How to improve FPS in Palworld (PC)
Palworld runs on Unreal Engine 5 and combines open-world survival with base management, where dozens of Pals work, craft, and fight in real time. The result is a game that starts out smooth playing solo and drops in FPS as soon as your base grows or you connect to a dedicated server with more players. Here are the settings that actually move the needle, separated from the ones that only change how things look.
This is what you'd gain with a NVIDIA RTX 4060
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Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks).
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +46% free FPS.
View Distance
Dropping from High/Epic to Medium drastically cuts the number of trees, rocks, and structures the GPU has to draw in open terrain. It's the single setting with the biggest impact in Palworld.
Shadows
Dynamic shadows in areas with dense vegetation or inside bases with lots of structures are expensive to calculate. Lowering them to Low keeps basic contact shadows without hurting framerate as much.
Pal Shadow Quality
Each Pal casts its own dynamic shadow. In a base with many active Pals this adds up fast; lowering it frees up GPU headroom without affecting gameplay.
Antialiasing / General Image Quality
Edge smoothing on Epic has a disproportionate cost versus the real visual improvement. Medium keeps edges clean without the overhead of the higher settings.
DirectX 12
Palworld supports both DX11 and DX12; on modern hardware DX12 distributes draw-call load better across CPU cores, which especially helps in bases with lots of Pals and structures.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Foliage and Grass Quality
Grassland and forest biomes render considerable grass and vegetation density. Lowering it reduces GPU load in the map's most demanding areas.
Reflections and Post-Processing
Screen Space Reflections and post-processing effects like bloom or motion blur consume GPU without adding playable clarity; lowering them or disabling motion blur also reduces perceived input lag.
Texture Quality
With 6-8GB of VRAM, Medium avoids saturating video memory in large bases with lots of structures loaded at once, without a very noticeable loss of sharpness.
Draw Distance for Base Structures/Pals
Limiting how many distant structures and Pals render at full detail eases both GPU and CPU load in large bases or when visiting another player's base on a server.
Global Illumination / Lumen Quality
Lumen (UE5's dynamic global illumination) has a considerable GPU cost indoors in bases with lots of lights and structures. Medium keeps believable lighting without the full cost.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS 3 (with Frame Generation)
+45% FPSPalworld supports full DLSS 3, including Frame Generation on RTX 40 series. It's the top recommendation for NVIDIA GPUs, since frame generation especially smooths out the framerate drops caused by CPU load in large bases.
AMD FSR 3
+35% FPSFSR 3 works on any modern GPU, NVIDIA or AMD, and offers a solid gain in Quality mode. In Performance mode the sharpness loss is more noticeable in the game's dense foliage.
Intel XeSS
+30% FPSAvailable as an alternative on Intel Arc GPUs and compatible on other cards, with image quality somewhere between DLSS and FSR in this game.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable DLSS in Quality mode as a baseline and add Frame Generation on RTX 40 if your base suffers from CPU-related drops.
- •Force the "Prefer Maximum Performance" power mode in the NVIDIA panel to avoid downclocks during long farming/base sessions.
- •With 8GB of VRAM or less, keep textures on Medium to avoid stutter spikes when building new structures.
AMD
- •Use FSR 3 in Quality mode; on RDNA2 or older GPUs avoid Frame Generation if you notice artifacts on the HUD.
- •Update to the latest Adrenalin drivers: Palworld has received several AMD-specific compatibility patches.
- •Enable Anti-Lag to offset the slight latency increase upscaling adds during boss fights.
Intel
- •On Intel CPUs from 12th generation onward, enable balanced mode in Windows' power plan: the game prioritizes P-cores for Pal AI.
- •On iGPUs or Arc, lower view distance to Low and keep Lumen on Low; foliage rendering is the main bottleneck at the low end.
- •Check that XMP/EXPO is enabled in the BIOS: faster RAM noticeably helps world streaming in new areas.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stutter (UE5 inheritance)
As with most Unreal Engine 5 games, the first few hours of play or entering new zones can show micro-stutter while shaders compile. The 1.0 launch notably reduced the issue compared to the early-access build, but it can reappear after major driver or game updates.
Estado: Version 1.0 (2024)
FPS drops from base overpopulation
This isn't a bug but a design limitation: every active Pal calculates its own AI and pathfinding on the CPU. Bases with 25+ Pals working at once, or visiting another player's heavily built base on a server, cause framerate drops that no graphics option fixes — only lowering Pal draw distance mitigates it.
CPU/memory usage spikes on crowded dedicated servers
On large multiplayer servers, syncing bases, Pals, and inventories for every connected player generates periodic stutter spikes, especially when logging in or approaching another player's heavily built base.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does my FPS drop only at my base and not in the open world?▾
DLSS or FSR: which is better in Palworld?▾
Which graphics setting has the biggest real impact on performance?▾
Is it worth playing with DirectX 12 instead of DirectX 11?▾
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Calculate FPS for Palworld →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →