Evolve

The pairing of AMD's Ryzen 9 9900X with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1050 Ti represents a stark contrast in capabilities—a top-tier 2024 processor harnessed to an entry-level 2016 graphics card. The benchmark data for Evolve reflects this imbalance, showing a configuration that is almost entirely bound by its GPU. The measured frames per second across all resolutions and presets illustrate a system where the CPU's vast headroom remains untapped, while the GPU operates at its absolute limit, often producing results that fall below playable thresholds.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Evolve reveals a clear hierarchy of performance across the four tested presets at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 61.3 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset to cross the 60 FPS threshold, making it the sole setting that provides a consistently smooth experience for fast-paced gameplay. The Medium preset at this resolution drops to 48.9 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 20% reduction in frame rate. High settings at 1080p yield 36.4 FPS, while Ultra falls to 27.5 FPS, indicating that the GTX 1050 Ti's 4 GB frame buffer and limited compute resources cannot sustain higher visual fidelity without significant performance losses.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained, with no preset achieving 60 FPS. The Low preset offers 41.7 FPS, which is the only viable option for competitive play at this resolution, while Medium drops to 33.1 FPS and High to 25 FPS. Ultra at 1440p produces a marginal 16.8 FPS, which is effectively unplayable. For 3840x2160, the data shows that even the Low preset only manages 24.4 FPS, with Ultra falling to 10.3 FPS, making 4K gaming impractical with this combination. The data suggests that users should prioritize the Low preset at 1920x1080 for the best experience, as it is the only setting that provides frame rates high enough for responsive gameplay without sacrificing too much visual clarity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the primary bottleneck in this configuration, and the benchmark results for Evolve demonstrate this clearly. The GPU features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 112.1 GB/s. Its base clock of 1291 MHz and boost clock of 1392 MHz, combined with 768 shading units, deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 2.138 TFLOPS. These specifications place the card in the 30th percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 5316, positioning it near the NVIDIA GeForce 930A in performance, with a delta of 0% and an identical average score of 5317.

The impact of these limited resources is evident in the scaling between presets. At 1920x1080, moving from Low to Medium reduces the average frame rate from 61.3 to 48.9 FPS, a drop of 12.4 FPS. The transition to High further reduces performance to 36.4 FPS, and Ultra to 27.5 FPS. This pattern suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shader throughput are insufficient to handle the increased texture detail and post-processing effects at higher presets. The GPU's DirectX 12 score of 26 in Passmark indicates weak support for modern APIs, which may also contribute to the performance degradation at higher settings. The card's 75 W TDP and lack of external power connectors highlight its entry-level design, which is consistent with its measured performance ceiling in Evolve.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a high-end desktop processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, manufactured on a 4 nm process. It features 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 89.6 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 46438 and a single-core score of 6555, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 54450.

In the context of Evolve, the CPU's role is minimal due to the GPU bottleneck. The measured frame rates show no indication of CPU limitation, as the performance scales almost entirely with resolution and preset changes, which are GPU-bound variables. The Ryzen 9 9900X's single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 3341, is more than sufficient to handle the game's logic and physics calculations. The processor's 24 threads provide massive multi-threading headroom, but Evolve, as a 2015 FPS title, is unlikely to utilize more than a few cores effectively. The data shows that even at 1920x1080 Low, where the CPU would be most likely to become a factor, the frame rate reaches 61.3 FPS, which is still well below the processor's capabilities. The CPU's 120 W TDP and 16,630 million transistors on a dual-chiplet design (2x 70.6 mm²) suggest that power delivery and thermals are not concerns in this scenario, as the GPU is the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X and GTX 1050 Ti ranks 1666 out of 1695 tested combos for Evolve, placing it in the bottom 2% of all configurations in the database. This low ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's performance, which is in the 30th percentile of all graphics cards, while the CPU sits in the 94th percentile of all processors. The massive disparity between these two components results in a system that is severely unbalanced for gaming, as the GPU cannot translate the CPU's computational strength into higher frame rates.

The measured frame rates confirm this assessment. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves an average of 61.3 FPS at Low settings, which is the best-case scenario, while Ultra settings drop to 27.5 FPS. These results are consistent with the GPU's benchmark profile, which shows a Passmark G3D score of 6340 and a DirectX 11 score of 45. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce 940M and AMD Radeon R7 240, have similar average scores with deltas of 0.4% and 0.7% respectively, indicating that the GTX 1050 Ti is at the very bottom of the desktop GPU hierarchy. The CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D with a delta of -0.4% and the Intel Core i7-14700F with a delta of 0.7%, show that the processor is competitive with other high-end parts, but this advantage is nullified in Evolve due to the GPU constraint. The combo's rank of 1666 out of 1695 suggests that even with a significantly better GPU, the overall system performance would be limited by the CPU's socket and platform requirements, but in this specific game, the GPU is the sole determinant of the ranking.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo in Evolve?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 is the only configuration that achieves an average frame rate above 60 FPS, with a measured 61.3 FPS. All other presets and resolutions fall below this threshold, with Medium at 1080p providing 48.9 FPS and High at 1080p providing 36.4 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1050 Ti's memory configuration affect performance in Evolve?

A: The GPU features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus with 112.1 GB/s bandwidth. This limited capacity and bandwidth are evident in the frame rate scaling, as Ultra settings at 3840x2160 produce only 10.3 FPS, while Low settings at the same resolution yield 24.4 FPS, indicating that higher presets exceed the memory's ability to store and process textures.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X bottlenecked by the GTX 1050 Ti in this game?

A: Yes, the benchmark data indicates a severe GPU bottleneck. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 46438 and single-core score of 6555 far exceed the demands of Evolve, but the GPU's Passmark G3D score of 6340 limits the frame rates to the values shown, such as 61.3 FPS at 1080p Low and 15.6 FPS at 4K High.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1666 out of 1695 tested combos for Evolve, placing it in the bottom 2% of all configurations. This ranking is primarily due to the GPU's 30th percentile performance, while the CPU's 94th percentile performance does little to improve the gaming experience.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers an average of 41.7 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 16.8 FPS. This represents a 59.7% reduction in frame rate, demonstrating that the GTX 1050 Ti cannot handle high-detail rendering at this resolution.

Q: Does the CPU's boost clock of 5.60 GHz influence the measured frame rates?

A: The CPU's boost clock of 5.60 GHz, along with its base clock of 4.40 GHz, provides sufficient single-thread performance for Evolve. However, the measured frame rates, such as 36.4 FPS at 1080p High, are determined by the GPU's capabilities, not the CPU's clock speed, as the GPU is the limiting component in this configuration.