Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a playable but compromised experience in Evolve, with performance that scales predictably with resolution and settings. The data shows this combo ranks in the 3151st position out of 3700 tested combinations, placing it in the lower tier of systems. The GTX 1660 SUPER, with its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus, is the clear limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the 7800X3D’s 8-core, 16-thread configuration ensures the CPU never becomes a bottleneck at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data makes the optimal settings choice clear: Low presets are the only way to achieve consistently high frame rates across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 123 FPS on average, which is 28% higher than the Medium preset’s 96 FPS and 64% higher than High’s 75 FPS. This makes Low the only preset that comfortably exceeds the 100 FPS threshold at the most common resolution, providing a smooth experience for competitive play. The jump from Low to Medium costs 27 FPS at 1080p, which is a substantial 22% performance reduction for what is typically a modest visual improvement in a 2015 FPS title.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more restrictive. The Low preset yields 83 FPS on average, which remains playable, but the Medium preset drops to 64 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS. This minimum frame time suggests occasional stutters that could affect gameplay in fast-paced encounters. The High preset at 50 FPS and Ultra at 35 FPS are both below the 60 FPS target, making them poor choices for this resolution. For 4K, even Low struggles, producing 47 FPS on average, which is marginal for a shooter. The Medium preset at 4K averages 37 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS, indicating that the GTX 1660 SUPER simply lacks the pixel throughput for this resolution in Evolve.

The optimal experience balances frame rate against visual fidelity. Benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset at 1080p, with its 96 FPS average and 81 FPS minimum, offers the best compromise for users who want some visual quality without sacrificing responsiveness. The 81 FPS minimum is still well above the 60 FPS playability threshold. However, users prioritizing maximum smoothness should select Low, as the 123 FPS average provides significant headroom for frame time spikes. At 1440p, the data strongly favors Low, as the 83 FPS average is the only preset that maintains fluid motion. Ultra presets are not recommended at any resolution, as they produce the lowest scores across the board: 52 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 20 FPS at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary performance driver in this configuration, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for 1080p gaming but becomes a limiting factor as resolution increases. The 4K results, where even Low settings only produce 47 FPS, demonstrate that the GPU’s 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 48 ROPs are insufficient for the pixel count at that resolution. The texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s provide context for why the GPU struggles: at 4K, the sheer number of pixels to fill overwhelms the available fill rate.

The GPU’s clock speeds are modest by modern standards, with a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 1408 shading units, position the GTX 1660 SUPER in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs according to benchmark aggregations. Its average benchmark score of 12986 places it in close competition with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (deltaPct 0.4) and AMD Radeon RX 580 (deltaPct 0.4), while being slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon 740M (deltaPct 0.9). The GPU’s DirectX 12 support (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility mean it can handle Evolve’s graphical requirements, but the performance ceiling is clearly defined by its 12 nm Turing architecture.

The memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s is a critical factor in Evolve’s performance scaling. The game’s textures and geometry at higher presets require substantial memory throughput, and the data shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 71 FPS (123 vs 52), but at 4K, the difference is 27 FPS (47 vs 20). This pattern indicates that the GPU’s memory subsystem is being saturated at higher resolutions, causing the settings to have less impact because the GPU is already bottlenecked by pixel throughput rather than shader work.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D provides substantial processing headroom that is never fully utilized in Evolve. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, the CPU offers a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a defining feature of the X3D series, and while Evolve may not specifically benefit from this cache size, the overall CPU performance ensures that the GTX 1660 SUPER remains the limiting component. The CPU’s benchmark scores reinforce this assessment: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16817 and single-core score of 1713 indicate strong per-thread performance that can feed frames to the GPU without creating a bottleneck.

The CPU’s 3DMark results show scaling from 959 in single-thread to 7980 in 16-thread tests, with the 8-thread score of 6539 confirming that the processor scales well up to its physical core count. The PassMark multi-thread score of 34293 and single-thread score of 3759 place the 7800X3D in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33079. This performance level means that even in CPU-intensive scenarios, the processor can maintain frame delivery. However, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the constraint: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 123 FPS, which is far below the CPU’s capable frame generation limits.

The nearest CPU rivals show minimal performance differences, with the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Intel Core i7-13650HX both matching the 7800X3D’s average score with a deltaPct of 0, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX also at 0 deltaPct. The AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H trails by 0.4%. This tight grouping indicates that the 7800X3D is not providing any unique advantage in Evolve, as the game’s CPU demands are likely modest given its 2015 release date. The DDR5 memory support and dual-channel configuration with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensure that memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor, but this headroom goes unused when the GPU cannot keep pace at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and GTX 1660 SUPER ranks 3151st out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 15% of all configurations. This low ranking is directly attributable to the GPU, as the CPU’s 83rd percentile performance is far above the GPU’s 53rd percentile. The ranking reveals a significant imbalance: a high-end 2023 processor paired with an entry-level 2019 graphics card creates a system that underperforms in GPU-bound scenarios like Evolve at high resolutions)Skip this combo if you have a modern mid-range GPU, as the CPU would be wasted.

The measured FPS data confirms this ranking is appropriate. At the most common gaming resolution of 1080p, the combo achieves 75 FPS on High settings, which is below the 100+ FPS that competitive FPS players typically prefer. The Ultra preset at 52 FPS is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced shooter. The ranking also suggests that many other combos with less capable CPUs but more balanced GPU pairings would outperform this configuration in Evolve. The 3151st position out of 3700 indicates that this is not a combination that users should specifically seek out for this game, though it remains functional with appropriate settings adjustments.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and reveals the GPU-bound nature of this configuration. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 123 at 1080p to 83 at 1440p (a 32.5% decrease), and then to 47 at 4K (a 61.8% decrease from 1080p). This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU that is limited by pixel throughput and memory bandwidth rather than CPU performance. The pixel count from 1080p to 4K increases by a factor of four, but the FPS only drops by roughly 62%, which suggests that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound; other factors like memory latency and shader work also contribute.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 96 FPS at 1080p, 64 FPS at 1440p (33.3% drop), and 37 FPS at 4K (61.5% drop). The High preset follows with 75, 50, and 29 FPS respectively, showing a 33.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 61.3% drop from 1080p to 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets indicates that the scaling is primarily resolution-driven rather than settings-driven. This is a clear sign that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the limiting component, as a CPU-bound scenario would show smaller FPS drops at higher resolutions because the CPU work remains constant.

The data also shows that the minimum FPS scales poorly. At Medium settings, the minimum FPS drops from 81 at 1080p to 55 at 1440p and 31 at 4K. This 38% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 62% drop to 4K indicates that frame time consistency also suffers at higher resolutions, potentially leading to stutter in gameplay. The fact that the minimum FPS at 4K Medium (31) is close to the average FPS at 4K High (29) suggests that the GPU is working at its absolute limit, with little headroom for scene complexity variations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS data provides a full picture of the combo’s performance. Low settings produce the highest average at 123 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play. Medium settings average 96 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS and maximum of 110 FPS, offering a smooth experience with some visual enhancements. High settings average 75 FPS, which remains playable but introduces more variation. Ultra settings average 52 FPS, which is at the edge of playability for a fast-paced FPS. The 71 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p shows that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution for settings adjustments.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low settings average 83 FPS, which is still smooth. Medium settings average 64 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS alerting to potential frame drops. High settings average 50 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. Ultra settings average 35 FPS, which is not recommended for gameplay. The 48 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p demonstrates that the GPU’s limitations become more pronounced as resolution increases, with the settings slider having less impact on absolute performance.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 47 FPS, which is marginal for a shooter. Medium settings average 37 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS, indicating inconsistent frame pacing. High settings average 29 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. Ultra settings average 20 FPS, making the game essentially unplayable at this preset. The 27 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest of any resolution, confirming that the GPU is saturated and settings changes have diminishing returns. The 4K Medium minimum of 31 FPS is particularly concerning, as it suggests that even moderately complex scenes can cause significant frame drops. Overall, the data supports using Low settings at 1440p or Medium at 1080p for the best balance of visual quality and performance, while 4K should be avoided unless the user accepts sub-50 FPS frame rates.