Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the AMD Radeon 760M integrated graphics presents a starkly lopsided configuration for Evolve, a 2015 FPS title. The data reveals a system where a top-tier 16-core processor is almost entirely neutralized by an iGPU that ranks in the 35th percentile among all GPUs. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings consistently show this combo struggling to maintain playable performance, with the average FPS figures telling a clear story of severe GPU limitation at every turn.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 33 at 1920x1080 to 22 at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly one-third. Moving to 3840x2160, the average falls further to 13 FPS, meaning that 4K High delivers only about 39% of the 1080p High performance. This steep, almost linear drop with pixel count increase is a classic indicator that the Radeon 760M's shading and rasterization throughput is exhausted early, and the CPU is never the limiting factor.

The scaling pattern holds true across other settings as well. At Low, the transition from 1080p to 1440p sees FPS decline from 55 to 37, and then to 21 at 4K. The 4K Low result (21 FPS) is notably lower than the 1080p Medium result (42 FPS), which shows how resolution has a more dominant impact than quality presets in this configuration. Interestingly, the gap between 1440p and 4K is proportionally similar across Low, Medium, and High, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute units are saturated in a predictable manner regardless of the visual complexity being rendered.

The data indicates that 1080p is the only viable resolution for this combo, and even then, only at the lower presets. The difference between 1080p High (33 FPS) and 1440p High (22 FPS) represents a 33% performance hit for a resolution increase that many users would consider marginal on a mobile display. The 4K numbers are essentially unusable for any interactive purpose, with even the Low preset struggling to reach 21 FPS. This scaling behavior confirms that the Radeon 760M's 512 shading units and 16 ROPs are simply overwhelmed by the pixel fill requirements of higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a formidable mobile processor with 16 cores and 32 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its benchmarks show exceptional multi-threaded capability, scoring 42713 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 51405 in Passmark multithread. The single-thread performance is equally strong at 6030 in Cinebench R23 single-core, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. However, none of this raw processing power translates into meaningful frame rate advantages in Evolve, as the measured FPS data shows the GPU is the bottleneck even at 1080p Low.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz and base clock of 2.50 GHz provide a wide operating range, but the game's demands are so heavily tilted toward the GPU that these clocks have minimal observable impact. The data shows that the combo ranks 2861 out of 2872 tested configurations, which is nearly dead last. This ranking occurs despite the CPU's top-tier status because the GPU cannot deliver the frames. The processor's 64 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s) are irrelevant when the integrated graphics are starved for work.

In practical terms, this CPU is overkill for this pairing. Even in CPU-light scenes at 1080p, the frame rates remain low because the GPU completes its work slowly. The CPU's strengths in synthetic benchmarks like Passmark data compression (677755) and integer math (195180) do not align with the real-time rendering demands of a FPS game. The processor is essentially waiting on the GPU for every frame, making its 16 cores and 32 threads largely idle during gameplay. For this specific game, the CPU role is to avoid being a bottleneck itself, which it does easily, but it also fails to rescue the overall experience from the GPU's limitations.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated graphics solution with 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture. It operates at a boost clock of 2599 MHz and relies on system memory, which is marked as "System Shared" with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." Its benchmark scores are modest, with a Passmark G3D score of 5310 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 400. The GPU sits in the 35th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (0.3% faster) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (0.3% faster).

In Evolve, the GPU's role is the defining factor in every measured scenario. The maximum average FPS recorded is 55 at 1080p Low, which is playable but far from smooth by modern standards. At the Ultra preset, the GPU manages only 23 FPS at 1080p, and this drops to 9 FPS at 4K. The GPU's 16 ROPs are a clear limitation for pixel fill rate, which is why higher resolutions cause such dramatic slowdowns. The texture rate of 83.17 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 41.58 GPixel/s are insufficient for a game like Evolve at higher settings, and the shared memory bandwidth further constrains performance.

The data shows that the GPU is the single point of failure for this combo. Its performance in DirectX 11 (Passmark score 52) and DirectX 12 (Passmark score 25) tests indicates that it struggles with the API workloads common in games. The Radeon 760M's FP32 throughput of 5.323 TFLOPS is theoretically adequate for low-end gaming, but the actual measured FPS suggests that driver overhead and memory latency issues reduce its real-world effectiveness. With a TDP of 15 W, this is a power-efficient part, but that efficiency comes at the cost of raw performance that Evolve simply demands.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 2861 out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all tested systems. This abysmal ranking is directly attributable to the GPU, as the CPU's individual performance is among the best available. The combo rank is more than 2,000 positions lower than what the CPU alone would suggest, proving that the pairing is fundamentally mismatched. The data shows that this is not a case of a balanced system that underperforms slightly, but rather a severe imbalance where the processor's capabilities are wasted.

The nearest rivals for the GPU include the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server, which scores 0.4% higher on average, and the NVIDIA Quadro P2000, which scores 0.5% lower. These comparisons highlight that the Radeon 760M is in the same performance tier as older discrete mobile GPUs, but it lacks the dedicated memory and bandwidth that those parts enjoy. For Evolve, this means that even the modest frame rates achieved are likely limited by memory bandwidth rather than raw compute, as the "System Shared" memory configuration cannot provide the sustained throughput needed for higher resolutions.

The ranking underscores that this is a system for productivity or light workloads, not for gaming. While the CPU's 95th percentile standing might attract buyers looking for a powerful mobile workstation, the GPU's 35th percentile performance makes it unsuitable for any modern FPS. The delta between the CPU's performance class and the combo's ranking is a cautionary tale about the importance of balanced component selection. In this case, the game's measured performance is essentially a worst-case scenario for the CPU, which has no way to compensate for the GPU's limitations.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured FPS data, the only sensible settings for this combo are 1080p with the Low preset, which yields an average of 55 FPS. This is the sole configuration that approaches a playable frame rate, though it is still well below the 60 FPS target that most FPS players prefer. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 42 FPS, which may be acceptable for some players but is noticeably less smooth. At High settings, the average falls to 33 FPS, and at Ultra, it drops to 23 FPS, both of which are likely to feel choppy in a fast-paced shooter.

For 1440p, the Low preset offers 37 FPS, which is borderline playable but still not ideal. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 28 FPS, and High drops to 22 FPS, making these settings only suitable for less demanding gameplay moments. The 4K resolution is entirely impractical, with the Low preset at 21 FPS being the best case scenario, and the Ultra preset at 9 FPS being effectively a slideshow. The data suggests that users should prioritize resolution over quality, as the FPS penalty for increasing resolution is steeper than for increasing quality at the same resolution.

The best experience per the measured rows is unequivocally 1920x1080 with Low settings. This provides the highest average FPS (55) and avoids the sub-30 FPS territory where the game becomes difficult to play. If a user insists on higher visual fidelity, the 1080p Medium preset (42 FPS) is the only other viable option, but it comes with a 24% performance penalty. The 1440p and 4K options should be avoided entirely unless the user is willing to accept sub-40 FPS gameplay, which is generally not recommended for an FPS title where reaction time matters.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values across presets are: Low 55, Medium 42, High 33, and Ultra 23. The Medium preset has a recorded min FPS of 36 and max FPS of 49, showing a 13 FPS variance that suggests occasional stutters. The gap between Medium and High is 9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 10 FPS, indicating that each quality tier has a significant performance cost. The Low preset's 55 FPS is the only score above 50 in the entire dataset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to: Low 37, Medium 28, High 22, and Ultra 15. The Medium preset at 1440p has a min FPS of 24 and max FPS of 33, which is a 9 FPS range similar to the 1080p Medium. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, with Low falling 33%, Medium falling 33%, High falling 33%, and Ultra falling 35%. This uniformity reinforces that the GPU is resolution-bound rather than setting-bound.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS plummets to: Low 21, Medium 16, High 13, and Ultra 9. The Medium preset shows a min FPS of 14 and max FPS of 19, which is the only 4K preset with recorded min/max values. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows Low dropping 43%, Medium dropping 43%, High dropping 41%, and Ultra dropping 40%. The absolute numbers at 4K are all below 22 FPS, making this resolution unusable for gameplay. The data clearly shows that this combo is only viable at 1080p Low, with all other configurations falling below the threshold for smooth FPS play.