Evolve

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-14400F compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-14400F posts an average benchmark score of 32,279, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U, scores 32,233, a negligible 0.1% difference, while the Intel Core i9-11900 trails by 0.2% with a score of 32,226. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS is slightly ahead at 32,354, a 0.2% margin, and the Intel Core i7-12800H scores 32,121, which is 0.5% behind.

Q: Where does the AMD Radeon RX 9060 stand relative to other GPUs in the database?

A: The RX 9060 achieves an average benchmark score of 16,014, placing it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16,129, a 0.7% advantage for NVIDIA. The AMD Radeon R9 370X and RX 7700 are both about 1% behind, with scores of 15,862 and 15,852 respectively, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 2.1% at 15,679.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in Evolve among all tested combinations?

A: The pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1,664th out of 2,872 tested combos for this game. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the overall distribution, indicating that while the hardware is competent, there are many more powerful setups in the database.

Q: What are the core and thread counts of the i5-14400F, and what is its boost clock?

A: The i5-14400F features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. It also has a 20 MB shared L3 cache and a 65 W TDP, positioning it as a mainstream desktop processor.

Q: What is the memory configuration of the RX 9060, and how much VRAM does it have?

A: The RX 9060 is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2250 MHz, which is 18 Gbps effective, and the GPU's boost clock reaches 2990 MHz.

Q: How does the GPU's pixel and texture throughput compare to its overall performance percentile?

A: The RX 9060 delivers a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s, with an FP32 throughput of 21.43 TFLOPS. Despite these figures, its 59th percentile ranking suggests that while raw throughput is respectable, other factors such as driver optimization or memory bandwidth may limit its standing in certain workloads.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, fabricated on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It houses 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 149.2M per mm². The GPU's memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This VRAM allocation is sufficient for Evolve's textures and geometry at the tested settings, though the 128-bit bus width means that memory bandwidth is a potential constraint at higher resolutions where data throughput demands increase.

The clock behavior of the RX 9060 is notable: the base clock is 1700 MHz, the game clock is 2400 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2990 MHz. This wide range indicates that the GPU can dynamically scale its frequency based on thermal headroom and workload intensity. In Evolve, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU's clock scaling is effective at lower settings, where the framerate jumps dramatically, but at Ultra settings, the GPU appears to hit a performance ceiling. The 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs provide the computational foundation, while the 28 RT cores support ray tracing features, although Evolve's era suggests that rasterization performance is the primary driver.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 16,014, with a 59th percentile ranking, indicates that it sits in the mid-tier of the database. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16,129, a 0.7% difference, meaning the RX 9060 is statistically on par with that card. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,322 and the Geekbench OpenCL score of 88,183 further characterize its compute capabilities. In Evolve, the GPU's role is pivotal: at 1080p, the framerates are high enough to suggest that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with the average FPS dropping to 28.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Evolve reveals a clear trend as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 176 FPS, which drops to 118 FPS at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and further to 67 FPS at 4K (a 62% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern suggests that at lower resolutions, the performance is likely limited by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls and manage game logic, given that the i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads are sufficient for high framerates but not unlimited.

At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 137 FPS at 1080p to 92 FPS at 1440p and 52 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33%, and from 1440p to 4K is 43%, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as pixel count increases. The 4K Medium result includes a min FPS of 44 and max of 60, showing a 16 FPS variance, which points to scene-dependent spikes in rendering load.

The High settings row shows 107 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33%, while from 1440p to 4K is 43%, mirroring the Medium scaling. At Ultra settings, the results are 74 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 28 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 32%, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 44%. This consistency across settings suggests that the resolution scaling is primarily driven by the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth, which are fixed at 191.4 GPixel/s and 288.0 GB/s respectively.

The key observation is that at 4K, even Low settings only yield 67 FPS, which is below the 72 FPS achieved at 1440p High. This indicates that the pixel throughput of the RX 9060 is insufficient for 4K gaming at high framerates, despite its 2990 MHz boost clock. The 128-bit memory bus is a likely contributor to this limitation, as the bandwidth becomes a bottleneck when the GPU must access textures and framebuffers at 4K resolution. Conversely, at 1080p, the GPU has ample headroom, allowing the CPU's performance to shine, as evidenced by the 176 FPS Low result.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination delivers its highest performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is 176, which is the maximum recorded for this combo. Medium settings produce 137 FPS with a min of 116 and a max of 157, showing a 41 FPS range that suggests some scenes are more demanding than others. High settings yield 107 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 74 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 58% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the graphical presets have a significant impact on the GPU workload.

At 2560x1440, the framerates scale down proportionally. Low settings achieve 118 FPS, which is 67% of the 1080p result. Medium settings average 92 FPS with a min of 78 and max of 105, a 27 FPS range that is narrower than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is more consistently loaded. High settings produce 72 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 50 FPS. The Ultra result at 1440p is 68% of the 1080p Ultra figure, which is a smaller relative drop than the Low settings comparison, indicating that the GPU's resource limits are approached at higher presets.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal for smooth gameplay. Low settings yield 67 FPS, which is playable but not high-refresh-rate territory. Medium settings average 52 FPS with a min of 44 and max of 60, showing a 16 FPS variance that could be noticeable in fast-paced action. High settings drop to 41 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 28 FPS, which is below the threshold for consistent 30 FPS gameplay. The 4K results demonstrate that this combo is not suited for Ultra settings at this resolution, as the 28 FPS average would likely result in stutter during intense firefights.

The data shows that the Medium preset at 1080p, with an average of 137 FPS and a min of 116, provides the most consistent high-framerate experience without dipping below 100 FPS. At 1440p, the Low preset at 118 FPS is the only option that exceeds 100 FPS, while Medium at 92 FPS is still smooth. At 4K, only the Low preset at 67 FPS approaches playability, with Medium at 52 FPS being borderline.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1,664th out of 2,872 tested combinations in Evolve. This places it in the 42nd percentile of all combos (calculated as 1 - 1664/2872), meaning that 58% of tested systems perform better. This is a mid-to-lower-tier ranking, which aligns with the GPU's 59th percentile standing and the CPU's 83rd percentile, suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing.

The rank indicates that while the CPU is a strong performer, the GPU holds the combo back in Evolve's demanding scenes. The i5-14400F's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U, would likely produce similar results when paired with the same GPU, given their 0.1% performance difference. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, is 0.7% faster on average, which could translate to a few extra FPS in Evolve, potentially pushing the combo up a few ranks.

The 1,664th rank out of 2,872 means that there are 1,208 combos that perform worse, which is a substantial number. This suggests that the RX 9060, despite its mid-tier GPU ranking, is still capable of delivering playable framerates in Evolve at lower settings. However, the combo's position in the lower half of the distribution indicates that users seeking high-fidelity 4K gaming would need to consider more powerful GPUs, while those targeting 1080p competitive play might find this setup adequate.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for a balance of visual quality and performance are the Medium preset at 1920x1080. This configuration yields an average of 137 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS, ensuring that the framerate stays well above the 60 FPS threshold even in demanding scenes. The 116 FPS minimum is particularly important for maintaining smoothness during fast-paced combat, where frame drops can be disorienting.

For users with 1440p monitors, the Low preset at 118 FPS is the only option that consistently exceeds 100 FPS. The Medium preset at 92 FPS is still very playable, and its minimum of 78 FPS ensures that there are no severe dips. The High preset at 72 FPS is acceptable for casual play, but the Ultra preset at 50 FPS may feel sluggish during intense moments.

At 4K resolution, the recommendations are more constrained. The Low preset at 67 FPS is the only one that provides a smooth experience, though it sacrifices visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 52 FPS is borderline, with a minimum of 44 FPS that may cause noticeable stutter. The High and Ultra presets at 41 FPS and 28 FPS respectively are not recommended for serious gameplay, as they fall below the 60 FPS target and, in the Ultra case, below 30 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset at 1080p, as it offers a 137 FPS average with a 116 FPS minimum, providing a comfortable margin over typical display refresh rates. For those prioritizing visual quality over framerate, the High preset at 1080p (107 FPS) is a viable alternative, but the Ultra preset's 74 FPS average may not justify the visual upgrade in Evolve, given the game's age and the GPU's performance characteristics.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 20 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark results are strong: it scores 21,645 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3,055 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 11,268 and a Passmark multithread score of 25,470. Its 83rd percentile ranking puts it well above average, indicating that it is not a bottleneck in most gaming scenarios.

In Evolve, the CPU's role is to manage game logic, physics, and draw calls. The 10 cores and 16 threads provide ample parallelism for modern game engines, and the 4.70 GHz boost clock ensures snappy single-threaded performance. At 1080p, the measured FPS at Low settings (176 FPS) suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU with enough frames to reach high refresh rates, as the GPU is not heavily taxed at that resolution. However, the fact that the FPS drops to 74 at Ultra settings at 1080p indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor even at lower resolutions when graphical settings are maxed out.

The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is noteworthy. It is statistically tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (0.1% faster) and the Intel Core i9-11900 (0.2% faster), while slightly behind the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (0.2% slower). This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, the i5-14400F will perform nearly identically to these alternatives. The Passmark single-thread score of 3,701 and the Geekbench single-core score of 2,058 further confirm that this CPU has strong per-core performance, which is crucial for games that rely on a few heavily loaded threads.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a flexible choice, though the memory bandwidth is not explicitly listed. In Evolve, the CPU's 20 MB L3 cache helps with data locality, reducing the frequency of memory accesses. The 16 threads allow the CPU to handle background tasks while gaming, which can improve frame time consistency. Overall, the data indicates that the i5-14400F is more than capable of driving the RX 9060 in Evolve, and the performance limitations observed at higher resolutions and settings are attributable to the GPU rather than the CPU.