Evolve

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across the three resolutions reveal a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern, with the most dramatic shifts occurring between 1440p and 4K. At 1080p High settings, the combo delivers 149 FPS, which drops to 100.8 FPS at 1440p High (a 32.4% reduction), and then falls further to 56.5 FPS at 4K High (a 44% reduction from 1440p). This steep decline as pixel count rises indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, with the Intel Core i5-14400F providing ample headroom to feed the GPU.

The scaling behavior across all settings presets tells a consistent story. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 243.4 FPS at 1080p to 162.4 FPS at 1440p (a 33.3% reduction) and then to 93.9 FPS at 4K (a 42.2% reduction from 1440p). The proportional decreases remain remarkably stable regardless of quality preset, which is a hallmark of GPU-limited performance; if the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the 1080p-to-1440p gap to be much smaller than the 1440p-to-4K gap, since lower resolutions put less stress on the graphics card.

At Ultra settings, the pattern intensifies. The 1080p Ultra result of 100.3 FPS falls to 67.3 FPS at 1440p Ultra (a 32.9% reduction), then to 39.2 FPS at 4K Ultra (a 41.8% reduction from 1440p). The 4K Ultra figure of 39.2 FPS is notably below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this combo cannot sustain smooth 4K gameplay at maximum quality. The 4K Medium result of 73.9 FPS is more playable, while 4K Low at 93.9 FPS approaches the 100 FPS mark.

The data shows that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across all settings, with reductions between 32-33%. The transition from 1440p to 4K consistently produces a 41-44% drop, which is slightly steeper and reinforces that the GPU's rendering throughput, rather than any CPU limitation, dictates performance at these resolutions. This is precisely what one would expect from a 16 GB GDDR6 memory buffer with 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth — the memory subsystem is well-equipped to handle 4K textures, but the raw shader throughput becomes the binding constraint.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant performance driver in this pairing, and its specifications explain the observed behavior across resolutions and settings. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1825 MHz and a boost clock of 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz. These clock speeds, combined with 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, yield a pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput of 20.74 TFLOPS provides the computational foundation for the measured frame rates.

The 16 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration proves crucial in Evolve, where the game's asset streaming and texture demands scale significantly with quality preset. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 39.2 FPS — the lowest measured value — which suggests that both the memory bandwidth and the shader compute are being heavily taxed. Moving from 4K Ultra to 4K High improves performance by 44.1% (from 39.2 to 56.5 FPS), while stepping down to 4K Medium yields 73.9 FPS and 4K Low reaches 93.9 FPS. These jumps are substantial, indicating that each preset tier meaningfully reduces the rendering workload.

The GPU's benchmark profile corroborates its strong standing. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3689 and a Passmark G3D score of 24980 place it in the 87th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A550M, scores 49737 in the aggregate benchmark with a 0.5% delta, while the NVIDIA RTX A1000 is 1.7% ahead and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 2.6% behind. This suggests the RX 6800 XT sits in a competitive mid-to-high tier, which aligns with the measured performance in Evolve where it delivers between 39.2 and 243.4 FPS depending on resolution and settings.

The clock behavior is particularly relevant at 1080p, where the CPU can easily feed the GPU. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 243.4 FPS, which is near the practical ceiling for many displays and indicates the GPU is not being held back by the processor. The fact that 1080p Ultra (100.3 FPS) is still well above 60 FPS shows that the GPU's 16 GB frame buffer and 512.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for high-quality 1080p rendering without memory-related stutters.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance on the optimal quality preset for each resolution, balancing visual fidelity against frame rate targets. At 1080p, all four presets deliver playable performance, but the High preset at 149 FPS offers the best combination of smoothness and visual quality. The Medium preset at 189.7 FPS is also excellent for competitive play, while Ultra at 100.3 FPS remains well above the 60 FPS baseline. The Low preset at 243.4 FPS is unnecessary for most users, but it demonstrates the GPU's headroom at this resolution.

At 1440p, the High preset at 100.8 FPS is the recommended choice for most players, as it comfortably exceeds 60 FPS while providing substantial visual improvements over Medium (127.5 FPS) and Low (162.4 FPS). The Ultra preset at 67.3 FPS is playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes; benchmark results show it can dip toward the 60 FPS threshold. For users with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, the Medium preset at 127.5 FPS offers a better trade-off between frame rate and visual quality.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Ultra preset at 39.2 FPS is not recommended for smooth gameplay, as it falls well below the 60 FPS target. The High preset at 56.5 FPS is marginal — it is close to 60 FPS but may experience noticeable drops in intensive moments. The Medium preset at 73.9 FPS provides the best playable experience at 4K, offering a solid frame rate while retaining moderate visual quality. The Low preset at 93.9 FPS is an option for users prioritizing frame rate above all else, but the visual trade-offs are significant.

Across all resolutions, the scaling from Medium to High is less punishing than from High to Ultra. At 4K, Medium to High costs 17.4 FPS (from 73.9 to 56.5), while High to Ultra costs 17.3 FPS (from 56.5 to 39.2). The Ultra preset consistently delivers the largest proportional performance penalty, making it the least efficient choice. For the best experience per the measured data, the High preset at 1080p and 1440p, and the Medium preset at 4K, represent the sweet spots.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT achieves a combo rank of 586 out of 1695 tested combinations in Evolve. This places the pairing in the 65.4th percentile of all combos — solidly above the median, though not among the top tier. Given that the GPU sits in the 87th percentile among all GPUs and the CPU in the 88th percentile among all CPUs, the combo rank is slightly lower than either component's individual percentile would suggest.

This discrepancy is likely due to Evolve's specific optimization characteristics. The game, released in 2015, may not fully utilize the modern architecture of the RX 6800 XT or the 10-core, 16-thread configuration of the i5-14400F. The CPU's Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz, provides strong single-threaded performance — evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093 — but the game's engine may not scale perfectly with the available threads.

Relative to other combos, the 586th rank out of 1695 means the pairing outperforms roughly two-thirds of tested configurations. This is a respectable result, especially considering that the GPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Arc A550M, NVIDIA RTX A1000, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER — all have aggregate benchmark scores within 2.6% of the RX 6800 XT. The combo's rank suggests that Evolve does not particularly favor one vendor over another, and the performance is broadly representative of what this CPU-GPU pairing can achieve.

The CPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-12800H, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645, AMD Ryzen 7 250, and Intel Core i7-13705H — all have aggregate benchmark scores within 0.2% of the i5-14400F. This cluster of similar-performing CPUs indicates that the processor is not the differentiating factor in this combo's ranking; rather, the GPU and the game's rendering demands determine where it lands in the overall distribution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F plays a supporting role in Evolve, as evidenced by the resolution scaling analysis. With 10 cores and 16 threads, the CPU provides substantial multi-threaded capability — a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 11209 — but the game does not appear to be CPU-bound at any tested resolution. The consistent frame-rate drops from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, across all settings, indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor throughout.

The CPU's clock behavior is noteworthy: a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The 4.70 GHz boost clock delivers strong single-threaded performance, as reflected in the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093 and the Passmark single-thread score of 3723. This single-threaded strength is essential for Evolve's game logic and physics, which typically rely on a few heavily loaded threads. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache also helps reduce memory latency for frequently accessed game data.

At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 243.4 FPS, which is well above what most displays can show. This high frame rate suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with draw calls and game state updates at a rapid pace. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect the 1080p results to plateau at a lower frame rate regardless of GPU load. Instead, the data shows that lowering the resolution from 1440p to 1080p at Low settings increases frame rate by 49.9% (from 162.4 to 243.4 FPS), which is consistent with a GPU-limited scenario.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and Raptor Lake architecture are well-suited for gaming workloads, providing a balance of high single-thread performance and ample multi-threading for background tasks. The Passmark physics score of 1594 indicates competent game physics processing, while the data compression score of 317725 and encryption score of 17052 show strong general-purpose compute. However, the benchmark data suggests that in Evolve, the CPU's role is to stay out of the way and let the RX 6800 XT do the heavy lifting — which it does effectively, as the GPU delivers playable frame rates at 1440p High and even 4K Medium.

The fact that the combo ranks 586th out of 1695, despite both components having high individual percentiles, may reflect that Evolve's engine is less dependent on CPU performance than newer titles. The i5-14400F's 10-core, 16-thread configuration is more than sufficient for this 2015 release, and the data confirms that any performance limitations at 4K Ultra are attributable to the GPU's rendering capabilities rather than CPU throughput.