Evolve

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 presents a compelling dataset for Evolve, a 2015 FPS title. The measured frames per second across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a system capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p, solid performance at 1440p, and playable, though more demanding, 4K output. The data indicates that the optimal experience balances visual fidelity with frame rate consistency, making the Medium preset the standout choice for most users. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers a 156 FPS average with a minimum of 133 FPS and a maximum of 179 FPS, offering a smooth and responsive experience that leverages high-refresh-rate displays. For 1440p, the Medium preset remains the sweet spot, providing a 105 FPS average with a minimum of 89 FPS, ensuring fluid gameplay without the significant performance cost of the Ultra preset. At 4K, the Medium preset is the only configuration that maintains a playable frame rate above 60 FPS, averaging 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS. The data clearly shows that the High preset is a viable alternative at 1080p and 1440p for users prioritizing visual quality, but the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and stability across all tested resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results for Evolve indicate that the Medium preset offers the most consistent and balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves a 156 FPS average, which is significantly higher than the 122 FPS average of the High preset and the 85 FPS average of the Ultra preset. The Low preset, while achieving a 201 FPS average, does so at a substantial visual quality cost. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 133 ensures that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate remains well above the 60 FPS threshold, providing a smooth and immersive experience. This makes Medium the recommended starting point for 1080p gaming, as it provides a high-performance baseline with only a moderate reduction in visual effects compared to High.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scaling follows a similar pattern. The Medium preset delivers a 105 FPS average with a minimum of 89 FPS, which is sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors and provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS target. The High preset at 1440p averages 82 FPS, which is still playable but offers less headroom for frame rate drops in intense combat scenarios. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to a 57 FPS average, which is below the ideal threshold for a competitive FPS. The Low preset at 1440p yields a 135 FPS average, but the visual compromise is often not worth the performance gain given the solid 105 FPS average of the Medium preset. Therefore, Medium is the optimal choice for 1440p, offering a clear upgrade in visual quality over Low while maintaining a high and stable frame rate.

At the demanding 3840x2160 resolution, the Medium preset is the only option that maintains an average frame rate at or above the 60 FPS target. With a 60 FPS average and a 51 FPS minimum, it provides a playable experience, though users may notice occasional dips in the most graphically intensive moments. The High preset at 4K averages 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and may feel less responsive. The Low preset at 4K reaches a 77 FPS average, but the reduction in texture detail and effects is pronounced at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 4K is not recommended, as it falls to a 32 FPS average, making the game feel sluggish. The data suggests that for 4K, the Medium preset is the only viable choice for a reasonably smooth experience, and users with high-refresh-rate 4K displays will need to accept the Low preset to achieve higher frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best graphics preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset is the recommended choice for 2560x1440. It provides a 105 FPS average with a minimum of 89 FPS, offering a smooth and responsive experience. The High preset achieves an 82 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 57 FPS, making Medium the best balance of performance and visual quality for this resolution.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but only with the Medium settings preset. The data shows a 60 FPS average with a 51 FPS minimum at 3840x2160. The High preset averages 47 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 32 FPS, both of which fall below the 60 FPS target.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1080p?

A: The Ultra preset has a significant performance cost. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 85 FPS, while the High preset averages 122 FPS. This represents a 30% performance decrease for the Ultra visual fidelity improvements, which may not be worth it for competitive play.

Q: Is there a large difference between the Low and Medium presets at 1080p?

A: The performance difference is notable, with Low averaging 201 FPS and Medium averaging 156 FPS. However, the Medium preset provides a better visual experience and its 156 FPS average is still exceptionally high. The 45 FPS difference between them is less impactful than the visual quality gain from Medium.

Q: What is the most stable frame rate configuration for this system?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the most balanced stability, with a 156 FPS average and a 133 FPS minimum, resulting in a narrow 46 FPS variance between the minimum and maximum. This indicates a highly consistent frame pacing, which is preferable for a smooth gaming experience.

Q: Does the system perform better at 1440p Ultra or 4K Medium?

A: The 1440p Ultra preset is the better choice, as it averages 57 FPS, which is slightly below the 60 FPS target but more consistent than the 4K Medium preset, which averages 60 FPS but has a 51 FPS minimum. Both are playable, but 1440p Ultra offers a higher resolution with a more stable minimum frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the Low settings preset, the performance drops from a 201 FPS average at 1080p to 135 FPS at 1440p and further to 77 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 43% decrease from 1440p to 4K. This significant drop at higher resolutions strongly suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting component, as the workload on the graphics card increases exponentially with pixel count.

The High settings preset shows a similar trend, with a 122 FPS average at 1080p, which decreases to 82 FPS at 1440p and 47 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K results in a 61% reduction in frame rate, further confirming the GPU-bound nature of this workload. Even the Medium preset, which is the most balanced, sees a 156 FPS average at 1080p, decreasing to 105 FPS at 1440p and 60 FPS at 4K. This consistent drop across all presets indicates that the system's performance is heavily dependent on the GPU's ability to render at higher resolutions.

The frame rate scaling is not perfectly linear, which is typical for modern games. The transition from 1440p to 4K often results in a larger percentage drop than from 1080p to 1440p, as seen with the Low preset (43% vs. 33%). This is because 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, while 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p. The data suggests that the Radeon RX 7700, with its 16 GB of VRAM and 624.1 GB/s memory bandwidth, has sufficient memory capacity but its raw compute power (25.18 TFLOPS FP32) is the determining factor for high-resolution performance. The 4-core, 8-thread Core i3-12100F does not appear to be a bottleneck, as the frame rate drops are consistent with GPU-bound scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide performance range across the four settings presets. The Low preset achieves the highest average frame rate at 201 FPS, making it ideal for esports-style play or for users with very high refresh rate monitors. The Medium preset delivers a 156 FPS average, with a minimum of 133 FPS and a maximum of 179 FPS, providing a strong balance between visual quality and performance. The High preset averages 122 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS threshold and suitable for most gaming scenarios. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding an 85 FPS average, which is a significant drop from High but still playable.

At 2560x1440, the performance hierarchy remains consistent. The Low preset leads with a 135 FPS average, followed by the Medium preset at 105 FPS, which has a minimum of 89 FPS and a maximum of 120 FPS. The High preset produces an 82 FPS average, and the Ultra preset drops to a 57 FPS average. For 1440p gaming, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation, as it provides a high frame rate that remains stable, with the minimum FPS staying well above the 60 FPS target. The High preset is a viable alternative for users who prefer higher visual fidelity and can tolerate average frame rates in the 80s.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops are more pronounced. The Low preset averages 77 FPS, which is playable but requires a significant compromise in visual quality. The Medium preset is the only other option that achieves a 60 FPS average, with a minimum of 51 FPS, indicating that there may be occasional dips below the smoothness threshold. The High preset averages 47 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 32 FPS, both of which are below the ideal for a responsive FPS experience. For 4K, users will need to use the Medium preset to get a reasonably playable experience, or the Low preset for higher frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combination has a rank of 1291 out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve. This places the system in the 55th percentile of all tested hardware combinations, indicating a solid, above-average performance level for this specific game. The data shows that this combo is capable of handling the game well at high settings, particularly at 1080p and 1440p, which is a strong showing given the CPU's relatively modest specifications.

The combo's rank is likely influenced by the balanced nature of the two components. The GPU's performance is the key driver for this game, as the resolution scaling tests confirm that the system is GPU-bound. The RX 7700's average benchmark score of 15852, which is competitive with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129, deltaPct -1.7) and AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014, deltaPct -1), demonstrates that it is a capable mid-to-high-end graphics card. This GPU performance allows the combo to achieve high frame rates, pushing its rank into the upper half of all tested systems.

The CPU's contribution to the rank is more subtle. The Core i3-12100F, with its 4 cores and 8 threads, is not a high-end processor, but its strong single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 3444) is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU in Evolve. The CPU's average benchmark score of 13494 puts it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, which is respectable. The combination of a strong GPU and a capable, though not top-tier, CPU results in a system that performs well in this game, justifying its 1291st rank out of 2872 combos.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, which are key factors in its gaming performance. The processor's cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. This cache hierarchy is designed to reduce memory latency and improve performance in games that rely on repetitive data access. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as its Geekbench single-core score of 1932 and multi-core score of 7252, indicate a strong single-threaded capability, which is often more critical for gaming than multi-threaded performance.

In the context of Evolve, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent drop that is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload. The CPU's performance is sufficient to feed the GPU with data at all tested settings and resolutions, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low (201 FPS) and 1440p Low (135 FPS). If the CPU were a bottleneck, the frame rates would not scale as linearly with resolution changes, and the performance would plateau. The data suggests that the i3-12100F provides enough computational power to avoid limiting the RX 7700's output.

The CPU's 4-core, 8-thread configuration is adequate for this game, which is from 2015 and likely does not heavily utilize more than a few cores. The Passmark multi-thread score of 14015 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 are solid for a quad-core part, but they are not the primary driver of the high frame rates seen in the data. The high boost clock of 4.30 GHz and excellent single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674) are the more important characteristics for ensuring smooth and responsive gameplay, as they help maintain high frame times and reduce stuttering. The CPU's TDP of 58 W is low, but that is not a performance metric.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the dominant component in this system's gaming performance, as the data clearly shows its impact on frame rates. The GPU is based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This high bandwidth is crucial for handling high-resolution textures and complex scenes, especially at 4K where memory demands are highest. The GPU's 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 96 ROPs are responsible for the raw rendering power, and its 25.18 TFLOPS FP32 compute performance is a strong indicator of its capabilities.

The GPU's benchmark scores are competitive, with a Passmark G3D score of 20974 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 2865. Its average benchmark score of 15852 places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. The data from Evolve reinforces this, as the GPU is clearly the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with the increased pixel workload, and the GPU's ability to maintain a 60 FPS average at 4K Medium confirms its performance. The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is a significant advantage, as it ensures there is no memory capacity bottleneck even at 4K Ultra settings.

The clocks of the RX 7700 are also a factor in its performance. The boost clock of 2459 MHz, with a game clock of 2041 MHz, allows the GPU to maintain high throughput in demanding gaming workloads. The GPU's performance in Evolve is strong, achieving a 201 FPS average at 1080p Low and a 122 FPS average at 1080p High. This demonstrates that the GPU is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions, and the system's performance is instead limited by the game's engine or the CPU, though the CPU is not a limiting factor. The GPU's architecture and specifications are well-suited for this game, providing a smooth and high-quality experience across a range of settings and resolutions.