Palworld

Palworld presents an interesting stress test for the Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT pairing, landing at rank 1701 out of 3711 tested combinations. This places the combo in the 46th percentile of all tested systems, indicating a solidly mid-pack performance that is neither a top-tier powerhouse nor a budget compromise. The benchmark data reveals a system that is heavily capable at mainstream resolutions but begins to show its limits when pushed to 4K Ultra settings, a pattern that tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1701 out of 3711 places it just below the median of all tested configurations, which is a respectable showing for a pairing of a 12th-gen Intel CPU with a mid-range RDNA 2 GPU. This position suggests that while the system is not competitive with high-end flagship builds, it outperforms a significant portion of the user base, particularly those running older or more budget-oriented hardware. The percentile positioning implies that in a typical multiplayer server or a demanding survival-world scenario, this system would provide a smoother experience than roughly half of the player population.

Looking at the individual component standings provides context for this overall rank. The CPU sits in the 85th percentile against all processors, while the GPU holds the 71st percentile against all graphics cards. The fact that the CPU ranks noticeably higher than the GPU suggests that the graphics card is the primary limiter in achieving higher frame rates, especially at higher resolutions. The system's overall rank of 1701 is closer to the GPU's percentile than the CPU's, reinforcing that the Radeon RX 6750 XT is the component dictating the performance ceiling in Palworld.

When examining the CPU's nearest rivals, the data shows an incredibly tight cluster at the top of its performance tier. The Intel Core i7-13700T scores a 35403 average, a mere 0.1% higher than the 12700KF's 35365 average. Similarly, the Intel Core i5-13600T trails by just 0.2%, and the Intel Core i7-12700K sits a hair behind at 0.2% lower. This sub-1% spread indicates that the 12700KF is performing exactly as expected for its class, with no anomalous silicon lottery results or thermal throttling skewing the data.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process, featuring 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. This memory configuration provides a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s, which is substantial for a card in this tier and crucial for texture-heavy survival games where large open worlds are streamed in real-time. The GPU's clock speeds are set to a base of 2150 MHz, a game clock of 2495 MHz, and a boost clock of 2600 MHz, with the memory running at an effective 18 Gbps.

In Palworld, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution scales up. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU efficiently, but the measured frame rates show that the GPU still has to work hard to maintain high settings. The card's 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs deliver a raw compute capability of 13.31 TFLOPS, which is ample for 1080p and 1440p gaming. The 40 ray accelerators present on the chip are underutilized in this title, as Palworld does not heavily rely on ray tracing effects, meaning the traditional rasterization performance is what matters most here.

The GPU's benchmark scores reflect its mid-range positioning. It achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2548 and a Passmark G3D score of 20700, placing it in the 71st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database are somewhat unusual, with the AMD Radeon R9 M395X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile all scoring within 1.1% of the 6750 XT. This grouping suggests that the 6750 XT's performance profile is competitive with a wide range of desktop and mobile parts, though the deltaPct values are so small that they are practically negligible in real-world gaming.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 155 FPS with a minimum of 132 FPS, which is an excellent target for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Low preset pushes this to 191 FPS average, but the visual sacrifice in a game like Palworld, where spotting Pals and resources in the environment is key, is likely not worth the extra frames. The High preset at 119 FPS average is also perfectly playable, but the Medium preset's higher minimum frame rate of 132 FPS provides a more consistent experience during heavy combat or when many Pals are on screen.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the sweet spot with a 102 FPS average and a minimum of 87 FPS. This combination keeps the game above the 60 FPS threshold with plenty of margin, and the visual uplift from 1080p is significant on a 1440p display. The High preset drops to 78 FPS average, which is still smooth but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. At 1440p, the Ultra preset falls to 59 FPS average, which is borderline for competitive play and not recommended given that Medium provides a 73% higher frame rate with only a moderate reduction in visual fidelity.

For 3840x2160, the data suggests that users should temper their expectations. The Low preset is the only configuration that maintains a playable 70 FPS average. Medium drops to 57 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced survival game, but the High preset at 44 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are below the threshold for a comfortable experience on standard 60 Hz displays. The recommendation for 4K is to use Low settings or consider reducing the resolution to 1440p to unlock the Medium preset's superior performance.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-12700KF a bottleneck for the Radeon RX 6750 XT in Palworld?

A: No, the data indicates the opposite. The CPU sits in the 85th percentile of all processors, while the GPU is in the 71st percentile. The CPU's higher relative standing, combined with the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K, shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves 155 FPS average, which is above the 144 Hz threshold. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 102 FPS average, which is below 144 Hz but still very smooth. For a 144 Hz display, 1080p Medium is the safest choice.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The 12700KF's Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 28838, and it averages 35365 across all benchmarks. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700T, scores 35403, a negligible 0.1% difference. The i5-13600T scores 35305, also a 0.2% difference, showing that all three processors perform nearly identically.

Q: Does the RX 6750 XT have enough VRAM for Palworld at 4K?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 432.0 GB/s bandwidth. The data shows that at 4K, the Low preset achieves 70 FPS and Medium achieves 57 FPS, suggesting that VRAM capacity is sufficient for these settings, though the compute performance limits the card at higher presets.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance like for this game?

A: The 12700KF scores 4071 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 1043 in 3DMark single-thread. These scores, combined with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, indicate strong single-thread performance that supports the high frame rates observed at 1080p Low and Medium settings.

Q: How does the combo's overall rank compare to its individual component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 1701 out of 3711 (46th percentile), which is lower than the CPU's 85th percentile and the GPU's 71st percentile. This suggests that the interaction between the two components in Palworld is not perfectly optimized, or that other factors such as memory configuration impact the overall ranking.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable and informative scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 119 FPS at 1080p to 78 FPS at 1440p, a 34% decrease, and then to 44 FPS at 4K, an additional 44% decrease. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels rendered becomes the dominant factor in performance.

The scaling is even more pronounced at Ultra settings. The 1080p Ultra preset delivers 90 FPS, which drops to 59 FPS at 1440p (a 34% reduction) and then to 33 FPS at 4K (a 44% reduction from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings presets is a strong indicator that the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, rather than CPU instruction throughput or memory latency.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern changes slightly. The 1080p Low preset achieves 191 FPS, which drops to 126 FPS at 1440p (a 34% reduction) and then to 70 FPS at 4K (a 44% reduction). The fact that even at Low settings the 4K frame rate is only 70 FPS, while 1080p nearly doubles that, confirms that the Radeon RX 6750 XT simply does not have the raw pixel-pushing power to maintain high frame rates at 4K. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K reserved for less demanding titles or lower settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This configuration provides substantial multi-threaded throughput, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838 and Geekbench multi-core score of 14367. For a game like Palworld, which involves simulation elements, AI pathfinding for Pals, and a persistent open world, this CPU has ample headroom to handle background tasks while maintaining high frame rates.

The CPU's single-thread performance is equally strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4071 and a 3DMark single-thread score of 1043. These scores are critical for Palworld's game logic and physics calculations, which often rely on a primary thread. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures that this single-thread performance is sustained under load, preventing CPU-side bottlenecks that could limit frame rates even when the GPU has headroom.

Evidence of the CPU's sufficiency comes from the frame rate progression at 1080p. The Low preset achieves 191 FPS, and the Medium preset achieves 155 FPS, both of which are high enough that a weaker CPU would likely struggle to keep up. The fact that the frame rate scales linearly with GPU load from Low to Ultra at 1080p suggests that the CPU is not artificially capping performance. The 12700KF's 25 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory further aid in feeding the GPU with data, reducing stutter and ensuring consistent frame pacing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data provides a complete matrix of average FPS across three resolutions and four settings presets, with minimum and maximum values recorded only for the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 191 FPS for Low, 155 FPS for Medium, 119 FPS for High, and 90 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 132 FPS and a maximum of 178 FPS, indicating a tight frame time distribution with minimal dips during intense gameplay moments.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 126 FPS for Low, 102 FPS for Medium, 78 FPS for High, and 59 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum and maximum are 87 FPS and 117 FPS, respectively, showing a wider variance than at 1080p but still maintaining a floor well above 60 FPS. This resolution is where the combo hits its sweet spot, offering a 102 FPS average at Medium settings that balances visual quality with high refresh rate capability.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates drop significantly: 70 FPS for Low, 57 FPS for Medium, 44 FPS for High, and 33 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset records a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 65 FPS, which means that even this mid-range setting will occasionally dip below the 60 FPS threshold on a standard display. The 4K Ultra preset at 33 FPS average is essentially unplayable for a fast-paced game, and the data clearly shows that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo beyond Low settings. The progression from 191 FPS at 1080p Low to 33 FPS at 4K Ultra represents an 83% reduction in performance, underscoring the GPU's limitations at high pixel counts.