Evolve

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination delivers a striking performance profile in Evolve, a 2015 FPS title. The measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at 4K but transitions to a more balanced state at lower resolutions. The analysis below interprets the measured FPS rows, contextualizes the component roles, and explains how this pairing ranks among thousands of tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS deltas across resolutions tell a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 333 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 224 FPS, a reduction of 109 FPS (approximately 33%). At 4K Low, the average falls to 127 FPS, which is another 97 FPS drop (approximately 43%) from the 1440p figure. These are steep declines, but they are not linear, which suggests the rendering pipeline is becoming increasingly constrained by the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth as pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern is even more revealing at Ultra settings. The 1080p Ultra average is 140 FPS, which drops to 94 FPS at 1440p Ultra (a 46 FPS or 33% reduction), and then plummets to 54 FPS at 4K Ultra (a 40 FPS or 43% reduction from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops (33% from 1080p to 1440p, 43% from 1440p to 4K) across both Low and Ultra presets indicate that the GPU is the primary limiting component throughout the resolution range. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat at lower resolutions and only decline once the GPU becomes saturated.

The data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle 4K textures without a catastrophic frame rate collapse, but the sheer pixel throughput required at 3840x2160 overwhelms the shader units. The 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS is playable but far from the high-refresh-rate territory the system achieves at 1080p. Interestingly, the 4K Medium preset yields 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS, indicating that the jump from Medium to Ultra at 4K costs 45 FPS, which is a substantial penalty for what is often a marginal visual gain in a title from this era.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of playable experiences. For users prioritizing a smooth frame rate above all else, the 1080p Low preset at 333 FPS is the clear choice, though it likely sacrifices visual fidelity. However, the data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p Medium, the average is 258 FPS with a minimum of 220 FPS, ensuring no dips below the typical 144 Hz or 165 Hz refresh rate of modern monitors. At 1440p Medium, the average is 173 FPS with a minimum of 147 FPS, which still comfortably exceeds 144 Hz.

The High preset is a viable alternative for those wanting better textures. At 1080p High, the average is 203 FPS, and at 1440p High, it drops to 136 FPS. The 1440p High figure is still above 120 FPS, making it suitable for high-refresh displays, but the minimum frame time data is not provided for this preset, so the consistency is unknown. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, and the data suggests it is only recommended for users with 1080p displays who want maximum visual detail; the 140 FPS average is still competitive, but the 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS is best avoided unless the user has a 60 Hz display and values image quality over responsiveness.

For 4K users, the Medium preset at 99 FPS is the sweet spot. The 4K High preset at 77 FPS is acceptable, but the 4K Ultra preset at 54 FPS is marginal. The data implies that Evolve’s Ultra settings are not efficiently scaled, as the performance cost from Medium to Ultra (45 FPS at 4K) is far greater than the cost from High to Ultra (23 FPS at 4K). This suggests the Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately heavy on the GPU without a corresponding visual payoff in the benchmark results.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 333, recorded at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming in Evolve?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 99 with a minimum of 84. At 4K High, the average is 77 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset yields only 54 FPS.

Q: How does the 1440p Medium result compare to the 1080p Ultra result?

A: The 1440p Medium average is 173 FPS, which is 33 FPS higher than the 1080p Ultra average of 140 FPS. This indicates that the Medium preset at a higher resolution outperforms the Ultra preset at a lower resolution.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 84 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Medium settings. No other preset has a reported minimum FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more at 1080p?

A: The data shows a 130 FPS difference between 1080p Low (333 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (140 FPS), indicating that the GPU is heavily involved even at 1080p. The CPU is not the primary limiter at any tested resolution, as the frame rate scales consistently with GPU load.

Q: What is the most consistent preset based on min/max FPS?

A: The 1080p Medium preset shows a minimum of 220 FPS and a maximum of 297 FPS, a spread of 77 FPS. The 1440p Medium preset shows a minimum of 147 FPS and a maximum of 199 FPS, a spread of 52 FPS. The 4K Medium preset shows a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 113 FPS, a spread of 29 FPS, making it the most consistent in absolute terms.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset reveals a systematic progression across resolutions and settings. Starting at 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 333 FPS average, the Medium preset achieves 258 FPS (with a 220-297 FPS range), the High preset achieves 203 FPS, and the Ultra preset achieves 140 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a total degradation of 193 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High (55 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the pattern is similar but compressed. Low produces 224 FPS, Medium produces 173 FPS (with a 147-199 FPS range), High produces 136 FPS, and Ultra produces 94 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 130 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p but still significant. The Medium preset retains a minimum above 144 FPS, making it the only 1440p preset that guarantees a high-refresh experience without dropping frames.

At 3840x2160, the results show the GPU’s limits. Low produces 127 FPS, Medium produces 99 FPS (with an 84-113 FPS range), High produces 77 FPS, and Ultra produces 54 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 73 FPS. Notably, the 4K Medium result’s minimum of 84 FPS is only 10 FPS higher than the 4K Ultra average, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional effects cause severe frame time spikes. The 4K High result of 77 FPS is closer to the Medium result than to the Ultra result, indicating that the Ultra preset is the outlier in terms of performance cost.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and the measured FPS data reflects its capabilities and limitations. The GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is a critical asset for Evolve, as the game’s textures and effects at 4K require substantial video memory. The 736.3 GB/s memory bandwidth ensures that the 256-bit bus does not starve the AD103 chip, which is evident in the 4K Medium result of 99 FPS where texture streaming is likely heavy.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2550 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz position it as a high-frequency part, and the 10240 shading units provide the raw compute throughput for the 52.22 TFLOPS FP32 performance. However, the benchmark results show that even this level of compute is insufficient for 4K Ultra in Evolve, as the 54 FPS average suggests the shader units are fully saturated. The 320 TMUs and 112 ROPs are responsible for texture filtering and pixel output, and the pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s is a limiting factor at 3840x2160. The 4K Low result of 127 FPS indicates that when the texture and shading load is reduced, the GPU can still push a high frame rate, but the pixel fill rate becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

The GPU’s average benchmark score is 54209, with a percentile rank of 86 against all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, scores 54247, which is a 0.1% delta. This places the 4080 SUPER in the top tier of GPUs, but the Evolve data shows that the game is not optimized to leverage the full potential of this hardware at higher settings. The 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS is a stark contrast to the 1080p Low result of 333 FPS, and it underscores that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are best utilized at lower resolutions or with reduced settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth are modest for a modern desktop CPU, but they are more than sufficient for a 2015 title like Evolve. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25891 and single-core score of 3655, indicate strong per-thread performance, which is crucial for game logic and physics.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 333 FPS, which is far beyond what most games can utilize. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect the FPS to plateau at a lower value. The fact that the 1080p Low result is 109 FPS higher than the 1440p Low result (333 vs. 224) confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with more frames at lower resolutions.

The CPU’s performance relative to its rivals is tight. Its average benchmark score is 36938, with a percentile rank of 85 against all CPUs. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores 36945, a 0% delta. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37018, a -0.2% delta, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093, a -0.4% delta. This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 225 is squarely in the mid-range CPU tier, but its single-thread performance is sufficient to avoid limiting the RTX 4080 SUPER in Evolve. The CPU’s 10 cores and 10 threads are a notable design choice, as it lacks Hyper-Threading, but the game’s engine from 2015 does not appear to scale beyond a few threads, making the high boost clock more important than core count.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER holds a combo rank of 190 out of 2872 total combos. This places it in the top 6.6% of all tested configurations, which is an impressive result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the system’s ability to deliver high frame rates, but it also highlights the imbalance of the pairing.

The combo rank is driven primarily by the GPU’s performance, as the RTX 4080 SUPER has a percentile rank of 86 against all GPUs, while the CPU has a percentile rank of 85 against all CPUs. However, the Evolve data shows that the CPU is underutilized. At 1080p Low, the system produces 333 FPS, which is likely far beyond the refresh rate of most displays, and the CPU is not the limiting factor. This suggests that a less powerful CPU could achieve similar results in Evolve, but the combo rank of 190 indicates that the overall package is still highly competitive.

The rank of 190 out of 2872 is notable because it places this combo ahead of many configurations with more expensive CPUs, such as those with higher core counts or faster clocks. The data implies that for Evolve, the GPU is the primary driver of performance, and the Core Ultra 5 225 is more than adequate to support it. The 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS is a weak point, but the combo’s strong performance at 1080p and 1440p (with 333 FPS and 224 FPS at Low settings, respectively) ensures a high overall rank. The 190th position suggests that users who prioritize high refresh rates at 1440p or 1080p will be well-served, while those targeting 4K Ultra may need to consider a more powerful GPU or accept lower settings.