Palworld

Palworld, a survival title from early 2024, presents a demanding workload for the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and AMD Radeon 880M combination. The measured data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by its integrated graphics, with the powerful 16-core processor unable to compensate for the GPU's limitations. The results are consistent across all resolutions and settings, painting a clear picture of a pairing where the CPU is far ahead of its graphical partner in capability.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and revealing. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 71 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings, the average falls to 47 FPS, a significant reduction. At 3840x2160, the average plummets to 26 FPS. This represents a 63% decrease in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, highlighting the intense pressure placed on the rendering pipeline as pixel count increases.

The pattern holds across other settings. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 57 at 1080p to 38 at 1440p, then to 21 at 4K. High settings show a similar trajectory: 44 FPS at 1080p, 29 at 1440p, and 16 at 4K. The scaling is not linear, which indicates that the Radeon 880M's compute units and memory bandwidth are being saturated at higher resolutions. The data strongly suggests the limiting component is the integrated GPU, as the frame rate changes are directly proportional to the pixel count increase, a classic sign of a pixel-bound workload.

The 4K results are notably poor, with even Low settings failing to reach 30 FPS. This is unsurprising for an IGP, but the magnitude of the drop is worth noting. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is also substantial, with the 1440p results being roughly 66% of the 1080p numbers at each setting tier. This indicates that even a modest resolution increase pushes the GPU out of its comfort zone. For this combo, the data implies that 1080p is the intended operating range, with 1440p being a stretch and 4K being impractical for anything beyond static scenes.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in Palworld?

A: The highest recorded average is 71 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo delivers an average of 38 FPS, with a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX considered a high-performance processor?

A: Yes, the CPU ranks in the 95th percentile among all processors tested, and its average benchmark score of 76212 is nearly identical to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, which scores 76155.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded in the data?

A: The lowest average is 12 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the data show any settings where the frame rate is consistently above 60 FPS?

A: Only one configuration achieves this: 1920x1080 with Low settings, which has an average of 71 FPS. The next closest is 57 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: How does the Radeon 880M's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 8436 is within 0.3% of the NVIDIA GeForce MX330's score of 8458 and within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX's score of 8427.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance. Ultra settings are the most demanding, yielding an average of 34 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 22 FPS at 1440p and 12 FPS at 4K. These numbers are playable only in the most forgiving scenarios. High settings offer a modest improvement, with 44 FPS at 1080p. Medium settings are the sweet spot for a balanced experience, providing 57 FPS at 1080p and 38 FPS at 1440p.

For a target of 60 FPS, the data indicates that only Low settings at 1080p can consistently achieve this, with an average of 71 FPS. If the goal is a stable 30 FPS minimum, Medium at 1080p is the safest choice, as its minimum recorded frame rate is 49 FPS. At 1440p, Medium settings produce an average of 38 FPS, which is playable but not smooth, while Low settings at 1440p yield 47 FPS, which is the best option for that resolution.

The analysis suggests that the best experience, balancing visual fidelity and performance, is Medium settings at 1920x1080. It offers a 57 FPS average, which is a solid 30% improvement over High settings at the same resolution. Dropping to Low settings at 1080p provides a 24% FPS boost over Medium, but the visual compromise is significant. Given that the game is a survival title where clarity can matter, Medium is the recommended starting point. Players seeking higher frame rates should consider Low, while those who prioritize visuals over smoothness may attempt High, but the data shows a steep cost.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 8945HX and Radeon 880M ranks 2872 out of 2944 tested combos in Palworld. This places it in the bottom 2.5% of all configurations, which is a remarkably low standing. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's limitations, as the CPU is a top-tier mobile processor. The data implies that the integrated graphics are the bottleneck, preventing the system from achieving a competitive rank in this specific game.

This low rank is particularly telling given the CPU's strength. The Ryzen 9 8945HX has a percentile rank of 95 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 95% of processors tested. In contrast, the Radeon 880M has a GPU percentile rank of 43, meaning it outperforms only 43% of GPUs. The massive gap between these two components explains the poor combo ranking. The system is essentially a high-performance CPU paired with a low-to-mid-tier GPU, and Palworld is sensitive to GPU performance.

The ranking suggests that this combo is not suitable for Palworld at reasonable settings. While the CPU can handle the game's logic and physics, the GPU cannot keep up with the rendering demands. The data indicates that users would need to significantly lower resolution and settings to achieve playable frame rates, and even then, the experience would be suboptimal. This combo ranks lower than 97.5% of all tested systems, making it a poor choice for this game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It features 64 MB of L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 42713 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 6030 in single-core, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, has an average score of 76155, which is only 0.1% different from the Ryzen's 76212.

In Palworld, the CPU's role is likely to handle the game's simulation, including creature AI, world state, and physics. The high core count and strong single-thread performance suggest that the CPU is more than capable of these tasks. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 71 FPS, which is a reasonable frame rate, indicating that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at this setting. However, as settings and resolution increase, the frame rate drops, which points to the GPU becoming the limiting factor.

The CPU's performance headroom is evident. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42713 is exceptional for a mobile processor, and its single-core score of 6030 is also strong. This means that even in CPU-intensive scenes with many Pals on screen, the processor is unlikely to be the cause of frame rate drops. The measured FPS data supports this, as the frame rates follow a pattern consistent with GPU limitations. The CPU is a high-end component that is not being fully utilized in this game due to the GPU's constraints.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 71 FPS for Low, 57 FPS for Medium, 44 FPS for High, and 34 FPS for Ultra. The Medium setting has a recorded minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS, showing some variance. At 2560x1440, the averages are 47 FPS for Low, 38 FPS for Medium, 29 FPS for High, and 22 FPS for Ultra. The Medium setting at this resolution has a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. The averages are 26 FPS for Low, 21 FPS for Medium, 16 FPS for High, and 12 FPS for Ultra. The Medium setting at 4K has a minimum of 18 FPS and a maximum of 24 FPS. These numbers clearly show that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo in Palworld. The difference between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution is substantial, with Ultra often being less than half the frame rate of Low.

The data also shows a consistent pattern of frame rate scaling. At 1080p, Low is 25% faster than Medium, and Medium is 30% faster than High. This pattern holds at 1440p, with Low being 24% faster than Medium and Medium being 31% faster than High. At 4K, the differences are smaller in absolute terms but still significant, with Low being 24% faster than Medium. The min FPS data for Medium settings shows that frame pacing can be inconsistent, with the 4K minimum being 18 FPS, which is below the average of 21 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 880M is an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, with 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. It has a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz. The GPU has 12 ray tracing cores and a FP32 performance of 4.454 TFLOPS. Its memory is system shared, meaning it uses the system's DDR5 memory, with bandwidth being system dependent. The GPU has a TDP of 15 W, which is low, and its average benchmark score is 8436, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs.

In Palworld, the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The data shows that performance scales directly with resolution, which is a GPU-bound characteristic. The GPU's 4.454 TFLOPS of compute power is insufficient for the game's demands at higher resolutions. Its nearest rivals, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX and MX330, have similar benchmark scores, indicating that the 880M is a low-performance part despite being a modern integrated solution.

The GPU's memory situation is also a factor. With system shared memory, the bandwidth is dependent on the system's DDR5 memory, which is 83.2 GB/s for the CPU. This is lower than what a discrete GPU would offer, and it can cause performance issues in memory-intensive scenes. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU struggles even at 1080p with High settings, achieving only 44 FPS. This suggests that the GPU lacks both the compute and memory bandwidth to handle Palworld's rendering demands effectively. The ray tracing cores are present but are unlikely to be of much use, as enabling ray tracing would likely cripple performance further.