Evolve

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination delivers a playable but not exceptional experience in Evolve, a 2015 FPS title. The data shows this combo ranks 2044th out of 2872 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. At 1080p with Medium settings, the pair produces 124 FPS on average, which is smooth, but the experience degrades sharply at higher resolutions and settings. This pairing is clearly limited by the GPU in most scenarios, though the CPU’s 14 cores and 14 threads provide ample headroom for this older title.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a desktop processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on Arrow Lake architecture using a 3 nm process. It features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU has 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per core of L2 cache, along with 192 KB per core of L1 cache. Its 65 W TDP and Intel Socket 1851 mounting make it a mainstream part, and it supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth.

For Evolve, a game released in early 2015, the CPU’s single-thread performance is more relevant than its multicore muscle. The Cinebench R23 single-core score is 2085, while the multicore score reaches 14769. In Cinebench R15, single-core scores 210 and multicore 1488. These numbers indicate a processor that excels in lightly threaded workloads, which is typical for a 2015-era FPS that was designed before multi-core scaling became standard. The PassMark single-thread score of 4516 reinforces this strength, and the CPU’s 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is well above average for general compute tasks.

However, in this specific game, the CPU does not appear to be the bottleneck. The measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 160 FPS, which is high but not exceptional for a modern processor. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 107 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 61 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases, because the CPU’s performance headroom is not being fully utilized. The CPU’s PassMark multithread score of 37816 and its integer math score of 87948 show strong overall capabilities, but Evolve likely uses only a few threads, so the 14-core count provides little benefit here.

The nearest CPU rivals in the database are the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, Intel Core i9-13900HX, AMD EPYC 4364P, and AMD EPYC 7303. The Core Ultra 5 235’s average benchmark score of 46062 is within 0.1-0.2% of these parts, with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 at 46030 (0.1% slower) and the Core i9-13900HX at 46098 (0.1% faster). This places the CPU in a tight performance band, but those rivals are mobile or server parts, not direct desktop comparisons. For Evolve, the CPU’s 5.00 GHz boost clock is likely sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the data shows that even at 1080p High (97 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (67 FPS), the frame rates are not CPU-limited.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data covers four presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—across three resolutions. The best experience depends on the target resolution and the user’s tolerance for frame rate dips. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 124 FPS on average, with minimums of 105 FPS and maximums of 143 FPS. This is the sweet spot: it maintains a high average and the minimum stays well above 60 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 160 FPS, but the visual quality loss is significant, and the High preset drops to 97 FPS, which is still good but not as fluid as Medium. The Ultra preset at 1080p falls to 67 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again appears optimal. It averages 83 FPS, with minimums of 71 FPS and maximums of 96 FPS. This keeps the experience above 60 FPS in most situations, while High drops to 65 FPS and Low hits 107 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages only 45 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth action in a fast-paced FPS. At 4K, only the Low preset achieves a playable average at 61 FPS, while Medium averages 47 FPS with minimums of 40 FPS and maximums of 54 FPS. High and Ultra at 4K are not viable, with averages of 37 FPS and 26 FPS respectively.

The data suggests that Medium is the recommended preset for most users, as it provides the best balance between visual fidelity and performance. At 1080p, Medium offers 124 FPS, which is 27 FPS higher than High and 57 FPS higher than Ultra. At 1440p, Medium’s 83 FPS is 18 FPS higher than High and 38 FPS higher than Ultra. The minimum FPS values for Medium at both resolutions (105 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p) indicate that frame pacing remains stable, which is critical for a competitive FPS. The Low preset is only necessary for 4K gaming, where it achieves 61 FPS, but users should expect reduced visual quality. For those prioritizing frame rate over everything, Low at 1080p (160 FPS) is the highest measured average, but Medium offers a more balanced experience.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling data reveals a clear pattern: FPS drops sharply as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck in this combination. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 160 at 1080p to 107 at 1440p (a 33% drop) and then to 61 at 4K (another 43% drop from 1440p). This is a total reduction of 62% from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the averages are 124 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 33%, and from 1440p to 4K is 43%, mirroring the Low preset’s scaling. At High settings, the averages are 97 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K, with drops of 33% and 43% respectively. At Ultra, the numbers are 67 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K, showing the same relative decline.

This consistent 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 43% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings points to a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU’s performance does not change with resolution, so if the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect FPS to remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the FPS scales inversely with pixel count, which is the classic signature of a GPU bottleneck. The RX 6600 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, with 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a modest configuration for 4K gaming, and the data confirms that 4K is only playable at Low settings (61 FPS). At 1440p, the GPU can handle Medium settings at 83 FPS, but Ultra drops to 45 FPS.

The 1080p results show the GPU is still the limit, but the CPU has enough headroom to push higher frame rates. The 160 FPS at 1080p Low is near the practical ceiling for this GPU, and the 124 FPS at Medium is a solid result. The fact that the 4K Medium minimum FPS is 40 and the maximum is 54 shows that even with frame dips, the experience is inconsistent, reinforcing that this resolution is not ideal for this combo. The scaling pattern suggests that users should target 1080p or 1440p for this pairing, with 4K reserved for less demanding titles or lower presets.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination ranks 2044th out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve. This places it in the 71st percentile of the database, meaning about 71% of tested combinations perform better. This is a below-average ranking for a modern CPU and a mid-range GPU, which is surprising given the CPU’s high percentile (89th) among all CPUs and the GPU’s 70th percentile among all GPUs. The discrepancy suggests that Evolve’s specific performance characteristics do not favor this pairing, likely due to the game’s age and its reliance on single-thread CPU performance rather than multi-core scaling.

The CPU alone benchmarks well, with an average score of 46062, placing it near the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030), Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098), AMD EPYC 4364P (45970), and AMD EPYC 7303 (45960). These rivals are within 0.2% of the Core Ultra 5 235’s score, but they do not appear in the same combo ranking because they are paired with different GPUs. The GPU alone scores 24442 on average, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (24277, 0.7% slower), Intel Arc A350M (24647, 0.8% faster), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (24236, 0.8% slower), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24170, 1.1% slower). The RX 6600 XT is thus competitive with much older or lower-tier parts, but its 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus limit its performance in Evolve at higher resolutions.

The rank of 2044 out of 2872 indicates that this combo is outclassed by many older or more balanced pairings. For instance, a GTX 780 Ti, which is a rival to the RX 6600 XT in raw GPU score, might pair with a CPU that has higher single-thread performance, yielding better Evolve results. The combo’s ranking is particularly weak at 4K, where the GPU’s limitations are exposed. At 1080p Medium, the 124 FPS is decent, but many combos likely exceed this. The data suggests that this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming, but even then, the ranking implies that users could get better Evolve performance with a different GPU or CPU pairing.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is a RDNA 2.0 architecture GPU built on a 7 nm process, featuring the Navi 23 chip. It has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, along with 32 ray tracing cores. The GPU’s base clock is 1968 MHz, with a game clock of 2359 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz. Memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) across an 8 GB GDDR6 interface with a 128-bit bus, yielding 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s pixel rate is 165.7 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 331.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 10.60 TFLOPS. The TDP is 160 W, requiring a 450 W suggested PSU and a single 8-pin power connector.

For Evolve, the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient at 1080p and 1440p, but the 128-bit memory bus may become a limiting factor at 4K. The measured results show that at 4K, the GPU cannot maintain high frame rates even at Low settings (61 FPS), and at Ultra it falls to 26 FPS. The GPU’s boost clock of 2589 MHz is high for a mid-range card, but the memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is modest compared to higher-tier GPUs. The PassMark G3D score of 16461 and the PassMark DirectX 11 score of 163 indicate that the GPU handles older APIs well, but Evolve’s engine likely uses DirectX 11, which aligns with this strength.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the database include the GTX 1630 (0.7% slower), Arc A350M (0.8% faster), GTX 780 Ti (0.8% slower), and RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% slower). The RTX 2080 SUPER is a much higher-tier card on paper, but its average benchmark score is only 1.1% lower than the RX 6600 XT, which suggests that the RX 6600 XT’s RDNA 2 architecture provides strong compute efficiency. However, in Evolve, the GPU’s performance is clearly insufficient for 4K Ultra, and even 1440p Ultra (45 FPS) is below the ideal threshold. The GPU’s 70th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it is above average, but the combo’s 2044th rank shows that other factors, such as CPU pairing or driver optimization, may be limiting its potential in this specific game.

The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1804 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 80503 provide additional context, but these are not directly relevant to Evolve’s performance. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is the key spec for understanding the 4K results: at 4K, the pixel throughput required is high, and the 128-bit bus cannot deliver enough data to maintain high FPS. The data confirms that this GPU is best used at 1080p or 1440p, where its 8 GB VRAM and bandwidth are adequate for most settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and preset for this CPU/GPU combo in Evolve?

A: The data shows that 1080p Medium provides 124 FPS on average, with minimums of 105 FPS, making it the best balance of performance and visual quality. At 1440p, Medium averages 83 FPS, which is also playable, while 4K is only viable at Low settings (61 FPS).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game at 4K?

A: The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and 43% from 1440p to 4K across all presets, indicating the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU’s performance does not change with resolution, so the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus are the primary constraints.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score of 46062 is within 0.1-0.2% of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030), Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098), AMD EPYC 4364P (45970), and AMD EPYC 7303 (45960). This places it in a tight performance band with those parts.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking among tested systems in Evolve?

A: The combo ranks 2044th out of 2872 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This is below average despite the CPU’s 89th percentile and GPU’s 70th percentile rankings, indicating the pairing is not ideal for this specific game.

Q: Does the RX 6600 XT outperform its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 6600 XT has an average benchmark score of 24442, which is higher than the GTX 1630 (24277, 0.7% slower), GTX 780 Ti (24236, 0.8% slower), and RTX 2080 SUPER (24170, 1.1% slower), but slightly lower than the Arc A350M (24647, 0.8% faster). In Evolve, however, the GPU’s performance is limited by its memory bus.

Q: Why is 4K Ultra only 26 FPS for this combo?

A: The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K Ultra settings in Evolve. The data shows that 4K Ultra averages 26 FPS, while 4K High averages 37 FPS, confirming that the GPU cannot handle the pixel throughput required at this resolution.