Palworld

Palworld is a survival game that demands consistent frame pacing across a large, persistent world. The tested combination pairs a 20-core Intel Core i7-14700KF with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, producing a data set that shows a clear progression from CPU-bound territory at lower resolutions to GPU-bound performance at 4K. The combo ranks 247th out of 3711 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 6.7% of all systems evaluated. That rank reflects a configuration capable of high refresh rate play at mainstream resolutions while still maintaining playable performance at 4K on the highest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 247 out of 3711 tested combos puts this system firmly in the upper tier of Palworld performance. With 3711 total combinations tested, the i7-14700KF and RTX 4080 pairing sits ahead of roughly 93% of all other configurations. This is not a marginal position; the gap between this system and the median combo is substantial, driven primarily by the GPU's ability to push high frame counts at 2560x1440 and the CPU's headroom to feed those frames at 1920x1080.

The rank also contextualizes the CPU's synthetic benchmark standing. The i7-14700KF scores 70163 on average across all benchmark suites, which places it at the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival in aggregate CPU score is the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, which posts 70879, a delta of -1% from the i7-14700KF. Conversely, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F trails by only 0.2% with a score of 69996. The data suggests that within 1% of this CPU's compute power, there are several alternatives, but none of them fundamentally change the GPU-bound nature of Palworld at higher settings.

What matters for Palworld specifically is the measured FPS, not the synthetic score. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the system delivers 318 FPS average, while at 1440p Ultra it drops to 99 FPS. The rank of 247 reflects the holistic performance across all measured resolutions and settings, not just peak frames. This system is not the absolute fastest — there are 246 combos that beat it — but the margin to those ahead is likely small, given that the RTX 4080's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, has an average benchmark score only 0.1% higher. The practical difference in Palworld between those two GPUs would be within measurement noise.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of frame rates in this data set, especially as resolution increases. It features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The GPU's boost clock is 2505 MHz, with a base clock of 2205 MHz. The 16 GB frame buffer is not a limiting factor in Palworld at any of the tested settings; the data shows no anomalously low minimum FPS at 4K Ultra compared to the average, which would indicate a VRAM capacity issue.

At 4K, the GPU's compute resources come to the fore. The RTX 4080 has 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines. Its FP32 performance is 48.74 TFLOPS. This raw throughput, combined with the memory bandwidth, determines the 4K results. The measured 4K High average is 72 FPS, while 4K Ultra drops to 55 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is 17 FPS, or roughly a 24% reduction, which suggests that the Ultra preset introduces heavier shading or post-processing effects that disproportionately tax the GPU.

The GPU's percentile ranking is 86th among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54209, a delta of 0.1% — effectively identical. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, which is 1.1% higher, but that is a workstation card not typically used for gaming. In Palworld, the RTX 4080's performance is consistent with its synthetic standing: it delivers 130 FPS at 1440p High, which is a strong result, and 198 FPS at 1080p High, showing that the GPU is not the bottleneck at that resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Palworld?

A: The highest average FPS is 318, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is a substantial margin over the next highest result, which is 257 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: How does the i7-14700KF compare to its closest CPU rival in aggregate benchmark score?

A: The i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70163, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69996) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875). It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (70879) by 1%.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 4K Medium, and how does it relate to the average?

A: The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 80, while the average is 94, and the maximum is 108. The 14 FPS gap between minimum and average indicates some frame time variance, but the minimum remains well above what would be considered unplayable.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 have enough VRAM for Palworld at 4K Ultra?

A: The data shows no indication of VRAM limitations. The 4K Ultra average FPS is 55, which is a linear drop from 4K High's 72 FPS, suggesting a compute-bound scenario rather than a memory capacity issue. The 16 GB frame buffer is sufficient for the tested settings.

Q: What is the combo's rank out of all tested combinations in Palworld?

A: The combination ranks 247th out of 3711 tested combos. This places it in the top 6.7% of all systems tested for this game.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 4K Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 318, while at 4K Low it is 116. The 1080p result is 174% higher than the 4K result, or more than 2.7 times faster.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers four resolutions — 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 — each with four settings presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The full matrix is populated for all combinations.

At 1920x1080, the results are exceptionally high across all presets. Low settings produce an average of 318 FPS. Medium settings reduce the average to 257 FPS, with a minimum of 219 and a maximum of 296. High settings further reduce the average to 198 FPS. Ultra settings drop the average to 150 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 168 FPS difference, or a 53% reduction in average frame rate. This indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates, and the GPU is not saturated until Ultra settings are applied.

At 2560x1440, the results scale down predictably. Low settings average 209 FPS. Medium settings average 169 FPS, with a minimum of 144 and a maximum of 195. High settings average 130 FPS. Ultra settings average 99 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings is consistent: Low goes from 318 to 209 FPS (a 34% reduction), and Ultra goes from 150 to 99 FPS (a 34% reduction). This uniform scaling suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at 1440p, as the resolution increase proportionally affects frame output.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more moderate. Low settings average 116 FPS. Medium settings average 94 FPS, with a minimum of 80 and a maximum of 108. High settings average 72 FPS. Ultra settings average 55 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a larger relative drop: Low goes from 209 to 116 FPS (a 44% reduction), and Ultra goes from 99 to 55 FPS (a 44% reduction). The increasing percentage drop with resolution indicates a growing GPU bottleneck, as the CPU's headroom is no longer sufficient to maintain frame rates at the same level.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is not linear, and the pattern reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 318 at 1080p to 209 at 1440p, a 34% decrease, and then to 116 at 4K, a 44% decrease from 1440p. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 150 at 1080p to 99 at 1440p, a 34% decrease, and then to 55 at 4K, a 44% decrease from 1440p. The consistent 34% drop from 1080p to 1440p across all settings suggests that this transition is purely resolution-driven, affecting all presets equally.

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a larger 44% drop, which indicates that the GPU is hitting a more severe performance cliff at 4K. This is typical of a GPU that has sufficient bandwidth for 1440p but becomes increasingly constrained at 4K pixel counts. The RTX 4080's 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is taxed heavily at 4K, and the 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is insufficient to maintain the same scaling curve.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU at 4K. The CPU, with its 20 cores and 5.60 GHz boost clock, has no trouble keeping up with the GPU at 4K, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates at 4K are still substantial (55 FPS at Ultra). The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiter, as the GPU is capable of drawing more frames than the CPU can process. The measured 318 FPS at 1080p Low is likely near the CPU's maximum frame output, regardless of GPU. At 1440p, the system is balanced, with neither component fully dominating. At 4K, the GPU is the definitive bottleneck, and the CPU's headroom is irrelevant.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset to use based on target resolution and frame rate preference. For maximum frame rates at 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only option that exceeds 300 FPS, but this sacrifices visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 257 FPS average with a minimum of 219 FPS, which is still exceptionally high and likely beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 150 FPS average, is the most visually demanding option and still maintains a high frame rate.

For 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 130 FPS average, which is a strong balance for high refresh rate gaming. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 169 FPS average with a minimum of 144 FPS, which matches a 144 Hz monitor's refresh rate perfectly. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 99 FPS average, which is still playable but represents a significant visual quality investment for a 31% frame rate reduction from High. The Low preset at 1440p, at 209 FPS, is unnecessarily high for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset delivers 94 FPS average with a minimum of 80 FPS, which is the best balance for 4K gaming. The High preset at 72 FPS is smoother for 60 Hz displays but may feel less responsive on higher refresh rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 55 FPS is only suitable for 60 Hz displays and will show noticeable frame pacing issues. The Low preset at 4K, at 116 FPS, is a viable option for competitive play but undermines the visual detail that 4K offers.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot across all resolutions. At 1080p, it provides 257 FPS; at 1440p, it provides 169 FPS; at 4K, it provides 94 FPS. This preset offers a consistent experience that scales well with resolution and avoids the steep performance penalties of Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has 33 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In Palworld, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates, which is a single-threaded or lightly-threaded task in most survival games.

The synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's raw compute capability: its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 44167, and its single-core score is 6235. The PassMark multi-thread score is 52425, and the single-thread score is 4480. These scores place the CPU at the 94th percentile of all CPUs, but in Palworld, the single-core performance is more relevant than the multi-core score.

The measured FPS at 1080p Low (318 FPS) is likely near the CPU's maximum frame output. The fact that 1080p Low produces 318 FPS while 1080p Ultra produces 150 FPS suggests that the GPU is still the limiting factor at Ultra settings, but the CPU is the bottleneck at Low settings. The CPU's 5.60 GHz boost clock and 2 MB L2 cache per core provide the single-threaded performance necessary for high frame rate gaming.

The nearest CPU rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, scores 70879 on average, which is 1% higher than the i7-14700KF. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996, which is 0.2% lower. In Palworld, these differences would translate to less than 1% FPS variation, meaning the i7-14700KF is effectively at parity with its closest competitors. The CPU's 20 cores are more than sufficient for Palworld's multi-threaded background tasks, such as world simulation and pathfinding, but the game's primary thread still benefits from the high boost clock.

The CPU's TDP is 125 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700 platform. Its memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 gives builders flexibility, but the data does not indicate that memory type affects Palworld performance. The CPU's role in this combo is to provide a high frame rate ceiling at 1080p and ensure that the GPU is not starved at 1440p and 4K. The measured results confirm that the i7-14700KF is more than capable of keeping pace with the RTX 4080 at all tested settings.