Evolve

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Evolve, but the data reveals a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. The sweet spot is the Medium preset at 2560x1440, which provides a smooth 92.1 FPS average while maintaining a significant visual upgrade over Low settings. For competitive play at 1920x1080, the High preset at 104.9 FPS offers a balanced mix of responsiveness and quality, but the Ultra preset should be avoided at higher resolutions due to substantial performance degradation.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data strongly favors the Medium preset as the optimal balance between image quality and performance for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 138.3 FPS, which is 34.6% faster than High (104.9 FPS) and 82.1% faster than Ultra (76 FPS). The jump from Low to Medium costs only 40.8 FPS (from 179.1 to 138.3), but the visual improvement is substantial. At 2560x1440, Medium maintains a playable 92.1 FPS, whereas High drops to 72.1 FPS and Ultra falls to a stutter-prone 49.6 FPS. For 4K gaming, the data indicates that even Medium (53.8 FPS) is borderline, making Low (67.2 FPS) the only viable preset for consistent frame delivery. The Ultra preset is effectively unusable at 4K with only 27.6 FPS, and even at 1080p it represents a 45.1% performance penalty over Medium. Benchmark results indicate that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Medium settings across all resolutions, but Ultra settings likely exceed the memory bandwidth available at higher pixel counts.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides the best overall experience, achieving 92.1 FPS. This resolution balances the RTX 2070 SUPER's capabilities with the i7-12700K's processing power, avoiding the 4K bottleneck where even High settings only reach 38.4 FPS.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Evolve?*

A: Only with significant compromises. The measured data shows 67.2 FPS at 4K Low, which is playable, but Medium drops to 53.8 FPS and High falls to 38.4 FPS. Ultra at 4K is not viable at 27.6 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance?

A: Ultra consistently delivers much lower frame rates than High across all resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra is 28.9 FPS slower (76 vs 104.9), at 1440p the gap widens to 22.5 FPS (49.6 vs 72.1), and at 4K the difference is 10.8 FPS (27.6 vs 38.4).

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER or the i7-12700K the limiting factor in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck. As resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, frame rates drop dramatically across all settings. The CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom, with its 3dmark_max_threads score of 9979 indicating strong multi-threaded performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and High settings at 1080p?

A: The gap is substantial. Low delivers 179.1 FPS while High reaches 104.9 FPS, representing a 74.2 FPS difference (41.4% slower). Medium sits closer to High at 138.3 FPS, making it the recommended compromise.

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

A: It ranks 1068 out of 1695 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This ranking reflects the RTX 2070 SUPER's 65th percentile performance among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks higher at the 89th percentile.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the dominant component in determining Evolve's frame rates. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which the measured data shows is adequate for Medium settings at all resolutions but becomes insufficient for Ultra. The GPU's base clock of 1605 MHz boosts to 1770 MHz, and its 2560 shading units handle the game's rendering workload. The benchmark scores reflect this: the passmark_g3d score of 18169 and the 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 1651 indicate DirectX 12 performance that aligns with the game's requirements. The GPU's 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but not heavily utilized in this 2015 title. The data shows a clear pattern: at 4K Ultra, the GPU produces only 27.6 FPS, while at 1080p Low it reaches 179.1 FPS, demonstrating that the RTX 2070 SUPER's raw throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The passmark_directx_11 score of 151 and directx_12 score of 67 suggest the GPU's API overhead is well within acceptable limits for this game's engine.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this Intel Core i7-12700K + RTX 2070 SUPER combination ranks 1068 out of 1695 total combos for Evolve. This places it in the bottom 37% of all tested configurations, which is somewhat surprising given the CPU's strong showing in synthetic benchmarks. The i7-12700K sits at the 89th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 35684, while the RTX 2070 SUPER achieves only the 65th percentile with an average score of 22206. This disparity explains the overall ranking: the GPU holds the combo back from higher placements. The CPU's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (-0.3% delta), Intel Core i7-13700T (0.6% delta), and Intel Core i5-14500HX (-0.7% delta), all of which perform essentially identically. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A400 (-0.5% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 5700 (2.5% delta), showing the RTX 2070 SUPER is competitive with these cards. The combination's rank suggests that for Evolve specifically, a more powerful GPU would yield greater improvements than a CPU upgrade, given the game's reliance on graphics processing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops by approximately 33-36% across all settings. For example, High settings fall from 104.9 FPS to 72.1 FPS (a 32.8 FPS loss), while Medium drops from 138.3 to 92.1 FPS (a 46.2 FPS loss). The scaling continues from 1440p to 4K, with High plummeting from 72.1 to 38.4 FPS (a 46.7% reduction) and Medium from 92.1 to 53.8 FPS (a 41.6% reduction). This pattern indicates the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary limiting component, as the GPU must render four times the pixels at 4K compared to 1080p. The CPU's role becomes less significant at higher resolutions, as its 12 cores and 20 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU even at 1080p Low, where the combo achieves 179.1 FPS. The data shows that the frame rate penalty from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, suggesting a linear relationship between pixel count and GPU workload. The 4K jump is more severe, particularly for Ultra settings which fall to 27.6 FPS, indicating the GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s becomes a critical constraint at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark data shows a wide range of performance across the four tested presets. Low settings achieve 179.1 FPS, Medium reaches 138.3 FPS, High delivers 104.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 76 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 40.8 FPS, while Medium to High costs 33.4 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 28.9 FPS. This creates a consistent degradation curve that reflects the GPU's workload scaling. At 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but at lower absolute values: Low produces 115.5 FPS, Medium 92.1 FPS, High 72.1 FPS, and Ultra 49.6 FPS. The relative penalties are similar, with Medium-to-High being a 20 FPS drop and High-to-Ultra a 22.5 FPS drop. At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal: Low achieves 67.2 FPS, Medium 53.8 FPS, High 38.4 FPS, and Ultra 27.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 13.4 FPS, while Medium to High costs 15.4 FPS. These numbers indicate that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for Low and Medium presets at 4K, but High and Ultra settings demand more than the card can efficiently deliver.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K provides ample processing power for Evolve, with 12 cores and 20 threads operating at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its Alder Lake architecture features an 80 KB L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive: a cinebench_cinebench_r23_multicore score of 29241 and single-core score of 4128, plus a passmark_multithread score of 34404. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 9276 and max_threads score of 9979 demonstrate strong multi-threaded scaling. The CPU's percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs confirms it is a high-performing processor that should not bottleneck the GPU in most scenarios. However, the measured game data suggests that in Evolve, the CPU's role is secondary. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 179.1 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limits. The CPU's 2-thread score of 2065 and single-thread score of 1043 in 3dmark indicate it can handle the game's main thread efficiently. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, and its 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes provide sufficient bandwidth for the RTX 2070 SUPER. The data shows that even at 4K Low (67.2 FPS), the CPU is not holding back the GPU, as the frame rate is clearly GPU-limited at that resolution.