Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Evolve primarily through the Medium preset, which offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate across all tested resolutions. The data shows that while the combo can push high frame rates at lower settings, the Ultra preset becomes too demanding at higher resolutions, making Medium the recommended choice for consistent performance.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset is the optimal choice for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 127 FPS, which is a 96% improvement over the Ultra preset’s 64.8 FPS, while still providing significantly better visuals than Low. The gap between Medium and High at 1080p is noticeable—29.1 FPS—but High still delivers a respectable 97.9 FPS, making it viable for competitive play.

At 2560x1440, Medium maintains an average of 85.9 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. High drops to 63.6 FPS, still playable, but the margin for error in demanding scenes is thinner. At 3840x2160, Medium falls to 45.8 FPS, which is below ideal smoothness, but it remains the only preset besides Low that approaches playability, as High manages only 36.1 FPS and Ultra drops to 28.6 FPS.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combo. At every resolution, Ultra produces the lowest frame rates: 64.8 FPS at 1080p, 46.4 FPS at 1440p, and 28.6 FPS at 4K. The performance cost of Ultra is substantial, with a 49% reduction in FPS compared to High at 1080p. For users seeking maximum quality, High at 1080p or 1440p is the better trade-off, as the data shows it retains smoothness while offering superior detail over Medium.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this CPU and GPU combo?

A: The Medium preset delivers the best experience, averaging 127 FPS at 1920x1080. High is also viable at 97.9 FPS, but Medium provides a 29.1 FPS advantage with minimal visual compromise.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K resolution in Evolve?*

A: At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves near-playable performance with 59.5 FPS. Medium drops to 45.8 FPS, High to 36.1 FPS, and Ultra to 28.6 FPS, indicating the GPU becomes a limiting factor at this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost when switching from High to Ultra?

A: The data shows a significant penalty. At 1080p, Ultra averages 64.8 FPS versus High’s 97.9 FPS, a 33.1 FPS drop. At 1440p, the drop is 17.2 FPS (from 63.6 to 46.4), and at 4K, the drop is 7.5 FPS (from 36.1 to 28.6).

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 7900X a bottleneck for the RTX 2060 SUPER in this game?

A: The CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads provide ample processing power, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Benchmark results suggest the GPU is the primary constraint, especially at higher resolutions where FPS scales more with settings changes than with CPU load.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Medium settings?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 162.5 FPS while Medium averages 127 FPS, a 35.5 FPS difference. At 1440p, the difference is 18.9 FPS (104.8 vs 85.9), and at 4K, it is 13.7 FPS (59.5 vs 45.8).

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 1210 out of 1695 tested combos for Evolve, placing it in the lower third of tested systems. The GPU’s 63rd percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests the RTX 2060 SUPER is the main performance limiter.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU’s base clock is 1470 MHz with a boost clock of 1650 MHz. In Evolve, the data shows that memory and bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results reveal a clear limitation.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates across all settings are low: 59.5 FPS on Low, 45.8 on Medium, 36.1 on High, and 28.6 on Ultra. This pattern indicates that the GPU’s raw compute power, rated at 7.181 TFLOPS FP32, is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, regardless of the CPU’s capabilities. The 8 GB VRAM is not the primary issue, as the step from Medium to High at 4K only costs 9.7 FPS, suggesting a fill-rate or shader limitation rather than a memory capacity problem.

The GPU’s benchmark scores support this analysis. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011 and PassMark G3D score of 16462 place it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the GTX TITAN and RTX 2070. The RTX 2060 SUPER is a capable 1080p card, but the data for Evolve shows it struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K even on Low settings, where it averages 59.5 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 162.5 FPS, Medium drops to 127 FPS, High to 97.9 FPS, and Ultra to 64.8 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is steep, with a 97.7 FPS difference between the extremes, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed by higher quality presets.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 104.8 FPS on Low, 85.9 on Medium, 63.6 on High, and 46.4 on Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent: Low loses 57.7 FPS, Medium loses 41.1 FPS, High loses 34.3 FPS, and Ultra loses 18.4 FPS. This shows that higher resolutions disproportionately affect lower settings, as the GPU becomes more pixel-bound.

At 3840x2160, the performance is marginal. Low averages 59.5 FPS, Medium 45.8 FPS, High 36.1 FPS, and Ultra 28.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 30.9 FPS, with each step up in settings costing roughly 10 FPS. The data reveals that 4K gaming is only possible on Low, and even then, the average is just below the 60 FPS target.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic across all settings. At Low, the average falls from 162.5 FPS to 59.5 FPS, a 63.4% reduction. At Medium, it falls from 127 to 45.8 FPS, a 63.9% reduction. High drops from 97.9 to 36.1 FPS, a 63.1% reduction, and Ultra drops from 64.8 to 28.6 FPS, a 55.9% reduction.

These percentages are remarkably consistent, hovering around 60% regardless of the preset. This uniformity suggests that the limiting component is resolution-dependent, which points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck. The CPU’s 3DMark max-thread score of 12536 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43695 indicate strong processing power, but the FPS scaling shows no sign of CPU relief at higher resolutions—the GPU simply cannot keep up with the pixel count.

The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing. At Medium, the drop is 40.1 FPS (from 85.9 to 45.8), which is a 46.7% reduction. This is a larger relative drop than from 1080p to 1440p, where Medium loses 32.4% (from 127 to 85.9). The data indicates that 4K requires nearly double the GPU work, pushing the RTX 2060 SUPER beyond its comfortable operating range.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It features 64 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. In Evolve, this CPU provides more than enough processing power to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU’s benchmark results are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43695 and a single-core score of 6168. Its PassMark multithread score is 51406, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals are the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT, with deltaPct values of -0.1% and -0.4%, respectively, indicating the 7900X is essentially on par with these high-end chips.

Given this CPU’s capability, the FPS data for Evolve clearly shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 162.5 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s frame-generation ceiling for this game. However, at higher resolutions or settings, the GPU’s workload increases, and the FPS drops accordingly, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are underutilized, as Evolve is a 2015 title that does not heavily leverage multi-threading.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 7900X and RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1210 out of 1695 tested combos for Evolve, placing it in the 71st percentile—meaning 71% of tested systems perform better. This rank is low relative to the CPU’s 93rd percentile standing, which underscores the GPU’s role as the performance limiter.

The GPU’s 63rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774, aligns with the combo’s overall position. The RTX 2060 SUPER’s nearest rivals are the GTX TITAN (0.3% faster), RTX 2070 (0.5% faster), and Quadro K5200 (0.8% faster), all of which are similarly positioned in the mid-range. This suggests that the combo’s rank is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s mid-tier performance.

For a game like Evolve, released in 2015, this combo is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming at Medium settings, but it falls short of high-refresh-rate or 4K expectations. The data shows that the CPU is not the issue—the Ryzen 9 7900X is a top-tier processor—but the RTX 2060 SUPER, with its 7.181 TFLOPS compute and 8 GB VRAM, is simply outclassed by newer GPUs. Users seeking higher rankings would need to upgrade the GPU, as the CPU has substantial headroom for more powerful graphics cards.