Evolve

Evolve’s measured performance with the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 580 shows a pairing that is firmly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the CPU’s strong six-core architecture providing ample headroom at 1080p. The data reveals a system that can deliver smooth frame rates in competitive settings but struggles to maintain playability under maximum graphical loads, particularly at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is steep and consistent across all settings, confirming that the Radeon RX 580 is the primary limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 86.2 at 1080p to 57.8 at 1440p, a reduction of 28.4 FPS, and then to 31.8 at 4K, which is a 54.4 FPS drop from the 1080p baseline. This pattern indicates that pixel throughput, not CPU processing, is the bottleneck, as the i5-12400’s single-thread performance is sufficient to feed the GPU even at lower resolutions.

The scaling becomes more punishing as settings increase. At High settings, the transition from 1080p (50.5 FPS) to 1440p (37.2 FPS) costs 13.3 FPS, while moving from 1440p to 4K (18.3 FPS) costs another 18.9 FPS. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic degradation: 34.0 FPS at 1080p drops to 22.6 FPS at 1440p and then collapses to 11.5 FPS at 4K. This 22.5 FPS total loss from 1080p to 4K at Ultra suggests that the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus are overwhelmed by the combination of high geometry and 4K pixel count.

Notably, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (86.2) and Ultra (34.0) is 52.2 FPS. At 4K, that spread narrows to 20.3 FPS (31.8 vs 11.5). This compression indicates that at 4K, even reducing settings cannot overcome the GPU’s raw fill-rate limits, as the RX 580’s 42.88 GPixel/s pixel rate becomes the hard ceiling. For 1440p, the scaling is more forgiving, with Low achieving 57.8 FPS versus Ultra’s 22.6, suggesting that mid-range settings are the practical ceiling for this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience balances frame rate and visual fidelity at 1920x1080. The Medium preset delivers 65.6 FPS average, which is 20.6 FPS higher than High (50.5) and 31.6 FPS higher than Ultra (34.0). This makes Medium the sweet spot for 1080p, providing a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while retaining more visual detail than Low.

At 2560x1440, the data recommends Low settings (57.8 FPS) as the only preset approaching playability. Medium drops to 45.5 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced gameplay but falls short of smooth action. High (37.2) and Ultra (22.6) are not recommended for competitive play, as the frame rates dip below 40 FPS. For 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS; Low (31.8) is the only option above 30 FPS, while Ultra (11.5) is effectively unplayable. The data suggests that 4K should be avoided altogether unless the user accepts Low settings and a sub-35 FPS experience.

The High preset at 1080p (50.5 FPS) offers a middle ground for users prioritizing image quality over frame rate, but the 15.1 FPS penalty versus Medium is substantial. Given the RX 580’s GCN 4.0 architecture and its DirectX 12 (12_0) support, the game’s API overhead appears manageable, as evidenced by the 34.0 FPS Ultra result at 1080p, but the preset’s demands on the 32 ROPs quickly become apparent.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Evolve at 60 FPS in any configuration?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the measured average is 86.2 FPS, and Medium achieves 65.6 FPS. No 1440p or 4K preset reaches 60 FPS.

Q: What is the largest frame rate gap between settings at a single resolution?

A: At 1080p, the difference between Low (86.2) and Ultra (34.0) is 52.2 FPS. At 1440p, the gap is 35.2 FPS (57.8 vs 22.6), and at 4K it narrows to 20.3 FPS (31.8 vs 11.5).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The 11.5 FPS result at 4K Ultra, combined with the i5-12400’s strong multi-threaded scores (e.g., 15935 in Cinebench R23 multi-core), indicates the CPU is not the constraint.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 580’s average benchmark score is 13559, which is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta) and GTX 950 (13549, 0.1% delta). It sits 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro 455 and 1.1% below the NVIDIA P106-090.

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

A: Low is the only viable option, with 57.8 FPS average. Medium (45.5) is borderline, while High (37.2) and Ultra (22.6) are too slow for consistent gameplay.

Q: Does the i5-12400’s 6-core/12-thread configuration help in this game?

A: The CPU’s 12 threads provide sufficient parallelism, as evidenced by its 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs. However, the game’s frame rates scale primarily with GPU load, so the CPU’s role is to avoid becoming a bottleneck, which it does at all tested resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 + AMD Radeon RX 580 combination ranks 1586 out of 1695 tested combos for Evolve, placing it in the bottom 6.4% of configurations. This low ranking reflects the GPU’s age and mid-range positioning, as the RX 580’s percentileVsAllGpus score is 53, meaning it performs better than only about half of all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, is a strong performer with a 77th percentile ranking, but it cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations in this title.

The combo’s rank is heavily influenced by the 4K results, where the average FPS across all settings is 21.75 (18.3 + 31.8 + 25.4 + 11.5 divided by 4). At 1080p, the average across all settings is 59.08 FPS, which would place the combo in a more favorable position if the ranking were resolution-specific. The data suggests that this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it outperforms the vast majority of configurations in this database, but the 4K results drag the overall rank down.

Compared to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the i5-12400’s average score of 19850 is within 0.4% of the Intel Core i5-11600K (19771) and 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831). This indicates that the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo’s ranking; the GPU’s 53rd percentile score is the decisive factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 brings 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boosting to 4.40 GHz. This configuration delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249, which puts it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. For Evolve, this means the CPU can easily handle the game’s physics and AI calculations, as evidenced by the PassMark physics score of 1105.

The CPU’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data bandwidth for game logic. The 3DMark scores are informative: 4-thread score of 3012 and 8-thread score of 4745, showing good scaling up to 8 threads. The max-threads score of 5890 is only 0.3% higher than the 16-thread score of 5873, indicating that the 12-thread configuration is fully utilized in multi-threaded workloads.

In practical terms, the i5-12400’s single-thread performance (PassMark single-thread score of 3456) ensures that the game’s main thread does not become a bottleneck. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 86.2 FPS, which is 30.4 FPS higher than at 1440p Low (57.8). This 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p is primarily due to the GPU’s fill-rate limits, not CPU capability. The CPU’s role is to maintain consistent frame pacing, which it does across all resolutions, as there are no min FPS anomalies in the data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings is usable. Low averages 86.2 FPS, Medium 65.6 FPS, High 50.5 FPS, and Ultra 34.0 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 20.6 FPS (23.9% reduction), while Medium to High costs 15.1 FPS (23.0% reduction), and High to Ultra costs 16.5 FPS (32.7% reduction). This shows that Ultra is disproportionately expensive, likely due to the RX 580’s 32 ROPs struggling with the game’s post-processing effects.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 57.8 FPS, Medium 45.5 FPS, High 37.2 FPS, and Ultra 22.6 FPS. The percentage drops are more uniform: Low to Medium is 21.3%, Medium to High is 18.2%, and High to Ultra is 39.2%. The Ultra preset’s 39.2% penalty is the steepest single-step decline at any resolution, underscoring the GPU’s memory bandwidth limitations (256.0 GB/s) when handling 1440p Ultra textures.

At 3840x2160, all settings produce sub-60 FPS results: Low 31.8 FPS, Medium 25.4 FPS, High 18.3 FPS, and Ultra 11.5 FPS. The relative differences are compressed compared to lower resolutions, with Low to Medium being a 20.1% drop, Medium to High a 27.9% drop, and High to Ultra a 37.2% drop. The 4K Low result of 31.8 FPS is lower than the 1440p Ultra result of 22.6 FPS, which is surprising given the resolution difference, but this reflects the GPU’s pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s being the absolute limit.

The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the RX 580’s performance degrades predictably with pixel count, while the i5-12400’s contribution remains stable. The 1080p Medium result of 65.6 FPS is the highest playable setting, and the 1440p Low result of 57.8 FPS is the only acceptable 1440p option. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with the best case (Low, 31.8 FPS) still below the 60 FPS threshold by a significant margin.