Evolve

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Evolve, but the data shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. The sweet spot for this combination is the Medium preset at 2560x1440, where the average FPS of 90.7 provides a smooth, responsive feel while maintaining acceptable image quality. At 1920x1080, the High preset is also excellent, hitting 106.3 FPS, but the 1440p Medium option offers a better balance for users with higher-resolution displays. Avoid Ultra at any resolution—the 28.5 FPS at 4K and 52.8 FPS at 1440p are too demanding, and even the 73.8 FPS at 1080p is not worth the performance hit compared to High.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show a very consistent pattern: Ultra settings are punishing for this combo, while Low and Medium provide the headroom needed for high refresh rates. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low (175 FPS) and High (106.3 FPS) is substantial, but both are perfectly playable. The real decision lies between Medium and High at 1440p. The data shows Medium at 90.7 FPS, which is a 24.4% improvement over High at 72.9 FPS. This makes Medium the recommended preset for 1440p, as it keeps frame times consistent enough for competitive play without sacrificing too much detail.

For 4K, the situation is more constrained. Low at 65.6 FPS is the only preset that approaches a playable standard, while Medium at 53.4 FPS is borderline and High at 39.9 FPS is too sluggish. The recommendation is to stick with Low at 3840x2160 if 4K is a priority, but the data strongly suggests that 1440p is the natural home for this pairing. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p (106.3 to 73.8 FPS) is a 30.5% loss, confirming that Ultra is a trap for this GPU. In summary, use Medium at 1440p or High at 1080p for the best balance; reserve Low for 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combos for Evolve, this pairing sits at rank 1058 out of 1695 combinations. That places it in the lower third of all tested systems, which is expected given the RTX 2070 SUPER’s age and the i5-12400F’s mid-range positioning. The percentile data supports this: the CPU ranks in the 77th percentile among all CPUs, but the GPU only reaches the 65th percentile among all GPUs. This means the graphics card is the more limiting factor in this game, dragging the overall combo ranking down.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show it is extremely competitive for its class. The Intel Core i7-8700K scores 19210, which is just 0.1% behind the i5-12400F’s 19221 average. The AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS and AMD EPYC 7773X are also within a 1.3% delta. This means the processor is not the bottleneck; its performance is essentially tied with older high-end parts. On the GPU side, the RTX 2070 SUPER’s 22206 average score is closely matched by the NVIDIA RTX A400 (-0.5%) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (0.9%), but it trails the RTX 4060 Mobile by 2.3%. The data indicates that this combo is a solid mid-range performer, but it will not compete with modern high-end rigs in Evolve’s more demanding presets.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo capable of running Evolve at 4K?*

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The measured data shows Low at 3840x2160 yielding 65.6 FPS, which is playable. Medium drops to 53.4 FPS, while High and Ultra fall to 39.9 and 28.5 FPS respectively, making those presets impractical for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 2560x1440 offers the best combination of visual quality and performance. At Medium settings, it achieves 90.7 FPS, which is smooth, and even High at 72.9 FPS is acceptable. 1080p is also excellent for higher refresh rates, but 1440p provides more detail per pixel.

Q: How does the i5-12400F compare to its direct rivals?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score is 19221, placing it just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-1335U (19167). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by only 0.7% and leads the AMD EPYC 7773X by 1.3%. This shows the i5-12400F is a very balanced performer in its tier.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER the bottleneck in this combo?

A: The data suggests yes. The GPU’s percentile rank is 65, compared to the CPU’s 77. Additionally, the GPU’s nearest rival, the RTX 4060 Mobile, outperforms it by 2.3%, while the CPU trades blows with its rivals. In Evolve, the frame rate drops more steeply with higher settings, indicating GPU limits.

Q: Should I use the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: No. At 1920x1080, Ultra yields 73.8 FPS, which is significantly lower than High at 106.3 FPS. The 30.5% performance loss is not justified by the marginal visual improvement, especially when High already provides a fluid experience.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of these components?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F had a launch MSRP of $174, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER had a launch MSRP of 499 USD. These figures reflect their original pricing context, not current market values.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread across presets. Low delivers 175 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh monitors. Medium drops to 138.7 FPS, still very smooth. High comes in at 106.3 FPS, which is playable but less headroom. Ultra falls to 73.8 FPS, the only preset at this resolution that dips below 100 FPS. The pattern is clear: the GPU scales linearly with settings, but Ultra is disproportionately expensive.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers are more balanced. Low hits 121 FPS, a strong result. Medium achieves 90.7 FPS, which is the recommended target. High drops to 72.9 FPS, still above the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra plummets to 52.8 FPS, which is noticeably less smooth. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p is 17.8 FPS, a 19.6% reduction, while the gap between High and Ultra is 20.1 FPS, a 27.6% reduction.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles. Low yields 65.6 FPS, which is just about playable. Medium drops to 53.4 FPS, and High falls to 39.9 FPS. Ultra is unplayable at 28.5 FPS. The data shows that 4K is only viable with the Low preset, and even then, the margin for error is slim. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for higher presets at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the limiting component. At Low settings, the FPS goes from 175 at 1080p to 121 at 1440p (a 30.9% drop) and then to 65.6 at 4K (a 45.8% drop from 1440p). This scaling is not linear; the 4K resolution demands four times the pixel throughput of 1080p, and the GPU’s fill rate of 113.3 GPixel/s is being saturated.

At High settings, the drop is even more pronounced: 106.3 FPS at 1080p, 72.9 at 1440p, and 39.9 at 4K. The reduction from 1440p to 4K is 45.3%, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary constraint. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain more stable across resolutions at lower settings. The data for Low shows a 62.5% drop from 1080p to 4K, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. The i5-12400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads, boosting to 4.40 GHz, are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at these frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores are strong for its class: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 and a single-core score of 2332. In Evolve, a game from 2015, this CPU provides ample processing power. The measured FPS at Low settings across all resolutions indicates the CPU is never the limiting factor. For example, at 1080p Low, the 175 FPS is well beyond what the GPU can sustain at higher resolutions.

The CPU’s 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 and DDR5) help maintain smooth frame pacing. The data shows that the i5-12400F performs nearly identically to the Intel Core i7-8700K, with a delta of just 0.1% in average benchmark score. This means that in Evolve, the CPU is not holding back the RTX 2070 SUPER. The GPU’s 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 2560 shading units are the decisive factors. When moving from Medium to Ultra, the FPS drops consistently across all resolutions, confirming that the game is rendering-bound. The CPU’s role is to keep up with the GPU’s output, and the benchmark results indicate it does so effectively, allowing the RTX 2070 SUPER to be the sole determinant of frame rate.