Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti pairing delivers a fascinating performance profile in Evolve, a 2015 FPS that clearly responds well to modern hardware. The data shows a combo that ranks in the 91st percentile of all tested configurations, but the analysis reveals some surprising bottlenecks and scaling behaviors that merit a closer look.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 12 cores and 24 threads running on the Zen 5 architecture at Granite Ridge. The base clock of 4.40 GHz can boost up to 5.50 GHz, which is critical for a game like Evolve that was released before the era of heavily multi-threaded game engines. The 128 MB of L3 cache is particularly relevant here, as it helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores, potentially reducing memory latency in fast-paced FPS scenarios.

Benchmark results indicate the CPU is exceptionally strong in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 47737 and single-core score of 6739 place it in the top tier of desktop processors. More telling for gaming are the 3DMark thread tests: the 8-thread score of 9002 and 16-thread score of 12490 show excellent scaling, while the single-thread score of 1269 demonstrates the high-frequency capability that older games often depend on.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 91 against all CPUs means it outperforms roughly nine out of ten processors in the database. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, scores 55093 on average, which is just 0.6% ahead. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K trails by 1.3%, and the Intel Xeon 6505P and Intel Core i7-14700F are 2% and 2.1% behind respectively. These margins are tight, suggesting that the 9900X3D is not dramatically faster than its closest competitors in general compute, but its gaming-specific characteristics — particularly the large L3 cache — may give it an edge in real-world scenarios that synthetic benchmarks don't fully capture.

In Evolve specifically, the CPU's 12 cores are likely underutilized since the game predates widespread multi-core optimization. The PassMark physics score of 5340 and the data compression score of 685074 suggest robust integer performance, but the game's rendering pipeline is probably more dependent on the GPU. The fact that the CPU has a 120 W TDP and supports DDR5 memory with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth means it won't starve the GPU for data, even at high resolutions where game logic and physics calculations still need to keep pace with rendering.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X3D compare to its closest CPU rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF leads the group with an average score of 55093, which is 0.6% ahead of the 9900X3D's 54762 average. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K scores 54053 (1.3% behind), the Intel Xeon 6505P scores 53701 (2% behind), and the Intel Core i7-14700F scores 53620 (2.1% behind). The 9900X3D sits in the middle of this pack, with a 91st percentile ranking against all CPUs.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Evolve among all tested configurations?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X3D + RTX 5070 Ti combo ranks 266th out of 2872 tested combos in this game. This places it in the top 9.3% of all configurations tested, indicating that while it's a strong performer, there are 265 other combos that achieve higher average FPS in Evolve.

Q: Does the RTX 5070 Ti outperform its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The data shows mixed results. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT leads with an average score of 50951, which is 2% higher than the RTX 5070 Ti's 49957. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 scores 50001 (0.1% higher), while the Intel Arc A550M scores 49737 (0.4% lower) and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT scores 48477 (3.1% lower). The RTX 5070 Ti holds a solid mid-pack position.

Q: How much does the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 133 FPS on average. Moving to 1440p Ultra drops this to 89 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 51 FPS. This represents a 61.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating the GPU becomes increasingly stressed at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the maximum FPS recorded across all tested resolution and settings combinations?

A: The highest average FPS is 316 at 1080p Low settings. The next highest is 245 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 212 FPS at 1440p Low. The minimum average FPS is 51 at 4K Ultra, showing the wide range of performance this combo can deliver depending on the configuration.

Q: Does the combo support modern graphics APIs that could benefit Evolve?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The PassMark DirectX 12 score of 127 and DirectX 11 score of 300 suggest the GPU handles these APIs differently, but Evolve's engine may not fully utilize the latest features given its 2015 release date.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 316 FPS, which drops to 212 FPS at 1440p Low (a 32.9% reduction) and then to 120 FPS at 4K Low (a 62% reduction from 1080p). This steep decline is typical of a configuration where the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher pixel counts.

Looking at Medium settings, the pattern is similar but with different magnitudes. At 1080p Medium, the average is 245 FPS with a minimum of 208 FPS and maximum of 281 FPS. At 1440p Medium, this drops to 164 FPS (minimum 139, maximum 189), a 33.1% reduction. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 93 FPS (minimum 79, maximum 107), representing a 62% drop from 1080p. The consistency of these percentage reductions across settings strongly suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck as resolution increases.

High settings tell the same story: 192 FPS at 1080p, 129 FPS at 1440p (32.8% lower), and 73 FPS at 4K (62% lower). Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling: 133 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p (33.1% lower), and 51 FPS at 4K (61.7% lower). The fact that these percentage drops are so consistent across all four settings presets indicates that the CPU is not introducing variability — if it were, the scaling would be less uniform at lower resolutions where the CPU has more headroom.

The data implies that at 1080p and even 1440p, the combo has significant performance headroom, with the CPU capable of feeding the GPU enough data to maintain very high frame rates. At 4K, however, the GPU's rendering workload dominates, and the frame rate falls to levels that are still playable but far from the high refresh rates achievable at lower resolutions. The 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on the RTX 5070 Ti likely prevents VRAM limitations at 4K, allowing the GPU to focus purely on compute and shading rather than memory swapping.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo's rank of 266 out of 2872 tested configurations places it in the top 9.3% of all combinations tested in Evolve. This is a strong showing, but the specific placement reveals interesting dynamics. With 2872 total combos, being 266th means there are 265 configurations that achieve higher average FPS. Given the high-end nature of both the CPU and GPU, one might expect a higher rank, but Evolve's age and optimization profile may favor other pairings.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 86 against all GPUs is notably lower than the CPU's 91st percentile. This suggests that in this specific game, other graphics cards may offer better performance relative to their overall benchmark scores. The RTX 5070 Ti's nearest rivals — the RX 6900 XT (2% faster), RX Vega 64 (0.1% faster), and RX 6800 XT (3.1% slower) — indicate that the field is tightly packed, and small differences in game-specific optimization can shift rankings significantly.

The combo's rank in the 91st percentile for CPUs but 86th percentile for GPUs hints that Evolve may be more sensitive to GPU performance than CPU performance. This is plausible for a 2015 FPS, which likely has simpler physics and game logic that don't fully exploit modern multi-core processors. The 12-core, 24-thread CPU may be overkill for this title, while the GPU's raw throughput and memory bandwidth are more directly tied to the measured FPS.

Compared to the 2872 combos, the 266th rank means the combo outperforms 2606 other configurations. This is a compelling result for users who want high refresh rate gaming at 1080p or 1440p, but the 4K performance (51 FPS at Ultra) shows that this combo is not designed for maximum fidelity at the highest resolution in this particular game.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB203 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The GPU contains 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 120.6 million per square millimeter. With 8,960 shading units, 280 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, the GPU is well-equipped for rasterization-heavy workloads like Evolve.

The 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game from 2015. The base clock of 2295 MHz and boost clock of 2452 MHz, combined with a memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective), allow the GPU to maintain high fill rates. The pixel rate of 235.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s are both strong figures that help explain the high FPS at 1080p and 1440p.

The GPU's benchmark scores show interesting characteristics. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6604 is a modern test that may not correlate perfectly with Evolve's performance. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 212363 and Vulkan score of 225122 suggest strong compute capabilities, but the PassMark DirectX scores tell a different story: DirectX 11 at 300, DirectX 10 at 192, DirectX 9 at 351, and DirectX 12 at 127. These scores are all relatively low compared to the GPU's overall performance, which might indicate that Evolve's engine, likely using DirectX 11, doesn't fully leverage the GPU's architectural strengths.

The PassMark G3D score of 32974 and G2D score of 1332 place the GPU in the 86th percentile against all GPUs. The GPU compute score of 20203 further demonstrates its processing capability. However, the fact that its nearest rivals include older cards like the RX Vega 64 (0.1% faster) and RX 6900 XT (2% faster) suggests that raw benchmark scores don't always translate to game-specific performance.

Given the 300 W TDP and 700 W suggested PSU, this GPU draws significant power to achieve its clock speeds. The dual-slot design and 304 mm length indicate a substantial cooling solution, which is necessary for sustained performance. The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without bandwidth constraints, though Evolve's data requirements are likely modest by modern standards.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 316 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 245 FPS with a minimum of 208 and maximum of 281. High settings average 192 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 133 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 183 FPS, showing that the GPU has ample headroom even at the highest quality preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows a clear step down. Low settings average 212 FPS, which is still very high. Medium settings produce 164 FPS with a minimum of 139 and maximum of 189. High settings average 129 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 89 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is consistent across settings, ranging from 104 FPS at Low to 44 FPS at Ultra, representing roughly a one-third reduction in frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes more demanding. Low settings still manage 120 FPS, which is respectable for 4K. Medium settings average 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 107. High settings drop to 73 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 51 FPS. The 4K results show that while the combo can handle 4K gaming, it does so at reduced frame rates that may not satisfy competitive FPS players.

The data shows a consistent pattern across all settings: the frame rate drops by approximately one-third from 1080p to 1440p, and then by a further one-third from 1440p to 4K. This geometric progression indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases, with the CPU maintaining sufficient performance to avoid becoming a bottleneck even at 1080p with 316 FPS.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For players targeting the highest frame rates, Low settings at 1080p provide 316 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play or high refresh rate monitors. At 1440p, Low settings still deliver 212 FPS, making this the best choice for players with 1440p displays who prioritize smoothness over visual fidelity. At 4K, Low settings produce 120 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that achieves a frame rate above 100 FPS.

Medium settings offer a strong balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the 245 FPS average with a minimum of 208 FPS ensures smooth gameplay even during intense combat sequences. At 1440p, 164 FPS average with a minimum of 139 FPS remains highly playable. At 4K Medium, the 93 FPS average is borderline for high refresh rate displays but acceptable for standard 60 Hz monitors. The minimum of 79 FPS at 4K Medium prevents significant stuttering.

High settings provide a more visually rich experience at the cost of some performance. At 1080p, 192 FPS is still excellent. At 1440p, 129 FPS is good for most displays. At 4K, 73 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced FPS action. The lack of recorded minimum and maximum values for High settings makes it harder to assess frame time consistency, but the averages are solid.

Ultra settings should be reserved for players who prioritize visual quality above all else. At 1080p, 133 FPS is still smooth. At 1440p, 89 FPS is acceptable. At 4K, 51 FPS is at the edge of playability for a FPS, potentially causing discomfort for sensitive players. Given that Ultra at 4K nearly halves the frame rate compared to High at 4K (51 vs 73 FPS), players are better served by High settings at 4K if they want a more responsive experience.

The best overall recommendation is Medium settings at 1440p, which offers 164 FPS with a minimum of 139 FPS, providing an excellent balance of visual quality and performance. For 1080p gamers, Medium at 245 FPS is the sweet spot. For 4K players, Medium at 93 FPS or High at 73 FPS are the most reasonable choices, with Medium offering the better frame rate and High providing better visuals without the severe drop seen at Ultra.