Evolve

The Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 pairing delivers a fundamentally balanced 1080p experience in Evolve, with performance scaling predictably across resolutions and settings. The data indicates this combo is positioned in the lower-middle tier of tested configurations, ranking 1369th out of 1695 total combos. While the CPU provides strong single-threaded throughput for a six-core part, the GPU’s 6 GB VRAM and Turing architecture become the primary constraint at higher resolutions and quality presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves in Evolve?

A: The highest recorded average is 148.3 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 60.2 FPS at Ultra settings at the same resolution, indicating a significant performance cost for maxing out visual quality.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the combo averages 34.6 FPS on High settings and 24.6 FPS on Ultra. These frames rates fall below the typical 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay, suggesting 4K is only playable at Low settings, where it reaches 56.6 FPS.

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

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-9700 and 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-11600K. It trails the Intel Core i7-8700 by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by 0.4%.

Q: What is the GPU’s standing relative to its closest competitors?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074, placing it 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S and 1.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500. It is 1.7% behind both the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and AMD Radeon Pro 5700.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The CPU’s single-thread score of 910 in 3dMark and 3456 in Passmark suggests sufficient headroom for the GPU’s capabilities. The performance drop from 91.9 FPS at High settings to 60.2 FPS at Ultra at 1080p indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor as quality increases.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings yield 76.4 FPS, while High settings produce 57.7 FPS. This represents a 24.5% reduction in frame rate when moving from Medium to High, showing a substantial load increase on the graphics card.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 operates with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, paired with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit bus. The memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s is the key factor driving texture and geometry throughput in Evolve’s dense environments. The GPU’s 1920 shading units and 120 texture mapping units handle the game’s particle effects and lighting calculations, while its 48 ROPs manage final pixel output.

The 6 GB VRAM capacity becomes a critical limiter at 3840x2160 resolution. At Ultra settings, the average FPS collapses to 24.6, and even High settings only reach 34.6 FPS. This severe degradation compared to 1080p Ultra (60.2 FPS) suggests the frame buffer is saturated, forcing memory thrashing. The GPU’s 58th percentile standing among all GPUs and its synthetic scores — 14111 in Passmark G3D and 71278 in Geekbench OpenCL — corroborate its mid-range positioning.

The RTX 2060’s Turing architecture includes 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, though Evolve predates widespread ray tracing adoption. The FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s provide the raw compute necessary for the game’s directx 11 rendering path. The pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s aligns with the observed frame rates, particularly at 2560x1440 where the GPU can maintain 57.7 FPS on High settings.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 1369th out of 1695 tested combos for Evolve. This places it in the 19th percentile of all configurations, indicating that roughly 80% of tested systems outperform it. The ranking reflects the GPU’s age and the CPU’s mid-range positioning rather than any fundamental incompatibility.

The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus of 77 shows it is a solid performer relative to all processors, but the GPU’s percentileVsAllGpus of 58 drags the overall combo down. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would yield significantly better results, as the i5-12400’s average benchmark score of 19850 demonstrates headroom beyond what the RTX 2060 can exploit in this title.

The combo’s position is consistent with its measured FPS across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, it achieves playable frame rates at every setting, but the drop from 148.3 FPS at Low to 60.2 FPS at Ultra shows the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The rank of 1369 suggests that users seeking higher frame rates or 4K capability would need to upgrade the GPU rather than the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a wide range of performance depending on settings. Low settings produce 148.3 FPS, Medium hits 113.5 FPS, High reaches 91.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 60.2 FPS. This scaling shows a 59.4% reduction in frame rate from Low to Ultra, with the most significant single-step drop occurring between Medium and High (21.6 FPS).

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance envelope tightens. Low settings yield 96.9 FPS, which is still smooth, while Medium maintains 76.4 FPS. High settings drop to 57.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 41.2 FPS. The transition from High to Ultra at this resolution represents a 28.6% performance penalty, highlighting the GPU’s struggle with higher pixel counts.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings achieve 56.6 FPS, which is borderline acceptable. Medium drops to 45.2 FPS, High falls to 34.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24.6 FPS. The difference between 1440p and 4K at Ultra settings is a 40.3% reduction in frame rate, directly attributable to the GPU’s 6 GB VRAM and memory bandwidth limitations.

The scaling pattern across resolutions indicates a linear relationship between pixel count and performance, with 1080p Ultra (60.2 FPS) being nearly identical to 4K Low (56.6 FPS). This suggests the GPU is consistently the limiting factor, with the CPU providing adequate support even at lower resolutions where frame rates are highest.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 features 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, provides a strong foundation for gaming workloads. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps maintain high instruction throughput in Evolve’s CPU-bound sections.

The CPU’s synthetic performance is robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249. Its Passmark single-thread score of 3456 and multi-thread score of 18747 indicate balanced performance across both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads. The 3dMark scores show scaling from 910 in single-thread to 5890 in max-threads, confirming the CPU can leverage its 12 threads when needed.

In Evolve, the CPU’s role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low (148.3 FPS), the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the GPU can process frames quickly. The 65W TDP and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 and DDR5) provide sufficient bandwidth for game data. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, coupled with its near-identical average benchmark score (19850 vs 19831 for the i7-9700), confirms it is well-matched to the RTX 2060’s capabilities. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz ensures responsive single-thread performance, which is critical for Evolve’s frame pacing.