Evolve

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 89th out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the top 5.3% of all configurations. This is a strong showing for a CPU that barely keeps pace with its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, proving that Evolve’s engine leans heavily on GPU throughput rather than raw processor muscle. The data shows a combo that is consistently playable at every resolution and settings tier, but the gap between Low and Ultra presets widens dramatically as resolution climbs, revealing where the system’s true bottleneck lies.

How This Combo Ranks

The 89th position out of 1695 combos is an elite result, but it is not a top-tier finish. Benchmark results indicate the RTX 5090 is doing the heavy lifting here; the GPU sits in the 94th percentile against all GPUs, while the i5-11400F manages only the 75th percentile against all CPUs. This mismatch is reflected in the measured FPS, which remains high but never reaches the extreme heights one might expect from the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. In synthetic tests, the CPU’s average score of 17181 places it statistically tied with rivals like the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17212), with deltas of 0% and -0.2% respectively. The GPU’s average score of 84306 sits 1.3% above the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (83209) and 1.6% below the NVIDIA CMP 40HX (85637). The ranking suggests that while the combo is excellent, a faster CPU could push it into the top 50, as the 1080p results hint at processor limitations that become less relevant at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Is the Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 in Evolve?

A: Yes, particularly at 1080p. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo hits 261.2 FPS, but moving to 2560x1440 Low only drops to 227.4 FPS — a modest 13% reduction. At Ultra settings, the 1080p result is 161.9 FPS versus 107.7 FPS at 1440p, a 33% drop. This inconsistent scaling pattern indicates the CPU limits frame rates when the GPU is underutilized, especially at lower resolutions and settings.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K compared to lower resolutions?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 63.1 (Ultra) to 147.8 (Low). The drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is from 218.2 FPS to 90.2 FPS, a 59% reduction. This steep decline shows the RTX 5090 becomes the primary constraint at 4K, as the CPU has more headroom to feed frames.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 delivers 159 FPS, which is 47.6% faster than Ultra (107.7 FPS) while still offering improved visuals over Medium (197.7 FPS). For a balance of fidelity and smoothness, High is the sweet spot, as it keeps frame rates well above 144 Hz refresh rates.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but barely. The measured 63.1 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is above the 60 FPS threshold, though it leaves little margin for demanding scenes. Dropping to High increases performance by 43% to 90.2 FPS, which is a safer target for consistent 4K play.

Q: How does the CPU’s core configuration affect Evolve?

A: The i5-11400F has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and DDR4 support at 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for Evolve, as the game does not appear to scale heavily with core counts beyond what this processor offers. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 and max-thread score of 5652 show near-linear scaling, indicating the CPU is not starved for threads in this title.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 overkill for this game?

A: The data suggests yes at lower settings. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 261.2 FPS, which far exceeds any display’s refresh rate. Even at 4K High, 90.2 FPS demonstrates that the GPU has substantial headroom. The RTX 5090’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are vastly more than Evolve requires, but this headroom ensures maximum frame rates at any resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU takes over at lower ones. At Low settings, the progression is 261.2 FPS (1080p) → 227.4 FPS (1440p) → 147.8 FPS (4K). The 1080p to 1440p drop is only 12.9%, but the 1440p to 4K drop is 35%. This pattern shifts at Ultra settings: 161.9 FPS → 107.7 FPS → 63.1 FPS, with a more even 33.5% and 41.4% reduction respectively. The High preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 218.2 FPS → 159 FPS → 90.2 FPS, where the 4K result is just 41.3% of the 1080p figure. This indicates that at High and Ultra, the RTX 5090 is fully engaged, and the CPU’s role diminishes. At Low settings, the CPU caps performance, as evidenced by the relatively small gap between 1080p and 1440p. The 4K Low result of 147.8 FPS still demonstrates that the GPU has ample power, but the CPU prevents it from reaching the 200+ FPS territory seen at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to High as the optimal preset for most users. At 1920x1080, High delivers 218.2 FPS, which is 34.8% faster than Ultra (161.9 FPS) and only 16.5% slower than Low (261.2 FPS). The visual quality improvement from Low to High is substantial for a modest FPS cost. At 2560x1440, High’s 159 FPS is the best balance, as Ultra drops to 107.7 FPS (32.3% slower) and Medium offers only 24.3% more FPS at 197.7. For 4K, High is again recommended: 90.2 FPS versus 63.1 FPS on Ultra (a 43% improvement) and 112.5 FPS on Medium (a 24.7% gain). Ultra is only viable for those with 60 Hz displays, as the 63.1 FPS result provides no margin. Low settings are unnecessary on this hardware, as even High at 4K exceeds 90 FPS, making the visual downgrade from Low unjustified.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces 261.2 FPS on Low, 235.8 FPS on Medium, 218.2 FPS on High, and 161.9 FPS on Ultra. The step from Low to Medium costs 9.7% performance, Medium to High costs 7.5%, and High to Ultra costs 25.8%. The Ultra preset is the outlier, introducing a significant performance penalty. At 2560x1440, the results are 227.4 FPS (Low), 197.7 FPS (Medium), 159 FPS (High), and 107.7 FPS (Ultra). The relative drops are 13.1%, 19.6%, and 32.3% respectively, showing that each settings tier becomes more expensive at higher resolution. At 3840x2160, the figures are 147.8 FPS (Low), 112.5 FPS (Medium), 90.2 FPS (High), and 63.1 FPS (Ultra). The percentage losses from Low to Medium are 23.9%, Medium to High 19.8%, and High to Ultra 30.0%. Across all resolutions, Ultra is consistently the most demanding, costing 38-43% of the Low preset’s performance. The 4K Ultra result of 63.1 FPS is the only measurement below 90 FPS, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor at this extreme configuration.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F, a Rocket Lake part on the Intel Socket 1200 platform, provides 6 cores and 12 threads. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz boosts to 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor’s 12 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are modest by modern standards, yet the benchmark results show it holds its own. In synthetic tests, the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and single-core score of 2029 place it in the midrange. The 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and 2-thread score of 1691 suggest strong per-core performance, which is critical for Evolve’s frame pacing. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 75 indicates it outperforms three-quarters of all tested processors, but its nearest rivals — the Ryzen 7 5700U and Core i7-1260P — have nearly identical average scores (17189 and 17212 respectively, with deltaPct of 0 and -0.2). The data shows that in Evolve, the CPU’s 6-core/12-thread configuration is sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 at 4K, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck. However, at 1080p Low, the 261.2 FPS ceiling suggests the CPU’s single-thread performance limits the combo’s maximum frame rate, despite the GPU having more to give.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip. Its specifications are staggering: 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The GPU has 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s. The FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS explains why the GPU sits in the 94th percentile. In the measured results, the RTX 5090’s role as the primary performance driver is evident at 4K, where the FPS drops from 147.8 (Low) to 63.1 (Ultra), a 57.3% reduction that scales with the GPU’s workload. The GPU’s 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures no memory starvation, even at 4K Ultra. The passmark G3D score of 39650 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411 confirm its dominance. However, the GPU’s average benchmark score of 84306 is nearly identical to the RTX 5090 D (84241, deltaPct 0.1) and RTX 5050 Mobile (84171, deltaPct 0.2), indicating that within the 50-series family, performance is tightly clustered. In Evolve, the GPU’s massive memory pool and compute power are underutilized at 1080p, but at 4K, the card’s capabilities are fully taxed, delivering playable frame rates even at Ultra settings.