Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a commanding performance profile in the 2015 FPS title Evolve, according to measured benchmark data. This combination ranks 301st out of 3,700 tested combos, placing it comfortably within the top percentile of all tested systems. The benchmark results indicate that the hardware can handle nearly every scenario the game presents, with average frame rates ranging from 54 FPS at 4K Ultra to 303 FPS at 1080p Low. The data suggests a system with substantial headroom, where the primary variable for the user is not whether the game will run, but rather which settings and resolutions best suit their display’s refresh rate and their personal preference for visual quality. This analysis will break down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, explore the respective roles of the CPU and GPU, and provide concrete settings recommendations based on the data.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user’s target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, all four presets deliver exceptionally high frame rates, with Low averaging 303 FPS, Medium averaging 260 FPS, High averaging 204 FPS, and even Ultra averaging 141 FPS. For users with a 1080p 144Hz display, Ultra is a safe choice, as it stays well above the 144 FPS threshold. For users with a 240Hz display, Medium is the best choice, as its 260 FPS average exceeds the 240 FPS requirement, while High at 204 FPS falls short of that target. Low would be unnecessary at this resolution unless the user prioritizes maximum frame rate over visual quality, as no display with a refresh rate above 303 Hz is common in the market.

At 2560x1440, the data indicates a similar pattern. Medium is the sweet spot for high refresh rate gaming, averaging 174 FPS, which is sufficient for a 144 Hz display. High is also strong at 137 FPS, but this is slightly below a 144 Hz refresh rate, potentially leaving some performance on the table. Ultra drops to 95 FPS, which is still playable but requires a display with a 95 Hz or lower refresh rate for a perfectly smooth experience. Low at 225 FPS remains the highest average, but the visual sacrifice is substantial. The recommendation for 1440p is Medium for the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, with High as a viable alternative for users who prefer higher visual fidelity and have a 120 Hz display.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals a steeper performance curve. High averages 78 FPS, Medium averages 99 FPS, Low averages 128 FPS, and Ultra averages only 54 FPS. For a 4K display, the user must decide between visual quality and frame rate. Medium is the recommended preset at 4K, as it delivers a 99 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS standard and suitable for a 120 Hz display with adaptive sync. High is also playable at 78 FPS, but the 21 FPS drop from Medium to High is noticeable. Ultra, at 54 FPS, is below 60 FPS and not the recommended choice for smooth gameplay. Low at 128 FPS is the highest frame rate at 4K, but it sacrifices the visual fidelity that a 4K display can offer. The data suggests that Medium is the most balanced preset for 4K, offering a stable, high frame rate without the visual compromises of Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 plays the dominant role in determining performance in Evolve, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This is a substantial memory subsystem that ensures the game’s textures and scene data are handled without bottlenecking at 4K. The GPU’s 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs are supported by a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, with 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores present on the chip. While Evolve is a 2015 title and does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS, the raw rendering power of the RTX 4080 is overwhelmed by the game’s demands, as evidenced by the measured frame rates.

The data shows a clear trend: as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor. At 1080p, the RTX 4080 can render the game at an average of over 200 FPS on High settings, but at 4K, the frame rate drops to 78 FPS on the same settings. This demonstrates that the GPU is being taxed more heavily as the resolution scales, and the 16 GB of VRAM is a key resource in this scenario. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 54,247 and its percentile ranking of 86th among all GPUs confirm its high performance tier. In the nearest rival comparisons, the RTX 4080 is closely matched with the RTX 4080 SUPER, which has a 0.1% higher average score, but it sits slightly below the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and the AMD Radeon 8060S, which are 2.6% and 2.7% higher in score, respectively. The GPU’s role is not just about raw FPS; it also determines the consistency of the frame rates. The measured data shows that at the Medium preset, the GPU delivers a minimum FPS of 84 at 4K and a maximum of 114, indicating a 30 FPS fluctuation. This is a 3.6% variation from the average, which is typical for a demanding game at 4K. The GPU’s memory configuration is particularly important: 16 GB of GDDR6X at 22.4 Gbps effective speed ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the game isn’t stuttering due to VRAM limitations. The RTX 4080’s 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than sufficient for the game’s rendering workloads, but the game’s age means it does not stress the GPU’s ray tracing or tensor cores, relying instead on traditional rasterization.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. In Evolve, the CPU’s role is significant at lower resolutions where the GPU can render frames faster, but less critical at 4K where the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU’s three-level cache is a 64 MB L3, which helps reduce memory latency. The CPU has a 105 W TDP, which is a moderate power envelope for a 12-core part. The Ryzen 9 5900X’s benchmark scores show it has strong multi-threaded performance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16,262 and a single-core score of 1,527. In Geekbench, it scores 14,118 multi-core and 2,083 single-core. These results place it in the 87th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41,376.

In Evolve, the CPU must handle the game’s physics, AI, and draw calls. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is able to feed the GPU with frames, as evidenced by the 303 FPS average at Low settings. However, at 4K, the CPU’s role is reduced, as the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. The CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are more than the game requires, as Evolve was released in 2015 and is unlikely to utilize all 24 threads. The CPU’s single-core performance is a key factor, and the single-thread score of 1,527 in Cinebench R23 indicates that it has strong single-core capabilities. In the nearest rival comparisons, the CPU is within 0.4% of the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440, and it is 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14650HX. The 5900X’s memory bandwidth is 51.2 GB/s, which is sufficient for the game’s needs, and the CPU supports ECC memory, though this is not relevant to the game’s performance.

The measured data shows that the CPU’s impact on frame rates is most visible at 1080p. When the GPU is not the limit, the CPU’s speed determines the maximum FPS. The 303 FPS at 1080p Low is likely a CPU limit, as the GPU is rendering frames faster than it can render, but the CPU is the one providing the game frame updates. In contrast, at 4K, the CPU’s impact is minimized, and the GPU’s raw power dictates the frame rate. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.80 GHz is high, which helps in the game’s single-threaded sections, but the game does not benefit from the 12 cores. The data indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this system, except when the user seeks extremely high frame rates at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 301st out of 3,700 tested combos in Evolve, which places it in the top 8.1% of all tested systems. This high ranking is a direct result of the strengths of both components. The CPU’s multi-threaded performance and the GPU’s high-end capabilities work together to deliver high frame rates across all resolutions. The data shows that this combo is particularly strong at 1080p and 1440p, where the frame rates are high enough to accommodate high refresh rate displays. At 4K, the combo still records playable frame rates on most presets, with the exception of the Ultra preset.

The combo’s ranking reflects the balance between the two components. The CPU’s 12-core/24-thread configuration and the GPU’s 16 GB of VRAM and 48.74 TFLOPS of compute power are well-matched, with no single component being the bottleneck in the majority of the tested settings. The combo’s rank of 301 indicates that there are 300 other combos that perform better, but this is still a strong result for a system that is based on a 2020 CPU and a 2022 GPU. In the nearest rival comparisons for the CPU, the 5900X is within 0.5% of systems with the Intel Core i7-14650HX, but the 5900X has a higher ranking in the game. For the GPU, the nearest rival is the RTX 4080 SUPER with a 0.1% lower score, which would rank similarly. The data shows that this combo is a high-end option with a top 10% ranking, making it a capable choice for Evolve.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of frame rates dropping as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by about 35% across all four presets. For example, at the Medium setting, the 1080p average is 260 FPS, and the 1440p average is 174 FPS, a drop of 86 FPS or 33.1%. From 1440p to 4K, the frame rates continue to drop, but the percentage drop is smaller. At Medium, the 4K average is 99 FPS, a drop of 75 FPS from 1440p, which is a 43.1% reduction. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at these resolutions, as the FPS drops are correlated with the increase in pixel count.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions. If the CPU were the limit, the frame rates would not drop as significantly when the resolution increases, because the CPU workload does not change with resolution. The fact that the frame rates drop by almost 50% from 1080p to 4K indicates that the GPU is rendering the game’s graphics and is the primary determinant of performance. At 1080p, the CPU can keep up with the GPU, but as the resolution increases, the GPU is more stressed, and the frame rates drop accordingly. The scaling is not linear across all settings; the Low preset has the highest frame rates at all resolutions, but the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 57.7%, which is similar to the other presets. This shows that the GPU is the limiting component at all settings, and the CPU is not a significant factor in the frame rate drop.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at the performance of the combo across three resolutions and four settings presets. The data includes average FPS, and for the Medium setting also includes min and max FPS values, which offers insight into the frame stability.

1920x1080 (Full HD): At 1080p, the combo delivers the highest frame rates. - Low: Average FPS is 303. This is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset, indicating that the system is CPU-limited at this point, as the GPU is not fully utilized. - Medium: Average FPS is 260, with min FPS of 221 and max FPS of 299. The 78 FPS spread between min and max shows a 30% fluctuation, which is within the range of normal for a game like Evolve. - High: Average FPS is 204. This is a substantial drop from Medium, but still high enough for a 144 Hz display. - Ultra: Average FPS is 141. This is the lowest frame rate at 1080p, but still above 140 FPS, which is a smooth experience.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average FPS: 225. This is a 25.7% drop from 1080p Low, but still a very high frame rate. - Medium: Average FPS is 174, with min FPS of 148, max FPS of 200. The 52 FPS spread is larger than at 1080p, indicating more frame variability. - High: Average FPS: 137. This is a 32.8% drop from the 1080p High, and it drops below the 144 Hz threshold. - Ultra: Average FPS: 95. This is a 32.6% drop from 1080p Ultra, and sits just above the 90 FPS mark.

3840x2160 (4K): - Low: Average FPS: 128. This is a 57.7% drop from 1080p Low, but still playable. - Medium: Average FPS: 99, with min FPS of 84, max FPS of 114. The 30 FPS spread is a 30% variance, which is higher than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is stressed. - High: Average FPS: 78. This is a 61.8% drop from 1080p High, and it is the first preset to drop below 80 FPS. - Ultra: Average FPS: 54. This is the only preset that drops below 60 FPS across the entire dataset, making it the most demanding scenario.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the higher the resolution, the lower the average FPS, and the more pronounced the drop is from the highest to lowest preset. At 1080p, the performance is CPU-bound in the Low setting, but as the resolution increases, the GPU becomes the dominant factor. The Medium setting consistently offers a balance between frame rate and visual quality, with the Low setting providing the highest frame rates but the lowest visual fidelity. The Ultra setting, while offering the best visuals, is only recommended for 1080p and 1440p users who prioritize quality over frame rate. The data indicates that the combo is capable of delivering a playable experience at 4K on Medium, but for the best experience, 1440p High or 1080p Ultra are the best options.