Palworld

Palworld, a Survival title released in early 2024, presents a unique challenge for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER pairing. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card, yet the specific balance shifts in ways that inform how to best configure the game. This analysis examines the data to determine where the bottlenecks lie and what the optimal experience is for this combination.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly demonstrates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 95 at 1920x1080 to 62 at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 35%. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 35 FPS, which is a 63% decline from the 1080p figure. This pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where the rendering workload at higher pixel counts overwhelms the RTX 2060 SUPER's capabilities.

The scaling is even more dramatic when looking at the Ultra preset. The system achieves 72 FPS at 1080p, but this plummets to 47 FPS at 1440p and just 26 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is below playable thresholds, indicating that the combination of the game's highest settings and 4K resolution is simply too demanding for this graphics card. The data suggests that the CPU, with its 14 cores and 14 threads, is not the primary obstacle here; if it were, the frame rate would not drop so consistently and severely as resolution increases.

Interestingly, the scaling from 1440p to 4K is less punishing than from 1080p to 1440p. At Medium settings, the drop from 1440p (81 FPS) to 4K (45 FPS) is a 44% reduction, while the drop from 1080p (123 FPS) to 1440p (81 FPS) is a 34% reduction. This could indicate that at lower resolutions, the CPU has more headroom, but as the resolution climbs, the GPU workload dominates, and the performance curve follows the GPU's fill-rate limits more directly. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely being saturated at 4K, particularly with higher texture quality settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested combinations for Palworld, this pairing holds a rank of 2066 out of 2944 combos. This places it in the lower half of all systems tested, which is consistent with the RTX 2060 SUPER's position in the broader GPU landscape. The graphics card sits at the 62nd percentile against all GPUs, while the Core Ultra 5 245 is at the 90th percentile against all CPUs. This massive gap in percentile rankings (90 for CPU vs. 62 for GPU) is a clear indication of an imbalanced pairing where the processor's potential is left untapped.

When looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the data shows how close the Ultra 5 245 is to its competition in general benchmarks. It is a mere 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7900. It is also 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K. These minuscule deltas show that, in a vacuum, the CPU is highly competitive, but in this game, its performance is being held back by the GPU. The system's overall rank of 2066 suggests that many other combinations, likely those with more balanced CPU/GPU pairings, achieve better results in Palworld.

The GPU's nearest rivals also paint a picture of its standing. The RTX 2060 SUPER is 0.4% behind the RTX 3060 Mobile, 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5700, and 1.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX 460. These are relatively small differences, but they show that the GPU is at the edge of its performance class. The fact that a mobile GPU and a low-end desktop card are comparable in average score suggests the 2060 SUPER is a generation behind in raw capability, making the high-resolution performance in Palworld unsurprising.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this hardware is at 1920x1080 resolution with High settings, yielding an average of 95 FPS. This strikes the best balance between visual fidelity and smooth gameplay. While Low settings at 1080p achieve a much higher 152 FPS, the visual downgrade is likely not worth the extra 57 frames, as 95 FPS is already a very playable rate for a survival game.

At 2560x1440, the High preset produces an average of 62 FPS, which is decent but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Medium preset at 1440p, with an average of 81 FPS and a minimum of 69 FPS, provides a more stable and fluid experience than High. The data suggests that for 1440p gaming, users should step down to Medium to maintain a consistent frame rate above the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K resolution is not recommended for this combo; even the Low preset only manages 55 FPS, and the Medium preset dips to 38 FPS at its lowest.

The measured minimum FPS data for the Medium preset shows the variance across resolutions: 105 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. This indicates that while 1080p Medium is overkill (123 FPS average), 4K Medium is too unstable. Therefore, for a smooth and visually pleasing experience, 1080p High or 1440p Medium are the clear choices. Ultra settings should be avoided entirely, as they push the GPU too hard, resulting in 72 FPS at 1080p but an unplayable 26 FPS at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured data provides a clear picture of the hardware's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the average FPS scales from 152 on Low, to 123 on Medium, 95 on High, and 72 on Ultra. The Medium preset has the only recorded min/max range, showing a spread from 105 FPS to 142 FPS, which indicates some frame pacing variance but remains within a good range for gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 100 FPS on Low, 81 FPS on Medium, 62 FPS on High, and 47 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset again shows its range with a minimum of 69 FPS and a maximum of 93 FPS. This resolution represents a significant step down in performance for the High and Ultra presets, but Low and Medium remain playable. The 47 FPS on Ultra at 1440p is borderline, but the High preset's 62 FPS is more acceptable.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops off a cliff. The averages are 55 FPS on Low, 45 FPS on Medium, 35 FPS on High, and 26 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset's min/max is 38 and 52 FPS, respectively, showing that even the "safe" mid-range preset can dip below 40 FPS. None of the 4K presets offer a consistently smooth experience, with only Low approaching playability. This data confirms that 4K is not a viable target for this combination in Palworld.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the clear bottleneck in this system. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is a limiting factor at high resolutions and texture settings, and its 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance is insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in this title. The GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz and base clock of 1470 MHz are standard for the card, but they cannot overcome the sheer workload presented by Palworld's open world at higher pixel counts.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 18093 places it at the 62nd percentile, and its performance in Palworld aligns with this. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011 is a low result, indicating weak DirectX 12 performance, which is directly relevant to a modern game like Palworld. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, while respectable, is not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K, where the demand for texture data is immense. The data suggests that the 2060 SUPER is a capable 1080p card that struggles beyond that resolution.

The GPU's transistor count of 10,800 million on a 12 nm process node shows its age compared to more modern cards. Its performance relative to its nearest rivals, like the RTX 3060 Mobile, which it trails by 0.4%, shows that it is at the bottom of its performance tier. In Palworld, this translates to the 35 FPS average at 4K High, a figure that is demonstrably below the 60 FPS target most players expect.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a powerful processor that is underutilized in this configuration. With 14 cores and 14 threads, it has ample processing power, and its boost clock of 5.10 GHz is high. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and single-core score of 4648 are strong, indicating excellent overall performance. Its 90th percentile ranking against all CPUs confirms that it is a top-tier processor.

In Palworld, however, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The frame rates are dictated by the graphics card's rendering speed, not the CPU's ability to feed it data. The CPU's massive 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth should be more than sufficient for the game's logic and asset streaming. The processor is a full 28 percentile points higher than the GPU in the overall performance distribution, which is a strong indicator of the imbalance.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, is only 0.8% behind in average score, yet the 14600K is often paired with more powerful GPUs in tested systems. This data suggests that if the Ultra 5 245 were paired with a significantly faster GPU, the system's rank would be much higher than 2066. The CPU is not the limiting factor; it is waiting for the GPU to catch up. The 3 nm process node and Arrow Lake architecture show that this is a modern, efficient chip, but its performance is effectively capped by the RTX 2060 SUPER in this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and preset for this combo in Palworld?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with High settings is optimal, achieving an average of 95 FPS. For 1440p, Medium at 81 FPS is recommended, while 4K is not viable for a smooth experience.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The GPU's 62nd percentile ranking versus the CPU's 90th percentile, combined with the steep FPS drops at higher resolutions, indicates the graphics card limits performance.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU is 0.4% behind the RTX 3060 Mobile, 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5700, and 1.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX 460 in average benchmark scores, showing it is near the bottom of its class.

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 26 FPS, which is unplayable for most users.

Q: Does the CPU's high performance translate to high frame rates in Palworld?

A: No. Despite the CPU's strong Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924, the frame rates are limited by the GPU. The CPU's power is left untapped in this configuration.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested systems in Palworld?

A: This combination ranks 2066 out of 2944 tested combos, placing it in the lower half of all systems evaluated for this game.