Evolve

Evolve pairs the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus with the Intel Arc B370, a combination that produces heavily GPU-bound results across all tested settings. The measured data shows a platform where the CPU’s substantial multi-threaded capability is effectively irrelevant at every resolution, with the integrated graphics solution acting as the sole performance limiter. This analysis uses only the provided measured FPS rows, CPU and GPU benchmark scores, and ranking data to give practical guidance on how to play this 2015 FPS title on this specific hardware.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Evolve with this combo points to a clear best choice: the Low preset at 1920x1080. At this setting, the average frame rate reaches 80 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all resolutions and settings. This is the only configuration that crosses the 60 FPS threshold, making it the only playable option for smooth, responsive gameplay. The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers 62 FPS on average, which is technically above 60 FPS but leaves less headroom; the minimum FPS recorded for this preset is 53, meaning dips below 60 are common. Low at 1080p provides a larger margin of safety, and the data suggests it is the most reliable choice for consistent performance.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 54 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS marker and will feel less fluid. The High preset at 1440p drops to 33 FPS, which is borderline for a fast-paced FPS. The Ultra preset at any resolution is not viable: it produces 34 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and only 13 FPS at 4K. These numbers indicate that Ultra settings are essentially unplayable with this combo, regardless of resolution. Medium at 1440p averages 42 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 FPS, which is too low for any practical use.

For the best experience, the data supports using Low settings at 1080p as the primary configuration. If a player insists on higher visual quality, Medium at 1080p is the only other preset that stays near 60 FPS, but the 53 FPS minimum should be noted. There is no scenario where High or Ultra settings are recommended; the frame rate penalties are severe, with High at 4K producing just 19 FPS. The measured rows show a steep drop-off as settings increase, so the practical advice is to prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity. Low at 1080p is the only preset that delivers a consistently smooth experience, and it should be the default choice for anyone using this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for Evolve places this configuration at position 2639 out of 2872 tested combinations. This puts it in the bottom 8% of all tested setups, which is a direct reflection of the GPU’s performance ceiling. The Intel Arc B370 is the limiting factor here; its benchmark data shows a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184, which places it at the 5th percentile among all GPUs. This is an exceptionally low score, and it explains why the measured FPS numbers are so modest.

In terms of nearest rivals for the GPU, the Arc B370’s score is nearly identical to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, which scores 1186, a delta of -0.2%. It is also within 0.5% of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190) and 0.7% of the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192). The AMD FirePro M2000 is slightly slower at 1168, putting the Arc B370 1.4% ahead. These comparisons show that the Arc B370 performs at the level of integrated and entry-level discrete GPUs from over a decade ago, which is consistent with its 25W TDP and IGP form factor. This is not a gaming GPU by any modern standard, and the Evolve results reflect that.

The CPU, by contrast, is a powerhouse. The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus sits at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 93785. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6520P at 93786 (0% delta), the AMD EPYC 4564P at 95183 (-1.5%), the AMD EPYC 9175F at 95615 (-1.9%), and the AMD EPYC 4565P at 95764 (-2.1%). This CPU is clearly not the bottleneck; its multi-core performance is far beyond what Evolve requires, even at its launch in 2015. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the frame rates are consistently low across all settings, which is the signature of a GPU-limited scenario.

The rank of 2639 out of 2872 is thus a direct consequence of the GPU’s low standing. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates that scale more with resolution, but the data shows that even at 1080p with Low settings, the combo only reaches 80 FPS. This is not a CPU limitation; it is the GPU running out of throughput. The practical takeaway is that this combo’s rank in Evolve is poor, and any upgrade path would need to focus on the graphics side, not the processor.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the definitive performance limiter in this configuration. Its specifications paint a clear picture: it is an integrated graphics solution (IGP) with a 25W TDP and no dedicated memory. The memory is listed as “System Shared,” meaning it uses a portion of the system’s DDR5 RAM rather than having its own VRAM. This is a fundamental constraint for gaming, as shared memory bandwidth is “System Dependent” and cannot match the dedicated bandwidth of a discrete GPU. The memory bus width is also “System Shared,” which further limits data throughput.

The GPU’s clock speeds are modest: a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. While the boost clock is respectable for an integrated part, the compute resources are small. The Arc B370 has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 20 raster output units (ROPs). It also includes 10 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS, which sounds reasonable on paper, but the shared memory and lack of dedicated VRAM severely hamper real-world gaming performance.

In Evolve, the GPU role is evident from the FPS scaling. At 1080p Low, the average is 80 FPS, which drops to 54 FPS at 1440p and 31 FPS at 4K. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is limited by memory bandwidth and fill rate, not by CPU throughput. The High preset at 1080p yields 49 FPS, while Ultra drops to 34 FPS. These numbers are far below what the CPU could deliver if the GPU were not the bottleneck. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184, placing the GPU at the 5th percentile, reinforces this. There is no scenario in which this GPU can push Evolve to high frame rates at high settings; it is simply not capable of the required geometry and texture processing.

The fact that the GPU’s memory is system-shared also means that the CPU’s memory bandwidth (115.2 GB/s for the Dual-channel DDR5 setup) is shared between the CPU and GPU. This can lead to contention, further degrading performance in memory-intensive scenes. For Evolve, which is a fast-paced FPS with dynamic environments, this is a significant drawback. The data shows that even at the lowest settings, the GPU cannot sustain 60 FPS at 1440p or 4K, which is a clear indication of its limited role. Any attempt to raise settings results in a disproportionate FPS loss, as seen in the 19 FPS average at 4K High.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combo’s performance in Evolve. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 80 FPS. There is no minimum or maximum recorded for this row, but the average is the highest of any configuration. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 62 FPS, with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS. This indicates that while the average is above 60, the dips below 60 are frequent enough to be noticeable. The High preset at 1080p drops to 49 FPS average, and the Ultra preset falls to 34 FPS. These numbers show a clear trend: each step up in settings costs roughly 13-15 FPS at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 54 FPS, which is a 26 FPS drop from 1080p Low. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 42 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS. This is a 20 FPS drop from the 1080p Medium average. The High preset at 1440p yields 33 FPS, which is 16 FPS below the 1080p High result. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 23 FPS, which is 11 FPS below the 1080p Ultra result. The consistent pattern is that each resolution step down halves the performance impact of the GPU, but the frame rates remain low across the board.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 31 FPS, which is a 23 FPS drop from 1440p Low. The Medium preset at 4K averages 24 FPS, with a minimum of 20 FPS and a maximum of 27 FPS. This is an 18 FPS drop from 1440p Medium. The High preset at 4K averages 19 FPS, which is 14 FPS below the 1440p High result. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 13 FPS, which is 10 FPS below the 1440p Ultra result. The data shows that no 4K configuration is playable, with even Low settings producing only 31 FPS.

The minimum and maximum FPS values are only recorded for the Medium settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the range is 53 to 72 FPS. At 1440p, the range is 35 to 48 FPS. At 4K, the range is 20 to 27 FPS. These ranges are relatively narrow, indicating that the frame pacing is stable but the overall performance is low. This is typical of a GPU that is hitting a hard performance ceiling; there is no variability because the GPU is consistently saturated. For the other settings, the lack of min/max data suggests that the averages are representative of the experience, with no significant spikes or drops.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, revealing a GPU-bound workload. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 80 at 1080p to 54 at 1440p (a 32.5% drop) and then to 31 at 4K (a 42.6% drop from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 61.25%. At Medium settings, the averages are 62, 42, and 24 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. This represents a 32.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 42.9% drop from 1440p to 4K, with a total drop of 61.3% from 1080p to 4K. The High preset shows a similar pattern: 49, 33, and 19 FPS, which is a 32.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p, a 42.4% drop from 1440p to 4K, and a total drop of 61.2%. For Ultra, the numbers are 34, 23, and 13 FPS, with a 32.4% drop from 1080p to 1440p, a 43.5% drop from 1440p to 4K, and a total drop of 61.8%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is notable. The FPS scales almost linearly with the number of pixels, which is a hallmark of a GPU that is limited by fill rate and memory bandwidth. The pixel count increases by 2.25x from 1080p to 1440p, and by 4x from 1080p to 4K. The measured FPS drops do not perfectly match these ratios (a 4x pixel increase would suggest a 75% FPS drop if fully pixel-bound), but the pattern is close enough to indicate that the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU’s performance is clearly not a factor; if it were, we would see a more shallow scaling curve, as the CPU load does not increase as much with resolution.

This scaling behavior confirms that the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is not the bottleneck. Even at 1080p Low, the combo only achieves 80 FPS, which is far below what the CPU could support. The CPU’s multi-core score of 44253 in Cinebench R23 and its 96th percentile ranking indicate that it has ample headroom for this game. The limiting factor is the Arc B370’s inability to process pixels fast enough. The data suggests that lowering the resolution is the only way to gain meaningful FPS, but even at 1080p, the GPU holds the combo back from achieving high refresh rates. The practical advice is to stay at 1080p and use Low settings, as any other configuration results in frame rates that are too low for a competitive FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo in Evolve?

A: The measured data shows that Low settings at 1920x1080 produce an average of 80 FPS, which is the highest frame rate of any configuration. Medium at 1080p averages 62 FPS but has a minimum of 53 FPS, making Low the more consistent choice for smooth gameplay.

Q: Can this combo run Evolve at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest average FPS is 31 on the Low preset. Medium averages 24 FPS, High averages 19 FPS, and Ultra averages 13 FPS. None of these are playable for a fast-paced FPS, so 4K is not a viable option for this hardware.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B370’s 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184 is within 0.7% of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190), and AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192). It is 1.4% faster than the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168). This places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this combo?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus ranks at the 96th percentile among CPUs, while the Arc B370 ranks at the 5th percentile among GPUs. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent drop that is characteristic of GPU limitation, not CPU limitation.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2639 out of 2872 tested combinations in Evolve. This puts it in the bottom 8% of all setups, which is consistent with the GPU’s low performance scores.

Q: Does the CPU’s memory bandwidth affect performance?

A: The CPU supports dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. The GPU uses system-shared memory, so it relies on this same bandwidth. This can cause contention, but the primary limitation is the GPU’s low compute throughput, as shown by its 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 20 ROPs, which are insufficient for high-resolution gaming.