Palworld

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Palworld with the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX shows a clear pattern of scaling across the three tested resolutions. At 1080p High settings, the combo delivers 163 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 118.8 FPS, a reduction of 44.2 FPS. At 4K High, the average falls further to 62.5 FPS. This represents a total drop of 100.5 FPS from 1080p to 4K at High settings, or roughly a 61.7% reduction in frame rate.

The scaling curve reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 198.2 FPS, but at 1440p Low it drops to 173 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 107.5 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is only about 12.7%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is about 37.9%. This indicates that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU can keep up reasonably well, but the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises.

At Ultra settings, the pattern is more dramatic. The 1080p Ultra average is 138.3 FPS, dropping to 88.3 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and then to 52.5 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured frame rate in the entire dataset, falling below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is the limiting component, as the RX 7900 XTX is being pushed to its limits with the game's most demanding settings.

Conversely, at 1080p Low, the system achieves its highest frame rate of 198.2 FPS. The gap between 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra is 59.9 FPS, which is substantial but not as large as the resolution-based gaps. This indicates that the GPU has significant headroom at 1080p, and the CPU's six cores and six threads are likely the constraining factor in pushing frame rates higher at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 394th out of 1718 tested combos in Palworld. This places it in the top 22.9% of all combinations tested. The percentile ranking reflects a system that is capable but not at the very top tier, which is consistent with the mixed CPU and GPU performance profile.

The CPU itself has a percentileVsAllCpus of 50, meaning it sits exactly at the median of all processors in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score is 2305. The nearest rivals in CPU performance are the Intel Core i3-10305 with an average score of 2300 (a deltaPct of 0.2% higher), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 also at 2299 (0.2% higher), and the Intel Xeon E-2134 at 2295 (0.4% higher). The Intel Core i7-8809G scores 2319, which is 0.6% higher than the i5-9400.

The GPU, by contrast, has a percentileVsAllGpus of 85, putting it well above the median. Its average benchmark score is 44019. The nearest GPU rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 at 44195 (0.4% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile at 43667 (0.8% lower), and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 at 43313 (1.6% lower). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti scores 44900, which is 2% higher than the RX 7900 XTX.

The rank of 394 out of 1718 suggests that while the GPU is strong, the CPU holds the combo back from reaching higher positions. In a game like Palworld, which is a Survival title with open-world elements, the CPU's mid-range standing likely prevents the system from achieving the top-tier frame rates that the GPU alone could deliver at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake processor with 6 cores and 6 threads. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. The processor has a 65W TDP and uses the Intel Socket 1151. It features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 256 KB of L2 cache per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. It uses PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes, which is an older standard compared to the GPU's PCIe 4.0 interface.

The CPU's benchmark results show a Cinebench R15 multicore score of 803 and a single-core score of 113. In Cinebench R20, it scores 3346 multicore and 472 single-core. The R23 results are 7969 multicore and 1125 single-core. These scores place the i5-9400 at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, confirming its mid-range positioning.

In Palworld, the CPU's role is evident in the scaling pattern. At 1080p Low, the system hits 198.2 FPS, but the frame rate does not scale linearly with settings reductions. The difference between 1080p Low and 1080p Medium is 13.8 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is 21.4 FPS. This suggests that the CPU is becoming a limiting factor at higher frame rates, as adding more GPU workload does not proportionally reduce performance.

The six cores and six threads are adequate for Palworld's survival gameplay, but the lack of hyperthreading means the CPU cannot handle as many concurrent tasks as processors with higher thread counts. This is reflected in the combo rank of 394, where systems with stronger CPUs but similar or weaker GPUs would likely rank higher in CPU-bound scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 198.2 FPS on Low settings, 184.4 FPS on Medium, 163 FPS on High, and 138.3 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a total reduction of 59.9 FPS, with the largest single-step drop occurring between High and Ultra at 24.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the results are 173 FPS on Low, 153.2 FPS on Medium, 118.8 FPS on High, and 88.3 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 84.7 FPS, which is larger than at 1080p. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is 30.5 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings impose a significant performance penalty at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system delivers 107.5 FPS on Low, 85.1 FPS on Medium, 62.5 FPS on High, and 52.5 FPS on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 55 FPS. Notably, the 4K Low result of 107.5 FPS is still above 100 FPS, which is impressive, but the 4K Ultra result of 52.5 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

The data shows that the most playable 4K experience is on Low settings, where the system maintains over 100 FPS. Medium settings at 4K still deliver 85.1 FPS, which is acceptable for most players. High settings at 4K drop to 62.5 FPS, which is borderline, and Ultra settings at 4K are the only configuration where the average FPS falls below 60. The 1440p resolution offers the best balance, with High settings achieving 118.8 FPS and Ultra still maintaining 88.3 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is an RDNA 3.0 architecture GPU with the Navi 31 chip, codenamed Plum Bonito. It has 6144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units. The GPU features 96 ray tracing cores and operates with a base clock of 1929 MHz, a boost clock of 2498 MHz, and a game clock of 2365 MHz. Memory is 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial, with an FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS and an FP16 performance of 122.8 TFLOPS. The pixel rate is 479.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 959.2 GTexel/s. The card has a TDP of 355 W and requires a 750 W suggested PSU. It uses PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and measures 287 mm in length, 110 mm in height, and 51 mm in width.

In benchmark tests, the RX 7900 XTX scores 6841 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 189573 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 192597 in Geekbench Vulkan. The Passmark G3D score is 31238, with a GPU compute score of 17689. These results place the GPU at the 85th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's role in Palworld is clear from the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to push frame rates above 160 FPS on High settings, but the CPU prevents it from going much higher. At 1440p, the GPU begins to show its limits at Ultra settings, where the frame rate drops to 88.3 FPS. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, especially at Ultra settings where it delivers only 52.5 FPS.

The 24 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for Palworld at any resolution, as the game's texture requirements are well within this capacity. The high memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s helps maintain consistent frame rates even at 4K. The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals shows it is competitive, with the RTX 4070 Ti being only 2% faster in average benchmark score, while the RX 7900 XTX is 1.6% faster than the Quadro M6000.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Palworld with this combo?

A: The data shows 1440p offers the best balance, with High settings achieving 118.8 FPS and Ultra maintaining 88.3 FPS. At 4K, only Low settings (107.5 FPS) and Medium settings (85.1 FPS) keep frame rates comfortably above 60 FPS.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS at 4K Ultra is 52.5, which is the lowest measured result in the dataset. This falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that Ultra settings at 4K are not ideal for smooth gameplay with this combination.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Palworld?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K where frame rates drop significantly. At 1080p, the CPU's 50th percentile standing likely prevents frame rates from exceeding the 198.2 FPS ceiling seen on Low settings.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XTX compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 44019. It is 0.4% slower than the AMD Radeon Pro 580, 0.8% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile, 1.6% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro M6000, and 2% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.

Q: What is the FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average FPS is 163. At 4K High, it drops to 62.5. This represents a reduction of 100.5 FPS, or approximately a 61.7% decrease in performance.

Q: Does the i5-9400 hold back the RX 7900 XTX in this game?

A: The combo ranks 394th out of 1718 tested combos, and the CPU sits at the 50th percentile while the GPU is at the 85th percentile. The frame rate ceiling of 198.2 FPS at 1080p Low suggests the CPU limits performance in less demanding scenarios, while the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K.