Palworld

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti delivers a mid-pack performance tier in Palworld, securing the 390th position out of 1718 tested combinations. This places the combo in the top 22.7% of all configurations, a respectable standing that reflects a significant imbalance between the two components. The data indicates that while the GPU is capable of high frame rates, the older six-core processor acts as a limiting factor, particularly at lower resolutions and higher settings. The overall ranking suggests that users with this pairing will experience smooth, playable performance, but the system will not reach the extremes of the leaderboard, which are typically occupied by combinations with more modern, higher-thread-count CPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination’s rank of 390 out of 1718 combos places it in the upper quartile of performance for Palworld. This is a strong result, yet the gap to the top performers is notable. The ranking is a product of the GPU’s high ceiling and the CPU’s more modest capabilities. In practical terms, this means the combo will handle the game’s default and high settings with ease, but it may not sustain maximum frame rates when paired with the most demanding settings. The percentile data for the individual components reinforces this: the GPU ranks in the 87th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU sits at the 50th percentile. This disparity is the defining characteristic of the combo, indicating that the processor is the primary bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a substantial 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than adequate for Palworld’s texture-heavy environments and open-world streaming. The GPU’s 8960 shading units and boost clock of 2452 MHz deliver a raw compute capability of 43.94 TFLOPS, ensuring that the graphics card is rarely the limiting factor in this game. The 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores, while not heavily utilized in Palworld’s standard rendering, provide headroom for any future updates or if the user enables additional features. In benchmark scores, the RTX 5070 Ti averages 52086, placing it virtually tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, which scores 52085 with a 0% delta. This indicates that the GPU is a top-tier performer, capable of driving high frame rates even at 4K. Its 87th percentile ranking confirms that it is among the fastest cards available, and in this combo, its role is to push the frame rate as high as possible until the CPU’s instruction throughput becomes the ceiling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is the clear bottleneck in this configuration. With 6 cores and 6 threads, a base clock of 2.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, it provides a solid foundation for gaming, but its architecture from the Coffee Lake era is now dated. The processor’s 9 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 memory are adequate, but its performance is far behind the GPU’s capabilities. In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-9400 scores 2305 on average, which is nearly identical to its nearest rivals: the Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300 (0.2% delta), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 scores 2299 (0.2% delta), and the Intel Xeon E-2134 scores 2295 (0.4% delta). All of these are within a fraction of a percent, showing that the CPU sits at a performance plateau. The multi-core score in Cinebench R23 is 7969, while the single-core score is 1125, which illustrates that while single-thread performance is adequate for basic game logic, the lack of multi-threading (6 threads for 6 cores) limits its ability to feed the GPU in scenes with many entities, which is common in Palworld’s survival gameplay. This bottleneck becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU could otherwise render more frames.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates show a clear pattern of CPU limitation at lower resolutions and GPU dominance at higher ones. At 1920x1080, the combo is highly capable, with the Low setting producing an average of 193.3 FPS. This high number indicates that the CPU is still able to keep up with the GPU’s output, though the scaling is not linear. Moving to Medium yields 179.6 FPS, High drops to 162.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 141.9 FPS. The differences between settings at 1080p are relatively small (a spread of about 51 FPS from Low to Ultra), which suggests that the CPU is starting to limit the maximum frame rate, as the GPU is not being fully utilized at lower settings.

At 2560x1440, the GPU begins to take on more work. The Low setting averages 169 FPS, which is a significant drop from 1080p, indicating the GPU is now working harder. Medium dips to 158 FPS, High to 127.1 FPS, and Ultra to 95.5 FPS. The scaling here is more pronounced, showing that the GPU’s rendering load is increasing. The 4K resolution (3840x2160) results show the GPU fully engaged. Low averages 110.4 FPS, Medium 91.2 FPS, High 69.8 FPS, and Ultra 51.4 FPS. At this resolution, the CPU bottleneck is largely alleviated, and the GPU’s performance is the primary driver, with the Ultra setting still maintaining a playable frame rate above 50 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic bottleneck shift. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 193.3 FPS. When moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops by 12.6% to 169 FPS, and at 4K Low, it drops a further 34.7% to 110.4 FPS. This pattern shows that at lower settings, the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, and the GPU is not being fully utilized. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is modest because the CPU is still the primary constraint. However, the larger drop to 4K indicates the GPU is now saturated.

For the Ultra setting, the scaling is more dramatic. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 141.9 FPS. This drops by 32.7% to 95.5 FPS at 1440p, and then by a further 46.2% to 51.4 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is larger than the low-setting case, showing that the GPU is becoming more of a factor. The massive drop to 4K Ultra confirms that the RTX 5070 Ti is the primary limiting component at this resolution, as the CPU’s role diminishes. The data shows that the i5-9400 can push high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but it will hold back the RTX 5070 Ti from reaching its full potential in lower-resolution, high-refresh-rate scenarios. Conversely, at 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, and the CPU’s performance is sufficient to avoid causing major stutters.