Steamworld Build

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D paired with the Intel Arc B570 lands at rank 2320 out of 2924 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the bottom 21% of all configurations. This is a surprisingly low standing for a combo whose individual components both sit near the middle of their respective performance distributions — the CPU ranks in the 89th percentile among all processors, while the GPU sits in the 65th percentile among all graphics cards.

The disconnect between component-level percentiles and the in-game combo ranking points to a fundamental mismatch in this pairing for this specific title. Steamworld Build is a city builder, a genre that typically rewards strong single-threaded CPU performance for simulation logic, but the data here suggests the Arc B570 is the constraining factor at most settings. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3494 is competitive with its nearest rivals — the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H trails by just 0.2% in average benchmark score, and the Intel Core i9-13950HX is 0.5% behind — yet the combo still ranks poorly because the GPU cannot translate that CPU headroom into high frame rates at demanding settings.

At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 162 FPS, which is the strongest result in the measured set and indicates that the CPU can push very high frame rates when the GPU workload is light. However, the rank is dragged down by the 4K Ultra result of just 21 FPS, which is barely playable. The spread between the best and worst measured results is enormous — from 162 FPS down to 21 FPS — and the combo's overall rank reflects that inconsistency. In a game where players may want to zoom out and view large portions of their city, the low 4K performance becomes a practical liability.

FAQ

Q: What is the best 1080p performance this combo can achieve in Steamworld Build?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 162 FPS average. Medium settings deliver 124 FPS (with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS), High settings produce 93 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 63 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500X3D has an average benchmark score of 44573. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, scores 44466 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core i9-13950HX scores 44342 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 scores 44309 (0.6% lower). The Intel Core i5-14600 scores 44889, which is 0.7% higher than the 7500X3D.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other graphics cards?

A: The Intel Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534 (0.1% lower), followed by the Intel Arc A750 at 20582 (0.1% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M at 20480 (0.4% lower), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X at 20662 (0.5% higher).

Q: Is the combo better suited to 1440p or 1080p gaming?

A: The data shows 1080p is clearly the stronger resolution for this combo. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 93 FPS, while at 1440p High it drops to 59 FPS — a 37% reduction. At 1080p Ultra, the combo still manages 63 FPS, whereas 1440p Ultra falls to 40 FPS.

Q: What is the worst-case performance scenario for this pairing?

A: The worst measured result is at 4K Ultra settings, where the combo averages just 21 FPS. Even at 4K Low settings, it only reaches 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have and what bandwidth does it offer?

A: The Intel Arc B570 comes with 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 2375 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the primary bottleneck in this combo for Steamworld Build. The GPU's 10 GB of GDDR6 VRAM is not the issue — a city builder like this rarely needs more than 10 GB even at 4K. The problem lies in the raw compute throughput. The Arc B570 delivers 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, with a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s. These figures place it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable for mainstream gaming but insufficient for high-refresh-rate play at higher resolutions in this title.

The GPU's base and boost clocks are both locked at 2500 MHz, which is a modest clock speed for a modern discrete card. The 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs handle pixel output at 200.0 GPixel/s, but the measured results show that this throughput is only enough for smooth 60+ FPS gameplay at 1080p with medium-to-high settings. At 1440p, the GPU starts to struggle, and at 4K, it falls below playable thresholds at every setting except Low.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 14195 and a PassMark GPU compute score of 7281. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, scores nearly identically overall (20534 vs 20556, a 0.1% difference), which puts the Arc B570 in the same performance class as a mobile RTX 3070. In Steamworld Build specifically, the GPU's DirectX 12 support (12 Ultimate, 12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 capability are assets, but the driver overhead for a city builder with many draw calls may be limiting the CPU's ability to feed the GPU efficiently.

The 4K results are particularly telling. At 4K Medium, the GPU manages 42 FPS average (with a minimum of 35 and maximum of 48), but at 4K High it drops to 31 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it collapses to 21 FPS. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s is not sufficient to sustain high frame rates at 4K, where texture fetching and memory access patterns become more demanding. The 160-bit memory bus is a notable constraint here, as wider-bus competitors can move data more efficiently at high resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce 162 FPS average, which is an excellent result for a city builder and indicates the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution. Medium settings reduce the average to 124 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS — the tight min-max spread suggests consistent frame pacing. High settings drop to 93 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS. Ultra settings bring the average down to 63 FPS, which is right at the edge of smooth gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates step down significantly. Low settings average 103 FPS, which is still very playable but represents a 36% drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 79 FPS, with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 91 FPS — again, a narrow range that indicates stability. High settings fall to 59 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra settings drop further to 40 FPS, which is borderline for a game that requires precise cursor placement and menu navigation.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely disappointing. Low settings average 55 FPS, which is technically playable but not smooth. Medium settings drop to 42 FPS average, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS — the 13 FPS spread indicates noticeable frame time variance. High settings average just 31 FPS, and Ultra settings crash to 21 FPS, which is effectively unplayable for a genre that requires constant interaction with menus and the game world.

The dataset shows a clear pattern: the combo delivers playable performance (60+ FPS) at 1080p for all settings, at 1440p for Low and Medium settings, but only at 4K for Low settings. The Medium settings results at each resolution are the only rows with min/max data, which allows for a precise view of frame consistency. At 1080p Medium, the 106-143 FPS range shows a 35% variance from min to max; at 1440p Medium, the 67-91 FPS range shows a 36% variance; at 4K Medium, the 35-48 FPS range shows a 37% variance. This consistent variance pattern suggests the GPU is scaling predictably with resolution, but the absolute frame rates at 4K are too low for comfortable play.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this combo. At Low settings, the progression is 162 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36%, and from 1440p to 4K is 47%. For a GPU with 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput, this scaling is steeper than ideal, indicating that the memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s becomes a limiting factor as pixel count increases.

At Medium settings, the progression is 124 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 36%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 47%. The consistency of these percentages across settings — 36% and 47% for both Low and Medium — suggests that the GPU's performance is scaling almost linearly with pixel count, which is characteristic of a fill-rate-bound scenario. The 4K resolution has 4 times the pixels of 1080p, but the frame rate drops by only 66% (from 162 to 55 at Low), which means the GPU is not purely pixel-bound; there is some headroom from the CPU that partially compensates.

At High settings, the progression is 93 FPS at 1080p, 59 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 37%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 47%. At Ultra settings, the progression is 63 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 37%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 48%. The near-identical scaling percentages across all four settings presets strongly indicate that the limiting component is the GPU, not the CPU. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D, with its 96 MB of shared L3 cache and 6 cores/12 threads, has more than enough compute headroom to feed the GPU at all resolutions tested.

The scaling pattern also shows that the combo is not resolution-limited in a way that would suggest a CPU bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rates would cluster together more tightly across resolutions. Instead, the 4K results are roughly one-third of the 1080p results at every setting, which is a classic GPU-bound signature. This means that players who want higher frame rates at 1440p or 4K would need to upgrade the GPU rather than the CPU.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gameplay, the data supports using High settings as the optimal balance. The combo delivers 93 FPS at High, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the jump from High to Ultra costs 30 FPS (from 93 to 63) for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in a city builder. Medium settings at 1080p offer 124 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss compared to High is not worth the extra 31 FPS in a genre where precise texture readability for resource management matters. Ultra at 1080p produces 63 FPS, which is playable but leaves no headroom for large cities with many active entities.

For 1440p, Medium is the recommended setting. The combo achieves 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS, which maintains smooth gameplay even in complex scenes. High settings at 1440p drop to 59 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and will likely feel less responsive. Low settings at 1440p produce 103 FPS, but the visual downgrade is significant for a game that relies on visual clarity for city planning. Ultra at 1440p at 40 FPS is not recommended, as the frame rate is too low for comfortable interaction.

For 4K, the data strongly suggests that this combo is not suitable for anything beyond Low settings. At 4K Low, the combo averages 55 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Medium settings at 4K drop to 42 FPS, which will be noticeable during panning and zooming operations. High and Ultra at 4K produce 31 FPS and 21 FPS respectively, which are unplayable for a genre that requires constant mouse movement and menu interaction. Players with 4K displays should either lower the resolution to 1440p or accept Low settings at native 4K.

The measured FPS rows show that Medium settings at 1440p provide the best combination of visual quality and performance headroom, with 79 FPS average and a 67 FPS minimum that never dips below playable levels. For players who prioritize smoothness over visuals, 1080p High at 93 FPS is the safest recommendation, as it leaves substantial headroom for city growth. The Ultra presets at all resolutions are consistently 30-50% slower than High, and the visual gains in a top-down city builder are typically minimal. The data indicates that this combo's sweet spot is 1080p High or 1440p Medium, with 4K best avoided unless the player is willing to run at Low settings.