Palworld

Palworld, a survival title from January 2024, presents a demanding workload that heavily taxes graphics hardware. This analysis examines the measured performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the Intel Arc B390, a combination that yields unexpectedly low frame rates across all tested settings. The data reveals a significant bottleneck in the graphics subsystem, where the CPU's substantial processing power is largely left unused. The following sections break down the benchmark results, including the combo's overall ranking, resolution scaling behavior, and component-specific roles, to provide a clear picture of what this pairing delivers in practice.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2607 out of 2944 tested combos in Palworld. This places it in the bottom 12% of all configurations, a surprisingly poor result given the CPU's capabilities. The ranking suggests that while the processor is a top-tier part, the graphics solution severely limits the entire system's gaming potential in this title. Benchmark results indicate that this combo is outperformed by the vast majority of other tested pairings, making it a poor choice for Palworld if frame rate is a priority.

The discrepancy between the components is stark. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a high-end desktop processor, but the Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) designed for mobile platforms. The data shows that the GPU's performance percentile is 9, meaning it outperforms only 9% of all GPUs in the database. This is in direct contrast to the CPU's percentile of 87, which indicates it outperforms 87% of all CPUs. The pairing creates a massive imbalance, with the CPU's potential being completely negated by the GPU's limitations in a graphically intensive game like Palworld.

When looking at the nearest rivals for the GPU, the results are telling. The Intel Arc B390 scores 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. Its closest competitors are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX with a score of 1463 (a 1.3% difference), the GeForce 800M with 1460 (1.5% difference), the GT 625 OEM with 1446 (2.5% difference), and the GT 710 with 1443 (2.7% difference). All of these are older, entry-level discrete GPUs or even older integrated solutions. This confirms that the Arc B390's raw graphics performance is on par with hardware that is several generations old and was never designed for modern gaming at high settings. The combo's rank of 2607 is a direct consequence of this GPU performance ceiling.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Palworld?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Intel Arc B390 combo ranks 2607 out of 2944 tested combinations in Palworld. This places it in the lower percentile of all tested systems, indicating a poor performance level for this specific game.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B390's average benchmark score is 1482. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (scoring 1463, a 1.3% difference), the GeForce 800M (1460, a 1.5% difference), and the GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, a 2.5% difference). These are all older, low-end graphics solutions, showing the B390's performance class.

Q: What is the best average FPS achieved with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 84 FPS, which occurs at the 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The performance drops significantly as settings are increased, reaching 68 FPS on Medium, 53 FPS on High, and 40 FPS on Ultra at the same resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the limiting factor in this system for Palworld?

A: The data strongly indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The Intel Arc B390 has a performance percentile of 9, while the CPU has a percentile of 87. The frame rates are very low even at 1080p, and they plummet further at higher resolutions, which is a classic sign of a GPU-limited scenario.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate on Low settings is 56 FPS. This drops to 45 FPS on Medium, 35 FPS on High, and finally 26 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 54% decrease in average frame rate from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Does the CPU's high benchmark score translate to high frame rates in Palworld?

A: No. While the Ryzen 7 9800X3D has strong synthetic benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23230 and a Geekbench multicore score of 18696, the measured frame rates in Palworld are low. This is because the Intel Arc B390 cannot render frames fast enough to utilize the CPU's full potential.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and dramatic impact of resolution on performance, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound system. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves 53 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same settings, the frame rate drops to 35 FPS, a 34% decrease. At 4K, the average FPS plummets to 19, which is a 64% decrease from the 1080p result. This steep decline with increasing pixel count indicates that the Intel Arc B390 is struggling to fill the additional pixels.

This pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For example, on Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 68 at 1080p, to 45 at 1440p, and then to 25 at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a 44% drop in performance. This behavior suggests that the rendering pipeline is saturated by the GPU's limited pixel throughput and texture processing capabilities. The CPU's role in this scaling is minimal; even a very fast processor cannot compensate for the GPU's inability to handle the increased workload.

The data implies that the limiting component is definitively the graphics card. If the system were CPU-bound, we would expect to see less of a performance penalty when moving to higher resolutions, as the CPU's workload would remain relatively constant while the GPU's increases. Instead, the performance falls off a cliff, demonstrating that the Intel Arc B390 is the constraining factor. The 24 ROPs and 48 TMUs of the Arc B390 are simply insufficient for the pixel and texture fill rate demands of Palworld at higher resolutions, making the game's performance scale almost directly with the decrease in resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark results provide a complete matrix of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 84 FPS on Low, 68 FPS on Medium, 53 FPS on High, and 40 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum and maximum of 58 and 79 FPS, respectively, indicating some frame pacing variance. This is the only resolution where the combination approaches playable frame rates, and only on the lowest settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops considerably. The average FPS on Low is 56, which falls to 45 on Medium, 35 on High, and 26 on Ultra. The Medium preset again has recorded minimum and maximum values, at 38 and 52 FPS. This resolution proves to be very demanding for the Intel Arc B390, with even the Low preset failing to maintain a consistently smooth 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable. The average FPS is 31 on Low, 25 on Medium, 19 on High, and just 15 on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a range from 21 to 29 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K gaming is not a viable option for this hardware combination in Palworld, regardless of the settings used. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the Intel Arc B390 is the primary performance limiter.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor with a 3 nm process node from Intel. It features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation pipelines. Its base clock is 300 MHz, which can boost up to 2500 MHz. The memory is listed as "System Shared," meaning it uses a portion of the system's main memory rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth being "System Dependent." This architecture is a fundamental limitation for gaming performance.

The GPU's performance percentile of 9 and its average benchmark score of 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 place it in the company of very old, low-end parts like the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710. With a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s, the Arc B390 is severely constrained. In Palworld, this translates to the low frame rates observed. The GPU's FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS is also modest, and its 12 ray tracing cores are unlikely to provide playable performance in any RT-enabled scenario.

The data shows that the GPU's role is the definitive bottleneck. Its memory bandwidth, being system-dependent, is a major concern for a game like Palworld that requires substantial texture streaming and asset loading. The fact that the GPU's nearest rivals are the GT 520MX and GT 710, both of which are over a decade old and were entry-level parts in their time, underscores how ill-suited this IGP is for modern gaming. The benchmark results are a direct reflection of these hardware limitations.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with a 4 nm process. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. It features a large 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is crucial for gaming performance. Its synthetic benchmarks are strong, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23230 and a single-core score of 2080. The CPU's percentile of 87 indicates it is a high-performing part relative to all other CPUs in the database.

However, in this specific Palworld test, the CPU's role is to be vastly underutilized. The measured frame rates are so low that the processor is never the limiting factor. The data suggests that the CPU is waiting for the GPU to finish rendering each frame. The CPU's high benchmark scores, such as the Passmark multithread score of 40009, do not translate into high FPS because the GPU cannot keep up. The system is entirely GPU-bound.

This is a classic example of a bottleneck, but in the opposite direction of what is common. Usually, a lower-end CPU is paired with a high-end GPU. Here, a top-tier CPU is paired with a very low-end GPU. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D's capabilities, including its 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and PCIe Gen 5 support, are completely wasted in this configuration for Palworld. The data indicates that the CPU is not the problem; it is the component that is waiting for the graphics card to finish its work.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only way to achieve a frame rate that is generally considered playable is to use the lowest settings at 1080p. The 1920x1080 Low preset yields an average of 84 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that breaks the 60 FPS barrier. For a smoother experience with some visual fidelity, the Medium preset at 1080p, with an average of 68 FPS, is the best compromise, though the minimum recorded FPS of 58 suggests there may be occasional dips.

All other settings and resolution combinations produce average frame rates below 60 FPS. At 1440p, even the Low preset only averages 56 FPS, which is borderline playable but not ideal for a fast-paced survival game. The High and Ultra presets at 1080p, which average 53 and 40 FPS respectively, are likely to feel sluggish. The 4K results, ranging from 15 to 31 FPS, are not viable for gameplay.

The data strongly recommends that users of this combo should stick to 1080p for any playable experience. If visual quality is a priority, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance of performance and fidelity, with an average of 68 FPS. However, for the most consistent performance and to ensure the game remains fluid, the Low preset at 1080p is the safest choice. The measured rows show that higher settings incur a steep performance penalty, and no amount of CPU headroom can compensate for the Intel Arc B390's limitations. Users should expect to significantly reduce graphical settings to enjoy Palworld with this hardware.