Evolve

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairings in Evolve?

A: This pairing of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB ranks 1524 out of 1695 tested combos, placing it near the bottom 10% of the tested field.

Q: Which settings preset yields the highest average frame rate at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 produces the highest measured average of 111.4 FPS, followed by Medium at 90.5 FPS and High at 67.1 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 3050 4 GB capable of maintaining 60 FPS at 1440p in this game?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 75 FPS on average, and the Medium preset hits exactly 60 FPS, so a smooth 60 FPS experience is possible, but only on lower settings.

Q: How much slower is the Ultra preset compared to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 51 FPS, which is 60.4 FPS lower than the Low preset's 111.4 FPS, representing a substantial performance penalty.

Q: What is the core configuration of the i7-12700KF in this combo?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF features 12 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, based on the Alder Lake architecture.

Q: Does the GPU's VRAM capacity appear to constrain performance at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only delivers 45.7 FPS, while High drops to 27.5 FPS, indicating that the 4 GB frame buffer and GPU compute limits combine to restrict high-resolution performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF brings substantial processing headroom to this pairing, with 12 cores and 20 threads operating at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boosting to 5.00 GHz. This Alder Lake-S processor, built on Intel's 10 nm process, scores in the 89th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35355. Its raw throughput is competitive with near-identical rivals: it trails the Intel Core i7-13800H by 0.2% and leads the Intel Core i5-14400 by 0.1%, the Intel Core i9-12900HX by 0.2%, and the Intel Core i5-13600T by 0.3%. These deltas are effectively negligible, meaning the 12700KF is not the limiting factor in this Evolve configuration.

Multi-threaded results reinforce this view. The processor posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28979 and a Geekbench multicore score of 13596. Single-thread performance is equally robust, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4091 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3984. For a game like Evolve, which is a fast-paced FPS, single-thread responsiveness matters for input latency and physics. The 3dmark single-thread score of 1043 and the 3dmark 2-thread score of 2065 show that lightly threaded workloads are handled decisively, ensuring the CPU rarely stalls frame delivery.

However, the benchmark data reveals that Evolve's frame rates scale more with resolution and settings than with CPU capability. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 111.4 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it falls to 20.3 FPS. The 12700KF's 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core provide ample data locality for game logic, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck as pixel count rises. In short, the CPU is a high-end part from 2021 that comfortably feeds the RTX 3050 at lower resolutions, yet its influence on the measured FPS diminishes sharply at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear sweet spot for this combo at 1080p Medium. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 90.5 FPS, which is 23.1 FPS higher than High's 67.1 FPS and 39.5 FPS higher than Ultra's 51 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs roughly 20.9 FPS (from 111.4 down to 90.5), but the visual uplift from Low to Medium is typically significant in a 2015 title. Given that the game's release date is February 2015, Medium settings at 1080p provide a balanced experience without pushing the RTX 3050 4 GB into its lower efficiency range.

At 1440p, the situation tightens. The Medium preset at 2560x1440 yields exactly 60 FPS, which is playable for most users, but High drops to 48.9 FPS and Ultra plunges to 29.5 FPS. For 1440p, Low is the only preset that offers comfortable headroom above 60 FPS, averaging 75 FPS. If the user prioritizes visual fidelity over smoothness, Medium at 1440p is the highest viable option, but it leaves no margin for frame drops.

At 4K, none of the presets are truly playable. Low averages 45.7 FPS, Medium drops to 32.5 FPS, High falls to 27.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 20.3 FPS. The data indicates that 4K should be avoided entirely with this GPU, as even the lowest settings cannot maintain a stable 60 FPS. The best experience per the measured rows is unequivocally 1080p Medium, offering a 90.5 FPS average that balances frame rate and graphical quality.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1524 out of 1695 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the lower 10th percentile of all CPU-GPU combos in the database for Evolve. The rank is primarily driven by the GPU's modest performance envelope rather than the CPU. The i7-12700KF's average benchmark score of 35355 places it in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, but the RTX 3050 4 GB only achieves a 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 0 (indicating no synthetic GPU benchmarks were recorded). This lopsided pairing means the CPU's potential is largely unrealized in this game.

Compared to other combos, the 1524 rank suggests that most tested systems outperform this one in Evolve. The delta between this combo and the top performers is not directly quantified in the data, but the raw FPS figures tell the story: at 1080p Ultra, this combo only manages 51 FPS, which is below what many mid-range pairings would achieve. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-14400 (deltaPct 0.1) and the Intel Core i9-12900HX (deltaPct 0.2), would likely yield similar frame rates when paired with the same GPU, confirming that the bottleneck is the graphics card. The rank of 1524 is a reflection of the GPU's 4 GB VRAM and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, which limit texture-heavy scenes at higher settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the decisive component in this pairing. Built on the GA107 chip with an 8 nm Samsung process, it packs 2048 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Its memory configuration is a 4 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 128-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1545 MHz, boosting to 1740 MHz, with memory running at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective). These specs yield a pixel rate of 55.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 111.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute pegged at 7.127 TFLOPS.

In Evolve, the GPU's constraints become evident as resolution scales. At 1080p, the combo ranges from 51 FPS on Ultra to 111.4 FPS on Low, showing that the GPU can handle the game's geometry and effects at lower settings. At 1440p, the frame rates drop by roughly a third across presets, with Ultra falling to 29.5 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is overwhelmed, with even Low averaging just 45.7 FPS. The 4 GB VRAM is a likely culprit at higher resolutions, as texture data for a 2015 FPS can exceed 4 GB at High/Ultra settings on 4K displays, forcing the card to spill into system memory.

The GPU's 90 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x8 interface are modest, but they do not directly appear in the FPS data. Instead, the measured results indicate that the RTX 3050 4 GB is best suited for 1080p gaming in Evolve, with 1440p possible only on Low presets. The GPU's 50th percentile rank among all GPUs aligns with its mid-range positioning, and its end-of-life production status suggests it is an entry-level option from the GeForce 30-series. For this game, the GPU's role is to deliver playable frame rates at 1080p Medium, beyond which its 4 GB VRAM and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth become limiting factors.