Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build places this pairing—AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080—at rank 553 out of 1,730 tested combinations. That places the combo in the 68th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly a third of the tested configurations deliver higher average frame rates in this city builder. The ranking reflects a balanced pairing where neither component dramatically bottlenecks the other at most settings, though the data shows the GPU becomes the dominant factor at higher resolutions and quality presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 553 out of 1,730 tested systems positions this configuration in the upper-middle tier of the database. This is not a top-tier placement, but it is a solid one for a city builder that rarely demands the absolute fastest hardware. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 20,875 places it at the 79th percentile among all processors, while the GPU’s average score of 35,787 places it at the 80th percentile among all graphics cards. The near-identical percentile rankings suggest a well-matched pair for general workloads.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i5-12500 with an average score of 20,897 (a delta of -0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE at 20,900 (-0.1%), the AMD EPYC 7J13 at 20,845 (+0.1%), and the Intel Core i5-12600T at 20,917 (-0.2%). These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, meaning the Ryzen 5 5500 is statistically indistinguishable from these alternatives in raw compute. For Steamworld Build, this means any of those CPUs would likely produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the same GPU.

The GPU’s nearest rivals show a similar pattern. The AMD Radeon Pro Duo averages 35,860 (delta -0.2%), the AMD Radeon 880M averages 35,646 (+0.4%), the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE averages 36,101 (-0.9%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile averages 35,435 (+1.0%). The RTX 3080 sits squarely in this cluster, suggesting that game performance will track closely with any of these four alternatives. In practical terms, the measured FPS in Steamworld Build should be representative of what these rival GPUs would deliver within a few frames.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 brings 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective transfer rate. The GPU’s base clock is 1440 MHz, boosting to 1710 MHz under load. This memory configuration is substantial for a city builder, which often needs to stream large numbers of textured objects as the population grows.

The measured frame rates show that the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 113.1 FPS, while at 3840x2160, the same preset drops to 35.9 FPS. This is a 68% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings. The GPU’s pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s are the limiting factors at 4K, where the sheer number of pixels overwhelms even this high-end card.

The FP32 throughput of 29.77 TFLOPS and the 68 RT cores suggest the card is overbuilt for Steamworld Build’s graphical demands, which are typical of the city builder genre. The data shows that at 1440p High, the combo achieves 109.5 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold most players target. The GPU’s 10 GB frame buffer is sufficient for all tested presets, as no measurement indicates memory capacity becoming a constraint.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 109.5 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay in a city builder.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 capable of 4K gaming in Steamworld Build?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 58.1 FPS, while Ultra drops to 35.9 FPS. Medium settings deliver 76.4 FPS, and Low reaches 100.5 FPS. For 4K, High is the playable ceiling.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 scores 20,875 on average, which is within 0.2% of the Intel Core i5-12500 (20,897), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20,900), AMD EPYC 7J13 (20,845), and Intel Core i5-12600T (20,917). These are effectively tied in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1920x1080, every preset including Ultra (113.1 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS. At 2560x1440, Ultra (74.5 FPS) and all lower presets exceed 60 FPS. At 3840x2160, only High (58.1 FPS) and below come close, with Low hitting 100.5 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The CPU’s single-thread score of 836 in 3DMark and its 6 cores, 12 threads configuration suggest it is not a limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 273.8 FPS, which implies the CPU can feed the GPU adequately even at high frame rates.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 553 out of 1,730 tested combos, placing it in the upper 32% of the database. This is a solid mid-to-high tier placement for a city builder that is not typically GPU-bound at mainstream resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings average 273.8 FPS, Medium 225.7 FPS, High 171.9 FPS, and Ultra 113.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 59% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the GPU is doing progressively heavier work with each preset bump. Even at Ultra, the 113.1 FPS average is far beyond what a city builder needs for responsive gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected drop. Low averages 187.6 FPS, Medium 142.5 FPS, High 109.5 FPS, and Ultra 74.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 60% at this resolution, suggesting the GPU is becoming more of a factor. The 74.5 FPS at Ultra is still above the 60 FPS threshold, making 1440p Ultra a viable option for this combo.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limits become clear. Low averages 100.5 FPS, Medium 76.4 FPS, High 58.1 FPS, and Ultra 35.9 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 22.2 FPS, a 38% reduction, which is the steepest drop between adjacent presets at any resolution. This indicates that Ultra at 4K is pushing the RTX 3080 beyond its comfortable operating range for this title.

The data shows consistent scaling across resolutions. For each preset, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rate by roughly 30-35%, and moving from 1440p to 4K reduces it by another 45-50%. This pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where pixel count is the primary driver of performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that 2560x1440 with High settings offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering 109.5 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining a high level of graphical fidelity. Users who prioritize frame rate over visuals can drop to Medium at 142.5 FPS, which still provides a substantial visual upgrade over Low.

At 1920x1080, Ultra settings at 113.1 FPS are the clear recommendation, as the GPU has ample headroom at this resolution. There is no reason to compromise on quality when the frame rate is already more than double the playable threshold. For users with 4K displays, High settings at 58.1 FPS are borderline playable, but Medium at 76.4 FPS is the safer choice for maintaining smooth gameplay.

The Ultra preset at 1440p (74.5 FPS) is also viable, but the 35 FPS drop from High to Ultra at this resolution suggests diminishing returns. For most users, High at 1440p represents the sweet spot where the GPU’s capabilities are fully utilized without pushing into the territory of rapidly diminishing returns. At 4K, Low settings at 100.5 FPS might appeal to competitive players, but for a city builder, the visual fidelity of Medium or High is likely worth the frame rate trade-off.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, built on TSMC’s 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of L3 cache. This configuration is more than sufficient for Steamworld Build, which is not known for heavily multithreaded simulation workloads.

The CPU’s benchmark scores show balanced performance across single-threaded and multi-threaded tests. In Cinebench R23, it scores 16,429 multi-core and 2,319 single-core. The 3DMark scores range from 836 single-thread to 5,411 max-threads, indicating that the CPU scales well with additional threads. For a city builder, the simulation logic often runs on a single thread, making the single-core score of 2,319 particularly relevant.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP and DDR4 memory support (with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are modest but adequate for this workload. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (273.8 FPS) suggest that the CPU is not a bottleneck even at very high frame rates. The PCIe Gen 3 interface is a minor consideration, as the RTX 3080 supports PCIe 4.0, but the bandwidth difference is unlikely to affect this game’s performance. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 79th among all processors places it comfortably above the median, and its nearest rivals all score within 0.2% of its average, confirming that it is a consistent performer for this type of game.