Palworld

Palworld, the survival title released on January 18, 2024, presents a demanding workload that scales significantly with both resolution and graphical presets. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, based solely on the provided benchmark data. The combination ranks 568th out of 2,944 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top quintile of systems. The data reveals a configuration capable of high refresh rate gameplay at 1080p, smooth 60+ FPS at 1440p, and playable performance at 4K, with specific caveats at the Ultra preset.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 165 FPS at 1080p to 109 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 56 FPS or roughly 34%. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average falls further to 60 FPS, another 49 FPS drop, representing a 45% decrease. This scaling pattern indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions.

The Low preset demonstrates an even steeper relative decline, with averages of 265 FPS at 1080p, 175 FPS at 1440p, and 97 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K transition at Low settings results in a 168 FPS reduction, a 63% loss. This steeper percentage drop at lower settings suggests that the CPU, Intel Core Ultra 5 225, is able to feed frames more effectively when graphical load is minimal, but the GPU's raw throughput caps performance as resolution climbs. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low (90 FPS) is larger than the gap between 1440p and 4K (78 FPS), hinting that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s begins to saturate as the pixel fill rate demand increases.

At the Ultra preset, the scaling is the most dramatic: 125 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and only 46 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 46 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold often targeted for smooth gameplay, indicating that this preset pushes the RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and 192-bit bus to its limits. The Medium preset provides intermediate figures, with 215 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, and 79 FPS at 4K, showing that this setting offers a balanced scaling curve where neither component is disproportionately stressed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process node by TSMC. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz boosts up to 4.90 GHz, and it features a 20 MB shared L3 cache. In Palworld, a game that heavily utilizes world simulation and creature AI, the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are relevant, but the benchmark data suggests that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at most settings. The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 30,459 and single-thread score of 4,412 indicate a solid mid-range performer, placing it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs.

Looking at the measured FPS, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p with Low settings, where the system achieves 265 FPS. This high frame rate suggests that the CPU can sustain a substantial number of draw calls and physics calculations without becoming a limiting factor, at least at this resolution. However, the fact that 1080p Low yields 265 FPS while 1080p High yields 165 FPS shows that even at 1080p, the GPU's workload changes with settings, and the CPU is not fully saturating the frame pipeline at higher presets. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and single-core score of 3,655 provide context for this behavior; the single-core performance is strong enough to handle the game's main thread, but the 10-thread design without hyper-threading means that heavily threaded scenarios could see some scaling limitations.

The nearest CPU rivals, based on average benchmark score, include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F with a delta of 0%, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D at -0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 at -0.4%. These very small deltas indicate that the Core Ultra 5 225 performs nearly identically to these alternatives in general compute tasks. In Palworld specifically, the data shows that the CPU is rarely the limiting component; for instance, at 4K Medium the system runs at 79 FPS, which is likely GPU-bound, while at 1080p Low the 265 FPS result is the only scenario where the CPU's frame delivery might be near its ceiling.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 achieves a rank of 568 out of 2,944 tested combos in Palworld, placing it in the 80.7th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong showing, indicating that this pairing delivers performance that surpasses roughly 80% of all tested systems. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 85th percentile standing and the GPU's 82nd percentile standing among their respective components, suggesting that the pairing is well-matched for this game's demands.

When considering the GPU's nearest rivals, the data shows the RTX 5070 with an average benchmark score of 40,377, which is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40,318, +0.1% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40,063, +0.8% delta). These are professional-grade cards, which is an unusual comparison group, but the deltas are all within 2%, indicating that the RTX 5070's raw compute performance is in this range. The combo's rank of 568 suggests that in Palworld, the specific combination of this CPU and GPU outperforms many other pairings, likely due to the CPU's ability to keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions and the GPU's sufficient power at higher resolutions.

The fact that the combo ranks better than the individual percentile scores of its components might suggest a synergistic effect. For example, at 1440p High, the system achieves 109 FPS, which is a very playable frame rate for a survival game that often has complex scenes with many objects. The rank of 568 out of 2,944 means that this configuration is in the top 19.3% of all tested combos, which is a notable achievement for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 225 does not bottleneck the RTX 5070 in Palworld, allowing the GPU to perform to its full potential.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers high frame rates across all presets. The Low preset reaches an average of 265 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth for fast-paced gameplay. Medium settings drop to 215 FPS with a minimum of 183 FPS and a maximum of 247 FPS, showing consistent frame pacing. High settings yield 165 FPS, while Ultra drops to 125 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the RTX 5070 has ample headroom, and even the most demanding Ultra preset remains well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. Low settings average 175 FPS, a 34% drop from 1080p. Medium settings average 141 FPS with a minimum of 120 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. High settings average 109 FPS, which is still excellent for a 1440p monitor with a high refresh rate. Ultra settings drop to 83 FPS, which is playable but begins to show the GPU's limitations as the resolution increases. The minimum FPS data for Medium at 1440p (120 FPS) is particularly notable, as it suggests that even in the most demanding moments, the frame rate does not dip below the 120 FPS mark.

At 3840x2160, the system's performance becomes more variable. Low settings average 97 FPS, which is respectable for 4K. Medium settings average 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS, keeping the experience above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings drop to exactly 60 FPS, which is playable but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra settings fall to 46 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and may result in noticeable stuttering in fast-paced action. The lack of min/max data for most 4K presets (except Medium) makes it difficult to assess frame pacing, but the averages indicate that 4K Ultra is not recommended for this configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on a 5 nm process, featuring 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. It has 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, with a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz. The GPU is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is critical for Palworld, which uses large open-world environments with high-resolution textures. The 12 GB capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but at 4K Ultra, the memory bandwidth may become a limiting factor.

In terms of raw performance, the RTX 5070 achieves a PassMark G3D score of 29,137 and a PassMark GPU compute score of 15,787. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,077 indicates solid DirectX 12 performance, which is relevant for Palworld's modern rendering pipeline. The GPU's pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s provide context for its fill rate capabilities, which directly impact performance at higher resolutions. The data shows that the GPU scales well from 1080p to 1440p, but the transition to 4K reveals its limitations, particularly at Ultra settings where the average FPS drops to 46.

The GPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark score, include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (+0.1% delta), AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (+0.8% delta), and AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (-1.2% delta). These are professional workstation cards, which suggests that the RTX 5070's compute performance is comparable to these prosumer options. However, in Palworld, the RTX 5070's gaming optimizations and driver support likely contribute to its strong showing. The 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates that this is a high-end part, and the measured FPS data confirms that it can handle Palworld at high settings across most resolutions, with the caveat that 4K Ultra is not playable at a consistent 60 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 60+ FPS at High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the system averages 109 FPS, and at 3840x2160 with High settings, it averages exactly 60 FPS. So, 4K High is the highest resolution that maintains a 60 FPS average, while 1440p provides a more comfortable margin.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in Palworld?

A: The data suggests minimal CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 265 FPS, indicating the CPU can deliver high frame rates. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with 4K Ultra dropping to 46 FPS. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking supports its ability to feed the GPU adequately.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform compared to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 83 FPS, while High averages 109 FPS. The 26 FPS difference represents a 24% performance drop for the Ultra preset, which may not justify the visual improvements depending on the user's preference for frame rate over fidelity.

Q: Is 12 GB of VRAM sufficient for Palworld at 4K?

A: The data shows that 4K Medium averages 79 FPS and 4K High averages 60 FPS, indicating that 12 GB is sufficient for these presets. However, 4K Ultra drops to 46 FPS, which could be due to VRAM capacity or bandwidth limitations, suggesting that 12 GB is marginal for the highest preset at this resolution.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 1080p Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the system averages 215 FPS, with a minimum of 183 FPS and a maximum of 247 FPS. This indicates consistent performance with minimal frame drops, making it ideal for high refresh rate monitors.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 568th out of 2,944 tested combos, placing it in the top 19.3%. This is a strong result, given that the CPU and GPU individually rank in the 85th and 82nd percentiles respectively, suggesting the pairing is well-balanced for Palworld.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user's resolution and performance targets. For 1920x1080 displays, the Ultra preset at 125 FPS is the best choice, as it provides the highest visual quality while maintaining a frame rate that exceeds the 120 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 215 FPS offers a significant FPS boost with a 90 FPS difference, but the visual fidelity loss may not be worth it for most users with standard 60Hz or 144Hz monitors. For 1080p, Ultra is recommended for the best balance of visuals and performance.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 109 FPS is the recommended choice, as it delivers a smooth experience with high visual quality. The Ultra preset at 83 FPS is also playable, but the 26 FPS drop may be noticeable in fast-paced scenes. For users with 144Hz monitors, the Medium preset at 141 FPS with a minimum of 120 FPS provides the best frame rate consistency, while the Low preset at 175 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot for 1440p, offering a 109 FPS average that is well above the 60 FPS minimum for smooth gameplay.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset at 79 FPS is the recommended choice, as it maintains a frame rate above 60 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS, ensuring a playable experience. The High preset at exactly 60 FPS is also viable, but the lack of headroom means that demanding scenes could cause dips below 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 46 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the playable threshold and may result in a less enjoyable experience. The Low preset at 97 FPS is an option for users who prioritize frame rate over visual quality, but the Medium preset offers a better balance of performance and visuals at 4K. Ultimately, the data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1440p gaming, where it can run High settings at over 100 FPS, while 4K users should stick to Medium settings for a stable experience.