Palworld

# Palworld Performance Analysis: Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a surprisingly balanced Palworld experience, though the data reveals a system that shifts between CPU and GPU limitations depending on resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, this combo hits 169.6 FPS, suggesting headroom for higher settings, while 4K Ultra drops to 30.6 FPS, indicating a clear GPU-bound ceiling. The RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, while the i3-12100F ranks at the 72nd percentile among CPUs, making this a pairing where neither component dramatically outclasses the other. The measured results across twelve resolution/setting combinations show a predictable scaling pattern, but the magnitude of those drops varies significantly, hinting at where the real bottleneck lies.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings, which tells an interesting story about the limiting component. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (169.6 FPS) to 3840x2160 (62.9 FPS) represents a 62.9% reduction in frame rate. This massive drop indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, as the i3-12100F's four cores and eight threads can feed frames quickly at 1080p but the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth get saturated as pixel count quadruples.

Medium settings show a similar pattern: 138.2 FPS at 1080p falls to 48.6 FPS at 4K, a 64.8% reduction. High settings exhibit a slightly smaller relative drop, from 101.5 FPS at 1080p to 40.3 FPS at 4K, which is a 60.3% decrease. Ultra settings, however, show the least proportional decline: 77.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 30.6 FPS at 4K, a 60.3% reduction. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that resolution scaling is governed by the GPU's raw throughput rather than any CPU limitation.

The 1440p results reinforce this interpretation. At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 113 FPS, which is 66.6% of the 1080p Low score. High settings at 1440p reach 69.7 FPS, which is 68.7% of the 1080p High result. These ratios are remarkably consistent, indicating that Palworld's rendering load scales almost linearly with pixel count for this GPU. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 113.3 GPixel/s pixel rate are the metrics that ultimately determine these scaling patterns.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER's specifications directly explain its performance envelope in Palworld. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, the card has sufficient memory capacity for most settings at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 30.6 FPS suggests that texture and geometry demands at that resolution push the memory subsystem to its limits. The GPU's 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs provide the compute foundation, with a boost clock of 1770 MHz driving performance.

The benchmark data places this GPU at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22206. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A400 (scoring 22307, a 0.5% advantage) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (scoring 22729, a 2.3% advantage). The RTX 2070 SUPER sits between these in raw compute, which translates to the measured Palworld performance. The card's 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in Palworld, given the game's survival genre focus on open-world rendering rather than ray tracing effects.

The 4K Low result of 62.9 FPS versus the 4K Ultra result of 30.6 FPS shows a 2.06x performance spread, which indicates that settings have a substantial impact on GPU load. The 1750 MHz memory clock (14 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth needed for high-resolution textures, but the 4K Ultra result suggests that the 8 GB capacity may be insufficient for maximum quality settings at that resolution, potentially causing texture thrashing that limits frame rates.

FAQ

Q: Does the RTX 2070 SUPER bottleneck the i3-12100F in Palworld at 1080p?

A: No, the data shows the opposite. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 169.6 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it drops to 77.1 FPS. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and multi-thread score of 4023 suggest it can keep up with the GPU's frame output at these settings.

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured result is 169.6 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next-best is 138.2 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 101.5 FPS at 1080p High. This indicates that even at higher settings, the combo delivers playable frame rates.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware?

A: At 4K, the best result is 62.9 FPS on Low settings, which is playable. However, 4K Medium drops to 48.6 FPS, 4K High to 40.3 FPS, and 4K Ultra to 30.6 FPS. These lower settings results suggest that 4K is only viable on Low or Medium presets.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 22206, placing it 0.5% below the RTX A400 (22307) and 2.3% below the RTX 4060 Mobile (22729). It outperforms the GTX TITAN Z (22006) by 0.9% and the RX 5700 (21670) by 2.5%.

Q: What CPU performance level does the i3-12100F offer?

A: The CPU has an average benchmark score of 13516, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912 and single-core score of 1681. Its 3DMark multi-thread score of 4023 and single-thread score of 893 indicate balanced performance for gaming workloads.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of quality and performance?

A: The 2560x1440 High setting at 69.7 FPS provides a good balance, while 1440p Medium at 89.2 FPS offers smoother gameplay. For higher frame rates, 1080p High at 101.5 FPS is the strongest option, nearly hitting triple-digit performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 2070 SUPER demonstrates its strength across all settings. Low settings produce 169.6 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth for any display. Medium settings deliver 138.2 FPS, still well above the 100 FPS threshold for competitive play. High settings reach 101.5 FPS, maintaining fluidity, while Ultra settings drop to 77.1 FPS, which remains playable but shows the performance cost of maximum quality. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 92.5 FPS, indicating that settings have a dominant impact at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales as expected. Low settings achieve 113 FPS, a 33.4% reduction from the 1080p Low result. Medium settings hit 89.2 FPS, High settings reach 69.7 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 54.4 FPS. The 1440p results show a tighter spread of 58.6 FPS from Low to Ultra, suggesting that the GPU's compute resources become more evenly taxed as resolution increases. The 1440p High result of 69.7 FPS is particularly notable, as it nearly matches the 4K Low result, demonstrating that resolution and settings trade-offs can yield similar frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the performance ceiling becomes apparent. Low settings produce 62.9 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 60 FPS. Medium settings drop to 48.6 FPS, High settings to 40.3 FPS, and Ultra to 30.6 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for playability, indicating that this combo should avoid maximum settings at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at each setting shows a consistent 60-65% performance drop, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F provides four cores and eight threads with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core support gaming workloads, with the CPU's 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs indicating solid performance relative to the broader market. The 3DMark results show strong single-thread performance (893 score) and respectable multi-thread capabilities (4023 score), with the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912 confirming that Palworld's CPU demands are well met.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (scoring 13534, a 0.1% difference) and the Intel Core i7-7700K (scoring 13280, a 1.8% advantage for the i3). This places the i3-12100F in a competitive position for gaming, as Palworld is not heavily multi-threaded. The 169.6 FPS at 1080p Low suggests that the CPU is not limiting performance at lower settings, while the 77.1 FPS at 1080p Ultra indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as graphical load increases.

The 4-core, 8-thread configuration with a 58 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility makes this CPU a budget-friendly option that still delivers strong gaming performance. Its 3DMark 4-thread score of 2859 and max-thread score of 4023 show that it scales well within its core count, though adding more cores would likely not improve Palworld performance given the game's apparent single-thread sensitivity. The Geekbench multi-core score of 7413 and single-core score of 2224 reinforce this balanced profile.

Settings Recommendations

For players prioritizing high frame rates, the 1920x1080 Medium setting at 138.2 FPS offers the best combination of smoothness and visual quality. This setting delivers more than double the frame rate of 1080p Ultra (77.1 FPS) while maintaining acceptable visuals. The 1080p High setting at 101.5 FPS is also excellent for those who prefer quality, as it keeps frame rates above 100 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Medium setting at 89.2 FPS is the recommended choice, providing a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while staying well above 60 FPS. The High setting at 69.7 FPS is viable for those who prioritize visual fidelity, though it approaches the 60 FPS threshold. The 1440p Low setting at 113 FPS is ideal for competitive play where frame rate matters more than graphics.

For 4K displays, the Low setting at 62.9 FPS is the only viable option, and even this is marginal. Players with 4K monitors should consider dropping to 1440p or accepting lower settings. The Ultra settings at any resolution show diminishing returns, with 4K Ultra at 30.6 FPS being the worst performer. The data consistently shows that Medium settings provide the best performance-per-quality trade-off across all resolutions, with High settings offering a modest improvement at a noticeable frame rate cost.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combo ranks 1023rd out of 1718 tested combinations in Palworld, placing it in the 40.5th percentile of all combos. This mid-tier ranking reflects the hardware's position in the market: the RTX 2070 SUPER is an older GPU (released 2019-07-08) that still performs well, while the i3-12100F is a modern budget CPU that punches above its weight.

The ranking suggests that this combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming than for 4K, as the 4K results are among the weakest in the dataset. The 1080p results, particularly the 169.6 FPS Low and 138.2 FPS Medium scores, are competitive with more expensive setups. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking and CPU's 72nd percentile ranking indicate that neither component is a weak link, but the combo's overall rank of 1023 out of 1718 shows that there are many more powerful configurations available.

The data implies that this combo is a well-balanced mid-range option that excels at 1080p gaming and handles 1440p adequately, but struggles with 4K Ultra settings. The 30.6 FPS at 4K Ultra is the most telling data point, suggesting that the 8 GB VRAM and 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are insufficient for maximum quality at that resolution. For players willing to adjust settings, however, this combo provides a versatile Palworld experience that can be tuned to match their display and performance preferences.