Palworld

Palworld with the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a high-performance experience, but the optimal settings depend heavily on your display's refresh rate and resolution. The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience, providing substantial frame rates with a measured minimum FPS that ensures smooth gameplay, whereas Ultra settings produce lower average frame rates that may not be ideal for fast-paced survival gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results clearly show that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080. At 1920x1080, Medium yields an average of 257 FPS with a minimum of 219 FPS and a maximum of 296 FPS. This is a significant jump from the Ultra preset, which averages 150 FPS. The 107 FPS difference between Medium and Ultra at 1080p highlights that the Ultra preset demands a substantial performance cost for visual gains that may not be perceptible in a survival game's fast-moving scenarios.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset maintains an average of 169 FPS, with a minimum of 144 FPS and a maximum of 195 FPS. This is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, and it comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for standard displays. In contrast, the Ultra preset at 1440p drops to an average of 99 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 70 FPS reduction from Medium. The High preset sits between them at 130 FPS, but Medium offers a better frame time consistency based on the recorded minimums.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the Medium preset is the highest playable option, averaging 94 FPS with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS. This is a solid result for 4K gaming. The High preset drops to 72 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, and the Ultra preset falls to 55 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for a responsive experience. For 4K users, Medium is the clear recommendation, as it provides a 22 FPS advantage over High and a 39 FPS advantage over Ultra. The Low preset at 4K averages 116 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss is likely too severe for most users. Therefore, the data suggests that Medium is the best overall preset across all resolutions, offering the highest average FPS while maintaining a minimum FPS above 80 at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming on this system?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice for 3840x2160, as it achieves an average of 94 FPS with a minimum of 80 FPS. The High preset averages 72 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 55 FPS, making Medium the only preset that consistently stays above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Medium at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 99 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 169 FPS. This represents a 70 FPS advantage for Medium, which also has a minimum FPS of 144, ensuring a much smoother experience than Ultra's unspecified minimum.

Q: Is the system capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p?

A: Yes, the data shows excellent performance at 1920x1080. The Medium preset averages 257 FPS, and the Low preset reaches 318 FPS. Even the High preset averages 198 FPS, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on many monitors.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and High settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 116 FPS, while the High preset averages 72 FPS. This is a 44 FPS difference, indicating that the High preset imposes a significant rendering load compared to Low, but both are behind the Medium preset's 94 FPS average.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 bottleneck the CPU at any resolution?

A: The scaling from 1080p to 4K suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system hits 257 FPS, but at 4K Medium it drops to 94 FPS. This 163 FPS reduction indicates the GPU's workload scales heavily with resolution, while the CPU's performance is sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever recommended for this game?

A: The Ultra preset is only viable if you prioritize visual quality over frame rate and have a 60 Hz display. At 1080p it averages 150 FPS, at 1440p it averages 99 FPS, and at 4K it averages 55 FPS. For competitive or action-heavy gameplay, the Medium preset offers significantly higher frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this configuration, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling across resolutions. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This large memory capacity is sufficient for Palworld's open-world environments, which often require substantial texture and geometry data. The GPU's base clock is 2205 MHz, with a boost clock of 2505 MHz, and it contains 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units.

The RTX 4080's architecture, Ada Lovelace, supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which is relevant for modern game features. In Palworld, the GPU's raw compute power is the primary driver of performance. The data shows that at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 318 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit. However, as resolution increases, the GPU's workload increases proportionally. At 4K with Low settings, the average FPS drops to 116, which is a 202 FPS reduction from 1080p. This indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being taxed at higher resolutions.

The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is a key asset for Palworld, as the game's world can be memory-intensive. The 716.8 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming does not become a bottleneck, even at 4K with High or Ultra settings. The measured results show that the RTX 4080 can handle 4K Medium at 94 FPS, which is a strong performance level. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking against all GPUs in the database confirms its high-end status, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, has a deltaPct of 0.1, indicating near-identical performance. This suggests that the RTX 4080 is well-positioned to deliver a high-refresh-rate experience in Palworld, but the Ultra preset is too demanding for 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 247th out of 3711 tested combos in Palworld, placing it in the top 6.6% of all configurations. This high ranking is primarily due to the GPU's strength, as the CPU's performance is adequate to support it. The i5-13400F has a 77th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25292. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, which has a deltaPct of 0, and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, which is 0.4% faster. These rivals are all mobile or lower-tier desktop chips, indicating that the i5-13400F's desktop performance is solid but not top-tier.

The combo's rank of 247 suggests that there are 246 other configurations that can achieve higher frame rates in Palworld, likely featuring higher-end CPUs like the Core i9 or Ryzen 9 series paired with the same or better GPUs. However, the i5-13400F's 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, are sufficient for Palworld's threading model. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22604 and single-core score of 3191 indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system hits 318 FPS, which is likely approaching the CPU's frame generation limit. At 1440p Low, it hits 209 FPS, and at 4K Low, it hits 116 FPS, showing that the GPU takes over as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The rank of 247 out of 3711 is a strong result, but it is not the top tier. The deltaPct between the i5-13400F and its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, is 0, meaning they perform identically on average. This indicates that the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo; the RTX 4080 is the key component. For users seeking the absolute highest frame rates, a more powerful CPU might improve performance at 1080p, but the current combo already delivers 257 FPS at 1080p Medium, which exceeds the refresh rate of most gaming monitors.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling, with the RTX 4080's performance diminishing as pixel count increases. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset averages 257 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 169 FPS, a 34% reduction. At 3840x2160, the average falls to 94 FPS, a 63% reduction from 1080p. This scaling indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the CPU's workload does not increase proportionally with resolution.

The Low preset shows a similar trend: 318 FPS at 1080p, 209 FPS at 1440p, and 116 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 34% and 45% respectively, which is less severe than the Medium preset's drop from 1440p to 4K. This suggests that at Low settings, the system is more balanced, but the GPU still becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The High preset follows the pattern: 198 FPS at 1080p, 130 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 34%, and from 1440p to 4K is 45%.

The Ultra preset has the most significant scaling: 150 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 63%, which is the largest of all presets. This indicates that the Ultra preset's increased graphical demands (likely higher shadow quality, texture filtering, and post-processing effects) are heavily reliant on the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth. The 16 GB VRAM and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient, but the GPU's compute units are saturated at 4K Ultra. In contrast, the CPU's role is more prominent at 1080p, where the system achieves 318 FPS on Low, suggesting that the i5-13400F can keep up with the GPU's output at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. The Low preset averages 318 FPS, which is the highest single measurement in the dataset. The Medium preset averages 257 FPS, with a minimum of 219 FPS and a maximum of 296 FPS. The High preset averages 198 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 150 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 168 FPS, demonstrating the significant performance cost of the Ultra preset's visual enhancements. For competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors, Low or Medium are the only sensible choices.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but drops noticeably. The Low preset averages 209 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 169 FPS, with a minimum of 144 FPS and a maximum of 195 FPS. The High preset averages 130 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 99 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 144 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it ensures that the game stays above the 144 Hz refresh rate for most of the time. The Ultra preset's 99 FPS average is still smooth on a 60 Hz display, but it falls short of high-refresh-rate targets.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance is more constrained. The Low preset averages 116 FPS, which is excellent for 4K. The Medium preset averages 94 FPS, with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS. This is the recommended preset for 4K as it balances visual quality and performance. The High preset averages 72 FPS, which is playable but may experience occasional dips below 60 FPS in demanding scenes. The Ultra preset averages 55 FPS, which is below the standard 60 FPS target and may result in noticeable stuttering in fast-paced gameplay. The data shows that the RTX 4080 is capable of delivering a good 4K experience, but only at Medium or lower settings. The 55 FPS at Ultra is a clear indicator that the GPU is maxed out, and users should avoid this preset at 4K.