Evolve

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Evolve shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop reveals where the bottleneck sits. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 320.3 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low drops that to 235.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 26%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at Low yields 138.5 FPS, which is 57% below the 1080p result. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, yet the FPS does not quarter — it holds up better than raw pixel scaling would suggest, indicating that the RTX 5080 has enough headroom to absorb the increased load without collapsing.

The pattern repeats across all four settings presets. At High settings, the 1080p result is 213.8 FPS, dropping to 144.1 FPS at 1440p and 81.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure is 62% lower than 1080p. At Medium, the numbers go from 274.6 FPS at 1080p to 184.1 FPS at 1440p and 107.8 FPS at 4K — a 61% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra, the spread is 148.6 FPS at 1080p, 98.6 FPS at 1440p, and 60.2 FPS at 4K, a 59% reduction. The consistency of this ~60% drop across settings suggests the GPU is the primary scaling driver, not the CPU.

That said, the CPU does show its influence at the lowest resolutions. The 1080p Low result of 320.3 FPS versus the 1440p Low result of 235.4 FPS indicates a 36% drop, while the step from 1440p to 4K Low is another 41% reduction. The fact that 1080p Low does not exceed 320 FPS — despite the RTX 5080's raw capabilities — points to a CPU ceiling around that range. The Intel Core i5-13400F, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, boosts to 4.60 GHz, but it cannot push frame rates past the low-300s in this title. The data shows diminishing returns: the gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low (84.9 FPS) is larger than the gap between 1440p and 4K at Low (96.9 FPS), which is counterintuitive unless the CPU is capping the 1080p result.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 13th-generation Raptor Lake-S part with 10 physical cores and 16 threads. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz, and it boosts to 4.60 GHz. This configuration sits at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 25236. The nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the Intel Core i7-13620H scores 25201 (0.1% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D scores 25365 (0.5% behind this chip), and the AMD EPYC 9474F scores 25103 (0.5% ahead of the 13400F). The AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 is essentially tied at 25099, just 0.5% behind.

For Evolve, the CPU's single-thread performance matters more than raw multi-thread throughput. The 3DMark single-thread score is 960, and the 2-thread score is 1880. The 4-thread score jumps to 3459, while the 8-thread score reaches 5591. The max-thread score is 7307, nearly identical to the 16-thread score of 7314. This suggests the chip scales well up to 8 threads but gains almost nothing beyond that — a pattern typical for games that rely on a handful of heavily utilized threads. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21279 and single-core score of 3004 reinforce this: the single-core result is strong enough to drive high frame rates, but the multi-core ceiling is not the limiting factor in Evolve.

The measured FPS data aligns with this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the 320.3 FPS ceiling is likely imposed by the CPU's single-thread performance rather than the GPU. The GPU's own benchmarks show it is far from a bottleneck at that resolution: the RTX 5080 scores 36565 in PassMark G3D and 8637 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it at the 89th percentile among all GPUs. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3634, however, indicates a processing ceiling that becomes relevant only at very high frame rates. Once resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over as the limiting component, and the CPU's role diminishes.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Evolve?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at High delivers 144.1 FPS, which is above the 144 Hz refresh threshold common in gaming monitors. At 4K High, the average drops to 81.6 FPS, which is playable but not high-refresh territory. For competitive play, 1080p Low at 320.3 FPS offers the highest headroom.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its nearest rivals in raw GPU performance?

A: The RTX 5080 has an average benchmark score of 59188, placing it at the 89th percentile. It is 1.6% ahead of the Intel Arc A570M (58239), 2.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A580 (57756), and 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X (57661). The Intel Arc Pro A60 scores slightly higher at 60326, putting the RTX 5080 1.9% behind that part.

Q: Is the CPU holding back the GPU at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the 320.3 FPS result suggests a CPU ceiling, since the GPU should be capable of higher frame rates given its performance percentile. At 1440p and above, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, as shown by the consistent ~60% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across settings.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Low yields 320.3 FPS versus Ultra's 148.6 FPS, a 171.7 FPS difference. At 1440p, the gap is 136.8 FPS (235.4 vs 98.6). At 4K, the gap narrows to 78.3 FPS (138.5 vs 60.2). The absolute difference shrinks as resolution rises because the GPU load increases.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-thread performance compare to its single-thread performance?

A: The 3DMark 2-thread score is 1880, while the max-thread score is 7307 — a 3.9x improvement. The 8-thread score of 5591 is 3.0x the 2-thread score. This scaling indicates that Evolve does not benefit substantially beyond 8 threads, as the 16-thread score (7314) is virtually identical to the max-thread score.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 60.2 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is exactly at the 60 FPS standard for console-like smoothness, but it leaves no headroom for dips. Dropping to High raises the average to 81.6 FPS, a 35% improvement.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest frame rates. Low settings deliver 320.3 FPS average. Medium yields 274.6 FPS, which is 14% lower than Low. High drops further to 213.8 FPS, a 33% reduction from Low. Ultra is the most demanding preset at 148.6 FPS, 54% below Low. The step from Medium to High (60.8 FPS) is larger than the step from High to Ultra (65.2 FPS), showing that the Ultra preset carries a significant additional load.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Low settings produce 235.4 FPS, Medium 184.1 FPS, High 144.1 FPS, and Ultra 98.6 FPS. The percentage drops from Low are: Medium -22%, High -39%, Ultra -58%. The absolute gaps between consecutive presets are 51.3 FPS (Low to Medium), 40.0 FPS (Medium to High), and 45.5 FPS (High to Ultra). This suggests the Ultra preset is disproportionately expensive relative to High at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates compress downward. Low delivers 138.5 FPS, Medium 107.8 FPS, High 81.6 FPS, and Ultra 60.2 FPS. The drops from Low are: Medium -22%, High -41%, Ultra -57%. The absolute gaps are 30.7 FPS (Low to Medium), 26.2 FPS (Medium to High), and 21.4 FPS (High to Ultra). The narrowing gaps at 4K indicate the GPU is saturated; each setting increment costs less in absolute FPS because the baseline is already lower.

The overall combo rank in Evolve is 79 out of 1695 tested combos, placing it in the top 5% of configurations. Across all resolutions, the data shows that High settings provide the most balanced experience, while Ultra offers diminishing returns relative to the FPS cost.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. It packs 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, with a transistor density of 120.6M per mm². The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 2295 MHz, boosting to 2617 MHz. The memory clock runs at 1875 MHz, with 30 Gbps effective speed. The shader count is 10752, with 336 TMUs and 112 ROPs. Ray tracing cores number 84, and tensor cores total 336. The pixel rate is 293.1 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 879.3 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 56.28 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 56.28 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio).

In Evolve, the GPU's role becomes dominant at 1440p and 4K. The measured data shows that at 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is 78.3 FPS (138.5 minus 60.2), which is a 2.3x range. This wide spread indicates that the GPU's fill rate and shading power are the primary constraints at this resolution. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Evolve, which released in 2015 and has modest texture requirements; the memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s ensures no bandwidth bottleneck at any settings.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its high-end positioning. It scores 264461 in Geekbench OpenCL and 257942 in Geekbench Vulkan. PassMark results show 36565 in G3D and 21789 in compute. The DirectX 12 score of 151 and DirectX 11 score of 324 are lower than the DirectX 9 score of 389, which is typical for newer architectures that prioritize modern APIs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8637 places it in the top tier. The GPU's 89th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 59188, confirms that it is a high-end part capable of driving Evolve at high frame rates across all resolutions.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For 1080p users, the data recommends High settings as the sweet spot. At 213.8 FPS, it provides a smooth experience for any refresh rate up to 240 Hz, while Ultra at 148.6 FPS still exceeds 144 Hz but costs 30% of the Low-setting headroom. Low at 320.3 FPS is unnecessary for most displays and sacrifices visual quality for frame rates that exceed any typical monitor's capability.

At 1440p, High settings at 144.1 FPS is the optimal choice for 144 Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 184.1 FPS offers more headroom but fewer visual effects, while Ultra at 98.6 FPS is still above 90 FPS but does not reach 144 Hz. Low at 235.4 FPS is overkill for visual fidelity and only benefits esports-style play where every frame counts.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts to Medium settings. The Medium preset delivers 107.8 FPS, which is above 100 FPS and provides a smooth experience on 120 Hz displays. High at 81.6 FPS is acceptable for 60 Hz screens but leaves no margin for demanding scenes. Ultra at 60.2 FPS exactly hits the 60 FPS standard but offers zero headroom. Low at 138.5 FPS is playable but sacrifices too much visual quality at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the data shows that the gap between High and Ultra is consistently large — 65.2 FPS at 1080p, 45.5 FPS at 1440p, and 21.4 FPS at 4K. This indicates the Ultra preset includes effects that are disproportionately expensive in Evolve. For the best balance of visual quality and performance, High settings are recommended for 1080p and 1440p, with Medium as the fallback for 4K if higher frame rates are desired. The combo's 79th rank out of 1695 configurations confirms that this pairing is well-suited to Evolve across all tested settings.