Palworld

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER in Palworld presents a classic mid-range configuration from the Turing/Rocket Lake era. The measured data reveals a system that is heavily influenced by resolution and preset selection, with performance scaling that points clearly to where the bottleneck shifts. This analysis examines the 12 measured FPS data points to understand the balance between the 6-core CPU and the 8 GB GPU, ultimately placing this combo at rank 2149 out of 3711 tested combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about which component is under load. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 167 FPS, but at 4K with Low settings, that number falls to 61 FPS. This represents a 63% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K, a substantial penalty that indicates the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The pattern is consistent across all settings: High settings drop from 104 FPS at 1080p to 69 FPS at 1440p, then to 38 FPS at 4K, a total loss of 66 FPS or 63% from the starting point.

The scaling behavior suggests that Palworld's rendering load scales aggressively with pixel count. At 1080p, the system appears to have headroom, as the 167 FPS Low result is far above the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting the CPU may be holding the GPU back slightly at the lowest resolution. However, by 1440p, the GPU workload increases enough that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become more relevant. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the 38 FPS High result is only marginally above the 29 FPS Ultra result, indicating diminishing returns from the GPU's processing capability.

The medium preset data provides the most complete picture, with min and max FPS recorded. At 1080p Medium, the range is 115 to 156 FPS, a spread of 41 FPS that suggests some scene-to-scene variability. At 1440p Medium, the range tightens to 76 to 103 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it narrows further to 42 to 57 FPS. This tightening range as resolution increases is a strong indicator that the GPU's consistent frame pacing becomes more dominant at higher resolutions, whereas at 1080p, CPU-related frame spikes create a wider variance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 104 FPS, which comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS playability threshold and approaches the 144 Hz refresh rate territory. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 79 FPS, a 24% reduction from High, which may not justify the visual gains for most players. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 167 FPS, but this is likely excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the High preset produces 69 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 89 FPS, providing a better balance between visual quality and smoothness. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot for this resolution, offering a 29% improvement over High while maintaining acceptable visual quality. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 52 FPS, which dips below the 60 FPS threshold and may result in noticeable stutter in fast-paced combat.

For 4K gaming, the situation is more constrained. The High preset achieves 38 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and may be marginal for a survival game where timing matters. The Medium preset at 4K reaches 50 FPS, which is closer to playable but still below the ideal threshold. The Low preset at 4K produces 61 FPS, making it the only 4K option that hits the 60 FPS mark. However, the visual compromise of Low settings at 4K may defeat the purpose of the high resolution. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 29 FPS, which is likely unplayable for most users. For this combo, the best experience per the measured data is either 1080p High for maximum visual quality at high frame rates, or 1440p Medium for a balanced approach.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo achieves rank 2149 out of 3711 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the performance distribution for Palworld. This ranking reflects the combined capabilities of the i5-11400F and RTX 2070 SUPER, both of which are older hardware by the time of Palworld's 2024 release. The CPU's percentile against all processors is 71, meaning it outperforms 71% of all CPUs in the database, while the GPU's percentile is 65, indicating it outperforms 65% of all GPUs. These percentiles suggest the combo is slightly stronger on the CPU side than the GPU side, which aligns with the resolution scaling analysis showing the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17177 places it within 0.6% of the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278) and 0.4% below the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239). The CPU is also 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120) and 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074). These small deltas indicate the i5-11400F performs competitively with these processors in general benchmarks, though the gaming-specific results in Palworld may differ due to the game's unique engine characteristics.

On the GPU side, the RTX 2070 SUPER's average score of 20282 is 1% below the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) and 1.2% below the GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534). The Intel Arc B570 (20556) and Intel Arc A750 (20582) sit 1.3% and 1.5% above, respectively. This clustering suggests the RTX 2070 SUPER is competitive with these mid-range options, though the 8 GB VRAM may become a limiting factor in newer titles like Palworld that are optimized for larger memory pools.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a clear matrix of performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 167 FPS on Low, 136 FPS on Medium (with a range of 115-156), 104 FPS on High, and 79 FPS on Ultra. This shows a steady decline as settings increase, with the gap between Low and Ultra being 88 FPS or 53%. The 1080p results demonstrate that the combo can handle high refresh rate gaming at lower presets, but Ultra settings bring the frame rate down to a level more suited to 60 Hz displays.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. Low settings produce 110 FPS, Medium yields 89 FPS (range 76-103), High achieves 69 FPS, and Ultra falls to 52 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 34% lower on average across settings, which is a substantial reduction. The 1440p Medium result of 89 FPS is notable because it maintains a playable frame rate while offering better visual quality than Low, making it a viable option for users with 1440p monitors.

The 3840x2160 results show the most severe performance limitations. Low settings reach 61 FPS, Medium produces 50 FPS (range 42-57), High drops to 38 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 29 FPS. The 4K data reveals that only Low settings barely cross the 60 FPS threshold, and all other presets fall below it. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 32 FPS, representing a 52% reduction, showing that the GPU's compute resources are heavily taxed at this resolution.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER's specifications provide context for its performance in Palworld. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the GPU offers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but may be strained at 4K with high-resolution textures. The TU104 chip contains 2560 shading units and 40 RT cores, with a base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz. The GPU's pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s help explain why the 4K High preset yields only 38 FPS, as the fill rate requirements at 3840x2160 are demanding.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, and the 12 nm process node means the 13,600 million transistors are packed into a 545 mm² die. The 65th percentile ranking indicates that while the RTX 2070 SUPER is not a top-tier card, it remains competitive with newer mid-range options. The measured data shows that the GPU's VRAM capacity becomes a critical factor at 4K, where the difference between Low (61 FPS) and Medium (50 FPS) settings suggests that texture loading and memory bandwidth are limiting factors. The card's 215 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this performance class, but the 8 GB VRAM is the most likely constraint in Palworld's open-world environment with many assets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. With a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, the CPU offers solid single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2024. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate memory bandwidth for gaming workloads.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are demonstrated by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14340 and 3DMark max-threads score of 5652. These results suggest the i5-11400F can handle Palworld's backend simulation tasks, which often involve many AI-driven creatures and physics calculations. The 71st percentile ranking for all CPUs indicates that this processor is above average, and its performance relative to rivals is tight, with only 0.6% separating it from the nearest competitor. However, the data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 167 FPS, which may be partially limited by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 is nearly identical to the max-threads score of 5652, suggesting that the processor's 12 threads are fully utilized in heavily threaded workloads, but the 2-thread score of 1691 indicates moderate single-thread performance that could be a bottleneck in scenarios with complex game logic.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1080p Ultra achieves 79 FPS, 1440p High produces 69 FPS, and 4K Low reaches 61 FPS. For a consistent 60+ FPS experience, 1440p High is the highest visual quality option that meets this threshold, while 4K Low is the only 4K option that barely exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER's VRAM affect performance in Palworld?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 4K, the difference between Low (61 FPS) and Medium (50 FPS) suggests that VRAM capacity or bandwidth becomes a limiting factor, as the higher preset likely requires more memory for textures, causing a 18% performance drop.

Q: Is this combo more CPU-bound or GPU-bound in Palworld?

A: The resolution scaling indicates the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the 167 FPS Low result shows high frame rates that may be partially CPU-limited, but at 4K, the GPU's 29 FPS Ultra result demonstrates that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary constraint.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 2149 out of 3711 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the performance distribution. This is consistent with the CPU's 71st percentile and GPU's 65th percentile rankings.

Q: How does the i5-11400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17177, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120) and 0.6% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074). It is 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239) and 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278).

Q: What settings are recommended for 4K gaming on this combo?

A: Only Low settings at 4K achieve 61 FPS, making it the only viable option for 60 FPS gameplay. Medium settings produce 50 FPS, which may be playable for some users, but High (38 FPS) and Ultra (29 FPS) fall well below the 60 FPS target and are not recommended for smooth gameplay.