Evolve

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile delivers a broad spread of performance in Evolve, a 2015 FPS title that still responds strongly to both CPU and GPU headroom. The measured data shows that this combination is capable of high refresh rates at 1080p and solid 60+ FPS experiences at 1440p, while 4K requires careful settings selection. For players targeting the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the High preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the sweet spot, offering 105 FPS average with no min FPS data indicating potential drops. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset hits 109 FPS average, which is playable, but the jump to High at 157 FPS average suggests that the Ultra settings introduce a significant load that may not justify the visual gain for competitive play. The data indicates that this combo is best leveraged by prioritizing High settings at 1440p or below, as Ultra at 4K falls to 41 FPS average, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy of settings performance for this specific CPU-GPU pairing. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 258 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all resolutions and settings. This makes Low the obvious choice for esports-style play or for users with high refresh rate displays who want to maximize frame pacing. Medium at 1080p produces 200 FPS average, with a minimum of 170 FPS and a maximum of 230 FPS, indicating a stable experience that still offers substantial headroom over typical 144Hz monitors. High at 1080p drops to 157 FPS average, which remains excellent, but the step from Medium to High costs 43 FPS on average, a reduction of more than 20% that may not be worth the visual uplift for users who prioritize responsiveness. Ultra at 1080p averages 109 FPS, which is playable but places this combo in a range where frame time consistency becomes more critical, and the lack of min FPS data means the worst-case scenario is unknown.

Moving to 2560x1440, the picture changes. Low at 1440p averages 173 FPS, which is still very high and suitable for fast-paced play. Medium at 1440p averages 134 FPS, with a minimum of 114 FPS and a maximum of 154 FPS, providing a smooth experience on most high refresh rate panels. High at 1440p averages 105 FPS, which is the recommended preset for this resolution because it balances the visual fidelity improvements of High settings with a frame rate that remains above 100 FPS. Ultra at 1440p drops to 73 FPS average, which is still playable but represents a significant 32 FPS drop from High, a 30% reduction that suggests the Ultra preset is disproportionately heavy on this hardware. For users with 144Hz 1440p monitors, Medium is the safer choice to keep frame rates above the refresh rate ceiling, but High provides a better visual experience if 100 FPS is sufficient.

At 3840x2160, the measured data reveals the limits of this combo. Low at 4K averages 98 FPS, which is surprisingly strong for a mobile GPU and suggests that Evolve is not excessively demanding at lower settings. Medium at 4K averages 76 FPS, with a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 88 FPS, indicating that the game remains playable but with occasional dips that could be noticeable on a 60Hz display. High at 4K averages 60 FPS, which is exactly at the threshold for smooth gameplay on standard 60Hz monitors, but the lack of min FPS data means there is no guarantee that frame times stay consistent. Ultra at 4K averages 41 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users and should be avoided. The recommendation for 4K is to use Medium settings, as the 76 FPS average with a 65 FPS minimum provides a more consistent experience than High, which has no recorded minimum and could suffer from drops below 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1001 out of 3700 tested combinations in Evolve, placing it in the top 27% of all systems measured. This ranking reflects a strong overall performance profile, though it is not at the very top tier of hardware. The data indicates that this CPU-GPU pairing is well above average for this game, but there is considerable room above it, likely occupied by desktop-class components or higher-end mobile parts. The rank of 1001 out of 3700 means that approximately 73% of tested combos perform worse, which positions this setup as a solid high-end mobile solution. However, the gap from the top 1000 to the top 100 is substantial, and users should not expect this combo to compete with the absolute fastest systems in Evolve.

The CPU’s average benchmark score is 52073, with a percentile of 91 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 91% of processors in general compute tasks. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 8124P with an average score of 52121 and a delta of -0.1%, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with 51947 and a delta of 0.2%, the Intel Core i7-14700 with 52301 and a delta of -0.4%, and the Intel Core i9-13900F with 51730 and a delta of 0.7%. These deltas are all within 1% of the Core Ultra 5 235HX, indicating that this mobile CPU performs on par with several high-end desktop processors from previous generations. For Evolve, which is not a heavily threaded title, the single-core performance is more relevant, and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4903 suggests strong per-thread capability.

The GPU’s average benchmark score is 38349, with a percentile of 81 against all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 with 38299 and a delta of 0.1%, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile with 38135 and a delta of 0.6%, the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A with 38691 and a delta of -0.9%, and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X with 38706 and a delta of -0.9%. The fact that the RTX 5080 Mobile is within 1% of the RTX 4080 Mobile in average benchmark score is notable, as it suggests that the generational uplift is modest in synthetic tests. However, in Evolve, the measured FPS results show that this GPU is capable of high frame rates, particularly at 1080p and 1440p, which aligns with its percentile ranking.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, using the GB203 chip fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s. This large memory pool and high bandwidth are critical for Evolve, which is a 2015 title that may not be optimized for modern hardware but still benefits from fast memory access. The GPU’s base clock is 975 MHz, with a boost clock of 1500 MHz, which is relatively low compared to desktop parts but typical for mobile implementations constrained by thermals and power. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, with an effective data rate of 28 Gbps, which contributes to the high bandwidth figure.

In Evolve, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the CPU is likely the limiting factor at lower settings, as the GPU can push frame rates well beyond 200 FPS on Low and Medium. The fact that Low at 1080p achieves 258 FPS average suggests that the GPU is not the bottleneck at this resolution; instead, the CPU’s single-thread performance and memory subsystem determine the ceiling. As resolution rises to 2560x1440, the GPU load increases, and the frame rates drop proportionally. At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the frame rates fall to 98 FPS on Low and 60 FPS on High, indicating that the pixel throughput requirements exceed what the GPU can sustain at higher settings.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are substantial, with 7680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The pixel rate is 144.0 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s, which are high figures that support the measured performance in Evolve. The FP32 throughput is 23.04 TFLOPS, which is more than sufficient for a game from 2015 that does not utilize modern rendering techniques heavily. The GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with the game’s API requirements. The 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present but are unlikely to be used in Evolve, as the game predates ray tracing and DLSS, so the GPU’s rasterization performance is what matters here.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of how this combo performs across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 258 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p averages 200 FPS, with a minimum of 170 FPS and a maximum of 230 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution. High at 1080p averages 157 FPS, which is a 43 FPS drop from Medium, indicating that the High preset adds significant visual complexity. Ultra at 1080p averages 109 FPS, which is a 48 FPS drop from High, making Ultra the most demanding preset at this resolution. The step from Medium to High is 21.5% slower, while the step from High to Ultra is 30.6% slower, highlighting that Ultra is disproportionately expensive.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 173 FPS, which is 85 FPS lower than 1080p Low, a 33% reduction. Medium at 1440p averages 134 FPS, with a minimum of 114 FPS and a maximum of 154 FPS, which is 66 FPS lower than 1080p Medium, a 33% reduction. High at 1440p averages 105 FPS, which is 52 FPS lower than 1080p High, a 33% reduction. Ultra at 1440p averages 73 FPS, which is 36 FPS lower than 1080p Ultra, a 33% reduction. The consistency of the 33% reduction across all settings when moving from 1080p to 1440p suggests that the scaling is resolution-bound, with the GPU’s pixel throughput being the primary factor.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 98 FPS, which is 75 FPS lower than 1440p Low, a 43% reduction. Medium at 4K averages 76 FPS, with a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 88 FPS, which is 58 FPS lower than 1440p Medium, a 43% reduction. High at 4K averages 60 FPS, which is 45 FPS lower than 1440p High, a 43% reduction. Ultra at 4K averages 41 FPS, which is 32 FPS lower than 1440p Ultra, a 44% reduction. The larger percentage drop from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p indicates that 4K places a significantly higher load on the GPU, and the frame rates become less predictable, as seen in the Medium preset’s 65 FPS minimum.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, with a pattern that reveals the limiting component. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 258 FPS, while at 1440p Low it drops to 173 FPS, a 33% reduction. At 4K Low, it drops further to 98 FPS, a 43% reduction from 1440p. This nonlinear scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate does not drop by 75% because the GPU has enough memory bandwidth and compute to mitigate some of the load. The fact that Low settings show a 62% total drop from 1080p to 4K (258 to 98 FPS) suggests that the GPU is still the primary limiter, but the CPU’s performance at 1080p Low is what allows such high frame rates.

For Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 200 FPS at 1080p, 134 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 62%, which matches Low exactly. High settings show 157 FPS at 1080p, 105 FPS at 1440p, and 60 FPS at 4K, a total drop of 62%. Ultra settings show 109 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K, a total drop of 62%. The consistent 62% reduction across all settings when moving from 1080p to 4K is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, regardless of the quality preset. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the percentage drop would be smaller at higher resolutions, as the GPU would be waiting on the CPU less.

The data also shows that the frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistently 33% across all settings, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 43%. This suggests that the GPU’s performance scales roughly with pixel count up to a point, but the 4K resolution overwhelms the GPU’s capabilities, leading to a larger relative drop. For users with a 4K display, the practical implication is that Medium settings provide the best experience, with a 76 FPS average and a 65 FPS minimum that keeps gameplay smooth on most monitors. High at 4K is marginal at 60 FPS average, and Ultra should be avoided entirely.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, fabricated on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, with a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 34731 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 4903 in single-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 40849 and a single-thread score of 4683. These figures place it in the 91st percentile against all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 52073 is within 1% of several high-end desktop processors, including the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and Intel Core i9-13900F.

In Evolve, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p with lower settings, where the frame rates exceed 200 FPS. The game was released in 2015 and is not known for heavy multi-threading, so the CPU’s high single-core performance is the key driver. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz provides the per-thread speed necessary to maintain high frame rates, and the 14 cores ensure that background tasks do not interfere with game performance. The L3 cache is 24 MB shared, which is sufficient for the game’s working set, and the L2 cache is 3 MB per core, providing low-latency access to frequently used data.

At 1440p and above, the CPU’s influence diminishes as the GPU becomes the bottleneck. However, the data shows that even at 4K Low, the combo achieves 98 FPS, which is higher than what a weaker CPU might allow. The fact that the frame rates do not drop below 60 FPS until Ultra at 4K suggests that the CPU is not holding back the GPU in most scenarios. The Passmark physics score of 2550 is moderate, but Evolve does not rely heavily on physics calculations, so this is not a limiting factor. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is adequate for the game, and the DDR5 support ensures that memory latency is low.

The nearest rival CPUs in terms of average benchmark score are all within 1% of the Core Ultra 5 235HX, but their performance in Evolve would depend on their single-core speeds and memory subsystems. The AMD EPYC 8124P is a server processor with a different focus, while the Ryzen 9 5950X and Core i9-13900F are desktop parts with higher TDPs. The Core Ultra 5 235HX’s mobile design allows it to deliver comparable compute performance while operating within a 55 W TDP, which is a significant advantage for laptop implementations. In Evolve, the measured FPS results show that this CPU is more than capable of feeding the RTX 5080 Mobile at 1080p, where the GPU is not the limiting factor, and it does not cause any noticeable stuttering or frame pacing issues at higher resolutions based on the available data.