Evolve

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti delivers a playable but aging 1080p experience in Evolve, with performance collapsing at higher resolutions due to the GPU's Pascal-era architecture. This combination ranks 1026th out of 1695 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. The data indicates a system where the modern 14-core CPU is held back significantly by a seven-year-old graphics card, resulting in frame rates that range from excellent at low settings to borderline unplayable at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1026 out of 1695 tested configurations places it in the 60th percentile of all pairings, meaning roughly 60% of tested systems perform better in Evolve. This ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's limitations rather than CPU potential. The GTX 1080 Ti itself holds a 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19402. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780, which scores 19405 (a 0% delta), and the AMD Radeon Pro 560X at 19426 (a -0.1% delta). These near-identical scores suggest the GTX 1080 Ti is performing at the expected level for its class, but that class is no longer competitive for modern gaming workloads.

The CPU side tells a different story. The i5-14600KF ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49367. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600K at 49166 (0.4% higher), the AMD EPYC 4345P at 49595 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X at 49062 (0.6% higher). This places the CPU in elite company, far ahead of the GPU's standing. The massive gap between CPU and GPU percentiles (93 vs. 61) confirms that the graphics card is the primary bottleneck in this pairing, dragging the overall combo rank down despite the processor's capabilities.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Evolve at 1080p smoothly?

A: Yes, at 1080p with Low settings the system achieves 181.3 FPS average, and at High settings it still manages 108.4 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 74.4 FPS, which remains playable but shows the GPU's strain.

Q: How does the i5-14600KF compare to its closest CPU rival?

A: The i5-14600KF scores 49367 on average benchmarks, which is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K's 49166 score, and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X's 49062 score.

Q: Is the GTX 1080 Ti competitive with other GPUs in this database?

A: Its average benchmark score of 19402 is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780's 19405 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro 560X's 19426 (-0.1% delta), indicating it performs at parity with those older cards.

Q: What resolution is best for this combination?

A: The data shows 1080p is the sweet spot, with all settings achieving at least 74.4 FPS. At 1440p, performance drops to 52.6 FPS at Ultra, and at 4K, it falls to 30.8 FPS at Ultra, making higher resolutions impractical.

Q: How much does the GPU bottleneck the CPU in this game?

A: The CPU ranks in the 93rd percentile while the GPU ranks in the 61st, and the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K (a 74.4 to 30.8 FPS drop at Ultra) shows the GPU limiting performance well before the CPU's potential is reached.

Q: Does this combo support modern graphics APIs?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, though its PassMark DirectX 12 score of 66 suggests limited performance in modern API workloads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support spans both DDR4 and DDR5 in dual-channel mode, and the CPU supports ECC memory, which is unusual for a desktop part.

In Evolve, the CPU's role is largely secondary given the game's age and the GPU's limitations. Benchmark data shows the i5-14600KF achieving a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and a single-core score of 4643, indicating substantial headroom for any CPU-bound scenarios. The PassMark multithread score of 38697 and single-thread score of 4273 reinforce this capability. However, the measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, where CPU load is typically highest relative to GPU, the system only reaches 181.3 FPS. This suggests the GTX 1080 Ti cannot fully utilize the CPU's single-thread performance, which ranks in the 93rd percentile overall.

The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads provide ample parallel processing power for Evolve's AI and physics systems, but the game's 2015 release date means it was designed for far less capable hardware. The i5-14600KF's 24 MB of L3 cache and high boost clock ensure it never becomes the limiting factor in this pairing, as evidenced by the FPS remaining GPU-bound at all tested settings and resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers playable frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 181.3 FPS average, Medium drops to 141.6 FPS, High yields 108.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 74.4 FPS. This represents a performance spread of 106.9 FPS between the lowest and highest quality presets, indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint even at the lowest resolution.

Moving to 1440p, the data shows a significant step-down. Low settings achieve 118.8 FPS, Medium reaches 95.4 FPS, High manages 71.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 52.6 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 66.2 FPS, a narrower range than at 1080p, suggesting that resolution scaling is beginning to dominate the GPU's workload.

At 4K, performance becomes marginal. Low settings still manage 71.5 FPS, but Medium drops to 55.1 FPS, High falls to 40.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 30.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is just 40.7 FPS, showing that the GTX 1080 Ti's 11 GB of GDDR5X memory and 484.4 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for high-quality 4K rendering in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at each setting reveals a consistent pattern of GPU limitation. At Ultra settings, performance falls from 74.4 FPS at 1080p to 52.6 FPS at 1440p (a 29.3% reduction) and further to 30.8 FPS at 4K (a 41.4% reduction from 1440p). Low settings show a similar trend: 181.3 FPS at 1080p, 118.8 FPS at 1440p (34.5% lower), and 71.5 FPS at 4K (39.8% lower).

This scaling behavior indicates that the GTX 1080 Ti's 3584 shading units and 88 ROPs are being overwhelmed as pixel count increases. The GPU's pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s, while impressive for 2017, cannot sustain high frame rates at 4K. The 11 GB VRAM capacity is not the issue; rather, the 484.4 GB/s memory bandwidth and the Pascal architecture's compute capabilities (11.34 TFLOPS FP32) are insufficient for Evolve's rendering demands at higher resolutions.

The data suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo in Evolve, with Ultra settings producing 52.6 FPS which is borderline playable. At 4K, only Low settings (71.5 FPS) remain viable, and even that represents a significant compromise. The CPU's role in resolution scaling is minimal; its high single-core performance (4643 in Cinebench R23) and 24 MB L3 cache ensure it can feed frames quickly, but the GPU cannot translate that capability into higher FPS as resolution increases. This combo is clearly GPU-bound at every resolution above 1080p Low, with the CPU's 93rd percentile ranking being entirely wasted on the GTX 1080 Ti's 61st percentile performance.