Evolve

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB delivers a performance profile in Evolve that is heavily dictated by resolution and settings, exposing a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher loads. The measured frames per second (FPS) reveal a steep decline as pixel count rises, with the combination’s overall ranking placing it in the lower quartile of tested systems, though the CPU’s strong multi-threaded scores suggest untapped potential in less demanding scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and expected drop in average FPS as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, with the magnitude of the decline varying significantly by preset. At High settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p yields a reduction from 69.9 FPS to 43.6 FPS, a drop of 26.3 FPS, while moving from 1440p to 4K further reduces performance to 28.7 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as the rendering load scales directly with pixel count, and the 4 GB frame buffer of the RTX 3050 becomes a constraint at higher resolutions.

The scaling behavior is more pronounced at lower settings, where the CPU has more headroom to push frames. At Low settings, 1080p delivers 112.6 FPS, but this falls to 74.5 FPS at 1440p and 41.7 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is roughly 63%, compared to a 59% drop at High settings, suggesting that the GPU’s raw throughput and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors across the board. At Ultra settings, the figures are the most constrained, with 46.1 FPS at 1080p, 32 FPS at 1440p, and a marginal 20 FPS at 4K, indicating that the combination struggles to maintain playable frame rates at the highest visual fidelity.

The steep degradation from 1440p to 4K across all presets—where the average FPS roughly halves—underscores that the RTX 3050 4 GB is not suited for 4K gaming in Evolve. The gap between Medium and High settings at each resolution is relatively small (e.g., 88.5 vs. 69.9 FPS at 1080p), which suggests that the GPU’s shader and texture resources are saturated well before the CPU becomes a factor. Overall, the resolution scaling points to a system that is best utilized at 1080p, where the CPU can keep up with the GPU’s output, while higher resolutions expose the graphics card’s limitations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the decisive factor in this combo’s Evolve performance, with its memory configuration and clock speeds directly influencing the measured results. The GPU features 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s, which is modest by modern standards and becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions where texture data exceeds the frame buffer capacity. The base clock of 1545 MHz and boost clock of 1740 MHz, combined with 2048 shading units, provide the compute throughput of 7.127 TFLOPS, but the 32 ROPs and 64 TMUs limit pixel and texture fill rates to 55.68 GPixel/s and 111.4 GTexel/s respectively.

In Evolve, the GPU’s role is evident in the FPS scaling across presets. At 1080p Low, the 112.6 FPS result shows the card can handle lighter loads, but the drop to 46.1 FPS at Ultra reveals that the 4 GB memory and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for high-detail assets. The 8 nm process node and 90 W TDP indicate a power-efficient design, but the performance ceiling is clear: the card ranks at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, placing it in the mid-range category. The absence of any measured GPU benchmarks in the data means the FPS figures stand as the sole evidence of its gaming capability, and they consistently show a card that is outclassed by higher-end options in the 30-series lineup.

The memory clock of 1500 MHz, running at 12 Gbps effective, does not compensate for the small frame buffer, and the 128-bit bus width restricts data transfer rates. This is particularly problematic in Evolve, a game that likely uses large textures given its FPS genre and release era. The fact that 4K Ultra yields just 20 FPS—a 50% drop from 4K Medium’s 33.7 FPS—highlights that the GPU’s fill rate and memory subsystem are overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and maximum settings. The card’s dual-slot design and 1x 6-pin power connector suggest it is a low-power entry, but the data shows it simply lacks the resources for high-resolution gaming.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal preset for this combo is Medium at 1920x1080, which delivers 88.5 FPS and provides a smooth experience without the steep performance cost of higher settings. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 24.1 FPS (from 112.6 to 88.5), but the visual improvement is likely significant, while the drop from Medium to High costs an additional 18.6 FPS, bringing the average down to 69.9 FPS. For players prioritizing frame rate, Low at 1080p offers the highest headroom at 112.6 FPS, but Medium strikes the best balance between fluidity and image quality.

At 1440p, the data shows Medium as the only viable option for consistent playability, with 60.4 FPS, while High drops to 43.6 FPS and Low rises to 74.5 FPS. The 4 GB VRAM limitation becomes apparent here, as High settings likely exceed the memory capacity, causing the performance to degrade disproportionately. At 4K, no preset is truly playable; Low achieves 41.7 FPS, Medium 33.7 FPS, and High 28.7 FPS, all below the 60 FPS threshold, so users should avoid this resolution entirely unless they accept a sub-30 FPS experience at Ultra.

The verdict is clear: for a balanced experience, 1080p Medium is the recommended preset, offering nearly 90 FPS and avoiding the severe penalties seen at Ultra settings. The 4K Ultra result of 20 FPS is a clear outlier and should be disregarded for actual gameplay, as it represents the worst-case scenario for this hardware. The data suggests that the RTX 3050 4 GB is best paired with 1080p displays, and users with 1440p monitors should stick to Medium or Low to maintain acceptable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB ranks 1538 out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 10% of all systems evaluated. This low ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU’s limited capabilities, as the CPU itself is a strong performer relative to its peers. The i5-12400’s average benchmark score of 19850 places it near the top of the mid-range segment, with a percentile rank of 77 against all CPUs, but the GPU’s 50th percentile standing drags the overall gaming performance down.

The combo’s ranking in Evolve is notably worse than the CPU’s standalone position, indicating that the graphics card is the primary bottleneck. When compared to other tested combos, the data shows that systems with more powerful GPUs—even those with slower CPUs—likely outperform this pairing in this game, which is consistent with the FPS measurements showing GPU-bound behavior at all resolutions. The deltaPct values for the CPU’s nearest rivals are minimal (e.g., 0.1% against the Intel Core i7-9700 and -0.2% against the Intel Core i7-8700), confirming that the processor’s performance is not the issue; rather, the RTX 3050 4 GB’s 4 GB memory and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for Evolve’s demands.

The rank of 1538 out of 1695 suggests that the overwhelming majority of tested combinations deliver better FPS, even if the CPU is weaker, because the GPU is the limiting factor in this title. This is a stark contrast to the CPU’s own metrics, where it outperforms the i7-9700 by 0.1% and the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by 0.4% in average score, yet in gaming, the pairing falls short. The data implies that users seeking better Evolve performance should upgrade the GPU rather than the CPU, as the i5-12400 has ample headroom to support a more capable graphics card.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 provides a solid foundation for this combo, with 6 cores and 12 threads running at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, which is more than sufficient for Evolve’s FPS genre requirements. The CPU’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core, along with its 10 nm process node, deliver strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by a 3dmark single-thread score of 910 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3456. These figures suggest the CPU can handle the game’s physics and game logic without becoming a bottleneck, even at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU’s role becomes apparent at 1080p Low, where the 112.6 FPS result approaches the limits of what the RTX 3050 can output, but the CPU still has headroom—its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and 3dmark max-threads score of 5890 indicate robust multi-threaded capabilities. However, the CPU’s performance is not the limiting factor in this game; the GPU’s 4 GB memory and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth are. The i5-12400’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% higher average score) and the Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% lower), show that the CPU is competitive with older high-end models, but this does not translate to better Evolve performance due to the GPU constraint.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a dual-channel bus, are standard for the platform, and its Integrated Graphics UHD Graphics 730 is irrelevant for gaming with a discrete GPU. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz is key for single-threaded tasks, and the 3dmark 2-threads score of 1692 suggests that Evolve’s primary thread is well-served. Overall, the data indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this combo; rather, it is a capable partner that is underutilized due to the GPU’s limitations, and upgrading the graphics card would unlock the CPU’s full potential in this title.