Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combination lands in the 1291st position out of 2872 tested CPU-GPU pairings for Evolve, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. This rank, derived from measured FPS data across multiple resolutions and settings, indicates a system that can handle the game comfortably at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K remaining viable only when settings are moderated. The pairing benefits from a strong modern CPU and a GPU with 16 GB of VRAM, though the game’s age means the bottleneck shifts predictably between components depending on resolution and preset. The data shows a clear pattern: this combo excels at high refresh 1080p, delivers smooth 1440p gameplay, and requires compromise at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1291 out of 2872 tested pairings places it just below the median of the database, which is a reasonable result for a mid-range GPU paired with a strong CPU. The Radeon RX 7700 alone sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15852, while the Ryzen 5 9600X achieves an 81st percentile ranking among CPUs with an average score of 29713. The imbalance between the CPU’s high percentile and the GPU’s more modest standing suggests that in Evolve, the graphics card is the limiting factor in most scenarios. This is typical for a 2015 FPS title, which relies more on pixel throughput than on heavy multi-threaded processing. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 201 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 32 FPS, a span that reflects GPU scaling rather than CPU headroom.

The rank of 1291 also means that roughly 44% of tested combos perform better in this game, while 56% perform worse. The nearest rival CPUs to the Ryzen 5 9600X in general benchmarks—the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, Ryzen 7 7840H, Ryzen 7 5800XT, and Ryzen 7 8845HS—all score within 0.8% of the 9600X on average, indicating that the CPU is not a differentiator here. Similarly, the GPU’s nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon R9 370X, RX 9060, and Pro W5500, plus the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti—all fall within 1.7% of the RX 7700’s average score. This clustered competition means the combo’s rank is driven more by how the specific game uses the hardware than by raw component strength. In Evolve, the measured FPS at 1080p Medium (156 FPS) and 1440p Medium (105 FPS) demonstrate that this pairing is well-suited for the game’s most common configurations, even if the overall rank doesn’t break into the top tier.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. That memory capacity is substantial for a game released in 2015, and the data shows it prevents VRAM-related stutters even at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS falls to 32. The GPU’s base clock is 1900 MHz, with a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz, figures that allow it to maintain consistent performance across the tested presets. The memory runs at 2438 MHz, which translates to 19.5 Gbps effective, and the 256-bit bus ensures that the 16 GB pool is fed adequately for Evolve’s textures. The pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s are the raw throughput numbers that matter for a fast-paced FPS, and the measured results reflect this.

At 1080p Low, the RX 7700 produces 201 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire measured set. This suggests the GPU is not fully taxed at that setting, and the CPU or other system components may be reaching their limits. Moving to 1080p High, the average FPS drops to 122, still very smooth. At 4K Low, the average falls to 77 FPS, which is playable, but 4K Ultra at 32 FPS is not. The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows the GPU’s workload increasing dramatically with graphical fidelity. The GPU’s 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs are the architectural resources that handle Evolve’s effects, and the 40 ray accelerators (though the game does not use ray tracing) are present but unused. The FP32 performance of 25.18 TFLOPS is high for a mid-range card, and the data indicates that Evolve’s DirectX 12 path (the GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate) runs well, with the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2865 providing a reference point for modern workloads.

The GPU’s percentile rank of 58 versus the CPU’s 81 is the key statistic for understanding Evolve’s performance profile. At 1440p Medium, the combo hits 105 FPS with a minimum of 89 and a maximum of 120, which indicates the GPU is the primary driver of frame rate. At 1080p Low, the 201 FPS average suggests the GPU is underutilized, as the CPU’s single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 1253, Cinebench R23 single-core of 2183.5) becomes more relevant. The GPU’s boost clock of 2459 MHz is high enough to avoid bottlenecking the CPU in most scenarios, but the game’s age means that even moderate GPUs can saturate the frame rate at lower settings. The 16 GB VRAM is overkill for Evolve, but it ensures that no texture loading issues occur at 4K, where the 32 FPS average at Ultra is purely a function of compute and fill rate limits, not memory capacity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for the best experience with this combo. At 1080p, the Ultra preset yields an average of 85 FPS, which is smooth but not exceptional for a competitive FPS. The High preset at 1080p averages 122 FPS, a significant improvement that still maintains visual quality. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 156 FPS, with a minimum of 133 FPS and a maximum of 179 FPS, making it the best balance for high refresh rate monitors. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 201 FPS, but the visual downgrade is likely too steep for most players. For 1080p, the data suggests Medium is the optimal preset: it provides a 71 FPS advantage over Ultra (156 vs 85) while retaining moderate visual fidelity, and the minimum of 133 FPS ensures no dips below most 144Hz refresh rates.

At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 105 FPS, with a minimum of 89 FPS and a maximum of 120 FPS. This is the sweet spot for 1440p, offering smooth gameplay on 100Hz or 120Hz displays. The High preset at 1440p averages 82 FPS, which is still playable but with less headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 57 FPS, which is borderline for a fast-paced FPS, and the Low preset at 1440p reaches 135 FPS, which is excellent but sacrifices visual detail. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset: it delivers 105 FPS average with a tight minimum of 89 FPS, which is more consistent than the 82 FPS average of High, and the visual difference between Medium and High in Evolve is modest.

At 4K, the options are more constrained. The Medium preset averages 60 FPS, with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS, which is playable on a 60Hz display but not ideal for competitive play. The Low preset at 4K averages 77 FPS, which is smoother but visually sparse. The High preset at 4K averages 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target, and Ultra at 4K averages 32 FPS, which is not recommended. For 4K, the Medium preset is the best choice: it maintains a 60 FPS average with a 51 FPS minimum, ensuring that most of the game runs fluidly, while Low offers higher frame rates but with significant visual compromises. The data shows that this combo is not a 4K Ultra machine for Evolve, but it can handle 4K Medium adequately.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers 12 distinct configurations, spanning three resolutions and four settings each. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 201 FPS, the highest score in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p averages 156 FPS, with a minimum of 133 FPS and a maximum of 179 FPS. High at 1080p averages 122 FPS, and Ultra at 1080p averages 85 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a drop of 116 FPS, or roughly 58% of the Low score, indicating that the GPU’s workload scales significantly with settings. The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium is 133, which is higher than the average of most other configurations, demonstrating the combo’s strength at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 135 FPS, a substantial drop from the 201 FPS at 1080p Low, which reflects the increased pixel count. Medium at 1440p averages 105 FPS, with a minimum of 89 FPS and a maximum of 120 FPS. High at 1440p averages 82 FPS, and Ultra at 1440p averages 57 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1440p shows a drop of 78 FPS, or 58% of the Low score, which is nearly identical to the 1080p scaling pattern. This suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor across all settings at 1440p, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to handle the workload.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 77 FPS, Medium averages 60 FPS (with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS), High averages 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 32 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 124 FPS, from 201 to 77, which is a 62% reduction. The drop from 1440p Low to 4K Low is 58 FPS, from 135 to 77, a 43% reduction. These percentages indicate that the GPU is heavily taxed at 4K, and the frame rate falls below 60 FPS for High and Ultra presets. The minimum FPS of 51 at 4K Medium is the only sub-60 minimum in the dataset, which highlights the risk of frame drops at this resolution. The data shows a clear pattern: 1080p is where this combo shines, 1440p is very good, and 4K is only viable for Low or Medium settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the combo scales from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 201 at 1080p to 135 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 77 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). At Medium settings, the average drops from 156 at 1080p to 105 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 60 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). At High settings, the average drops from 122 at 1080p to 82 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 47 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). At Ultra settings, the average drops from 85 at 1080p to 57 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 32 at 4K (a 44% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentages—approximately 33% from 1080p to 1440p and 43% from 1440p to 4K—is striking.

This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component across all settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would not drop as consistently with resolution increases, particularly at Low settings where the GPU workload is lighter. The fact that 1080p Low produces 201 FPS, which is well above the CPU’s measured single-thread capabilities in other tests, suggests that the CPU can push even higher frame rates if the GPU allowed it. The Ryzen 5 9600X has a boost clock of 5.40 GHz and a single-thread PassMark score of 4570, which is strong, but the GPU’s pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s become the limiting factors as resolution increases. The 4K Ultra score of 32 FPS is particularly telling: it is 84% lower than the 1080p Low score, which is a massive drop that can only be explained by GPU compute limits, not CPU constraints.

The resolution scaling also shows that the combo is not balanced for 4K gaming. The 16 GB VRAM is sufficient, but the GPU’s raw compute (25.18 TFLOPS FP32) is not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K with Ultra settings in Evolve. The data shows that the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is nearly linear with pixel count (4x pixels at 4K vs 1080p), but the actual frame rate drop is only 62% from 1080p Low to 4K Low, which suggests some efficiency gains at higher resolutions due to reduced CPU overhead. The limiting component is clearly the GPU, as the CPU’s performance is consistent across resolutions, and the game’s engine scales well with the RX 7700’s architecture up to 1440p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It has 32 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. For Evolve, a game from 2015, the CPU’s role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations, and the data shows that it does so effectively at 1080p, where the combo achieves 201 FPS at Low settings. The CPU’s single-thread performance is exceptional: its 3DMark single-thread score of 1253 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2183.5 place it among the top processors for legacy games that rely on one or two cores. The PassMark single-thread score of 4570 reinforces this, and the 3DMark 2-thread score of 2456 indicates that even two-core workloads are handled well.

In Evolve’s measured FPS data, the CPU’s influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where the GPU is underutilized and the frame rate reaches 201 FPS. This is likely near the CPU’s maximum for the game, as the 3DMark 16-thread score of 7585 and max-thread score of 7590 suggest that the processor has ample multi-threading headroom, but Evolve does not scale well beyond a few cores. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are more than enough for the game’s demands, and the boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensures high single-thread performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 17528.5 shows that the CPU is also capable in multi-threaded tasks, but Evolve’s engine is older and likely uses fewer threads, making single-core speed more important. The 4 nm process node and 8,315 million transistors contribute to the CPU’s efficiency, but in gaming, the architecture’s IPC improvements over older Zen designs are what matter.

The CPU’s percentile rank of 81 versus the GPU’s 58 is the key indicator: in Evolve, the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution above 1080p Low. The measured FPS at 1440p Medium (105 FPS) and 4K Medium (60 FPS) are consistent with GPU-bound scenarios, where the CPU has enough headroom to prepare frames ahead of the GPU’s rendering pace. The nearest CPU rivals—the Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, Ryzen 7 7840H, Ryzen 7 5800XT, and Ryzen 7 8845HS—all have similar average benchmark scores (within 0.8% of the 9600X), which means that swapping in any of these CPUs would not significantly change Evolve’s performance. The CPU’s 12 threads are underutilized in this game, but the high boost clock and strong single-core scores ensure that the combo never falls below 51 FPS even at 4K Medium, which is the lowest minimum FPS recorded in the dataset. The CPU role is supportive rather than dominant, and the data confirms that this pairing is well-balanced for Evolve’s demands, with the GPU taking the lead role in determining frame rates.