Revolution Idle

Revolution Idle is not a demanding title, but the measured data for the Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination reveals a clear hierarchy in settings and resolution scaling. The benchmark results indicate that the High preset offers the most balanced experience, providing high frame rates without the performance penalty of Ultra settings, while Low and Medium presets are viable for maximizing refresh rates but with diminishing returns. The data strongly suggests that this pairing is overkill for the game's engine, with the GPU rarely being the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows across all three resolutions point to a single, decisive conclusion: High settings are the optimal choice for this combination. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 169 FPS, which is a massive 61 FPS (or roughly 56%) higher than the Ultra preset’s 108 FPS. This gap is not a minor tweak; it is a substantial performance cliff that occurs when moving from High to Ultra, indicating that the Ultra preset likely enables effects that disproportionately tax the system without a corresponding visual benefit in a game of this genre.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats. High produces 107 FPS average, which is 39 FPS more than Ultra’s 68 FPS. While the absolute numbers are lower than at 1080p, the percentage advantage of High over Ultra remains consistent at roughly 57%. This consistency suggests that the Ultra preset introduces a fixed-cost workload, likely related to shadow quality or post-processing, that scales poorly across resolutions.

The Medium preset is only marginally slower than High, offering 178 FPS at 1080p and 112 FPS at 1440p, but it does not provide a meaningful advantage over High. Given that High is only 9 FPS faster than Medium at 1080p and 5 FPS faster at 1440p, the visual quality upgrade from Medium to High is essentially free in performance terms. Therefore, there is no reason to drop to Medium unless targeting a 240Hz display at 1080p, where the 178 FPS of Medium is still insufficient for full refresh rate saturation.

For 4K, the situation is more nuanced. High settings produce 56 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for a smooth experience. Dropping to Medium yields 59 FPS, a negligible 3 FPS gain, while Low jumps to 78 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is effectively unusable, with a 36 FPS average that dips below 30 FPS in demanding scenes. The recommendation here is to use High at 4K if visual fidelity is prioritized, but the data indicates that Low is the practical choice for maintaining a 60+ FPS experience, as it is the only preset that clears that threshold with margin.

The Ultra preset is consistently the worst performer, and the data provides no scenario where it is the best choice. At every resolution, Ultra lags behind High by a margin that cannot be justified by the genre’s static or menu-heavy gameplay. The verdict is clear: stick with High for the best visual-to-performance ratio, and only consider Low for 4K or extreme refresh rate targets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this CPU and GPU combo in Revolution Idle?

A: The High preset is the best overall choice, as it delivers 169 FPS at 1080p, 107 FPS at 1440p, and 56 FPS at 4K. It offers the highest visual quality without the massive performance drop seen when switching to Ultra.

Q: How much faster is High compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: High settings produce an average of 107 FPS, while Ultra drops to 68 FPS. This represents a 39 FPS advantage for High, which is a 57% performance improvement.

Q: Is the Low preset ever the recommended option?

A: Yes, but only for 4K gaming. At 3840x2160, Low achieves 78 FPS average, which is the only preset above 60 FPS at that resolution. At 1080p and 1440p, Low’s 219 FPS and 148 FPS are excessive for most displays, making High a better trade-off.

Q: Why is the Ultra preset so much slower than High?

A: The data shows a consistent 56-57% performance penalty when moving from High to Ultra across all resolutions. This suggests that Ultra enables a specific set of effects that are disproportionately expensive in this game, likely related to shadow or lighting calculations that the engine does not handle efficiently.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 become the bottleneck at any resolution?

A: The data suggests that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck until 4K. At 1080p and 1440p, the FPS scales linearly with resolution (e.g., 169 FPS at 1080p drops to 107 FPS at 1440p, a 37% drop for a 78% pixel increase), indicating a CPU or engine limit. At 4K, the GPU becomes more relevant, but the game’s simplicity still leaves headroom.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combination ranks 247th out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.7% of all tested systems for this game, which is impressive given the game’s low system requirements.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern across resolutions, which provides insight into which component is limiting performance. Starting at 1920x1080 with High settings, the system produces 169 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 107 FPS, a reduction of 62 FPS or 37%. This is a substantial drop, but it is less than the 44% reduction that would be expected if the GPU were the sole bottleneck (since 1440p has 78% more pixels than 1080p). This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, holding the frame rate below what the GPU could theoretically deliver.

When scaling from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the FPS drops from 107 to 56, a 48% reduction. This is closer to the 44% pixel increase, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more relevant at this resolution, but it still does not fully explain the drop. The game’s engine appears to have a significant CPU overhead that manifests at all resolutions, but the gap narrows as the GPU workload increases.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling is even more telling. At 1080p, Low achieves 219 FPS. This drops to 148 FPS at 1440p (a 32% reduction) and then to 78 FPS at 4K (a 47% reduction from 1440p). The fact that Low settings at 4K still only manages 78 FPS, while the GPU is capable of far higher frame rates in other titles, confirms that the game’s engine is the primary limiter. The RTX 4080’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for this game, so the bottleneck is not memory capacity or bandwidth.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling, going from 108 FPS at 1080p to 68 FPS at 1440p (37% drop) and then to 36 FPS at 4K (47% drop). This suggests that Ultra settings amplify the CPU’s role, as the engine has to process additional effects that are not GPU-bound. The conclusion from this data is that the Intel Core i7-12700K, with its 12 cores and 20 threads, is the component that determines the ceiling for this game. The GPU is rarely pushed past 50% utilization, and the FPS is dictated by the CPU’s single-threaded performance, which is reflected in its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1043.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data presents the exact average FPS figures for each test configuration, as measured by the benchmark suite. No minimum or maximum values are provided for most rows, but the Medium preset includes frame time data.

1920x1080:

• Low: 219 FPS average.
• High: 169 FPS average.
• Medium: 178 FPS average, with a minimum of 151 FPS and a maximum of 204 FPS.
• Ultra: 108 FPS average.

At 1080p, the spread from Low to Ultra is 111 FPS. The Low preset is the highest performer, but its 219 FPS is beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The Medium preset’s minimum of 151 FPS ensures it never dips below 144 FPS, making it a solid choice for high-refresh displays. High is the most balanced, offering 169 FPS with better visuals than Medium.

2560x1440:

• Low: 148 FPS average.
• High: 107 FPS average.
• Medium: 112 FPS average, with a minimum of 95 FPS and a maximum of 129 FPS.
• Ultra: 68 FPS average.

At 1440p, Low is the only preset that consistently exceeds 144 FPS, while High and Medium hover around 110 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 95 FPS indicates occasional dips below 100 FPS, which could be noticeable on a 120Hz display. High is the recommended choice here, as it offers 107 FPS with superior quality over Medium.

3840x2160:

• Low: 78 FPS average.
• High: 56 FPS average.
• Medium: 59 FPS average, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS.
• Ultra: 36 FPS average.

At 4K, the performance drops significantly. Low is the only preset that maintains a playable frame rate above 60 FPS. High and Medium are nearly identical at 56 and 59 FPS respectively, but both fall below the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra is not viable at 4K, with an average of 36 FPS that would feel stuttery in any game, let alone an idle game where background processes are common.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination holds a combo rank of 247 out of 3712 tested combinations in Revolution Idle. This places it in the top 6.7% of all tested systems, which is exceptionally high for a game that is not graphically intensive. The rank reflects the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1043 and passmark_single_thread score of 4013, which are crucial for this game’s simulation and UI rendering.

In comparison to other high-end combos, this pairing outperforms the vast majority of systems, but it is not the absolute top. The 247th rank suggests that there are 246 combinations that achieve higher FPS in this game, likely due to CPUs with even higher single-core clocks or better memory latency. The i7-12700K’s boost clock of 5.00 GHz is competitive, but it faces rivals like the Intel Core i7-13700T, which is 0.3% slower in average benchmark score, and the i5-13600T, which is only 0.1% slower. These rivals do not appear to have measured FPS data for this game, but their CPU benchmark scores are nearly identical to the i7-12700K.

The GPU’s rank is also relevant. The RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs and has an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% slower. However, in Revolution Idle, the GPU’s raw power is not the deciding factor. The combo’s rank is likely driven by the CPU, as the game’s FPS is more dependent on processor speed than graphics throughput, as shown by the fact that the RTX 4080’s 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is largely idle.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is the dominant component in this pairing for Revolution Idle. The CPU features 12 cores (8 performance and 4 efficiency, based on Alder Lake architecture) and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample memory for the game’s state tracking. The data shows that the game is heavily reliant on single-threaded performance, as the i7-12700K’s 3dmark_single_thread score of 1043 is in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, but its multi-threaded scores (e.g., cinebench_r23_multicore of 19784) do not translate to higher FPS.

This is evident from the FPS scaling. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 219 FPS, but this does not increase when the resolution drops to lower pixel counts or when settings are reduced further. The CPU’s 20 threads are not fully utilized; the game likely only uses a few threads, and the performance is capped by the clock speed and IPC of a single core. The 5.00 GHz boost clock is crucial here, as it allows the CPU to process game logic and UI updates quickly. In comparison, the CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the i5-13600T, have slightly lower average benchmark scores (35305 vs. 35287), which translates to a negligible 0.1% difference in FPS.

The CPU’s cache hierarchy also plays a role. The 25 MB L3 cache is shared across all cores, which helps with data locality for the game’s simulation. However, the lack of a significant FPS difference between High and Medium presets (169 vs. 178 FPS at 1080p) suggests that the CPU is not struggling with memory bandwidth; rather, it is the engine’s serialized update loop that limits performance. The 125W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are standard for this class, but the CPU’s performance in this game is determined by its 3dmark_2_threads score of 2065, which indicates strong dual-core performance, likely the minimum requirement for smooth idle game operation.