The jump from Low to Medium settings at 1080p increases average FPS from 325.1 to 286.1, a 39.0 FPS difference. This suggests that the CPU is able to feed the GPU enough data to maintain high frame rates, but the GPU is still the primary limiter at these lower settings. However, the fact that 1080p Low (325.1 FPS) does not double the 4K Low (145.1 FPS) result, despite a pixel count reduction of 4x, points to a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. The CPU’s 16 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support provide adequate bandwidth for the game’s data streams, but the 6-core configuration is likely insufficient to fully saturate the RTX 4090 at 1080p.

The benchmark data shows that the Ryzen 5 8400F’s 3DMark scores, such as 6,091 for 16 threads and 951 for single-thread, are respectable but not exceptional. This suggests that while the CPU can handle Evolve’s multi-threaded workloads reasonably well, its single-thread performance is a limiting factor when trying to push beyond 300 FPS at 1080p. The data indicates that for players targeting 1440p or 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes significantly, as the GPU becomes the dominant factor in determining final frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the flagship of the GeForce 40-series, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s boost clock is rated at 2520 MHz, and it has 16,384 shading units. In the Passmark G3D benchmark, it scores 38,194, placing it in the 91st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla T4, has a comparable average score of 66,733, with a delta of -0.4%, which is not a meaningful difference in real-world gaming performance.

The RTX 4090’s role in this pairing is to provide overwhelming rasterization power, which is clearly visible in the 4K results. At 4K Medium, the system delivers 109.5 FPS, while at 4K High, it drops to 84.8 FPS. The step from Medium to High at 4K costs 24.7 FPS, and the step from High to Ultra costs another 24.9 FPS, bringing the average down to 59.9 FPS. This linear degradation with preset level indicates that the GPU is being progressively more loaded with each graphical enhancement, and the RTX 4090’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the key driver behind these numbers.

The GPU’s memory capacity of 24 GB is far more than Evolve requires, even at 4K Ultra, so VRAM is not a limiting factor. Instead, the GPU’s raw compute and texture rate (1,290.2 GTexel/s) are the primary determinants of performance. The data shows that at 1440p and 4K, the RTX 4090 is the definitive bottleneck, as the CPU is capable of delivering frame rates well above what the GPU can render at these higher pixel counts. The 4K Ultra result of 59.9 FPS, while technically playable, demonstrates that even the most powerful consumer GPU cannot achieve 60+ FPS at maximum settings in Evolve at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience based on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 228.3 FPS, while Ultra yields 156.5 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is 71.8 FPS, but both are well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on modern monitors. The data suggests that at 1080p, the Ultra preset is the best choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing playability, as the 156.5 FPS average is still exceptionally high.

For 2560x1440, the High preset provides 149.5 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate gaming. The Medium preset delivers 194.5 FPS, but the visual quality reduction may not be worth the extra 45 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 106.6 FPS, which is still smooth but represents a 42.9 FPS (28.7%) drop from High. The data indicates that High is the sweet spot at 1440p, offering a balance between visual fidelity and frame rate headroom.

At 3840x2160, the High preset is the recommended choice, delivering 84.8 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and represents a significant visual upgrade over Medium (109.5 FPS). The Ultra preset at 4K, which averages 59.9 FPS, is not recommended for competitive play but could be used for slower-paced exploration. The data shows that High at 4K is the optimal preset, as it provides a 24.9 FPS (41.6%) improvement over Ultra while maintaining a playable frame rate. Overall, the High preset is the most balanced option across all resolutions, offering strong performance without pushing the GPU to its limits.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for Evolve, the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a combo rank of 43 out of 1,695 combinations tested. This places the pairing in the top 2.5% of all configurations, which is an impressive result. The high rank is primarily driven by the RTX 4090’s exceptional performance, as the CPU’s contribution becomes less significant at the resolutions where the GPU is most heavily utilized.

The combo’s rank is notable given that the CPU is not a top-tier processor. The Ryzen 5 8400F sits in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, while the RTX 4090 is in the 91st percentile of all GPUs. This suggests that the GPU is the dominant factor in achieving the high combo rank. The data shows that this pairing is most effective at 1440p and 4K, where the CPU’s limitations are less apparent and the GPU’s raw power shines through. At 1080p, the combo still performs well, but the rank might be lower if other combinations with more powerful CPUs were tested at that resolution.

The fact that this combo ranks 43rd out of 1,695 indicates that it is a highly capable system for Evolve, but not the absolute best. The data suggests that configurations with higher-end CPUs, such as those with more cores or higher boost clocks, might achieve better results at 1080p where CPU limitations are more pronounced. However, for most players targeting 1440p or 4K, this pairing offers an excellent balance of performance and capability, as evidenced by its strong overall rank and the consistently high frame rates measured across all tested scenarios. The benchmark results confirm that the RTX 4090 is the star of this combination, with the Ryzen 5 8400F providing sufficient support without becoming a significant drag on performance.