Evolve

# Evolve with Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination delivers a broad range of performance in Evolve, spanning from 27 FPS at 4K Ultra to 167 FPS at 1080p Low. The data reveals a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions and settings, while the CPU's strong single-threaded performance (2085 in Cinebench R23 single-core) becomes more relevant at lower resolutions and settings. The combo ranks 1867 out of 2872 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database, which suggests that while the hardware is capable, it requires careful settings management to deliver a consistently smooth experience in this 2015 FPS title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves in Evolve?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 167, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 129 FPS at Medium and 101 FPS at High settings at the same resolution.

Q: Can this system handle 4K resolution in Evolve?

A: Yes, but with significant compromises. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 64 at Low settings down to 27 at Ultra. Medium settings at 4K produce an average of 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and 0.2% higher than both the AMD EPYC 4364P and AMD EPYC 7303. It trails the Intel Core i9-13900HX by 0.1%.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT ranks in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19765. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, scores 19885, which is 0.6% higher.

Q: Are there any settings where the frame rate drops below 30 FPS?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 27, which is below the 30 FPS threshold commonly considered minimum for playability. This is the only measured configuration that falls below 30 FPS.

Q: How much FPS improvement comes from dropping from High to Low settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, moving from High (68 FPS average) to Low (112 FPS average) results in a 64.7% increase in frame rate. This represents a jump of 44 FPS, demonstrating the significant impact of settings on performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data presents a clear hierarchy of performance across settings, with the optimal choice depending on the user's resolution and preference for visual fidelity versus frame rate. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 101 FPS average, which is already above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay and provides substantially better visuals than Low. The jump from High to Medium at 1080p yields 129 FPS (a 27.7% increase), while Low pushes to 167 FPS. For most users at 1080p, High strikes the best balance between visual quality and performance, as the 101 FPS average is sufficient for competitive play without sacrificing too much detail.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. High settings produce 68 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced FPS. Medium settings at 1440p yield 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS, providing a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot at 1440p, as it maintains a minimum FPS above 70 while improving on High's average by 19 FPS. Ultra at 1440p drops to 47 FPS, which is noticeably less smooth and likely to feel sluggish during intense combat sequences.

For 4K resolution, the recommendations become more constrained. The only settings that achieve an average FPS above 60 at 3840x2160 is Low, with 64 FPS. Medium settings at 4K produce 49 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced play but is risky for competitive scenarios. High settings at 4K fall to 39 FPS, and Ultra drops to 27 FPS. Given these numbers, the best experience at 4K requires Low settings, while Medium offers a viable alternative for those prioritizing visuals over frame rate stability.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip, is the primary performance limiter in Evolve at higher resolutions. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 280.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2635 MHz and game clock of 2410 MHz drive 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, delivering a pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 10.79 TFLOPS places this GPU in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, indicating mid-range capability.

The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Evolve, a game from 2015, as evidenced by the consistent performance across all measured settings. However, the data shows a dramatic performance cliff when moving from 1440p to 4K. At 1080p High, the GPU produces 101 FPS, but at 4K High, it falls to 39 FPS—a 61.4% drop. This pattern indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are saturated at 4K, particularly at higher settings. The 280.3 GB/s bandwidth, while adequate for 1440p, becomes a bottleneck at 4K where the pixel throughput demands increase fourfold.

The GPU's performance in Evolve aligns with its benchmark scores. Its Passmark G3D score of 17166 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1859 suggest a mid-range card, which matches the observed frame rates. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, scores 0.6% higher on average, yet the Radeon's architecture supports modern APIs including DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, which may provide better long-term compatibility. The 32 ray tracing cores, while not heavily utilized in Evolve due to its 2015 release, indicate the GPU has headroom for newer titles.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates show a clear progression across settings. Low settings produce 167 FPS average, Medium drops to 129 FPS with a minimum of 110 and maximum of 148, High achieves 101 FPS, and Ultra falls to 70 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 97 FPS, representing a 58.1% reduction in performance. This wide spread indicates that Evolve's settings have a substantial impact on GPU load, with Ultra likely enabling features that significantly increase rendering complexity.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings yield 112 FPS, Medium produces 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 and maximum of 100, High achieves 68 FPS, and Ultra drops to 47 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings results in a 32.9% reduction for Low (167 to 112), a 32.6% reduction for Medium (129 to 87), a 32.7% reduction for High (101 to 68), and a 32.9% reduction for Ultra (70 to 47). This consistent scaling behavior suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at both resolutions, with the FPS reduction closely tracking the 77.8% increase in pixel count from 1080p to 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops more dramatically. Low settings produce 64 FPS, Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 and maximum of 57, High achieves 39 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27 FPS. The reduction from 1440p to 4K is more severe than the pixel count increase would suggest: Low drops 42.9% (112 to 64), Medium drops 43.7% (87 to 49), High drops 42.6% (68 to 39), and Ultra drops 42.6% (47 to 27). This steeper decline indicates that at 4K, the GPU's memory bandwidth and pixel fill rate become increasingly strained, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p but the FPS does not scale linearly.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT ranks 1867 out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the 35th percentile of all combinations. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning, as the CPU's performance is comparatively strong. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 65th percentile, indicating that the GPU is the weaker component in this pairing for gaming performance.

The combo's ranking suggests that while it can run Evolve, it does so with less headroom than many other configurations. The data shows that at 1080p High, the combo achieves 101 FPS, which is playable but not exceptional when considering the database of 2872 combos. The rank of 1867 means that roughly 65% of tested combinations perform better, likely featuring more powerful GPUs or more balanced pairings. However, the CPU's strong single-threaded performance (4516 in Passmark single-thread) ensures that the combo is not severely held back by processor limitations, as evidenced by the high FPS at 1080p Low (167 FPS).

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database—the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, AMD FirePro D300, AMD FirePro W7000, and NVIDIA Quadro K5200—all score within 0.8% of the RX 6650 XT's average benchmark score. This clustering indicates that the GPU's performance in Evolve is consistent with its general compute capabilities. The combo's rank of 1867, while in the lower half, is not at the very bottom, suggesting that users can achieve a playable experience with appropriate settings adjustments, as detailed in the recommendations section.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235, with 14 cores and 14 threads, operates at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Arrow Lake-S architecture processor, built on TSMC's 3 nm process, features a 24 MB shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core. Its benchmark results show strong single-threaded performance: 2085 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 4516 in Passmark single-thread, placing it in the 89th percentile among all CPUs. These scores indicate that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU in Evolve, a game that relies heavily on single-threaded performance for game logic and AI.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also substantial, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and a Passmark multithread score of 37816. However, in Evolve, the game's 2015 release date means it likely does not utilize all 14 cores efficiently. The measured FPS data supports this interpretation: at 1080p Low, where GPU load is minimal, the combo achieves 167 FPS, suggesting the CPU can handle the game's physics and AI calculations without bottlenecking. If the CPU were a limiting factor, we would expect to see lower FPS at Low settings with high resolutions, but the data shows the opposite—FPS scales nearly linearly with resolution, indicating GPU limitation.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s via dual-channel DDR5 is sufficient for Evolve's requirements. The processor's 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes provide ample bandwidth for the GPU, though the RX 6650 XT uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. The 65W TDP of the CPU, combined with the GPU's 176W TDP, suggests a balanced power envelope that allows the CPU to sustain boost clocks during gaming sessions without thermal throttling, as evidenced by the consistent FPS across multiple measurements.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that highlights the GPU as the primary bottleneck. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 101 to 68, a 32.7% reduction. This closely matches the 77.8% increase in pixel count between these resolutions, indicating that the GPU's rendering throughput is the limiting factor. The same pattern holds for Low settings (167 to 112, a 32.9% drop), Medium (129 to 87, a 32.6% drop), and Ultra (70 to 47, a 32.9% drop).

When scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the FPS drops become more severe. High settings fall from 68 to 39, a 42.6% reduction, while the pixel count increases by 125%. This disproportionate decline suggests that at 4K, the GPU's memory bandwidth (280.3 GB/s) and pixel fill rate (168.6 GPixel/s) become insufficient to maintain the same efficiency as at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 4K, even Low settings only achieve 64 FPS, whereas at 1440p, Low settings reach 112 FPS—a 42.9% drop that is steeper than the 1080p to 1440p transition.

This scaling behavior has important implications for the system's limiting component. At 1080p and 1440p, the consistent percentage drops across all settings indicate that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the CPU's strong single-threaded performance (2085 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is sufficient to maintain frame rates. However, at 4K, the GPU's limitations become more pronounced, with the FPS dropping to levels that suggest the GPU is struggling to process the increased pixel count. The fact that the FPS at 4K Low (64) is nearly identical to the FPS at 1440p High (68) further confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the settings change does not compensate for the resolution increase. This analysis suggests that users seeking higher resolutions in Evolve would benefit more from a GPU upgrade than a CPU upgrade, as the current CPU provides ample headroom for the game's computational demands.