Evolve

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Evolve with the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER reveals a clear hierarchy across presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 333.3 FPS, while Medium drops to 257.5 FPS, High to 200.7 FPS, and Ultra to 142.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 75.8 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 58.2 FPS. This suggests that the Low preset is leaving substantial performance on the table, and the step from High to Ultra exacts a heavy toll for what is likely a modest visual gain.

At 1440p, the pattern holds: Low produces 223.9 FPS, Medium 171.8 FPS, High 137.7 FPS, and Ultra 93.9 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p still clears 170 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-refresh monitors. At 4K, the situation tightens: Low yields 130.2 FPS, Medium 98.7 FPS, High 74.4 FPS, and Ultra 56.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K dips below 60 FPS, which is a meaningful threshold for smooth gameplay in a fast-paced FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the target resolution. For 1080p, the High preset at 200.7 FPS offers a strong balance—it is 58.2 FPS faster than Ultra while still providing substantial visual fidelity over Medium. For 1440p, the Medium preset at 171.8 FPS appears optimal, as it stays comfortably above 144 Hz while avoiding the steep drop to Ultra's 93.9 FPS. At 4K, the High preset at 74.4 FPS is the recommended choice; it maintains playable frame rates without the severe cost of Ultra, which falls to 56.8 FPS. The data implies that Ultra settings are disproportionately expensive at higher resolutions, making High the sensible ceiling for this combination.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC, housing 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. Its memory subsystem is substantial: 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, delivering 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz, and memory runs at 1438 MHz with 23 Gbps effective speed. With 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, the card is positioned to handle high-resolution gaming workloads.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's role in Evolve becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the frame rates range from 142.5 FPS at Ultra to 333.3 FPS at Low, indicating that even at the highest settings, the GPU is not fully saturated—the i9-14900K is likely the limiting factor at these lower resolutions. As resolution climbs to 1440p, the GPU begins to assert itself: Ultra drops to 93.9 FPS, a 48.6 FPS decrease from 1080p Ultra. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the dominant constraint. The Ultra preset falls to 56.8 FPS, and even High only manages 74.4 FPS. The 16 GB VRAM allocation is more than sufficient for Evolve, as the game's 2015 release date predates the memory-hungry titles of later years, but the compute load at 4K is what drives the performance curve.

The GPU's benchmark scores contextualize its standing: it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 246994. Its percentile versus all GPUs is 88, with an average benchmark score of 53610. The nearest rivals in the aggregate benchmarks include the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 53489 (0.2% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 52086 (2.9% delta). This places the RTX 4080 SUPER at the top of its immediate competitive cluster, but the 4K Ultra result of 56.8 FPS suggests that even this powerful GPU struggles with the most demanding settings in Evolve.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.20 GHz with a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, and it carries a substantial cache hierarchy: 80 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it has a 125 W TDP. Its benchmark results are formidable: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and single-core score of 7040, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 20370.

In Evolve, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combination produces 333.3 FPS, which is 102.6 FPS higher than the 1440p Low result of 223.9 FPS. This 1080p-to-1440p drop of 109.4 FPS at Low settings indicates that the CPU is pushing frame rates high enough that the GPU begins to struggle even at 1440p. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate is 142.5 FPS, which is actually lower than the 1440p High result of 137.7 FPS—a modest difference that suggests the CPU is keeping pace even at higher resolutions when settings are reduced.

The CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 97, with an average benchmark score of 79824. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7413 at 80041 (-0.3% delta) and the Intel Core i9-14900KF at 79245 (0.7% delta). The data shows that the i9-14900K's single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040, is critical for Evolve's frame generation at high refresh rates. The 32 threads are likely underutilized in this game, but the high boost clock ensures that the primary gaming threads have ample headroom. The result is that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting component, while at 4K, the GPU takes over.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 105th out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the top 6.2% of all configurations. This is a strong showing, but not a top-tier one, which is notable given the individual components' high benchmark percentiles—the CPU at 97 and the GPU at 88. The rank of 105 suggests that while this pairing is powerful, there are 104 other combos that achieve higher average frame rates in this specific game.

The ranking implies that Evolve is not a title that fully exploits the potential of this hardware combination. The game's 2015 release date means it was designed for older hardware, and the measured FPS data bears this out: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 333.3 FPS, which is likely beyond what most displays can even show. The 4K Ultra result of 56.8 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire measured set, which indicates that the combo is generally over-provisioned for this game. The rank of 105 out of 1695 combos likely reflects that many other high-end configurations achieve similar or better results because Evolve's engine does not scale perfectly with the latest hardware.

The delta between the GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 5070 Ti at 2.9% lower aggregate score, does not translate into a meaningful gap in Evolve because the game is not particularly demanding. The CPU's nearest rival, the EPYC 7413, is a server-class chip with a -0.3% delta, yet it is unlikely to perform differently in this game. The data suggests that the combo's rank is a function of the game's age and the diminishing returns of high-end hardware in legacy titles.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the limiting component at each resolution. At High settings, the progression is 200.7 FPS at 1080p, 137.7 FPS at 1440p, and 74.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 63 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p (a 31.4% reduction) and a further 63.3 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K (a 46.0% reduction). The near-identical absolute drops suggest a scaling pattern where each resolution doubling roughly halves the frame rate, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios.

At Low settings, the drops are more pronounced in absolute terms: 333.3 FPS at 1080p, 223.9 FPS at 1440p, and 130.2 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop of 109.4 FPS is larger than the High setting's drop, which indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is providing more frames that the GPU must then process, making the GPU bottleneck more apparent at lower resolutions. The 4K Low result of 130.2 FPS is still higher than the 1080p Ultra result of 142.5 FPS, which shows that settings have a greater impact on performance than resolution in this game.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is stark: 142.5 FPS at 1080p, 93.9 FPS at 1440p, and 56.8 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 85.7 FPS lower than 1080p Ultra, a 60.1% reduction. This dramatic drop indicates that Ultra settings at 4K push the GPU to its limits, and the RTX 4080 SUPER's 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at the highest fidelity. The limiting component at 1080p is the CPU, as evidenced by the 333.3 FPS Low result, while at 4K, the GPU is unequivocally the bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low at 333.3 FPS, Medium at 257.5 FPS, High at 200.7 FPS, and Ultra at 142.5 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 190.8 FPS, with the largest single-step drop being 56.8 FPS from Medium to High. This resolution shows the most headroom, with even Ultra clearing 140 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 223.9 FPS, Medium at 171.8 FPS, High at 137.7 FPS, and Ultra at 93.9 FPS. The spread narrows to 130 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls below 100 FPS, which is a notable drop from 1080p. The step from High to Ultra is 43.8 FPS, the largest across all settings at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 130.2 FPS, Medium at 98.7 FPS, High at 74.4 FPS, and Ultra at 56.8 FPS. The spread is 73.4 FPS, and all presets except Low fall below 100 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only measured configuration that fails to reach 60 FPS, making it a poor choice for smooth gameplay. The data shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs approximately 20-30% of the previous tier's performance, with the Ultra preset being the most expensive relative to its visual benefit.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The High preset at 74.4 FPS is the recommended choice for 4K. Ultra drops to 56.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, while Medium at 98.7 FPS offers higher frame rates but at a noticeable visual fidelity loss.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 53489 and 2.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 52086. Its percentile versus all GPUs is 88.

Q: Is the i9-14900K the bottleneck at 1080p in Evolve?

A: Yes, the data indicates the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The Low preset produces 333.3 FPS, which is 109.4 FPS higher than the 1440p Low result of 223.9 FPS, suggesting the GPU cannot keep up with the CPU's frame generation at this resolution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in Evolve?

A: The combo ranks 105th out of 1695 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.2% of all configurations. This is a strong result, though not top-tier, reflecting Evolve's age and the diminishing returns of high-end hardware.

Q: How much FPS is lost when going from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra?

A: The drop is 85.7 FPS, from 142.5 FPS at 1080p Ultra to 56.8 FPS at 4K Ultra, representing a 60.1% reduction. This demonstrates that Ultra settings at 4K are extremely demanding on the GPU.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM of the RTX 4080 SUPER matter for Evolve?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6X memory is more than sufficient for Evolve, a 2015 title. The game does not require this capacity, but the GPU's compute performance at 4K is the primary constraint, not VRAM allocation.