Evolve

Evolve, a 2015 FPS built around asymmetric multiplayer hunting, places heavy demands on both processor and graphics hardware. The benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the AMD Radeon 890M integrated GPU shows a system that can deliver playable frame rates, but only with careful settings management. Across the measured resolutions, the combo’s performance ranges from a smooth 79 FPS average at 1080p Low to an unplayable 13 FPS average at 4K Ultra, indicating a clear performance ceiling dictated primarily by the integrated graphics solution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for this combo reveal a clear hierarchy of playability across the four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the data shows that Low settings produce an average of 79 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this system at any resolution or preset. This is the only configuration that breaks the 60 FPS threshold comfortably, making it the definitive choice for competitive play or for users who prioritize smoothness above all else. Medium settings at 1080p still deliver a respectable 61 FPS average, with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS, which is adequate for most gaming scenarios. High settings drop the average to 48 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less fluid, while Ultra settings fall to 33 FPS, a level that introduces visible stutter in fast-paced action.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the data strongly suggests that 1080p Medium is the sweet spot for this hardware combination. It offers a 61 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS target, and the 52 FPS minimum indicates that even during demanding scenes, the frame rate rarely dips into uncomfortable territory. The jump from Medium to High costs 13 FPS on average (from 61 to 48), a 21% reduction that may not be worth the visual gains in a fast-paced game like Evolve where reaction time matters. Conversely, the jump from Low to Medium costs 18 FPS (from 79 to 61), but the visual fidelity improvement is substantial, making Medium the balanced recommendation.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. Low settings produce a 53 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. Medium settings drop to 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS, which is borderline for a shooter. High settings yield 32 FPS, and Ultra falls to 22 FPS. None of these 1440p options reach the 60 FPS target, so users with 1440p displays should either drop to 1080p or accept a compromise. The data indicates that 1440p Low is the only viable option here, but it still falls short of the smoothness offered by 1080p Medium. For 4K resolutions, the results are uniformly poor: Low averages 30 FPS, Medium 23 FPS, High 18 FPS, and Ultra 13 FPS. These numbers are below playable thresholds for a shooter, so 4K is not recommended for this combo.

The measured rows also show that the minimum FPS values are only provided for Medium settings at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 52 FPS, which is a healthy margin above the 30 FPS that many consider the absolute floor for playability. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 35 FPS, still above that floor but with less headroom. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 20 FPS, which is choppy and likely to impair gameplay. This pattern suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent frame pacing relative to their averages, making it the most predictable preset for this hardware.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is the primary bottleneck in this system for Evolve. The GPU’s benchmark data shows a PassMark G3D score of 8076, placing it in the 45th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (avg score 9221, deltaPct -0.1), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (avg score 9273, deltaPct -0.7), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (avg score 9294, deltaPct -0.9). These deltas are all within 1% of the 890M’s average benchmark score of 9210, indicating that this integrated GPU performs roughly on par with those older discrete cards in synthetic tests.

In Evolve specifically, the GPU’s impact is evident in the scaling of frame rates with resolution. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings drops the average from 61 FPS to 41 FPS, a 33% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings drops the average from 41 FPS to 23 FPS, a 44% reduction. This steep decline as pixel count increases is classic GPU-bound behavior, confirming that the Radeon 890M is the limiting component. The GPU’s boost clock of 2900 MHz and base clock of 400 MHz are notable, but the memory configuration is "System Shared" with "System Dependent" bandwidth, meaning the GPU relies on the system’s DDR5 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This shared memory arrangement is a significant factor in the performance drop at higher resolutions, as the memory bandwidth available to the GPU is not fixed and can be contended by other system processes.

The GPU’s architecture is RDNA 3.5 on a 4 nm process, with 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It also features 16 ray tracing cores, though Evolve, being a 2015 title, does not utilize ray tracing. The FP32 performance is 5.939 TFLOPS, which provides a theoretical baseline for its compute capability. The PassMark DirectX 11 score of 73 is particularly relevant, as Evolve is a DirectX 11-era game. This score, while relatively low compared to modern discrete GPUs, is sufficient for the game at lower settings. The DirectX 12 score of 37 and DirectX 10 score of 33 suggest that the GPU’s performance is consistent across API generations, but the game’s engine likely benefits most from the DirectX 11 path.

The GPU’s thermal design power is 15 W, which is typical for an integrated solution, and it uses no power connectors, relying entirely on the system’s power delivery. This limits its sustained performance under load, but for a game like Evolve, the measured results show that it can handle 1080p Medium without issue. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 590 is a modern benchmark that may not directly translate to Evolve’s older engine, but it reinforces the GPU’s position as a low-to-mid-range performer.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and the AMD Radeon 890M ranks 2711 out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 6% of all systems tested. This ranking is a direct reflection of the integrated GPU’s limitations, as the CPU is comparatively strong. The combo’s position indicates that while it can run the game, it does so at the lower end of the performance spectrum. The data shows that this is not a system built for high-refresh-rate or high-resolution gaming in Evolve, but rather one that can manage the game at modest settings.

The rank of 2711 out of 2872 means that 161 combos perform worse than this one, while 2710 perform better. This places the system in a niche where it can still play the game, but users should have realistic expectations. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 79th among all CPUs (with an average benchmark score of 27507) is strong, but the GPU’s 45th percentile ranking drags the overall gaming experience down. In a game like Evolve, which is not particularly CPU-intensive by modern standards, the GPU is the deciding factor, and the 890M’s performance is the reason for the low combo rank.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (avg score 27535, deltaPct -0.1), the Intel Core i5-12600K (avg score 27578, deltaPct -0.3), and the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (avg score 27578, deltaPct -0.3), all of which are within 0.3% of the Core Ultra 5 125H’s score. This indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo; its processing power is comparable to those desktop-class chips. However, those CPUs would typically be paired with much stronger discrete GPUs, which is why this combo ranks so low. The data suggests that if the CPU were paired with a better GPU, the combo’s rank in Evolve would improve dramatically, but as tested, the integrated graphics hold it back.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The data shows that Medium settings at 1920x1080 provide a 61 FPS average with a minimum of 52 FPS, making it the best balance of visual quality and performance. Low settings offer a higher 79 FPS average, but the visual trade-off is significant. High settings drop to 48 FPS, and Ultra falls to 33 FPS, both of which are less desirable for a fast-paced FPS.

Q: Can this system run Evolve at 4K?

A: The measured FPS rows show that 4K performance is poor. Low settings average 30 FPS, Medium averages 23 FPS with a 20 FPS minimum, High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 13 FPS. None of these are playable for a competitive shooter, so 4K is not recommended for this combo.

Q: How does the Radeon 890M compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Radeon 890M has an average benchmark score of 9210, with its nearest rivals being the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (9221, deltaPct -0.1), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (9273, deltaPct -0.7), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (9294, deltaPct -0.9). All are within 1% of the 890M’s score, indicating similar synthetic performance levels.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo?

A: The data clearly indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The Core Ultra 5 125H has a 79th percentile ranking among CPUs with an average benchmark score of 27507, while the Radeon 890M sits in the 45th percentile. The FPS drops from 61 at 1080p Medium to 41 at 1440p Medium and 23 at 4K Medium, a pattern consistent with GPU-bound performance.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Low settings?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 Low settings produce an average of 53 FPS. This is playable, but it lacks the headroom of the 1080p Medium preset, which achieves 61 FPS with a higher minimum frame rate.

Q: Does the CPU’s 14-core configuration help in Evolve?

A: The Core Ultra 5 125H has 14 cores and 18 threads, which is a high core count for a mobile processor. However, Evolve’s benchmark results, as shown by the combo rank of 2711 out of 2872, indicate that the game’s performance is not limited by core count. The CPU’s single-thread score of 1647.5 in Cinebench R23 suggests adequate per-core performance, but the GPU’s capabilities are the primary constraint in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a stark resolution scaling pattern for this combo. At Medium settings, the average frame rates are 61 FPS at 1920x1080, 41 FPS at 2560x1440, and 23 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 44% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 62%, which is a substantial reduction that highlights the GPU’s inability to handle higher pixel counts.

This scaling pattern is indicative of a system that is heavily GPU-limited. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the CPU’s workload does not change significantly with resolution. Instead, the dramatic drops in FPS as resolution increases are a classic sign that the Radeon 890M is struggling to fill the additional pixels. The GPU’s memory being "System Shared" further exacerbates this issue, as higher resolutions require more memory bandwidth, which is shared with the system and not dedicated to the GPU.

The data also shows that the scaling is not linear. The drop from 1080p to 1440p (20 FPS) is smaller than the drop from 1440p to 4K (18 FPS) in absolute terms, but the percentage drop is larger in the latter case. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is hitting a hard limit where even the lowest settings (30 FPS average at Low) cannot maintain playable frame rates. The minimum FPS values, available only for Medium settings, reinforce this: 52 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 20 FPS at 4K. The 4K minimum is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, making that resolution impractical.

For users with 1440p displays, the data suggests that dropping to 1080p is the better choice if frame rate is a priority. The difference between 1440p Low (53 FPS) and 1080p Medium (61 FPS) is 8 FPS, but the latter offers better visual quality and a higher minimum frame rate. Similarly, 1080p High (48 FPS) is close to 1440p Low (53 FPS) in average FPS, but the 1080p option provides a more stable experience due to the lower resolution’s reduced GPU load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a 14-core, 18-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 7 nm process. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, with a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, and it has a thermal design power of 28 W. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The memory support is DDR5, with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. These specifications place it as a strong mobile processor, and its benchmark results confirm this.

In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 12804.5 in multicore and 1647.5 in single-core. The multicore score is particularly strong, reflecting the 14-core design, while the single-core score indicates solid per-thread performance. The PassMark multithread score of 21100 and single-thread score of 3399 further reinforce this. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 79th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27507, places it slightly below the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (27535, deltaPct -0.1) and Intel Core i5-12600K (27578, deltaPct -0.3), but above the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G (27382, deltaPct 0.5). These deltas are all within 0.5%, indicating that the Core Ultra 5 125H performs essentially on par with those desktop CPUs in general benchmarks.

In Evolve, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle game logic, physics, and AI. The game was released in 2015, and its multi-threaded nature can utilize multiple cores, but it is not as demanding as modern titles. The CPU’s 14 cores and 18 threads are more than sufficient for Evolve, and the data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck. The combo’s rank of 2711 out of 2872 is driven by the GPU, not the CPU. The CPU’s strong performance in single-threaded tasks (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1647.5) ensures that the game’s main thread, which often handles a significant portion of the work in older engines, will not be a limiting factor.

The CPU’s integrated graphics are the Arc Xe-LPG 96EU, but the benchmark system uses the AMD Radeon 890M as the GPU, suggesting a hybrid configuration or an external GPU setup. Regardless, the CPU’s processing power is ample for Evolve. The PassMark data compression score of 236209 and encryption score of 14251 indicate strong general-purpose performance, which can help with game loading times and background tasks, but these do not directly impact in-game FPS. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is also shared with the GPU, which is a potential limitation, but for Evolve’s requirements, it is sufficient to maintain the measured frame rates at lower resolutions.

The CPU’s boost clock of 4.50 GHz is high for a mobile chip, and it helps maintain consistent frame rates in scenarios where the GPU is not fully saturated. However, the data shows that even with this boost clock, the GPU’s limitations prevent the system from achieving high frame rates at 1440p or 4K. Ultimately, the Core Ultra 5 125H is a capable processor for Evolve, but its performance is wasted on the Radeon 890M’s integrated graphics, which cap the gaming experience at 1080p Medium settings for a smooth experience.