Palworld

Palworld on the Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers a wide performance envelope that depends heavily on the chosen settings and resolution. The data shows a system that can handle the game at high frame rates in lighter configurations but struggles to maintain playable performance at the most demanding settings. This analysis breaks down the measured results, placing them in context with the hardware's synthetic benchmarks and its position among other tested combinations.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. Its cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 12 MB L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 over a dual-channel bus, providing a theoretical bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s)Skip this memory bandwidth figure for now; it is not relevant to game FPS analysis. The CPU is positioned in the 68th percentile of all CPUs based on its average benchmark score of 14185.

In synthetic multi-threaded tests, the i5-10400F scores 10283 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 4318 in Cinebench R20 multicore. Its single-thread performance is notably lower, with scores of 1451 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 609 in Cinebench R20 single-core. The 3DMark results show a scaling pattern from 1350 for 2 threads to 3929 for 8 threads, and 4735 for max threads, indicating that the processor's performance gains taper off beyond 8 threads. For a game like Palworld, which is a survival title with open-world elements, the balance between single-thread responsiveness and multi-thread scaling matters for handling game logic, AI, and world streaming simultaneously.

The measured FPS data shows a distinct pattern where the CPU's influence becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and higher frame rates. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 138 FPS, which is a high frame rate that likely tests the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls. The difference between 1080p Low (138 FPS) and 1080p High (86 FPS) is 52 FPS, a substantial gap that suggests the GPU is the limiting factor as settings increase. However, at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 24, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the CPU's workload relative to pixel processing becomes less significantikuha continue with the CPU's role in the context of the game's results. The fact that the CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 58th percentile, suggests that the processor is relatively stronger than the graphics card in this pairing. This imbalance means that at lower settings and resolutions, the CPU can push high frame rates, but the GPU will cap performance as resolution and settings scale up.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this CPU and GPU combo in Palworld?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 138 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration that exceeds 130 FPS, with the next highest being 112 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution with the highest settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 24, which is the lowest recorded value across all tested configurations. Even at 4K High, the average FPS is only 32, indicating that this resolution is not suitable for demanding settings with this hardware.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS at Low settings is 91, while at Ultra settings it is 43. This represents a performance reduction of 48 FPS, or roughly 53% lower frame rate when switching from Low to Ultra at this resolution.

Q: Is there a significant performance gap between Medium settings at 1080p and 1440p?

A: Yes, the average FPS at 1080p Medium is 112, while at 1440p Medium it is 74. This is a 38 FPS difference, indicating that the resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p has a substantial impact on performance even at the same settings level.

Q: How does the GPU's synthetic benchmark compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 with a score of 15283, showing a delta of 0%. It also edges out the AMD Radeon RX 7600 by 0.8%, with the RX 7600 scoring 15171.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F + RTX 2060 combo ranks 2942 out of 3711 tested combinations, placing it in the lower mid-range of performance for Palworld.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound performance scaling, with the CPU's role diminishing as pixel count increases. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 86 at 1080p to 57 at 1440p and further to 32 at 4K. This represents a 33.7% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 43.9% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The consistent decline with resolution indicates that the RTX 2060's rendering capabilities are the primary constraint at these settings.

At Low settings, the pattern shifts. The system achieves 138 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 91 FPS at 1440p (a 34.1% reduction) and 51 FPS at 4K (a 44.0% reduction from 1440p). The fact that 1080p Low reaches 138 FPS suggests that the CPU is capable of driving high frame rates, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases. The relative percentage drops between resolutions are similar across Low, High, and Medium settings, indicating that the scaling behavior is consistent regardless of the graphics load.

The Medium settings row provides min and max FPS data, which offers additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 112 FPS with a range of 95 to 129 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 74 FPS with a range of 63 to 85 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 41 FPS with a range of 35 to 47 FPS. The min-to-max spread remains proportionally similar across resolutions, suggesting that frame time variance is not disproportionately affected by resolution changes. This indicates that the limiting component shifts from CPU at lower resolutions to GPU at higher resolutions, but the overall frame pacing remains stable.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the system shows its strongest performance. Low settings deliver an average of 138 FPS, Medium settings deliver 112 FPS with a range of 95 to 129 FPS, High settings deliver 86 FPS, and Ultra settings deliver 65 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with each settings tier reducing the average FPS by approximately 20-25% of the previous tier's value. The gap between Low and Ultra is 73 FPS, which is more than half of the Low setting's performance.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low settings average 91 FPS, Medium settings average 74 FPS with a range of 63 to 85 FPS, High settings average 57 FPS, and Ultra settings average 43 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 48 FPS. Notably, the 1440p High setting (57 FPS) is very close to the 1080p Ultra setting (65 FPS), suggesting that moving from 1080p Ultra to 1440p High costs only 8 FPS on average.

At 3840x2160, the system is clearly stretched. Low settings average 51 FPS, Medium settings average 41 FPS with a range of 35 to 47 FPS, High settings average 32 FPS, and Ultra settings average 24 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 27 FPS. The 4K Medium settings show a min FPS of 35, which is below the 30 FPS threshold often considered minimum for playability, indicating that even Medium settings may experience noticeable stutters. The 4K Ultra setting at 24 FPS is below common playability thresholds, and the 4K High setting at 32 FPS is only marginally above it.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture using a 12 nm process at TSMC, with a chip size of 445 mm² and 10,800 million transistors. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Its compute resources include 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs, along with 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores. The GPU is positioned in the 58th percentile of all GPUs based on its average benchmark score of 15290.

The RTX 2060's memory configuration is a critical factor in Palworld's performance at higher resolutions. The 6 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at most settings, but at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the memory bandwidth and capacity may become limiting factors. The measured FPS at 4K High (32 FPS) and 4K Ultra (24 FPS) suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is overwhelmed, potentially due to both compute load and memory pressure. The 336 GB/s bandwidth is likely insufficient for the high-resolution textures and geometry that Palworld's open world demands.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks show a balanced profile. It scores 14111 in Passmark G3D, which is a direct gaming-oriented test, and 65014 in Geekbench OpenCL, indicating strong compute performance. However, its DirectX 12 score of 53 in Passmark is relatively low, which could explain some performance characteristics in modern titles. The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the RTX 3050 OEM (0.6% higher) and the RX 7600 (0.8% higher), but these comparisons are synthetic and do not directly translate to Palworld performance. The GPU's pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s are modest by modern standards, aligning with the observed FPS drops at 4K.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and the user's preference for frame rate versus visual fidelity. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers an average of 112 FPS with a range of 95 to 129 FPS, which provides a smooth experience that is likely sufficient for most players. The High preset at 86 FPS is also playable, but the jump from Medium to High costs 26 FPS, which may not justify the visual improvement. The Ultra preset at 65 FPS is below the 70 FPS threshold that some players consider ideal for competitive play, but it remains above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 74 FPS with a range of 63 to 85 FPS, which is the best balance between visual quality and performance. The Low preset at 91 FPS offers higher frame rates but likely sacrifices significant visual detail. The High preset at 57 FPS is borderline, as it falls below 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset at 43 FPS is not recommended for a consistent experience. The Medium preset at 1440p appears to be the sweet spot, providing a frame rate that is within the acceptable range for most users while maintaining better graphics than Low.

At 4K, none of the settings provide a fully satisfactory experience. The Low preset at 51 FPS is the only configuration that approaches playable frame rates, but even this is below 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 41 FPS with a min FPS of 35 is playable but may exhibit noticeable stutters. The High preset at 32 FPS and Ultra at 24 FPS are not recommended for any gameplay style. For 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, users may need to accept reduced visual quality for acceptable performance.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination ranks 2942 out of 3711 tested combinations in Palworld, placing it in the 20.7th percentile of all tested setups. This ranking indicates that the combo performs in the lower quarter of all tested systems, which aligns with the measured FPS data showing that it struggles at 4K and at high settings in lower resolutionscard.

The ranking suggests that while the combo is capable of playing Palworld at 1080p with medium settings, it is not positioned to deliver high-end performance. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs is significantly higher than the GPU's 58th percentile ranking, and this gap contributes to the combo's overall position. The bottleneck analysis shows that the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios, particularly at higher resolutions and settings.

Comparatively, the CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher score) and the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.5% higher), while the GPU's nearest rivals include the GTX 580 (0% difference) and the RX 7600 (0.8% higher). These benchmarks indicate that the components are mid-range performers in their respective categories. The combo's rank in Palworld specifically reflects that the game is demanding on GPU resources, and this particular pairing does not have the graphics headroom to excel at higher resolutions. The data suggests that users with this combo should target 1080p or 1440p with Medium settings for the best experience, as the 4K performance is uniformly below playable thresholds for most settings.