Palworld

Palworld presents a demanding open-world survival environment where the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination must balance physics simulation, rendering, and creature AI. The measured data reveals a system that is highly capable at mainstream resolutions but shows clear boundary conditions at 4K Ultra settings. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing prioritizes high refresh rates at 1080p and 1440p, with performance scaling that points to the graphics card as the primary constraint in the most demanding scenarios. The combo achieves a rank of 1683 out of 2944 tested combinations in this title, placing it in the upper half of all systems evaluated.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, revealing a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 104 FPS at 1920x1080 to 69 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 33%. Moving to 3840x2160 High, the average drops further to 38 FPS, which represents a 63% decline from the 1080p figure. This pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases is typical of a configuration where the graphics card's rendering throughput, rather than the CPU's processing power, becomes the limiting factor.

The scaling behavior is even more pronounced at the lowest settings. At Low preset, the system achieves 167 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 110 FPS at 1440p and 61 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is notable because it is still above the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that even at this high resolution, the RX 9060 can maintain playable frame rates when graphical load is reduced. However, the gap between 1440p Low (110 FPS) and 4K Low (61 FPS) is a 44% reduction, indicating that the pixel count increase from 3.7 million to 8.3 million pixels overwhelms the GPU's fill rate capabilities.

At Medium settings, the data includes minimum and maximum frame times, providing insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 and maximum of 156, showing a tight distribution that suggests consistent frame delivery. At 1440p Medium, the average is 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103, maintaining a reasonable frame time consistency. The 4K Medium result shows an average of 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 and maximum of 57, where the lower minimum begins to approach the stutter threshold, indicating that the GPU is struggling to maintain smooth rendering at this resolution.

The Ultra preset tells a more severe story. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 79 FPS, which is still respectable, but at 1440p Ultra, it falls to 52 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 29 FPS. This final figure is below the standard playability threshold and suggests that the RX 9060's 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are simply insufficient for the combined demands of 4K resolution and maximum visual fidelity in Palworld. The scaling from 1440p Ultra to 4K Ultra represents a 44% performance drop, mirroring the Low preset's scaling, which indicates a consistent memory bandwidth limitation.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 44 chip on a 4 nm process. The GPU has a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz, with memory running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). The memory configuration is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. These specifications suggest a card designed for 1080p and 1440p gaming, which aligns with the measured performance data showing strong results at those resolutions.

The GPU's rendering capabilities include 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, with 28 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is 191.4 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 334.9 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 21.43 TFLOPS. In Palworld, the 64 ROPs appear to be the limiting factor at 4K, as the pixel throughput required at that resolution exceeds what this configuration can deliver, particularly at Ultra settings where the average FPS drops to 29.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical consideration for Palworld at high resolutions. The game's open-world environment with streaming textures and numerous objects can quickly consume memory, and the 128-bit bus width constrains how quickly data can be transferred. The benchmark results at 4K Ultra (29 FPS) versus 4K High (38 FPS) suggest that the additional texture detail and effects at Ultra exceed the memory subsystem's capacity, causing a more pronounced performance penalty than what would be expected from pure shading workload increase.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, has an average score of 16129, a delta of -0.7%, indicating the RX 9060 is essentially on par with that popular card. In Palworld specifically, the card's performance at 1080p High (104 FPS) and Medium (135 FPS) shows it can leverage its 21.43 TFLOPS of compute power effectively when not constrained by memory bandwidth.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 achieves a rank of 1683 out of 2944 tested combos in Palworld, placing it in the 57th percentile of all systems evaluated. This ranking indicates that while the setup is not in the top tier, it outperforms a majority of configurations tested for this game. The rank reflects a balanced pairing where neither component is severely bottlenecking the other at mainstream resolutions, but the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K.

The CPU's individual benchmarks show it performs at the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18683. This is a strong showing for a mid-range processor, with its nearest rival being the AMD EPYC 7643 at a delta of -0.1%. The GPU's 59th percentile ranking is lower, suggesting that in Palworld, the graphics card is the weaker link in the chain. This is consistent with the resolution scaling data showing that FPS drops sharply as resolution increases, while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom.

Among the 2944 combinations tested, a rank of 1683 means there are 1261 combos that perform worse and 1682 that perform better. The system's position suggests that the i5-12400's 6 cores and 12 threads provide adequate processing power for Palworld's gameplay mechanics, but the RX 9060's memory limitations prevent the combo from reaching higher performance tiers at 4K. At 1080p and 1440p, however, the combo's rank would likely be significantly higher, as the measured FPS at those resolutions shows no obvious CPU limitation.

The data indicates that this combo is optimized for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p and solid 60+ FPS performance at 1440p, with the rank reflecting its suitability for those use cases rather than 4K gaming. The delta between the CPU's 72nd percentile ranking and the combo's 57th percentile ranking suggests that the GPU's performance ceiling is the primary factor preventing higher overall placement.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers excellent performance across all settings. At Low, the average FPS is 167, providing maximum headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings yield an average of 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 and maximum of 156, showing smooth and consistent frame delivery. High settings produce 104 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 79 FPS average. All 1080p configurations maintain frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold, making this resolution the sweet spot for this combo.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows the GPU starting to work harder. The Low preset delivers 110 FPS average, which is excellent for 1440p gaming. Medium settings produce 89 FPS average with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103, maintaining good frame pacing. High settings yield 69 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS target for most players. Ultra settings fall to 52 FPS average, which is playable but may require adaptive sync to avoid visible stuttering. The 1440p results suggest this resolution is well-suited for High and Medium settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become apparent. The Low preset delivers 61 FPS average, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold and indicates that the RX 9060 can handle 4K when settings are reduced. Medium settings produce 49 FPS average with a minimum of 42 and maximum of 57, showing a tighter range that still dips below 60 FPS. High settings yield 38 FPS average, which is below the playability threshold for many users. Ultra settings produce 29 FPS average, making this configuration impractical for smooth gameplay at 4K Ultra.

The Medium settings data provides the most complete picture with both minimum and maximum FPS values at all three resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 115-156 FPS, a spread of 41 FPS, indicating minor frame time variance. At 1440p, the range is 76-103 FPS, a spread of 27 FPS, showing tighter frame pacing. At 4K, the range is 42-57 FPS, a spread of 15 FPS, which is surprisingly narrow but still results in sub-60 FPS average. This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is consistently hitting its rendering limits rather than experiencing sporadic spikes.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Palworld?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 provides the most consistent high performance, with all settings exceeding 79 FPS average. At 2560x1440, Medium and High settings maintain above 60 FPS, making it a viable option for higher fidelity.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Palworld?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which achieve 61 FPS average. Medium settings at 4K drop to 49 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 29 FPS average, which is not recommended for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, which is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's score of 16129. The AMD Radeon R9 370X is 1% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 is also 1% higher.

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 ranks in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18683. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7643, has a score of 18697, a delta of -0.1%.

Q: Is the system CPU-bound or GPU-bound in this game?

A: The data indicates the system is GPU-bound at higher resolutions. FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K across all settings, while the CPU's 72nd percentile ranking suggests it has sufficient headroom. The combo's 57th percentile rank reflects the GPU's limitations.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 115. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 76 FPS, and at 4K Medium, the minimum is 42 FPS. These values indicate frame pacing consistency across resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU includes 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, with PCIe Gen 5 providing 16 lanes for the GPU.

In Palworld, the CPU's role is to manage the game's simulation logic, including creature AI, physics calculations, and world streaming. The 6 cores and 12 threads provide ample parallel processing capability, as evidenced by the CPU's benchmark scores. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15989 and single-core score of 2257 indicate strong performance for both multithreaded and single-threaded workloads, which is important for a game that likely utilizes multiple threads for different systems.

The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking suggests it is not the bottleneck in this system for Palworld. At 1080p Low, where the GPU load is minimal, the system achieves 167 FPS, which is likely approaching the CPU's frame generation limit. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with FPS dropping proportionally to resolution increases. The CPU's boost clock of 4.40 GHz helps maintain high frame rates in CPU-intensive scenarios, such as when many Pals are on screen simultaneously.

The CPU's nearest rivals show it is well-positioned in the market. The AMD EPYC 7643 has an average score of 18697, just 0.1% higher, while the Intel Core i7-1355U scores 18730, 0.3% higher. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 scores 18811, 0.7% higher, and the Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519, 0.9% lower. This clustering indicates that the i5-12400 performs at a level comparable to processors in different market segments, providing solid performance for this game.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset at 79 FPS average provides the best visual experience while maintaining smooth gameplay. However, players seeking maximum frame rates can use High settings at 104 FPS for a balance of quality and performance. The Medium preset at 135 FPS is ideal for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, while Low at 167 FPS offers the highest possible frame rate with minimal visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 69 FPS average offers the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness, as it remains above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 89 FPS provides a more comfortable margin above 60 FPS, with a minimum of 76 FPS ensuring consistent performance. The Ultra preset at 52 FPS is playable but may require adaptive sync technology to reduce perceived stuttering, while Low at 110 FPS is excellent for high-refresh-rate gaming.

For 3840x2160, the Low preset at 61 FPS is the only configuration that achieves average frame rates above 60 FPS. This makes it the recommended setting for 4K gaming with this combo. The Medium preset at 49 FPS is borderline playable, with a minimum of 42 FPS that may cause noticeable dips during intense scenes. High and Ultra settings at 38 and 29 FPS respectively are not recommended for smooth gameplay, as they fall below the threshold for comfortable play.

The overall recommendation is to prioritize 1440p with High or Medium settings for the best balance of visual quality and performance. This resolution takes advantage of the GPU's capabilities without exposing its memory bandwidth limitations. For players with 1080p displays, Ultra settings provide an excellent experience. For 4K displays, the Low preset is the only viable option, and players should consider this a compromise setup rather than an optimal configuration for Palworld.