Steamworld Build

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + Intel Arc B570 combination in Steamworld Build?

A: This combo ranks 2320 out of 2924 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-mid tier of all tested systems for this game. The CPU sits at the 71st percentile among all processors, while the GPU is at the 65th percentile among all graphics cards.

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 scores 17,035 in average benchmark score, which is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-1260P (17,007, 0.2% ahead) and the AMD EPYC 7742 (16,998, 0.2% ahead). It trails the Intel Core i5-11400 (17,067) and AMD EPYC 7573X (17,070) by 0.2% — a negligible margin.

Q: What are the key specifications of the Intel Arc B570?

A: The Intel Arc B570 features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth. It has 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, 80 ROPs, and 18 ray tracing cores. Both base and boost clocks are 2500 MHz, with memory clocked at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1080p based on measured FPS?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 93 FPS average, while Medium runs at 124 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS. Low reaches 162 FPS, and Ultra drops to 63 FPS. The Medium preset offers the best balance — well above 60 FPS with a comfortable minimum frame rate.

Q: How does the GPU's memory bandwidth affect performance?

A: With 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth and a 160-bit bus, the Arc B570 provides substantial memory throughput for a city builder that must stream textures and geometry as the settlement grows. The 10 GB frame buffer is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, though 4K Ultra at 21 FPS suggests memory capacity and bandwidth become limiting factors at the highest resolution.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded capability in real-world tests?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 scores 15,045 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 6,318 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, and 4,605 in 3DMark 16-thread tests. Its PassMark multi-thread score is 17,700, with a multi-threaded 3DMark score of 4,603. These numbers indicate solid multi-core performance for simulation-heavy city builder workloads.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the primary graphics engine in this configuration, and its capabilities directly shape the measured frame rates in Steamworld Build. The GPU operates at a fixed 2500 MHz for both base and boost clocks, which is a relatively high sustained clock for a 150 W card. This clock consistency helps maintain predictable performance across different scenes, though the data shows that settings and resolution changes produce dramatic swings in FPS.

The 10 GB GDDR6 memory pool with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth is the defining feature for this game. City builders often accumulate large numbers of distinct objects — buildings, workers, resources — and the memory subsystem must keep up with the growing scene complexity. At 1080p, the card delivers 162 FPS on Low, which indicates the memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck at lower settings. However, the transition to 4K Ultra (21 FPS average) reveals a sharp drop-off, suggesting that the combination of 10 GB capacity and 160-bit bus width struggles when texture and geometry demands increase.

The GPU's 80 ROPs and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate determine how quickly the rasterizer can fill the screen. At 4K, with 8.3 million pixels per frame, the pixel throughput becomes more stressed. The measured data shows a 45% drop from 1080p High (93 FPS) to 1440p High (59 FPS), and then a further 47% drop to 4K High (31 FPS). These scaling patterns align with the GPU's raw fill rate limits rather than a CPU constraint, since the Ryzen 5 3600 has sufficient single-thread performance to feed frames at lower resolutions.

The Arc B570's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate provide enough raw horsepower for DirectX 12 workloads. Steamworld Build likely uses DX12 given the GPU's 12 Ultimate support, and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,649 places this card in a competitive position. The PassMark G3D score of 14,195 and DirectX 11 score of 118 further confirm that the card handles modern graphics APIs effectively, though the DX12 score of 72 is notably lower, suggesting some API-specific inefficiencies.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals clear scaling patterns across the three tested resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves playable frame rates across all settings — even Ultra hits 63 FPS. Moving to 1440p, performance drops by roughly 36-38% across settings: High falls from 93 to 59 FPS, Medium from 124 to 79 FPS, and Low from 162 to 103 FPS. Ultra drops to 40 FPS, which is borderline playable.

The 4K results are dramatically worse. High settings yield 31 FPS, Medium 42 FPS, and Low 55 FPS. Ultra collapses to 21 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K represents a 2.25x increase in pixel count, and the measured drops are close to proportional for High (59 to 31, a 47% reduction) and Low (103 to 55, a 47% reduction). This proportional scaling indicates the GPU is the limiting component at these resolutions — the frame rate drops exactly as pixel count increases, which is the classic signature of fill-rate or bandwidth-bound performance.

At 1080p, the scaling is less linear. The jump from Low (162 FPS) to Medium (124 FPS) is a 23% drop, then to High (93 FPS) is another 25% drop, then to Ultra (63 FPS) is another 32% drop. This non-linear progression suggests that at 1080p, the CPU begins to play a more significant role — the Ryzen 5 3600's 6 cores and 12 threads must process game logic, and the frame rate ceiling around 162 FPS on Low indicates a CPU limit that prevents the GPU from fully stretching its legs.

The data strongly indicates a GPU-bound scenario at 1440p and above, with the 10 GB memory and 160-bit bus becoming the primary constraints at 4K. The difference between 4K Low (55 FPS) and 4K High (31 FPS) is a 44% drop from settings alone, which shows that texture quality and shading complexity heavily tax the memory bandwidth.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset emerges as the optimal choice for most users. At 1080p, Medium delivers 124 FPS average with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS — this is the only setting at any resolution that provides both a high average and a floor above 100 FPS. The consistency between min and max (a 37 FPS spread) suggests stable frame pacing.

At 1440p, Medium is again the sweet spot, producing 79 FPS average with 67 FPS minimum and 91 FPS maximum. This keeps the experience above 60 FPS consistently, which is the traditional target for smooth gameplay. High at 1440p (59 FPS) falls just below that threshold, while Low (103 FPS) sacrifices visual quality for headroom that may not be necessary.

At 4K, no setting achieves a fully smooth experience. Medium at 42 FPS with a 35 FPS minimum is the most balanced option, but even this will feel stuttery during intense scenes. Low at 55 FPS is the only 4K setting that approaches playability, while High at 31 FPS and Ultra at 21 FPS are not recommended for active gameplay.

For users with 1080p displays, the recommendation is clear: Medium settings provide the best experience per the measured rows, offering a 124 FPS average that exceeds High's 93 FPS while delivering better visual fidelity than Low. For 1440p users, Medium remains the top choice, with its 79 FPS average providing a smooth experience without the visual compromises of Low. For 4K, users should accept that this hardware combination cannot deliver high-refresh gameplay, and Medium at 42 FPS is the best compromise between visual quality and playability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data for the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + Intel Arc B570 in Steamworld Build is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest performance. Low settings produce 162 FPS average. Medium delivers 124 FPS average with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS. High reaches 93 FPS average. Ultra drops to 63 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 61% performance reduction.

At 2560x1440, performance scales down predictably. Low produces 103 FPS average. Medium delivers 79 FPS average with a 67 FPS minimum and 91 FPS maximum. High reaches 59 FPS average. Ultra drops to 40 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 61% — identical to the 1080p scaling, confirming the GPU's consistent behavior across resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the card is clearly stressed. Low produces 55 FPS average. Medium delivers 42 FPS average with a 35 FPS minimum and 48 FPS maximum. High reaches 31 FPS average. Ultra collapses to 21 FPS average. The Low-to-Ultra gap is 62%, nearly the same as other resolutions, but the absolute numbers are all below the 60 FPS threshold.

The Medium preset is the only setting that reports min/max values across all three resolutions, providing the most complete picture of frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the 106-143 FPS range shows a 37 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the 67-91 FPS range shows a 24 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the 35-48 FPS range shows a 13 FPS spread. The narrowing spread at higher resolutions further confirms the GPU-bound nature of 4K performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 3000 series, based on the Zen 2 (Matisse) architecture built on TSMC's 7 nm process. It runs at a 3.60 GHz base clock and boosts to 4.20 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration provides 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die.

In Steamworld Build, a city builder genre that requires continuous simulation of worker paths, resource flows, and building construction, the CPU's multi-threaded performance is critical. The Ryzen 5 3600 scores 15,045 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 6,318 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, and 4,605 in 3DMark 16-thread tests. Its PassMark multi-thread score of 17,700 and integer math score of 48,607 indicate strong throughput for the logic-heavy workloads that city builders generate.

The 1080p Low result of 162 FPS suggests the CPU can feed the GPU effectively at lower resolutions, but the ceiling appears to be around this range. The 3DMark 4-thread score of 2,579 and 8-thread score of 3,844 show that the processor scales well with thread count, which is beneficial for a game that may use multiple threads for simulation, rendering, and audio. The single-thread score of 696 in 3DMark and 2,124 in Cinebench R23 single-core confirm that per-core performance is adequate for the main game loop.

The CPU's position relative to its nearest rivals is essentially a statistical tie. It matches the Intel Core i7-1260P and AMD EPYC 7742 within 0.2%, and falls 0.2% behind the Intel Core i5-11400 and AMD EPYC 7573X. This means the Ryzen 5 3600 offers performance consistent with a wide range of competing processors, and the measured FPS in Steamworld Build is not limited by any CPU deficiency at 1440p and above.

The 65 W TDP and DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are worth noting — the memory bandwidth is lower than the GPU's 380.0 GB/s, but for game logic and asset loading, this is sufficient. The 12 threads provide headroom for background tasks and the simulation tick rate, and the 32 MB L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores. Overall, the data suggests the Ryzen 5 3600 is not the bottleneck in this configuration; the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions and settings are the primary constraint on frame rates.