Evolve

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 produces a combination that is firmly positioned at the lower end of the performance spectrum for Evolve, ranking 2766th out of 2872 tested combos. This pairing struggles significantly at higher resolutions, and the data indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor throughout the tested settings. For a playable experience, users must prioritize lower settings and stick to 1920x1080 resolution, where the combo can deliver acceptable frame rates. The measured results show a clear hierarchy: Low settings at 1080p provide the only consistently fluid experience, while Ultra settings are largely unplayable at every resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this CPU-GPU combination in Evolve reveals a narrow window of viable configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 77 FPS, which is the highest score recorded across all tested settings and resolutions. This is the only configuration that approaches the kind of headroom most players would want for a fast-paced FPS title. The Medium preset at the same resolution drops to 60 FPS average, with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, which remains technically playable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes. High settings at 1080p fall to 47 FPS average, which is borderline, while Ultra at 1080p collapses to 32 FPS average, making it unsuitable for responsive gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the situation degrades sharply. Low settings produce 52 FPS average, which could be considered acceptable for less demanding players, but Medium drops to 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS, and High falls to 31 FPS. Ultra at 1440p is effectively unplayable at 22 FPS average. At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings manage only 29 FPS average, Medium sits at 23 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS, High falls to 18 FPS, and Ultra is a slideshow at 12 FPS. The clear recommendation based on the measured data is to run Evolve at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, as this is the only combination that provides a frame rate above 70 FPS. If visual fidelity is prioritized over smoothness, Medium at 1080p offers a reasonable compromise at 60 FPS average, but the minimum of 51 FPS suggests occasional stutters. No settings above Medium should be attempted at any resolution, and 1440p or 4K should be avoided entirely unless the user is willing to accept sub-30 FPS averages.

The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial. At 1080p, the difference is 45 FPS (77 vs 32), which represents a 140% improvement from Ultra to Low. At 1440p, the spread is 30 FPS (52 vs 22), and at 4K it is 17 FPS (29 vs 12). This indicates that the GPU is heavily taxed by the higher presets, and the performance cliff between Medium and High is particularly steep at 1080p, where the drop is 13 FPS. For the best experience per the measured rows, the Low preset at 1080p is the only unequivocal choice.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo in Evolve?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 77, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. This is the only measured configuration that exceeds 70 FPS, and it represents the best possible performance for this pairing.

Q: Is this combination capable of running Evolve at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that 3840x2160 is not a viable resolution for this combo. The best result at 4K is 29 FPS average on Low settings, while Medium drops to 23 FPS, High to 18 FPS, and Ultra to 12 FPS. All of these are below the threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating the GPU cannot handle 4K in this title.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset achieves an average of 32 FPS, which is 45 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 77 FPS. This represents a 58% reduction in performance when moving from Low to Ultra, making the Ultra preset impractical for this hardware combination.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for any configuration?

A: The only configurations with recorded minimum FPS values are the Medium presets. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 51 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 34 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 19 FPS. These minimums suggest that even the Medium preset can experience noticeable frame drops, particularly at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more in this game?

A: Based on the measured FPS scaling across resolutions, the GPU is the primary bottleneck. When resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p, the Low preset FPS drops from 77 to 52, a 32% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, it further drops to 29, another 44% reduction. This steep scaling with resolution is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario, as the CPU workload does not change as dramatically with pixel count.

Q: What is the playable settings ceiling for this combo?

A: The playable ceiling is Medium settings at 1920x1080, which delivers a 60 FPS average with a 51 FPS minimum. High settings at 1080p (47 FPS average) and Low settings at 1440p (52 FPS average) are borderline, but the Medium 1080p configuration is the highest quality preset that maintains a consistent 60 FPS average.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a pronounced and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, which strongly indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the limiting component in this pairing. Examining the Low preset, which places the least demand on the GPU, the average FPS at 1920x1080 is 77. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 52, a decrease of 25 FPS or 32.5%. At 3840x2160, the average falls to 29, another 23 FPS drop, representing a 44.2% reduction from 1440p. Across the full span from 1080p to 4K, the Low preset loses 48 FPS, or 62.3% of its original performance. This steep decline with each resolution step is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance, as the CPU (Intel Core Ultra 5 225) does not see a proportional increase in workload when the render target expands.

The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory. At 1080p, the average is 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 40 FPS, a 33.3% reduction. At 4K, it further declines to 23 FPS, a 42.5% drop from 1440p. The High preset follows the same pattern: 47 FPS at 1080p, 31 FPS at 1440p (34% lower), and 18 FPS at 4K (41.9% lower). The Ultra preset is the most extreme, starting at 32 FPS at 1080p, falling to 22 FPS at 1440p (31.3% lower), and bottoming out at 12 FPS at 4K (45.5% lower). The consistency of these percentage drops across all four presets reinforces the conclusion that resolution scaling is governed by the GPU’s rendering capabilities.

This scaling behavior also highlights that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any tested resolution. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between 1080p and 4K, since the CPU workload is largely independent of resolution. Instead, the FPS halves or more than halves when moving from 1080p to 4K, which is typical for a mid-range GPU like the RX 570. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225, with its 10 cores and 10 threads, provides sufficient processing power for Evolve, but the Polaris 20 GPU cannot keep pace with higher pixel counts. For users targeting 1440p or 4K, the data shows that even the lowest settings fail to reach 60 FPS, confirming that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 2766th out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 3.7% of all configurations. This rank is a direct reflection of the measured FPS data, which shows that the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions and settings. The percentile positioning indicates that the vast majority of other tested hardware pairings deliver better performance in this game. The rank of 2766 is particularly telling because it places this combo near the very bottom of the database, suggesting that users with this setup will have a significantly worse experience than most other players.

To contextualize this rank, consider the individual components. The CPU, Intel Core Ultra 5 225, has a percentileVsAllCpus of 85, meaning it performs better than 85% of all tested CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 36938, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (avgScore 36945, deltaPct 0), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (avgScore 37018, deltaPct -0.2), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (avgScore 37093, deltaPct -0.4), and Intel Core i9-12900T (avgScore 37112, deltaPct -0.5). These rivals are all within 0.5% of the Ultra 5 225’s average score, indicating that the CPU is a competent mid-range processor. However, the GPU, AMD Radeon RX 570, has a percentileVsAllGpus of 74, with an average benchmark score of 28766. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (avgScore 28874, deltaPct -0.4), AMD Radeon R9 M295X (avgScore 28580, deltaPct 0.7), AMD Radeon RX 470 (avgScore 28996, deltaPct -0.8), and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (avgScore 28421, deltaPct 1.2). These rivals are also closely matched, but the RX 570’s 74th percentile is lower than the CPU’s 85th percentile, suggesting that the GPU is the weaker link.

The combo rank of 2766 out of 2872 is far lower than what either component’s individual percentile would suggest. This discrepancy arises because Evolve is a GPU-intensive title, and the RX 570’s relatively modest performance (particularly its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth) becomes a severe bottleneck. The CPU’s strong benchmark scores cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations in a game that scales heavily with resolution and settings. In the context of the database, this combo is outclassed by nearly every other pairing, and users seeking better performance would need to upgrade the GPU first, as the CPU has ample headroom to support a more powerful graphics card.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU’s benchmark results show strong single-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4412. Multi-threaded performance is also respectable, with Cinebench R23 multi-core scoring 25891 and Passmark multithread scoring 30459. These numbers place the CPU in the 85th percentile of all tested CPUs, indicating that it is more than capable of handling the computational demands of Evolve.

In the context of this specific game, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that performance scales dramatically with resolution, which is a hallmark of GPU-bound workloads. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 77 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 29 FPS. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see less variation across resolutions, as the CPU workload is primarily determined by game logic, physics, and draw calls rather than pixel count. The 10 cores and 10 threads of the Ultra 5 225 are likely underutilized in Evolve, which is a 2015 title not known for heavy multi-threading. The high boost clock of 4.90 GHz ensures that any single-threaded tasks are handled efficiently, but the GPU remains the limiting factor.

The CPU’s cache hierarchy, with 20 MB of shared L3 and 3 MB of L2 per core, provides ample bandwidth for game data, and its DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth ensures that memory bandwidth is not a constraint. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Ryzen 5 5500X3D, have nearly identical average benchmark scores (36945 and 37018, respectively), with deltaPct values of 0 and -0.2. This indicates that the Ultra 5 225 performs on par with these alternatives, meaning any differences in Evolve’s FPS would be negligible. The data suggests that the CPU is not the reason for the low combo rank; rather, the RX 570’s inability to keep up with the game’s rendering demands is the primary culprit. For users considering an upgrade, the CPU could easily drive a more powerful GPU, but as configured, the CPU’s potential is wasted in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Evolve with this combo provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the best result with an average FPS of 77, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves an average of 60 FPS, with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, indicating a stable experience with some variance. High settings at 1080p drop to an average of 47 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less smooth. Ultra settings at 1080p are the worst at this resolution, with an average of only 32 FPS, making the game feel sluggish and unresponsive. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 45 FPS, demonstrating the significant performance cost of higher visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, all presets see a substantial decline. Low settings produce an average of 52 FPS, which is 25 FPS lower than the same preset at 1080p. Medium settings at 1440p average 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. This minimum of 34 FPS is concerning, as it suggests that demanding scenes can cause noticeable stuttering. High settings at 1440p average 31 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the absolute minimum for playability. Ultra settings at 1440p average just 22 FPS, making them completely unsuitable for actual gameplay. The resolution jump from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 30-35% of performance across all presets, confirming the GPU’s limitations.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor, and no preset achieves a playable frame rate. Low settings average 29 FPS, which is technically above 30 FPS but only marginally, and the frame pacing is likely to be inconsistent. Medium settings at 4K average 23 FPS, with a minimum of 19 FPS and a maximum of 26 FPS. The minimum of 19 FPS indicates severe drops that would render the game nearly unplayable. High settings average 18 FPS, and Ultra settings average just 12 FPS. The 4K results show that this combo is simply not equipped for high-resolution gaming, as even the lowest settings fail to maintain a smooth experience. The data across all resolutions and settings points to one conclusion: this pairing is only viable at 1080p with Low or Medium settings, and any attempt to push higher will result in sub-30 FPS averages that detract from the gameplay experience.