Steamworld Build

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and Intel Arc B370 combination delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p in Steamworld Build, but the integrated-class GPU becomes the decisive bottleneck at higher resolutions and quality presets. The data shows a 91.7% average FPS drop from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra, confirming that this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming with medium settings, where it achieves a 73 FPS average. The CPU's 96 MB of shared L3 cache and 6-core/12-thread configuration provide ample headroom for city-builder simulation logic, though the GPU's low performance percentile (5th) limits overall system capability.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer codename) using a 7 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 3.00 GHz and boost clock of 4.00 GHz, combined with 96 MB of shared L3 cache, position it as a strong contender for simulation-heavy titles like Steamworld Build, where CPU logic drives entity updates and resource management. The processor's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core and 512 KB L2 per core, with the substantial L3 allocation being particularly relevant for city builders that repeatedly access game state data.

Benchmark results indicate the CPU performs well above average, with a PassMark multithread score of 20,363 and single-thread score of 2,941. The processor's percentileVsAllCpus of 85 means it outperforms 85% of all tested CPUs, placing it firmly in the upper tier for gaming workloads. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (0.2% higher average score), Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (0.2% higher), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (0.2% lower), and Intel Core i9-12900T (0.3% lower) — all within a narrow performance band, suggesting the 5500X3D offers competitive processing power for its segment.

In Steamworld Build specifically, the CPU's role is to maintain simulation stability as colonies grow. The 12 threads allow parallel processing of different game systems — resource distribution, pathfinding, and building construction — which is critical for maintaining consistent frame times. The 96 MB L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed simulation data on-die, reducing memory latency that could otherwise cause stutters during large-scale city management. However, the measured FPS data reveals that the GPU becomes the primary limiter at higher settings, as the CPU's capabilities far exceed what the integrated Arc B370 can feed to the display.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The optimal experience for this combo is Medium settings at 1920x1080, delivering a 73 FPS average with minimums of 62 FPS and maximums of 84 FPS. This preset provides a balanced trade-off between visual fidelity and smoothness, keeping frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold for fluid city-building interaction. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 95 FPS average, which is smoother but sacrifices visual quality that enhances the game's isometric presentation and readability of building states.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset drops to 46 FPS average (range 39-53 FPS), which is playable but noticeably less fluid. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 61 FPS average, making it the recommended choice for users who prioritize resolution over settings. The High preset at 1440p yields 35 FPS, which begins to feel sluggish for a genre that benefits from smooth camera panning and zoom operations.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. At 1080p it produces 37 FPS average, at 1440p it falls to 23 FPS, and at 4K it becomes unplayable at 12 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra settings is severe, with the 1080p Ultra average being 49.3% lower than Medium (73 FPS to 37 FPS). For users who insist on maximum visual quality, the data suggests that High settings at 1080p (55 FPS) is the realistic ceiling, though it still sacrifices smoothness compared to Medium.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling pattern clearly identifies the GPU as the bottleneck. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Medium settings reduces average FPS from 73 to 46, a 37% decrease. Further scaling to 3840x2160 at Medium drops performance to 25 FPS, representing a 45.7% reduction from 1440p and a 65.8% reduction from 1080p. These proportional declines closely track the pixel count increases (1080p has 2.07 million pixels, 1440p has 3.69 million, 4K has 8.29 million), indicating that the GPU's fill rate and shader throughput are the limiting factors.

The same pattern holds across all settings presets. At Low settings, 1080p produces 95 FPS, 1440p produces 61 FPS (35.8% drop), and 4K produces 32 FPS (47.5% drop from 1440p). At High settings, the progression is 55 FPS → 35 FPS → 18 FPS, with each resolution step costing roughly 36% to 49% of remaining performance. The Ultra preset shows the steepest decline: 37 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p (37.8% drop), and 12 FPS at 4K (47.8% drop).

This scaling behavior is characteristic of a GPU with limited pixel throughput. The Intel Arc B370's specifications — 1,280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs — produce a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. These figures are modest for modern gaming, and the 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 compute capacity restricts the GPU's ability to handle the increasing shader complexity at higher resolutions. The CPU's performance remains relatively constant across resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent proportional FPS drops, confirming that the processor is not the limiting component.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2,683 out of 2,924 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the bottom 8.2% of all configurations. This low ranking is primarily attributable to the GPU, which itself ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs (percentileVsAllGpus: 5). The CPU's strong performance (85th percentile) cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations in a graphics-intensive city builder where the visual rendering of buildings, terrain, and effects dominates frame time.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are all older or lower-end parts: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (0.2% higher score), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (0.5% higher), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (0.7% higher), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1.4% lower). This places the Arc B370 in the same performance tier as integrated and entry-level discrete GPUs from over a decade ago. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,184 confirms this positioning, with the GPU's average benchmark score being identical to that single result.

For context, the combo rank means that 2,682 other CPU+GPU pairings deliver higher frame rates in Steamworld Build. This is not surprising given the GPU's integrated-class specifications: 25 W TDP, system-shared memory, and no dedicated VRAM. The CPU's 51.2 GB/s dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth becomes the effective memory bandwidth for the GPU, which is shared with the CPU's own workload — further constraining graphics performance in a simulation-heavy title.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated GPU (IGP) based on the Panther Lake chip, using the Xe3-LPG architecture on Intel's 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and boost clock of 2400 MHz, with system-shared memory providing both capacity and bandwidth that is "System Dependent." The GPU has 1,280 shading units, 40 TMUs, 20 ROPs, and 10 ray tracing cores, producing a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS, with FP16 reaching 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio).

The absence of dedicated VRAM means the GPU relies on the system's DDR4 memory, which the CPU also uses. This creates contention for memory bandwidth, particularly in Steamworld Build where both the simulation logic and the rendering pipeline require frequent memory accesses. The 51.2 GB/s theoretical bandwidth of the dual-channel DDR4 configuration is insufficient for high-resolution textures and complex scene geometry, explaining why performance degrades so rapidly at 4K resolutions.

The GPU's 25 W TDP and IGP form factor (no power connectors, portable device dependent display outputs) clearly indicate its target market is low-power systems. The API support includes DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which are modern standards, but the hardware's compute and memory limitations prevent it from fully utilizing these APIs' advanced features. The 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs underscores that the Arc B370 is not designed for demanding gaming workloads, yet it manages to deliver playable 1080p performance in Steamworld Build due to the game's relatively modest graphics requirements.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS across presets shows a clear gradient from playable to marginal. Low settings achieve 95 FPS average, providing the smoothest experience. Medium settings deliver 73 FPS average with a range of 62-84 FPS, offering the best balance of visual quality and performance. High settings drop to 55 FPS average, which is still acceptable for a city builder. Ultra settings produce 37 FPS average, which introduces noticeable stutter during complex scene transitions.

At 2560x1440, performance metrics reflect the increased pixel load. Low settings reach 61 FPS average, maintaining playability. Medium settings average 46 FPS with a range of 39-53 FPS, which is borderline for smooth interaction. High settings yield 35 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 23 FPS average — both below the threshold for comfortable play. The 1440p Medium results show a 37% reduction from 1080p Medium, consistent with the resolution's 78.3% pixel count increase (though not fully proportional, indicating some efficiency gains at moderate settings).

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become severe. Low settings produce 32 FPS average, which is the only 4K preset exceeding 30 FPS. Medium settings average 25 FPS with a range of 21-28 FPS, showing frame times that will cause visible judder. High settings drop to 18 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 12 FPS average — effectively unplayable for any real-time interaction. The 4K Low result represents a 66.3% reduction from 1080p Low (95 FPS to 32 FPS), while 4K Medium shows a 65.8% reduction from 1080p Medium (73 FPS to 25 FPS).

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best performance-to-quality ratio, with the 1080p Medium result (73 FPS) being the standout configuration. Users targeting 1440p should select Low settings (61 FPS) for smoothness, while 4K gaming is only marginally viable at Low settings (32 FPS). The measured data shows no min/max FPS values for Low, High, and Ultra presets, indicating that only Medium settings were tested with frame time variance captured.