Palworld

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 combination lands near the bottom of the tested field for Palworld, holding the 1644th spot out of 1718 combos. This places it in the 5th percentile of all tested pairings, meaning the vast majority of systems will deliver higher frame rates. The pairing is fundamentally constrained by both components, but the data indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU can still hold its own at lower settings. This is a legacy 1080p-oriented setup that requires careful settings management to achieve playable performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1644 out of 1718 tested combinations is a clear signal that this is not a high-performance pairing for Palworld. With roughly 95% of tested systems outperforming it, the i5-9400 and GTX 1650 are at the tail end of the distribution. This ranking is consistent with the individual component percentiles: the CPU sits at the 50th percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 43rd percentile against all GPUs. The GPU's lower relative standing, combined with the game's demands, makes it the limiting factor in most scenarios.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 2305 places it in a tight cluster of rivals. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300 (0.2% slower), and the Intel Core i3-1125G4 also scores 2299 (0.2% slower). The Intel Xeon E-2134 is 0.4% behind at 2295, while the Intel Core i7-8809G is 0.6% ahead at 2319. This indicates the i5-9400 is a mid-pack processor, capable of feeding a more powerful GPU than the GTX 1650, but it is not a performance leader. The GPU's average benchmark score of 8713 is similarly clustered, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile 0.4% ahead and the AMD Radeon 550X 0.4% ahead, while the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 is 0.5% behind. This reinforces that the GTX 1650 is an entry-level part.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 carries 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The 4 GB capacity is a significant limitation for Palworld at higher resolutions and settings, as the game's open-world environments and texture data can easily exceed this amount. The GPU's base clock is 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and it has 896 shading units. Its 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is modest by modern standards.

The measured frame rates show the GPU struggling as resolution increases. At 4K, even the Low preset only manages 25.7 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 18.4 and 14.8 FPS respectively. This is a clear indication that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are overwhelmed at 4K. The situation improves at 1440p, but the GPU still cannot maintain smooth performance on higher presets, with Ultra at 24.2 FPS. The GTX 1650 is only comfortable at 1080p, where it can push past 60 FPS on Low and Medium settings. The performance drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is a 65.6% reduction, highlighting the GPU's limited headroom.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear strategy: prioritize 1080p and lower presets to get a playable experience. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 74.8 FPS, which is the only setting in the entire dataset that breaks the 70 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves 61.5 FPS, which is still acceptable for a survival game, offering a better visual balance without sacrificing smoothness. The High preset at 1080p drops to 44.6 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced encounters.

For users with a 1440p monitor, the Low preset is the only viable option, delivering 51.1 FPS. The Medium preset falls to 37.5 FPS, which is borderline, and High at 27.8 FPS is too choppy for comfortable play. At 4K, no preset is recommended, as even Low only achieves 25.7 FPS, which is below the threshold for a smooth experience. The data suggests that running Palworld at 1080p with Medium settings provides the best compromise, yielding 61.5 FPS while maintaining some visual fidelity. If smoothness is the absolute priority, the Low preset at 1080p is the only option that consistently stays above 70 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are the most usable for this combo. The Low preset produces an average of 74.8 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 61.5 FPS, and High drops to 44.6 FPS. The Ultra preset is the worst performer at 1080p, managing only 33.4 FPS. This shows a steep penalty for enabling the highest settings, with Ultra being 55.3% slower than Low.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. Low is the only preset that remains above 50 FPS, averaging 51.1. Medium falls to 37.5 FPS, High to 27.8 FPS, and Ultra to 24.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 52.6%, similar to the 1080p gap, but the absolute numbers are all lower. At 3840x2160, the GTX 1650 is clearly out of its depth. Low averages 25.7 FPS, Medium 21.4 FPS, High 18.4 FPS, and Ultra just 14.8 FPS. None of these are playable, indicating that 4K is not a realistic target for this hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU's dominance as the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 74.8 FPS. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces performance to 51.1 FPS, a 31.7% decrease. Going further to 4K Low yields 25.7 FPS, which is a 65.6% drop from 1080p. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering resolution directly impacts the workload on the graphics card.

The pattern holds across all settings. At Medium, 1080p yields 61.5 FPS, 1440p yields 37.5 FPS (39.0% drop), and 4K yields 21.4 FPS (65.2% drop from 1080p). At High, the numbers are 44.6, 27.8, and 18.4 FPS respectively, with a 58.7% drop from 1080p to 4K. The consistent 60-65% drop from 1080p to 4K across presets confirms that the GTX 1650's compute and memory resources are saturated. The CPU is not the bottleneck here; if it were, the frame rate would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, but the data shows a clear resolution-dependent decline.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores show it is a competent mid-range part: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125 indicate it can handle modern game logic, but its 6 threads are a limitation in heavily multithreaded titles.

In Palworld, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but it is still sufficient to avoid being the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combination achieves 74.8 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game's engine. The fact that the frame rate drops dramatically at 4K, down to 25.7 FPS on Low, proves that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads are enough to keep up with the GTX 1650's output, but the data does not suggest there is significant headroom for a more powerful GPU. The launch MSRP of the GTX 1650 was 149 USD, and the CPU's TDP is 65 W, making this a low-power pairing that is best suited for 1080p gaming with reduced settings. The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% slower), confirms that it is an average performer that will not boost the system's standing in Palworld.