Evolve

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers measured performance in Evolve across three resolutions and four quality presets. The combo ranks 1129th out of 1695 tested combinations, placing it in the lower half of the database. This analysis examines the CPU and GPU roles, settings behavior, and resolution scaling based on the measured frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, fabricated on a 14 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boosts up to 4.40 GHz, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache. Memory support is dual-channel DDR4 with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and the CPU provides PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes. These specifications position it as a mainstream desktop part, and its benchmark results confirm solid single-thread and multi-thread capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 14372 multi-core and 2029 single-core; Geekbench reports 7579 multi-core and 1979 single-core; Passmark shows 16908 multi-thread and 2981 single-thread. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 17181, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.2% of this score: the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189), Intel Core i7-1260P (17212), Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17215), and Intel Core i5-1240U (17141). This indicates that the i5-11400F is competitive with a range of mobile and low-power parts, though it is a desktop chip.

In Evolve, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, physics, and draw calls. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low reach 167.1 FPS average, the highest of any setting in the dataset. This suggests that the CPU is capable of driving very high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily loaded. At higher settings, the frame rate drops, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The CPU’s 12 threads and 4.40 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom for the game’s single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. The 12 MB L3 cache and dual-channel memory bandwidth also contribute to consistent performance. While the CPU’s individual benchmark scores are strong, the combo’s overall rank in Evolve is lower than the CPU’s percentile, implying that the pairing with the GPU does not fully exploit the CPU’s potential in this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience at each resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset yields 167.1 FPS, Medium 130.9, High 98.4, and Ultra 67.6. The jump from Low to Medium is substantial, while High and Ultra progressively reduce frame rates. For a smooth and visually balanced experience, Medium is the recommended preset at 1080p: it delivers 130.9 FPS, which is more than double the Ultra value and still well above the High preset’s 98.4. The visual difference between Medium and High is often less impactful than the frame rate gain, making Medium the best compromise.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds. Low produces 112.2 FPS, Medium 84.4, High 68.8, and Ultra 44.8. Medium again stands out as the optimal choice, offering 84.4 FPS while retaining more detail than Low. High is playable at 68.8, but the drop to Ultra is severe, falling to 44.8 FPS, which is below the typical smoothness threshold. At 4K, the situation changes: Low is the only preset that exceeds 60 FPS, with 64.6 FPS. Medium follows at 51.4, High at 38.2, and Ultra at 30.1. For 4K, Low is the only preset that provides a consistently fluid experience, though Medium may be acceptable for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate. Across all resolutions, Medium offers the best balance of frame rate and visual fidelity, while Ultra is only viable at 1080p where it still achieves 67.6 FPS. The data suggests that users should select Medium for 1080p and 1440p, and Low for 4K, to maintain a playable frame rate without sacrificing too much detail.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS shows a clear and consistent drop as resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 98.4 at 1080p to 68.8 at 1440p and 38.2 at 4K. This represents a reduction of approximately 30% from 1080p to 1440p and a further 44% from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is similar across all presets: Low drops from 167.1 to 112.2 to 64.6; Medium from 130.9 to 84.4 to 51.4; Ultra from 67.6 to 44.8 to 30.1. The scaling is not linear, with the largest absolute drops occurring at lower resolutions, but the relative decline is steepest at 4K.

This behavior indicates that the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions. The CPU’s performance is constant regardless of resolution, so the frame rate decline is driven by the GPU’s rendering workload. At 1080p Low, the GPU is not fully utilized, allowing the CPU to push frame rates to 167.1. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes saturated, and the frame rate drops accordingly. The fact that even at 4K Low the frame rate is 64.6 suggests that the GPU still has some headroom, but the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (64.6 vs 30.1) shows that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are stretched at higher settings. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus with 280.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the higher texture and shading demands likely exceed the GPU’s capacity, leading to the observed frame rate collapse. The data clearly shows that resolution scaling is the dominant factor in this combo’s performance, with the CPU playing a secondary role.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1129th out of 1695 tested combinations in Evolve, meaning 1128 combos perform better and 566 perform worse. This places the pairing in the lower third of the database, which is surprising given the individual component percentiles. The CPU sits in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. Yet the combined rank is significantly lower, suggesting that the game’s performance is not simply a sum of component strengths. The CPU’s nearest rivals—AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, Intel Core i7-1260P, Intel Core Ultra 7 164U, and Intel Core i5-1240U—all have average scores within 0.2% of the i5-11400F, indicating that the CPU is not a differentiator. Similarly, the GPU’s nearest rivals—AMD Radeon RX 6800M, AMD Radeon RX 470, Intel Arc A370M, and AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH—are within 0.6% of the RX 6650 XT’s average score of 29024. This suggests that the combo’s low rank is not due to a weak individual component, but rather to how the two parts interact in Evolve.

The measured FPS at 1080p Ultra is 67.6, which is respectable, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 30.1, which is below the playable threshold for many users. The combo’s rank reflects this overall performance envelope. It is possible that the game is more sensitive to GPU memory bandwidth or CPU cache behavior than the benchmark scores indicate. The 12 MB L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth of the CPU are modest compared to some higher-end parts, and the GPU’s 128-bit bus may limit performance in memory-intensive scenes. However, without additional data, the rank stands as a measure of this specific pairing’s effectiveness in Evolve. The fact that the combo ranks below the 50th percentile suggests that users seeking higher frame rates in this game would need to consider different hardware combinations, even though each component individually performs well in synthetic benchmarks.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, fabricated on a 7 nm process. It features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, along with 32 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2055 MHz, a game clock of 2410 MHz, and a boost clock of 2635 MHz. Memory is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 280.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s compute power is rated at 10.79 TFLOPS FP32, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Its benchmark scores include a Passmark G3D score of 17166, a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1859, and Geekbench scores of 109922 (Metal), 87548 (OpenCL), and 93769 (Vulkan). The GPU’s average benchmark score is 29024, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.6% of this score, including the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (29011), AMD Radeon RX 470 (28996), Intel Arc A370M (29175), and AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH (29197).

In Evolve, the GPU’s role is to render the game’s environments, characters, and effects. The measured frame rates show that the GPU is the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the GPU is not fully stressed, allowing the CPU to push frame rates to 167.1. As settings increase to Medium, High, and Ultra, the GPU’s workload grows, and frame rates drop to 130.9, 98.4, and 67.6 respectively. At 1440p, the same trend continues, with Ultra falling to 44.8 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with even Low settings producing only 64.6 FPS and Ultra dropping to 30.1. The 8 GB VRAM and 280.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the higher texture resolutions and shading complexity likely exceed the GPU’s memory capacity and bandwidth, leading to the steep performance decline. The GPU’s boost clock of 2635 MHz and 10.79 TFLOPS provide solid raw compute, but the 128-bit memory interface limits bandwidth compared to wider-bus GPUs. The data indicates that the RX 6650 XT is a capable mid-range card for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K in Evolve, especially at higher quality presets.