Evolve

# Evolve with Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a benchmark combination for Evolve, a 2015 FPS title, with measured average frame rates ranging from 306 FPS at 1080p Low down to 49 FPS at 4K Ultra. This combo ranks 351st out of 2,872 tested configurations, placing it in the top 12% of all tested systems for this game, while the data reveals a substantial GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions and a CPU-bound ceiling at lower settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings in Evolve?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 125 FPS, which sits comfortably above common 60 Hz and 120 Hz display refresh rates, providing a smooth experience without needing to drop visual quality.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XTX's 24 GB VRAM factor into Evolve's performance?

A: With 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, the GPU has ample memory bandwidth (960.0 GB/s) for Evolve's 2015-era textures and geometry, meaning VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at any tested resolution—even at 4K Ultra, the bottleneck appears elsewhere.

Q: What is the best preset for maintaining 60+ FPS at 4K?

A: The data shows 4K High averages 71 FPS, while 4K Medium averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS. For a locked 60 FPS experience at 4K, High is sufficient; for headroom against frame-time spikes, Medium provides a more robust buffer.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Evolve?

A: The combination ranks 351st out of 2,872 tested combos (comboRankInGame), which places it in the 87th percentile of all tested configurations, indicating strong but not top-tier performance relative to the full database.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 129, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 49 FPS—a reduction of 80 FPS, or roughly 62% lower performance. This steep decline highlights the GPU's dominance as the primary performance limiter at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the Intel Core Ultra 5 245's 14-core, 14-thread configuration cause a CPU bottleneck in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 306 FPS average, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower resolutions; however, the relatively modest single-thread score (4,648 in Cinebench R23) compared to the GPU's throughput suggests the CPU becomes the limiting factor only at extreme frame rates, not at typical gaming resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, the data points to 1440p High as the optimal preset. At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo delivers 125 FPS average, which exceeds the refresh rate of most high-refresh monitors while maintaining substantial graphical quality. The 1440p Medium preset provides 159 FPS average (with a minimum of 135 FPS), offering a strong alternative for players prioritizing frame rate consistency over minor visual gains.

At 4K resolution, High settings at 71 FPS average is the recommended choice for a playable experience, as it stays above the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Ultra preset drops to 49 FPS average, which falls below smooth-playability standards for most users, making it unsuitable for competitive or fast-paced gameplay. The 4K Medium preset at 90 FPS average (77 FPS minimum) is a viable alternative if higher frame rates are desired, though it sacrifices some visual quality compared to High.

For 1080p users, even Ultra settings maintain 129 FPS average, meaning all presets are playable. The 1080p Low preset reaches 306 FPS, which is excessive for most displays but indicates the CPU headroom at this resolution. The recommended approach is to use 1080p High at 186 FPS for a balance of quality and speed, or 1080p Medium at 237 FPS for esports-style responsiveness. The data suggests that pushing beyond 1440p High yields diminishing returns on this hardware, as the GPU becomes increasingly strained at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant component in this configuration, with its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth providing massive headroom for Evolve's texture-heavy environments. The GPU's boost clock of 2498 MHz and game clock of 2365 MHz drive the measured results, with the 6144 shading units and 192 ROPs handling the game's rendering workload efficiently. The 355 W TDP and dual-slot cooler design indicate a high-power part that sustains performance under load.

The GPU's benchmark scores underscore its capability: a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,841 and a Passmark G3D score of 31,238 place it in the 64th percentile of all GPUs, though its nearest rivals in the database (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB, Quadro K5200, FirePro D300) have notably lower specifications, suggesting the percentile ranking may understate its absolute performance. The 24 GB VRAM is particularly relevant for Evolve, as the game's 2015-era assets can be stored entirely in memory without paging, but the measured FPS drops at 4K Ultra suggest that raw compute throughput, not memory capacity, is the limiting factor.

The GPU's memory clock of 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) on a 384-bit interface yields 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game's data transfer needs at all resolutions. The FP32 compute of 61.39 TFLOPS provides the arithmetic throughput needed for the game's physics and rendering calculations. At 4K Ultra, the 49 FPS average indicates the GPU is fully saturated, while at 1080p Low, the 306 FPS result shows the GPU has ample headroom that is instead constrained by CPU-side processing.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 351 out of 2,872 tested combinations places it in the top 12.2% of all systems tested for Evolve. This ranking reflects a strong overall configuration, though not a top-tier one, as the 2015 game's engine may not fully utilize the modern hardware's capabilities. The CPU's percentile ranking (90th among all CPUs) is notably higher than the GPU's (64th among all GPUs), suggesting the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card when compared against their respective peer groups.

However, the GPU's nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (with a deltaPct of 0.4%), the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (-1%), and the AMD FirePro D300 (-1.2%), all of which are significantly older or lower-tier parts. This indicates the RX 7900 XTX's percentile rank is skewed by the inclusion of many specialized or legacy GPUs in the database, and its actual gaming performance is far superior to those nearest rivals. The combo rank of 351 suggests that while this hardware is powerful, other tested combinations with higher-end CPUs or more recent GPUs achieve better results in Evolve, likely due to the game's single-threaded engine characteristics.

The disparity between the CPU's strong benchmark scores (Cinebench R23 multicore of 32,924 and Passmark multithread of 38,706) and the combo's mid-pack ranking indicates that the GPU's performance ceiling is the primary constraint. The data shows that the RX 7900 XTX, despite its high absolute performance, is not fully utilized at lower resolutions, which is a typical pattern for games with CPU-bound engines.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 brings 14 cores and 14 threads (no hyperthreading) with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz to this configuration. Its Arrow Lake architecture on TSMC's 3 nm process node provides a modern foundation, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 per core. The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance (Cinebench R23 multicore of 32,924, Passmark multithread of 38,706) and respectable single-thread capability (Cinebench R23 singlecore of 4,648, Passmark single thread of 4,394).

In Evolve, the CPU's role is evident in the scaling between resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 306 FPS average, which represents the CPU's frame-rate ceiling for this game—the GPU could likely render more frames, but the processor limits the output. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 129 FPS, showing that as GPU load increases, the CPU becomes less of a bottleneck. The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (102.4 GB/s bandwidth) provide sufficient memory throughput for the game's data streaming.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (deltaPct -0.4%), AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (-0.5%), Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (0.6%), and Intel Core i5-14600K (0.8%), all of which have similar average benchmark scores. This indicates the Core Ultra 5 245 is well-positioned among contemporary CPUs, though the lack of hyperthreading (14 threads for 14 cores) may limit its performance in heavily threaded workloads—though Evolve's 2015 engine likely does not exploit more than a few threads. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking reflects its strong overall performance, but in gaming, the single-thread performance is more critical, and the 4,648 Cinebench R23 single-core score is competitive.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are: Low settings 306 FPS, Medium settings 237 FPS (with a minimum of 201 FPS and maximum of 272 FPS), High settings 186 FPS, and Ultra settings 129 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 177 FPS, indicating that visual quality settings have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution. The Medium preset's minimum of 201 FPS ensures that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays well above 144 Hz refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, the results show: Low settings 205 FPS, Medium settings 159 FPS (minimum 135 FPS, maximum 183 FPS), High settings 125 FPS, and Ultra settings 86 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by roughly 33-45% depending on the preset, with the Ultra preset dropping below the 100 FPS threshold. The Medium preset's minimum of 135 FPS still provides a smooth experience for high-refresh displays.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the measured averages are: Low settings 117 FPS, Medium settings 90 FPS (minimum 77 FPS, maximum 104 FPS), High settings 71 FPS, and Ultra settings 49 FPS. The 4K results show a dramatic scaling penalty, with the Ultra preset falling below 60 FPS and the High preset barely maintaining playability. The Medium preset's 90 FPS average with a 77 FPS minimum is the only 4K setting that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Low settings at 117 FPS remain smooth but visually compromised.

The data reveals that the Medium preset consistently provides the most balanced experience across all resolutions, with acceptable visual quality and frame rates that exceed 60 FPS even at 4K. The High preset is viable at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K it hovers near the 60 FPS threshold, making it a borderline choice for users sensitive to frame rate drops.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU's dominant role in this configuration. At Low settings, the drop from 306 FPS at 1080p to 205 FPS at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and 117 FPS at 4K (a 62% reduction from 1080p) demonstrates that even at the lowest visual quality, the GPU's rendering load increases substantially with resolution. The 4K result of 117 FPS at Low settings shows that the GPU still has headroom, but the scaling is steep.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: from 129 FPS at 1080p to 86 FPS at 1440p (33% lower) to 49 FPS at 4K (62% lower than 1080p). This consistent percentage reduction across presets indicates that resolution scaling is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound—the GPU's fill rate and compute capacity are the limiting factors, not the CPU. The 4K Ultra result of 49 FPS suggests the GPU is fully saturated, as the game's rendering demands at this resolution exceed the RX 7900 XTX's capabilities.

The scaling pattern also indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor at higher resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively flat across resolutions at lower settings, but the data shows significant drops even at Low presets. The 1080p Low result of 306 FPS is likely near the CPU's maximum frame output for this game, but the GPU's performance at 4K Low (117 FPS) is still well below that ceiling, confirming the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K. The 1440p results show a balanced workload, with the GPU handling the increased pixel count while the CPU maintains adequate frame delivery. Overall, the scaling analysis points to a system where the RX 7900 XTX is the performance-limiting component at 1440p and above, while the Core Ultra 5 245 provides sufficient headroom at lower resolutions.