Palworld

Palworld pairs a 6-core, 12-thread Intel Core i5-10400F with a 12 GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. This combination delivers playable frame rates across most settings, but the data reveals a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution climbs. The following analysis breaks down how this specific pairing handles the game’s demands, based strictly on measured FPS rows and component specifications.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all quality presets, signaling that the RTX 3080 Ti becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 240 FPS, which drops to 163 FPS at 1440p and then to 90 FPS at 4K. That is a 62.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating the GPU is scaling with pixel count as expected. At Ultra settings, the same resolution progression yields 117 FPS at 1080p, 77 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K — a 63.2% drop from 1080p to 4K. The consistency of this percentage across presets suggests the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are the binding constraints, not the CPU.

Looking at the Medium preset, which includes min/max FPS data, the pattern holds. At 1080p Medium, the average is 200 FPS with a min of 170 and max of 230. At 1440p Medium, the average falls to 132 FPS (min 112, max 152), and at 4K Medium, it drops to 73 FPS (min 62, max 84). The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios — the frame time variance reduces when the GPU is saturated, and the CPU has more headroom to feed frames steadily.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the i5-10400F is likely holding back the RTX 3080 Ti in lighter presets. The 240 FPS Low result at 1080p is near the practical ceiling for many games with this CPU’s single-thread performance, and the fact that Ultra at 1080p only reaches 117 FPS — versus 77 FPS at 1440p — indicates that the GPU is not fully utilized at 1080p Ultra. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Ultra is 40 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 34 FPS; if the GPU were the sole limit, the 1440p-to-4K drop would be larger. This points to a mild CPU bottleneck at 1080p, which diminishes as resolution rises.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show that the High preset offers the best balance for this combo across resolutions, though the definition of "best" depends on the target display. At 1080p, High delivers 154 FPS, which is smooth for competitive play, while Ultra only adds visual fidelity at the cost of 37 FPS (down to 117 FPS). Medium sits between at 200 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High is only a 46 FPS loss, suggesting High is the sweet spot for visual quality without sacrificing responsiveness.

At 1440p, High produces 101 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for most monitors. Medium hits 132 FPS, and Ultra falls to 77 FPS. For a 1440p 120 Hz display, Medium is the practical choice, as it clears the refresh rate with headroom. High is acceptable for 60 Hz panels, but the 31 FPS difference between Medium and High makes Medium the safer pick for maintaining frame time consistency, especially given the min FPS of 112 at Medium versus no min data for High.

At 4K, the situation tightens. High averages 56 FPS, which is borderline for a 60 Hz display — dips below 60 are likely given the lack of min/max data for this row. Medium averages 73 FPS with a min of 62, making it the only preset that reliably stays above 60 FPS at 4K. Ultra at 43 FPS is not recommended for 4K, as it sacrifices too much smoothness. Low at 90 FPS is viable if frame rate is the priority, but the visual degradation is severe. For 4K, Medium is the clear recommendation: it provides the highest average FPS that still maintains a minimum above 60, and the 62 FPS min is the only measured floor that clears the 60 FPS line at this resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a Comet Lake part built on Intel’s 14 nm process, featuring 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its cache layout includes 64 KB L1 per core, 256 KB L2 per core, and 12 MB shared L3. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 10283 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1451 in single-core, with a PassMark multithread score of 12115 and a single-thread score of 2541. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 1350 at 2 threads to 4735 at max threads, indicating decent multi-threading efficiency but a modest single-thread ceiling.

In Palworld, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p. The 240 FPS Low result suggests the CPU can feed frames up to that point, but the Ultra preset at 1080p only reaches 117 FPS — a 123 FPS drop from Low, which is disproportionately large compared to the 1440p Ultra result of 77 FPS. If the GPU were the sole limit at 1080p Ultra, the FPS would be higher relative to 1440p. The data indicates that at 1080p, the i5-10400F’s single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 688) becomes a constraint, limiting frame rates before the GPU is fully taxed. This is consistent with the CPU’s 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs, which places it in the mid-range tier.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4 could also factor into frame pacing, but the measured min FPS at Medium (170 at 1080p, 112 at 1440p, 62 at 4K) shows that even at the low end, the combo stays above playable thresholds. The 12 threads are likely sufficient for Palworld’s survival-game workloads, which typically use a handful of cores for simulation and AI, but the CPU’s 4.30 GHz boost clock is modest by modern standards. The nearest rival data shows the i5-10400F sits within 0.6% of CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C and Intel Core 7 160UL, confirming it is not a performance outlier — it is a solid mid-range part that pairs adequately with a high-end GPU at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1021 out of 3711 tested combinations in Palworld, placing it in the top 27.5% of all CPU-GPU pairings tested. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU, but it is not a top-tier ranking. The rank reflects the i5-10400F’s likely bottleneck at lower resolutions, which drags down the overall score despite the RTX 3080 Ti’s capabilities. The GPU alone ranks in the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41187, while the CPU ranks in the 68th percentile. The combo’s rank is closer to the CPU’s percentile than the GPU’s, which suggests the pairing is CPU-limited in this game’s most common scenarios.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing’s 4K Medium result of 73 FPS is above the median for similar CPU-GPU combinations, but the 1080p results show where it loses ground. A combo with a stronger CPU would likely push 1080p Ultra above 150 FPS, whereas this setup caps at 117 FPS. The rank of 1021 out of 3711 indicates that while this is a capable pairing, it is not optimized for maximum frame rates at 1080p. For users prioritizing 1440p or 4K, the rank is more favorable, as the GPU’s strengths are utilized more fully. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for high-resolution gaming where the CPU’s limitations are masked by the GPU workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is an Ampere architecture GPU based on the GA102 chip, fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. It features 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, along with 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. Its memory subsystem is substantial: 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s boost clock is 1665 MHz, with a memory clock of 19 Gbps effective, yielding a pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 34.10 TFLOPS.

In Palworld, the GPU’s role is dominant at 1440p and 4K. At 4K Medium, the combo averages 73 FPS with a min of 62, which is a strong result given the GPU’s 12 GB frame buffer and high bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS is low, but this is expected for a demanding title at maximum settings — the GPU’s 34.10 TFLOPS is not enough to brute-force Ultra at 4K. The GPU’s 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41187, places it just 0.8% above the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and 2% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 in synthetic tests, but in real-world Palworld measurements, the 3080 Ti’s memory bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s proves critical for maintaining frame rates at 4K.

The GPU’s VRAM capacity of 12 GB is sufficient for Palworld at all tested settings, as no measured row shows signs of texture thrashing or memory-related frame drops. The min FPS at 4K Medium (62) is higher than the min at 1440p Medium (112) proportionally, but the absolute values show the GPU is the scaling factor. The RTX 3080 Ti’s 80 RT cores are not heavily utilized in Palworld, given the game’s art style, but the 320 tensor cores may assist with any DLSS implementations — though no such settings are present in the measured data. The GPU’s 1x 12-pin power connector and 350 W TDP indicate it is a power-hungry part, but the measured FPS shows it delivers the expected performance for its class.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces 240 FPS on Low, 200 FPS on Medium (min 170, max 230), 154 FPS on High, and 117 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset’s min-to-max range of 60 FPS (170 to 230) indicates frame pacing is consistent, with no severe stutters. The jump from High to Ultra costs 37 FPS, while the jump from Low to Medium costs 40 FPS, showing that each preset step has a roughly uniform impact at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, Low yields 163 FPS, Medium averages 132 FPS (min 112, max 152), High averages 101 FPS, and Ultra averages 77 FPS. The Medium min of 112 FPS is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the max of 152 FPS suggests the GPU has headroom for variable scenes. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets: Low loses 77 FPS, Medium loses 68 FPS, High loses 53 FPS, and Ultra loses 40 FPS. The smaller absolute losses at higher presets confirm that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck as quality increases.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 90 FPS, Medium averages 73 FPS (min 62, max 84), High averages 56 FPS, and Ultra averages 43 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data, and its 62 FPS min is the critical number — it shows the combo can hold above 60 FPS at 4K with medium settings. The High preset’s 56 FPS average likely dips below 60 in heavy scenes, making it risky for a 60 Hz display. Ultra at 43 FPS is not playable for most users, and Low at 90 FPS is the fallback if visual quality is not a priority. The full data set shows a clear pattern: this combo is best used at 1440p Medium or High, or 4K Medium, where the GPU’s strengths are fully realized without the CPU becoming a bottleneck.