Evolve

# Evolve with Intel Core i3-12100F + AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a fascinating split personality in Evolve, a 2015 FPS that clearly favors raw GPU throughput at higher resolutions but exposes a quad-core ceiling at 1080p. Benchmark results show a combo that ranks 1,935th out of 3,700 tested combinations, placing it in the 48th percentile of all tested systems — a middle-of-the-road standing that becomes more understandable when dissecting how each component behaves across the game's four settings presets and three resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread desktop processor from the Core 12th Gen series, built on the Alder Lake-S architecture using a 10 nm process. It runs at a 3.30 GHz base clock and boosts up to 4.30 GHz, with a 58 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 12 MB L3 pool. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11,860 and a single-core score of 1,674, while Geekbench results show 7,252 multicore and 1,932 single-core. Its PassMark multithread score reaches 14,015, with a single-thread score of 3,444.

In Evolve, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but at 1080p the data tells a different story. The 4-core design with 8 threads is sufficient to feed the GPU at Low settings, where the combo reaches 192 FPS at 1080p. However, the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a drop from 192 to 81 FPS — a 57.8% reduction that is far more dramatic than the GPU-bound scaling seen at 4K, where the same settings change yields a drop from 73 to 31 FPS (57.5% reduction). The nearly identical percentage drops at both extremes suggest the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at either resolution; instead, the GPU's workload scaling dominates.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68th among all CPUs places it above the median, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta), Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% faster), Intel Core 5 120UL (0.7% slower), and Intel Core i7-1250U (1.1% faster). These tight deltas indicate that the i3-12100F sits in a crowded performance band where small differences in synthetic averages translate to negligible real-world gaps. For Evolve, which is not a CPU-heavy title by modern standards, the quad-core configuration with high boost clocks is adequate for maintaining frame rates above 60 FPS at 1440p and 4K, but the 1080p Low result of 192 FPS suggests the CPU can push well beyond typical display refresh rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 192, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 31 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1,935th out of 3,700 tested combinations, placing it near the middle of the database.

Q: How much FPS improvement comes from dropping settings from Ultra to Low at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS rises from 54 (Ultra) to 129 (Low), representing a 138.9% improvement.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor, as the FPS scaling across settings at 1080p (192 Low to 81 Ultra) closely mirrors the scaling at 4K (73 Low to 31 Ultra), indicating consistent GPU-bound behavior.

Q: What is the only resolution/settings combination with reported minimum FPS data?

A: The Medium preset at all three resolutions includes min/max FPS data: 127-171 at 1080p, 85-115 at 1440p, and 48-65 at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling pattern in Evolve reveals a GPU-bound workload that scales predictably with pixel count. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by 33.3% at High settings (117 to 78), 32.8% at Low settings (192 to 129), 32.9% at Medium settings (149 to 100), and 33.3% at Ultra settings (81 to 54). This consistent ~33% reduction across all settings presets indicates that the GPU's rendering workload scales almost perfectly with the 1.78x pixel count increase from 1080p to 1440p, leaving no room for CPU involvement to alter the pattern.

Moving from 1440p to 4K, the drops become more pronounced but remain consistent: High settings fall from 78 to 45 FPS (42.3% reduction), Low from 129 to 73 (43.4%), Medium from 100 to 57 (43.0%), and Ultra from 54 to 31 (42.6%). The slightly larger percentage drop at 4K compared to 1440p suggests that the RX 6700 XT's memory bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s and 12 GB GDDR6 buffer become more stressed at 4K, where the 192-bit bus width must feed more pixels. The GPU's 2560 shading units running at a boost clock of 2581 MHz and game clock of 2424 MHz are clearly the dominant factor in these scaling curves.

The limiting component at all resolutions is the GPU. Evidence comes from the near-identical percentage scaling patterns across settings at each resolution tier, which would not occur if the CPU were introducing a bottleneck. If the i3-12100F were limiting performance, the 1080p results would show compression at higher FPS levels (e.g., Low settings capped below 192 FPS), but the data shows no such cap. At 4K Ultra, the 31 FPS average is purely GPU-limited, as the CPU's workload does not increase significantly at higher resolutions for a game from 2015.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1,935 out of 3,700 tested combinations places it just below the median, which is surprising given the individual component rankings. The i3-12100F ranks in the 68th percentile among CPUs, while the RX 6700 XT ranks in the 72nd percentile among GPUs. If both components performed at their individual percentiles, one might expect a higher overall combo rank. The discrepancy suggests that Evolve's specific engine characteristics do not fully utilize the strengths of either component.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (0% delta), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (0.5% slower), NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell (1.1% slower), and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 (1.5% faster). These margins are extremely tight, with the RX 6700 XT's average benchmark score of 27,425 sitting within 1.5% of all four rivals. This indicates that in the broader benchmark suite, the GPU is performing as expected for its class.

The CPU's nearest rivals show similarly tight clustering, with the i3-12100F's average benchmark score of 13,494 differing by at most 1.1% from its four closest competitors. The combination of two components that each perform near the median of their respective classes, yet together rank below the 50th percentile in Evolve, points to a potential driver overhead issue or engine limitation. Evolve's release date of 2015-02-09 predates both components by several years — the GPU launched in 2021-03-02 and the CPU is from the Alder Lake generation — so the game's code may not fully leverage the modern architectures' features.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 192 for Low, 149 for Medium (with a min of 127 and max of 171), 117 for High, and 81 for Ultra. The Medium preset provides the only complete FPS range data at this resolution, showing a 44 FPS variance between minimum and maximum.

At 2560x1440, the averages drop to 129 for Low, 100 for Medium (min 85, max 115), 78 for High, and 54 for Ultra. The Medium preset again offers the only min/max data, with a 30 FPS variance.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 73 for Low, 57 for Medium (min 48, max 65), 45 for High, and 31 for Ultra. The Medium preset shows a 17 FPS variance, which is the smallest spread across all resolutions.

The step-down pattern between settings presets is consistent: Low to Medium costs roughly 22-28% of performance, Medium to High costs another 21-25%, and High to Ultra costs another 30-33%. This scaling is uniform across all three resolutions, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the workload. The 4K Ultra result of 31 FPS is the only measured average below 45 FPS, making it the sole truly unplayable configuration in the data set.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p displays, the High preset at 117 FPS average provides an excellent balance of visual quality and performance, comfortably exceeding 60 FPS and approaching high-refresh-rate territory. The Ultra preset's 81 FPS average is still playable but offers diminishing returns over High, which is a common pattern in games where Ultra presets introduce expensive effects with minimal visual impact.

At 1440p, the High preset at 78 FPS is the recommended choice for smooth gameplay, while Medium at 100 FPS is ideal for higher refresh rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 54 FPS dips below 60 FPS, making it a poor choice for competitive play. The Low preset at 129 FPS is excessive for most displays but would suit 144Hz monitors if visual fidelity is sacrificed.

For 4K, the Medium preset at 57 FPS is the only configuration that approaches 60 FPS, though it still falls short. High at 45 FPS and Low at 73 FPS bracket the playable range, with Low being the only preset that guarantees smooth gameplay above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 31 FPS is not recommended under any circumstances. Given the data, 1440p High represents the sweet spot for this combo, delivering 78 FPS with substantial visual quality improvements over the Low preset while maintaining a comfortable frame rate margin.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 7 nm process, with the Navi 22 chip containing 17,200 million transistors across a 335 mm² die. It features 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 40 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2321 MHz, a game clock of 2424 MHz, and a boost clock of 2581 MHz, producing 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. Memory consists of 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 16 Gbps effective speed. The card draws up to 230 W and requires a 550 W power supply.

In Evolve, the GPU's 12 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for the 2015 title, which was designed for the 4 GB VRAM era. The 384.0 GB/s bandwidth and 192-bit bus are the likely limiting factors at 4K, where the pixel fill rate of 165.2 GPixel/s becomes stressed. The texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s is ample for the game's asset complexity, and the FP32 throughput of 13.21 TFLOPS handles the compute workloads efficiently.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 72nd among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27,425, places it above the median and within 1.5% of its four nearest rivals. The PassMark G3D score of 19,786 and DirectX 11 score of 173 indicate strong DirectX 11 performance, which is relevant since Evolve's engine likely uses DirectX 11 as its primary API. The DirectX 12 score of 77 is notably lower, suggesting that the game may not benefit from modern API features. The gap between the GPU's percentile rank (72nd) and the combo's rank (48th percentile) highlights that Evolve does not fully leverage the RX 6700 XT's capabilities, likely due to the game's age predating the GPU's architecture by six years.