Palworld, at least during its initial stages, appears to be a giant memory hog when it comes to players, including eating into host swap space. We've conducted testing, as well as heard from other hosts on this issue - more players = more RAM required, and even then if you leave the server on for too long, it'll eat all your RAM on your machine! Unfortunately this seems to be due to a memory leak that, over time, will cause the server to hit its allocation no matter how high it is. This sucks, but it's how the game is - insert the sad shrug emoji here, we persist because we love the games we play!
Note: Southnode will restrict your RAM usage to your allotted amount. If you buy an instance of Palworld with 8GB of RAM, and Palworld tries to use more, it cannot, and it will crash. This is our commitment to not over-provisioning our nodes doing what it is supposed to be doing - protect everyone else who utilises our services with applications that are well maintained and don't have a memory leak. It would be unfair otherwise, and we don't subscribe to the standard Game Server Provider mentality of oversubscription and subpar performance as a result being not only a good thing, but seemingly something to strive towards - the comparison is apples to oranges. We highly recommend that if you are planning for a longterm run using our services and high-performance nodes that you purchase a higher RAM package. Bear in mind you can always upgrade as your needs grow.
So, how much RAM do I need?...
A "safe" starting point, as it is with our own products, is 6GB of RAM. This will allow yourself and a friend or two to get into the game, and play around. However, dependent on gameplay this may change (such as inhabiting different parts of the map at once, or after you've explored a lot of the map, the RAM requirements will go up - so it's a "safe" starting point, but it's not a safe bet for longevity). So, what's our best bet here?
- A starting point of ~4GB (what a server needs to run for 1 person);
- Add 1.5GB per additional player - so, if you have 5 players, you'd need at least 10GB. If you have 10 players, you'd need at least 16GB or more. For 32 players (currently untested), the theory would suggest you may need quite a lot more than this, and this amount will grow as you progress through the game;
- Bearing in mind that even with the additional RAM, this will not stop the server application from leaking memory - we highly recommend setting a 4-6 hourly restart for your application to keep memory usage down to a reasonable and performant level.
Additional Notes:
The following are a list of configuration tweaks you can make to your server in order to reduce the amount of RAM usage and/or reduce the amount your server leaks memory:
- Turn off the setting "Enable Raider Enemies" under Configuration > Palworld Gameplay Settings - this will disable the ingame NPC raids, which are known to create a tremendous memory leak when triggered and finished.
- Via the Scheduler, create a Simple Time Interval Trigger every 4 or 6 hours that restarts the server. This will clear out unused and cached memory that has leaked over time.
- Players entering a raid/dungeon will cause the server to spike in memory usage ~1GB whilst the dungeon is loaded. If you are riding close to your allocation already, this may tip you over the edge.
Still have questions?
Click here to submit a ticket. We'll be happy to assist!
