Evolve

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination delivers a wide performance envelope in Evolve, ranging from a highly playable 177 FPS at 1080p Low to a demanding 28 FPS at 4K Ultra. The dataset reveals a system where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance ensures high frame rates at lower settings. This analysis breaks down the measured results, contextualizes the hardware’s standing, and provides actionable settings guidance based strictly on the provided data.

FAQ

Q: What is the best-performing preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The Low preset yields the highest average frame rate at 1920x1080, achieving 177 FPS. This is significantly faster than the Medium preset (137 FPS) and the High preset (107 FPS). The Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing 74 FPS at this resolution.

Q: How much of a performance drop occurs when moving from 1080p to 1440p on the High preset?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 72 FPS, which is a 35 FPS reduction from the 107 FPS seen at 1920x1080. This represents a 32.7% decrease in average frame rate when scaling up to the higher resolution.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo fail to maintain a consistent 60 FPS?

A: The data shows sub-60 FPS averages at 4K for all presets except Low. Specifically, the 3840x2160 Medium preset averages 52 FPS, High averages 41 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. Only the 4K Low preset, with 67 FPS, exceeds the 60 FPS threshold.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Evolve?*

A: The combination ranks 1654th out of 2872 tested combos in the game. This places it in the 42nd percentile of all configurations, indicating it performs better than a majority of systems but is not near the top tier.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: For the 2560x1440 Medium settings, the measured data shows a minimum FPS of 78 and a maximum FPS of 106, with an average of 92 FPS. This provides a frame time variance of 28 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K. The average FPS scales down significantly with increased graphical fidelity (from 67 FPS on Low to 28 FPS on Ultra), which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where the render load is the bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the central component dictating performance in Evolve, particularly as resolution and settings increase. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game’s demands across all tested presets. The card’s core clocks are specified with a base of 1605 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, with 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs available for processing the game’s graphical workload.

The benchmark results clearly illustrate the GPU’s performance ceiling. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 28 FPS, while at 4K High it produces 41 FPS. This steep drop-off when moving from High to Ultra at the same resolution (from 41 to 28 FPS, a 31.7% reduction) indicates that the Ultra preset introduces a rendering load that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s compute resources struggle to handle. The GPU’s Turing architecture, on a 12 nm process, is being pushed to its limits. Conversely, the Low preset provides much more headroom, allowing the GPU to output 67 FPS at 4K. This demonstrates that while the hardware can handle the game’s engine, it requires significant graphical concessions to achieve smooth frame rates at high pixel counts. The RTX 2070 SUPER's overall standing is reflected in its 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282. Its closest competitor in synthetic tests is the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, which scores 1% lower, and the Intel Arc B570, which scores 1.3% higher.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a fluid 60 FPS experience, the Low preset is the only reliable option at 4K, delivering 67 FPS. However, at 1440p, the Medium preset is a strong choice, averaging 92 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS, which provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while offering better visual fidelity than Low. The High preset at 1440p also remains viable at 72 FPS.

For 1080p, users have more flexibility. The High preset provides an excellent balance, achieving 107 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset is even faster at 137 FPS, and the Low preset tops out at 177 FPS for competitive play. The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution if maintaining a 60 FPS baseline is a priority, as it drops to 74 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 28 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the best compromise between visual quality and performance for most users, particularly at 1440p, where it maintains a 92 FPS average. At 1080p, the High preset is the most balanced, providing a significant visual upgrade over Medium with only a 30 FPS cost, resulting in a still-smooth 107 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a clear picture of the combo’s capabilities across a matrix of resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the combo is highly capable. The Low preset produces an average of 177 FPS. The Medium preset averages 137 FPS, with a measured minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS. The High preset averages 107 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding an average of 74 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance impact is noticeable. The Low preset remains fast, averaging 118 FPS. The Medium preset averages 92 FPS, with a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. The High preset drops to an average of 72 FPS. The Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold, averaging just 50 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Low preset is the only one that maintains a playable average, at 67 FPS. The Medium preset averages 52 FPS, with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS. The High preset averages 41 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding configuration tested, producing an average of only 28 FPS.

This data shows a consistent performance hierarchy: Low > Medium > High > Ultra, with the delta between each tier expanding as resolution increases. For example, the difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 103 FPS, while at 4K it narrows to 39 FPS, demonstrating the GPU's diminishing ability to handle higher settings at higher pixel counts.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination is positioned in the 1654th spot out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve. This ranking places it in the 42.6th percentile, meaning it outperforms a majority of tested systems but is firmly in the mid-range tier of results. The combo’s ranking is likely held back by the GPU’s performance at higher resolutions, as the CPU is capable of delivering much higher frame rates when not constrained by the graphics card.

The CPU itself is a high-performing part, ranking in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062. Its nearest rivals in synthetic CPU benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% slower) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (0.1% faster), indicating a very competitive performance level. However, the RTX 2070 SUPER ranks in only the 65th percentile among all GPUs. This imbalance suggests that while the CPU has the headroom to push far beyond the frame rates captured in the 4K tests, the GPU’s raw rendering power is the definitive limit on the combo’s overall standing in Evolve.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides the foundational processing power for this system. 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’s architecture, Arrow Lake-S, is built on a 3 nm process and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel configuration, yielding a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. The processor has a 24 MB shared L3 cache.

In Evolve, the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance, evidenced by its 4516 Passmark single-thread score, is critical for maintaining high frame rates, especially at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 177 FPS, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to keep it fully utilized. The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, with a Passmark multithread score of 37816, are also sufficient for the game’s background tasks and physics calculations. The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is not the primary bottleneck, as frame rates scale predictably with changes in GPU load (settings). The CPU’s performance is close to that of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and Intel Core i9-13900HX, which are within 0.1% of its average benchmark score, confirming it is a modern, capable processor that does not hold the RTX 2070 SUPER back in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K provides a clear indication of where the system’s bottleneck lies. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 107 FPS. When the resolution is increased to 1440p High, the frame rate drops by 32.7% to 72 FPS. Further increasing the resolution to 4K High results in another significant drop of 43.1% to 41 FPS. This pattern of diminishing returns at higher pixel counts is a classic sign of GPU limitations.

For the Medium preset, the scaling is also steep: 137 FPS at 1080p, 92 FPS at 1440p (a 32.8% drop), and 52 FPS at 4K (a 43.5% drop from 1440p). This consistent ~33% and ~43% drop for each resolution tier indicates that the game’s rendering load is scaling exponentially with pixel count, and the RTX 2070 SUPER’s fixed memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s and compute throughput (9.062 TFLOPS FP32) are being saturated. The Low preset shows less severe scaling, with 177 FPS at 1080p, 118 FPS at 1440p (a 33.3% drop), and 67 FPS at 4K (a 43.2% drop). The fact that the percentage drop is similar across all settings strongly suggests that the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU's workload remains relatively constant regardless of resolution. The system’s performance is therefore directly tied to the GPU's ability to fill pixels, making the RTX 2070 SUPER the definitive constraint on achieving higher frame rates at 4K.