Evolve

# Evolve — Intel Core i9-14900K + AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT

The data shows a pairing of a 24-core, 32-thread Intel Core i9-14900K with a 12 GB AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, producing measured frame rates across four settings presets and three resolutions in Evolve. This combination ranks 855th out of 1,695 tested combos in this game, placing it near the middle of the pack. The benchmark results reveal a system that handles 1080p and 1440p comfortably but begins to strain at 4K, with the GPU appearing as the primary bottleneck in most configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable progression as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 120.2 FPS at 1080p to 81.8 FPS at 1440p, then falls to 46.6 FPS at 4K. That represents a 61.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K, a substantial decline that points directly at the GPU as the limiting factor. The RX 6750 XT, with its 192-bit memory bus and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth, is being tasked with nearly four times the pixel count at 4K compared to 1080p, and the frame rate reflects that burden.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling pattern is even more pronounced. The system produces 199.6 FPS at 1080p, 133.1 FPS at 1440p, and 76.4 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 61.7%, nearly identical to the High settings decline. This consistency across presets suggests that resolution scaling in Evolve is largely independent of graphical complexity — the pixel throughput demands are what matter most. At Medium settings, the progression from 155.1 FPS to 105.0 FPS to 60.5 FPS shows a similar pattern, with the 4K result falling to 39% of the 1080p figure.

Ultra settings tell a slightly different story. The 1080p result of 87.3 FPS drops to 55.8 FPS at 1440p and then to 35.1 FPS at 4K. The relative decline from 1440p to 4K is 37.1%, which is less severe than the 43% drop seen at High settings over the same resolution step. This could indicate that at Ultra, the CPU begins to play a more meaningful role in maintaining frame rates, as the i9-14900K's high single-thread performance helps offset some of the GPU's pixel-filling limitations. The data implies that 4K gaming at playable frame rates is only feasible at Low settings, where 76.4 FPS is achieved.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K brings 24 cores and 32 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its architecture, Raptor Lake-R on a 10 nm process, delivers strong multi-threaded performance — the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49,872 places it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs tested. In Evolve, a game released in 2015, the CPU is unlikely to be the primary constraint at most settings. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low, reaching 199.6 FPS, suggest the CPU can feed the GPU well beyond typical display refresh rates.

The data shows that the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and lower settings, where the GPU has less work to do per frame. At 1080p Low, the 199.6 FPS result is likely approaching the ceiling of what the CPU can sustain in this engine, given that the GPU is nowhere near its limits at that resolution and setting. The i9-14900K's single-thread performance — a Geekbench single-core score of 3,064 and Cinebench R23 single-core of 7,040 — is critical here, as Evolve's FPS genre typically relies heavily on single-threaded game logic.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the i9-14900K's average benchmark score of 79,824 sits just 0.7% below the Intel Core i9-14900KF and 0.9% below the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K. The AMD EPYC 7413 is 0.3% ahead, meaning the CPU is effectively at parity with its closest competitors in synthetic workloads. However, in Evolve specifically, the CPU's 24 cores and 32 threads are likely underutilized — the game's age suggests it may not scale beyond a handful of threads. This is corroborated by the Passmark single-thread score of 4,697, which is far more relevant to Evolve's frame rate ceiling than the multi-thread score of 58,674.

The L3 cache of 36 MB shared across all cores, plus 2 MB of L2 per core, provides ample cache for the game's assets. The boost clock of 6.00 GHz is the highest of any consumer CPU in the data, which directly benefits frame pacing in CPU-limited scenarios. The data suggests the i9-14900K is never the bottleneck in this configuration until frame rates exceed roughly 200 FPS, which only occurs at 1080p Low.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is built on RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 22 chip on a 7 nm process. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a significant factor in the 4K results. The GPU's boost clock of 2600 MHz and base clock of 2150 MHz, with a game clock of 2495 MHz, determine how quickly it can process shading work. With 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, the GPU has substantial raw throughput — 13.31 TFLOPS FP32 — but the 192-bit memory bus limits its ability to feed those units at 4K resolutions.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K across all settings. At Ultra, the 35.1 FPS average is barely playable, while High settings yield 46.6 FPS. Even at Low, the 76.4 FPS average at 4K falls short of the 199.6 FPS seen at 1080p. This 61.7% reduction at the same settings is a direct consequence of the GPU's pixel throughput limitations. The RX 6750 XT's pixel rate of 166.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 416.0 GTexel/s are fixed hardware capabilities, and 4K demands four times the pixel work of 1080p.

The GPU's percentile rank of 79th among all GPUs places it in the upper-middle tier, but its nearest rivals show how competitive this segment is. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 scores 1.3% higher on average, while the AMD Radeon 880M is 0.9% higher — a surprisingly close grouping. In Evolve, the GPU's 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for the game's textures, but the memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s becomes the limiting factor at high pixel counts. The 40 ray-tracing cores are irrelevant to this game, as Evolve predates widespread RT implementation.

The data indicates that the RX 6750 XT can deliver excellent frame rates at 1080p and 1440p — 120.2 FPS at High 1440p is strong — but 4K gaming requires dropping to Medium or Low settings to approach 60 FPS. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support with a 12_2 feature level ensures compatibility, but the measured results show that Evolve's engine does not scale efficiently with this GPU at 4K resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This combo ranks 855th out of 1,695 tested combinations in Evolve, placing it almost exactly at the median (50.4th percentile). This is notable because both components individually rank higher — the CPU in the 97th percentile and the GPU in the 79th percentile. The discrepancy suggests that Evolve's engine does not fully utilize the i9-14900K's capabilities, and the RX 6750 XT is the limiting factor for this pairing.

The rank of 855 implies that a significant number of other combos outperform this one in Evolve, despite the CPU's top-tier synthetic scores. This is likely because many combos pair high-end GPUs with mid-range CPUs, which in Evolve performs similarly or better since the game is not heavily CPU-threaded. The combo rank relative to the individual component percentiles indicates a mismatch — the CPU is overqualified for the GPU's performance envelope in this game.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals, the RX 6750 XT is within 1.3% of the RTX 3080 in average benchmark scores, yet the RTX 3080 likely appears in many higher-ranked combos due to its superior memory bandwidth. The data suggests that in Evolve, GPU memory bandwidth is a more important factor than raw compute, as evidenced by the steep 4K performance drops. The combo's median rank reflects this: it outperforms combos with weaker GPUs but falls behind those with higher-bandwidth GPUs, regardless of CPU.

The i9-14900K's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-14900KF at 0.7% higher average score, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K at 0.9% higher. Since these are effectively identical in performance, combos using either CPU with the same GPU would likely achieve nearly identical rankings in Evolve. This suggests the CPU choice has minimal impact on this game's frame rates, reinforcing the GPU-centric nature of the bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 60 FPS at 1440p in Evolve?

A: Yes. At 1440p, the measured average FPS is 81.8 at High settings, 105.0 at Medium, and 133.1 at Low. Even Ultra settings achieve 55.8 FPS, which is close to 60.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with this setup?

A: The data shows 76.4 FPS at Low settings, 60.5 FPS at Medium, 46.6 FPS at High, and 35.1 FPS at Ultra for 3840x2160 resolution. Only Low and Medium presets reach or exceed 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The i9-14900K has an average benchmark score of 79,824, which is 0.3% below the AMD EPYC 7413, 0.7% below the Intel Core i9-14900KF, and 0.9% below the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and why does it matter for Evolve?

A: The RX 6750 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 192-bit bus limits memory bandwidth, which becomes a bottleneck at 4K resolutions where the frame rate drops significantly.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck this GPU in Evolve?

A: No. The CPU's 24 cores and 32 threads with a 6.00 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 199.6 FPS, and the CPU is only likely to limit frame rates above that threshold.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems in Evolve?

A: It ranks 855th out of 1,695 tested combos, placing it at the median. The CPU ranks in the 97th percentile and the GPU in the 79th percentile individually, but their combined performance in Evolve is middling.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data identifies Medium settings as the optimal balance for this combo across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system produces 155.1 FPS, which is well above any display refresh rate and provides substantial headroom. At 1440p Medium, 105.0 FPS is achieved, offering smooth gameplay on high-refresh monitors. The 4K Medium result of 60.5 FPS is exactly at the threshold for standard 60 Hz displays.

High settings are also viable but with a notable frame rate penalty. At 1440p High, the 81.8 FPS average is still playable, but the 4K High result of 46.6 FPS falls below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. Ultra settings are only recommended for 1080p, where 87.3 FPS is achieved, but the 4K Ultra result of 35.1 FPS and 1440p Ultra of 55.8 FPS make Ultra impractical for those resolutions.

Low settings provide the highest frame rates — 199.6 FPS at 1080p, 133.1 FPS at 1440p, and 76.4 FPS at 4K — but sacrifice visual quality unnecessarily at 1080p and 1440p. The data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot, as it provides a 30% frame rate improvement over High at 1080p (155.1 vs 120.2 FPS) while maintaining visual fidelity. For 4K, Medium is the only preset that delivers 60 FPS, making it the clear recommendation for 4K displays.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 resolution, the measured average FPS values are: Low settings produce 199.6 FPS, Medium produces 155.1 FPS, High produces 120.2 FPS, and Ultra produces 87.3 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 56.3% reduction in frame rate, with each settings tier costing roughly 30-40 FPS.

At 2560x1440 resolution, the measured values are: Low at 133.1 FPS, Medium at 105.0 FPS, High at 81.8 FPS, and Ultra at 55.8 FPS. The step from High to Ultra costs 26.0 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 23.2 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 3840x2160 resolution, the measured values are: Low at 76.4 FPS, Medium at 60.5 FPS, High at 46.6 FPS, and Ultra at 35.1 FPS. At 4K, every settings tier costs between 11.5 and 13.9 FPS, representing a consistent 20-24% penalty per tier increase. The 4K Ultra result of 35.1 FPS is less than half the 1080p Ultra result of 87.3 FPS, quantifying the GPU's struggle at high pixel counts.