Palworld

Palworld pairs the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, creating a combination where a mid-range CPU meets a flagship GPU. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is heavily influenced by resolution and settings, with the CPU becoming a significant factor at lower resolutions while the GPU dominates the workload at 4K. This analysis breaks down the performance data for this specific pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K shows a classic pattern of GPU load scaling, but with a twist that points directly at the CPU's influence. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers an average of 307 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 231 FPS, a reduction of roughly 25% as the pixel count increases. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 128 FPS, which is about 45% lower than the 1440p result. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4090 is still the primary driver at 4K, but the absolute numbers suggest the CPU is not a bottleneck at this setting.

However, the scaling pattern shifts when looking at higher settings. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 166, while at 1440p Ultra it is 109, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 61. The difference between 1080p and 1440p Ultra is a 34% drop, which is less severe than the gap seen in Low settings. The most telling data point is the comparison between 1080p High (219 FPS) and 1080p Low (307 FPS). This 88 FPS gap at the same resolution shows that the CPU is capable of pushing very high frame rates, but the graphics settings are still heavily modulating the output.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600 is likely the limiting component in many scenarios. The jump from 219 FPS at High to 307 FPS at Low demonstrates that reducing GPU load allows the CPU to stretch its legs, but the overall throughput is still capped by the processor's six cores. At 4K, the RTX 4090 becomes the clear bottleneck, as the 61 FPS at Ultra is a substantial drop from the 128 FPS at Low, showing that the GPU’s rendering workload is the dominant factor at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed performance leader in this pairing, and its specifications confirm why. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering a massive 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This vast memory pool and bandwidth are critical for Palworld at high resolutions and settings, as the game’s open-world environments and numerous assets require significant video memory. The data shows this clearly: at 4K Ultra, the combo manages 61 FPS, while at 4K High it reaches 80 FPS, and at 4K Medium it scores 104 FPS. These figures suggest that the GPU has ample headroom to handle the game’s visual demands, but the performance is ultimately gated by the settings’ impact on shader complexity and texture loading.

The GPU’s clock speeds, with a base of 2235 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz, are relatively high and contribute to its raw compute power. The benchmark results for the GPU, such as a Passmark G3D score of 38194 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631, are massive, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. When compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 4090’s average benchmark score of 60347 is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140), with delta percentages of 0% and 0.3% respectively. This indicates that while the 4090 is a top-tier card, its synthetic benchmark scores are not dramatically higher than some workstation-oriented competitors, though its real-world gaming performance in Palworld is clearly exceptional.

In this specific game, the GPU’s role is to provide the raw horsepower for high resolutions and settings. The measured FPS at 4K Medium shows a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 120 FPS, which demonstrates that the card can maintain smooth gameplay even when the CPU is not fully saturated. The RTX 4090’s 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are necessary for sustaining these clocks under load, and the data suggests that the card is performing as expected, with no signs of thermal throttling affecting the average frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, running on the AM4 socket. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz are modest by today’s standards, but the data shows it is sufficient to drive the RTX 4090 to very high frame rates in Palworld, especially at lower resolutions. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18309 and a single-core score of 2584, place it in the 74th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 20468 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, which scores 20454 with a delta of 0.1%.

The CPU’s influence is most apparent at 1080p. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 307, which is a staggering number that suggests the game is highly CPU-bound at this setting. The difference between 1080p Low (307 FPS) and 1080p Medium (285 FPS) is only 22 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High (219 FPS) is a more significant 66 FPS. This pattern indicates that the CPU is pushing against its limits at these high frame rates, and the GPU’s workload is still the primary variable controlling performance. At 1440p Low, the average is 231 FPS, which is still very high and further confirms that the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution.

However, the CPU’s 6-core/12-thread configuration may struggle in more demanding scenarios. The 3DMark benchmark scores show a single-thread score of 882 and a max-thread score of 5659, which indicates solid multi-threading capabilities but not exceptional scaling. In Palworld, which is a survival game with many concurrent entities, the CPU’s thread count could become a bottleneck in dense areas, even if the average FPS remains high. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 61 FPS, which is likely due to the GPU’s limits, but the CPU’s inability to maintain higher frame rates in complex scenes could be a factor in the minimum FPS, though this data is not available for all settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested combos, this pairing of the Ryzen 5 5600 and RTX 4090 ranks 165th out of 3711 combinations in Palworld. This ranking places it in the top 4.5% of all tested systems, which is an impressive feat given the CPU’s mid-range positioning. The high rank is almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s dominance, as the RTX 4090 is capable of delivering playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra, where the combo averages 61 FPS.

The rank suggests that while the CPU is not the weakest link, it is also not the strongest. The data shows that the combo performs exceptionally well at 1440p and 1080p, where the CPU can keep up with the GPU’s demands. However, the ranking also implies that there are 164 other combos that outperform this one, likely featuring higher-end CPUs that can push even more frames in CPU-bound scenarios. For instance, at 1080p Low, the 307 FPS average is high, but a more powerful CPU could potentially push that number higher, which would improve the combo’s overall ranking.

The percentile data for the individual components provides context. The GPU is in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 74th percentile of all CPUs. This gap suggests that the CPU is the relative weak point in this pairing. If the goal is to maximize performance in Palworld, the data indicates that the RTX 4090 has more headroom than the CPU can utilize at lower resolutions, but at 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, making the combo a balanced choice for high-resolution gaming.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 144 FPS.

Q: How does the performance drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 166, while at 4K Ultra, it drops to 61 FPS, a reduction of approximately 63%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: The data indicates the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the average FPS of 307 is extremely high and suggests that the GPU has excess capacity that the CPU cannot feed.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS recorded at 2560x1440 with Medium settings is 159 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested combos in Palworld?

A: This combo ranks 165th out of 3711 tested combos, placing it in the top 4.5% of all systems.

Q: What is the RTX 4090's memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4090 features a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s from its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact measured average frame rates for this combo across all tested resolutions and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|---------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 80 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 128 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 104 | 88 | 120 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 61 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 144 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 231 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 187 | 159 | 215 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 109 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 219 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 307 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 285 | 242 | 327 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 166 | - | - |

The data confirms that the RTX 4090 is a powerhouse, but the Ryzen 5 5600 keeps it from reaching its full potential at lower resolutions. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the primary driver, and the combo delivers playable performance even at Ultra settings. The 1080p results, particularly the 307 FPS average at Low, show that the CPU can handle high frame rates, but the scaling from Medium to High indicates that the processor’s limits are reached when the GPU’s workload is reduced. This pairing is well-suited for 4K gaming, where the GPU’s strengths are fully utilized.