Evolve

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER lands at rank 2604 out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve. That puts it in the lower 30th percentile of all system combinations, meaning roughly seven out of every ten combos tested deliver higher average frame rates. The ranking reflects the significant gap between the CPU’s capability and the GPU’s age; the processor is a modern flagship, while the graphics card is end-of-life. The combo is not a top-tier performer for this title, but the data shows it is fully capable of playable frame rates at most settings, which is what matters for practical use.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo sits at position 2604 out of 3,700 entries in the database for Evolve. That is a low-rank position, indicating that the majority of tested hardware pairings outperform it. However, the ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, which is only average in the broader landscape, as the RTX 3060 SUPER’s percentileVsAllGpus is 62, meaning it beats 62% of all GPUs tested. The CPU, meanwhile, is at the 95th percentile of all CPUs, a massive gap in capability. The combination places the bottleneck almost entirely on the graphics card, and the results reflect that. The rank is not an indication of a broken or unplayable setup—it is simply a matter of the GPU being the limiting factor. The 9950X3D is one of the fastest CPUs available, but it cannot help the GPU render more frames once the GPU is saturated.

The nearest rival GPUs highlight its position. The RTX 3060 Mobile is almost identical in average benchmark score, with a delta of -0.4%. The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 is similarly close at -0.5%. The AMD Radeon RX 460 and the Intel Arc A770M are slightly ahead, with deltas of -1.5% and -1.6% respectively. These are not large differences, but they show that the RTX 2060 Super sits in a tight cluster of GPUs with similar raw compute capability. In Evolve, this translates to a GPU that can handle 1080p and 1440p well at medium settings, but will start to show its age at 4K Ultra.

GPU Role

The GeForce RTX 2060 Super uses the TU106 chip on a 12 nm process. These are old numbers, but they define its limits. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, giving it 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1470 MHz and the boost clock is 1650 MHz, with a memory speed of 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). For a game like Evolve, a 2015 FPS title, the GPU's raw rasterization performance is more important than its RT cores or Tensor cores. The card has 34 RT cores and 272 Tensor cores, but those are not utilized meaningfully in this older game. What matters are the shading units, TMUs, and ROPs. The RTX 2060 Super has 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It can output 105.6 GPixel/s and 224.4 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 7.181 TFLOPS.

The 8 GB of VRAM is the key for Evolve. At 4K Ultra, the game is likely using a significant portion of that memory. The measured frame rates show that the GPU runs out of memory or compute at the highest settings. The benchmark results indicate that the memory capacity is sufficient to run the game at 1080p Ultra, but at 4K High and 4K Ultra, the GPU is the limiting factor. The GPU's 12 nm node and 175 W TDP are not relevant to the actual frame rates, but they do explain why the card cannot keep up with modern high-refresh displays. The card is end-of-life for production, so these are the best numbers it will ever produce.

The GPU's performance in Evolve is consistent with its position in the overall benchmark. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score is 2011, but that is not specific to this game. The PassMark G3D score is 16462, which places it near the RTX 3060 Mobile and the Radeon Pro 5700. These are the rivals that it is compared against. In the game, the GPU's performance is the single most important component. The CPU is 16 cores and 32 threads, which is massive overkill for this title. The GPU is the only thing that matters for frame rates in this scenario.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear pattern of frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1920x1080 High, the combination produces 97 FPS. At 2560x1440 High, it drops to 65 FPS. At 3840x2160 High, it falls to 37 FPS. That is a 60% drop in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, which indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU is not the bottleneck, because the frame rate scales inversely with resolution. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rates would be similar across resolutions. Instead, they drop as the pixel count increases, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering.

The 1080p Low setting produces 160 FPS, which is excellent. The 1440p Low produces 107 FPS, and 4K Low produces 61 FPS. The 4K Low frame rate of 61 FPS is just about at the threshold of playability for most users, but it is low enough to be noticeable on a high-refresh 4K monitor. The medium preset shows a similar pattern: 124 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing 68 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and only 26 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that the RTX 2060 Super is a 1080p card for this game, with 1440p being a compromise, and 4K being impractical for anything other than Low or Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 160 FPS average. This is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset delivers 124 FPS average, with min of 106 and max of 143. The High preset delivers 97 FPS average. The Ultra preset delivers 68 FPS average. The difference between Low and Ultra is 92 FPS, which is a 58% reduction in performance. For a 2015 game, the Ultra preset is not that demanding for a 1080p target, but the GPU still cannot reach 100 FPS at Ultra.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset gives 107 FPS. The Medium preset gives 83 FPS average, with min of 71 and max of 96. The High preset gives 65 FPS. The Ultra preset gives 45 FPS. The 1440p Ultra setting is not ideal for a fast-paced FPS, as 45 FPS is below the standard 60 FPS target. The 1440p Medium is playable, but it is not the best experience.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset gives 61 FPS. The Medium preset gives 47 FPS average, with min of 40 and max of 55. The High preset gives 37 FPS. The Ultra preset gives 26 FPS. The 4K Low setting is the only one that approaches 60 FPS, and it is still below it. The 4K Ultra is unplayable, as 26 FPS is far too low for a competitive FPS.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at every resolution. The CPU has plenty of headroom, but the GPU is saturated. The 9950X3D is far more capable than what this GPU needs, but the data is what it is.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge, on the AM5 socket. It has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz. The TDP is 170 W, and it uses a 4 nm process from TSMC. It has an L3 cache of 128 MB, which is a massive amount of cache, and it supports DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 42018 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2259 in single-core. It has a PassMark multithread score of 70255 and a single-thread score of 4737.

In Evolve, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The game is from 2015, and it was designed for 4-core CPUs. The 9950X3D is overkill. The data shows that the CPU never limits the frame rate. The frame rate scales with resolution, which is a GPU-bound behavior. The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads are not used by this game. It is a single-threaded or lightly threaded game, and the 9950X3D's single-thread performance is excellent. The single-thread score of 2259 in Cinebench R23 is higher than most other CPUs, but it doesn't translate into a higher frame rate because the GPU is the limiting factor.

The CPU's 128 MB of L3 cache is a 3D V-Cache feature, which can help in games that are cache-sensitive. However, Evolve is not a cache-heavy game, and it does not benefit from the extra cache. The CPU is so far ahead of the GPU that the game is purely GPU-bound. The 9950X3D is a top-tier processor, ranking in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, but it is paired with a GPU that is in the 62nd percentile. The imbalance is the defining characteristic of this combination.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with the High preset, which gives 97 FPS. This is a smooth frame rate for a FPS and provides a good visual quality. The Medium preset at 1080p gives 124 FPS, which is even smoother, but the High preset offers a better visual experience. The Ultra preset at 1080p gives 68 FPS, which is above 60 FPS but not enough for a high-refresh monitor. For users with a 144 Hz monitor, the Medium preset at 1080p is the best choice, as it gives 124 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS, which should stay above the refresh rate.

For 2560x1440, the best experience is the Low preset at 107 FPS, which is smooth and playable. The Medium preset at 83 FPS is also good, but it has a lower minimum of 71 FPS, which could dip below 75 Hz. For a 1440p 60 Hz monitor, the Medium preset is fine, but for a 100 Hz monitor, the Low or Medium is better. The High preset at 65 FPS is playable, but it is not recommended for fast-paced shooters.

For 4K, the Low preset at 61 FPS is the only playable option. The Medium preset at 47 FPS is borderline, and the High and Ultra are not recommended. The data shows that 4K is not a realistic target for this GPU in Evolve, unless you are willing to drop to Low settings.

In summary, the best experience is at 1080p Medium or High. The Medium preset at 1080p gives 124 FPS with a 106 FPS minimum, which is a great balance for a smooth experience. The High preset at 1080p gives 97 FPS, which is also good. For 1440p, the Medium preset is the best balance of visual quality and performance, with 83 FPS average. The Ultra preset is not worth the performance hit at any resolution, as the visual gains are minimal compared to the frame rate loss. The 9950X3D is an excellent CPU, but the RTX 2060 Super is the limiting factor for this game.