Evolve

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a robust performance profile in Evolve, a 2015 FPS title. The data indicates that this pairing excels at high refresh rate 1080p gameplay and remains highly playable at 1440p, with 4K Ultra presenting a significant challenge. The measured frame rates show a clear hierarchy of performance scaling across resolutions and settings, positioning this combo as a strong mid-to-high tier option for this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1080p with High settings is 159 FPS. This indicates a very smooth experience, well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How does the combo perform at 2560x1440 with Medium settings?

A: At 1440p with Medium settings, the average FPS is 136, with a minimum of 116 and a maximum of 157. These figures show that the combination can maintain high frame rates with some headroom for dips during intense scenes.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 4K is only viable at lower settings. At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 77, which is playable. However, at Ultra settings, the average drops to 42 FPS, indicating a less smooth experience.

Q: What is the best performance metric for the Ultra preset?

A: The highest average FPS for the Ultra preset is 110 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080. The performance decreases to 74 FPS at 1440p and further to 42 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062. This is virtually identical to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, which scores 46030, a difference of only 0.1%.

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

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 falls into the 81st percentile of all GPUs tested in the database. This suggests it delivers better performance than a large majority of other graphics cards.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the primary driver of visual fidelity in this configuration. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides a 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, which is ample for the textures and geometry in Evolve. The GPU's architecture, Ada Lovelace, is built on a 5 nm process by TSMC, featuring 35,800 million transistors.

The clock speeds are a key factor in the performance deltas observed across settings. Operating at a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, the GPU can scale its frequency to meet demand. This is evident in the frame rate jumps when moving from Ultra to High settings; for instance, at 1440p, the average FPS increases from 74 to 107, a significant gain that highlights how reducing the graphical load allows the GPU to maintain higher clocks and finish frames faster.

The GPU's processing power is substantial, with 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units contributing to a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s. This raw throughput is crucial for the particle effects and environmental details in Evolve. The card's FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS allows for complex shader calculations, which are more demanding at higher detail presets. The data shows that at 4K, the GPU is heavily taxed, with the Ultra preset yielding an average of 42 FPS, indicating that the 61 FPS at High settings is the practical ceiling for a smooth 4K experience.

The GPU's benchmark results confirm its standing. With a passmark G3D score of 26927, it sits in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival in the database is the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, which scores 37507, making the RTX 4070 0.4% faster in aggregate benchmarks. In the context of Evolve, this performance translates to the ability to handle high geometry and texture loads at 1080p and 1440p without issue, as demonstrated by the 159 FPS and 107 FPS averages on High settings, respectively.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides the processing foundation for this system. With 14 cores and 14 threads, it offers substantial parallel processing capability. The architecture, Arrow Lake-S, is manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC, a advanced node that contributes to its efficiency. The CPU's base clock of 3.40 GHz can boost up to 5.00 GHz, allowing for strong single-threaded performance when needed.

In Evolve, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, and physics calculations, which are not as heavily parallelized as graphics rendering. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing latency. The CPU's benchmark scores reflect its capability; for instance, a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and a single-core score of 2085 indicate a balanced processor that can handle both multi-threaded workloads and the single-threaded tasks that often bottleneck games.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination achieves 262 FPS, a figure that is extraordinarily high and suggests that the GPU is still capable of pushing more frames if the CPU could keep up. However, the performance scaling across resolutions indicates a shift in bottleneck. At 1080p High, the frame rate is 159 FPS, but at 1440p High, it drops to 107 FPS, and at 4K High, it further drops to 61 FPS. This pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the rendering load increases faster than the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls.

The CPU's aggregate average benchmark score is 46062, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-13900HX, scores 46098, a negligible 0.1% difference. This suggests that for Evolve, the CPU has ample headroom. The 14-core configuration ensures that background tasks and game threads do not starve, providing a stable frame time experience. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth from the dual-channel DDR5 support also ensures that data can flow quickly between the CPU and RAM, preventing stutters in open-world or multi-player scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combination shows exceptional strength. The Ultra preset achieves an average of 110 FPS, but reducing to High yields a significant increase to 159 FPS. The Medium preset pushes further to 203 FPS, and the Low preset reaches a peak of 262 FPS. This data suggests that for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, the Low or Medium presets are the most effective, while the High preset offers a balance of visual quality and performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected drop due to the increased pixel count. The Ultra preset averages 74 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The High preset improves this to 107 FPS, a substantial 44.6% increase over Ultra, making it the recommended preset for a smooth 1440p experience on High-refresh monitors. The Medium preset delivers 136 FPS, and the Low preset hits 176 FPS, showing that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution when visual demands are reduced.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The Ultra preset averages just 42 FPS, which is below the threshold for a consistently smooth experience. The High preset is more viable, with an average of 61 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced gameplay. The Medium preset is the most balanced for 4K, offering an average of 77 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS, ensuring that frame drops do not become too jarring. The Low preset reaches 100 FPS, demonstrating that even at 4K, the hardware can achieve high frame rates if the graphical settings are lowered sufficiently.

The data also reveals interesting scaling patterns. For example, the jump from High to Ultra at 1440p results in a 33 FPS drop (from 107 to 74 FPS), while the jump from Medium to High results in a 29 FPS drop (from 136 to 107 FPS). This indicates that the Ultra preset has a disproportionately high cost on the GPU, likely due to advanced lighting and shadow effects. At 1080p, the scaling is more linear, with each step in settings reducing the frame rate by roughly 40-50 FPS, showing the CPU is better able to feed the GPU at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall database for Evolve, this specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 647th out of 2872 tested combos. This places it in the top 22.5% of all configurations, indicating a strong performer. The percentile ranking is a direct result of the high frame rates achieved, particularly at 1080p and 1440p, which are the most common resolutions for gaming.

The rank of 647 is significant because it shows that while this is not an ultra-high-end enthusiast setup, it is far above the average. The combination's strength lies in its balance; the CPU's 89th percentile ranking and the GPU's 81st percentile ranking work together to avoid severe bottlenecks. This is reflected in the game's performance, where the combo can consistently push over 100 FPS at 1440p with High settings, a feat that many lower-ranked combos cannot achieve.

The position in the top quartile suggests that for a game like Evolve, which was released in 2015 and is not considered a advanced graphics showcase, this hardware is more than sufficient. The data shows that the combo's performance is limited by the GPU at 4K, but at 1080p and 1440p, it excels. This makes it a versatile choice for gamers who prioritize high frame rates over maximum visual fidelity, as the ranking indicates that it outperforms the vast majority of other combos in the database.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings largely depend on the user's target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p users with a 144Hz or 165Hz monitor, the High preset is the best choice, delivering 159 FPS while maintaining good visual quality. The Ultra preset, at 110 FPS, is also viable for 60Hz displays or for users who prefer maximum eye candy over raw speed, but the drop from High is noticeable. The Medium preset at 203 FPS is recommended for competitive play where every frame matters, but the visual compromise may be too steep for some.

For 1440p users, the High preset is the clear winner, providing 107 FPS, which is ideal for 100Hz+ monitors. This preset offers a strong balance of detail and performance, making it the recommended setting for most users. The Medium preset at 136 FPS is a better option for those with 144Hz displays, but the visual downgrade from High is significant. The Ultra preset at 74 FPS is only recommended for players who prioritize image quality above all else and are comfortable with frame rates in the 70s.

At 4K, the options are more constrained. The Medium preset, with an average of 77 FPS, is the only preset that offers a consistently smooth experience, though it is not ideal for fast-paced action. The High preset at 61 FPS is playable but may exhibit occasional stutters. The Ultra preset at 42 FPS is not recommended for any serious gameplay. For 4K users, the Medium preset is the best compromise, offering a stable 60+ FPS experience with acceptable visual quality.

The data suggests that the High preset is the "sweet spot" for this combo across all resolutions, as it offers a significant visual upgrade over Medium with only a moderate performance penalty. The Ultra preset's performance cost is disproportionately high, making it a poor choice for anyone who values smoothness over maximum visual details.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the underlying bottleneck. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 159 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 107 FPS, a 32.7% decrease. Further scaling to 4K High results in 61 FPS, a 42.9% decrease from 1440p and a 61.6% decrease from 1080p. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound workload, where the number of pixels to render quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate does not halve, indicating that the GPU is not the only factor at play.

The scaling is more pronounced at higher settings. From 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 110 FPS to 42 FPS, a 61.8% reduction. However, at Low settings, the drop is from 262 FPS to 100 FPS, a 61.8% reduction as well. This consistent percentage drop suggests that the GPU is the primary limiter across all settings, as the relative performance loss is similar regardless of the graphical load.

However, the absolute frame rates at 1080p Low (262 FPS) and 1440p Low (176 FPS) are so high that they suggest the CPU is beginning to become a factor. At these settings, the GPU is rendering frames so quickly that the CPU's ability to process game logic and issue draw calls becomes a potential bottleneck. The 32.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (from 262 to 176 FPS) is lower than the 38.2% drop at High settings (from 159 to 107 FPS), which indicates that the CPU is holding back the GPU at lower resolutions and settings.

The data indicates that at 4K, the GPU is fully saturated, and the CPU has enough headroom to keep up. This is confirmed by the fact that the frame rate at 4K Ultra (42 FPS) is not limited by the CPU's single-thread performance, which is in the 89th percentile. Therefore, for users who wish to play at 4K, the CPU is not a concern, and the focus should be on reducing GPU load via settings. For users at 1080p, the CPU's performance is adequate, but the data suggests that there is no further headroom to push frame rates much higher than 262 FPS without a faster CPU.