Evolve

# Evolve with Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The pairing of the six-core Intel Core i5-10400F with the flagship RTX 5090 D produces a remarkably consistent experience in Evolve, with measured results showing the GPU rarely being the limiting factor until you push to 4K Ultra. The data reveals a CPU that holds its ground surprisingly well at lower resolutions, while the GPU's raw power becomes increasingly relevant as pixel count and settings rise. This is a combination that rewards players who understand where the bottleneck shifts, and the measured frames across twelve configurable scenarios paint a clear picture of what to expect.

Settings Recommendations

The sweet spot for this combination is 1440p High, where the measured average of 162 FPS balances visual fidelity with headroom above typical high-refresh displays. At this setting, the system delivers a 42% improvement over the 4K High result of 94 FPS, while still maintaining a substantial margin over the 114 FPS achieved at 1440p Ultra. The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs 48 FPS (from 162 down to 114), which is a 30% performance penalty for what is typically a marginal visual upgrade in Evolve's particle-heavy scenes.

For players with 1080p panels, High at 186 FPS is the recommended preset, as it sits comfortably above the 162 FPS Ultra result while offering better visual quality than Medium's 203 FPS would suggest is necessary. The difference between Medium and High at 1080p is only 17 FPS (203 vs 186), making High the better trade-off. The 222 FPS Low preset is technically the fastest measured result in the entire dataset, but the visual degradation in a game like Evolve—where tracking monsters through dense foliage matters—makes this a poor choice unless chasing maximum frame rates on a 240Hz display.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts decisively to Medium, where the measured 120 FPS with a minimum of 102 FPS provides a playable experience that Ultra cannot match. The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS represents a 46% drop from Medium, and the fact that this is the only setting where the minimum frame rate drops below 100 FPS suggests the GPU is finally being pushed to its limits. The 4K High result of 94 FPS is respectable but sits in an awkward middle ground—it offers no minimum frame rate data, while Medium's 102 FPS minimum provides more consistent pacing.

The data strongly suggests avoiding Ultra at any resolution with this combination. At 1080p, Ultra yields 162 FPS compared to High's 186 FPS; at 1440p, it drops to 114 FPS; and at 4K, it crashes to 65 FPS. The pattern is consistent: Ultra settings exact a disproportionate toll on performance relative to the visual gains, likely due to Evolve's rendering pipeline being particularly sensitive to the specific effects that Ultra enables.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-10400F a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 D in Evolve?

A: At lower resolutions, yes. The 1080p Low result of 222 FPS versus the 1440p Low result of 194 FPS shows only a 28 FPS gain from resolution scaling, indicating the CPU is limiting performance. However, at 4K Ultra, the 65 FPS result shows the GPU is firmly in control. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all processors and its 6-core/12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock are adequate for this game's demands, but they do cap performance in CPU-bound scenarios.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested combinations?

A: The combination ranks 229th out of 2,872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations. This rank reflects the strong GPU performance (92nd percentile among all GPUs) compensating for the CPU's more modest standing. The data shows the combo outperforms its component-level rankings would suggest, indicating Evolve is not overly demanding on the processor.

Q: What is the best resolution for competitive play?

A: For competitive play, 1080p Medium at 203 FPS (172 minimum, 233 maximum) offers the best combination of frame rate and visual clarity. The Low preset at 222 FPS is technically faster, but the visual quality loss makes target acquisition harder in Evolve's dark environments. The 1440p High result of 162 FPS is also viable if you prefer higher resolution, but the 41 FPS advantage of 1080p Medium provides more margin for frame time spikes.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of memory matter for Evolve?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory capacity is far beyond what Evolve requires, but the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth and 512-bit bus contribute to the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K. The measured 154 FPS at 4K Low versus 94 FPS at 4K High shows the memory subsystem is not a limiting factor—the difference is entirely due to shading workload, not memory capacity.

Q: Should I enable Ultra settings if I have a high refresh rate monitor?

A: Only if your monitor is 144Hz or lower. At 1080p Ultra, the 162 FPS result matches the 1440p High result, suggesting diminishing returns. The 65 FPS at 4K Ultra is the only measured result below 100 FPS, making it unsuitable for high refresh displays. For monitors above 144Hz, stick with High or Medium presets.

Q: How does the i5-10400F's single-thread performance affect Evolve?

A: The CPU's single-thread score of 1451 in Cinebench R23 and 688 in 3DMark single-thread are modest by modern standards, but Evolve's engine appears to scale well across the 12 threads. The measured 1080p Low result of 222 FPS shows the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at high frame rates, though the 3DMark 2-thread score of 1350 suggests that lightly-threaded scenarios might be where a stronger CPU would help.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lives. At Low settings, the progression is 222 FPS at 1080p, 194 FPS at 1440p, and 154 FPS at 4K—a 31% drop from 1080p to 4K. This relatively modest decline indicates the CPU is heavily involved at lower resolutions, as a purely GPU-bound scenario would show a much steeper drop. The i5-10400F's 6 cores and 12 threads are working hard to keep the RTX 5090 D fed, and the 1080p result suggests the CPU is near its practical limit.

At Medium settings, the scaling shows a different pattern: 203 FPS at 1080p, 177 FPS at 1440p, and 120 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop of 26 FPS is similar to Low, but the 1440p to 4K drop of 57 FPS is significantly steeper. This indicates the GPU is becoming more of a factor as settings increase, with the 4K Medium result showing the GPU taking over as the primary limiter.

High settings amplify this trend: 186 FPS at 1080p, 162 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is only 24 FPS (13%), while the 1440p to 4K drop is 68 FPS (42%). This dramatic acceleration in frame rate loss at 4K High demonstrates that the RTX 5090 D's architecture—featuring 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs—is being fully utilized only at the highest resolution and settings combination.

Ultra settings show the most extreme scaling: 162 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K drop of 97 FPS (60%) is the largest in the dataset, confirming that Ultra settings are the most GPU-intensive. Interestingly, the 1080p Ultra result of 162 FPS is identical to the 1440p High result, suggesting that Ultra's additional effects cost roughly the same as a full resolution step up.

The takeaway is that this combination is CPU-limited at 1080p across all settings, balanced at 1440p Medium and High, and GPU-limited at 4K and at 1440p Ultra. The RTX 5090 D's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than sufficient for Evolve at 1080p and 1440p, but the CPU's 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.30 GHz boost clock create a ceiling that prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The 229th rank out of 2,872 tested combos places this pairing in the top 8% of all configurations tested for Evolve. This is a strong result, but notably, the RTX 5090 D's individual ranking (92nd percentile among all GPUs) is higher than the combo's overall rank suggests it should be. The i5-10400F's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs is the drag on the combination's performance.

The gap between component rankings and combo rank indicates that Evolve is not a particularly CPU-intensive game. The i5-10400F's nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% delta), AMD EPYC 7552 (0.5% delta), and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (-0.6% delta), showing that the CPU sits in a crowded performance band. The fact that this mid-range CPU can pair with a flagship GPU and still achieve a top-8% combo ranking suggests Evolve's engine scales primarily with GPU resources.

The combo's rank of 229 means there are 228 other configurations that perform better, likely featuring newer CPUs with higher single-thread performance or more cores. The RTX 5090 D's nearest GPU rivals—AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% delta), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (-1.6% delta), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (-2.1% to -2.4% delta)—are all within a narrow performance band, indicating that the GPU is operating near the top of its class.

The data suggests that upgrading the CPU would yield meaningful gains in Evolve, particularly at 1080p where the CPU is the limiting factor. However, the 222 FPS Low result at 1080p is already beyond what most displays can show, so the practical benefit would be limited to 4K scenarios where the GPU is already the bottleneck. This combo is well-balanced for high-refresh 1440p gaming, where the 162 FPS High result provides a solid experience.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process, features 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 64 KB L1 plus 256 KB L2 cache per core. The 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are modest by today's standards, but Evolve's 2015 release date means the game was designed for hardware of that era.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a processor that handles multithreaded workloads competently: Cinebench R23 multicore of 10,283 and Geekbench multicore of 6,257 are respectable for a 6-core part. However, the single-thread scores—Cinebench R23 single-core of 1,451 and 3DMark single-thread of 688—indicate that per-core performance is where this CPU falls short of modern competitors. The PassMark multithread score of 12,115 and single-thread score of 2,541 reinforce this pattern.

In Evolve, the CPU's role becomes clear when examining the resolution scaling. At 1080p Low, the 222 FPS result is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability. The fact that 1440p Low only drops to 194 FPS (a 13% reduction) while 4K Low drops to 154 FPS (a 31% reduction from 1080p) suggests the CPU is keeping pace with the GPU's demands until the resolution and settings push the GPU into its own bottleneck.

The 3DMark thread scaling tests are particularly revealing: 2-thread score of 1,350, 4-thread score of 2,560, 8-thread score of 3,929, and 16-thread score of 4,748. The scaling from 2 to 4 threads (90% increase) and 4 to 8 threads (53% increase) shows good thread utilization, but the minimal gain from 8 to 16 threads (21% increase) suggests the CPU is nearing its multithreaded limits. Evolve, being a 2015 title, likely doesn't heavily utilize more than 8 threads, which means the i5-10400F's 12 threads are sufficient but not optimal.

The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it slightly above average, but its nearest rivals in benchmark scores—Intel Xeon 6756E, Intel Core 7 160UL, AMD EPYC 7552, and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C—are a mix of enterprise and budget parts. None of these are gaming-focused CPUs, which suggests the i5-10400F's gaming performance is more dependent on its single-thread capability than its overall benchmark score.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured frame rates provides a comprehensive view of this combination's performance across all resolution and settings combinations:

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 222 FPS average
• Medium: 203 FPS average (172 minimum, 233 maximum)
• High: 186 FPS average
• Ultra: 162 FPS average

At 1080p, the spread between Low and Ultra is 60 FPS (27%), which is the smallest relative spread of any resolution. This confirms that the CPU is the primary limiter here—the GPU has enough headroom to render all settings levels without significant frame rate variation.

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 194 FPS average
• Medium: 177 FPS average (151 minimum, 204 maximum)
• High: 162 FPS average
• Ultra: 114 FPS average

The 1440p results show a wider spread of 80 FPS (41%) between Low and Ultra. The Ultra setting takes a particularly steep hit, dropping 48 FPS (30%) from High. The Medium setting's minimum of 151 FPS is notably lower than its 177 FPS average, suggesting occasional frame dips in heavy combat scenarios.

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 154 FPS average
• Medium: 120 FPS average (102 minimum, 138 maximum)
• High: 94 FPS average
• Ultra: 65 FPS average

The 4K results show the largest spread at 89 FPS (58%) between Low and Ultra. The Ultra result of 65 FPS is the only measured frame rate below 100 FPS, and it represents a 46% drop from Medium. The High setting at 94 FPS falls just below the 100 FPS threshold that most players consider minimum for smooth gameplay.

The Medium settings are the only presets where minimum and maximum frame rates were recorded, providing insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the 172-233 FPS range shows a 61 FPS variance, while 1440p Medium shows a 53 FPS variance (151-204), and 4K Medium shows a 36 FPS variance (102-138). The decreasing variance at higher resolutions suggests that frame time consistency improves as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, which is counterintuitive but indicates the CPU's frame generation at lower resolutions is less consistent.

The overall pattern across all 12 measurements shows that this combination delivers playable frame rates in every configuration except 4K Ultra. The RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are never a limiting factor, and the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking ensures it can handle Evolve's demands at any resolution. The i5-10400F, despite being a 2020 mid-range part, proves sufficient for this 2015 game at everything except the lowest resolutions where its 6-core/12-thread configuration becomes the ceiling.