Evolve

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-9400 posts an average benchmark score of 2305, placing it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. It is effectively tied with the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300, 0.2% ahead) and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299, 0.2% ahead), while sitting 0.4% ahead of the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295) and 0.6% behind the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319).

Q: What is the GPU's synthetic performance standing relative to its nearest competitors?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT holds a 71st percentile ranking among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 27985. It is 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (27956) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M395X (27883), but trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (28238) by 0.9% and the AMD FirePro S7150 (28409) by 1.5%.

Q: What is the best measured frame rate for this combo in Evolve?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 160.2, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The minimum measured average is 23.5 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations for Evolve?

A: It ranks 1223rd out of 1695 tested combos in the game, meaning roughly 72% of tested configurations deliver higher average performance in Evolve.

Q: What memory and interface specifications does the GPU bring to the system?

A: The RX 6600 XT features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. It uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 bus interface and runs at a memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective).

Q: What are the CPU's core and thread counts, and what is its cache layout?

A: The i5-9400 has 6 cores and 6 threads. Its cache is structured as 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the Navi 23 chip using RDNA 2.0 architecture at a 7 nm process node from TSMC, with 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die. Its memory subsystem provides 8 GB of GDDR6 across a 128-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth — a figure that appears adequate for Evolve's demands given the measured frame rates. The GPU's base clock is 1968 MHz, with a game clock of 2359 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz, which suggests reasonable headroom for sustained loads.

The shading array consists of 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput of 10.60 TFLOPS places this GPU in a mid-range tier, and the data confirms it handles Evolve's workload with varying success depending on settings. The GPU's percentile standing at 71st among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27985, indicates it sits above the median but not at the top end. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests — the GTX 980 Ti and RTX 3070 — bracket it within roughly one percent, yet in Evolve the measured results show the combo ranking in the lower third of all tested configurations, suggesting the CPU may be constraining the GPU in this title.

The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which covers Evolve's rendering requirements since the game launched in 2015 when DirectX 11 was the standard. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is likely sufficient for Evolve at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 23.5 FPS suggests either VRAM pressure or compute limitations at extreme settings. The memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth necessary for high-resolution textures, yet the data shows a steep performance cliff when moving from Medium to Ultra at 4K, which points to the GPU's compute capacity rather than memory bandwidth being the limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution-dependent scaling. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 160.2 FPS, which drops to 106.2 FPS at 1440p Low (a 33.7% reduction) and further to 63.9 FPS at 4K Low (a 60.1% reduction from 1080p). This scaling is not linear — the transition from 1440p to 4K at Low settings costs 42.3 FPS, while the 1080p to 1440p step costs 54 FPS, indicating that pixel throughput becomes increasingly demanding as resolution rises.

At High settings, the pattern shifts: 1080p delivers 98.9 FPS, 1440p drops to 64.1 FPS (a 35.2% reduction), and 4K falls to 37.3 FPS (a 62.3% reduction from 1080p). The Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling, with 1080p at 68 FPS, 1440p at 45.5 FPS (a 33.1% reduction), and 4K at 23.5 FPS (a 65.4% reduction). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests the scaling bottleneck is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven — the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity are being taxed proportionally as pixel count increases.

The data implies that at 1080p, the combo has enough headroom to push high frame rates, but the CPU may become more relevant at lower resolutions. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as even Low settings only produce 63.9 FPS, which is below the 1080p Ultra result of 68 FPS. This crossover — where 4K Low roughly matches 1080p Ultra — indicates the GPU's raw throughput is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while at 1080p the frame rates suggest the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output up to a point.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a spread of results across four settings presets. Low settings produce 160.2 FPS average, Medium settings yield 125 FPS, High settings drop to 98.9 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 68 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 92.2 FPS, showing that settings have a massive impact at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 106.2 FPS at Low, 82 FPS at Medium, 64.1 FPS at High, and 45.5 FPS at Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 60.7 FPS, but the relative drop from Low to Ultra remains consistent at roughly 57% across both resolutions. At 3840x2160, the results compress further: 63.9 FPS at Low, 46.6 FPS at Medium, 37.3 FPS at High, and 23.5 FPS at Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra delta is 40.4 FPS, and the Ultra result dips below the 30 FPS playability threshold typically expected for smooth gameplay.

The data shows that Medium settings at 1440p (82 FPS) outperform High settings at 4K (37.3 FPS) by a factor of 2.2, and even Low settings at 4K (63.9 FPS) fall short of Medium at 1080p (125 FPS) by nearly half. The scaling across the board suggests that Evolve is sensitive to both resolution and settings, but the GPU's compute resources are the dominant factor — the framerate halving from 1080p to 4K at each settings tier is a strong indicator of fill-rate limits.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1223rd out of 1695 tested combinations in Evolve, placing it in the lower third of all configurations. This ranking is notable given the GPU's 71st percentile standing and the CPU's 50th percentile ranking across all benchmarks. The discrepancy between the component-level percentiles and the in-game rank suggests that Evolve's engine may favor different hardware characteristics than synthetic benchmarks capture.

The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, scores nearly identically in average benchmarks (27956 vs 27985, a 0.1% difference), yet the ranking implies that many combos with similar or even weaker GPUs achieve higher frame rates in this specific title. The RTX 3070, which scores 0.9% higher on average, likely appears in far better-performing combos, but the gap in ranking (1223rd out of 1695) is too large to be explained by the 0.9% synthetic difference alone.

This points to the CPU as a potential bottleneck in Evolve. The i5-9400's 6-core, 6-thread configuration with a 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clock may struggle with the game's thread scheduling or single-threaded performance demands. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1125 and multi-core score of 7969 place it in the middle of the pack, which aligns with the combo's mid-to-low in-game position.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gaming, the data supports High settings as the best balance, delivering 98.9 FPS — well above the 60 FPS threshold and close to the 144 Hz mark. Low settings at 1080p reach 160.2 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh displays, but the visual quality trade-off may not be worth the 61.3 FPS gain over High. Medium at 125 FPS is also viable, but the jump from Medium to High costs only 26.1 FPS, making High the preferential choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1440p, Medium settings at 82 FPS provide the most balanced experience, as High drops to 64.1 FPS — still playable but approaching the edge of variability. Low at 106.2 FPS is the choice for competitive play, while Ultra at 45.5 FPS is too low for consistent action. For 4K, the data shows that Low settings at 63.9 FPS are the only viable option for playable frame rates; Medium at 46.6 FPS and High at 37.3 FPS fall below smooth-play thresholds, and Ultra at 23.5 FPS is effectively unplayable.

The recommendation hierarchy, based purely on measured averages, is: 1080p High for the best overall experience, 1440p Medium for a high-resolution compromise, and 4K Low only if resolution is prioritized over frame rate. The 1080p Ultra preset at 68 FPS is not recommended when High delivers 30.9 more FPS with presumably marginal visual differences.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake Refresh generation, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz boosts to 4.10 GHz, and it carries 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's memory support is DDR4 in dual-channel configuration, providing 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest by modern standards but adequate for Evolve's era.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores of 7969 multi-core and 1125 single-core, along with its 50th percentile ranking, indicate mid-pack performance. Its nearest rivals — the i3-10305 and i3-1125G4 — score within 0.2%, yet those chips have different core configurations, suggesting that Evolve may not scale with core count beyond 6 threads. The Xeon E-2134, which the i5-9400 edges by 0.4%, is a 4-core part, implying that the i5's extra cores provide only marginal gains in synthetic tests.

In Evolve, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at high resolutions, but at 1080p Low where the GPU produces 160.2 FPS, the CPU's 6 threads may become a limiting factor. The boost clock of 4.10 GHz provides adequate single-thread performance, but the lack of hyper-threading means only 6 threads are available for game logic, physics, and background tasks. The CPU's L3 cache of 9 MB is shared across all cores, which can cause contention in multi-threaded workloads, though Evolve's 2015 engine likely does not stress this heavily. The data shows the combo ranking in the lower third of all tested configurations, and given the GPU's strong 71st percentile standing, the CPU's 50th percentile performance is the weaker link in this pairing for Evolve's specific workload.