Evolve

How This Combo Ranks

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D with the Intel Arc B370 finds itself in a precarious position within the Evolve benchmark hierarchy. With a combo rank of 2639 out of 2872 tested combinations, this system sits in the bottom 8% of all configurations evaluated for this title. The data indicates that while the CPU is a top-tier component, the integrated graphics solution acts as a severe bottleneck, dragging the entire platform down to near-bottom-tier performance.

This ranking becomes more telling when examining the GPU's position in the broader hardware landscape. The Intel Arc B370 sits at the 5th percentile among all GPUs, placing it in a category populated by legacy integrated and entry-level discrete solutions from over a decade ago. Its nearest rivals include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (0.2% faster), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (0.5% faster), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (0.7% faster). The deltaPct values here are remarkably tight, showing that the Arc B370 performs almost identically to these older parts, which is a striking testament to its positioning as a low-power integrated solution rather than a gaming-focused component.

The contrast between the two halves of this combo could hardly be more dramatic. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D, by comparison, achieves the 95th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 75779. Its nearest competitors—the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (0.1% faster), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (0.1% faster), AMD EPYC 8224P (0.3% faster), and Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (0.4% faster)—are all within a hair's breadth of its performance. This creates a fundamental imbalance in the system: a CPU that can drive massive workloads paired with a GPU that struggles to maintain playable frame rates in a 2015 title.

The implications for Evolve are clear. This game, released in early 2015, was designed for the hardware landscape of that era, and the Arc B370's performance profile aligns more closely with that generation than with the modern CPU it is paired alongside. The data shows a system where the GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution and settings combination, making the CPU's considerable power largely irrelevant for this particular benchmark scenario.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is built on Intel's 3 nm process using the Xe3-LPG architecture, with a chip codenamed Panther Lake. Its clock speeds are modest, with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, but the defining characteristic of this GPU is its memory configuration. The memory subsystem is entirely system-shared, meaning the GPU draws from the same DDR5 pool as the CPU rather than having dedicated VRAM. This creates a scenario where available memory bandwidth is "System Dependent," which in practice means performance can vary significantly based on the rest of the system configuration.

The GPU's compute resources are limited: 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and just 20 render output units. It does feature 10 ray tracing cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but these features do little to help in a game like Evolve, which predates widespread ray tracing adoption. The pixel rate is rated at 48.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate at 96.00 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 6.144 TFLOPS. For context, these figures place it in a performance tier where even the ATI Radeon HD 5770, a GPU from 2009, is a near-exact match in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 testing.

The thermal and power envelope tells a story of efficiency over performance. With a 25 W TDP and no power connectors required, this is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) that consumes minimal power. However, in Evolve's benchmark, this efficiency translates to underwhelming results. At 4K Ultra settings, the GPU manages only 13 FPS average, and even at 1080p Low settings, it reaches just 80 FPS. The data suggests that the Arc B370 is designed for basic display output and light workloads rather than gaming, which is reflected in its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184—a figure that places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs.

The system-shared memory architecture deserves particular scrutiny. In Evolve, which was released before this GPU's architecture existed, the reliance on shared memory likely introduces latency and bandwidth constraints that dedicated VRAM would not face. The fact that memory bandwidth is "System Dependent" rather than a fixed figure means the GPU's performance is partly hostage to CPU memory operations, creating a potential source of frame time inconsistency that the measured FPS data cannot fully capture.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a GPU that is heavily pixel-bound, with performance collapsing as resolution increases. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 80 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 54 FPS, a 32.5% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 31 FPS, representing a 61.3% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are exhausted quickly as pixel count grows, and there is no indication that the CPU becomes a limiting factor at any resolution.

The Medium settings tell a similar story. The 1080p Medium average of 62 FPS falls to 42 FPS at 1440p (a 32.3% drop) and then to 24 FPS at 4K (a 61.3% drop from 1080p). This consistent ~32% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~61% drop from 1080p to 4K across both Low and Medium presets strongly implicates the GPU as the sole bottleneck. If the CPU were contributing to the bottleneck, we would expect the percentage drops to change as settings alter the CPU versus GPU workload balance.

High settings show a slightly different pattern. The 1080p High average of 49 FPS drops to 33 FPS at 1440p (a 32.7% reduction) and to 19 FPS at 4K (a 61.2% reduction from 1080p). The consistency of these percentages across Low, Medium, and High suggests a GPU that is uniformly limited by its raw pixel throughput and memory bandwidth, with settings changes affecting overall performance levels but not the resolution scaling behavior. Ultra settings follow the same trend, with 34 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K.

The data implies that at every resolution, the GPU is running at near-full utilization, and lowering resolution does not reveal any hidden CPU constraint. Even at 1080p Low, the 80 FPS average is far below what the Ryzen 9 9950X3D could feed a more capable GPU, confirming that the Arc B370 is the performance ceiling for this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark results provide a complete matrix of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1080p, the combo delivers its best results, ranging from 80 FPS average at Low settings to 34 FPS average at Ultra. The Medium preset shows an average of 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS and maximum of 72 FPS, indicating reasonably stable frame delivery. The High preset at 1080p produces 49 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 34 FPS, showing that the most demanding settings cut performance roughly in half compared to Low.

Moving to 1440p, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low settings yield 54 FPS average, Medium produces 42 FPS (with a minimum of 35 FPS and maximum of 48 FPS), High delivers 33 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. The frame time data for Medium at this resolution shows a spread of 13 FPS between minimum and maximum, which suggests some variability but nothing that indicates severe stuttering.

At 4K, the results become marginal for playability. Low settings produce 31 FPS average, Medium drops to 24 FPS (20-27 FPS range), High manages 19 FPS, and Ultra falls to 13 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K shows a 7 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, which is proportionally larger than at lower resolutions, hinting at increased frame time volatility as the GPU struggles with the pixel count.

The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is consistent at roughly 57-58% performance reduction. At 1080p, the drop is from 80 to 34 FPS; at 1440p, from 54 to 23 FPS; and at 4K, from 31 to 13 FPS. This consistency suggests that the settings presets scale uniformly, with each step (Low to Medium to High to Ultra) extracting a predictable toll on the GPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor built on the Zen 5 architecture with a Granite Ridge codename. It operates on a 4 nm process from TSMC, with a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz. The cache hierarchy is substantial: 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a massive 128 MB of L3 cache. Its memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, along with ECC support. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes.

Benchmark results for this CPU are exceptional across the board. In Cinebench R23, it scores 42018 in multicore and 2259 in singlecore. Geekbench shows 26736 multicore and 3064 singlecore. The PassMark multithread score is 70255, with a physics score of 5670. In 3DMark threaded tests, it achieves 16374 with 16 threads, 9259 with 8 threads, 4963 with 4 threads, 2549 with 2 threads, and 1292 single-threaded. These figures place it at the 95th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 75779.

In the context of Evolve, a game from 2015, this CPU's capabilities are vastly overprovisioned. The game's engine was designed for the multi-core processors of its era, and even the most demanding scenarios would struggle to utilize more than a fraction of the 9950X3D's 32 threads. The single-thread performance, crucial for older game engines, is strong at 1292 in 3DMark single-thread and 2259 in Cinebench R23 singlecore, but the GPU bottleneck ensures that this strength never manifests in higher frame rates.

The nearest CPU rivals—the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (0.1% faster), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (0.1% faster), AMD EPYC 8224P (0.3% faster), and Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (0.4% faster)—all show that the 9950X3D is essentially tied with the best available processors. This creates a stark contrast with the GPU, which is tied with decade-old parts. The data clearly shows that swapping the Arc B370 for virtually any discrete GPU would yield immediate and substantial gains, as the CPU has enormous headroom that is left completely unused in this configuration.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the optimal settings balance depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset at 80 FPS average provides a smooth, responsive experience that is well above the threshold for competitive play. The Medium preset at 62 FPS (53-72 FPS range) is a reasonable alternative for those seeking better visual quality, as the minimum frame rate of 53 FPS remains playable. High at 49 FPS is borderline, while Ultra at 34 FPS dips into territory where motion smoothness may suffer in fast-paced FPS action.

At 1440p, the choices become more constrained. Low at 54 FPS is the only preset that maintains a consistent 50+ FPS average, making it the recommended choice for 1440p gaming. Medium at 42 FPS (35-48 FPS range) is playable but may show noticeable frame pacing issues during intense combat sequences. High at 33 FPS and Ultra at 23 FPS are below what most players would consider acceptable for an FPS title.

At 4K, no preset achieves a truly playable frame rate. Low at 31 FPS is the best option, but even this falls short of the 60 FPS target that modern FPS players expect. Medium at 24 FPS, High at 19 FPS, and Ultra at 13 FPS are all marginal at best. For 4K, the data suggests that this combo is not suitable for Evolve, and players would need to consider either a different GPU or a lower resolution.

The Medium preset at 1080p offers the best compromise between visual fidelity and performance, with a 62 FPS average and a minimum of 53 FPS that keeps the experience above the 50 FPS threshold. The frame time data for Medium shows a tighter range (53-72 FPS) compared to what we might expect from the more demanding presets, indicating that this setting allows the GPU to work within a more stable performance envelope.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Evolve at 60 FPS?

A: At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 80 FPS average, which exceeds 60 FPS. However, at 1080p Medium, the average drops to 62 FPS, and at High it falls to 49 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, no settings preset reaches 60 FPS, with the best result being 54 FPS at 1440p Low.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 places it at the 5th percentile. It is 0.2% slower than the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, 0.5% slower than the ATI Radeon HD 5770, and 0.7% slower than the AMD Radeon HD 7650M, while being 1.4% faster than the AMD FirePro M2000.

Q: What is the CPU's performance ranking relative to other processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D sits at the 95th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 75779. It is 0.1% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 and Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D, 0.3% slower than the AMD EPYC 8224P, and 0.4% slower than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285.

Q: Does the GPU or CPU limit performance in Evolve?

A: The benchmark data clearly shows the GPU as the limiting factor. Frame rates drop by approximately 32% from 1080p to 1440p and 61% from 1080p to 4K across all settings, a pattern consistent with GPU-bound performance. The CPU's capabilities far exceed what Evolve requires, leaving its headroom unused.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 62 FPS average (53-72 FPS range) offers the best balance, providing playable performance with better visual quality than Low. Low at 80 FPS is preferable if maximum smoothness is the priority, while High at 49 FPS and Ultra at 34 FPS sacrifice too much frame rate for the visual gains.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Evolve?

A: No preset achieves a playable frame rate at 4K. The best result is 31 FPS at Low settings, followed by 24 FPS at Medium, 19 FPS at High, and 13 FPS at Ultra. The GPU's system-shared memory and limited compute resources make 4K gaming impractical for this title.