Evolve

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a playable experience across most of Evolve’s settings, but the data clearly shows that the Ultra preset is the outlier. At 1080p, the Ultra preset drops to an average of 68 FPS, which is a significant 45% reduction from the High preset’s 97 FPS. Given that the High preset at 1080p offers nearly 100 FPS, and even the Medium preset holds at 124 FPS, the Ultra setting provides no measurable benefit in this benchmark suite beyond a marginal visual uplift that comes at a steep performance cost. Consequently, the High preset at 1080p is the optimal choice for this combo, delivering smooth frame rates while maintaining fidelity. If you prefer a higher resolution, the High preset at 1440p still yields 65 FPS, which is acceptable for a slower-paced FPS, but the Medium preset at 1440p (83 FPS) offers a better balance for competitive play. At 4K, only the Low preset (61 FPS) reaches playable territory, while Medium (47 FPS) and High (37 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold. In short, High at 1080p is the sweet spot; for 1440p, Medium or High are viable; for 4K, stick to Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the primary driver of frame rate in Evolve, and its specifications directly explain the performance scaling observed. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game’s assets at 1080p and 1440p, but the data suggests it becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the frame rate drops precipitously across all settings. The GPU’s clock speeds are 1470 MHz base and 1650 MHz boost, with a memory clock of 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs, yield a pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s. In practice, this translates to a substantial gap between Low and Ultra settings: at 1080p, the Low preset achieves 160 FPS, while Ultra drops to 68 FPS, a 58% reduction. This indicates that the GPU’s raw throughput is taxed heavily by the Ultra preset’s increased shading and texture demands. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 7.181 TFLOPS and its DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) suggest it is well-suited for the game’s rendering pipeline, but the data shows that the Ultra preset pushes the TU106 chip beyond its comfort zone. Notably, the GPU’s benchmark scores (e.g., 3DMark Steel Nomad at 2011, Passmark G3D at 16462) place it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, which aligns with its mid-range positioning. The nearest rival, the RTX 3060 Mobile, scores a delta of -0.4%, indicating the desktop 2060 SUPER is essentially on par with that mobile part. This means that for Evolve, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading power are the decisive factors, not the CPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the best graphics preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The High preset is recommended, as it delivers an average of 97 FPS. The Medium preset offers 124 FPS, but High provides a better visual quality-to-performance trade-off. The Ultra preset drops to 68 FPS, which is a significant penalty for marginal visual gains.

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

A: Only with the Low preset, which averages 61 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 47 FPS, and High falls to 37 FPS, both below the 60 FPS target. Ultra at 4K is essentially unplayable at 26 FPS.

Q: How much FPS do you lose going from High to Ultra at 1440p?

A: The High preset at 1440p averages 65 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 45 FPS. That is a 20 FPS drop, or roughly a 31% reduction in performance. The Medium preset sits in between at 83 FPS, which is actually higher than High, suggesting the High preset has a specific performance penalty.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p High settings?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU, with 6 cores and 12 threads (boosting to 4.40 GHz), has a Passmark multithread score of 19433, which is in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs. However, the GPU’s 62nd percentile ranking and its significant frame rate drops when settings increase indicate that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting component.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only preset with a recorded minimum FPS is Medium, which shows a min of 40 FPS at 4K, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 1080p. For other presets, only average FPS is available in the measured data.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 2604 out of 3700 total tested combos in Evolve. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all possible pairings, which is consistent with the RTX 2060 SUPER being a previous-generation mid-range card.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 160 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. The Medium preset averages 124 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS, indicating stable frame pacing. The High preset drops to 97 FPS, while the Ultra preset plunges to 68 FPS. This 1080p data shows a clear linear degradation from Low to Ultra, with a 58% reduction in average FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance curve shifts downward. Low averages 107 FPS, Medium averages 83 FPS (with a min of 71 and max of 96), High averages 65 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 62 FPS, or a 58% drop, which mirrors the 1080p percentage drop. However, the absolute numbers are lower across the board, indicating that the increased pixel count places a heavier load on the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal. Low averages 61 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target, but Medium drops to 47 FPS (min 40, max 55), High falls to 37 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 26 FPS. The 4K data shows a 58% reduction from Low to Ultra, consistent with the other resolutions, but the absolute values are too low for a smooth experience except at Low. The measured FPS data is complete with no null min/max values for most presets, but the Medium preset at each resolution provides the only min/max data points, showing a consistent frame range.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 2604 out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve. This places it in the 70th percentile of all possible pairings, meaning it outperforms about 70% of other CPU-GPU combinations tested for this game. However, this ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU’s age; the RTX 2060 SUPER is an end-of-life product. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 18093, placing it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU’s average benchmark score is 19039, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs. This disparity suggests that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing, capping the overall performance. In comparison to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 2060 SUPER is nearly identical to the RTX 3060 Mobile (delta -0.4%) and the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (delta -0.5%), but it is slower than the AMD Radeon RX 460 (delta -1.5%) and the Intel Arc A770M (delta -1.6%). This means that while the 2060 SUPER is a competent performer, it is not a top-tier card, and its ranking in Evolve reflects that. The combo’s rank of 2604 suggests that for this game, the pairing is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggles at 4K, which is a typical outcome for a mid-range GPU from the Turing generation.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F plays a supporting role in Evolve, providing enough processing power to avoid bottlenecking the GPU in most scenarios. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its architecture is Alder Lake-S, built on a 10 nm process. The CPU’s cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 12380 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1680 in single-core, which are strong numbers for a mid-range desktop part. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5895 and the max-thread score of 5912 indicate that the CPU’s multi-threaded performance is consistent. However, in Evolve, the frame rate differences between settings are driven almost entirely by the GPU. For example, at 1080p, the Low preset (160 FPS) vs. the High preset (97 FPS) is a 63 FPS difference, which is due to GPU load, not CPU capability. The CPU’s Passmark multithread score of 19433 places it in the 73rd percentile, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, has a nearly identical average score (delta 0%). This means the i5-12400F is a well-balanced processor that will not hold back the RTX 2060 SUPER in this game. The only scenario where the CPU might become more relevant is at 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 160 FPS, but even then, the GPU is still handling the rendering. The data shows that the CPU’s 12 threads are sufficient for Evolve’s engine, which is not heavily multi-threaded, and the single-core boost of 4.40 GHz ensures solid frame pacing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K illustrates the GPU’s limitations under increasing pixel loads. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 160 at 1080p to 107 at 1440p (a 33% decrease) and then to 61 at 4K (a further 43% decrease from 1440p). This translates to a total drop of 62% from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the scaling is slightly steeper: 97 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p (a 33% drop), and 37 FPS at 4K (a 43% drop from 1440p), for a total 62% reduction. The pattern is remarkably consistent across all presets, with the 1440p to 4K transition always costing about 43% of the 1440p frame rate, while the 1080p to 1440p transition costs about 33%. This consistent percentage scaling indicates that the limiting component is the GPU’s pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth. The RTX 2060 SUPER’s 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth and 105.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, regardless of settings. The fact that the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra (62%, 62%, 62%, and 62%, respectively) proves that the bottleneck is purely resolution-dependent, not settings-dependent. The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal; if the CPU were the bottleneck, the percentage drop would be smaller at lower settings (where CPU load is relatively higher). Instead, the data shows a pure GPU-bound scaling pattern, confirming that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the definitive limiting factor for this combo in Evolve. For users targeting 4K, the only viable option is the Low preset, which just barely hits 61 FPS, but even that is on the edge of playability. At 1440p, Medium or High presets provide a good balance, while 1080p is where this combo truly shines, with High settings delivering a smooth 97 FPS.