Evolve

The data for Evolve with the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 shows a system with overwhelming performance, capable of delivering exceptionally high frame rates at every resolution tested. The pairing of this CPU and GPU produces a benchmark profile where the GPU is clearly the dominant factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU's strong single-thread performance ensures high minimums at 1080p. The measured results show a clear hierarchy of performance scaling, leading to specific recommendations for the best visual experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset to use for this combo?

A: At 1080p and 1440p, the High preset provides the best balance, delivering 225.2 FPS and 149.7 FPS respectively, which are high enough for smooth gameplay while offering better visual quality than Medium. At 4K, Medium (110 FPS) is the optimal choice, as it provides a significant performance jump over High (86.5 FPS) while maintaining a smoother experience than Ultra (61.7 FPS).

Q: How does the RTX 4090's VRAM capacity relate to Evolve's performance?

A: The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. While Evolve is not a VRAM-heavy title, this massive allocation ensures that memory capacity is never a limiting factor at any resolution or settings preset tested, allowing the GPU's compute power to be the sole determinant of frame rate.

Q: Is the Core i5-14400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data indicates the CPU is not a significant bottleneck. The i5-14400F has a boost clock of 4.70 GHz and scores 3093 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which is critical for game logic. At 1080p, the system reaches 321.9 FPS on Low settings, showing the CPU can feed the GPU effectively even at very high frame rates.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset compare to 1440p Ultra in terms of frame rate?

A: The 4K Ultra preset delivers 61.7 FPS, while 1440p Ultra delivers 106.5 FPS. This represents a significant drop of 44.8 FPS, or about 42%, when moving from 1440p to 4K at the same settings, showing the extreme load increase on the GPU at 4K.

Q: What does the combo's ranking of 47 out of 1695 tested combos indicate?

A: This ranking places the combo in the top 2.8% of all tested hardware combinations for Evolve. This indicates that the i5-14400F and RTX 4090 pairing is an exceptionally high-performing configuration, offering near-top-tier results in this game.

Q: Does the CPU's multi-core performance matter for this game?

A: While single-core performance is often more critical for FPS games, the i5-14400F's multi-core strength is still relevant. With a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and 10 cores and 16 threads, the CPU can handle background tasks and any game engine threading without contention, ensuring consistent frame times.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the High preset is the recommended starting point at 1080p and 1440p. At 1080p, High provides 225.2 FPS, which is 63.1 FPS faster than Ultra (153.7 FPS) and only 33 FPS slower than Low (321.9 FPS). The visual improvement from Low to High is substantial, while the frame rate remains well above the refresh rate of even the fastest gaming monitors. At 1440p, High delivers 149.7 FPS, which is a 43.2 FPS improvement over Ultra (106.5 FPS) and maintains a fluid experience on high-refresh-rate 1440p panels.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts to Medium. The Medium preset achieves 110 FPS, which is 23.5 FPS higher than High (86.5 FPS) and 48.3 FPS higher than Ultra (61.7 FPS). While High at 4K is playable, the Medium preset offers a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring smoother motion and a more consistent experience. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 61.7 FPS, is best reserved for scenarios where visual fidelity is prioritized over frame rate smoothness, but the data suggests Medium is the sweet spot.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component at higher resolutions. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 225.2 FPS at 1080p to 149.7 FPS at 1440p, a 33.5% decrease, and then to 86.5 FPS at 4K, a further 42.2% decrease from 1440p. This steep decline with increasing pixel count is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario.

The scaling at Low settings is even more revealing. The system produces 321.9 FPS at 1080p, 251.6 FPS at 1440p, and 142.7 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 21.8%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 43.3%. This disproportionate drop at 4K confirms that the RTX 4090's rendering pipeline is being saturated by the 4K pixel workload. The CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where the 321.9 FPS result shows the i5-14400F can push frames high enough to keep the GPU well-fed, but the GPU's limits are still the primary constraint on performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its peak performance ceiling. The Low preset produces an average of 321.9 FPS, which is the highest result recorded for this combo. The Medium preset achieves 288.3 FPS, while the High preset yields 225.2 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 153.7 FPS, showing that even at 1080p, the Ultra settings impose a heavy load on the GPU. The difference between Low and Ultra is 168.2 FPS, highlighting the massive performance cost of maxing out graphical features.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. The Low preset still delivers a very high 251.6 FPS. Medium follows at 194 FPS, and High at 149.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces 106.5 FPS, which is the first instance where the frame rate dips below the 120 FPS mark for a high-refresh-rate experience. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 145.1 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. The Low preset is the only one to exceed 100 FPS, hitting 142.7 FPS. The Medium preset achieves 110 FPS, while High drops to 86.5 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, resulting in an average of 61.7 FPS. This resolution shows the most significant performance differences between presets, with a spread of 81 FPS between Low and Ultra.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the definitive performance driver in this configuration. Its specifications, including 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, provide immense raw compute power. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance explain why it can sustain such high frame rates. The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory bandwidth are never bottlenecks, even at 4K Ultra.

The benchmark data shows the GPU's performance is directly tied to the settings preset. The Passmark G3D score of 38194 places it in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, indicating its top-tier status. In Evolve, the RTX 4090's strengths are clear: it delivers playable frame rates at all tested settings, but the data shows a significant performance cliff at 4K Ultra (61.7 FPS) compared to 4K Medium (110 FPS). This demonstrates that while the GPU is powerful, the Ultra preset includes effects that are particularly taxing on the Ada Lovelace architecture's rendering pipeline.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F plays a supporting but crucial role in this combo. Its 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, provide the necessary processing power to keep up with the RTX 4090. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3093 and multi-core score of 21914 indicate strong performance in both lightly-threaded and multi-threaded scenarios. The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for game logic and physics calculations.

The data shows the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 321.9 FPS. This high frame rate is only possible if the CPU can issue draw calls and update game state quickly enough. The i5-14400F's 4.70 GHz boost clock and strong single-core performance are what enable this. However, as the resolution increases, the CPU's role diminishes, and the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The CPU does not bottleneck the system in this game, as evidenced by the consistent scaling of FPS with resolution, which would be irregular if the CPU were holding the GPU back.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 47th out of 1695 tested combinations for Evolve. This places it in the top 2.8% of all systems benchmarked in the database. This high ranking is a reflection of the RTX 4090's dominance in the GPU benchmark hierarchy, where it holds a percentile rank of 91, and the i5-14400F's solid position in the CPU rankings, with a percentile of 88.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 32508 places it in close competition with its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-12800H and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645, with a delta of less than 1% in all cases. This indicates the CPU is not a differentiating factor in the ranking. The GPU, however, with an average score of 66473, is a top-tier performer. The ranking of 47 suggests that there are only a few more powerful CPU/GPU combinations, likely those pairing the RTX 4090 with higher-core-count CPUs like the Core i9 or Ryzen 9 series. For this game, the data shows that the combination provides an exceptional experience, with the GPU's raw power being the primary reason for its high placement.