Evolve

The Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combination delivers a dominant 1080p experience in Evolve, where the GPU's raw throughput is the primary driver, but the scaling curve reveals a clear shift toward CPU limitation at the highest frame rates. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 303.1 fps, a figure that drops to 185.3 fps at High settings—a 38.9% reduction that is almost entirely due to increased pixel work rather than processor strain. Moving to 2560x1440, the same settings pair yields 207.5 fps and 123.7 fps respectively, showing a proportional decline that keeps the experience well above playable thresholds. However, the most telling data point is the 4K Ultra result: 51.8 fps, which is only 40% of the 1080p Low score, indicating that the game's heavy geometry and shading demands at this resolution are squarely on the GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The performance degradation from 1080p to 4K is steep but consistent with a GPU-bound title at higher settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 303.1 fps at 1080p to 207.5 fps at 1440p (a 31.6% drop) and then to 120.8 fps at 4K (another 41.8% drop). This pattern suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 672.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient even at 4K, but the shading units (8448) and texture units (264) are increasingly saturated as resolution climbs. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens dramatically with resolution: at 1080p, the difference is 173.7 fps (303.1 vs 129.4), but at 4K, that gap shrinks to 69.0 fps (120.8 vs 51.8). This compression indicates that at 4K, even the lowest settings push the GPU to its limits, leaving less headroom for settings-based scaling. The data suggests that the limiting component at 1080p Low is the CPU's ability to feed frames—the i5-12400's 12 threads and 4.40 GHz boost clock are likely the ceiling—while at 4K, the GPU becomes the unequivocal bottleneck.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's specifications directly explain its behavior in Evolve. The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2340 MHz, combined with 44.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, provide ample compute for the game's particle effects and dynamic lighting. The 16 GB VRAM is never a constraint at any measured resolution, as even the 4K Ultra preset (which averages 51.8 fps) does not exhibit the stutter or frame drops that would indicate memory swapping. The memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) paired with a 256-bit bus achieves 672.3 GB/s, which is more than adequate for the texture streaming in Evolve's alien environments. Benchmark results support this: the GPU scores 31811 in Passmark G3D and 223091 in Geekbench OpenCL, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, NVIDIA CMP 50HX, scores 49071 in average benchmark score—a 0.7% delta—but the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's superior ray tracing and DLSS capabilities (not measured here) make it a better fit for modern titles. The 4K Ultra result of 51.8 fps is the only sub-60 fps reading in the dataset, indicating that the GPU's 250.6 GPixel/s pixel rate is the limiting factor at this extreme preset.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Evolve?*

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at High settings provides 123.7 fps, which is a 75.9% improvement over 4K High (70.3 fps) while still offering substantial visual fidelity. For esports-level responsiveness, 1080p Low at 303.1 fps is the ceiling.

*Q: Does the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 16 GB VRAM matter for Evolve?*

A: No, the VRAM capacity is never a limiting factor. Even at 4K Ultra, which averages 51.8 fps, the GPU's memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s and 16 GB capacity are sufficient, as evidenced by the consistent frame pacing across all settings.

Q: How does the i5-12400 perform as a gaming CPU in this title?

A: The i5-12400's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, deliver a 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 and single-core score of 2249 indicate that it can handle Evolve's AI and physics calculations without bottlenecking the GPU at standard settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 303.1 fps while Ultra averages 129.4 fps—a 173.7 fps difference. This shows that the GPU has substantial headroom at lower settings, making the CPU the more likely constraint.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra preset playable?

A: The 51.8 fps average at 3840x2160 Ultra is technically playable but below the 60 fps threshold. For a smoother experience, dropping to High settings at 4K yields 70.3 fps, a 35.7% improvement.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested combinations?

A: It ranks 202nd out of 1695 combos tested in Evolve, placing it in the top 12% of all configurations. This is a strong result given the CPU's mid-range positioning and the GPU's high-end classification.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. For maximum frame rate, 1080p Low at 303.1 fps is the top choice, but this sacrifices visual quality. The sweet spot for competitive play is 1440p Medium at 161.6 fps, which offers a 30.6% improvement over 1440p High (123.7 fps) while still maintaining high detail. For visual fidelity, 4K High at 70.3 fps is the best balance—it delivers 35.7% more performance than 4K Ultra (51.8 fps) with only a modest reduction in shadow and texture quality. The Medium preset at 4K (88.4 fps) is also viable, providing a 70.8% uplift over Ultra while remaining above 60 fps. The data suggests avoiding Ultra settings at any resolution above 1080p, as the incremental visual gains do not justify the performance penalty: Ultra is 57.3% slower than Medium at 1440p (89.7 vs 161.6 fps) and 41.5% slower at 4K (51.8 vs 88.4 fps).

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its highest scores: Low averages 303.1 fps, Medium 241.3 fps, High 185.3 fps, and Ultra 129.4 fps. The delta between Low and Medium is 61.8 fps, while the drop from Medium to High is 56.0 fps, and from High to Ultra is 55.9 fps—a remarkably consistent ~60 fps step for each settings tier. At 2560x1440, the results are 207.5 fps (Low), 161.6 fps (Medium), 123.7 fps (High), and 89.7 fps (Ultra). The step sizes here are 45.9, 37.9, and 34.0 fps respectively, showing diminishing returns as resolution increases. At 3840x2160, the averages are 120.8 fps (Low), 88.4 fps (Medium), 70.3 fps (High), and 51.8 fps (Ultra). The Low-to-Medium gap is 32.4 fps, Medium-to-High is 18.1 fps, and High-to-Ultra is 18.5 fps. The 4K Low result of 120.8 fps is notable because it exceeds the 1440p Ultra score of 89.7 fps, demonstrating that resolution has a larger impact than settings at this hardware level.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400's specifications suggest it is a capable but not dominant partner for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in Evolve. With 6 cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, the processor delivers strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and Cinebench R20 single-core score of 944. The 18 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4/DDR5) ensure adequate data throughput for the game's streaming levels. The CPU's percentile rank of 77 places it above average, but its nearest rivals—the Intel Core i7-9700 (0.1% faster average score) and Intel Core i7-8700 (0.2% slower)—show that it sits in a crowded mid-range segment. In Evolve, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the 303.1 fps result likely approaches the processor's frame delivery limit. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5873 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 indicate that the i5-12400 can handle the game's background simulation without stuttering, but it is not the primary performance driver at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-12400 and RTX 4070 Ti SUPER ranks 202nd out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the top 11.9% of all configurations. This is a strong result, particularly considering that the CPU is a mid-range part while the GPU is a high-end model. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs (with a Passmark G3D score of 31811) is the primary contributor to this ranking, while the CPU's 77th percentile provides sufficient support. The combo's performance is most competitive at 1440p and 1080p, where the GPU's 44.10 TFLOPS and 689.0 GTexel/s texture rate are fully utilized. At 4K, the ranking would likely be lower due to the GPU's 51.8 fps Ultra result, but the overall position reflects a balanced system that excels at mainstream resolutions. The delta between the GPU and its nearest rival (NVIDIA CMP 50HX at 0.7% faster) is negligible, suggesting that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's architecture is well-optimized for this title. For users prioritizing high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming, this combo is near-ideal, offering 123.7 fps at High settings—a figure that exceeds the 144Hz threshold—while maintaining the flexibility to push 4K at reduced settings.