Palworld

Palworld pairs the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, and the measured frame rates across three resolutions reveal a system that is heavily skewed toward GPU-bound performance at higher settings. The RTX 4070 SUPER, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, carries the load effectively, while the six-core, six-thread i5-9400, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost of 4.10 GHz, becomes a secondary factor as resolution drops. The data shows a clear hierarchy where the graphics card dictates the experience at 4K, but the CPU begins to influence results at 1080p, particularly at lower presets where the frame rate ceiling approaches the processor's limits.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the High preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience, delivering 112.8 FPS while maintaining visual fidelity. At 4K, High settings produce 61.2 FPS, which is playable but close to the 60 FPS threshold, while Medium at 4K yields 79.8 FPS, providing a safer margin for smoother gameplay. For users prioritizing frame rate over visuals, the Low preset at 1440p hits 172.4 FPS, but this comes at a significant graphical cost. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, dropping to 48.6 FPS at 4K and 84.7 FPS at 1440p, which suggests it is only suitable for users with high-refresh-rate 1080p displays, where it achieves 131.5 FPS.

The sweet spot for most users is High at 1440p, as it sits comfortably above 100 FPS and avoids the steep performance penalty of Ultra. At 1080p, Medium delivers 183.1 FPS, which is a strong option for competitive play, but the jump to High at 162.4 FPS is marginal in terms of visual quality versus the 12.7% drop in frame rate. For 4K users, Medium is the recommended starting point, as it provides 79.8 FPS, which is 30% faster than High and only sacrifices some shadow and texture quality. The data clearly shows that Ultra is a luxury preset for this combo, and its 4K performance of 48.6 FPS makes it impractical for smooth gameplay at that resolution.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the frame rate patterns. With a boost clock of 2475 MHz and 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, the GPU is capable of handling Palworld's voxel-based environments and dynamic lighting. The 12 GB memory pool is sufficient for the game's asset streaming, and the 192-bit bus width provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for texture loading in open-world survival titles. The GPU sits at the 84th percentile among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 42576 places it within 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, indicating it is a high-end part that rarely bottlenecks.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's scaling under load. At 4K High, the card produces 61.2 FPS, which drops to 48.6 FPS at Ultra, a 20.6% reduction that reflects the increased shader and post-processing demands. Conversely, dropping to Low at 4K yields 100.6 FPS, a 64.4% improvement over High, demonstrating that the GPU has significant headroom when settings are reduced. The 80 ROPs and 224 TMUs handle rasterization efficiently, and the 56 RT cores, while not heavily utilized in this title, add future-proofing. The GPU's launch MSRP is 599 USD, and its production status is end-of-life, but the benchmark data confirms it remains a capable performer for this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz are modest by modern standards, and its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 places it at the 50th percentile among all CPUs. The processor's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-10305, which scores 2300 on average benchmark (a 0.2% delta), and the Intel Core i7-8809G, which scores 2319 (a -0.6% delta), indicating that the i5-9400 is an entry-level performer in the current landscape. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 42.7 GB/s are adequate for gaming but not exceptional.

In Palworld, the CPU's role becomes apparent when comparing frame rates across settings. At 1080p Low, the system hits 196.1 FPS, which is the highest recorded value, but the gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is only 6.6% (196.1 vs 183.1 FPS), suggesting that the CPU is beginning to limit performance as the GPU has less work to do. At 1440p Low, the frame rate jumps to 172.4 FPS, which is still high, but the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings shows a 12.1% drop, whereas the drop from 1440p to 4K at Low is 41.6% (172.4 to 100.6 FPS). This pattern indicates that the CPU can sustain high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The processor's six threads are sufficient for Palworld's AI and physics, but the lack of hyper-threading means it cannot push beyond 200 FPS even at the lowest settings, as evidenced by the 196.1 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-9400 and RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 397th out of 1718 tested combos in Palworld, placing it in the top 23% of all configurations. This ranking is notable because the GPU alone sits at the 84th percentile, while the CPU is at the 50th percentile, indicating that the processor drags the overall combo down slightly. The measured frame rates at 1440p High (112.8 FPS) and 4K High (61.2 FPS) are strong for a mid-range CPU pairing, but the combo's rank reflects the fact that many systems with newer six-core processors, such as the i3-10305, achieve similar CPU performance with better memory latency. The rank of 397 out of 1718 suggests that this combo is well above average, but it is not a top-tier pairing due to the CPU's age.

The data shows that the combo performs best at 1440p, where the GPU can stretch its legs without being fully constrained by the CPU. At 1080p, the combo's rank would likely improve if the CPU could deliver higher frame rates, but the 196.1 FPS ceiling at Low settings indicates a hard limit. The nearest rival CPUs, such as the i3-10305 with a 0.2% higher average score, would likely produce similar or slightly better results in CPU-bound scenarios, but the RTX 4070 SUPER's 84th percentile GPU performance ensures that the combo remains competitive in GPU-heavy titles like Palworld.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component at each resolution. At High settings, the system delivers 162.4 FPS at 1080p, 112.8 FPS at 1440p, and 61.2 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30.5%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 45.7%, showing that the GPU is being increasingly taxed as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the scaling is different: 196.1 FPS at 1080p, 172.4 FPS at 1440p, and 100.6 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 12.1%, which is smaller than at High settings, indicating that the CPU is limiting performance at 1080p Low. The drop from 1440p to 4K at Low is 41.6%, which is again GPU-bound.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is the steepest: 131.5 FPS at 1080p, 84.7 FPS at 1440p, and 48.6 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 35.6%, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 42.6%, both of which are substantial and indicate that the GPU is the primary bottleneck even at 1080p Ultra. The pattern across all settings confirms that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting factor at 4K, while the i5-9400 begins to constrain performance at 1080p, particularly at Low and Medium presets where frame rates exceed 180 FPS. The data suggests that for optimal scaling, users should target 1440p, where the combo achieves a balanced load between CPU and GPU, avoiding the CPU ceiling at 1080p and the GPU floor at 4K.