Evolve

The Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 580 combination delivers playable performance in Evolve primarily at 1080p with medium to high settings, but the data indicates a hard ceiling at higher resolutions and ultra presets. This pairing is heavily GPU-limited, with the RX 580's 8 GB of VRAM and GCN 4.0 architecture struggling to maintain frame rates as pixel count and graphical fidelity increase. For a smooth experience, target 1080p; the measured average of 66.7 FPS at Medium settings represents the best balance of visual quality and fluid motion, while the 50.1 FPS average at High shows that sacrificing some detail yields a more consistent frame pacing.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data reveals a clear progression of performance degradation as settings increase, but the sweet spot for this combo is unequivocally at 1080p with Medium settings. The measured 66.7 FPS average at this configuration is 33% faster than the 50.1 FPS achieved at High, yet it retains enough visual fidelity to be competitive in a fast-paced FPS. Dropping to Low at 1080p yields 88.7 FPS, a 33% improvement over Medium, but the visual sacrifice is substantial for a game that relies on environmental clarity to track monsters across the map.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. The Medium preset produces 43.2 FPS, which is borderline acceptable for single-player but risky for competitive play. High at 1440p drops to 33.4 FPS, making it difficult to maintain target acquisition during chaotic fights. The Ultra preset is essentially unplayable across all resolutions; the 37 FPS average at 1080p Ultra is the only double-digit result at that resolution, while 1440p and 4K Ultra produce 23.2 FPS and 12.9 FPS respectively. These numbers indicate that Ultra is a technical showcase rather than a practical gameplay setting for this hardware.

The data strongly suggests that players should prioritize frame rate over extreme detail. The RX 580's 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 193.0 GTexel/s texture rate are simply insufficient to drive Ultra settings at playable speeds. Medium at 1080p offers the most balanced experience, with High being a viable alternative if you prioritize visuals over a 33% frame rate penalty. Avoid 4K entirely; even the Low preset at that resolution only manages 34.3 FPS, which is below the threshold for responsive aiming.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Core i5-11400F and RX 580 ranks 1573 out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 7% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU's age and performance tier rather than the CPU's capabilities. The i5-11400F is a capable processor, sitting in the 75th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 17181, but the RX 580's 53rd percentile GPU ranking drags the overall experience down.

The CPU is not the bottleneck here. The i5-11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, provide more than enough processing power for a 2015 FPS title. The GPU, however, holds the combo back significantly. The RX 580's average benchmark score of 13559 places it in a dead heat with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta) and GTX 950 (13549, 0.1% delta), which are both significantly older architectures. This explains the low combo rank relative to other pairings that feature more modern GPUs.

The data indicates that this combo's rank is a direct consequence of GPU limitations. While the CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and multi-thread score of 5652 are respectable, the GPU's PassMark G3D score of 8813 shows it is only marginally ahead of much older cards. For Evolve, which was released in 2015, the game's engine is not particularly demanding on modern CPUs, so the i5-11400F's performance headroom is largely wasted due to the GPU's inability to keep pace at higher settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the primary limiting factor in this configuration for Evolve. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p but becomes strained at higher resolutions. The measured frame rates show a dramatic drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p; for example, High settings fall from 50.1 FPS to 33.4 FPS, a 33% reduction. This is a classic sign of the GPU's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth being overwhelmed.

The GPU's clock speeds of 1257 MHz base and 1340 MHz boost, combined with 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs, yield a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s. This is adequate for 1080p at medium settings but insufficient for 4K. At 4K Ultra, the card produces only 12.9 FPS, which is below playable thresholds. The 4K High result of 20.8 FPS and 4K Medium of 25.3 FPS confirm that this card is not designed for 4K gaming, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is not the issue; rather, the GPU's compute throughput is the bottleneck. The PassMark DirectX 12 score of 43 and DirectX 11 score of 60 indicate that the card's API performance is modest. Evolve was released in 2015, before DirectX 12 was widely adopted, so the game likely runs on DirectX 11, where the card's 60 score is slightly better but still far from competitive. The data shows that the GPU's 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs accurately reflects its mid-range position, which translates to mid-range performance in Evolve at best.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Evolve at 60 FPS?*

A: Yes, but only at 1080p with Low settings, where the measured average is 88.7 FPS. At Medium, the average drops to 66.7 FPS, which is still above 60, but High settings fall to 50.1 FPS, missing the target.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The GPU is decisively more important. The frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings changes, while the CPU's performance metrics (75th percentile, 17181 average score) are far above what the GPU can utilize.

*Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware in Evolve?*

A: 1080p is the only resolution that offers consistently playable frame rates. At 1440p, only Low (57.5 FPS) and Medium (43.2 FPS) are viable, while 4K produces no usable results above 34.3 FPS.

Q: Will lowering settings to Low improve performance enough for competitive play?

A: Yes. At 1080p Low, the 88.7 FPS average is 33% higher than Medium and 77% higher than High, providing a significant advantage for tracking fast-moving targets.

Q: How does this combo compare to others in the database?

A: It ranks 1573 out of 1695 combos, placing it in the bottom 7%. This is primarily due to the RX 580's performance, which is on par with the GTX 570 and GTX 950.

Q: Is there any point using Ultra settings with this setup?

A: No. The best Ultra result is 37 FPS at 1080p, which is below the 60 FPS target. At 1440p and 4K, Ultra yields 23.2 FPS and 12.9 FPS respectively, making it a non-viable option.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p High, the combo produces 50.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops this to 33.4 FPS, a 33% reduction, and at 4K High, the frame rate falls to 20.8 FPS, which is 58% lower than 1080p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases quadratically.

The Low preset shows a similar trend but with higher absolute values. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 88.7 FPS; at 1440p Low, it drops to 57.5 FPS (35% reduction); and at 4K Low, it falls to 34.3 FPS (61% reduction). The consistent ~33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~60% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings confirms that the GPU is the sole limiting factor. The CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution, so any frame rate variance is entirely attributable to the RX 580's rendering capabilities.

This scaling behavior has practical implications. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with the best being 34.3 FPS at Low, which is still below acceptable for an FPS. The 1440p results are marginal, with only Low and Medium exceeding 40 FPS. The data suggests that this combo should be paired with a 1080p monitor, as any higher resolution will result in a suboptimal experience. The GPU's 256-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are simply not enough to feed the shading units at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F plays a supportive role in this combination, providing ample processing headroom that the RX 580 cannot fully exploit. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPU offers strong multi-threaded performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14372 and PassMark multi-thread score of 16908. For Evolve, a game from 2015, the CPU's single-thread performance is more relevant; its 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and Cinebench R20 single-core score of 852 indicate solid IPC for the era.

The CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 2.60 GHz base clock (4.40 GHz boost) ensure that it does not bottleneck the GPU at any settings. The benchmark data shows that frame rates scale consistently with GPU workload, rather than CPU limitations. For instance, the 1080p Low result of 88.7 FPS and 1080p Ultra result of 37 FPS show a 58% difference, which is entirely due to GPU rendering load, not CPU processing.

The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17181, places it in the same performance tier as the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, -0.2% delta). This means the i5-11400F is more than capable of handling any modern game's CPU demands, including Evolve's AI-driven monster behavior and physics calculations. The bottleneck in this combo is unequivocally the GPU; upgrading the RX 580 would yield far greater frame rate improvements than any CPU change.