Evolve

Evolve, a 2015 FPS title, presents a demanding workload for the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the AMD Radeon 760M integrated graphics. Measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is consistently GPU-limited, with the integrated Radeon 760M struggling to maintain playable performance even at 1080p. The data shows a clear hierarchy where lowering resolution and graphical presets yields significant FPS gains, but only at the cost of visual fidelity, ultimately positioning this combo near the bottom of tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Evolve shows a steep and predictable drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 33 FPS at 1080p to 22 FPS at 1440p, and then further to 13 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% reduction when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 41% drop when moving from 1440p to 4K. Comparing the extreme ends, the 4K High average of 13 FPS is only 39% of the 1080p High average of 33 FPS. This scaling pattern is typical of a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck; as pixel count increases, the rendering workload expands dramatically, overwhelming the AMD Radeon 760M’s capabilities.

The trend is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 55 at 1080p to 37 at 1440p (a 33% reduction) and then to 21 at 4K (a 43% reduction from 1440p). Similarly, Medium settings show a drop from 42 to 28 to 16 FPS across the three resolutions. The proportional decrease is remarkably uniform, suggesting that the limiting factor is not the CPU or memory bandwidth, but rather the raw pixel throughput of the GPU. The Radeon 760M’s pixel rate is 41.58 GPixel/s, and this fixed capability becomes the wall that frame rates hit as resolution climbs.

What this scaling implies is that the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, despite its 16 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock, is not the component preventing higher frame rates. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 55 FPS, but the GPU is already at its limit. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see a smaller difference between 1080p and 1440p, as the GPU would have more headroom at lower resolutions. Instead, the consistent ~33% drop from 1080p to 1440p across all presets points to a pure fill-rate limitation. The 4K results, with a maximum of 21 FPS at Low, are effectively unplayable for an FPS title, reinforcing that this resolution is far beyond the IGP’s design envelope.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process. It features 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2599 MHz. Its FP32 performance is rated at 5.323 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 83.17 GTexel/s. These specifications place it in the lower tier of graphics processors, as reflected by its 35th percentile ranking among all GPUs. In the PassMark G3D benchmark, it scores 5310, with its nearest rivals being the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (0.3% higher average score) and the NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (0.5% lower average score). This indicates that the 760M’s performance is comparable to older discrete entry-level cards, but it is not in the same league as modern gaming GPUs.

For Evolve, the GPU’s role is dominant. The measured FPS at all settings and resolutions are low, with the highest average being 55 FPS at 1080p Low. The VRAM situation is "System Shared," meaning the GPU uses the same LPDDR5X memory as the CPU, with a dual-channel bus providing 153.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This shared memory architecture is a significant performance limiter in a game like Evolve, as the GPU must contend with the CPU for memory access. The system-dependent bandwidth means that the actual performance can vary, but the data shows it is insufficient for smooth gameplay at higher settings.

The GPU’s clock behavior also matters. The base clock is 800 MHz, boosting to 2599 MHz, but the average FPS numbers suggest the GPU is spending most of its time at or near its boost limit, still unable to keep up. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS drops to 23, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 9 FPS. These numbers are not just low; they represent a fundamental inability to handle the game’s rendering demands. The DirectX 12 benchmark score of 25 in PassMark further underscores this weakness. The Radeon 760M is simply not designed for high-resolution, high-settings gaming, and Evolve’s results confirm this with every measured row.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a mobile processor with 16 cores and 16 threads, based on the Panther Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 25 W. Its cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it performs strongly, scoring 18911 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2200.5 in single-core. Its PassMark multithread score is 36811, and its single-thread score is 4280. The processor’s percentile ranking is 88th among all CPUs, indicating it is a high-performance part. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (0.2% lower average score) and the Intel Core i9-13950HX (0.3% higher average score), showing it sits in competitive company.

Given the CPU’s strength, its role in Evolve is to feed the GPU with data and handle game logic. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 55 FPS, but this is still below the 60 FPS target that many players desire. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see frame rates plateau or vary significantly with CPU-intensive settings. However, the data shows a smooth, predictable scaling with resolution and preset, which is a hallmark of GPU limitation. The CPU’s 16 cores and high boost clock are more than sufficient for a game from 2015, and the measured FPS differences are entirely attributable to the GPU’s rendering workload.

The data suggests that the Core Ultra X9 388H has ample headroom. In a system with a more powerful discrete GPU, the CPU would likely allow for much higher frame rates. But with the Radeon 760M, the CPU is effectively underutilized. The PassMark physics score of 3226 and the data compression score of 361763 show the CPU’s capacity for complex calculations, but these are not the limiting factors in Evolve. The combination of a high-end CPU with a low-end IGP creates a situation where the CPU’s potential is wasted, as the GPU cannot keep up. The bottleneck is unequivocally the graphics subsystem.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Evolve, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Radeon 760M ranks 2861 out of 2872 combos. This places it in the bottom 0.4% of all tested systems, making it one of the weakest configurations for this game. The rank reflects the measured FPS data, which shows that even at the lowest settings and resolution, the system barely achieves playable frame rates. This is a stark contrast to the CPU’s individual ranking, which is in the 88th percentile, and the GPU’s 35th percentile ranking. The combination of a strong CPU and a weak GPU results in a system that is far less capable than the sum of its parts for gaming.

The combo rank of 2861 out of 2872 indicates that nearly every other tested configuration outperforms this one. This is not surprising given the GPU’s limitations, but it is worth remembering the CPU’s performance is not contributing to any uplift in this specific game. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (55 FPS) is the best case scenario, and it is still below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The fact that the combo ranks so low suggests that for Evolve, the GPU is the sole determining factor, and the powerful CPU is essentially irrelevant to the outcome.

When comparing to other combos, the data implies that any system with a discrete GPU, even an older entry-level model, would likely rank higher. The Radeon 760M’s nearest GPU rivals, such as the Radeon RX 6400, would provide significantly better performance in Evolve, as they are not sharing system memory and have dedicated VRAM. The combo rank serves as a clear warning that this particular pairing is not suitable for gaming, at least not for a demanding title like Evolve. The 2861st position out of 2872 is a definitive statement about its capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings yield an average of 55 FPS, Medium yields 42 FPS (with a minimum of 36 and maximum of 49), High yields 33 FPS, and Ultra yields 23 FPS. This shows a clear progression, with Low being the only preset that approaches playable frame rates. The gap between Low and Medium is 13 FPS, and between Medium and High is 9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 10 FPS. These numbers indicate that each step up in quality has a significant cost in performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops considerably. Low settings produce 37 FPS, Medium produces 28 FPS (minimum 24, maximum 33), High produces 22 FPS, and Ultra produces 15 FPS. At this resolution, even Low settings fail to reach 40 FPS, making the experience feel sluggish. The delta between Low and Medium is 9 FPS, between Medium and High is 6 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 7 FPS. The proportional reduction is similar to 1080p, but the absolute numbers are lower, making the game more difficult to play at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the performance is marginal at best. Low settings yield an average of 21 FPS, Medium yields 16 FPS (minimum 14, maximum 19), High yields 13 FPS, and Ultra yields 9 FPS. None of these are playable for a fast-paced FPS. The differences between settings are smaller in absolute terms, with a 5 FPS gap between Low and Medium, a 3 FPS gap between Medium and High, and a 4 FPS gap between High and Ultra. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so overwhelmed that changing settings has diminishing returns. The best measured result across all configurations is 55 FPS at 1080p Low, and the worst is 9 FPS at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 55, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is this system capable of running Evolve at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 9 (Ultra) to 21 (Low), which is far below playable levels for an FPS game.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i9-13950HX.

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon 760M ranks in the 35th percentile, indicating it performs better than only about a third of all GPUs.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 33 at 1920x1080 to 13 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 20 FPS.

Q: What is the combo’s rank in the database for Evolve?

A: The combo ranks 2861 out of 2872 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all systems.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable settings for Evolve with this hardware are at 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 55 FPS. This is the only configuration that approaches a playable frame rate, though it still falls short of 60 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 42 FPS, which may be acceptable for some players who prioritize visual quality over smoothness, but it introduces noticeable stutter. The minimum FPS of 36 at 1080p Medium indicates that there will be dips below 40 FPS, which can be disruptive in a fast-paced game.

For players willing to sacrifice resolution, 1440p Low offers 37 FPS, but this is lower than 1080p Medium and does not provide a better experience. The data suggests that the optimal trade-off is to stay at 1080p and use the Low preset. Higher settings at 1080p, such as High (33 FPS) or Ultra (23 FPS), result in frame rates that are too low for responsive gameplay. At 4K, all settings are unplayable, with the highest average being 21 FPS at Low. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: use 1920x1080 with Low settings to get the best possible performance from this combo. The 55 FPS average is the ceiling, and any increase in visual fidelity comes at a significant cost to frame rate. The measured data does not support any other configuration as providing a "good" experience, so players should set expectations accordingly. For a game like Evolve, where aiming and reaction time matter, the 55 FPS at 1080p Low is the only reasonable choice, despite its compromise on visual quality.