Evolve

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a playable but strictly entry-level experience in Evolve, with performance that scales predictably from a smooth 1080p experience to a slideshow at 4K Ultra. The data indicates this combo ranks in the bottom 15% of tested configurations, positioning it as a legacy 1080p performer that struggles under maximum load and high resolutions. The sweet spot is clearly 1080p Medium, where the system maintains an average of 96 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS, offering the best balance of visual fidelity and frame pacing for this aging FPS title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows reveal a clear hierarchy of playability, with 1080p Medium standing out as the optimal preset for this hardware combination. At this setting, the combo achieves an average of 96 FPS with a recorded minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 110 FPS, providing consistent frame times that suit the fast-paced nature of Evolve. Dropping to Low at 1080p yields 123 FPS average, but the visual degradation is substantial for only a 27 FPS gain, making Medium the superior trade-off for most users. High at 1080p drops to 75 FPS average, which remains playable but introduces more variance and reduces the headroom for intense combat scenarios.

At 1440p, the picture changes dramatically. Medium delivers 64 FPS average with a minimum of 55 FPS, which is technically playable but sits close to the threshold where input latency becomes noticeable in a shooter. Low at 1440p offers 83 FPS average and is the only 1440p preset that feels consistently responsive. High and Ultra at 1440p fall to 50 FPS and 35 FPS respectively, with the latter clearly unplayable for competitive play. For 4K, no preset achieves a reliable 60 FPS; Medium manages 37 FPS average with a minimum of 31 FPS, while Low reaches 47 FPS but still falls short of smooth gameplay.

The data strongly suggests that users should prioritize 1080p Medium for the best experience. This preset maintains a minimum above 80 FPS, which is critical for a game where tracking moving targets and reacting to environmental hazards determines success. The step from Medium to High at 1080p costs 21 FPS, a 22% reduction, which is too steep for the modest graphical improvements offered by a game released in this era. Conversely, the jump from Medium to Low at 1080p gains only 27 FPS while removing substantial visual detail, making it a poor trade for a title that relies on environmental readability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary bottleneck in this configuration, and the benchmark data reflects its Turing architecture limitations. With 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivering 336.0 GB/s bandwidth, the card has sufficient memory capacity for Evolve at 1080p but begins to struggle as resolution increases. The GPU's 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs, combined with a boost clock of 1785 MHz, produce a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s. These specs translate to a PassMark G3D score of 12699, placing the GPU in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.4% faster) and AMD Radeon RX 580 (0.4% faster).

The GPU's FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards but adequate for a 2015 FPS title. The measured FPS data shows the GPU's limits clearly: at 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 20 FPS average, which is a 53% drop from 4K Low (47 FPS). This steep decline indicates that the GTX 1660 SUPER's memory bandwidth and compute resources are overwhelmed by the pixel count at 4K, regardless of settings. Even at 4K Low, the 47 FPS average falls short of smooth gameplay, confirming that this GPU is not designed for 4K rendering in demanding titles. The DirectX 12 benchmark score of 50 in PassMark further illustrates the card's age, though Evolve predates widespread DX12 adoption and runs on older APIs where the card performs relatively better (PassMark DirectX 11 score of 104).

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling pattern in the measured data shows a consistent and predictable degradation from 1080p to 4K, with the GPU becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 96 at 1080p to 64 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 37 at 4K (a 61% reduction from 1440p). This scaling curve is steeper than what would be expected from a CPU-limited scenario, confirming that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the bottleneck. The 1440p to 4K transition is particularly punishing, as the pixel count more than doubles while the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth cannot keep pace.

At Low settings, the scaling is slightly more forgiving: 123 FPS at 1080p drops to 83 FPS at 1440p (a 33% drop) and then to 47 FPS at 4K (a 43% drop from 1440p). This indicates that reducing settings alleviates some pressure on the GPU, but the 4K resolution still overwhelms the card's capabilities. The High settings row shows a similar pattern: 75 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, representing a 33% and 42% drop respectively. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that resolution is the dominant factor, with the GPU's 6 GB memory capacity and 192-bit bus becoming increasingly inadequate as pixel count grows.

The data also reveals that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. The Intel Core i5-14600KF with 14 cores and 20 threads, boosting to 5.30 GHz, provides ample headroom for a game from 2015. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and single-core score of 4594 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals like the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 only 0.3% faster. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 123 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limit, but the GPU still manages to keep pace. The fact that FPS drops by roughly a third when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and another third to 4K, is a textbook GPU-bound scaling pattern.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 3151 out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 15% of all configurations. This ranking is expected given the GPU's age; the GTX 1660 SUPER was released in late 2019 and is now end-of-life, while the CPU is a current-generation part from late 2023. The mismatch between a top-tier CPU and a mid-range GPU from a previous generation creates an imbalanced system that underperforms in GPU-bound scenarios like Evolve at high resolutions. The combo's rank reflects this imbalance, as many older, more balanced configurations with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs would outperform it in this title.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 53% of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12986, confirms its mid-pack positioning. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.4% faster), RX 580 (0.4% faster), and Radeon 740M (0.9% faster), all of which are similarly aged or integrated solutions. The CPU, by contrast, ranks in the 90th percentile with an average benchmark score of 49394, placing it near the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.3% faster) and AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (0.4% faster). This 37-point percentile gap between CPU and GPU highlights the severe bottleneck, and the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is holding back the system by at least 30-40% in most scenarios.

The combo rank of 3151 out of 3700 suggests that users with this configuration should not expect competitive performance in Evolve at high settings or resolutions. However, the ranking also indicates that the system is far from the bottom, and with appropriate settings (1080p Medium or Low), it can deliver a playable experience. The data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield significant improvements, as the CPU has substantial headroom to drive a more powerful graphics card without becoming a bottleneck.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is unequivocally not the limiting factor in this configuration. With 14 cores and 20 threads based on the Raptor Lake architecture, this CPU provides far more processing power than Evolve requires. The base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz, combined with 24 MB of shared L3 cache, deliver exceptional single-thread performance as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4594. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4273 and Geekbench single-core score of 2445 further confirm its strength in the lightly-threaded workloads typical of FPS games.

The 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier indicate a desktop part designed for high sustained performance, and the measured FPS data shows no signs of CPU throttling or bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 123 FPS average, which is likely near the engine's frame rate cap for this game, and the CPU maintains this performance across all settings. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and PassMark multi-thread score of 38697 demonstrate that even in heavily threaded scenarios, this processor has ample headroom. The fact that FPS drops consistently with resolution increases, rather than varying with scene complexity, confirms that the GPU is the primary constraint.

The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5, with dual-channel configuration, provides flexibility for system builders. The PCIe Gen 5 support with 16 lanes ensures that the CPU can interface with modern GPUs without bandwidth limitations, though the GTX 1660 SUPER uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 49394, places it among the top desktop processors, and its nearest rivals are all within 1% performance, indicating a tightly competitive field at this tier. In Evolve, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations, and the data shows it performs this task effortlessly.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings produce an average of 123 FPS, providing maximum frame rates for competitive play. Medium settings reduce the average to 96 FPS, with a minimum of 81 FPS and maximum of 110 FPS, offering the best balance of smoothness and visual quality. High settings further reduce the average to 75 FPS, which remains playable but introduces more frame time variance. Ultra settings at 1080p drop to 52 FPS average, indicating that the GPU cannot maintain smooth gameplay at maximum quality even at the lowest resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low settings achieve 83 FPS average, which is still responsive but shows a 33% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings produce 64 FPS average with a minimum of 55 FPS, pushing the limits of playability for a fast-paced shooter. High settings drop to 50 FPS, and Ultra falls to 35 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for smooth gameplay in Evolve. The 1440p data suggests that only Low settings provide a consistently playable experience at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles across all settings. Low settings manage 47 FPS average, which is technically playable but with noticeable stutter. Medium settings produce 37 FPS average with a minimum of 31 FPS, indicating significant frame drops during intense scenes. High settings drop to 29 FPS, and Ultra falls to 20 FPS, rendering the game effectively unplayable at 4K. The 4K data confirms that this GPU is not suitable for high-resolution gaming in Evolve, and users should stick to 1080p or accept substantial visual compromises at 1440p. The minimum FPS data points, available only for Medium settings, show that frame pacing becomes increasingly erratic as resolution increases, with the 4K Medium minimum of 31 FPS representing a 16% drop from the average, compared to a 16% drop at 1440p (55 FPS minimum vs 64 average) and a 16% drop at 1080p (81 FPS minimum vs 96 average). This consistent variance across resolutions indicates that the GPU's thermal and power delivery are stable, but its absolute performance ceiling is simply too low for higher resolutions.