Evolve

Evolve, the 2015 asymmetric FPS, is an older title that still responds strongly to modern hardware. The pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti produces a wide range of frame rates, from a highly playable 49 FPS at 4K Ultra to a blistering 307 FPS at 1080p Low. The data shows this combo ranks 331st out of 2872 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 12% of all systems. This is a high-performance pairing where the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s substantial core count and high boost clock ensure it never becomes a bottleneck, even at lower settings where frame rates exceed 300 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable pattern: performance scales inversely with resolution, but the rate of decline is steepest when moving from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 187 FPS at 1080p to 125 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 33%. Moving further to 4K, the average falls to 71 FPS, which is a 43% drop from the 1440p figure and a 62% drop from 1080p. This steep decline at 4K is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RTX 4070 Ti’s rendering workload, tied to its 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, becomes the limiting factor.

The trend is consistent across all settings. With Low settings, the average FPS at 1080p is 307, dropping to 206 at 1440p (a 33% decline) and then to 117 at 4K (a 43% decline from 1440p). This relative consistency in the percentage drop indicates that the game’s engine is not disproportionately taxing the CPU at higher settings; instead, the resolution is the dominant variable. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is consistently around a one-third reduction in frame rate, while the jump to 4K consistently costs another roughly 40% of the remaining performance.

This scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the system has enough headroom to push very high frame rates, but at 4K, the GPU’s compute and memory resources are fully engaged. The fact that the 4K Ultra setting produces only 49 FPS while 4K High produces 71 FPS shows the significant cost of the Ultra preset’s additional visual effects. The data indicates that for a 60 FPS experience at 4K, the High preset is the ceiling for this combination, while Medium at 4K offers a more comfortable 91 FPS average with a minimum of 77 FPS. The limiting component at 4K is unambiguously the GPU, as the CPU’s role diminishes when the render resolution increases the per-frame GPU workload.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. In Evolve, a game released in 2015, the engine’s multi-threading capabilities are unlikely to fully utilize all 24 cores, but the high boost clock is crucial for the single-threaded performance that many game logic and physics tasks require. The processor’s 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache also help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for maintaining high frame rates.

The benchmark results for this CPU place it in the 96th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 93785. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6520P, scores 93786, a delta of 0%. This indicates that the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is at the very top of the performance stack for general processing tasks. However, in Evolve, the impact of the CPU is most visible at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system produces 307 FPS, a figure that is only achievable with a CPU capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls and game state updates.

The data shows that the CPU’s 24 threads and 5.50 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 238, which is still a very high number, indicating the CPU is not limiting performance. The difference in FPS between 1080p Low (307 FPS) and 1080p High (187 FPS) is substantial, but this is almost entirely due to the increased GPU workload from higher graphical settings, not a CPU limitation. The CPU’s PassMark multi-thread score of 68574 and single-thread score of 5068 further confirm its capability to handle both heavily-threaded and lightly-threaded workloads with ease.

The processor’s 125 W TDP and support for DDR5 memory with 115.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth ensure that data can be fed to the cores quickly. While Evolve may not be a modern multi-threaded showcase, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus ensures that the system is never CPU-bound in this title, allowing the RTX 4070 Ti to perform to its full potential. The data strongly suggests that the CPU is a non-factor in limiting frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, as the scaling patterns align perfectly with GPU workload expectations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the clear driver of performance in Evolve at higher resolutions and settings. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, it features 7680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and its boost clock of 2610 MHz allows it to reach 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44795, places it as a strong upper-mid-range performer, though its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (deltaPct -0.8%) and the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (deltaPct -1.3%), showing it is competitive with other high-end parts.

In Evolve, the GPU’s role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings increase. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully taxed at lower settings, as evidenced by the 307 FPS average at Low. However, at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 49, a clear sign that the GPU is working at its maximum capacity. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the game does not appear to be limited by memory capacity, given that the frame rate drop is consistent with compute and bandwidth limits rather than a memory overflow.

The GPU’s performance scaling is also evident in the difference between settings at the same resolution. At 1440p, moving from Low (206 FPS) to Medium (160 FPS) to High (125 FPS) to Ultra (87 FPS) shows a steady decline, with Ultra being 58% slower than Low. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces significant graphical effects that heavily tax the GPU’s shading units and ROPs. The RTX 4070 Ti’s pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s and texture rate of 626.4 GTexel/s are the underlying hardware capabilities that determine these results.

The data indicates that for a consistent 60 FPS experience, the RTX 4070 Ti can handle 4K High (71 FPS) but not 4K Ultra (49 FPS). At 1440p, all settings including Ultra (87 FPS) are comfortably above 60 FPS, and at 1080p, even Ultra achieves 129 FPS. The GPU is the primary component dictating the frame rate at 4K, and its 285 W TDP and 1x 16-pin power connector suggest it is a high-power part designed for sustained performance. The fact that the GPU is end-of-life in production status does not diminish its capability in this older game, as the benchmark results show it remains a very capable performer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system’s performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 307 FPS for Low, 238 FPS for Medium, 187 FPS for High, and 129 FPS for Ultra. The Medium setting has a minimum of 202 FPS and a maximum of 274 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is capable of delivering extremely high frame rates, well beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, and the bottleneck is almost entirely the GPU’s ability to process the scene at higher settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to 206 for Low, 160 for Medium, 125 for High, and 87 for Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a minimum of 136 FPS and a maximum of 184 FPS, which is a wider spread than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is working harder. The 1440p Ultra setting at 87 FPS is still highly playable and represents a good balance between visual quality and performance. The data shows that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo, as even the most demanding preset remains above 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS is 117 for Low, 91 for Medium, 71 for High, and 49 for Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 77 FPS and a maximum of 105 FPS, indicating that even with some drops, the experience stays within a playable range. The 4K High setting at 71 FPS is suitable for 60 Hz displays, while 4K Ultra at 49 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it less ideal for smooth gameplay. The progression from 1080p to 4K shows a clear halving of frame rates at each resolution step, with the most dramatic drop occurring between 1440p and 4K.

The data also reveals that the difference between Low and Ultra settings is significant at all resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra is 58% slower than Low (129 vs 307 FPS). At 1440p, the difference is 58% (87 vs 206 FPS). At 4K, the difference is also 58% (49 vs 117 FPS). This consistency suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional cost is uniform across resolutions, further confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor. The maximum FPS recorded across all tests is 307 at 1080p Low, while the minimum is 49 at 4K Ultra, giving a clear picture of the system’s performance envelope.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ranks 331st out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the top 11.5% of all systems. This is a strong ranking, reflecting the high individual performance of both components. The CPU’s 96th percentile ranking and the GPU’s 84th percentile ranking combine to create a system that is well above average for this game. The rank of 331 is particularly notable because it places this combo ahead of many systems that may feature newer or more expensive components, but the data shows that this pairing is exceptionally well-balanced for Evolve’s specific demands.

The combo’s ranking is likely influenced by the fact that Evolve is more GPU-dependent at higher resolutions, and the RTX 4070 Ti’s performance is a key differentiator. The CPU’s high boost clock ensures that it does not hold back the GPU, which is a common issue in older games that may not scale well with many cores. The rank of 331 out of 2872 means that only 331 other combos produce higher average frame rates across the tested settings, which confirms the raw power of this pairing. The deltaPct values for the CPU’s nearest rivals show that it is within 0-2.1% of much more expensive server-grade processors like the AMD EPYC 4564P and EPYC 9175F, but those CPUs are not paired with a GPU of this caliber in most gaming systems.

The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the RTX 5090 Mobile and the Intel Arc A730M, have similar average benchmark scores, but their performance in Evolve would depend on their drivers and power limits. The measured data for this combo shows a consistent ability to hit high frame rates, and the ranking reflects that. The combo rank of 331 is a strong indicator that this system is a top-tier performer for Evolve, and the measured FPS data supports this conclusion. The fact that the GPU is end-of-life and the CPU is a newer release does not affect the in-game ranking, which is based purely on measured performance.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 307 at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, at 4K with High settings, the average FPS is 71, and at Medium settings it is 91 FPS, both above 60. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 49 FPS.

Q: How much slower is the Ultra preset compared to Low at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 206 FPS, while Ultra averages 87 FPS, making Ultra 58% slower.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 202, with an average of 238 FPS and a maximum of 274 FPS.

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

A: The combo ranks 331st out of 2872 tested combinations, placing it in the top 11.5% of all systems.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at 4K Ultra, as the average FPS drops to 49, while the CPU’s high boost clock ensures it is not a bottleneck. The GPU’s 12 GB VRAM and compute resources are fully engaged at this resolution and setting.