Evolve

Evolve, a 2015 FPS title, is not typically used as a modern stress test, but the measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX reveals a fascinating profile of how this combination handles a last-generation engine at extreme settings. The dataset provides a clear picture of a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet reveals the CPU's substantial headroom at 1080p, where frame rates soar past the 300 FPS mark. With the GPU's percentile rank at 64 and the CPU's at 93, the data suggests a pairing where the processor has significant untapped potential in this specific workload, leaving the graphics card as the primary arbiter of performance.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a predictable, yet steep, decline in average frame rates as resolution increases, but the rate of that decline reveals the system's bottleneck. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 186 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops performance by 32.8% to 125 FPS, indicating the GPU is beginning to feel the load. The jump to 4K (3840x2160) results in another 43.2% reduction to 71 FPS. This steep falloff from 1440p to 4K strongly suggests that the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the limiting component at the higher resolution, as the CPU has ample power to feed frames at lower resolutions.

The scaling pattern is even more pronounced at the Ultra preset. The system achieves 129 FPS at 1080p, but this plummets to 86 FPS at 1440p (a 33.3% drop) and then further down to 49 FPS at 4K (a 43% drop from 1440p). This consistent ~33% and ~43% reduction pattern across both High and Ultra settings points directly to the GPU's pixel-pushing capabilities as the primary constraint. The CPU's performance, which is in the 93rd percentile overall, is clearly not the limiting factor here; it's the graphics card's ability to process the increased pixel count that dictates the final frame rate.

Interestingly, the 4K performance at Low settings (117 FPS) is still higher than the 1440p performance at Medium (159 FPS) and High (125 FPS), which is an anomaly. This indicates that while resolution is a major factor, the settings preset has an equally significant impact on the GPU load. The data implies that the 7900 XTX has enough raw compute power to handle 4K, but only when the visual complexity is reduced. The scaling from Medium to Ultra at any given resolution shows a massive performance hit, suggesting that the Ultra preset includes graphical features that are particularly taxing on this RDNA 3.0 architecture.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Evolve?

A: The highest measured average is 306 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This indicates the CPU and GPU have significant headroom at this resolution and preset, and the game is likely not fully utilizing the hardware.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with the Ultra preset?

A: The average frame rate at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 49 FPS. This is the lowest score recorded in the dataset and suggests that the Ultra preset at 4K is too demanding for this combination to maintain a smooth 60 FPS experience.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the frame rates range from 86 FPS (Ultra) to 205 FPS (Low). The significant drop as settings increase indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU, which ranks in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, is unlikely to be the constraint at this resolution.

Q: What is the difference in performance between Medium and High settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset yields 237 FPS, while High yields 186 FPS. This represents a 21.5% performance decrease when moving from Medium to High, showing that the High preset adds a substantial load on the graphics card.

Q: Does the system ever drop below 60 FPS in the tested configurations?

A: Yes. The only configuration that dips below 60 FPS is the 4K Ultra preset, which averages 49 FPS. All other tested resolutions and settings combinations maintain an average frame rate above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Medium performance compare to the 1440p Ultra performance?

A: At 4K Medium, the system averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, the average is 86 FPS. Therefore, the 4K Medium preset provides a higher average frame rate than the 1440p Ultra preset, despite the higher resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Evolve, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX achieves a rank of 351 out of 2872 tested combos. This places it in the top 12.2% of all systems tested for this game, which is a strong showing for a title released in 2015. The data indicates that this is a high-performing combination, though not the absolute top-tier, likely due to the game's age and its ability to be easily driven by modern high-end components.

The ranking, when viewed against the individual component percentiles, is telling. The CPU is in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is only in the 64th percentile of all GPUs. This 29-percentile gap strongly implies that the GPU is the limiting factor for this combo's overall rank in Evolve. If a different, more powerful GPU were paired with this CPU, the combo's rank would likely be significantly higher, as the processor's potential is not being fully utilized. The data suggests that the system's performance is capped by the graphics card's capabilities in this specific game.

The nearest rivals to this CPU in terms of overall benchmark scores include the AMD EPYC 4464P and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, with score differences of -0.3% and 0.3% respectively. This shows that the CPU itself is performing exactly as expected for its class. However, the GPU's nearest rivals in the database are notably older and less powerful cards like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp, with delta percentages of 0.4% and 1.2%. This comparison highlights that the 7900 XTX, while ranked at the 64th percentile, is being benchmarked against a wide array of cards, including much older ones, which skews its percentile. In the context of Evolve, its performance is solid, but the 351st rank out of 2872 combos suggests there are many other combinations that can achieve higher frame rates in this older title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides a complete matrix of average frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptionally high across the board. The Low preset achieves an average of 306 FPS, which is likely beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The Medium preset follows at 237 FPS, with a minimum of 201 FPS and a maximum of 272 FPS, indicating a very smooth experience. High settings average 186 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains a robust 129 FPS. This data confirms that at 1080p, the system is entirely GPU-limited, but the GPU is so powerful that it can still produce extremely high frame rates even at maximum quality.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains impressive but shows the expected decline. The Low preset averages 205 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth. Medium settings produce 159 FPS (min 135, max 183), and High settings average 125 FPS. The Ultra preset, however, drops to an average of 86 FPS. While this is still playable, it shows a 33.3% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score, highlighting the increased rendering load at this resolution. The frametime data for Medium (135-183 FPS) suggests good consistency, but the lack of min/max data for other presets makes it difficult to assess frame pacing at High and Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the system's limits are tested. The Low preset manages an average of 117 FPS, which is still very high for 4K. Medium settings follow at 90 FPS (min 77, max 104), which is a solid playable experience. High settings drop to 71 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS target but not quite there. The Ultra preset is the only configuration that fails to hit 60 FPS, averaging a weak 49 FPS. This data shows a clear trend: the 7900 XTX can handle 4K, but only at lower settings. The step from High (71 FPS) to Ultra (49 FPS) is a 31% performance hit, suggesting that the Ultra preset in Evolve includes features that are particularly punishing at 4K resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, with its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus providing 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, is clearly the dominant component in this pairing for Evolve. The massive memory capacity and bandwidth are more than sufficient for a 2015 title, meaning the card is likely not constrained by memory throughput or capacity in this game. The data confirms this, as the performance scaling is directly tied to the GPU's compute load, which increases with resolution and settings. The card's boost clock of 2498 MHz and game clock of 2365 MHz are high, but the data suggests that these clocks are not the limiting factor; rather, it is the raw shader throughput (6144 shading units) that determines the frame rate.

The GPU's performance in Evolve is best described as a tale of two tiers. At 1080p and 1440p, it is powerful enough to deliver high frame rates, even at Ultra settings (129 FPS and 86 FPS respectively). However, at 4K, the card's limitations become apparent. While it can manage 117 FPS at Low settings, the Ultra preset cripples it to 49 FPS. This indicates that the card's compute units (6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, 192 ROPs) are being saturated by the combination of 4K resolution and the Ultra preset's effects. The data implies that the 7900 XTX is a high-end card that is best suited for 1440p gaming in demanding titles, and while it can do 4K, it requires significant compromises in settings to maintain high frame rates.

The GPU's 64th percentile ranking among all GPUs is somewhat misleading when looking at its absolute performance. The nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and the AMD FirePro D300, which are much older and less powerful cards. This suggests that the 64th percentile is a result of the database including a wide range of GPUs, from integrated graphics to current top-tier models. In the specific context of Evolve, the 7900 XTX is clearly a high-end part, but its performance is not in the top tier of the database, which is why the combo ranks 351st. The card's 24 GB of VRAM is a non-factor here, as Evolve from 2015 will not utilize that amount of memory, further confirming that compute performance is the primary driver of these results.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265, with its 20 cores and 20 threads, is a powerful processor that appears to have no trouble keeping up with the GPU in Evolve. The benchmark results show that its multi-threaded performance is excellent, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 49682. For a game from 2015, which is unlikely to be optimized for more than a few cores, this CPU has an immense amount of headroom. The data shows that at 1080p, where the CPU load is highest relative to the GPU, the system still achieves 186 FPS at High settings, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck even in the most CPU-demanding scenarios.

The CPU's high boost clock of 5.30 GHz and strong single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 4689) are likely more important for gaming than its core count. Evolve, being a last-generation title, will primarily rely on single-thread or low-thread-count performance. The Core Ultra 7 265's single-core capabilities are robust, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5960. This ensures that the game's main simulation and logic threads are handled efficiently, allowing the GPU to receive a consistent stream of frames. The fact that the system can hit 306 FPS at 1080p Low reflects the CPU's ability to feed the GPU at extremely high rates.

The CPU's performance is in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 4464P and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, with score differences of -0.3% and 0.3% respectively. This shows that the CPU is performing in line with its expectations. However, in the context of this Evolve benchmark, the CPU is essentially a silent partner. The data shows that the performance ceiling is dictated by the GPU, as the frame rate drops are consistent with GPU load increases. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at lower resolutions, but instead, we see a smooth scaling from 1080p to 4K, which is the signature of a GPU-bound system. The 20 cores are overkill for this game, but they ensure that there is no CPU-induced stutter or frame drops.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend entirely on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For players at 1920x1080, the Ultra preset provides an excellent experience with an average of 129 FPS. This is high enough for high-refresh-rate monitors, and the graphical fidelity will be maximized. The data does not show any reason to lower settings at 1080p, as even the most demanding preset maintains a very playable frame rate. For those seeking the absolute highest FPS for competitive play, dropping to Low yields 306 FPS, but the visual compromise is significant.

At 2560x1440, the High preset offers a balanced 125 FPS, which is a great sweet spot for quality and performance. The Ultra preset, at 86 FPS, is still smooth but represents a 31.2% performance hit compared to High. The Medium preset at 159 FPS is also a viable option for those who prefer higher frame rates over visual fidelity. The data suggests that High is the best choice for a visually rich 1440p experience, as it stays well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a substantial improvement in quality over Medium.

For 4K gaming, the choices are more constrained. The Ultra preset's 49 FPS is not recommended for a smooth experience, as it falls below the 60 FPS standard. The High preset, at 71 FPS, is playable but might exhibit occasional dips. The Medium preset is the best recommendation for 4K, as it provides an average of 90 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS, ensuring a consistently smooth experience while still offering a decent level of visual quality. The Low preset at 117 FPS is another option for those who prioritize frame rate above all else, but the Medium preset offers a better balance of performance and visual quality for 4K. In summary, the data indicates that the best experience is achieved by using the Ultra preset at 1080p, the High preset at 1440p, and the Medium preset at 4K.