Evolve

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti produces a heavily GPU-limited experience in Evolve, with performance falling off sharply as resolution climbs. The measured data shows a system that can handle 1080p at playable frame rates on medium settings, but which struggles to maintain even 30 FPS at higher resolutions. This combination ranks near the bottom of the tested pool, at position 3626 out of 3700 combos, indicating that while the CPU has ample headroom, the GPU is the decisive bottleneck in nearly every scenario.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is dramatic and consistent across all settings, revealing a clear GPU-bound workload. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 83 at 1080p to 53 at 2560x1440, then to 27 at 4K. That represents a 36% reduction when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 49% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, with the 4K penalty being particularly severe—the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate only retains about one-third of its original value.

At Medium settings, the pattern repeats: 65 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 37%, nearly identical to the Low setting percentage, which suggests the GPU is consistently saturated regardless of the graphics preset. The High preset shows 41 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K—a 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p, then another 46% drop to 4K. Ultra settings are the most punishing, with only 26 FPS at 1080p, 16 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K.

The data indicates that the limiting component at all resolutions is the GPU. The GTX 1050 Ti, with its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth, simply cannot sustain the fill rate demands of higher resolutions. The CPU, an Intel Core i5-13400F with 10 cores and 16 threads, is far more capable than the GPU in this pairing. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604 places it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 25th percentile of all GPUs. This massive asymmetry means that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would normally be the bottleneck in a balanced system, the GPU still caps performance at 83 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

For users targeting a smooth experience at 1920x1080, the Medium preset is the optimal choice. It delivers an average of 65 FPS, with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 75 FPS, which provides a stable frame rate above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays. The Low preset reaches 83 FPS but offers no frame time data, suggesting that the visual quality trade-off may not be worth the extra 18 FPS. High settings drop to 41 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target, and Ultra falls to 26 FPS, which is not playable for a fast-paced FPS title.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. Low settings produce 53 FPS, which is acceptable for less demanding play, while Medium drops to 41 FPS. Both High and Ultra fall below 30 FPS, making them unsuitable for anything but static scenes. For 4K, the data shows that even Low settings only reach 27 FPS, which is below the standard 30 FPS minimum for console-like playability. No preset at 4K is recommended for actual gameplay, as the Ultra preset only manages 9 FPS.

The measured frame time data, available only for the Medium preset, shows a consistent range: 55-75 FPS at 1080p, 35-47 FPS at 1440p, and 18-25 FPS at 4K. This suggests that Medium is the most predictable preset in terms of frame pacing, which is beneficial for competitive play. The lack of min/max data for other presets means that their frame time consistency cannot be verified, but the average FPS values alone indicate that Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot for this combination.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1920x1080 with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 65 FPS, with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 75 FPS. This is the highest preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS at this resolution.

Q: Is this combination capable of 4K gaming?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 27 FPS average, and the Ultra preset drops to 9 FPS. None of the four tested presets reach 30 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the CPU compare to the GPU in this system?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F has a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604 and sits in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, while the GTX 1050 Ti has an average benchmark score of 4193 and sits in the 25th percentile of all GPUs. The CPU is far more powerful than the GPU.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where playable frame rates above 60 FPS are achievable, specifically with the Medium preset at 65 FPS. At 2560x1440, the best result is 53 FPS on Low settings.

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

A: It ranks 3626 out of 3700 combos, placing it in the bottom 2% of all tested configurations for Evolve. This reflects the GPU's low percentile ranking.

Q: Does the 4 GB VRAM cause issues at higher resolutions?

A: While the memory capacity is not directly measured in the FPS data, the GPU's 4 GB GDDR5 memory and 128-bit bus with 112.1 GB/s bandwidth are consistent with the steep performance drops observed at 1440p and 4K, where memory bandwidth becomes more critical.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of presets was tested. Low settings produce the highest average FPS at 83, followed by Medium at 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 and maximum of 75. High settings drop to 41 FPS, and Ultra falls to 26 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 18 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 24 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 15 FPS. This shows that the largest performance penalty occurs when moving from Medium to High, which likely reflects the increased texture and shading demands.

At 2560x1440, the same four presets were tested, but the results compress significantly. Low achieves 53 FPS, Medium reaches 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 and maximum of 47, High drops to 26 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 16 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 12 FPS, and between Medium and High is 15 FPS. Compared to 1080p, each preset loses roughly 30-40% of its frame rate, confirming the resolution scaling trend.

At 3840x2160, performance collapses. Low is the only preset above 20 FPS, averaging 27 FPS. Medium averages 21 FPS with a minimum of 18 and maximum of 25, High averages 14 FPS, and Ultra averages 9 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 6 FPS, and between Medium and High is 7 FPS. The Ultra preset is essentially unplayable, with an average below 10 FPS. The measured frame time range for Medium at 4K is 18-25 FPS, which shows that even the minimum is below the 30 FPS threshold.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the primary bottleneck in this configuration. Its average benchmark score of 4193 places it in the 25th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon R5 M330 (score 4170, delta 0.6%) and the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M (score 4151, delta 1%). The GPU's 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output pipelines are modest by modern standards, and its 2.138 TFLOPS FP32 performance reflects its entry-level positioning.

The GPU's memory configuration consists of 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 112.1 GB/s. The memory clock is listed at 1752 MHz with 7 Gbps effective speed. In Evolve, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows roughly a 37% frame rate drop across all presets, which aligns with the increased pixel throughput demands. The 4K results, which show a further 46-49% drop, indicate that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are insufficient for that resolution.

The clock speeds are 1291 MHz base and 1392 MHz boost, which are relatively low for the Pascal architecture. The GPU's TDP of 75 W and lack of power connectors suggest it is designed for low-power systems, which further limits its sustained performance under load. The PassMark G3D score of 6340 and DirectX 11 score of 45 illustrate its capabilities, but these numbers are far below what modern GPUs achieve. In this game, the GPU's role is decisive: it determines playability at every resolution, and the CPU has no chance to become the limiting factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides substantial processing power that goes largely unused in Evolve due to the GPU bottleneck. With 10 cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, this CPU has a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604 and a single-core score of 3191. The Geekbench multi-core score is 11068, and the single-core score is 1996. These scores place the CPU in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (score 25284, delta 0%) and the Intel Core 5 120 (score 25362, delta -0.3%).

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, and the CPU has a TDP of 65 W. The PassMark multi-thread score of 25032 and single-thread score of 3634 further confirm its strong performance. However, in Evolve, the frame rates are consistently limited by the GPU. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 83 FPS, which is well below what this CPU could drive if paired with a more powerful GPU.

The 3DMark scores show a clear scaling pattern: 1880 for 2 threads, 3459 for 4 threads, 5591 for 8 threads, and 7314 for 16 threads. This indicates good multi-threading capability, but the game does not appear to leverage it heavily, as the frame rate differences between settings are more influenced by GPU load. The CPU's role is to feed the GPU without stalling, and its high single-thread performance ensures that it never becomes a limiting factor in this configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti ranks 3626 out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 2% of all systems. This low rank is directly attributable to the GPU's 25th percentile position, while the CPU's 77th percentile ranking would normally suggest a mid-range system. The disparity between these two components creates a situation where the system's overall gaming performance is heavily constrained.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all low-end parts: the AMD Radeon R5 M330 (0.6% faster), the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M (1% faster), and the AMD Radeon Vega 3 (1.8% slower). These are integrated or entry-level discrete GPUs, confirming that the GTX 1050 Ti is at the bottom of the desktop GPU hierarchy. In contrast, the CPU's nearest rivals are much more capable processors, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (0.4% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (0.3% slower), which are typically paired with far stronger GPUs.

The measured FPS data supports this ranking. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 65 FPS, which is playable but not exceptional. At 1440p, the best result is 53 FPS on Low, and at 4K, no preset reaches 30 FPS. These results place the system below the median for any resolution above 1080p. The frame time data for Medium settings shows a minimum of 55 FPS at 1080p, which is acceptable, but the 18 FPS minimum at 4K is far below playable thresholds. This rank of 3626 out of 3700 means that users of this combo will need to accept significant compromises, primarily sticking to 1080p with medium or low settings to achieve smooth gameplay.