Evolve

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers a playable experience in Evolve, but the data clearly shows that the game’s Ultra preset is a heavy burden on this combination. The measured results indicate that Medium settings at 1080p provide the most balanced experience, offering a strong average frame rate without the steep performance penalty seen at higher presets. For users prioritizing smoothness over absolute visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1440p also remains viable, though Medium at 1080p is the recommended starting point based on the measured data. High settings at 1440p and 4K are playable but demand compromises, while Ultra at any resolution should be avoided due to the significant frame rate drop.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows show a clear hierarchy across presets and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 160.6 FPS, which is the highest measured result for this combo. Medium at 1080p yields 122.9 FPS, a substantial 37.7 FPS reduction from Low but still well within smooth territory. High at 1080p drops to 100.1 FPS, and Ultra at 1080p falls to 67.6 FPS, which is a 57.9% decrease from Low. The transition from Medium to High at 1080p costs 22.8 FPS, indicating that the visual uplift from Medium to High may not justify the performance loss for competitive play.

At 2560x1440, the pattern continues but with lower absolute numbers. Low at 1440p averages 110.3 FPS, which is still excellent, while Medium at 1440p reaches 82.2 FPS. High at 1440p drops to 66.7 FPS, and Ultra at 1440p plummets to 42.9 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p is 15.5 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, suggesting the CPU-GPU balance shifts as resolution increases. At 3840x2160, only Low remains comfortably playable at 60.6 FPS, while Medium drops to 45.6 FPS, High to 35.8 FPS, and Ultra to 26 FPS. Based on these numbers, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best combination of frame rate and visual quality, since it stays above 120 FPS while avoiding the steep Ultra penalty.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 1221 out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the lower third of all configurations. The rank of 1221 out of 1695 means that approximately 28% of tested combos perform worse, while 72% perform better. This positioning is notable because the individual components have moderate-to-good benchmark scores, but the game’s performance profile appears to penalize this pairing. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 14168, with a percentile of 73 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 73% of tested processors. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 25120, with a percentile of 69 against all GPUs, outperforming 69% of tested graphics cards.

The deltaPct values from the nearest rivals provide context for the CPU’s standing. The i5-10400F’s average score of 14168 is 0.4% higher than the AMD EPYC 7552’s 14115, but 0.8% lower than the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C’s 14277. It also trails the Intel Core i5-8500 by 1.1% and the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 by 1.2%. These small deltas indicate that the CPU is competitively positioned against its immediate rivals, yet the combo’s rank in Evolve suggests the game’s engine may not fully utilize the 6-core, 12-thread configuration as effectively as other workloads. The GPU’s nearest rivals show similarly tight competition, with the RTX 3060 Ti’s 25120 score being 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6700M’s 25180, and 0.5% to 0.7% lower than the Radeon RX 6600, Radeon 890M, and Radeon RX 580 2048SP. This clustering indicates that the GPU is not an outlier, but the combo’s rank suggests Evolve responds to other factors beyond raw benchmark scores.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clocks run at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, which is sufficient for Evolve’s textures at most settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 26 FPS suggests VRAM or bandwidth limitations become pronounced at extreme settings. The GPU’s boost clock of 1665 MHz and base clock of 1410 MHz are standard for the Ampere architecture, and its 4864 shading units provide substantial compute throughput. The measured results show that the GPU’s performance scales inconsistently with settings, as the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 37.7 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 32.5 FPS. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU’s 8 GB memory pool may be the limiting factor at higher presets.

The RTX 3060 Ti’s benchmark scores corroborate its mid-range positioning. Its PassMark G3D score of 20349 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2626 place it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs. The GPU’s FP32 throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS is substantial, yet Evolve’s measured FPS at 4K Ultra (26 FPS) is far below what this compute power would suggest, implying the game’s engine is not efficiently utilizing the Ampere architecture’s capabilities. The GPU’s 80 ROPs and 152 texture mapping units are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but at 4K, the pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s may contribute to the steep FPS drop. The RTX 3060 Ti’s launch MSRP is 399 USD, and its performance in Evolve at Medium 1080p (122.9 FPS) is strong, but the Ultra preset results reveal that the GPU is better suited to lower settings in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low at 160.6, Medium at 122.9, High at 100.1, and Ultra at 67.6. The spread from Low to Ultra is 93 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High (22.8 FPS). This suggests that High settings introduce rendering features that disproportionately impact the RTX 3060 Ti. At 2560x1440, the values are: Low at 110.3, Medium at 82.2, High at 66.7, and Ultra at 42.9. The spread narrows to 67.4 FPS, but the relative percentage drop from Low to Ultra is similar (61.1% at 1440p versus 57.9% at 1080p). At 3840x2160, the values are: Low at 60.6, Medium at 45.6, High at 35.8, and Ultra at 26.0. The spread here is 34.6 FPS, and the Low to Ultra percentage drop is 57.1%, which is consistent with the other resolutions.

The data shows that the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration to exceed 160 FPS, while the Medium preset at 1080p is the only other setting to break 120 FPS. The High preset at 1080p and Low preset at 1440p both hover around 100-110 FPS, making them suitable for high-refresh monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p (67.6 FPS) and High preset at 1440p (66.7 FPS) are nearly identical, suggesting that the GPU’s rendering load is similar when resolution is increased by 33% and settings are dropped by one tier. At 4K, even the Low preset (60.6 FPS) barely maintains 60 FPS, and all other 4K presets fall below 46 FPS, making 4K gaming impractical except at Low settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across presets. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 160.6 at 1080p to 110.3 at 1440p (a 31.3% reduction) and then to 60.6 at 4K (a 62.3% reduction from 1080p). At Medium settings, the drop is from 122.9 to 82.2 (33.1%) and then to 45.6 (62.9% from 1080p). At High settings, the values are 100.1, 66.7, and 35.8, representing a 33.4% drop to 1440p and a 64.2% drop to 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 67.6 to 42.9 (36.5%) and then to 26.0 (61.5% from 1080p). The percentage drops from 1080p to 1440p are remarkably consistent across presets, ranging from 31.3% to 36.5%, which indicates that the scaling bottleneck is resolution-dependent rather than settings-dependent.

The scaling pattern reveals that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The minimal differences in percentage drops between Low and Ultra presets suggest that the GPU is the primary constraint when moving from 1080p to 4K. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the Low preset would show a smaller FPS drop than Ultra, since Low settings reduce GPU load and would expose CPU limitations. Instead, the similar percentage drops across all presets point to the GPU’s rendering pipeline being the limiting component. The RTX 3060 Ti’s 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM are likely strained at 4K, as evidenced by the 4K Ultra result of 26 FPS, which is below the playable threshold. The i5-10400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads at up to 4.30 GHz boost clock provide sufficient CPU throughput for Evolve, as the 1080p Low result of 160.6 FPS demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K reserved for Low settings or users willing to accept sub-60 FPS averages.