Palworld

Palworld places this AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + AMD Radeon RX 580 pairing at a severe disadvantage, with the measured frame rates confirming that the graphics card is the dominant bottleneck at every resolution and quality preset. The combo ranks 3382 out of 3711 tested configurations in this game, placing it firmly in the bottom percentile of systems, and the data shows that only the Low preset at 1080p approaches a comfortable playability threshold. The CPU is a modern, high-end part, but the RX 580’s legacy architecture and limited capabilities dictate the experience entirely.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear verdict: for this specific combination, the Low preset at 1920x1080 is the only setting that delivers a consistently playable experience, averaging 81 FPS. Every other preset at this resolution falls below the 60 FPS mark, with Medium averaging 66 FPS, High averaging 51 FPS, and Ultra dropping to 38 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 15 FPS, a 23% reduction, while the jump from Medium to High costs another 15 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 13 FPS more. Given that Palworld is a survival game where reaction time and smooth exploration matter, the data suggests that sacrificing visual fidelity for frame rate is the correct trade-off.

At 2560x1440, the situation worsens. Low preset averages 53 FPS, which is borderline, but Medium drops to 43 FPS, High to 33 FPS, and Ultra to 25 FPS. None of these meet the 60 FPS target, and even the Low preset shows noticeable dips below 50 FPS. The 3840x2160 results are essentially unplayable across the board: Low averages 30 FPS, Medium averages 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 FPS, High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. For a game that requires constant input and awareness, these numbers are below the threshold for a smooth experience.

The best experience per the measured rows is unequivocally 1080p with Low settings. This gives the highest average FPS (81), and while the data does not include minimum or maximum FPS values for Low, the average suggests a stable enough frame rate for gameplay. If a user insists on higher visual quality, Medium at 1080p (66 FPS) is the only other preset that stays above 60 FPS, but the 15 FPS penalty over Low makes it a less attractive option for competitive or fast-paced play. The Ultra preset at any resolution is not recommended, as even at 1080p it averages only 38 FPS, which is below the playability threshold for this genre.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a Zen 5 architecture processor on the Granite Ridge codename, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3. This is a 65 W TDP part that supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and an 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth. In the PassMark benchmark suite, the CPU achieves a multithread score of 36470, a single-thread score of 4691, and an average benchmark score of 69996, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark data are the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (average score 69875, deltaPct 0.2), the Intel Core i7-14700KF (average score 70163, deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (average score 69515, deltaPct 0.7), and the Intel Core i7-14700K (average score 69355, deltaPct 0.9). This means the 9700F is effectively tied with the Ryzen 9 7940HX, within 0.2% of the 14700KF, and slightly ahead of the 7950X and 14700K by less than 1%. For Palworld, this CPU is more than capable of handling the game’s simulation and AI workloads; the PassMark data compression score of 421988 and integer math score of 120788 indicate strong general-purpose performance.

However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 81 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 30 FPS, a drop of 63%. This massive reduction in frame rate as resolution increases points directly to the GPU being the bottleneck, not the CPU. The 9700F has the single-thread and multithread headroom to push far higher frame rates if paired with a stronger graphics card. In fact, the CPU’s percentile rank (94th) versus the GPU’s percentile rank (53rd) tells the same story: the processor is a top-tier part, while the graphics card is mid-range at best. The data suggests that the CPU is idle waiting on the GPU in most scenes, especially at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is based on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. It has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The GPU’s base clock is 1257 MHz with a boost clock of 1340 MHz, and its memory runs at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, providing 8 GB of GDDR5 memory with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth. The card’s FP32 performance is 6.175 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 193.0 GTexel/s. The TDP is listed at 185 W with a suggested PSU of 450 W, and it connects via PCIe 3.0 x16.

In the GPU benchmark data, the RX 580 scores 8813 in PassMark G3D and 3488 in PassMark GPU Compute, with an average benchmark score of 12928, placing it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (average score 12940, deltaPct -0.1), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (average score 12986, deltaPct -0.4), the AMD Radeon 740M (average score 12870, deltaPct 0.5), and the AMD FirePro W5100 (average score 12847, deltaPct 0.6). This puts the RX 580 in a tight cluster with these parts, all within 1% of each other, but the absolute performance level is clearly low for modern games.

Palworld’s measured FPS confirms the GPU’s limitations. The RX 580’s 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for 1080p, but the card’s raw compute power is insufficient for higher resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the GPU averages 38 FPS, which is a 53% drop from the 81 FPS at 1080p Low. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a clear pattern: each preset step increases the GPU load, and the card cannot maintain 60 FPS beyond Medium. At 1440p, even Low drops to 53 FPS, and at 4K, the best case is 30 FPS on Low. The GPU’s 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 6.175 TFLOPS are simply not enough to drive Palworld’s open-world rendering at higher resolutions, and the data shows the frame rate collapse is directly proportional to pixel count.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank in Palworld is 3382 out of 3711 tested combinations, which places this system in the 9th percentile of all tested hardware pairs. This is a very low ranking, indicating that the overwhelming majority of systems tested in this game perform better. The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, as the CPU’s own percentile (94th) is excellent, but the GPU’s percentile (53rd) is merely average. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU creates a lopsided system where the GPU holds back overall performance.

The data shows that this combo is likely ranked near the bottom because the RX 580 cannot handle Palworld’s demands at the settings most players would use. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (14 FPS) is among the lowest possible values, and even the best case scenario (1080p Low at 81 FPS) is only achievable at the lowest quality settings. Compared to the nearest GPU rivals, the RX 580 is essentially tied with the GTX 1660 SUPER and RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, but those parts would also struggle with Palworld at high settings. The CPU’s strength does not compensate for the GPU’s weakness in this game, and the combo rank reflects that imbalance.

If the user were to upgrade the GPU while keeping the CPU, the rank would improve dramatically, as the 9700F has the headroom to support much higher frame rates. However, with the current pairing, the system is confined to low-resolution, low-quality play. The rank of 3382 out of 3711 is a clear signal that this is not a viable gaming configuration for Palworld beyond the minimum settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and reveals the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 81 at 1080p to 53 at 1440p and then to 30 at 4K. This represents a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 43% drop from 1440p to 4K, for a total reduction of 63% from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the averages are 66 FPS at 1080p, 43 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K, a 64% total drop. At High settings, the averages are 51 FPS at 1080p, 33 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K, a 65% drop. At Ultra, the averages are 38 FPS at 1080p, 25 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K, a 63% drop.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is a hallmark of GPU-bound performance. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively constant as resolution increases, since the CPU workload does not scale with pixel count. Instead, the frame rate scales almost linearly with the number of pixels: 1080p has about 2.1 million pixels, 1440p has about 3.7 million (1.76x), and 4K has about 8.3 million (3.95x). The FPS drops of roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and 43% from 1440p to 4K track this pixel increase, confirming that the RX 580’s pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors.

The data also shows that the RX 580 struggles more at 1440p and 4K because the memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s) is insufficient for the larger frame buffers, and the FP32 performance (6.175 TFLOPS) cannot keep up with the shading demands. The CPU’s role diminishes further at higher resolutions, as the GPU becomes the sole determinant of frame rate. For this combo, the only viable resolution is 1080p, and even then, only at Low or Medium settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combo’s performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 81 FPS, making it the only configuration that exceeds 60 FPS. The Medium preset averages 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS, offering a playable but less consistent experience. The High preset averages 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, and the Ultra preset averages 38 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 43 FPS, a 53% reduction, showing that the GPU cannot handle the increased visual load.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 53 FPS, which is playable but with dips likely below 50 FPS. The Medium preset averages 43 FPS with a minimum of 37 FPS and a maximum of 50 FPS, indicating noticeable stutter in demanding scenes. The High preset averages 33 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 25 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 28 FPS, a 53% reduction, similar to the 1080p scaling. The minimum FPS data for Medium (37 FPS) shows that even the mid-range preset can drop into the 30s, which is problematic for a survival game where quick reactions are needed.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 30 FPS, which is the only preset that stays above 20 FPS. The Medium preset averages 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 FPS and a maximum of 28 FPS, making it borderline unplayable. The High preset averages 18 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 14 FPS. The 4K results are consistently below 30 FPS for all presets, confirming that this resolution is not viable for this GPU. The data shows that the RX 580’s performance collapses at 4K, with even Low settings unable to maintain a smooth frame rate.

The overall pattern is that this combo is only suitable for 1080p gaming, and only at Low or Medium settings. The CPU’s high single-thread score (4691) and multithread score (36470) are wasted in this pairing, as the GPU caps the frame rate at every resolution. The measured FPS values across all nine combinations (3 resolutions × 3 settings, plus an extra Low at each) provide a definitive answer: this is a low-end gaming experience that requires significant settings compromises to achieve playability.