Evolve

Evolve, a 2015 FPS title, presents an interesting stress profile for the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system where the GPU is the dominant factor at higher resolutions, but the CPU’s capabilities become increasingly relevant as resolution drops. The data indicates a strong pairing, with the combo ranking in the 693rd position out of 1695 tested configurations, placing it comfortably in the upper tier of systems for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K shows a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern, but with a notable twist at the highest settings. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 139.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 90.1 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 35.4%. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 54.9 FPS, representing a 60.6% decline from the 1080p baseline. This steep drop indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is being pushed to its limits at 4K, with the pixel throughput requirements of Evolve’s environments overwhelming the GPU’s 608.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 21.75 TFLOPS of compute power.

The scaling pattern at Ultra settings is even more dramatic, though the frame rates are lower across the board. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 97.4 FPS, which drops to 64.5 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 33.7 FPS at 4K. The 65.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is steeper than the 60.6% observed at High, suggesting that the additional graphical effects at Ultra place a disproportionate load on the GPU’s rendering pipeline. The 4K Ultra result of 33.7 FPS is the only measured point below the 30 FPS playability threshold, indicating that this configuration simply cannot handle Evolve’s maximum visual fidelity at 4K.

At lower settings, the scaling becomes less severe, which points to a shift in the bottleneck. With Low settings, the 1080p result of 224 FPS drops to 149.6 FPS at 1440p (a 33.2% reduction) and then to 88.1 FPS at 4K (a 60.7% reduction from 1080p). The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop is smaller at Low settings than at High settings suggests that the CPU is beginning to limit performance at 1080p Low, where the GPU has less work to do. However, the 4K performance still declines sharply, confirming that the GPU remains the primary constraint at higher pixel counts.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the clear workhorse in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. With 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the card delivers 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is essential for feeding the 6144 shading units at 4K resolutions. The base clock of 1575 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz provide the raw processing speed, and the card’s 96 ROPs handle the final pixel output. The benchmark results show that this GPU is well-suited for Evolve at 1440p and below, but the 4K Ultra result of 33.7 FPS highlights its limitations when every visual effect is enabled.

The GPU’s performance relative to its peers is tight, with the nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 6700, which scores an average of 31112 versus the RTX 3070 Ti’s 30849, a delta of -0.8%. This places the RTX 3070 Ti in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, indicating a solidly above-average part. The PassMark G3D score of 23356 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3478 further corroborate its mid-to-high-end positioning. In Evolve specifically, the GPU’s 8 GB frame buffer appears sufficient for the game’s textures at 1440p and below, but the 4K High result of 54.9 FPS suggests that memory capacity and bandwidth are being taxed heavily, with the card’s 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores not providing any direct benefit in this non-ray-traced title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which settings offer the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 139.5 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and it offers a considerable visual upgrade over the Medium preset’s 173.8 FPS or Low’s 224 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p still achieves 97.4 FPS, making it viable for players with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, but the performance cost of Ultra over High is substantial—a 30.2% reduction—for what is typically a marginal visual improvement in Evolve’s particle effects and shadow quality.

For 1440p displays, the High preset is the recommended choice, delivering 90.1 FPS. The Medium preset at 116.5 FPS is also smooth, but High offers a better visual experience for a 22.7% frame rate cost. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 64.5 FPS, which is still playable but approaches the lower bounds of what most users would consider comfortable for a fast-paced FPS. At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The High preset produces 54.9 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. The Medium preset at 69.3 FPS is the better choice for 4K, as it provides a smoother experience while retaining most of the visual fidelity. The Low preset at 88.1 FPS is the only 4K option that maintains a high frame rate, but it sacrifices too much graphical detail to be recommended for this title.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Evolve at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at reduced settings. The measured data shows 4K performance of 54.9 FPS at High settings and 69.3 FPS at Medium settings. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 33.7 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for most players.

Q: What is the best resolution to pair with a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1080p, the High preset achieves 139.5 FPS, which is close to a 144Hz refresh rate. The Low preset reaches 224 FPS, but the Medium preset at 173.8 FPS offers a better visual experience while still exceeding 144 FPS. At 1440p, the Low preset hits 149.6 FPS, which just meets the 144Hz target, but the Medium preset at 116.5 FPS is a more balanced choice.

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

A: The RTX 3070 Ti scores an average of 30849 in the benchmark suite, which is 0.8% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6700’s average score of 31112. It is also 0.3% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME’s 30755 and 0.9% higher than the NVIDIA Quadro M5000’s 31142.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes more involved at lower resolutions and settings. The 1080p Low result of 224 FPS is significantly higher than the 1440p Low result of 149.6 FPS, and the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low (33.2% reduction) is less steep than at High (35.4% reduction), indicating that the i5-10400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads are providing enough headroom to feed the GPU at these frame rates.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 116.5 FPS, while the High preset delivers 90.1 FPS. This represents a 22.7% performance reduction for the visual quality increase provided by High settings.

Q: Does the GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The 4K results indicate that the 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient for the game’s requirements, as the High preset still achieves 54.9 FPS. However, the significant drop from Medium (69.3 FPS) to High (54.9 FPS) at 4K suggests that memory bandwidth and capacity are being pushed hard, and Ultra (33.7 FPS) likely exceeds the card’s comfortable operating range.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F plays a supporting but crucial role in this configuration. With 6 cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, this Comet Lake processor provides enough computational power to keep the RTX 3070 Ti fed at most resolutions. The CPU’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth are adequate for Evolve’s game logic and physics calculations. The processor’s benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297 and single-core score of 1453, place it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14168.

The CPU’s nearest rivals highlight its positioning. It scores 0.4% higher than the AMD EPYC 7552, which has an average score of 14115, and 0.8% lower than the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, which scores 14277. It also trails the Intel Core i5-8500 by 1.1% (14332) and the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 by 1.2% (14336). This tight grouping suggests that the i5-10400F is a mid-range performer, but its 6-core/12-thread configuration is well-suited for gaming workloads.

The data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in Evolve, even at 1080p Low where the frame rate reaches 224 FPS. The 3DMark scores further illuminate its capabilities: the single-thread score of 688 and the 2-thread score of 1350 indicate strong per-core performance, while the 16-thread score of 4748 and max-thread score of 4735 show that it scales reasonably well with additional threads. The PassMark multithread score of 12115 and single-thread score of 2541 confirm that this CPU can handle the demands of a modern FPS without dragging down the GPU’s performance. However, the fact that the 1080p Low result (224 FPS) is not significantly higher than the 1440p Low result (149.6 FPS) suggests that the CPU is nearing its operational ceiling around the 200 FPS mark, where its 65W TDP and Comet Lake architecture begin to limit frame generation.