Evolve

Evolve, the 2015 asymmetrical FPS, places unique demands on hardware, with AI-driven monsters and heavily particle-laden environments that stress both CPU and GPU. The measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions, but with a distinct bottleneck profile. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiting factor, while at 4K, the GPU takes over as the dominant constraint. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates, the combo's standing among tested configurations, and the role of the GPU's specific specifications.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 follows a classic curve, but the magnitude of the drops reveals the shifting balance of power between the CPU and GPU. At High settings, the system delivers 134 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 90 FPS at 1440p (a 32.8% reduction) and further to 51 FPS at 4K (a 61.9% reduction from the 1080p baseline). This steep decline is typical of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the increased pixel count directly taxes the render output units and memory bandwidth of the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile.

However, the scaling pattern is not uniform across all settings presets. At Low settings, the frame rate at 1080p is 220 FPS, but this falls to 148 FPS at 1440p (a 32.7% drop) and 84 FPS at 4K (a 61.8% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low, High, and Medium presets suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor even at 1080p when the CPU has enough headroom. The 1080p Low result of 220 FPS is notably high, indicating that the Core Ultra X9 388H with its 16 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock can feed the GPU efficiently at lower graphical loads.

The Medium preset shows a slightly different scaling profile, with the 1080p result at 171 FPS, 1440p at 115 FPS (a 32.7% drop), and 4K at 65 FPS (a 62.0% drop). The near-identical percentage drops across all presets suggest that Evolve's rendering pipeline is heavily pixel-throughput dependent once the CPU has delivered the draw calls. The fact that the 4K Ultra setting produces only 35 FPS, compared to 84 FPS at 4K Low, indicates that the Ultra preset introduces significant shading and post-processing loads that overwhelm the GPU's 17.04 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput.

The data clearly shows that the limiting component shifts as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU's performance is adequate to push frame rates beyond 200 FPS on Low settings, but the GPU's shading units and texture rate (266.2 GTexel/s) cap the maximum output. At 4K, the GPU is unambiguously the bottleneck, with even the Medium preset unable to maintain 60 FPS, achieving only 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is below the threshold for smooth play, confirming that this combo is not suited for maximum fidelity at 4K in Evolve.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile ranks 1432 out of 3700 tested combos in Evolve. This places it in the 61.3rd percentile of all configurations, meaning it outperforms roughly 61% of tested systems but is outclassed by the top 39%. This mid-to-upper tier ranking is consistent with the hardware's specifications: the CPU sits in the 88th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 80th percentile among all GPUs. The combination of two above-average components results in a system that is competent but not elite.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its contribution to this ranking. The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573, 0.2% faster) and the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342, 0.3% slower). This tight grouping means that the CPU is not a differentiator in Evolve, as the game's frame rates are more sensitive to GPU performance at higher resolutions. The CPU's 88th percentile ranking suggests it can handle the most demanding physics and AI calculations in Evolve without becoming a bottleneck, which is corroborated by the high 1080p frame rates.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (35520, 0.2% faster) and the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, 1.2% faster). The RTX 5070 Ti Mobile's average benchmark score of 35435 places it in a competitive band, but its 80th percentile ranking indicates that there are many faster mobile and desktop GPUs. In Evolve specifically, the combo's rank of 1432 suggests that the GPU's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and 192-bit bus are sufficient for the game's textures, but the 4K Ultra performance shows that the 80 ROPs and 17.04 TFLOPS are not enough for maximum settings at that resolution.

The ranking data also shows that the combo is not bottlenecked by a weak link. The CPU's performance is within 0.5% of its nearest rivals, and the GPU's performance is within 2.4% of its nearest rivals. This balance means that the combo's 1432nd place ranking is a fair representation of its overall capability, rather than being dragged down by a single weak component. In practical terms, this ranking means the system will handle Evolve comfortably at 1080p and 1440p, but will require settings compromises at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile plays the decisive role in determining Evolve's performance at higher resolutions. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for the game's texture streaming at 1080p and 1440p. The 4K results, however, show that this bandwidth is insufficient for the Ultra preset, which likely requires larger texture pools and higher resolution shadow maps. The 4K Medium result of 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS indicates that the memory subsystem can handle moderate loads, but the Ultra preset's 35 FPS suggests a capacity or bandwidth limitation.

The GPU's clock speeds are relatively conservative for a mobile part, with a base clock of 847 MHz and a boost clock of 1447 MHz. This modest boost clock, combined with the 60 W TDP, limits the raw compute throughput. The FP32 performance of 17.04 TFLOPS is the key metric for Evolve's shader complexity, and the data shows that this is sufficient for 1080p High (134 FPS) and 1440p High (90 FPS), but insufficient for 4K Ultra (35 FPS). The 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in Evolve, as the game does not feature ray tracing or DLSS, meaning the traditional rasterization performance is what matters.

The GPU's 5888 shading units and 184 TMUs are the primary engines for pixel and texture processing. The texture rate of 266.2 GTexel/s is high enough to avoid texture filtering bottlenecks at 1440p, but the 4K results show that the pixel rate of 115.8 GPixel/s is the limiting factor. At 4K, there are 8.3 million pixels per frame, and the GPU's pixel rate translates to a theoretical maximum of approximately 14 FPS per GPixel/s, but the measured results show that even the Low preset only achieves 84 FPS. This indicates that Evolve's pixel shaders are complex enough to reduce the effective pixel throughput significantly.

The GPU's 80 ROPs are also a potential bottleneck at 4K, as they handle the final color and depth calculations. The 4K Medium result of 65 FPS aligns with the ROP count, but the Ultra preset's 35 FPS suggests that the ROPs are overwhelmed by the additional overdraw and transparency effects. The GPU's memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) is fast for GDDR7, but the 192-bit bus width limits the total bandwidth to 672.0 GB/s. This is likely why the 4K Ultra preset struggles, as the bandwidth demand for ultra-quality textures at 4K exceeds the available throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a wide range of frame rates depending on the preset. The Low preset produces 220 FPS, which is high enough to take advantage of a 144Hz or 240Hz display. The Medium preset achieves 171 FPS with a minimum of 145 FPS and a maximum of 196 FPS, providing a smooth experience with some visual fidelity. The High preset drops to 134 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play. The Ultra preset produces 93 FPS, which is playable but introduces noticeable drops from the lower presets. The 1080p results show that the CPU is not a limiting factor, as even the Ultra preset maintains nearly 100 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. The Low preset achieves 148 FPS, which is still very high and suitable for high-refresh-rate gaming. The Medium preset produces 115 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS and a maximum of 132 FPS, keeping the experience smooth. The High preset drops to 90 FPS, which is the threshold for a 90Hz display but still comfortable for most gamers. The Ultra preset falls to 62 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target but with no headroom for dips. The 1440p results indicate that the GPU is starting to become the limiting factor, as the drop from Low to Ultra is 58.1%, compared to a 57.7% drop at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the performance takes a significant hit. The Low preset achieves 84 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a 4K display. The Medium preset produces 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 75 FPS, meaning there will be occasional dips below 60 FPS. The High preset drops to 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset produces only 35 FPS, which is not smooth and would require significant settings adjustments. The 4K results clearly show that the GPU is the bottleneck, and the system is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming in Evolve.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the Medium preset offers the best balance of frame rate and visual quality across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the 171 FPS average is high enough for competitive play, while the 1440p result of 115 FPS remains smooth. The 4K Medium result of 65 FPS is borderline, but the 55 FPS minimum means there will be stutters. The High preset is also viable at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K result of 51 FPS is too low for a consistent experience. The Ultra preset is only recommended at 1080p, where 93 FPS is acceptable, but the 1440p and 4K results are too low.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 171 FPS, which is more than enough for a high-refresh-rate display while providing better visual quality than Low. The minimum of 145 FPS ensures no noticeable dips, and the maximum of 196 FPS shows that the system has headroom. At 1440p, Medium achieves 115 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS, which is ideal for a 120Hz display. The visual quality improvement over Low is substantial, and the frame rate remains above 90 FPS at all times.

For users with a 4K display, the Medium preset is the highest playable option, with 65 FPS average and a 55 FPS minimum. This is playable but not ideal, as the minimum will cause occasional stutters. The Low preset at 4K delivers 84 FPS, which is smoother but sacrifices too much visual quality. The High preset at 4K is not recommended, as the 51 FPS average is below the 60 FPS target. For the best experience at 4K, users should either stick with Medium or lower the resolution to 1440p and use High or Ultra.

The High preset is a good alternative for 1080p and 1440p users who prioritize visual fidelity over maximum frame rate. At 1080p, High provides 134 FPS, which is still very smooth, and at 1440p, it provides 90 FPS, which is acceptable for most gamers. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p, where 93 FPS is playable, but the visual difference between High and Ultra may not justify the 30.6% frame rate drop. In general, the Medium preset offers the best combination of smoothness and visual quality, making it the default recommendation for this hardware combination.

The data also suggests that the Low preset is viable for competitive players who prioritize frame rate above all else. At 1080p, Low delivers 220 FPS, which is ideal for a 240Hz display, and at 1440p, it delivers 148 FPS, which is still very high. The Low preset at 4K provides 84 FPS, which is the only way to get a smooth 4K experience on this combo. However, the visual degradation may be too severe for most players, making Medium the better overall choice.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. At Medium settings, the combo delivers 115 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS, which is smooth on a 120Hz display. At 1080p, the frame rates are higher (171 FPS on Medium) but the visual clarity is lower. At 4K, the frame rates drop below 65 FPS on Medium, making 1440p the best balance of visual quality and performance.

Q: Can this combo handle Evolve at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at Low or Medium settings. The 4K Low preset achieves 84 FPS, which is playable, and the 4K Medium preset achieves 65 FPS with a 55 FPS minimum. The 4K High preset drops to 51 FPS, and the 4K Ultra preset falls to 35 FPS, both of which are not smooth enough for consistent play.

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

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573) and 0.3% above the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342). This puts it in a tight performance band, meaning the CPU choice is unlikely to cause significant differences in Evolve's frame rates.

Q: Is the GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: Not entirely. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 220 FPS, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU. However, at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 93 FPS, indicating that the GPU's shading units and pixel rate become the limiting factor as the graphical load increases.

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

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile is in the 80th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35435. This places it above the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (35520, 0.2% slower) and below the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, 1.2% faster).

Q: Does the combo rank highly among tested configurations in Evolve?

A: The combo ranks 1432 out of 3700 tested combos, placing it in the 61.3rd percentile. This means it outperforms about 61% of tested systems, but there are many faster configurations. The ranking reflects a balanced system that is competent but not top-tier for Evolve.