Palworld

Palworld on the Intel Core i7-14700KF + Intel Arc B390 combination delivers a playable experience only at the lowest settings and resolution, with the data showing a system that is overwhelmingly constrained by the graphics solution. The measured frame rates reveal a clear ceiling imposed by the GPU, making this pairing suitable for 1080p Low at best, while higher resolutions and presets quickly become unplayable.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, confirming that the Intel Arc B390 is the primary limiting component in this configuration. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 84 at 1920x1080 to 56 at 2560x1440, a 33% reduction, and then to 31 at 3840x2160, a further 45% drop. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU's processing power is being exhausted by the pixel count, with the CPU having ample headroom to spare.

Moving to High settings, the trend continues: 53 FPS at 1080p drops to 35 FPS at 1440p and then to 19 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1440p and 4K is a 46% decrease, mirroring the Low setting behavior. Medium settings show 68 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K, with the 1440p to 4K transition again costing roughly 44% of performance. Ultra settings are the most punishing, starting at 40 FPS at 1080p, falling to 26 FPS at 1440p, and bottoming out at 15 FPS at 4K.

The consistent ~45% performance loss when moving from 1440p to 4K across all presets is a textbook sign of a GPU-bound scenario. The Intel Arc B390, with its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, simply does not have the pixel throughput to handle 4K in Palworld. The data suggests that even at 1440p, the system is struggling to maintain acceptable frame rates, and the 4K results are effectively unplayable, with the best case being 31 FPS at Low settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the only configuration that provides a smooth, playable experience is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which achieves an average of 84 FPS. This is the clear sweet spot for this hardware pairing. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 16 FPS (84 to 68), a 19% performance hit, which may be acceptable for some players, but the Medium preset also shows a minimum FPS of 58, which is still within a playable range but approaches the lower bound of comfort.

At 1440p, Low settings deliver 56 FPS on average, which is technically playable but lacks the headroom of the 1080p Low result. High settings at 1440p drop to 35 FPS, which is marginal, and Ultra is out of the question at 26 FPS. At 4K, every preset fails to reach 30 FPS except for Low, which barely hits 31 FPS; this is not a viable gaming resolution for this combo.

The data strongly indicates that players should stick to 1080p for the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. If you are willing to accept frame rates in the mid-50s, 1440p Low is an option, but the 1080p Low setting provides the most consistent experience with the highest average FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it produces an average of 40 FPS at 1080p and falls to 15 FPS at 4K, demonstrating that the GPU lacks the raw power to handle the highest quality settings even at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the definitive bottleneck in this Palworld configuration. Its benchmark standing is poor, sitting at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482. The nearest rivals in the data are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% slower), the GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% slower), the GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% slower), and the GT 710 (1443, 2.7% slower). This places the B390 in the company of decade-old entry-level parts, which explains its inability to push modern games at high resolutions.

The GPU's specifications corroborate its low performance. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, and it uses system-shared memory, with bandwidth listed as "System Dependent". The memory size and bus width are also listed as "System Shared", meaning it relies on the CPU's main memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This architecture severely limits memory bandwidth, which is critical for texture-heavy games like Palworld. The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s.

The FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS, which is low for modern standards. The data shows that the GPU's performance scales poorly with resolution, and the measured FPS at 4K (19 FPS at High, 15 FPS at Ultra) reflects a hardware limit that cannot be overcome by the powerful CPU. The GPU's TDP is 80 W, and it is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with no power connectors, reinforcing its position as a low-power, low-performance part. In this game, the B390 is the sole reason frame rates collapse at higher settings and resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can I play Palworld at 4K with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: No, not at a playable level. The best 4K result is 31 FPS at Low settings, which is below the standard for smooth gameplay. All other presets at 4K fall below 25 FPS, with Ultra at 15 FPS.

Q: What is the best setting for maximizing frame rate?

A: 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers an average of 84 FPS. This is the only configuration that provides a high frame rate without dipping into the 50s or lower.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700KF holding back the graphics card?

A: No. The data shows the CPU is vastly more powerful than the GPU. The i7-14700KF scores in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the B390 GPU is in the 9th percentile. The frame rate drops are entirely consistent with GPU limitations.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The B390 is only 1.3% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and 2.7% faster than the GT 710 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark. This places it in the same performance tier as those very old entry-level GPUs.

Q: Is the frame rate stable at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average is 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS. The variance is noticeable but not extreme.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low settings achieve 84 FPS on average, while Ultra settings achieve 40 FPS. This represents a 52% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is an exceptionally capable processor that plays a minimal role in limiting Palworld's performance in this pairing. With 20 cores and 28 threads, a base clock of 3.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, it has ample processing power for the game's simulation and AI tasks. Its benchmark results are strong, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and a single-core score of 6235, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (0.2% slower), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.4% slower), and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.9% slower), showing it is competitive with top-tier chips.

The CPU's cache structure includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache, which is substantial for handling game logic. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though the memory bandwidth is not listed. The architecture is Raptor Lake-R on a 10 nm process, and it has a TDP of 125 W. Despite this power, the benchmark results show that Palworld's frame rates are dictated by the GPU, not the CPU.

For example, the 1080p Low result of 84 FPS is likely near the GPU's maximum output, and the CPU is not the limiting factor. The data shows that as resolution increases, the FPS drops proportionally, which is a classic GPU-bound signature. The CPU's high single-thread score of 628 in Cinebench R15 and 2578 in Geekbench ensures that it can feed the GPU with draw calls without stuttering. In this configuration, the i7-14700KF is effectively waiting on the Intel Arc B390, which means that upgrading the GPU would yield significant performance gains in Palworld, while upgrading the CPU would yield little to none.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates for Palworld with the Intel Core i7-14700KF and Intel Arc B390 is as follows.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the results are:

• Low: 31 FPS average
• Medium: 25 FPS average, with a minimum of 21 FPS and a maximum of 29 FPS
• High: 19 FPS average
• Ultra: 15 FPS average

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the results are:

• Low: 56 FPS average
• Medium: 45 FPS average, with a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 52 FPS
• High: 35 FPS average
• Ultra: 26 FPS average

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the results are:

• Low: 84 FPS average
• Medium: 68 FPS average, with a minimum of 58 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS
• High: 53 FPS average
• Ultra: 40 FPS average

The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p Low is the most playable, 1440p Low is marginal, and 4K is not viable. The Medium preset is the only one with reported minimum and maximum FPS values, providing insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the frame time variance is from 58 to 79 FPS, which is a 36% spread, suggesting some inconsistency. At 1440p Medium, the spread is from 38 to 52 FPS, a 37% variance. This indicates that Medium settings can produce noticeable frame rate dips, which may impact gameplay smoothness. The overall ranking of this combo in Palworld is 2607 out of 2944 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12% of systems, which is consistent with the GPU's low performance percentile.