Evolve

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 delivers a dominant performance in Evolve, placing 87th out of 1,695 tested combos. This puts it in the top 5% of all configurations, a result driven almost entirely by the GPU’s raw throughput. The data shows a combo that is heavily skewed toward graphics headroom, with the CPU acting as a capable but secondary partner in this 2015 FPS title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 87 out of 1,695 tested combinations reflects an elite-tier setup for Evolve. To contextualize this, the RTX 5080 alone sits at the 89th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-12400 ranks at the 77th percentile among all CPUs. The gap between those two percentiles is telling: the graphics card is doing the heavy lifting. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 19,850 places it within 0.4% of the Intel Core i5-11600K and 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-9700, meaning it is effectively tied with those older chips in synthetic workloads. However, in actual gameplay, the RTX 5080’s 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth overwhelm the game’s engine, which was released in 2015.

The rank is not merely a function of high frame rates; it is about consistency across settings. At 1080p Low, this combo hits 301.2 FPS, which is likely near or at the engine’s practical limit. Even at 4K Ultra, it maintains 60.1 FPS, a playable threshold. This consistency across the entire resolution and settings spectrum is what separates it from lower-ranked combos that might spike in one configuration but collapse in another. The i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads, boosting to 4.40 GHz, provide enough single-thread performance—evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 910—to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5080 in most scenarios.

FAQ

*Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12400 a bottleneck for the RTX 5080 in Evolve?*

A: Not at higher resolutions. At 4K High, the combo produces 81.5 FPS, which is 44% higher than the 1080p High result of 217.8 FPS would suggest if scaling were linear. The 1440p results show the CPU is still keeping pace, but at 1080p Low (301.2 FPS), the frame rate is likely capped by the game engine or CPU limits rather than GPU potential.

Q: How does this combo compare to the RTX 5080’s nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5080’s average benchmark score of 59,188 is 1.6% ahead of the Intel Arc A570M and 2.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A580. In Evolve, this translates to a comfortable margin, though the exact FPS deltas are not provided for those specific GPUs in this game.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo?

A: For maximum smoothness, 1440p Medium delivers 181.7 FPS, which is 24% higher than 1440p High (146.5 FPS). For visual fidelity, 4K High at 81.5 FPS is the sweet spot, as 4K Ultra drops to 60.1 FPS, a 26% reduction for marginal visual gains.

Q: Does the CPU’s 65W TDP limit performance?

A: No. The i5-12400’s 65W TDP is a power envelope, not a performance cap. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15,935 and single-core score of 2,249 indicate strong sustained performance, and the 10nm Alder Lake architecture handles the game’s threading efficiently.

Q: How does the combo rank in terms of CPU vs GPU balance?

A: The data indicates a GPU-heavy imbalance. The RTX 5080’s 89th percentile GPU rank versus the CPU’s 77th percentile rank suggests the graphics card is the primary driver. At 1080p, the CPU becomes more relevant, as evidenced by the 301.2 FPS Low result, but the GPU still has headroom.

Q: Is 16GB of VRAM necessary for this game?

A: For Evolve, 16GB is overkill. Even at 4K Ultra, the game likely uses a fraction of that capacity. However, the RTX 5080’s 16GB GDDR7 memory with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures zero texture swapping issues at any resolution, which contributes to the frame time stability shown in the results.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 217.8 FPS at 1080p to 146.5 FPS at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 81.5 FPS at 4K (a 44% reduction from 1440p). This non-linear scaling is typical of a GPU that is being pushed harder as pixel count increases. The 4K High result of 81.5 FPS is 63% lower than 1080p High, indicating that the RTX 5080’s 56.28 TFLOPS compute is the limiting factor at 4K, not the CPU.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. 1080p Low hits 301.2 FPS, which drops to 237.9 FPS at 1440p (21% lower) and then to 134.9 FPS at 4K (43% lower than 1440p). The 1080p Low result is suspiciously close to what would be a CPU or engine limit, given the i5-12400’s single-thread 3DMark score of 910. At 4K Low, the GPU is still delivering 134.9 FPS, which is 2.2x the 4K Ultra result of 60.1 FPS. This shows that Evolve’s Ultra preset imposes a significant rendering cost, likely through shadows and post-processing, that the GPU must handle regardless of resolution.

The limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are more involved, as the frame rate ceiling of 301.2 FPS suggests a bottleneck. At 4K, the GPU’s pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s become the determining factors. The data indicates that this combo is well-balanced for 1440p, where both components are utilized without either becoming a hard limit.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 301.2 FPS, while Medium reaches 274.6 FPS. High drops slightly to 217.8 FPS, and Ultra comes in at 151.4 FPS. The gap between Medium and High (56.8 FPS) is larger than the gap between High and Ultra (66.4 FPS), suggesting that the High preset introduces a significant rendering feature that costs ~57 FPS. The Ultra preset adds another ~66 FPS of cost, bringing the total reduction from Low to Ultra to 149.8 FPS, or 50% of the Low result.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected resolution penalty. Low delivers 237.9 FPS, Medium hits 181.7 FPS, High produces 146.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 97.3 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra (151.4 to 97.3 FPS) is a 36% reduction, which is less than the 44% reduction seen at High settings. This suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is already working near its limit, so the resolution increase has a smaller relative impact.

At 3840x2160, the results are still playable but show the GPU’s limits. Low settings yield 134.9 FPS, Medium drops to 102.5 FPS, High comes in at 81.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 60.1 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that this combo can handle 4K gaming in Evolve, but the Ultra preset is right at the edge of the 60 FPS threshold. The difference between Medium and High at 4K (21 FPS) is smaller than at 1080p (56.8 FPS), indicating that the GPU is becoming the sole bottleneck at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 16GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Evolve’s textures, even at 4K Ultra. The GPU’s 10,752 shading units and 112 ROPs drive the pixel fill rate of 293.1 GPixel/s, while the 336 TMUs achieve a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s. These specifications explain why the GPU can push 301.2 FPS at 1080p Low without breaking a sweat.

The clock speeds—2,295 MHz base and 2,617 MHz boost—are relatively modest for a flagship GPU, but the Blackwell 2.0 architecture’s efficiency at 5nm makes up for the raw clocks. The GPU’s 360W TDP is high, but the dual-slot cooler and 16-pin power connector are designed to handle it. In Evolve, the GPU’s FP32 compute of 56.28 TFLOPS is the primary driver of the high frame rates, as the game’s rendering pipeline is likely shader-bound.

The RTX 5080’s benchmark results reinforce its role. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8,637 and Passmark G3D score of 36,565 place it in the 89th percentile of all GPUs. In the context of Evolve, which was released in 2015, the GPU has massive headroom. The game likely does not utilize the RTX 5080’s ray tracing cores (84) or tensor cores (336), meaning the GPU is running at a fraction of its potential. This explains why the 4K Ultra result of 60.1 FPS is so high despite the game’s age—the GPU is simply brute-forcing the workload with raw compute and bandwidth, not relying on modern features.

The VRAM capacity is another factor. With 16GB, the GPU never has to swap textures, even at 4K Ultra. This prevents micro-stutters and frame time spikes, which is reflected in the stable average FPS numbers. The i5-12400’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, and its 18MB L3 cache helps keep data local. The CPU’s 3DMark 16-thread score of 5,873 shows it can handle the game’s multi-threaded tasks, but it is not the performance limiter in this configuration. The GPU is clearly the star, and the data confirms that this combo is built for high-resolution, high-settings gaming in Evolve.