Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build, a city builder from late 2023, presents a specific performance profile when paired with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Arc B580. The measured data reveals a configuration that scales predictably with resolution and settings, offering clear guidance for users seeking an optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate. The dataset includes average FPS at four quality presets across three resolutions, providing a complete picture of this combo's capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for this combo indicates that the Medium preset is the most balanced choice across all resolutions, offering a playable experience without sacrificing the smoothness typically required for managing a bustling city. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset averages 141 FPS, with a minimum of 119 FPS and a maximum of 162 FPS. This frame rate is significantly above the threshold for smooth gameplay, providing ample headroom for the complex scenes and zoom operations common in the genre. The High preset at this resolution achieves 105 FPS, which is also very playable, but the drop from Medium is noticeable enough that the extra visual fidelity may not be worth the performance cost for all users.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an average of 89 FPS, with the minimum reported at 76 FPS. This is still comfortably in the playable range, ensuring that even during late-game scenarios with many structures and moving parts, the frame rate remains stable. The High preset at this resolution drops to 67 FPS, which is acceptable but begins to approach the threshold where frame pacing can become a concern in a genre reliant on precise cursor movements and rapid camera panning. For 4K gaming at 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only viable option for a consistently smooth experience, averaging 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS. While this is below the 60 FPS target, it remains playable for a slower-paced city builder.

The Ultra preset is consistently the most demanding, yielding only 71 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K. These numbers suggest that Ultra is designed for future hardware or for users who prioritize maximum visual quality over frame rate stability. The Low preset, while producing the highest frame rates (184 FPS at 1080p, 117 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K), likely compromises the visual experience of Steamworld Build, which features a distinct art style that benefits from higher detail settings. The data supports Medium as the sweet spot, as it maintains a minimum of 40 FPS even at 4K, ensuring no severe stutters, while providing a significant visual upgrade over Low.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate is 184 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

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

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset averages 47 FPS, which is playable, while the High preset drops to 35 FPS and Ultra falls to 24 FPS. The Low preset reaches 62 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the performance at 1440p High compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo averages 67 FPS. This is slightly lower than the 71 FPS average achieved at 1920x1080 with the Ultra preset, indicating that the higher resolution at High settings is marginally more demanding than 1080p at maximum quality.

Q: Is there a significant performance gap between the Low and Medium presets?

A: Yes. The difference is substantial. At 1920x1080, the average FPS drops from 184 on Low to 141 on Medium, a reduction of 43 FPS. At 2560x1440, the drop is from 117 FPS to 89 FPS, and at 4K, from 62 FPS to 47 FPS.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest minimum frame rate recorded is 40 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Medium settings preset.

Q: Does the frame rate scale linearly from 1080p to 4K?

A: No. The performance drop is more pronounced at higher settings. For example, on Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 141 at 1080p to 47 at 4K, a 67% reduction, whereas on Low settings, the drop is from 184 to 62, a 66% reduction, showing a consistent, heavy scaling burden.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. This scaling is a critical indicator of where the performance bottleneck lies for this particular combination of CPU and GPU. For the Medium preset, which has the most complete data set, the average frame rate at 1080p is 141 FPS. At 1440p, this drops to 89 FPS, a reduction of 37%. At 4K, the average falls to 47 FPS, a further 47% reduction from the 1440p figure.

This pattern of diminishing returns at higher resolutions strongly suggests that the Intel Arc B580 is the primary limiting factor in this configuration. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, provides sufficient processing power to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but as the pixel count increases, the GPU's rendering workload grows exponentially. The fact that the frame rate drops so significantly at 4K indicates that the Arc B580's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus are being saturated by the higher resolution demands.

The scaling behavior also differs slightly across presets. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is substantial (184 FPS vs 71 FPS), showing that the CPU can push high frame rates when the GPU load is light. However, at 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra narrows considerably (62 FPS vs 24 FPS), confirming that the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. This indicates that for users with high refresh rate 1080p monitors, the CPU has headroom, but for 4K displays, the GPU is the definitive bottleneck, and users should expect to adjust settings down to Medium or Low to maintain playable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides a complete grid of average frame rates for each resolution and settings combination. At 1920x1080, the full range is as follows: the Low preset achieves an average of 184 FPS, the Medium preset averages 141 FPS with a minimum of 119 FPS and a maximum of 162 FPS, the High preset averages 105 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 71 FPS. This resolution clearly favors the CPU, as even the most demanding preset clears the 60 FPS threshold with ease.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. The Low preset averages 117 FPS, which remains exceptionally high. The Medium preset delivers an average of 89 FPS, with the minimum and maximum recorded at 76 and 103 FPS respectively, showing a stable frame time distribution. The High preset drops to an average of 67 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show the GPU's workload. The Ultra preset falls to 45 FPS, indicating that maximum settings at this resolution are only suitable for users tolerant of lower frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become apparent. The Low preset averages 62 FPS, which is a solid result for 4K gaming. The Medium preset averages 47 FPS, with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 54 FPS, suggesting some frame pacing variability but generally staying within a playable range. The High preset drops to 35 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 24 FPS, both of which would likely result in a suboptimal experience for a game that requires precise cursor placement and smooth scrolling. The data confirms that 4K gaming with this combo is only recommended at Low or Medium settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F paired with the Intel Arc B580 holds a comboRankInGame of 2170 out of 2924 tested combinations. This places the configuration in the lower-middle percentile of all possible hardware pairings for Steamworld Build. The percentile ranking indicates that approximately 74% of tested combos perform better than this specific setup, which aligns with the measured FPS results showing that the system struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra settings.

This ranking is a reflection of the hardware's individual standings. The CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, has a percentile rank of 85 among all CPUs, indicating it is a strong performer in general processing tasks. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with a deltaPct of 0, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D with a deltaPct of -0.2, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 with a deltaPct of -0.4. These scores show the 5600F is closely matched with contemporary mid-range processors.

The GPU, the Intel Arc B580, has a lower percentile rank of 68 among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 23021 places it near the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (deltaPct -0.2), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (deltaPct 0.6), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (deltaPct -0.7). This indicates that the B580 offers performance comparable to older high-end cards, but its overall rank in this specific game is dragged down by the combination's inability to handle 4K Ultra settings. The data suggests that while the CPU is a capable partner, the GPU holds the combo back in the most demanding scenarios.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It operates with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor features 32 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory, with a dual-channel memory bus providing a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. In the context of Steamworld Build, a city builder that relies heavily on simulation logic and entity management, the CPU's role is to handle game state updates, pathfinding, and resource management.

The benchmark results for this CPU show it performs strongly in multithreaded workloads, with a Passmark multithread score of 19236 and a floating-point math score of 34548. The single-thread score of 2872 is also respectable, which is crucial for the main game loop that often runs on a single core. The data from the measured FPS suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this configuration. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 184 FPS, which indicates the CPU can feed the GPU with enough draw calls and simulation updates to reach very high frame rates.

However, the CPU's performance relative to its rivals shows it is a balanced mid-range part. Its average benchmark score of 36945 is nearly identical to the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37018), and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093). This implies that in CPU-bound scenarios, the 5600F will perform on par with these alternatives. For Steamworld Build, the CPU's 12 threads are likely sufficient to handle the simulation at 60 FPS, but the data shows that as resolution increases and the GPU becomes the limiting factor, the CPU's headroom becomes less relevant.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the defining component in this combo's performance profile. It is based on the Xe2-HPG architecture, codenamed Battlemage, and built on a 5 nm process. The GPU features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, with 20 ray tracing cores. It operates at a consistent clock speed of 2670 MHz for both base and boost. The memory subsystem is a critical feature, with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s and a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it is a competent performer, with a Passmark G3D score of 15748 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3068. Its average benchmark score of 23021 places it in a tight cluster with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080, which has a deltaPct of 0.6, and the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, which has a deltaPct of -0.2. This suggests that in raw compute terms, the B580 is competitive with earlier generation high-end cards.

In Steamworld Build, the GPU's role is to render the game's distinct visual style, which includes detailed textures and dynamic lighting that can be taxing on fill-rate. The measured FPS data clearly shows the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The drop from 141 FPS at 1080p Medium to 47 FPS at 4K Medium represents a 67% reduction, which is a direct consequence of the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power being stretched by the increased pixel count. The 12 GB VRAM is ample for this game, even at 4K, but the 192-bit bus and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are not sufficient to maintain high frame rates at maximum settings, leading to the observed performance dips at 4K Ultra.