Evolve

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

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D sits at the top of the desktop stack with 16 cores and 32 threads, running on the Zen 5 architecture with a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz. This is a processor that benchmarks show to be in the 96th percentile against all CPUs, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 59712 and a single-core score of 8430. For a game like Evolve, released in 2015, the question becomes whether this modern flagship is overkill or whether the game's engine can actually leverage such hardware.

The data suggests that Evolve is not particularly demanding on the CPU side, at least not in a way that would stress this processor. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 289.5 FPS average, which is far beyond what most displays can show. Even at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 48.2 FPS, but that drop is far more attributable to the GPU than the CPU. The 9950X3D's 128 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth mean it can feed data to the GPU without becoming a bottleneck in older titles.

Comparing to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, the 9950X3D scores 0.9% higher than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270, 1.8% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, and 2.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700KF. It trails the Intel Xeon 6517P by 1.9%. These are tight margins, indicating that for a game like Evolve, the CPU choice between these high-end parts would likely produce nearly identical frame rates. The real insight is that the 9950X3D's massive thread count (32 threads) is mostly idle in this scenario, as Evolve's engine from 2015 was designed for the 4-core/8-thread era.

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

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Evolve?

A: The highest measured average is 289.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings, showing that the combo far exceeds typical display refresh rates at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest competitor in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D has an average benchmark score of 71660, which is 0.9% higher than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (score 71056) and 1.8% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (score 70420). It is 1.9% lower than the Intel Xeon 6517P (score 73050) and 2.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700KF (score 70104).

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations for Evolve?

A: The combo ranks 292nd out of 1695 tested combinations, placing it in the top 17% of all combos tested for this game.

Q: Does the GPU outperform or underperform its closest rivals in synthetic tests?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 42576, which is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (score 42653) and 0.3% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (score 42723). It outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% (score 41991) and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6% (score 41897).

Q: How much FPS is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 178.7 at 1920x1080 to 118.9 at 2560x1440, then to 68.4 at 3840x2160. This represents a 61.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the GPU's VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, with a boost clock of 2475 MHz.

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

The resolution scaling pattern in Evolve reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. Starting at 1080p Low, the combo produces 289.5 FPS, which drops to 195 FPS at 1440p Low and then to 113.4 FPS at 4K Low. That is a 60.8% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. At High settings, the drop from 178.7 FPS (1080p) to 68.4 FPS (4K) represents a 61.7% reduction. The consistency of this percentage drop across settings is telling.

When the resolution increases, the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the frame rate falls by roughly 60-62% at every settings tier. This indicates that the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions, as the CPU has ample headroom to keep up with the increased rendering demands. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily at 4K, especially at Ultra settings where the average FPS plummets to 48.2.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (289.5 FPS) and Ultra (123 FPS) is 166.5 FPS. At 4K, that gap shrinks to 65.2 FPS (113.4 vs 48.2). This compression at higher resolutions is a hallmark of GPU saturation, where the graphics card's compute resources become the bottleneck regardless of how much the settings are lowered. The data points to the RTX 4070 SUPER being the limiting factor at 4K, while the 9950X3D has surplus capacity in this title.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo of AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 292nd out of 1695 tested combinations in Evolve. This places it in the top 17.2% of all combos tested, which is a strong showing but not a top-tier result. The rank reflects the GPU's 84th percentile standing among all GPUs, while the CPU sits in the 96th percentile. The disparity between these two percentiles suggests that the GPU is holding back the overall combo ranking.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 4070 SUPER is essentially tied with the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (deltaPct of -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (deltaPct of -0.3%). This tight grouping means that swapping to either of those GPUs would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in Evolve. The GPU's synthetic scores show it is 1.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 580X and 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla M40.

The rank of 292 is respectable but not dominant, reflecting that Evolve is an older title where modern high-end GPUs do not always scale linearly. The combo's performance at 1080p Ultra (123 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (82.7 FPS) are solid numbers, but the 4K Ultra result of 48.2 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that many users consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. This rank suggests that while the CPU is overqualified for the task, the GPU is adequate but not exceptional in this specific game.

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

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of how this combo handles Evolve across all resolution and settings combinations. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 289.5 FPS on Low, 227.2 FPS on Medium, 178.7 FPS on High, and 123 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 57.5% reduction in performance, which is a significant but expected drop given the increased graphical complexity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 195 FPS on Low, 153.5 FPS on Medium, 118.9 FPS on High, and 82.7 FPS on Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each settings tier is approximately 32-33%, which is consistent with the increased pixel count. At 3840x2160, the averages are 113.4 FPS on Low, 84 FPS on Medium, 68.4 FPS on High, and 48.2 FPS on Ultra.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a larger relative drop: 41.8% on Low (195 to 113.4), 45.3% on Medium (153.5 to 84), 42.5% on High (118.9 to 68.4), and 41.7% on Ultra (82.7 to 48.2). This steeper decline at 4K indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power are being pushed to their limits. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this 2015 title, but the 192-bit bus width and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth become constraining factors at 4K Ultra.

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

For users targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data shows that 4K Ultra is the only configuration that falls below this threshold, averaging 48.2 FPS. Every other measured combination exceeds 60 FPS, including 4K High at 68.4 FPS. This means that at 4K, High settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance, offering a 20.2 FPS improvement over Ultra while maintaining respectable image quality.

At 1440p, all settings tiers exceed 60 FPS, with Ultra at 82.7 FPS and High at 118.9 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is 36.2 FPS, which is substantial. Given that Ultra only adds marginal visual improvements over High in most games, High settings at 1440p deliver an excellent experience with headroom above 100 FPS. For competitive play, 1440p Low at 195 FPS provides the highest refresh rate potential.

At 1080p, even Ultra settings achieve 123 FPS, so users with 144Hz or 165Hz displays can comfortably use Ultra. For 240Hz displays, High at 178.7 FPS or Medium at 227.2 FPS would be better choices. The Low setting at 289.5 FPS is only necessary for extreme competitive scenarios or very high refresh rate displays (360Hz+). The sweet spot for most users at 1080p is High, which offers the best visual fidelity while maintaining nearly 180 FPS.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Its base clock is 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and it has 7168 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

For Evolve, the GPU's role is clearly dominant in determining frame rates at higher resolutions. The passmark G3D score of 29995 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627 indicate strong overall performance, but the 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs shows it is not at the very top. The nearest rival data shows the RTX 4070 SUPER is effectively tied with the RTX A6000 and RX 7650 GRE, with deltaPct values of -0.2% and -0.3% respectively.

The GPU's 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 554.4 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for a 2015 title, but the 192-bit memory bus appears to be the limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The 48.2 FPS result at 4K Ultra suggests that memory bandwidth constraints prevent the GPU from fully utilizing its compute capabilities in this scenario. The 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are largely unused in Evolve, as the game predates ray tracing and DLSS technologies. The GPU's 220 W TDP and suggested 550 W PSU requirement are modest for a card in this performance class.