Evolve

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB delivers a wide spread of performance in Evolve, ranging from a highly playable 51 FPS at 4K High to a blistering 212 FPS at 1080p Low. Benchmark results indicate that this combination is capable of handling the game across all tested presets, but the choice of settings dramatically alters the experience, especially at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a significant jump in frame rate over High settings while maintaining a reasonable level of visual fidelity. At 1080p, Medium delivers 170 FPS, which is 37 FPS higher than High (133 FPS) and only 42 FPS lower than Low (212 FPS). The gap narrows at higher resolutions, but Medium remains the sweet spot: at 1440p it produces 114 FPS, and even at 4K it maintains a playable 65 FPS.

For users prioritizing maximum smoothness over visual detail, the Low preset is the clear choice, particularly for high-refresh-rate 1080p displays where it achieves 212 FPS. However, the data indicates that Low at 4K (84 FPS) still outperforms High at 1440p (89 FPS), suggesting that the preset has a more substantial impact on performance than resolution scaling in certain scenarios.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding, and benchmark results show it should only be considered for 1080p gaming, where it achieves a respectable 92 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 62 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 35 FPS, which is below the threshold for a consistently smooth experience. Given that the jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 41 FPS (from 133 to 92), the visual gains are unlikely to justify the performance hit for most users. The data implies that Medium or High are the recommended presets, depending on whether the user prefers higher frame rates or enhanced graphical settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB is the primary driver of performance in this configuration, and its memory and clock specifications explain the scaling patterns observed across resolutions. The GPU features a base clock of 2407 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, with 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory bandwidth is likely sufficient for Evolve at most settings, but the 8 GB capacity could become a limiting factor at 4K with higher texture quality presets.

The data shows that the GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution and settings. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 120 FPS (from 212 to 92), indicating that the GPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions and is primarily bound by the CPU. However, at 4K, the gap narrows to 49 FPS (from 84 to 35), which suggests that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck as the pixel count increases. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is particularly telling, as it implies that the GPU's shading units (4608) and texture units (144) are being fully utilized, while the 8 GB VRAM may be insufficient for the highest-quality textures at this resolution.

The GPU's 23.70 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance is a strong indicator of its raw capability, and the measured results align with this figure. The RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB achieves a 51 FPS average at 4K High, which is a demanding workload, and it maintains a 65 FPS average at 4K Medium. These numbers suggest that the GPU is well-suited for Evolve at up to 1440p with high settings, but users targeting 4K will need to compromise on quality. The GPU's percentile ranking of 29 versus all GPUs places it in the lower half of the performance spectrum, which is consistent with its 8 GB memory limitation at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides a solid foundation for this gaming configuration, with 6 cores and 6 threads running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. The CPU's 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) are adequate for Evolve, but the lack of hyper-threading may become a factor in certain CPU-intensive scenarios.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU's role becomes more prominent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 212 FPS, and at 1080p Medium it reaches 170 FPS. These high frame rates suggest that the CPU is keeping up with the GPU's output, but the performance difference between Low and Ultra (120 FPS) indicates that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at 1080p. Instead, the GPU is likely the limiting factor even at this resolution, as the RTX 5060 Ti's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus may struggle with the highest settings.

The CPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks provides context for its gaming behavior. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and single-core score of 935 are modest figures, placing the i5-9400 at the 47th percentile versus all CPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, have average scores within 0.4% of the i5-9400, indicating that the CPU is competitive with other mid-range options from its era. In Evolve, the CPU's 6 cores are likely sufficient, as the game was released in 2015 and does not appear to be heavily multi-threaded. The measured frame rates at 4K, where the CPU's influence is minimized, support this conclusion.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Evolve?*

A: The data shows that 1080p provides the highest frame rates, with an average of 133 FPS on High settings and 212 FPS on Low. 1440p is also viable, with 89 FPS on High, while 4K is playable but requires Medium settings (65 FPS) or lower.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB compare to its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB has an average benchmark score of 4901, which is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The AMD FirePro W5130M scores 4904 (a 0.1% difference), the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 scores 4893 (a 0.2% difference), and the AMD Radeon R7 M265 scores 4929 (a 0.6% difference).

Q: Is the Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB in this game?

A: The benchmark results suggest that the CPU is not a significant bottleneck at 1080p, where frame rates reach 212 FPS on Low. However, at higher resolutions like 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the drop from 84 FPS on Low to 35 FPS on Ultra.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K on High settings?

A: The measured data shows a drop from 133 FPS at 1080p High to 89 FPS at 1440p High, and further down to 51 FPS at 4K High. This represents a 62% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K.

*Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested CPU/GPU combinations in Evolve?*

A: The combo ranks 1161 out of 2872 tested combinations, placing it in the 40th percentile. This indicates that it performs better than the majority of systems tested, but it is not among the top performers.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a playable experience at 1440p?

A: The data shows that Ultra at 1440p achieves an average of 62 FPS, which is above the generally accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, this is significantly lower than the 89 FPS on High, so users may prefer High for a more comfortable margin.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling patterns in Evolve reveal how the workload shifts between the CPU and GPU. Moving from 1080p to 1440p on High settings results in a frame rate drop from 133 FPS to 89 FPS, a 33% reduction. Scaling further to 4K High brings the frame rate down to 51 FPS, another 43% drop. This nonlinear scaling indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated as the pixel count grows.

The trend is similar across other settings. On Medium, the frame rates are 170 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K, representing drops of 33% and 43% respectively. On Low, the frame rates are 212 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, and 84 FPS at 4K, with drops of 31% and 43%. The consistency of these percentages suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the primary factor in resolution scaling, and the CPU's influence is minimal.

The fact that the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K (43%) is larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (31-33%) implies that the GPU is hitting a performance wall at higher resolutions. This is likely due to the 8 GB VRAM capacity, which may cause texture swapping or reduced memory bandwidth at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is particularly revealing, as it suggests that the GPU is unable to maintain adequate performance with the highest settings, confirming that the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB is the limiting component at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates: Low averages 212 FPS, Medium averages 170 FPS (with a minimum of 144 FPS and maximum of 195 FPS), High averages 133 FPS, and Ultra averages 92 FPS. These results indicate that 1080p is well within the capabilities of this combo, with even the most demanding preset exceeding 90 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected decline: Low averages 147 FPS, Medium averages 114 FPS (with a minimum of 97 FPS and maximum of 131 FPS), High averages 89 FPS, and Ultra averages 62 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 97 FPS ensures a smooth experience, while the Ultra preset's 62 FPS is still playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, the system's limitations become apparent: Low averages 84 FPS, Medium averages 65 FPS (with a minimum of 55 FPS and maximum of 74 FPS), High averages 51 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The Medium preset is the only option that consistently maintains a playable frame rate at 4K, while High and Ultra are best avoided for competitive play. The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p is optimal for high-refresh-rate displays, 1440p is the sweet spot for quality and performance, and 4K requires significant compromises.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB combination ranks 1161 out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the 40th percentile of all systems. This ranking reflects the balanced nature of the setup: the CPU's 47th percentile performance and the GPU's 29th percentile performance combine to produce a system that is above average for this game but not exceptional.

The ranking is influenced by the GPU's 8 GB VRAM limitation, which becomes a bottleneck at 4K Ultra settings. The combo's performance at 1080p (212 FPS on Low) is competitive with higher-ranked systems, but its 4K performance (35 FPS on Ultra) drags the overall ranking down. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can leverage the CPU's 6 cores and the GPU's 23.70 TFLOPS of compute power effectively.

Compared to the GPU's nearest rivals, which have nearly identical average benchmark scores (within 0.6%), the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB performs as expected in Evolve. The CPU's nearest rivals also have similar scores (within 0.4%), confirming that this combo is well-matched for the game. The rank of 1161 suggests that users with this hardware can expect a solid experience, but those seeking top-tier performance at 4K may need to consider a GPU with more VRAM or a higher performance tier.