Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a playable experience in Evolve primarily at 1080p, with 1440p viable on lower presets, while 4K remains out of reach for smooth gameplay. The data shows this combination ranks 1478th out of 1695 tested combos, placing it in the lower tier of the database, a position driven almost entirely by the GPU's age and performance ceiling rather than CPU limitations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data strongly indicates that the Low preset is the only configuration that consistently delivers high refresh rate performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 124.6 FPS average, which is the only setting that breaks the 120 FPS barrier. For players with 144Hz displays, this is the only viable option. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 95.6 FPS, still very smooth, but the jump from Low to Medium costs 29 FPS. High drops further to 77 FPS, and Ultra falls to 52.6 FPS, which while playable, introduces noticeable input latency for a fast-paced FPS.

At 1440p, the situation narrows considerably. The Low preset produces 83.9 FPS, which remains fluid, while Medium drops to 65 FPS, still acceptable for casual play. High at 1440p produces 53.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 33.5 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable competitive play. The data suggests that 1440p users should stick to Low or Medium, with Low being the recommended choice for maintaining a consistent frame rate above 60.

At 4K, none of the presets deliver an acceptable experience. The best result is Low at 48.1 FPS, with Medium at 38.5 FPS, High at 27.9 FPS, and Ultra at 22.1 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K gaming is not realistic with this combination, even at the lowest settings. The recommendation is clear: for the best experience, use 1080p with the Low preset, which provides the highest frame rate and best responsiveness. If visual fidelity is paramount, 1440p Low offers a balanced compromise, but 4K should be avoided entirely.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the decisive component in this pairing. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but insufficient for 4K textures and geometry in Evolve. The GPU's 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 169.9 GTexel/s texture rate are the primary constraints on the measured results. The benchmark scores reflect this: a Passmark G3D score of 12871 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1061 place it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs, which is below average.

The clock speeds of 1500 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost are modest by modern standards, and the 12 nm process node from TSMC means this GPU is now several generations old, having launched in February 2019. The GPU's nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon RX 570X (0.4% faster), NVIDIA Tesla K10 (0.7% slower), and NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (0.8% faster), confirming that the GTX 1660 Ti sits in a tightly contested but low-performance bracket. The 120 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU indicate this is a power-efficient card, but efficiency does not translate to high frame rates in a 2015-era FPS like Evolve.

The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (22.1 FPS) versus 1080p Low (124.6 FPS) shows a 5.6x performance swing, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where the 6 GB VRAM becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions. The GPU's 48 ROPs and 96 TMUs are simply not sufficient for the pixel fill rate demands of 4K, even in a game from 2015.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU/GPU pair in Evolve?

A: The data shows 1080p with the Low preset achieves 124.6 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate. This is the only configuration that consistently exceeds 120 FPS, making it ideal for competitive play.

Q: Can this combination handle 4K gaming in Evolve?

A: No. The highest 4K result is 48.1 FPS at Low settings, with Ultra dropping to 22.1 FPS. None of the 4K presets reach the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, so 4K is not recommended.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti scores 12871 in Passmark G3D, which is 0.4% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 570X, 0.7% faster than the NVIDIA Tesla K10, and 0.8% slower than the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile. This places it in a tight grouping of mid-range GPUs.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9700X limiting performance in this game?

A: No. The CPU scores 31588 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4459 in single-core, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with GPU-bound performance, indicating the CPU has ample headroom.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low produces 83.9 FPS, while Ultra drops to 33.5 FPS. This represents a 60% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset, making Ultra impractical for this resolution.

Q: Does the 6 GB VRAM capacity affect performance at higher resolutions?

A: Yes. The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s and 6 GB capacity become insufficient at 4K, evidenced by the sharp FPS drop. At 1080p, the memory subsystem is adequate, but at 4K, the GPU cannot maintain playable frame rates even on Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full preset range was measured. Low delivers 124.6 FPS, Medium drops to 95.6 FPS, High follows at 77 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 52.6 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 58% reduction in frame rate, which is significant but expected for a GPU of this class. The 1080p Ultra result of 52.6 FPS is still technically playable, but it is below the 60 FPS target most FPS players prefer.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results show a clear step down. Low achieves 83.9 FPS, which is the only preset above 60 FPS. Medium produces 65 FPS, High drops to 53.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 33.5 FPS. The jump from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 33% of the frame rate across all presets, which is a moderate penalty that keeps 1440p viable only for Low and Medium settings.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low produces 48.1 FPS, Medium drops to 38.5 FPS, High falls to 27.9 FPS, and Ultra manages just 22.1 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 4K is severe: Low drops from 83.9 to 48.1 FPS, a 43% reduction. This confirms that 4K is beyond the capabilities of this GPU, regardless of the powerful CPU paired with it.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound profile. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 124.6 FPS at 1080p to 83.9 FPS at 1440p, then to 48.1 FPS at 4K. This represents a 61% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 52.6 FPS at 1080p to 33.5 FPS at 1440p, then to 22.1 FPS at 4K, a 58% reduction.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all presets is telling. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, because the CPU workload is resolution-independent. Instead, the FPS scales downward with pixel count, which indicates the GTX 1660 Ti is the bottleneck. The 4K results, in particular, show that the GPU's pixel fill rate (84.96 GPixel/s) and memory bandwidth are insufficient for the 8.3 million pixels of 3840x2160.

The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference is 72 FPS (124.6 vs 52.6). At 1440p, it narrows to 50.4 FPS (83.9 vs 33.5). At 4K, it shrinks to 26 FPS (48.1 vs 22.1). This convergence at 4K suggests that the GPU is so heavily constrained that the settings have less impact, as the hardware cannot take advantage of the reduced workload from lower presets.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a Zen 5 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its benchmark scores are nothing short of dominant: 31588 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 4459 in single-core, and 17002 in Geekbench multi-core. These numbers place it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36029. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i5-14500HX (0.2% slower), Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (0.4% faster), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (0.6% slower), and Intel Core Ultra 5 225H (0.8% faster).

In the context of Evolve, the CPU has more than enough processing power. The game, released in February 2015, was designed for the era of quad-core processors. The Ryzen 7 9700X's 8 cores and 16 threads are massive overkill, and its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth ensure that any CPU-bound scenarios are handled with ease. The measured FPS data confirms this: the frame rates are consistently GPU-limited, as evidenced by the resolution scaling patterns.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node make it an efficient choice, but its performance is so far ahead of the GPU that it plays no meaningful role in determining the final frame rates. The Passmark multi-thread score of 37161 and 3DMark 16-thread score of 9824 further illustrate that the CPU can handle far more demanding workloads than this 2015 FPS presents. In short, the Ryzen 7 9700X is a future-proof component that will not need upgrading for years, but its potential is squandered by the GTX 1660 Ti's limitations in Evolve.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1478th out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 13% of the database. This is a poor ranking that reflects the severe imbalance between the CPU and GPU. The CPU is in the top 11% of all processors, while the GPU is in the 55th percentile, and the measured results show that the GPU is the sole limiting factor.

The ranking is particularly disappointing given the CPU's strength. A top-tier CPU like the Ryzen 7 9700X should ideally be paired with a GPU that can leverage its single-threaded performance, but the GTX 1660 Ti simply cannot. The 1080p Low result of 124.6 FPS is respectable, but it is far below what the CPU is capable of enabling. For context, the CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 1280 and Passmark single-thread score of 4654 indicate it could drive frame rates well over 200 FPS in a less demanding GPU-bound scenario.

The low ranking is not a reflection of the CPU's quality, but rather a warning about pairing high-end processors with mid-range, end-of-life GPUs. The GTX 1660 Ti was released in February 2019 and is now end-of-life, while the Ryzen 7 9700X was released in August 2024. This five-year generation gap is the root cause of the poor performance. Users with this combination should consider upgrading the GPU to a more modern, higher-performance model to unlock the CPU's potential. Until then, the data shows that 1080p Low is the only configuration that provides a satisfying experience in Evolve.