Palworld

Palworld, the survival title released in early 2024, presents a demanding workload that scales significantly with both resolution and graphical presets. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700, using only the provided benchmark data to interpret how this combination handles the game across various settings. The data reveals a configuration that is capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p but becomes increasingly constrained as resolution climbs, highlighting the GPU as the primary performance limiter in most scenarios. The following sections break down the specific frame rates, scaling behavior, and component roles based exclusively on the measured FPS table and the hardware specifications provided.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 191 FPS at 1080p to 126 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 65 FPS, and then further to 70 FPS at 4K, representing a 121 FPS total drop from the lowest to highest resolution tested. This scaling indicates that even at Low settings, the rendering load at 4K is substantial enough to nearly halve the performance seen at 1080p.

Moving to the Medium preset, the same trend is evident: 155 FPS at 1080p falls to 102 FPS at 1440p and then to 56 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 46 FPS, which is a larger absolute decrease than the 53 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p, suggesting that the pixel count increase to 4K imposes a disproportionately higher cost on the GPU. The High preset follows a similar trajectory, with 119 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, starting at 90 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 59 FPS at 1440p, and landing at just 33 FPS at 4K.

The pattern across all presets is that the frame rate at 4K is roughly 35-40% of the 1080p value. For instance, at Low settings, 70 FPS is 36.6% of 191 FPS; at Medium, 56 FPS is 36.1% of 155 FPS; at High, 43 FPS is 36.1% of 119 FPS; and at Ultra, 33 FPS is 36.7% of 90 FPS. This consistent proportional scaling strongly suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as the workload is scaling almost purely with pixel count rather than being mitigated by CPU headroom. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to be capable of feeding the GPU sufficient frames at lower resolutions, but the GPU's rendering throughput becomes the bottleneck as the pixel count increases.

The data indicates that 1440p represents a practical ceiling for smooth gameplay on this combo. At 1440p Low, the 126 FPS average is well above typical 60 Hz refresh rates, but the 4K results at 33-70 FPS are mostly below the 60 FPS threshold, except for the Low preset. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at High settings (78 to 43 FPS) represents a 44.9% drop, which is significant enough to make the game feel noticeably less fluid. This behavior confirms that the RX 7700, with its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, is the primary factor determining performance at higher resolutions, while the i5-11400F's processing power is sufficient for lower resolution high-frame-rate scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering an average of 155 FPS with a minimum of 131 FPS and a maximum of 178 FPS. This preset provides a substantial frame rate cushion above 144 Hz displays, allowing for responsive gameplay without the harsh visual compromises of the Low preset. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 191 FPS, which is technically higher, but the visual quality reduction is often significant in a survival game where environmental detail matters for spotting resources and threats. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 131 also ensures that frame rate dips are less likely to fall below 120 FPS, maintaining smoothness.

For 1440p users, the Medium preset is again the recommended choice, with an average of 102 FPS and a minimum of 87 FPS. This is the only preset at 1440p that maintains an average above 100 FPS, while the High preset drops to 78 FPS and Ultra falls to 59 FPS. The 102 FPS average at Medium is suitable for 100 Hz or 120 Hz monitors, though users with 144 Hz panels may need to accept occasional dips below their refresh rate. The High preset at 1440p, with its 78 FPS average, is still playable on 60-75 Hz displays but is a significant step down from Medium.

At 4K, the data suggests that only the Low preset, with an average of 70 FPS, provides a consistently playable experience. The Medium preset at 4K averages 56 FPS, which is barely above 60 FPS and may result in noticeable stutter on standard 60 Hz displays. The High preset at 43 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are generally not recommended for smooth gameplay, as they fall well below the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset at 4K does have a minimum FPS of 48, which indicates that performance can dip into the 40s during intense scenes, further reducing playability. Overall, the data indicates that this combo is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p with Medium settings, with 4K reserved for the lowest preset or for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate consistency.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the dominant component in determining Palworld's performance, as evidenced by the resolution scaling patterns. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This large memory pool is particularly relevant for a survival game with expansive open worlds, as it allows for high-resolution textures and assets to be stored locally without relying on system memory. The benchmark data shows that the GPU's average benchmark score is 15852, with a percentile ranking of 58 against all GPUs, indicating it sits near the middle of the performance spectrum.

The GPU's clock speeds are relevant to its performance scaling. The base clock is 1900 MHz, with a game clock of 2041 MHz and a boost clock of 2459 MHz. The boost clock is achieved under load, and the difference between the game and boost clocks suggests thermal and power headroom that allows for temporary performance increases. In Palworld, the frame rate drops from 119 FPS at 1080p High to 43 FPS at 4K High, a 63.9% reduction, which is a direct result of the GPU's rendering capabilities being overwhelmed by the increased pixel count. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units handle the graphical workload, but they are clearly pushed to their limits at 4K.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 9060 with an average score of 16014 (a delta of -1%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with a score of 16129 (a delta of -1.7%). This places the RX 7700 slightly below these cards in raw compute performance, but the 16 GB VRAM and modern RDNA 3.0 architecture provide advantages in specific workloads. The data shows that the GPU's performance in Palworld is not limited by VRAM capacity, as even at 4K Ultra the game runs (albeit at low FPS), but rather by the raw processing throughput of the chip. The 624.1 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient for the game's needs, as there is no evidence of memory-related stuttering in the measured minimum FPS values.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combination holds a combo rank of 1311 out of 2944 tested combinations in Palworld, placing it in the 44.5th percentile of all tested systems. This rank indicates that this combo performs slightly below the median of all tested configurations, which is expected given that the GPU ranks in the 58th percentile and the CPU in the 71st percentile. The combo's performance is likely constrained by the GPU, as the CPU has a higher percentile ranking, suggesting that the i5-11400F has more relative headroom than the RX 7700.

The combo rank of 1311 out of 2944 means that there are 1310 tested combos that perform better in Palworld, and 1633 that perform worse. This places the system in the upper-middle range of all tested hardware pairings. The rank is influenced by the fact that Palworld appears to be GPU-bound, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. A system with a stronger GPU but a weaker CPU might achieve a similar or better rank in this game, while this combo's CPU strength is not fully utilized at higher resolutions. The data suggests that the combo is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it would rank higher if paired with a more powerful GPU.

The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7H12 with a delta of 0.3% and the Intel Core i5-12450H with a delta of -0.4%, show that the i5-11400F's processing power is competitive with other mid-range and even high-end server chips in synthetic benchmarks. However, in gaming, the GPU is the primary factor, and the RX 7700's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon R9 370X with a delta of -0.1%, is an older card, highlighting the RX 7700's position in the current market. The combo's rank of 1311 suggests that while it can handle Palworld at playable frame rates, it does not excel compared to more powerful combinations, particularly at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60 FPS?

A: At 1920x1080, all presets exceed 60 FPS, with the lowest being Ultra at 90 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low, Medium, and High presets all average above 60 FPS (126, 102, and 78 FPS respectively), while Ultra drops to 59 FPS. At 3840x2160, only the Low preset (70 FPS) and Medium preset (56 FPS) come close to or exceed 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Medium preset's performance compare between 1080p and 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p averages 155 FPS with a minimum of 131 FPS. At 1440p, the same preset averages 102 FPS with a minimum of 87 FPS. This represents a 53 FPS drop in average frame rate when moving from 1080p to 1440p.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck in Palworld?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The frame rate scales proportionally with resolution (e.g., 4K averages are consistently about 36% of 1080p averages across all presets), which suggests the GPU's rendering limits are being hit. The CPU has a higher percentile ranking (71st) compared to the GPU (58th), further supporting this.

Q: What is the worst-performing preset and resolution combination?

A: The lowest average frame rate is observed at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, averaging 33 FPS. This is the only measured configuration that drops below 40 FPS, making it the least playable setting.

Q: How does this combo's performance compare to other tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 1311th out of 2944 tested combinations in Palworld. This places it in the upper-middle range, meaning it performs better than 1633 other combos but worse than 1310 others.

Q: What is the frame rate range for the Medium preset at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 56, with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 65 FPS. This shows a relatively narrow range, indicating consistent performance without major spikes or drops.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data for Palworld with the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 is detailed below, organized by resolution and settings preset.

At 1920x1080:

• Low preset: 191 FPS average
• Medium preset: 155 FPS average, with a minimum of 131 FPS and maximum of 178 FPS
• High preset: 119 FPS average
• Ultra preset: 90 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low preset: 126 FPS average
• Medium preset: 102 FPS average, with a minimum of 87 FPS and maximum of 117 FPS
• High preset: 78 FPS average
• Ultra preset: 59 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low preset: 70 FPS average
• Medium preset: 56 FPS average, with a minimum of 48 FPS and maximum of 65 FPS
• High preset: 43 FPS average
• Ultra preset: 33 FPS average

The data shows that the Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values at all three resolutions, providing a more complete picture of performance variability. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 131 FPS ensures that even during heavy scenes, the frame rate stays well above 120 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 87 FPS is close to the 90 FPS average of the 1080p Ultra preset, indicating that the Medium preset at 1440p offers similar performance to Ultra at 1080p. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 48 FPS shows that there can be noticeable dips below the 60 FPS target, making it less ideal for competitive play.

The progression from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent average FPS reduction: at 1080p, the drop from Low to Ultra is 101 FPS; at 1440p, it is 67 FPS; and at 4K, it is 37 FPS. This indicates that the absolute cost of higher presets is more significant at lower resolutions where the GPU is less saturated, while at 4K the GPU is already so loaded that the preset choice has a smaller absolute impact on frame rate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, plays a supporting role in Palworld's performance, as the game is primarily GPU-bound. The CPU's base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide sufficient processing power for game logic and physics, but the benchmark data shows that its impact on frame rate is secondary to the GPU. The CPU's average benchmark score is 17177, with a percentile ranking of 71 against all CPUs, indicating it is a capable mid-range processor. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7H12 (delta 0.3%) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (delta -0.4%), showing that it performs in line with other 6-8 core processors.

In Palworld, the CPU's role is evident in the fact that frame rates do not scale perfectly with resolution. For example, at 1080p Low, the 191 FPS average is likely near the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability, as the GPU is not fully utilized at this low setting. The CPU's 12 threads and 12 MB of L3 cache allow it to handle the game's multiple systems, such as AI, world streaming, and player interactions, without becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At higher resolutions, the GPU's workload increases, and the CPU has more headroom, as shown by the frame rate drops being proportional to pixel count rather than CPU limitations.

The CPU's single-thread performance, as indicated by its 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2024, is adequate for Palworld's primary game thread. The multi-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14340, ensures that background tasks and secondary threads do not interfere with gameplay. The data suggests that the i5-11400F is not the limiting factor in this combo, as the GPU's percentile ranking (58th) is lower than the CPU's (71st). If the user were to upgrade the GPU, the CPU would likely still be able to provide sufficient frames at 1080p and 1440p, though it might become a bottleneck at very high frame rates exceeding 200 FPS. In summary, the CPU is a solid foundation for this combo, providing reliable performance without being the primary constraint on Palworld's frame rate.