Evolve

The pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti in Evolve presents a classic study in component balance. The data shows a system capable of high refresh-rate play at mainstream resolutions, yet one that becomes firmly GPU-bound as resolution and graphical fidelity increase. The measured FPS across twelve distinct resolution and settings combinations reveals a hierarchy where the 4-core, 8-thread processor holds its ground at lower resolutions, only to yield entirely to the demands of the Ampere graphics card. This combination ranks 689th out of 1695 tested combos in this game, placing it in the upper portion of the database.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K illustrates a textbook shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 224.5 FPS, which drops to 152.3 FPS at 1440p and further to 87.2 FPS at 4K. That represents a 61% reduction in performance from 1080p Low to 4K Low, indicating that the rendering load is scaling heavily with pixel count. The pattern is consistent across all settings tiers, but the magnitude of the drop varies. For High settings, the descent is from 136.9 FPS at 1080p to 90.7 FPS at 1440p and finally 51.5 FPS at 4K — a 62% total decline.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiting factor, especially at lower settings. The jump from Low to High at 1080p costs only 87.6 FPS (224.5 to 136.9), which is a substantial 39% penalty. However, at 4K, the same settings change costs 35.7 FPS (87.2 to 51.5), or 41%. This relatively similar percentage penalty across resolutions implies that the graphics card is already saturated at 4K, making the incremental settings changes less impactful in absolute terms. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, with High settings losing 39.2 FPS, confirming that the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB frame buffer and 256-bit memory bus are being pushed hard at Ultra HD.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti serves as the dominant performance driver in this configuration. With a boost clock of 1770 MHz and 6144 shading units, the card’s raw compute capacity is substantial. Its memory subsystem, featuring 8 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, delivers 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The benchmark results show this card sitting in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30849. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, scores 30755, a mere 0.3% difference, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 is 0.8% ahead.

In Evolve, the GPU’s role is most evident in the 4K Ultra results, where the system manages only 39 FPS. This is the lowest figure in the entire dataset, underscoring that the card’s 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient for maxed-out 4K in this title. The card’s pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s are clearly stressed at this resolution. The data indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is capable of exceeding 200 FPS at 1080p Low (224.5 FPS), but the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p (126.6 FPS) highlights how demanding the higher settings are on the GPU’s shading and texture units.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F, with its 4 cores and 8 threads, performs a supporting role that becomes less critical as resolution increases. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2224 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. The processor’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core help feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 13516, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, just 0.1% ahead.

The CPU’s influence is most apparent at 1080p. The 224.5 FPS result at Low settings suggests that the processor is capable of feeding the GPU at high frame rates, but the drop to 97.9 FPS at Ultra indicates a growing reliance on the GPU. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4051 and max-thread score of 4023 show that the CPU’s multi-threaded performance is limited by its physical core count, though it manages to keep up with the RTX 3070 Ti in this title. The PassMark multithread score of 14015 reinforces this, showing a processor that is adequate for gaming but not a performance outlier. At 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes further, as the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with all four settings showing the same relative ordering as other resolutions but with compressed FPS values.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 224.5 FPS, Medium drops to 174.6 FPS, High yields 136.9 FPS, and Ultra settles at 97.9 FPS. These figures indicate that the RTX 3070 Ti is fully utilized, with the 4-core CPU not presenting a significant barrier at this resolution. The gap between Medium and High (37.7 FPS) is larger than the gap between High and Ultra (39 FPS), suggesting diminishing returns from the highest settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but show the expected decline. Low settings still manage 152.3 FPS, Medium produces 119.9 FPS, High achieves 90.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 62.6 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, averaging around 33% across all settings. This resolution represents the sweet spot for this pairing, offering high refresh rates on Low and Medium while keeping Ultra playable above 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system becomes heavily GPU-bound. Low settings yield 87.2 FPS, which is respectable, but Medium drops to 65.6 FPS, High falls to 51.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 39 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-40 FPS figure in the entire dataset, indicating that this combination is not suited for maximum fidelity at 4K. The scaling from Medium to High at 4K (14.1 FPS) is steeper than the equivalent step at 1440p (29.2 FPS), confirming that the GPU’s resources are exhausted at this resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 2560x1440, all settings except Ultra (62.6 FPS) stay above 90 FPS, with Low at 152.3 FPS, Medium at 119.9 FPS, and High at 90.7 FPS. At 4K, only Low settings (87.2 FPS) and Medium (65.6 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, while High (51.5 FPS) and Ultra (39 FPS) fall below.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 30849, placing it in the 74th percentile. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, scores 30755, which is 0.3% lower. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 is 0.8% ahead with a score of 31112.

Q: Is the Core i3-12100F a bottleneck at 1080p in Evolve?

A: The data suggests partial bottlenecking at 1080p. At Low settings, the system achieves 224.5 FPS, which is very high, but the CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681 indicate that it is nearing its limit. The drop to 97.9 FPS at Ultra shows the GPU taking over as the primary limiter.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1440p High and 4K High?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the system averages 90.7 FPS. At 3840x2160 with High settings, it averages 51.5 FPS. This represents a 39.2 FPS drop, or a 43% reduction in performance when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Q: How much performance is lost going from Low to Ultra at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, the drop from Low (224.5 FPS) to Ultra (97.9 FPS) is 126.6 FPS. At 1440p, the drop is from 152.3 FPS to 62.6 FPS, a loss of 89.7 FPS. At 4K, the drop is from 87.2 FPS to 39 FPS, a loss of 48.2 FPS.

Q: What does the combo’s rank of 689 out of 1695 indicate?

A: This ranking places the combination in the upper 40% of all tested CPU-GPU pairings in Evolve. It indicates that while the configuration is capable, there are many other combinations that achieve higher average performance in this specific game.