Evolve

Evolve, a 2015 FPS title, presents an interesting benchmark case for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050. The measured data reveals a combination that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution, with the GPU acting as the primary performance limiter across most scenarios. This analysis walks through the measured FPS rows, contextualizes them against the hardware's broader benchmark profiles, and provides a methodical breakdown of what this specific pairing delivers in this particular game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best overall performance this combo achieves in Evolve?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 169 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the peak performance point in the dataset, showing the maximum headroom available when graphical demands are minimized.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rates range from 27 FPS on Ultra settings to 64 FPS on Low settings. The Medium preset yields 50 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 57 FPS, while High settings produce 39 FPS average.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most balanced experience at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an 88 FPS average, with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 101 FPS. This provides a smoother experience than High (69 FPS) or Ultra (48 FPS), while still offering better visual quality than Low (113 FPS).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more responsible for the frame rates seen in Evolve?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has a 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the RTX 5050 sits at the 66th percentile among GPUs. The FPS drops significantly as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 21035. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, scores 21153, which is 0.6% higher. The NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile is 1.6% faster, while the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is 1.6% slower. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M is 1% faster.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 27 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. The lowest minimum frame rate recorded is 42 FPS, observed at 3840x2160 with Medium settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for settings selection, depending on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all four presets are playable, but the choice depends on whether visual fidelity or raw frame rate is prioritized. The Low preset achieves 169 FPS average, which is ideal for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays. Medium drops to 131 FPS, still well above standard 60 Hz monitors, while High delivers 103 FPS. Ultra falls to 71 FPS, which remains fluid but represents a significant step down from the other presets. For most users at 1080p, Medium or High offers the best compromise, with the Medium preset showing a minimum of 111 FPS, ensuring consistent performance.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more nuanced. Low settings produce 113 FPS average, which is excellent for a higher-resolution experience. Medium follows at 88 FPS, with a minimum of 75 FPS, providing a stable platform for most gaming scenarios. High drops to 69 FPS, which is still acceptable for many players, but the gap between Medium and High suggests that the GPU is beginning to struggle with the added pixel count. Ultra at 48 FPS is marginal, likely resulting in noticeable stutter on fast-paced FPS action. Therefore, the Medium preset is the recommended choice at 1440p, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while offering better visuals than Low.

At 3840x2160, the data shows the RTX 5050 is under significant strain. Low settings yield 64 FPS average, which is the only preset at this resolution that consistently exceeds 60 FPS. Medium produces 50 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS, which is playable but may feel inconsistent. High drops to 39 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for smooth gameplay in a fast-paced FPS. Consequently, Low is the only sensible preset for 4K gaming with this combo, and even then, users should be prepared for occasional dips. The recommendation is to use Low at 4K, Medium at 1440p, and High or Medium at 1080p, depending on refresh rate priorities.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 169 FPS at 1080p to 113 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 56 FPS, and then to 64 FPS at 4K, a further drop of 49 FPS. This represents a 62% decrease from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is less severe in percentage terms but still pronounced at higher settings. At High, the averages are 103 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K, which is a 62% reduction from 1080p to 4K as well. Medium shows 131 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 50 FPS at 4K, a 62% drop. Ultra follows the same trend: 71 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K, a 62% decrease.

The consistency of this 62% reduction across all four settings presets is telling. It indicates that the performance scaling is almost entirely driven by pixel count, not by the complexity of the scene or the specific settings. This is a strong indicator that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. The RTX 5050 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. As resolution increases, the demand on this bandwidth grows proportionally, and the measured FPS drops accordingly. The CPU, with its 24 cores and 24 threads, is not the bottleneck here, as its performance does not scale with resolution in this manner.

The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 33% in FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is roughly 43% when using the Medium preset as an example. This non-linear behavior suggests that at 4K, the GPU is approaching its memory bandwidth limit, causing a more severe performance degradation. The fact that the minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 42, compared to 75 at 1440p Medium, further reinforces that the GPU is struggling to maintain consistent frame delivery at higher resolutions. Overall, the data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K being viable only at the lowest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this particular combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1749 out of 2872 tested combos in Evolve. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the overall distribution, which is surprising given the high-end nature of the CPU. The rank suggests that while the CPU is exceptionally powerful, the GPU's modest performance in this game holds the combo back. The 1749th position out of 2872 means that roughly 61% of tested combos perform better in Evolve, which aligns with the GPU's 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

The CPU's percentile ranking is 96th among all CPUs, indicating it is in the top 4% of processors. Its average benchmark score is 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, its closest rival. The CPU also outperforms the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2%, while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%. These synthetic benchmarks show that the CPU is a top-tier performer, but in Evolve, the combo rank is dragged down by the GPU. The GPU's average benchmark score is 21035, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, is only 0.6% faster. This indicates that the RTX 5050 is a mid-range GPU, and when paired with a flagship CPU, the overall combo performance is limited by the weaker component.

The combo rank of 1749 also suggests that there are many other pairings that deliver better FPS in Evolve. This is not a reflection of the CPU's capability but rather of the GPU's position in the market. The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as the FPS scales consistently with GPU load. Therefore, users looking to improve performance in Evolve would need to upgrade the GPU, not the CPU. The combo's rank is a direct consequence of the GPU's 66th percentile standing, which is below average for a modern graphics card.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, using the GB207 chip manufactured on a 5 nm process. It features 2560 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output pipelines. The GPU has 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, which support DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. Its base clock is 2317 MHz, with a boost clock of 2572 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, running at 2500 MHz with an effective speed of 20 Gbps, providing 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's compute performance is rated at 13.17 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16.

In Evolve, these specifications translate to the measured FPS numbers. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game's requirements, as the data does not show any signs of memory capacity issues. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, however, appears to be a limiting factor at higher resolutions. The pixel rate is 82.30 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 205.8 GTexel/s. At 4K resolution, the GPU must process over 8 million pixels per frame, and the fill rate becomes a constraint. This is evidenced by the FPS dropping from 64 at Low settings to 27 at Ultra settings at 3840x2160. The GPU's FP32 performance of 13.17 TFLOPS is moderate, which explains why higher settings, which require more shader computations, cause significant FPS drops.

The GPU's benchmark scores further contextualize its performance. The Passmark G3D score is 17326, and the Geekbench OpenCL score is 90334. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 2502. These synthetic tests show that the GPU performs around the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, which has an average score of 21153, and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, with an average score of 20713. The RTX 5050's average score is 21035, meaning it is competitive with these mid-range cards. In Evolve, this translates to playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but not at 4K with high settings. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM is adequate for Evolve, as the game was released in 2015 and does not have demanding texture requirements.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides 12 distinct measurement points, covering four settings presets across three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 169 FPS, with no minimum or maximum recorded. Medium averages 131 FPS, with a minimum of 111 FPS and a maximum of 150 FPS. High averages 103 FPS, and Ultra averages 71 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 58% reduction in average FPS, from 169 to 71. The Medium preset has the only recorded minimum and maximum in this resolution, indicating a stable frame delivery range.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 113 FPS, Medium averages 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 101 FPS, High averages 69 FPS, and Ultra averages 48 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is also 58%, from 113 to 48. The Medium preset again provides the only min/max data, with a 26 FPS range between minimum and maximum. At 3840x2160, Low averages 64 FPS, Medium averages 50 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 57 FPS, High averages 39 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 58% as well, from 64 to 27.

This consistent 58% reduction from Low to Ultra across all resolutions is a notable pattern. It suggests that the relative performance impact of settings is independent of resolution, meaning that the GPU's architecture handles the additional workload uniformly. The Medium preset consistently shows the widest frame time variance, with a 39 FPS spread at 1080p, a 26 FPS spread at 1440p, and a 15 FPS spread at 4K. This indicates that Medium settings create more variable frame pacing, which could be perceptible in gameplay. The Low and Ultra presets lack min/max data, so their frame stability cannot be assessed, but the averages suggest that Low is the most consistent performer.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a flagship desktop processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on a 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors. It has 24 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. The CPU has a 125 W TDP and supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing 115.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU is unlocked, allowing for overclocking, and it sits on the Intel Socket 1851.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU performs exceptionally well. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 51731, and its single-core score is 7303. The Cinebench R20 scores are 21727 for multicore and 3067 for single-core. The Passmark multithread score is 60860, with a single-thread score of 4823. These scores place the CPU at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84003. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83807, which is 0.2% lower. The AMD EPYC 4584PX is 1.1% slower, and the AMD EPYC 9135 is 1.2% slower, while the AMD EPYC 7F72 is 1.3% faster.

In Evolve, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game is from 2015, and its engine is not designed to utilize 24 cores effectively. However, the CPU's high single-thread performance, as evidenced by the 7303 Cinebench R23 single-core score, ensures that the game's main thread is not a bottleneck. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 169 FPS, which is far above what a weaker CPU would allow. The consistency of the FPS scaling across resolutions further proves that the CPU is not limiting performance. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly struggling with 27 FPS, the CPU is still capable of delivering frames at that rate without causing additional stutter. The CPU's 24 threads are largely idle in Evolve, but its single-core speed and large cache help maintain smooth performance. The 36 MB of L3 cache is particularly beneficial for game assets that are frequently accessed. Overall, the CPU is vastly overqualified for this game, and its performance headroom is more than sufficient for the RTX 5050's output.