Evolve

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a robust, highly playable experience in Evolve, though the data reveals a clear performance ceiling at higher resolutions. The measured frame rates show a system that excels at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain fluid motion at 4K on the highest settings. This analysis breaks down the measured results, examining how resolution, CPU, and GPU attributes influence performance, and provides practical recommendations based solely on the benchmark data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases, but with some notable deviations that reveal the workload's nature. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces an average of 192 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 129 FPS, a reduction of 33%. At 4K Low, the average falls to 73 FPS, which is 62% lower than the 1080p result. This steep decline indicates that the Radeon RX 6700 XT's rendering throughput becomes the dominant constraint as pixel count rises, even at the lowest quality preset.

The scaling pattern is less linear at higher settings. With High settings, the averages are 117 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p (a 33% drop), and 45 FPS at 4K (a 62% drop from 1080p). The percentage drops from 1080p to 4K are nearly identical between Low and High presets, suggesting that the additional graphical features at High do not disproportionately shift the bottleneck. However, the Ultra preset tells a different story, with 81 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and just 31 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result represents a 62% reduction from 1080p Ultra, consistent with other presets, but the absolute numbers are low enough to suggest that the game's highest settings introduce effects that heavily tax the GPU's compute resources.

The Medium preset provides the most granular data, as it is the only setting with both min and max FPS recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 149 FPS with a range of 127 to 171. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 100 FPS (a 33% reduction), with a range of 85 to 115. At 4K Medium, the average is 57 FPS, with a range of 48 to 65. The consistent 33% penalty from 1080p to 1440p across Low, Medium, and High presets indicates that the RX 6700 XT scales predictably with pixel count until the 4K resolution, where the absolute frame times become long enough to risk perceptible stutter, particularly in the 4K Medium minimum of 48 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides a strong foundation for this gaming workload, as evidenced by its benchmark scores. With 10 cores and 16 threads, the processor is built around a hybrid architecture that balances performance and efficiency. The base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz allow for significant single-thread headroom, which is often critical for game logic and physics. The measured 3DMark scores support this: the single-thread score is 960, while the 2-thread score is 1880, indicating that scaling from one to two threads nearly doubles performance. The 4-thread score of 3459 and 8-thread score of 5591 show continued scaling, though with diminishing returns, and the max-thread score of 7307 is only marginally higher than the 16-thread score of 7314, suggesting that Evolve is unlikely to utilize all available threads fully.

In the context of Evolve, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but it is not entirely irrelevant. The 1080p Low setting produces 192 FPS, a frame rate high enough that even a capable processor could become a limiting factor. However, the data shows that the i5-13400F's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and high boost clock are sufficient to keep feeding the GPU at this level. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22604 and single-core score of 3191 place this CPU in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a strong performer for gaming. The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark data include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS with a deltaPct of 0, and the Intel Core 5 120 with a deltaPct of -0.3, showing that the i5-13400F is statistically tied with these processors in overall benchmark performance.

The CPU's influence is most apparent when examining the frame rate drops at 4K. At 4K Low, the system produces 73 FPS, which is still well above playable thresholds. If the CPU were a severe bottleneck, we would expect to see more significant frame rate degradation when lowering the resolution, but the data shows that the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 10 nm process node indicate an efficient design that can maintain high boost clocks without thermal throttling, which is essential for consistent frame pacing in a fast-paced FPS like Evolve. The PassMark multithread score of 25032 and single-thread score of 3634 further confirm that this processor handles both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded tasks competently.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the primary driver of performance in this configuration, and its specifications explain the observed scaling. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results suggest that capacity is not the issue—bandwidth and compute throughput are. The GPU's boost clock of 2581 MHz and game clock of 2424 MHz allow for high fill rates, with a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the card performs admirably at 1080p, where it can push 192 FPS on Low settings.

The GPU's 2560 shading units and 40 ray tracing cores are relevant to Evolve's workload. The game was released in 2015, predating widespread ray tracing adoption, so the RT cores are likely unused. However, the sheer number of shading units and the FP32 performance of 13.21 TFLOPS drive the rasterization performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2435 and the PassMark G3D score of 19786 place this GPU in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile (deltaPct 0) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (deltaPct -0.5). This indicates that the RX 6700 XT competes at a level far above its mid-range positioning.

The GPU's memory clock of 2000 MHz, effective 16 Gbps, and 12 GB VRAM are sufficient for the measured settings. The fact that 4K Ultra produces only 31 FPS, while 4K High produces 45 FPS and 4K Medium produces 57 FPS, shows that the GPU's compute resources are exhausted by the Ultra preset. The 4K Medium minimum FPS of 48 indicates that the card can maintain playable frame rates at lower settings, but the 31 FPS average at Ultra is below the threshold for a smooth experience. The GPU's TDP of 230 W and dual-slot design are consistent with its performance class, and the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures adequate bandwidth for data transfer. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 93500 and OpenCL score of 44152 further validate the GPU's compute capabilities, which are more than sufficient for a 2015 title like Evolve.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 192, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that at 4K with Medium settings, the average FPS is 57, with a minimum of 48. At 4K High, the average drops to 45 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 31 FPS. Only 4K Low, with an average of 73 FPS, exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25292. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, has a score of 25284 with a deltaPct of 0. The Intel Core 5 120 scores 25362 with a deltaPct of -0.3, indicating the i5-13400F is statistically tied with these processors.

Q: What is the difference in performance between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 100 FPS, while the High preset averages 78 FPS. This represents a 22% reduction in average frame rate when moving from Medium to High.

Q: Is the GPU's 12 GB VRAM sufficient for this game at 4K?

A: The data indicates that VRAM capacity is not the limiting factor. The GPU produces 73 FPS at 4K Low and 57 FPS at 4K Medium, showing that the memory is adequate. The performance drop at Ultra (31 FPS) is more attributable to compute and bandwidth limits than to VRAM capacity.

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

A: The combo ranks 1935 out of 3700 tested combos, placing it in the upper half of all configurations tested for Evolve.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this hardware depend heavily on the target resolution. For 4K displays, the only viable option for a smooth experience is the Low preset, which averages 73 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K produces an average of 57 FPS, which is playable but dips to 48 FPS in minimum frame time, potentially causing noticeable stutter in fast-paced action. The High and Ultra presets at 4K, with averages of 45 and 31 FPS respectively, are not recommended for competitive or fluid gameplay.

At 1440p, the Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering an average of 100 FPS with a minimum of 85 FPS. This provides a substantial margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining better visual fidelity than Low. The High preset at 1440p, averaging 78 FPS, is also a strong choice for users prioritizing image quality, as it stays comfortably above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p, averaging 54 FPS, is borderline; it is playable but may not feel consistently smooth.

For 1080p users, the High preset is the recommended choice, averaging 117 FPS. This provides excellent visual quality while maintaining frame rates high enough for any refresh rate up to 120 Hz. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 149 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Low preset at 1080p, averaging 192 FPS, is only necessary for esports-level responsiveness on 144 Hz or 165 Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 1080p, averaging 81 FPS, is the only setting that dips below 100 FPS, and it is not recommended given the marginal visual improvement over High.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured results provides a detailed picture of performance across all configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 192 FPS. The Medium preset averages 149 FPS, with a minimum of 127 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS. The High preset averages 117 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 81 FPS. These results show a clear progression, with Low being nearly 2.4 times faster than Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 129 FPS. The Medium preset averages 100 FPS, with a minimum of 85 FPS and a maximum of 115 FPS. The High preset averages 78 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 54 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, with each preset seeing roughly a 33% reduction in average FPS, except for Ultra, which sees a 33% reduction as well (81 to 54).

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 73 FPS. The Medium preset averages 57 FPS, with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 65 FPS. The High preset averages 45 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 31 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 48 FPS is the lowest recorded minimum across all settings, indicating that this configuration is the most demanding that still maintains a playable floor. The 4K Ultra average of 31 FPS is the worst result, suggesting that this setting is only suitable for screenshots or non-interactive use.

How This Combo Ranks

In the comprehensive database of tested hardware combinations for Evolve, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT achieves a rank of 1935 out of 3700 combos. This places it in the 52nd percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms slightly more than half of all configurations evaluated. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU, neither of which is a top-tier part, but both of which are well-matched for this specific game.

The CPU's percentile rank of 77 against all CPUs indicates that the i5-13400F is a strong processor, but the GPU's percentile rank of 72 against all GPUs is slightly lower. This suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor in this combo, which is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis. The combo's overall rank of 1935 is likely pulled down by the GPU's relative position, as higher-ranked combos would feature more powerful graphics cards. The nearest CPU rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS and Intel Core 5 120, show deltaPct values of 0 and -0.3, respectively, indicating that swapping the CPU for these parts would have negligible impact on the combo's ranking. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile, has a deltaPct of 0, meaning that the RX 6700 XT is statistically equivalent to that mobile part in synthetic benchmarks. The data shows that this combo is a solid mid-range performer, capable of delivering high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but it is not positioned to compete with top-tier configurations at 4K with maximum settings.