Evolve

# Evolve Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The measured performance data for Evolve with this Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination shows a system that is clearly capable of delivering smooth gameplay across most settings, though the Ultra preset at 4K pushes the hardware to its limits. With a combo rank of 885 out of 2,872 tested configurations, this pairing sits comfortably in the upper third of all systems tested, indicating strong but not class-leading performance for this 2015 FPS title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how different presets perform across the three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 186 FPS average with a minimum of 158 FPS and maximum of 214 FPS, making it the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset at 146 FPS average remains highly playable, while Ultra drops to 101 FPS — still smooth but a noticeable step down. The Low preset at 241 FPS is only useful for competitive play at extremely high refresh rates, as the visual quality loss outweighs the marginal frame rate gain for most users.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out with 125 FPS average and a minimum of 106 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High follows at 98 FPS, and Low delivers 161 FPS for those prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 68 FPS is playable but begins to show the strain on the hardware, with the frame rate dipping close to the 60 FPS comfort zone.

The 3840x2160 results tell a different story. Here, the Medium preset delivers 71 FPS average with a minimum of 60 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that maintains consistently playable frame rates. High drops to 56 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while Low at 92 FPS shows that the GPU has headroom when visual effects are reduced. Ultra at 39 FPS falls below the playability threshold for most users.

The data suggests that Medium is the recommended preset across all three resolutions for the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the 186 FPS average with a 158 FPS minimum ensures no dips below high-refresh-rate territory. At 1440p, the 125 FPS average with 106 FPS minimum keeps gameplay smooth on standard 60Hz displays and most 144Hz monitors. At 4K, the 71 FPS average with 60 FPS minimum is just at the edge of the playability threshold, but the consistency of the minimum frame rate makes it viable for those willing to accept Medium settings on a 4K display.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz provide the raw compute throughput needed for Evolve's gameplay logic and AI systems. The processor's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core help reduce memory latency, which is important for maintaining consistent frame times in a fast-paced shooter.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15,028 and a single-core score of 1,743, placing it at the 83rd percentile among all tested CPUs. Its PassMark multi-thread score of 24,873 and single-thread score of 3,468 further confirm its position as a strong mobile processor. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600T with an average score of 32,707 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 at 32,662 (0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F at 32,750 (-0.2% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H at 32,812 (-0.4% delta). These tight delta percentages indicate that the 155H sits in a competitive performance band, with no single rival having a significant advantage.

For Evolve specifically, the CPU's role is likely secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but at 1080p with Low settings, the 241 FPS result suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough frames to reach very high refresh rates. The 22 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's background simulation tasks, while the high single-thread boost clock of 4.80 GHz ensures responsive input processing and physics calculations. The 28 W TDP indicates this is a power-efficient mobile chip, yet its performance in this game demonstrates that efficient designs can still deliver high frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a desktop-class GPU with the AD103 chip on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Evolve's texture and geometry requirements at all tested resolutions. The GPU's base clock of 2205 MHz and boost clock of 2505 MHz, combined with its 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, position it as a high-end part that sits at the 86th percentile among all tested GPUs.

In GPU benchmarks, the RTX 4080 achieves a PassMark G3D score of 34,457 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 214,739. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER with an average score of 54,209 (0.1% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X at 54,828 (-1.1% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB at 55,698 (-2.6% delta), and the AMD Radeon 8060S at 55,757 (-2.7% delta). The very small delta percentages against these rivals indicate that the RTX 4080 is performing essentially at parity with its closest competitors, with no meaningful performance gap in either direction.

For Evolve, the GPU's 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than adequate, as the game's release date of 2015 predates the high-resolution texture packs common in modern titles. The memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s ensures that texture streaming and geometry processing never become bottlenecks, even at 4K resolution. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support with feature level 12_2 means it fully supports the game's rendering requirements, though Evolve was originally designed for the DirectX 11 era, as indicated by the PassMark DirectX 11 score of 314 versus the DirectX 12 score of 132.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 achieves a combo rank of 885 out of 2,872 tested configurations in Evolve. This places the system in the 69th percentile of all tested combos, meaning it outperforms roughly two-thirds of the systems tested while being outperformed by the remaining third. Given that the RTX 4080 is a high-end desktop GPU and the Core Ultra 7 155H is a mobile processor, this ranking reflects the potential CPU bottleneck that can occur when pairing a strong GPU with a laptop-class chip.

The rank suggests that while the GPU is capable of delivering very high frame rates in Evolve, the CPU's mobile nature may limit performance in CPU-bound scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom. The measured FPS data supports this interpretation: at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 241 FPS, but this is likely close to the CPU's maximum frame generation capability. In contrast, at 4K with Ultra settings, the system drops to 39 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor when pixel throughput demands increase dramatically.

Compared to the 2,872 total combos tested, this system's mid-upper ranking is respectable but not exceptional. The data implies that users seeking the absolute highest frame rates in Evolve would need a more powerful desktop CPU to fully unlock the RTX 4080's potential, while those satisfied with 60-100 FPS at high settings will find this combo more than adequate.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K reveals how the system's performance scales with resolution for each preset. At Medium settings, the average FPS decreases from 186 at 1080p to 125 at 1440p (a 32.8% drop) and then to 71 at 4K (a 43.2% drop from 1440p). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly stressed as resolution increases, with the 4K result showing the most significant performance degradation.

For High settings, the progression is 146 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p (a 32.9% drop), and 56 FPS at 4K (a 42.9% drop from 1440p). The Low preset shows 241 FPS at 1080p, 161 FPS at 1440p (a 33.2% drop), and 92 FPS at 4K (a 42.9% drop). The Ultra preset follows a similar pattern: 101 FPS at 1080p, 68 FPS at 1440p (a 32.7% drop), and 39 FPS at 4K (a 42.6% drop).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all presets — approximately 33% from 1080p to 1440p and another 43% from 1440p to 4K — strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component as resolution increases. The uniform scaling pattern across presets suggests that the CPU is not introducing a bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops are proportional to the pixel count increase. This is expected behavior for a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 4080's rendering throughput determines the final frame rate.

The fact that Low settings at 4K (92 FPS) achieves a higher frame rate than Ultra at 1440p (68 FPS) further confirms the GPU-bound nature of the system at higher resolutions. The CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution, but the GPU's workload increases dramatically with pixel count, making the GPU the clear limiting factor at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers the following average frame rates across presets: Low at 241 FPS, Medium at 186 FPS with a minimum of 158 FPS and maximum of 214 FPS, High at 146 FPS, and Ultra at 101 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum frame rate of 158 FPS ensures that even the most demanding scenes maintain smooth playback on high-refresh-rate monitors, while the Low preset's 241 FPS average provides a significant margin for competitive play.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are: Low at 161 FPS, Medium at 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 144 FPS, High at 98 FPS, and Ultra at 68 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 106 FPS keeps gameplay fluid on 60Hz displays and most 144Hz monitors, though the Ultra preset's 68 FPS average is approaching the threshold where frame pacing issues may become noticeable.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are: Low at 92 FPS, Medium at 71 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS, High at 56 FPS, and Ultra at 39 FPS. The Medium preset is the only option that maintains an average above 60 FPS, and its minimum of exactly 60 FPS means the system is right at the edge of playability for the smoothest experience. The High preset's 56 FPS average and Ultra's 39 FPS average are below the standard playability threshold, suggesting that users with 4K displays should stick to Medium settings or lower.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use at 1440p for a 60Hz monitor?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 125 FPS average with a minimum of 106 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for a standard 60Hz display. This provides a comfortable margin for frame time variance while maintaining good visual quality.

Q: Can this system run Evolve at 4K with smooth gameplay?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings. The 4K Medium preset achieves 71 FPS average with a minimum of 60 FPS, which is exactly at the playability threshold. High settings drop to 56 FPS, and Ultra falls to 39 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS target.

Q: How does this combo compare to the nearest rival GPU configurations?

A: The RTX 4080 is within 0.1% of the RTX 4080 SUPER's average benchmark score, and within 2.7% of the AMD Radeon 8060S. These tiny deltas suggest that swapping to a close rival GPU would produce nearly identical frame rates in Evolve.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this system?

A: The resolution scaling data shows consistent percentage drops of approximately 33% from 1080p to 1440p and 43% from 1440p to 4K across all presets, indicating the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings (241 FPS), the CPU may become the bottleneck, but data does not explicitly confirm this.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured data shows 146 FPS average at 1080p with High settings. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides smooth gameplay on 144Hz monitors, though not sufficient for 240Hz displays without dropping to Medium or Low.

Q: How does the CPU's synthetic benchmark performance relate to its gaming performance?

A: The Core Ultra 7 155H scores 15,028 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,743 in single-core, placing it at the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600T, has a 0% delta in average score, suggesting they would perform nearly identically in CPU-bound scenarios like Evolve at low resolutions.