Evolve

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination delivers a playable but inconsistent experience in Evolve, with performance heavily dependent on the resolution and quality preset selected. The dataset shows a clear pattern where the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s six-core, six-thread configuration holds up adequately at 1080p. This pairing sits in the lower half of tested configurations, ranking 1473rd out of 1695 combos, indicating that while it can run the game, it does not excel in any particular metric. The following analysis breaks down how the system scales across resolutions, answers common questions about its behavior, and provides a detailed look at the measured frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance drop as resolution increases, a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 126.9 FPS, but moving to 1440p Low drops that to 85.7 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 47.7 FPS. This represents a 62.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count rises. The pattern holds across all presets: High settings go from 73.9 FPS at 1080p to 52.8 FPS at 1440p and 28.4 FPS at 4K, a 61.6% drop. Ultra settings show the most severe scaling, with 52.2 FPS at 1080p collapsing to 35.9 FPS at 1440p and 23.1 FPS at 4K, a 55.7% reduction.

The scaling behavior suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the i5-9400’s 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.10 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the 126.9 FPS Low result. However, as resolution climbs, the GPU’s raw compute throughput—5.027 TFLOPS FP32—becomes the limiting factor. The 4K Ultra result of 23.1 FPS is particularly telling: it is below the 30 FPS threshold often considered minimally playable, and it represents only an 18.2% improvement over the 1080p Ultra score of 52.2 FPS when scaled down, which is far from linear. This indicates that the GTX 1660 SUPER is overwhelmed by Evolve’s shading and post-processing demands at 4K, regardless of preset.

Comparing the scaling between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution provides insight into the GPU’s headroom. At 1080p, the difference between Low (126.9 FPS) and Ultra (52.2 FPS) is 74.7 FPS, showing that the GPU has substantial performance left when settings are reduced. At 4K, that gap narrows to 24.6 FPS (47.7 vs 23.1), meaning the GPU is already near its limit even at Low settings, leaving little room for quality improvements. This behavior is consistent with a mid-range GPU from the GeForce 10-series generation, where the 192-bit memory bus and 1408 shading units are adequate for 1080p but struggle with the 8.3 million pixels of 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings?

A: The combo achieves 73.9 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is a smooth experience for most players, sitting well above the 60 FPS target, and it demonstrates that the i5-9400 and GTX 1660 SUPER can handle Evolve’s standard quality preset without issue.

Q: Can this system run Evolve at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest average is 47.7 FPS with Low settings, but Ultra settings drop to 23.1 FPS. The 4K High result of 28.4 FPS is marginal, suggesting that 4K is only viable with significant quality reductions, and even then, frame rates are inconsistent.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 14286, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and 0.7% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT. It also trails the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics by 0.2%, indicating that it sits in a tightly contested mid-range segment.

Q: What is the CPU’s performance percentile relative to all tested processors?

A: The i5-9400 falls in the 50th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2300, a mere 0.2% difference, showing that the 9400 is an average performer for its era.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1440p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary limit at 1440p. The High preset yields 52.8 FPS, while Low reaches 85.7 FPS, a 62.3% increase that points to GPU headroom being constrained by pixel count rather than CPU limitations. The i5-9400’s six threads are sufficient to maintain these frame rates.

Q: What is the best preset for a stable 60 FPS experience?

A: At 1080p, Medium settings produce 97.2 FPS, while High produces 73.9 FPS, both comfortably above 60 FPS. At 1440p, only Low (85.7 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS; Medium drops to 63.9 FPS, which is close but may dip below in intense scenes.

GPU Role

The GTX 1660 SUPER’s memory configuration plays a decisive role in Evolve’s performance. With 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the card offers 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial for its class but becomes strained at 4K resolutions where texture and geometry data exceed what the bus can efficiently feed. The 14 Gbps effective memory speed is a key advantage over older GDDR5 parts, and it helps maintain playable frame rates at 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 23.1 FPS shows that the memory subsystem cannot keep up with the game’s highest fidelity assets.

Clock speeds are another factor. The GPU’s 1530 MHz base clock and 1785 MHz boost clock, combined with 1408 shading units, deliver 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. This is enough for 1080p High at 73.9 FPS, but the architecture’s 88 texture units and 48 ROPs limit fill-rate-bound scenarios. The pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are moderate figures; at 4K, the game’s particle effects and dynamic lighting push these units to their limits, explaining the steep drop to 28.4 FPS at High and 23.1 FPS at Ultra.

The GPU’s benchmark percentile of 55 places it slightly above the median for all GPUs, with an average score of 14286. This aligns with its measured performance in Evolve: it is capable of smooth 1080p gameplay and decent 1440p, but it lacks the raw throughput for 4K. The card’s DirectX 12 support (12_1) is relevant, as Evolve can leverage modern APIs, but the data shows that even with this support, the hardware cannot compensate for the resolution demands. The 6 GB memory capacity is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the game’s texture streaming can exceed this buffer, leading to the observed frame rate collapse.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 1473rd out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 13% of configurations. This low ranking is surprising given that the individual components are not exceptionally weak—the CPU sits at the 50th percentile and the GPU at the 55th—but it reflects the game’s specific demands. Evolve is a 2015 title with a strong emphasis on GPU-bound rendering, and the GTX 1660 SUPER, while competent, does not have the high-end compute or memory bandwidth to push this combo into the upper echelons.

The ranking suggests that many other combos, likely with newer GPUs or higher-tier CPUs, achieve significantly better frame rates. The i5-9400’s six cores and six threads are adequate, but they lack the multithreading of Hyper-Threading, which could limit performance in CPU-heavy scenes. However, the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the more significant constraint, as evidenced by the 4K results where even Low settings produce only 47.7 FPS. This indicates that the combo’s low rank is primarily due to GPU limitations rather than CPU shortcomings.

Compared to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the GTX 1660 SUPER performs almost identically in synthetic benchmarks—within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT—so the rank is not a reflection of a defective or poorly binned card. Instead, it highlights that Evolve’s optimization favors GPUs with higher memory bandwidth and shading unit counts. The combo’s position at 1473rd is a clear signal that users should target 1080p or 1440p for playable performance, as 4K results are firmly in the unplayable range for most presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results across all settings. Low settings yield 126.9 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth and indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU without bottle-necking. Medium settings drop to 97.2 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS target, while High settings produce 73.9 FPS, providing a good balance of visual quality and performance. Ultra settings fall to 52.2 FPS, which is below 60 FPS but still playable for most users, though the drop from High to Ultra is a steep 21.7 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are costly.

At 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low settings produce 85.7 FPS, which is excellent for 1440p and shows that the GPU still has headroom when settings are minimized. Medium settings drop to 63.9 FPS, just above the 60 FPS threshold, but High settings fall to 52.8 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter in fast-paced scenes. Ultra settings are the weakest link, delivering only 35.9 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS minimum often recommended for competitive play. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1440p is severe, with a 49.8 FPS difference, indicating that the GPU’s shading units are overwhelmed by the higher pixel count combined with quality presets.

At 3840x2160, the results are consistently below playable thresholds. Low settings produce 47.7 FPS, which is borderline but acceptable for single-player, while Medium drops to 35.8 FPS and High falls to 28.4 FPS. Ultra settings are the worst, yielding only 23.1 FPS, which is well below the 30 FPS minimum for a smooth experience. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 24.6 FPS, showing that the GPU is already near its limit at Low and has almost no headroom for quality improvements. This data confirms that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo, and users should stick to 1080p or 1440p for a satisfactory experience.