Evolve

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile delivers a performance profile that is heavily dictated by resolution and settings in Evolve. The data shows a clear transition from a CPU-bound scenario at 1080p to a GPU-bound scenario at 4K, with the 8 GB VRAM buffer becoming a critical factor at the highest settings. This combination ranks in the 54th percentile of tested configurations for this title, indicating a balanced but not exceptional pairing for the 2015 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals a predictable yet significant drop in performance as resolution increases, moving from a state of high refresh rate capability at 1080p to a barely playable experience at 4K Ultra. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 190 FPS, which drops to 147 FPS at Medium and 115 FPS at High. This scaling suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough frames to maintain very high output, but the GPU is still the primary limiter even at Low settings, as the frame rate is not unlimited.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain respectable but show a more pronounced GPU dependency. The average FPS at Low settings is 127, which is a 33% reduction from the 1080p Low result of 190 FPS. At Medium settings, the 1440p average is 99 FPS, a 33% drop from 147 FPS at 1080p. The High setting at 1440p yields 77 FPS, which is a 33% decrease from the 115 FPS seen at 1080p High. This consistent percentage drop across settings indicates that the rendering load is scaling uniformly with pixel count, confirming the GPU is becoming the bottleneck.

The transition to 3840x2160 (4K) is where the combo begins to struggle. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 72, which is a 43% reduction from the 1440p Low result. The Medium setting at 4K produces an average of 56 FPS, with a minimum of 48 and a maximum of 65 FPS, showing some frame time variance. The High setting at 4K drops to 44 FPS, and the Ultra setting plummets to 31 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper than from 1080p to 1440p, indicating that the GPU is hitting a hard performance wall, likely due to both compute limits and memory bandwidth saturation.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts decisively based on resolution. At 1080p, the system is likely limited by the CPU's single-thread performance, as the frame rates are high enough to expose any processing overhead. At 1440p, the load balances between CPU and GPU, but the GPU begins to take the lead. At 4K, the GPU is unequivocally the limiting factor, with the RTX 4070 Mobile's 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM proving insufficient for maintaining high frame rates at Ultra settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve a 60 FPS average?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with High settings produces an average of 77 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. At 3840x2160, only the Low setting (72 FPS) and Medium setting (56 FPS) come close to or exceed 60 FPS, with High and Ultra falling to 44 and 31 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the Ultra setting compare to High at 1920x1080?

A: At 1080p, the Ultra setting yields an average of 80 FPS, which is a 30% reduction compared to the High setting's 115 FPS average. This indicates a significant performance cost for the highest visual fidelity.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Mobile's VRAM a limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The data suggests that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 31, which is likely due to memory capacity and bandwidth constraints, as the jump from High (44 FPS) to Ultra (31 FPS) is a 30% performance hit.

Q: How does the combo's performance rank against all other tested configurations?

A: The comboRankInGame field indicates this specific combination of CPU and GPU ranks 2003 out of 3700 tested combos, placing it in the 54th percentile for Evolve.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured data for 2560x1440 with Medium settings shows an average of 99 FPS, with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 113 FPS, indicating a reasonably stable frame delivery.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo reaches an average of 190 FPS. This high frame rate suggests the CPU is capable of keeping up with the GPU, but the performance ceiling is still set by the GPU's rendering capability, as the frame rate does not exceed what the RTX 4070 Mobile can output.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the dominant component in this pairing for Evolve, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s, which is a critical specification for this game. The benchmark results show that as resolution increases, the GPU's memory subsystem becomes a bottleneck, especially at Ultra settings where the VRAM capacity and bandwidth are stressed.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1395 MHz and a boost of 1695 MHz, are modest for a 40-series part, but they are sufficient to drive high frame rates at 1080p. The passmark_g3d score of 19587 places the RTX 4070 Mobile in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals being the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (deltaPct 0%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (deltaPct -0.5%). This indicates that the mobile GPU performs on par with a desktop-class RX 6700 XT in synthetic benchmarks, but its performance in Evolve is more dependent on resolution.

The data shows that at 4K, the GPU's limitations are exposed. The 31 FPS average at Ultra is likely due to the 8 GB VRAM being insufficient for the texture and geometry data required at that resolution. The drop from 44 FPS at High to 31 FPS at Ultra is a 30% penalty, which is more severe than the 25% drop seen from Medium (56 FPS) to High (44 FPS). This suggests that the Ultra preset pushes the memory usage past a critical threshold, causing a significant performance collapse.

The GPU's 4608 shading units are ample for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but they are not enough to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K with high detail levels. The texture rate of 244.1 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 81.36 GPixel/s are high, but they are not sufficient to overcome the memory bandwidth limitations at 4K. The measured FPS data at 4K Medium (56 FPS) shows a minimum of 48 FPS, which indicates that the GPU can occasionally dip below playable thresholds, highlighting its struggle with 4K content.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the system is highly capable, with an average of 190 FPS at Low, 147 FPS at Medium, 115 FPS at High, and 80 FPS at Ultra. The Medium setting at 1080p shows a minimum of 125 FPS and a maximum of 169 FPS, suggesting a very stable experience with minimal frame time spikes.

At 2560x1440, the performance is still strong but begins to show the GPU's workload. The Low setting averages 127 FPS, Medium averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 113 FPS, High averages 77 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The Ultra setting at 1440p is the only one that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that users should stick to High or below for a smooth experience at this resolution.

The 3840x2160 results are the most telling. Low averages 72 FPS, Medium averages 56 FPS with a minimum of 48 and maximum of 65 FPS, High averages 44 FPS, and Ultra averages 31 FPS. The frame rate progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline, but the gap between Medium and High (12 FPS) is smaller than the gap between High and Ultra (13 FPS). This indicates that the Ultra preset is particularly demanding, likely due to increased texture quality and shadow detail that strain the 8 GB VRAM.

The data also reveals that the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is consistent across settings. At Low, the drop is 62% (from 190 to 72 FPS), at Medium it is 62% (from 147 to 56 FPS), at High it is 62% (from 115 to 44 FPS), and at Ultra it is 61% (from 80 to 31 FPS). This consistency suggests that the GPU's performance scaling is purely resolution-dependent, without any unexpected bottlenecks from the CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile ranks 2003 out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the 54th percentile. This ranking indicates that while the combo is above average, it is not a top-tier performer for this game. The rank suggests that there are 1697 other configurations that deliver higher frame rates, likely featuring more powerful desktop-class GPUs or CPUs with higher clock speeds.

The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 79 indicates that the Core Ultra 5 125H is a strong processor relative to the entire CPU market, but its mobile form factor and 28 W TDP limit its sustained performance. The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 73 is slightly lower, suggesting that the RTX 4070 Mobile is a good but not exceptional graphics processor. The combination of these two components results in a rank that is roughly in line with the average of their individual percentiles.

The ranking also implies that the combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it falls behind at 4K. The data shows that at 1080p High, the combo achieves 115 FPS, which is a solid result for competitive play. At 1440p High, the 77 FPS average is still respectable. However, the 4K Ultra result of 31 FPS is below the threshold for a playable experience, which likely contributes to the mid-pack ranking.

The combo's rank is influenced by the fact that Evolve is a 2015 title that may not be optimized for modern multi-core processors or high-end GPUs. The game's engine may not scale well with the 14 cores and 18 threads of the Core Ultra 5 125H, potentially leaving performance on the table. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is also a limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the game's Ultra preset appears to require more memory than is available.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H plays a secondary but crucial role in this combo's performance in Evolve. With 14 cores and 18 threads, the CPU offers substantial multi-threaded capability, but the game's performance is more dependent on single-thread speed. The CPU's base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.50 GHz are moderate for a mobile processor, and its passmark_single_thread score of 3399 is respectable but not exceptional.

The CPU's benchmark results, such as the cinebench_r23_multicore score of 12804.5, indicate strong multi-threaded performance, but Evolve likely does not utilize all 18 threads effectively. The passmark_physics score of 1439 is a more relevant metric for gaming, and it suggests that the CPU can handle physics calculations without bottlenecking the GPU at lower resolutions. The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 and the Intel Core i5-12600K, both of which have deltaPct values of -0.1% and -0.3% respectively, indicating that the Core Ultra 5 125H is statistically equivalent to these desktop parts in synthetic tests.

At 1080p Low, the CPU's performance is sufficient to allow the GPU to reach 190 FPS, but it is likely the limiting factor at this setting. If the CPU were faster, the frame rate might be higher, but the GPU's capabilities would eventually cap the output. At 1080p Ultra, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the 80 FPS average is more likely limited by the GPU's rendering load.

The CPU's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache are adequate for gaming, but the memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is a potential limitation. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support is standard, but the bandwidth is lower than what desktop CPUs offer. This could impact performance in scenarios where the CPU needs to stream large amounts of data to the GPU, but the measured FPS data suggests that this is not a significant issue in Evolve.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at 1080p, where the frame rates are high enough to expose any processing overhead. The fact that the combo achieves 190 FPS at Low settings but only 80 FPS at Ultra indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings, but the CPU is capable of feeding it enough data at lower settings. Overall, the Core Ultra 5 125H is a capable gaming CPU for this title, but its mobile design and 28 W TDP prevent it from delivering the same level of performance as a high-end desktop processor.