Evolve

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 presents a study in bottlenecking when running Evolve. The data shows a classic scenario where the GPU’s limited memory bandwidth and pixel throughput dictate performance, leaving the 10-core, 16-thread processor largely underutilized. This combination ranks 1606th out of 1695 tested configurations in this title, placing it in the bottom percentile of systems.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frames per second (FPS) reveal a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, confirming that the GTX 1650 is the primary limiting factor. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 79.9 FPS. Dropping down to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset yields 52.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 34%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at Low produces just 30.1 FPS, meaning the jump from 1080p to 4K cuts performance by more than 60%.

This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is saturated by pixel count. The GTX 1650’s 128-bit memory bus and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth become a wall at higher resolutions, as the texture and fill-rate demands of Evolve outstrip what the card can deliver. The CPU, by contrast, is unlikely to be the constraint here; its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and Passmark multi-thread score of 25783 indicate substantial headroom for a 2015 FPS title.

The transition from High to Ultra settings at 4K is particularly telling. High averages 17 FPS, while Ultra collapses to 13.1 FPS. Even at 1440p, Ultra only manages 24.4 FPS, which is below playable thresholds. The data suggests that resolution scaling is not linear—the gap between 1080p and 1440p is significant, but the gap between 1440p and 4K is catastrophic, underscoring that the GTX 1650 is a 1080p-class part in this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is built on the Turing architecture with a TU117 chip manufactured on TSMC’s 12 nm process. It features 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, with a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The 4 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the card at the 43rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 8713.

In Evolve, the VRAM capacity and bandwidth are the critical constraints. At 1080p Medium, the combo hits 59 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it falls to 32.1 FPS. This drop indicates that the 4 GB frame buffer is being overwhelmed by higher-resolution textures and effects, forcing the card to swap data more aggressively. The GPU’s pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s are simply insufficient for the game’s dense environments at high quality presets.

The nearest rival to the GTX 1650, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile, scores 8746 in average benchmarks, a delta of -0.4%. This suggests that the GTX 1650 is competitive with that mobile part in raw compute, yet the desktop card’s lack of tensor or RT cores means it relies purely on rasterization. For Evolve, that is enough to handle 1080p Low at nearly 80 FPS, but the card’s 2.984 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is the ceiling for more demanding scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

Based strictly on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual fidelity and playability is found at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, which yields an average of 59 FPS. This preset provides a smooth experience that is only slightly below the 60 FPS target, and it preserves more detail than the Low preset, which hits 79.9 FPS but sacrifices too much visual quality for a title like Evolve.

At 2560x1440, the data indicates that Low is the only viable option, producing 52.4 FPS. Medium at this resolution drops to 42 FPS, which is playable but borders on stutter in fast-paced scenes. High at 1440p manages 31.2 FPS, which is marginal, while Ultra at 24.4 FPS is not recommended for consistent gameplay.

For 3840x2160, the results are largely unusable for competitive play. Low averages 30.1 FPS, which is technically playable but not smooth, while Medium (22.7 FPS), High (17 FPS), and Ultra (13.1 FPS) are all below acceptable thresholds. Users with 4K displays should either lower the resolution or accept severe compromises in framerate, as the GTX 1650 simply lacks the memory bandwidth and ROP throughput for this game at that pixel count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a clear picture of performance across all resolution and setting combinations. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 79.9 FPS on Low, 59 FPS on Medium, 46.5 FPS on High, and 32.1 FPS on Ultra. These figures show a steady decline as settings increase, with the gap between Medium and Ultra being particularly steep—a 27 FPS drop that highlights the GPU’s struggle with the Ultra preset’s added effects.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low produces 52.4 FPS, Medium drops to 42 FPS, High falls to 31.2 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24.4 FPS. The scaling here is more aggressive than at 1080p, with each settings tier costing roughly 10 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is hitting a bandwidth limit that becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the results are stark: Low averages 30.1 FPS, Medium 22.7 FPS, High 17 FPS, and Ultra 13.1 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 17 FPS, but the absolute numbers are all low enough to make gameplay feel sluggish. The data confirms that this combination is a 1080p-oriented solution, with 1440p only feasible at Low settings and 4K reserved for static screenshots or non-demanding scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ranks 1606th out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations. This low ranking is driven almost entirely by the GPU, as the CPU is a modern 10-core part that scores at the 88th percentile among all processors. The i5-14400F’s Passmark single-thread score of 3723 and Geekbench single-core score of 2333 indicate it is well above the requirements for this 2015 FPS.

Comparatively, the CPU’s nearest rivals—such as the Intel Core i7-12800H with an average score of 32513 and a delta of 0%—show that the i5-14400F is on par with recent mobile silicon in general compute. However, the GTX 1650’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 550X, scores 8749 with a delta of -0.4%, meaning the GPU is also near the bottom of the current discrete graphics stack. The combination of a high-end CPU with a low-end GPU creates an imbalance that the benchmark results reflect clearly.

The data shows that this pairing is not optimized for Evolve. The 1606th rank out of 1695 is a clear indicator that users seeking better performance should prioritize a GPU upgrade over a CPU change, as the i5-14400F is unlikely to be the bottleneck in any scenario. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (79.9 FPS) is the only result that approaches a competitive level, and even that falls short of high-refresh-rate expectations. For a game like Evolve, this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming at Medium or Low settings, with the understanding that higher resolutions will require significant compromises.