Evolve

# Evolve with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H + AMD Radeon 760M

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the AMD Radeon 760M delivers playable frame rates only at 1080p with reduced settings, with measured results showing a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. This combination ranks 2861st out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all configurations, which indicates that the integrated graphics solution severely limits the experience despite the capable processor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a dramatic drop as resolution scales from 1080p to 4K, with the gap widening disproportionately at higher settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 55 FPS at 1920x1080 to 37 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 21 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 33% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, followed by another 43% reduction from 1440p to 4K, showing that the scaling penalty accelerates at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset tells a similar story: 42 FPS at 1080p drops to 28 FPS at 1440p and then to 16 FPS at 4K. The percentage losses are consistent with Low settings, suggesting the GPU is the primary bottleneck across all quality levels. High settings show 33 FPS at 1080p, 22 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K, while Ultra settings plummet from 23 FPS at 1080p to 15 FPS at 1440p and just 9 FPS at 4K.

The data indicates that this system is fundamentally resolution-limited. At 1080p Low, the combination achieves 55 FPS, which is marginally playable, but every step up in resolution or settings pushes the experience further into unplayable territory. The 4K Ultra result of 9 FPS is essentially a slideshow, and even 1440p Medium at 28 FPS falls below acceptable thresholds for a fast-paced FPS title.

The scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K shows that pixel count increases of roughly 2.25x (1080p to 1440p) and 4x (1080p to 4K) produce frame rate reductions that are larger than proportional. For example, at Low settings, the 4K frame rate of 21 FPS is only 38% of the 1080p result, while pixel count is 4x higher. This disproportionate drop suggests the Radeon 760M's fill rate and memory bandwidth constraints become increasingly severe at higher resolutions, confirming that the integrated GPU is the limiting component.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units, with 8 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 800 MHz and boosts to 2599 MHz, delivering a peak FP32 throughput of 5.323 TFLOPS. Its memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with bandwidth described as system dependent, which means performance scales with the host system's memory configuration.

The integrated nature of this GPU is evident in its benchmark scores. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 400 and Passmark G3D score of 5310 place it in the 35th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (0.3% ahead), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (0.3% ahead), and NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (0.5% behind), showing that it performs near discrete mobile GPUs from previous generations but falls well short of modern dedicated solutions.

In Evolve specifically, the GPU's limitations manifest clearly. The DirectX 11 Passmark score of 52 and DirectX 12 score of 25 indicate that the GPU struggles with modern API workloads. The 15 W TDP for the GPU portion reflects its power-constrained integrated design, though this figure applies to the graphics component rather than the full system. The pixel rate of 41.58 GPixel/s and texture rate of 83.17 GTexel/s provide theoretical ceilings that the measured FPS data shows are rarely approached in practice.

The GPU's performance in Evolve correlates strongly with its Passmark G3D score relative to the game's requirements. At 1080p Low, the 55 FPS average suggests the GPU is outputting roughly one frame per 18 milliseconds, which aligns with the texture and pixel throughput capabilities. The system-shared memory architecture means there is no dedicated VRAM allocation, and the "System Shared" bus width and system-dependent bandwidth create additional latency penalties that become more pronounced at higher resolutions where memory traffic increases substantially.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H provides substantial processing headroom that the GPU cannot exploit in Evolve. This 16-core, 22-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 1 (Meteor Lake architecture) runs at a 3.90 GHz base clock and boosts to 5.10 GHz. It features a 24 MB shared L3 cache, with 112 KB L1 and 2 MB L2 per core, and supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth.

CPU benchmark results show this is a high-performance mobile processor. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and single-core score of 1810.5 place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 35670 puts it within 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (35909), and it slightly trails the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (35719) by 0.1% and Intel Core 7 250H (35728) by 0.2%. The Geekbench multi-core score of 11657 and single-core score of 1794 reinforce the CPU's strong position.

In Evolve, however, the CPU's capabilities are largely irrelevant to the observed frame rates. The measured FPS values are uniformly low across all settings and resolutions, with the highest result being 55 FPS at 1080p Low. This pattern indicates that the game is GPU-bound in all tested configurations. The CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads provide ample processing capability for the game's FPS mechanics, and its 5.10 GHz boost clock ensures single-threaded performance is more than sufficient.

The Passmark multi-thread score of 29376 and Passmark physics score of 1956 demonstrate the CPU's ability to handle complex calculations, while the floating point math score of 73270 and integer math score of 98302 show strong arithmetic throughput. These metrics are far beyond what Evolve requires, confirming that the processor is not the limiting factor. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is also sufficient, though the GPU's shared memory access may create contention under load.

The data supports a conclusion that the CPU is severely underutilized in this configuration. The gap between CPU and GPU performance classes is extreme, with the processor ranking in the 85th percentile while the GPU ranks in the 35th percentile. This imbalance means that users would see no meaningful FPS improvement from a faster CPU, as the Radeon 760M cannot render frames quickly enough to benefit from additional processing power.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration for playable performance is 1080p with Low settings, which achieves an average of 55 FPS. This is the only tested setting that exceeds the 50 FPS threshold considered minimally acceptable for an FPS title. The 1080p Medium preset delivers 42 FPS, which may be playable for some users but falls below the smoothness expected in competitive scenarios. The 1080p High setting at 33 FPS and Ultra at 23 FPS are progressively worse and not recommended for active gameplay.

At 1440p, all settings produce sub-40 FPS results, with Low at 37 FPS being the only option approaching playability. The Medium preset at 28 FPS and High at 22 FPS are marginal at best, while Ultra at 15 FPS is unplayable. The 4K resolution is not viable under any settings, as even Low achieves only 21 FPS, and Ultra drops to 9 FPS. Users with 1440p displays should accept that they will need to run at Low settings and tolerate frame rates below 40 FPS, while 4K displays are effectively unusable for this game.

The Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for users who prioritize appearance over frame rate. The 42 FPS average with a minimum of 36 FPS and maximum of 49 FPS shows relatively consistent frame delivery, which is preferable to the higher average but potentially more variable Low setting. However, for competitive play where responsiveness matters, the 55 FPS at Low settings provides a decisive advantage over the 42 FPS Medium result.

The data suggests that users should prioritize resolution reduction over quality reduction. Dropping from 1080p High to 1080p Low yields a 67% FPS improvement (33 to 55), while dropping from 1440p Low to 1080p Low yields a 49% improvement (37 to 55). This indicates that lowering resolution is more effective than lowering settings within a resolution, though the absolute best result comes from combining the lowest resolution with the lowest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 2861st out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all configurations tested. This ranking is consistent with the GPU's 35th percentile position and the low measured FPS values across all settings. The rank indicates that this combination is among the least capable tested for this game, which aligns with the integrated GPU's performance class.

The 11 combinations ranked below this one would represent even less capable configurations, likely featuring older or weaker integrated graphics or entry-level discrete GPUs. The ranking position reflects the fundamental limitation of the Radeon 760M for a game like Evolve, which despite its 2015 release date, still demands more graphics throughput than this IGP can provide at acceptable quality levels.

The contrast between the CPU's 85th percentile ranking and the combo's bottom 0.4% ranking in Evolve highlights the severe bottleneck created by the GPU. Users considering this combination for Evolve should understand that the processor's strength offers no benefit for this title, and the experience will be determined almost entirely by the integrated graphics. The combo rank of 2861/2872 effectively communicates that this is a last-resort configuration for playing Evolve, suitable only for users with the lowest performance expectations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for Evolve with this hardware?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 with Low settings achieves 55 FPS, which is the only tested configuration above 50 FPS. The 1080p Medium preset delivers 42 FPS, while 1440p Low drops to 37 FPS and 4K Low falls to 21 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and Radeon 760M?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best result is 21 FPS on Low settings, with High at 13 FPS, Medium at 16 FPS, and Ultra at 9 FPS. All 4K configurations produce unplayable frame rates.

Q: How does the Radeon 760M compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Radeon 760M scores 5310 on Passmark G3D, placing it 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M, and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro P2000. It ranks in the 35th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H powerful enough for Evolve?

A: Yes, the CPU is more than sufficient. It ranks in the 85th percentile of all CPUs with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and single-core score of 1810.5. The measured FPS patterns indicate the GPU is the limiting factor in all tested configurations.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured result shows 28 FPS average at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 24 FPS and maximum of 33 FPS. This is below the smoothness threshold for an FPS game.

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

A: This combination ranks 2861st out of 2872 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all configurations. The low ranking is driven by the Radeon 760M's integrated graphics performance, which is insufficient for demanding gameplay.