Evolve

# Evolve with Intel Core Ultra 5 125H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of a mobile Meteor Lake CPU and a flagship desktop Ada Lovelace GPU produces a highly uneven performance profile in Evolve, with the RTX 4090 dominating most scenes while the Core Ultra 5 125H occasionally becomes a limiting factor at lower resolutions. The combo ranks 599th out of 2,872 tested configurations in this game, placing it in the top 21 percent of all pairings, which reflects the GPU's enormous headroom rather than any particular synergy between the two components.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 599 out of 2,872 tested combinations places it in the upper quintile of all systems evaluated for Evolve. This is a strong showing, but the ranking does not tell the full story. The RTX 4090 is the primary driver of this position; the GPU alone sits at the 88th percentile among all tested graphics cards, while the Core Ultra 5 125H sits at the 79th percentile among CPUs. The delta between those percentile positions hints at the imbalance: the GPU is nearly a decade-percentile ahead of the CPU in their respective pools.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 125H has an average benchmark score of 27,507, which is essentially identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 at 27,535 (a -0.1 percent delta) and the Intel Core i5-12600K at 27,578 (a -0.3 percent delta). The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G trails slightly at 27,382, putting the Core Ultra 5 125H 0.5 percent ahead of that part. These are all within a rounding error of each other, meaning the CPU's raw compute performance is firmly in the mid-range desktop territory, not the high-end class that the RTX 4090 typically pairs with.

The GPU's nearest rivals, by average benchmark score, are the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60,326 (0 percent delta from the RTX 4090's 60,347), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 60,140 (0.3 percent delta), and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M at 61,896 (-2.5 percent delta). These comparisons are based on aggregate benchmarks, not Evolve-specific results, but they contextualize the GPU's raw capability: the RTX 4090 is effectively tied with professional workstation cards in synthetic tests, yet in Evolve, the measured frame rates suggest the game's engine does not fully exploit this hardware.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 brings 24 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 384-bit bus, yielding 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU's base clock runs at 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and the memory operates at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The silicon itself is the AD102 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process, containing 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs. The raw throughput figures — 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate — are among the highest of any consumer GPU ever tested.

In Evolve, this hardware translates to frame rates that are playable but not exceptional at 4K. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is 61, which is exactly at the threshold of smooth 60 Hz gameplay. The GPU's 24 GB VRAM is far more than Evolve requires; the game was released in 2015, and its texture budgets are modest by modern standards. The memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is likewise overkill for this title. The bottleneck at 4K is not memory capacity or bandwidth — it is the game engine's ability to feed the GPU's massive shader array.

The benchmark results for the RTX 4090 show a Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 26,613, placing it at the 88th percentile among all GPUs. The DirectX 12 API score of 150 is notably low compared to the DirectX 11 score of 326, which suggests that Evolve's rendering path, likely optimized for older DirectX versions, does not benefit from the Ada Lovelace architecture's newer features. This is consistent with the measured FPS: the GPU is capable of far more, but the game cannot utilize it.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 263 FPS. Dropping to 2560x1440 Low yields 177 FPS, a 32.7 percent reduction, and at 3840x2160 Low, the average is 101 FPS, another 42.9 percent drop. This steep decline — from 263 to 101 FPS across a 4x pixel count increase — indicates that the GPU is the dominant limiting factor at all resolutions, even at Low settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would plateau or decline much less steeply as resolution increases.

At High settings, the pattern persists. The average FPS at 1080p is 160, at 1440p it is 107 (a 33.1 percent drop), and at 4K it is 61 (a 43.0 percent drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High settings points to a GPU-bound scenario throughout. The RTX 4090's 24 GB frame buffer is never stressed, but the shading workload scales directly with pixel count, and the GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute becomes the limiting resource.

The Medium settings row provides additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 204 with a minimum of 174 and maximum of 235. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 137 with a minimum of 116 and maximum of 157. At 4K Medium, the average is 78 with a minimum of 66 and maximum of 90. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS narrows as resolution increases, which is typical of GPU-bound workloads where frame time variance is driven by rendering complexity rather than CPU scheduling.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that Ultra settings at any resolution produce suboptimal results. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS is 42, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average improves to 74 FPS, but this comes with a substantial performance cost relative to High settings at the same resolution, which delivers 107 FPS. At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average is 111 FPS, which is playable but significantly lower than the 160 FPS achievable at High.

The High preset emerges as the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. At 1440p High, the combo delivers 107 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and leaves headroom for frame rate drops. At 4K High, the average is 61 FPS, which is borderline but acceptable for a title like Evolve that does not demand twitch-reflex precision. The Medium preset offers a safer margin: at 4K Medium, the average is 78 FPS with a minimum of 66, ensuring that even the worst-case frame times stay above the 60 FPS floor.

For users prioritizing frame rate stability, Medium at 4K is the recommended choice, as it provides a 27.9 percent higher average FPS than High at 4K (78 vs. 61) while maintaining a minimum FPS of 66. For users with 1440p displays, High is clearly superior to Ultra, offering a 44.6 percent higher average FPS (107 vs. 74) with presumably similar visual quality in a 2015 title. The Low preset at any resolution is unnecessary given the GPU's headroom, but it does demonstrate the ceiling: 263 FPS at 1080p Low shows the combo can drive very high refresh rates if the visual settings are sacrificed.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 263 FPS, which is the single highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 204 FPS on average, with a minimum of 174 and maximum of 235. High settings drop to 160 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 111 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 57.8 percent reduction in average FPS (263 to 111), which is a steep penalty for the visual upgrades that Ultra provides in this game.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a clear step down. Low settings average 177 FPS, Medium averages 137 FPS with a minimum of 116 and maximum of 157, High averages 107 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 58.2 percent (177 to 74), nearly identical to the 1080p scaling. This consistency suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline scales predictably with both resolution and settings, with no unexpected cliffs or bottlenecks.

At 3840x2160, the combo finally encounters the GPU's limits. Low settings average 101 FPS, which is still smooth, but Medium drops to 78 FPS (minimum 66, maximum 90). High settings average 61 FPS, and Ultra falls to 42 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 58.4 percent (101 to 42), again consistent with the lower resolutions. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (66) is the only measured minimum across all resolutions, as the dataset does not include minimum FPS for Low, High, or Ultra at any resolution other than Medium.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a 14-core, 18-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's TDP is 28 watts, which is characteristic of a mobile part, and it supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG graphics with 96 execution units are irrelevant given the discrete RTX 4090, but the CPU's PCIe Gen 5 interface provides ample bandwidth for the GPU.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 125H scores 12,804.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,647.5 in single-core. The Passmark multi-thread score is 21,100, and the single-thread score is 3,399. These numbers place the CPU at the 79th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 27,507. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, scores 27,535, a delta of -0.1 percent, meaning the Core Ultra 5 125H is statistically identical in aggregate performance.

In Evolve, the CPU's role is secondary. The game is not CPU-intensive by modern standards, and the measured FPS at 1080p Low (263 FPS) approaches the practical ceiling for many displays. At 1080p, a CPU-bound scenario would typically show FPS stagnation as settings decrease, but the data shows a clear progression from 111 FPS at Ultra to 263 FPS at Low, indicating the GPU is still the primary constraint. If the Core Ultra 5 125H were the bottleneck, the FPS at 1080p Low would be similar to 1080p Ultra, which is not the case. The CPU's 18 threads and 4.50 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed the RTX 4090 even at high frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Evolve?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at High settings delivers 107 FPS average, which balances visual quality and performance. At 4K High, the average is 61 FPS, which is playable but leaves no headroom for frame rate drops.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 5 125H has an average benchmark score of 27,507, which is -0.1 percent versus the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 at 27,535 and -0.3 percent versus the Intel Core i5-12600K at 27,578. It is 0.5 percent ahead of the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G at 27,382.

Q: Why does Ultra settings perform so poorly at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS is 42, which is 31.1 percent lower than High at the same resolution (61 FPS). The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of compute is insufficient to maintain smooth frame rates at Ultra settings with a 4K pixel count.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck at all tested resolutions. The FPS drops from 263 at 1080p Low to 101 at 4K Low (a 61.6 percent reduction) scale directly with pixel count, which indicates GPU-bound rendering. The CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads are sufficient to keep the GPU fed.

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

A: The combo ranks 599th out of 2,872 tested combinations, placing it in the top 20.9 percent. The GPU alone is at the 88th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 79th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 4090 have and does it matter for Evolve?

A: The RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. Evolve is a 2015 title with modest texture requirements, so the 24 GB capacity is far more than needed, and the memory bandwidth is never a limiting factor in the measured FPS.