Steamworld Build

# Steamworld Build with AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + Intel Arc B390

This combination of an AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2573rd out of 2924 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the bottom 12% of all configurations. The pairing produces playable frame rates only at 1080p with medium or lower settings, while higher resolutions and quality presets push the system into unplayable territory. The data reveals a significant imbalance: the GPU's performance ceiling is extremely low relative to the CPU's capabilities, making this a heavily GPU-limited configuration for this city builder title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2573 out of 2924 tested combinations places this system firmly in the lower quartile of all configurations tested for Steamworld Build. This ranking reflects the Intel Arc B390's position as one of the weakest GPUs in the benchmark database, with a percentile ranking of just 9th against all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, sits at the 73rd percentile against all CPUs, creating a massive performance disparity between the two components.

Benchmark data shows the Ryzen 5 5500 achieves an average benchmark score of 19593, which places it nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (19617, only 0.1% ahead) and Intel Core i5-12500 (19668, 0.4% ahead). The CPU is actually slightly ahead of the Intel Core i7-10700F (19499, 0.5% behind the Ryzen) and trails the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19723, 0.7% ahead). These margins are all within 1%, indicating the CPU is well-matched to mainstream mid-range processors from recent generations.

The GPU tells a completely different story. The Arc B390's average benchmark score of 1482 places it just ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% behind) and NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% behind), while also edging out the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% behind) and NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443, 2.7% behind). These rival GPUs are all from the entry-level segment of previous generations, confirming the Arc B390 is operating at the very bottom of the performance spectrum despite being built on a 3nm process.

The 2573rd ranking out of 2924 total combinations means that roughly 88% of tested systems outperform this configuration in Steamworld Build. This poor showing is directly attributable to the GPU bottleneck; the CPU's performance headroom cannot compensate for the graphics processor's fundamental limitations at higher resolutions and quality settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3nm process with the Panther Lake chip. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, which provides a theoretical FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS. The GPU contains 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation units, along with 12 ray tracing cores.

Memory configuration is entirely system-dependent, with the GPU sharing system memory rather than having dedicated VRAM. The memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," meaning performance will vary based on the host system's RAM configuration. For this benchmark setup, the Ryzen 5 5500 supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a maximum bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, which becomes the effective memory bandwidth available to the GPU.

The measured frame rates in Steamworld Build reflect this memory sharing arrangement. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 106 FPS average, which drops to 81 FPS at Medium, 60 FPS at High, and 41 FPS at Ultra. These results show a consistent performance scaling with quality settings, but the GPU's computational limits become apparent at higher resolutions. The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s suggest the GPU is capable of basic rendering tasks but lacks the bandwidth and processing power for demanding visual workloads.

The GPU's 80W TDP and IGP form factor (with no power connectors and a slot width of IGP) indicate this is designed for portable devices rather than desktop gaming. The display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," further confirming this is an integrated solution intended for mobile or compact systems. The DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility show modern API support, but raw performance remains the limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling

Examining the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear GPU bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 106 at 1920x1080 to 67 at 2560x1440 (a 37% reduction) and further to 35 at 3840x2160 (a 67% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is characteristic of a system where the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the pixel count increases fourfold from 1080p to 4K but the frame rate drops by roughly two-thirds.

At Medium settings, the progression shows 81 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p (37% lower), and 27 FPS at 4K (67% lower). The minimum FPS values at Medium settings also scale similarly: 69 at 1080p, 44 at 1440p, and 23 at 4K. This consistent percentage drop across resolutions indicates the GPU is saturated at all quality levels, with no CPU-related performance ceiling being reached.

High settings show 60 FPS at 1080p, 38 FPS at 1440p (37% lower), and 20 FPS at 4K (67% lower). Ultra settings follow the same pattern: 41 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p (37% lower), and 14 FPS at 4K (66% lower). The uniformity of these percentage drops across all quality presets strongly suggests the limiting component is the GPU's rendering throughput rather than any other system bottleneck.

The data implies that even at 1080p, the Arc B390 is working near its maximum capacity. The fact that 4K performance at Low settings (35 FPS) is barely better than 1440p at High settings (38 FPS) indicates that resolution scaling has a more significant impact on performance than quality settings. This suggests that players should prioritize resolution reduction over quality reduction to achieve playable frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 106 FPS average, which provides the smoothest experience. Medium settings at 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS still offer good playability with improved visual quality. High settings at 60 FPS are borderline for smooth gameplay, while Ultra at 41 FPS may feel less responsive in a city builder where camera movement and construction placement require precision.

For 2560x1440, Medium settings at 51 FPS average (44 minimum) represent the practical ceiling for playable performance. Low settings at 67 FPS provide a comfortable margin, while High at 38 FPS and Ultra at 26 FPS fall below the threshold for fluid interaction. The 4K resolution is generally not viable for this combination, with even Low settings producing only 35 FPS average.

The measured data indicates that Medium settings at 1080p (81 FPS) or Low settings at 1440p (67 FPS) offer the best balance between visual quality and performance. The Medium preset at 1440p (51 FPS) is the highest quality setting that maintains reasonable playability at a higher resolution. For players prioritizing smoothness, 1080p Low at 106 FPS provides the most headroom for complex city-building scenarios where frame rates may dip during heavy simulation loads.

The minimum FPS values recorded only for Medium settings (69 at 1080p, 44 at 1440p, 23 at 4K) suggest that frame pacing remains relatively stable at this preset. The absence of minimum FPS data for other presets makes direct comparison difficult, but the Medium preset's consistency across resolutions indicates it may be the most stable choice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers the following average frame rates across quality presets: Low at 106 FPS, Medium at 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93, High at 60 FPS, and Ultra at 41 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 61% reduction in average frame rate, which is substantial but expected for a GPU with limited processing resources.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably: Low at 67 FPS, Medium at 51 FPS with a minimum of 44 and maximum of 59, High at 38 FPS, and Ultra at 26 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 61% reduction from the Low baseline, similar to 1080p scaling. The Medium preset's minimum of 44 FPS indicates that even this mid-range setting can experience noticeable dips during complex scenes.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles across all presets: Low at 35 FPS, Medium at 27 FPS with a minimum of 23 and maximum of 31, High at 20 FPS, and Ultra at 14 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 23 FPS confirms that 4K gaming is not viable with this GPU, as even the lowest quality setting barely reaches 35 FPS average. The range between minimum and maximum at Medium settings (23 to 31 FPS) shows significant frame time variance that would likely cause noticeable stuttering.

The progression across resolutions at each quality setting reveals consistent scaling: Low settings drop from 106 to 67 to 35 FPS across 1080p to 1440p to 4K; Medium drops from 81 to 51 to 27 FPS; High drops from 60 to 38 to 20 FPS; Ultra drops from 41 to 26 to 14 FPS. Each resolution step reduces performance by approximately 37% from the previous step, regardless of quality setting.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 provides 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne codename) built on TSMC's 7nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The CPU includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of L3 cache. Memory support is limited to DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 5500 demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429 and a single-core score of 2319. PassMark multithread testing shows 19330, while Geekbench multicore reports 7976. The CPU's percentile ranking of 73rd against all CPUs confirms it sits above the median for overall processing power, making it more than sufficient for a city builder like Steamworld Build.

The game's genre typically relies on CPU performance for simulation and AI calculations, but the measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to remain relatively constant across quality settings at a given resolution. Instead, the data shows substantial performance variation between Low and Ultra presets at every resolution, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint.

The 3DMark benchmark scores provide additional context: 836 for single-thread, 1645 for 2-threads, 3151 for 4-threads, 4593 for 8-threads, 5386 for 16-threads, and 5411 for max threads. These results show excellent scaling from 2 to 16 threads, with diminishing returns beyond 8 threads, suggesting the CPU has ample headroom for gaming workloads. The Ryzen 5 5500's nearest rivals all perform within 1% of its average score, confirming it delivers mainstream desktop performance that should not hinder gameplay in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Steamworld Build?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 as the only resolution where all quality presets achieve playable frame rates, with Low at 106 FPS, Medium at 81 FPS, High at 60 FPS, and Ultra at 41 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low (67 FPS) and Medium (51 FPS) remain playable, while 3840x2160 fails to reach 35 FPS even at Low settings.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's average benchmark score of 1482 places it slightly ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% behind), GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% behind), GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% behind), and GeForce GT 710 (1443, 2.7% behind). These rivals are all entry-level GPUs from previous generations.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 CPU holding back performance in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU performs within 1% of its nearest rivals (AMD Ryzen AI 5 430, Intel Core i5-12500, Intel Core i7-10700F, Intel Core i5-11600KF), and frame rates scale significantly with quality settings at each resolution, which would not occur if the CPU were the bottleneck.

Q: What is the best quality setting at 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 provide 51 FPS average with a minimum of 44 FPS, making it the highest quality preset that maintains playable performance. Low settings at 67 FPS offer a more comfortable margin but with reduced visual quality.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Steamworld Build?

A: No, 4K performance is not viable. The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 35 FPS at Low settings, with Medium at 27 FPS (minimum 23), High at 20 FPS, and Ultra at 14 FPS. All 4K presets fall below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does this combo's rank compare to other tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 2573rd out of 2924 tested combinations in Steamworld Build, placing it in the bottom 12% of all tested systems. The CPU ranks in the 73rd percentile while the GPU ranks in the 9th percentile, highlighting the extreme GPU bottleneck in this configuration.