Evolve

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a high-refresh-rate experience in Evolve, a 2015 FPS title. Benchmark data shows this combination ranks in the 360th position out of 1695 tested combos, placing it in the top ~21% of all configurations. The measured frames per second (FPS) across resolutions indicate that this pairing is exceptionally strong for 1080p and 1440p gaming, while 4K performance remains playable but demands careful settings selection. The data reveals a clear scaling pattern where the RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and the i9-14900K's 24 cores work together to push high frame rates, though the game's age means CPU overhead becomes a factor at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo based on the measured data?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the sweet spot, delivering 116.3 FPS on High settings and 189.6 FPS on Low, balancing visual quality with high refresh rates. At 1920x1080, the combo reaches 281.8 FPS on Low, but the 1440p results remain above 78 FPS even at Ultra.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5070 has an average benchmark score of 41687, placing it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, while trailing the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 0.5% and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 0.7%.

Q: What is the CPU's standing among its closest competitors?

A: The i9-14900K has an average benchmark score of 79824, which is 0.7% behind the Intel Core i9-14900KF and 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF. It also sits 0.9% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and 0.3% behind the AMD EPYC 7413.

Q: Does the combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the data shows 43.6 FPS at 3840x2160 on Ultra, which is technically playable but below the 60 FPS threshold. Dropping to High settings at 4K raises this to 67.1 FPS, while Medium provides 85.3 FPS.

Q: How significant is the frame rate jump from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At High settings, the drop from 170.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 116.3 FPS at 2560x1440 represents a 31.8% reduction. The Ultra setting shows a similar pattern, falling from 121.1 FPS to 78.5 FPS, a 35.2% decrease.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested GPUs?

A: The RTX 5070 sits in the 83rd percentile versus all GPUs, indicating it outperforms the majority of graphics cards in the database. This percentile, combined with the CPU's 97th percentile ranking, explains the combo's strong in-game performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the High preset offers the best balance for most users, providing 116.3 FPS at 1440p and 170.5 FPS at 1080p. These numbers exceed the standard 60 FPS target by a wide margin while maintaining visual fidelity. The Medium preset is a viable alternative for those seeking higher refresh rates, delivering 146.5 FPS at 1440p and 218 FPS at 1080p, but the jump from High to Medium yields diminishing visual returns for the additional frame rate.

For 4K displays, the High preset is the recommended choice, as it produces 67.1 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 43.6 FPS, which may cause noticeable stuttering in fast-paced FPS gameplay. The Low preset serves as a fallback for competitive play at 1440p, reaching 189.6 FPS, but the visual degradation is substantial given the game's age.

The data indicates that the Ultra preset is best reserved for 1080p gaming, where it hits 121.1 FPS, or for 1440p users who prioritize image quality over frame rate, accepting 78.5 FPS. Across all resolutions, the scaling from Medium to High is more efficient than from High to Ultra, suggesting the High preset captures most of the visual improvements without the steep performance cost.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB205 chip manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, with 6144 shading units and 48 ray tracing cores. Memory consists of 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s, which is substantial for a game from 2015.

The GPU's role in Evolve becomes clear when examining the measured FPS across settings. At 4K, the difference between Low and High settings is 41 FPS (108.1 vs 67.1), while the jump from High to Ultra costs 23.5 FPS (67.1 vs 43.6). This scaling pattern suggests the RTX 5070's 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game's textures, as the performance drop is more likely tied to the GPU's compute throughput rather than memory capacity.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its capability: it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 29137 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 185269 and Vulkan score of 179413 further indicate strong compute performance. At 83rd percentile versus all GPUs, the RTX 5070 outperforms its nearest rivals in raw benchmarks, though the in-game results show that the CPU also plays a critical role at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination holds a rank of 360 out of 1695 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the 78.8th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the hardware's ability to deliver high frame rates, particularly at 1080p and 1440p, where the measured FPS exceeds 116 on High settings.

The combo's ranking is influenced by both components' strong individual standings. The CPU sits in the 97th percentile versus all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 83rd percentile versus all GPUs. The slight gap between these percentiles suggests that the i9-14900K may be overqualified for this game, as its 24 cores and 32 threads provide far more processing power than Evolve likely requires.

When compared to other combos, this configuration's 360th rank out of 1695 means it outperforms approximately 1335 other tested combinations. The data shows that the combo's strength lies in its ability to maintain high frame rates even at 1440p, where it achieves 116.3 FPS on High, a result that places it well ahead of many mid-range configurations that struggle to exceed 60 FPS at this resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 14th Gen processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, featuring 24 cores and 32 threads. It runs at a base clock of 3.20 GHz and boosts up to 6.00 GHz, with a 36 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores are exceptional, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 49872 and a single-core score of 7040, along with a Geekbench multicore score of 20370.

In Evolve, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the frame rates at 1080p versus higher resolutions. At 1920x1080 on Low settings, the combo reaches 281.8 FPS, which is nearly 2.6 times the 108.1 FPS achieved at 4K Low. This gap indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU's 6.00 GHz boost clock is capable of feeding the GPU with enough frames to saturate its rendering pipeline.

The CPU's 97th percentile ranking versus all CPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 79824, places it within 0.7% of the Intel Core i9-14900KF, which is its closest rival. The data shows that the i9-14900K's single-thread performance, measured at 4697 in Passmark, is particularly relevant for a 2015 FPS game like Evolve, which likely relies on a few fast cores rather than the full 24-core complement.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 281.8 FPS, Medium reaches 218 FPS, High achieves 170.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 121.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 56.9% reduction in frame rate, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High at 47.5 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured FPS shows a proportional decrease across all settings. Low settings yield 189.6 FPS, Medium hits 146.5 FPS, High delivers 116.3 FPS, and Ultra reaches 78.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 111.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes more of a bottleneck as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low settings still produce a playable 108.1 FPS, while Medium delivers 85.3 FPS. High settings drop to 67.1 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS target, but Ultra falls to 43.6 FPS, making it the only setting that fails to reach playable frame rates. The transition from High to Ultra at 4K costs 23.5 FPS, which is the steepest penalty for a single settings change in the dataset.

The data reveals that the combo's performance at 1440p High (116.3 FPS) is nearly identical to its performance at 1080p Ultra (121.1 FPS), suggesting that users can achieve similar frame rates at higher resolutions by lowering one setting tier. Similarly, 4K High (67.1 FPS) closely matches the 1440p Ultra result (78.5 FPS), with a 11.4 FPS difference that favors the lower resolution.