Evolve

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across the three resolutions reveal how this pairing of the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 scales with pixel count in Evolve. At 1080p, the average frame rates are exceptionally high, ranging from 158.5 fps at Ultra settings to 319.9 fps at Low settings. Moving to 1440p, the frame rates drop by a noticeable margin: the High preset falls from 226.6 fps to 149.4 fps, a reduction of roughly 34%. The Low preset at 1440p still manages 249.4 fps, which indicates that even at higher pixel densities, the system retains substantial headroom.

The scaling behavior becomes more pronounced at 4K. At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 89 fps, while the Low preset achieves 139.5 fps. This represents a significant decline from the 1080p figures, with the High preset dropping by approximately 61% when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. The diminishing returns at higher resolutions are a clear sign that the rendering workload is shifting from the CPU to the GPU. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, given that the frame rates exceed 300 fps at Low settings, which places heavy demands on the processor's single-thread performance. The Core i5-13400F has a boost clock of 4.60 GHz and a single-thread benchmark score of 960 in 3dmark_single_thread, which suggests it can handle high-FPS scenarios but may not fully saturate the RTX 4090's capabilities at lower resolutions.

At 4K, the data indicates that the GPU becomes the primary constraint. The RTX 4090, with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, is a high-end card, but the pixel count at 3840x2160 increases the workload substantially. The frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 77.5 fps (139.5 vs 62), which shows that settings have a large impact on the GPU load. The scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K is consistent with a system where the RTX 4090 is strong enough to push high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the CPU's capabilities become more relevant at 1080p, where frame rates are extremely high. The data suggests that for competitive play at 1080p, the CPU is the bottleneck, while at 4K, the GPU's rendering capacity determines the final output.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and frame rate depends on the target resolution. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 226.6 fps, which is well above the refresh rate of most monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 158.5 fps, which is still very high, but the jump from High to Ultra represents a 30% performance cost. For most users, the High preset at 1080p offers the best experience, as it maintains a frame rate that exceeds 200 fps while providing a solid level of detail. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves 289.6 fps, which is only 63 fps higher than High, suggesting that the visual differences between Medium and High are worth the slight performance trade-off.

At 1440p, the High preset produces 149.4 fps, which is suitable for high-refresh-rate gaming. The Medium preset reaches 195.6 fps, offering a comfortable margin above 144 Hz. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 104.4 fps, which is still playable but falls below the 144 fps threshold that many gamers prefer. The data shows that the Medium preset at 1440p provides the best experience, as it keeps frame rates above 190 fps while maintaining a reasonable level of detail. The Low preset at 1440p, at 249.4 fps, is excessive for most displays and sacrifices visual fidelity for marginal gains.

At 4K, the situation changes. The High preset delivers 89 fps, which is close to the 90 fps mark and provides a smooth experience for most titles. The Medium preset at 4K achieves 109.3 fps, which is surprisingly higher than High, indicating that the Medium settings offer a better balance at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 62 fps, which may be acceptable for slower-paced games but is not ideal for a fast-paced FPS like Evolve. The Low preset at 4K, at 139.5 fps, is the highest frame rate at this resolution, but it comes at the cost of visual quality. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, as it delivers over 100 fps while still providing a decent visual experience. The data suggests that the High preset at 4K is suboptimal, as it is slower than Medium by 20.3 fps, likely due to specific rendering effects that disproportionately impact performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 46th out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve. This places the pairing in the top 3% of all configurations, indicating that it is a strong performer for this game. The CPU itself has a percentile rank of 82 among all processors, while the GPU ranks in the 91st percentile among all GPUs. The high ranking of the combo is largely driven by the RTX 4090's exceptional performance, as the CPU's percentile is slightly lower. The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-13620H, which has an average score of 25201 and a deltaPct of 0.1%, meaning it performs nearly identically to the i5-13400F. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D is slightly faster with a deltaPct of -0.5%, while the AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 are marginally slower with deltaPct values of 0.5%.

The GPU's nearest rivals show similar performance patterns. The NVIDIA Tesla T4 has an average score of 66733, which is 0.4% higher than the RTX 4090's score of 66473. The NVIDIA Tesla P40 is 0.5% slower, and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 is 0.9% slower. This indicates that the RTX 4090 is at the top end of the GPU performance spectrum, with only marginal differences from its closest competitors. The rank of 46 out of 1695 combos suggests that the pairing is well-suited for Evolve, but the 1080p frame rates show that the CPU may hold back the GPU in less demanding scenarios. The combo's rank is likely higher at 4K, where the GPU is the primary driver, but the data only provides an overall rank.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at performance across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 319.9 fps, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the dataset. The Medium preset follows at 289.6 fps, and the High preset at 226.6 fps. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 158.5 fps, which is a 50.4% reduction from Low. At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 249.4 fps, the Medium preset 195.6 fps, the High preset 149.4 fps, and the Ultra preset 104.4 fps. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1440p shows a 58.1% reduction in frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 139.5 fps, the Medium preset 109.3 fps, the High preset 89 fps, and the Ultra preset 62 fps. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 77.5 fps, which is a 55.6% reduction. The data shows that the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is more pronounced at higher settings. For example, the Ultra preset drops from 158.5 fps at 1080p to 62 fps at 4K, a 60.9% reduction, while the Low preset drops from 319.9 fps to 139.5 fps, a 56.4% reduction. This suggests that the GPU's rendering load increases disproportionately with pixel count when higher-quality settings are enabled.

The Medium preset at 4K stands out as an anomaly, as it outperforms the High preset by 20.3 fps. This could be due to specific effects in the High preset that are particularly demanding at 4K, such as advanced lighting or shadow techniques. The data does not provide detailed information about what those effects are, but the measured results clearly indicate that Medium is the better choice at 4K. Overall, the frame rate breakdown shows that the combo can handle 4K at playable frame rates, but the sweet spot is at 1440p with Medium or High settings, where frame rates exceed 149 fps.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 plays a central role in this combo's performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This large memory pool is more than sufficient for Evolve, which is a 2015 title and unlikely to require more than 8 GB of VRAM at any setting. The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and it has 16384 shading units. The high shader count and clock speeds contribute to the GPU's strong performance in both synthetic benchmarks and real-world gaming.

In the 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, the RTX 4090 scores 9223, and in Passmark G3D, it scores 38194. These benchmarks place the GPU in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and Tesla P40, show similar scores, but the RTX 4090's advantage in gaming lies in its driver optimizations and feature set, including DirectX 12 Ultimate support. The GPU's FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS is exceptionally high, allowing it to handle complex rendering tasks at 4K without significant frame rate drops.

The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, where the frame rates are lower than at 1080p. However, the RTX 4090's performance at 4K is still strong, with the Low preset achieving 139.5 fps. The GPU's VRAM capacity is not a bottleneck in Evolve, as the game's requirements are modest. The 21 Gbps effective memory speed and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensure that data transfer is not a constraint. The GPU's role is to render frames efficiently, and the data shows that it does so effectively at all resolutions, with the caveat that the CPU may hold it back at 1080p where frame rates exceed 300 fps.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Evolve?

A: The highest average FPS is 319.9, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

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

A: The combo ranks 46th out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the top 3%.

Q: What is the best setting preset at 4K according to the measured data?

A: The Medium preset at 4K delivers 109.3 fps, which is higher than the High preset's 89 fps, making it the recommended choice.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU become the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, as the Low preset reaches 319.9 fps, which places heavy demands on the processor's single-thread performance.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: The Low preset at 1440p achieves 249.4 fps, while the Ultra preset achieves 104.4 fps, a difference of 145 fps.

Q: What are the core specifications of the CPU in this combo?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz.