Evolve

Evolve, the 2015 FPS from Turtle Rock Studios, proves to be a demanding title for the Intel Core i5-11400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER pairing. The measured frame rates show a clear hierarchy across resolutions and presets, with the data indicating a system that is well-balanced at lower settings but becomes heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions and quality levels. The RTX 2070 SUPER, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, is the dominant factor in the most taxing scenarios, while the i5-11400F’s six cores and 4.40 GHz boost clock provide a solid foundation for high-refresh-rate play at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, revealing the GPU as the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 106.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 74.6 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 30%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields just 42.6 FPS, which is a 60% decrease from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 2070 SUPER’s fillrate and memory bandwidth are exhausted by the increasing pixel count.

The trend is even more pronounced at the Ultra preset. The system manages 74.1 FPS at 1080p, but this plummets to 50.9 FPS at 1440p and a playability-challenged 29.9 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that the Turing architecture’s 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is insufficient for the combined load of 4K resolution and Ultra settings in Evolve. Conversely, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at the Low preset is more moderate, moving from 178.5 FPS to 120.9 FPS, which still indicates a strong GPU dependency, but with more headroom in the CPU.

The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution also grows with pixel count. At 1080p, the gap is 104.4 FPS (178.5 vs 74.1), while at 4K, the gap narrows to 39.4 FPS (69.3 vs 29.9). This narrowing suggests that at 4K, even the Low preset is pushing the GPU near its limits, and the additional work required for Ultra settings has a proportionally smaller impact on the already-strained renderer. Benchmark results indicate that players targeting 4K will need to accept significant compromises, as the RTX 2070 SUPER cannot maintain a smooth 60 FPS experience at any preset above Low.

Settings Recommendations

For a balanced experience, the Medium preset offers the best compromise between visual fidelity and performance. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 138.5 FPS, which is 32.1 FPS higher than High and 64.4 FPS higher than Ultra. This provides a substantial margin above the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring smooth gameplay even in chaotic combat scenes. At 2560x1440, Medium still achieves a respectable 92.4 FPS, making it the only preset besides Low to comfortably exceed 60 FPS at this resolution.

The High preset is a viable option for users with 1080p displays prioritizing visual quality over raw frame rate. The 106.4 FPS average at 1080p remains highly playable, though the drop to 74.6 FPS at 1440p shows that High is only suitable for 1440p if the user can tolerate occasional dips below 60 FPS in intense moments. For 4K displays, the data is unequivocal: the Low preset, with its 69.3 FPS average, is the only setting that provides a playable experience. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 29.9 FPS, is effectively a slideshow and should be avoided.

The measured rows show that the performance cost of moving from Medium to High is approximately 32 FPS at 1080p (from 138.5 to 106.4) and 17.8 FPS at 1440p (from 92.4 to 74.6). The jump from High to Ultra is even more punishing, costing 32.3 FPS at 1080p and 23.7 FPS at 1440p. Given these steep penalties, the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this hardware combination, offering a 74% higher frame rate than Ultra at 1080p while still providing a visually coherent experience. Players seeking maximum competitive advantage should consider Low, which at 178.5 FPS at 1080p, fully leverages the i5-11400F’s capabilities.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, proves to be a capable partner for the RTX 2070 SUPER in Evolve. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz is critical for maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions, where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p with the Low preset, the system reaches 178.5 FPS, a figure that requires strong single-thread performance. The CPU’s 3dmark_single_thread score of 868 and passmark_single_thread score of 2981 confirm its ability to handle the game’s primary game logic thread.

The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, evidenced by a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 14372, provide headroom for background tasks and the game’s AI systems. However, the scaling from Low to Medium at 1080p (from 178.5 to 138.5 FPS) shows that the GPU begins to take over as the limiting factor as settings increase. The CPU’s performance percentile of 75 versus all CPUs places it in the upper quartile, and its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (avgScore 17189, deltaPct 0), show that it is competitive with modern mid-range parts.

The Rocket Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process, is not the most power-efficient, but its 65 W TDP is modest. The data suggests that in Evolve, the CPU is rarely the primary constraint. The frame rate differences between 1080p and 1440p at the same settings are significant (e.g., 106.4 to 74.6 at High), which is a hallmark of GPU limitation. Only at the very highest frame rates, such as the 178.5 FPS seen at 1080p Low, does the CPU’s 4.40 GHz boost clock become a potential factor, though the system still manages to exceed the refresh rate of most standard monitors. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache is sufficient for the game’s data working set, preventing any noticeable stuttering.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo in Evolve?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 provides the most comfortable experience, with all presets except Ultra exceeding 100 FPS. At 2560x1440, only the Low and Medium presets maintain averages above 90 FPS, while 3840x2160 results in sub-70 FPS at all settings.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Evolve?

A: Yes, but only at the Low preset, which achieves a 69.3 FPS average. The Medium preset drops to 54 FPS, and High and Ultra fall to 42.6 and 29.9 FPS respectively, making them difficult to play smoothly.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 22206 is within 2.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21670, deltaPct 2.5) and 2.3% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729, deltaPct -2.3). It slightly edges out the GeForce GTX TITAN Z (22006, deltaPct 0.9).

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RTX 2070 SUPER?

A: Based on the frame rate scaling, the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. The significant FPS drops from 1080p to 1440p (e.g., 138.5 to 92.4 at Medium) indicate GPU limitation. The CPU’s 75th percentile ranking and strong single-thread score (868 in 3dmark) suggest it can feed the GPU adequately.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: The Low preset runs at 120.9 FPS, while Ultra runs at 50.9 FPS. This represents a 70 FPS difference, or a 137% performance increase for Low, highlighting the substantial cost of Ultra settings.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 2070 SUPER have, and is it sufficient for Evolve?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. Given that the game’s performance degrades predictably with resolution and settings, and the GPU’s bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, the VRAM capacity appears sufficient for the maximum settings tested at 4K, as the bottleneck is more likely compute-related.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the star of this pairing, and its specifications dictate performance in Evolve. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256 bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is essential for feeding the 2560 shading units at high resolutions. The 64 ROPs handle pixel output, and the 160 TMUs manage texture filtering. The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor in the majority of tested configurations.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 22206 places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A400, scores 22307 (deltaPct -0.5), showing near-identical synthetic performance. However, in Evolve’s real-world workload, the RTX 2070 SUPER’s 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is pushed hard. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings results in a 31.8 FPS drop (from 106.4 to 74.6), which is a 30% reduction directly attributable to the increased pixel load.

The GPU’s boost clock of 1770 MHz, while not the highest, is sustained effectively under load. The Ultra preset at 4K, with a 29.9 FPS average, represents a 71.8% reduction from the 1080p Low result of 178.5 FPS. This dramatic scaling underscores the GPU’s limitations at extreme resolutions. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s performance in DirectX 11 (passmark score of 151) and DirectX 12 (score of 67) indicates that Evolve, which is a DirectX 11 title, is using the GPU’s more efficient API path. The 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but largely unused in this game, as it does not support ray tracing or DLSS, making the raw rasterization power the key metric.

The GPU’s 215 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this performance class. The data suggests that users with 1440p displays should stick to Medium settings to maintain a 92.4 FPS average. The 4K results show that the RTX 2070 SUPER is not a 4K-capable card for Evolve at high quality, with only the Low preset (69.3 FPS) providing a playable frame rate. This aligns with its 65th percentile ranking, which indicates it is a mid-to-high-range part, not an enthusiast-tier solution.