Evolve

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 495th out of 1,695 tested combinations for Evolve, placing it comfortably in the top third of all hardware configurations analyzed for this title. This mid-pack positioning is notable because Evolve is a 2015-era FPS whose engine responds strongly to raw GPU throughput, yet the combination still manages to deliver frame rates that range from playable to exceptionally smooth across every resolution and settings profile measured.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 495 out of 1,695 tested pairings indicates that this system sits above roughly 70% of all configurations in the database for Evolve. The CPU contributes a percentile ranking of 73 against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 14,168. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing include the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% behind), the Intel Core i5-8500 (1.1% behind), and the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 (1.2% behind). These deltaPct values are small, suggesting the i5-10400F’s 6-core, 12-thread Comet Lake architecture with a 2.90 GHz base and 4.30 GHz boost clock provides a stable foundation that neither boosts nor bottlenecks the GPU in this game.

On the graphics side, the RTX 4070 holds an 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,283. Its nearest rivals show tighter competition: the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 trails by 0.6%, the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A trails by 1.9%, and the RTX 4080 Mobile trails by 2.2%, while the AMD Radeon RX 5300M is 2.5% behind this card. The GPU’s synthetic performance, combined with the CPU’s modest but sufficient throughput, yields a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions but capable of pushing very high frame rates at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why Evolve’s frame rates scale so dramatically with settings changes. The card is built on the AD104 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC, and packs 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. It operates at a base clock of 1920 MHz and boosts to 2475 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Evolve’s textures even at 4K resolution.

The GPU’s 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines provide the raw compute muscle, while 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores are present but largely unused in this older title. The card achieves a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 29.15 TFLOPS. These figures translate directly into the measured FPS: at 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, dropping to 41.1 FPS, whereas at 1080p Low it reaches 222 FPS, showing the card’s headroom when pixel throughput demands are reduced.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the High preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1080p High, the system delivers 161.9 FPS, which is more than sufficient for competitive play on a high-refresh-rate monitor. Stepping up to Ultra at the same resolution costs a significant 49.4 FPS drop to 112.5 FPS, which is still smooth but represents a 30% performance penalty for marginal visual gains. At 1440p, High produces 105.4 FPS, which remains ideal for 100Hz+ displays, while Ultra drops to 74.2 FPS—still playable but less fluid.

For 4K displays, the choice is more constrained. High settings yield 59.2 FPS, which is right at the cusp of smoothness for many users, while Ultra falls to 41.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target most players expect. The Low preset at 4K produces 98.9 FPS, but this sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that can look dated already. The Medium preset at 1440p (138.1 FPS) and 1080p (204.2 FPS) also merits consideration for those who prioritize frame rate above all else, but High provides the sweet spot where image quality remains strong without compromising fluidity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The FPS measurements reveal a consistent pattern across all three resolutions, with performance scaling predictably as settings increase. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 222 FPS on Low, 204.2 FPS on Medium, 161.9 FPS on High, and 112.5 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is relatively small at 17.8 FPS, suggesting that the Medium preset adds visual features that are not particularly taxing. The jump from Medium to High costs 42.3 FPS, which is the largest single-step drop, indicating that High introduces effects like improved shadows and reflections that strain the GPU. Ultra then costs an additional 49.4 FPS, making it the most expensive step relative to its visual payoff.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same ordering holds but with lower absolute numbers: Low produces 174.4 FPS, Medium 138.1 FPS, High 105.4 FPS, and Ultra 74.2 FPS. The percentage drops between settings are similar to 1080p, but the absolute differences are compressed because the GPU is working harder at the higher pixel count. At 3840x2160, the results show a dramatic shift: Low yields 98.9 FPS, Medium 79.5 FPS, High 59.2 FPS, and Ultra 41.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 19.4 FPS, while Medium to High costs 20.3 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 18.1 FPS—a remarkably consistent degradation pattern that highlights the GPU’s diminishing returns at extreme resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows that this combination scales poorly when moving from 1080p to 4K, which is expected given the RTX 4070’s position in the GPU hierarchy. At High settings, the system produces 161.9 FPS at 1080p, 105.4 FPS at 1440p, and 59.2 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 44% drop from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative effect is a 63% reduction in frame rate from the lowest to highest resolution tested, confirming that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases.

The scaling behavior under Low settings is more revealing. At 1080p Low, the system hits 222 FPS, dropping to 174.4 FPS at 1440p (a 21% reduction) and 98.9 FPS at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). The fact that 1080p Low reaches 222 FPS—nearly double the 4K High result—suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game. If the i5-10400F were constraining performance, we would expect to see a plateau at high frame rates regardless of resolution. Instead, the consistent scaling with resolution changes points to the RTX 4070 as the dominant component, with the CPU providing adequate headroom even at the lowest settings.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic resolution sensitivity: 112.5 FPS at 1080p, 74.2 FPS at 1440p, and 41.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling, as it falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. This indicates that players seeking 4K Ultra experiences would need a more powerful GPU, while those content with 1080p or 1440p can enjoy this combination without concern. The overall pattern—frame rates that scale almost linearly with pixel count—confirms that Evolve’s engine is well-optimized for modern hardware, with no unexpected CPU bottlenecks even at the highest settings and resolutions.