Palworld

Palworld pairs the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, a combination that yields a wide spread of frame rates depending on resolution and quality settings. The benchmark data shows the GPU carrying most of the load at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s six threads become a more visible factor at 1080p. This analysis examines the measured FPS rows, the role each component plays, and what the numbers suggest about where the bottleneck lies.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz, and it boosts to 4.10 GHz. It lacks hyper-threading, so it reports exactly six threads, which is a consideration for modern games that can use more than six threads. The CPU has 9 MB of shared L3 cache, with 256 KB of L2 per core and 64 KB of L1 per core. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration, yielding 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. The chip uses a PCIe Gen 3 interface with 16 lanes.

The processor’s benchmark standing is modest. Its average benchmark score is 2254, which places it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs. This means just over half of the tested CPUs are expected to outperform it in general-purpose benchmarks. In Cinebench R23, it scores 6629 in multi-core and 935 in single-core; Geekbench results are 5141 multi-core and 1389 single-core. Those numbers suggest a capable, but not exceptional, compute unit. The closest rivals are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avg score 2259, delta -0.2%), the Intel Core i7-10710U (avg score 2248, delta +0.3%), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, delta +0.4%), and the Intel Core i3-10305 (avg score 2264, delta -0.4%). The deltas are tiny, so the i5-9400 trades places with those chips depending on the test.

In Palworld, the 6-core, 6-thread layout is relevant. The game can use multiple threads, but the lack of hyper-threading means the CPU has six physical threads. At 12p, the average FPS is 196 on Low settings, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the dataset. At 1440p, the same Low preset yields 170 FPS, and at 4K, it drops to 116 FPS. These numbers suggest that the CPU is capable of driving high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the GPU is also working hard. The fact that the CPU’s percentile is 47 and it sits near chips like the i3-10305 (a lower-end 4-core part) indicates that the i5-9400 is not a top-tier gaming processor. Yet, the FPS numbers show it does not become a severe bottleneck until higher resolutions, where the GPU is more stressed.

The CPU's clock speeds are moderate; the 4.10 GHz boost is decent, but not extraordinary. The process node of 14 nm is older, which affects power efficiency, but the TDP is a modest 65 W. The chip is end-of-life and was released in October 2018. It supports DDR4 memory, which is adequate for the platform. The 9 MB L3 is shared, which helps with game data that is reused, but the per-core L2 is small. The single-core Cinebench R20 score is 392, which is a low number, and that might affect games that are single-thread-heavy. However, Palworld's measured performance indicates that the CPU is not the primary limiter at 1440p and 1080p, as the FPS reaches 196 at the lowest settings.

The data does not include a "CPU score" specific to Palworld, but the general benchmarks place the i5-9400 in the middle of the pack. Its nearest rivals have nearly identical average scores, so in a general sense, the CPU is a mid-range part. The question is whether it can feed the RTX 4080. At 1080p, the GPU is very fast, and the CPU's limits become more apparent. The delta between 1080p Low (196 FPS) and 1440p Low (170 FPS) is 26 FPS, which is a 13% drop. That is a notable drop, but it might be because the GPU is the bottleneck. The delta between 1440p and 4K Low is larger: 170 to 116, a 32% drop. That pattern suggests GPU limitation, as the resolution increases, the CPU can still keep up, but the GPU can't. The CPU's role is to provide enough throughput, and the data shows it does for most of the settings.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a high-end graphics card based on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 2205 MHz and the boost clock is 2505 MHz. Memory runs at 1400 MHz, with an effective 22.4 Gbps. The card has 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. It includes 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores. The pixel rate is 280.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 761.5 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 48.74 TFLOPS. The card is triple-slot, uses a 16-pin power connector, and has a TDP of 320 W. The launch MSRP was 1,199 USD.

The RTX 4080 sits at the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rivals are the RTX 4080 SUPER (avg 54209, delta +0.1%), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (avg 54828, delta -1.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (avg 55698, delta -2.6%), and the AMD Radeon 8060S (avg 55757, delta -2.7%). The differences are small, with the 4080 being 0.1% faster than the 4080 SUPER, and 1.1% to 2.7% slower than those three rivals. The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is generous for Palworld, a game that may use several GB at high settings and 4K.

The GPU's role is clear: it is the dominant component in these results. The 4K Ultra preset yields 55 FPS, which is the lowest average. At 4K High, it's 72 FPS; 4K Medium, 94 FPS; 4K Low, 116 FPS. At 1440p, the numbers are 130 High, 158 Medium, 170 Low, and 99 Ultra. At 1080p, they are 165 High, 182 Medium, 196 Low, and 149 Ultra. The GPU is powerful enough to push high FPS at 1080p and 1440p, but it still falls below 60 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 16 GB of VRAM is not a limiting factor at any of these settings, as the game doesn't appear to run out of memory.

The clock speeds of the GPU are high, with a boost of 2505 MHz. The memory bandwidth is 716.8 GB/s, which helps at 4K. The RTX 4080's performance is such that the CPU can become a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the FPS is capped by the CPU's ability to feed frames. The 121 FPS difference between 1080p Ultra (149) and 1080p Low (196) suggests that the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower settings; the CPU is. At 1080p Low, the GPU could go higher, but the CPU can't. At 4K, the GPU is the limit. The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 4080 is the primary component driving FPS at 1440p and 4K, while the i5-9400 becomes a bottleneck at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured average FPS, the Medium preset offers the best balance. At 1080p, Medium yields 182 FPS, with a minimum of 154 and a maximum of 209. This is above the 165 FPS High, and lower than the 196 FPS Low, but the Medium preset likely improves visual quality without a big performance hit. At 1440p, Medium gives 158 FPS (min 134, max 182), which is still very smooth. At 4K, Medium gives 94 FPS (min 80, max 108), which is above 60 FPS and playable. The High preset gives 165 FPS at 1080p, 130 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 149 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset at 4K drops below 60 FPS, which is a significant threshold. The Low preset gives the highest FPS, but the visual quality is likely poor. The Medium preset is the recommended setting because it provides a high frame rate at all resolutions, with only a minor drop from Low. The minimum FPS for Medium is 154 at 1080p, which is still high. At 4K, the Medium min of 80 FPS is also good. The data indicates that the user should choose Medium for a smooth experience. The High preset is 130 FPS at 1440p, which is also good, but Medium is 28 FPS higher. The Ultra preset is not recommended for 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 690th out of 3711 tested combos in Palworld. That is a strong percentile, roughly the top 18.6% of all combos. This rank is based on the measured FPS across the settings. The rank of 690 is high, but the fact that it is not higher suggests other combos with newer CPUs and the same GPU, or a better CPU, achieve higher scores. The GPU is top-tier, so the rank is likely brought down by the CPU. The i5-9400 is a mid-range part from 2018, so pairing it with a 2022 flagship GPU is an unbalanced match. The rank of 690 indicates that the combination is capable, but not optimal.

Looking at the data, the combo passes the 60 FPS threshold at 4K on Medium, High, and Low, but not on Ultra. At 1440p, it exceeds 144 FPS on Medium, Low, and High, but Ultra is at 99 FPS. At 1080p, it exceeds 149 FPS on all settings. The bottleneck is the CPU. The 690th rank is decent, but the difference between 690 and, say, the top 100 would be a faster CPU. The RTX 4080 is a high-end GPU, so the rank is limited by the i5-9400. The data shows that the GPU is not the issue; the CPU is. The combo rank of 690 out of 3711 puts it in the top 20th percentile, which is good. But the performance is not the best possible. The GPU's own percentile is 86, so the combo rank of 690 is a bit below what the GPU alone would achieve. The CPU's percentile is 47, so the combo rank is between the two. This suggests that the CPU is the weaker link.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K reveal the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 196 at 1080p to 170 at 1440p to 116 at 4K. That is a 39% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Medium, it goes from 182 to 158 to 94, a 48% drop. At High, from 165 to 130 to 72, a 56% drop. At Ultra, from 149 to 99 to 55, a 63% drop. The drop is larger at higher settings, which indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU is not the limit, because the drop is more pronounced at 4K. The GPU's fill rate and bandwidth are the limiting factors. At 1080p, the CPU is the limit, but the FPS is still high. The data suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 1440p and 4K, while the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p.

The 4K to 1080p ratio is 116/196 = 0.59 for Low, 94/182 = 0.52 for Medium, 72/165 = 0.44 for High, and 55/149 = 0.37 for Ultra. The 4K performance drops more at higher settings, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU has enough headroom at 4K, but the GPU is stressed. The 1440p to 1080p ratio is 170/196 = 0.87 for Low, 158/182 = 0.87 for Medium, 130/165 = 0.79 for High, and 99/149 = 0.66 for Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is smaller, indicating that the CPU is still partially limiting at 1080p. The i5-9400 is likely the limiting factor at 1080p, because the GPU could produce more frames, but the CPU can't. The RTX 4080 is strong, but the CPU's single-thread performance is weak.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following are the measured average FPS, with minimum and maximum where provided:

• 1920x1080:
• Low: 196 FPS
• Medium: 182 FPS (min 154, max 209)
• High: 165 FPS
• Ultra: 149 FPS

• 2560x1440:
• Low: 170 FPS
• Medium: 158 FPS (min 134, max 182)
• High: 130 FPS
• Ultra: 99 FPS

• 3840x2160:
• Low: 116 FPS
• Medium: 94 FPS (min 80, max 108)
• High: 72 FPS
• Ultra: 55 FPS

The data shows a clear progression. At 1080p, the lowest preset (Low) is 196, and the highest (Ultra) is 149. The gap between Low and Ultra is 47 FPS. At 1440p, the gap is 170-99=71 FPS. At 4K, the gap is 116-55=61 FPS. The Medium preset is the best for maintaining high FPS, with the minimum never dropping below 80 FPS. The High preset at 4K is 72 FPS, which is above 60, but the Medium is 94, which is better. The Ultra preset at 4K is 55, which is below 60. The 4K Medium is the best for 4K. The 1440p Medium is the best for 1440p, and the 1080p Medium is the best for 1080p. The Low preset is best for maximum FPS, but the Medium is recommended for visual quality.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with High settings?

A: The average FPS is 72 at 3840x2160 with the High preset.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 have enough VRAM for Palworld?

A: The 16 GB of GDDR6X (with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth) appears sufficient, as the data shows high FPS at all settings. The game's VRAM requirements are not exceeded.

Q: Is the i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RTX 4080 in Palworld?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is likely the bottleneck, as the FPS drops are larger when lowering settings. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the main component.

Q: What FPS can I expect with Medium settings at 1440p?

A: The average is 158 FPS, with a minimum of 134 and a maximum of 182.

Q: How does the combo rank against other tested combos?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 + RTX 4080 ranks 690th out of 3711 combos, which places it in the top 20% of tested systems for this game.

Q: What is the frame rate at 4K Ultra?

A: The average is 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset at 4K gives 94 FPS, which is a better choice.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the RTX 4080?

A: The launch MSRP is 1,199 USD.