Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that scales heavily with resolution, and the measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Intel Arc B570 combination shows a clear progression from highly playable at 1080p to nearly unplayable at 4K Ultra. The gap between the Low and Ultra presets widens dramatically as resolution increases, which points directly at the graphics card as the primary bottleneck in this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 162 FPS at 1920x1080 to 103 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 55 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 66% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, which is a typical pattern for a GPU-bound scenario at lower quality presets. At High settings, the drop is from 93 FPS at 1080p to 59 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 31 FPS at 4K—a 67% loss. The Medium preset tells a similar story, with 124 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K.

What stands out is the behavior at Ultra settings. The average frame rate at 4K Ultra is just 21 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable play. From 1080p Ultra (63 FPS) to 4K Ultra (21 FPS), the performance drops by 67%. This consistent ~66-67% reduction across all presets suggests that the scaling is almost entirely resolution-driven, not settings-driven. The limiting component here is the GPU, as the CPU has enough headroom to feed the graphics card at all tested resolutions.

The Medium preset at 4K provides the only 4K row with min/max data: 35 FPS minimum, 42 FPS average, and 48 FPS maximum. This indicates that even at medium quality, the frame time variance is significant at 4K, with the minimum dipping below 40 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the min/max range is 67 to 91 FPS with an average of 79, showing much tighter frame pacing. The 1080p Medium row shows a min of 106 FPS and max of 143 FPS, which is a 37 FPS spread—the largest absolute variance in the dataset, but still within a playable range.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, also known as Battlemage, and the benchmark data suggests it handles Steamworld Build's moderate graphical demands well at lower resolutions but struggles at 4K. The GPU has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The core clock runs at a flat 2500 MHz for both base and boost, which is unusual and likely means the card is power-limited rather than clock-limited in this workload.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% faster), the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% slower), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (0.5% slower). These are all cards with similar raw compute capabilities, so the Arc B570 is not a high-end part, and the measured FPS in Steamworld Build reflects that positioning. The FP32 compute is rated at 11.52 TFLOPS, and the texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s, which are mid-range figures for a modern GPU.

The memory configuration is the most likely culprit for the steep 4K performance cliff. With only 10 GB of VRAM, the card may be hitting capacity limits at 4K Ultra, causing the frame rate to collapse to 21 FPS. At 4K High, the average is 31 FPS, which is marginally better but still below 60. The fact that 4K Low manages 55 FPS suggests that the card has enough raw rendering power for 4K, but the higher settings push it over the edge, likely due to memory bandwidth or capacity constraints rather than compute limits.

The GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark score of 72 in Passmark is low, but this is a synthetic test that may not reflect real-world gaming performance. In actual Steamworld Build measurements, the card delivers 162 FPS at 1080p Low, which is strong. The card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, so it is feature-complete for modern titles, but the architectural efficiency at high resolutions is clearly lacking.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X paired with the Intel Arc B570 ranks 2320 out of 2924 combos for Steamworld Build. This places it in the bottom 21% of tested systems, which is a surprisingly low ranking given the individual component scores. The CPU alone sits in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU's 65th percentile ranking drags the combo down. The ranking indicates that most other tested combos—presumably with higher-tier GPUs—achieve better frame rates in this game.

This low ranking is driven by the 4K results. At 1080p, the combo is competitive, but many other GPU options will push past 162 FPS at Low settings. The combo's rank is likely dragged down by the 21 FPS 4K Ultra result, which is a poor showing compared to systems with more powerful graphics cards. The delta between the CPU's strong synthetic benchmarks and the combo's poor game-specific ranking suggests that Steamworld Build is heavily GPU-limited, and the Ryzen 5 7600X is not the bottleneck.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (0.2% faster), the Intel Core i5-12600K (0.2% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (0.4% faster). These are all 8-core or higher parts, yet the 6-core 7600X keeps pace, indicating strong per-core performance. In Steamworld Build, the CPU is likely not the limiting factor, as city builders can be CPU-heavy, but the data shows the GPU is the constraint at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 162 FPS on Low, 124 FPS on Medium, 93 FPS on High, and 63 FPS on Ultra. The Low to Medium step costs 38 FPS, Medium to High costs 31 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 30 FPS. Each settings tier takes a roughly equal toll on performance, which is typical for a game where quality presets primarily affect shadow quality and draw distances. The 1080p Medium row shows a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS, meaning the average of 124 FPS is well-centered, but there is a 37 FPS swing that could be noticeable in busy scenes.

At 2560x1440, the numbers drop to 103 FPS on Low, 79 FPS on Medium, 59 FPS on High, and 40 FPS on Ultra. The Medium row shows a min of 67 FPS and max of 91 FPS. This resolution is the sweet spot for this combo, as even High settings maintain a 59 FPS average, which is just below the 60 FPS target but playable. The step from Medium to High at 1440p costs 20 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 19 FPS, showing a consistent degradation.

At 3840x2160, the results are 55 FPS on Low, 42 FPS on Medium, 31 FPS on High, and 21 FPS on Ultra. The Medium row has a min of 35 FPS and max of 48 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 13 FPS, Medium to High is 11 FPS, and High to Ultra is 10 FPS. At 4K, the card is clearly running out of headroom, and even Low settings barely break 55 FPS. The 21 FPS Ultra result is a hard floor, indicating the card cannot handle the combined load of 4K resolution and high-quality assets.

Settings Recommendations

The best experience per the measured rows is at 1440p Medium or High. At 1440p Medium, the average is 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS, which provides a smooth, consistent frame rate that stays above 60 FPS in most scenes. At 1440p High, the average drops to 59 FPS, which is borderline but acceptable for a city builder where frame pacing is less critical than in fast-action games. The 1440p Ultra result of 40 FPS is too low for a comfortable experience, as city building involves frequent camera panning and zooming, which makes lower frame rates feel sluggish.

At 1080p, all settings are playable, but the 63 FPS Ultra result is the only one below 90 FPS. The 1080p High setting at 93 FPS offers a good balance of visual quality and performance, while 1080p Medium at 124 FPS provides plenty of headroom for large cities with many entities. The 1080p Low setting at 162 FPS is unnecessary for a game like this, but it shows the CPU is not holding back the GPU at this resolution.

For 4K, the data suggests avoiding this combo entirely unless you are willing to play at Low settings. The 4K Low result of 55 FPS is playable, but the visual quality will be significantly reduced. The 4K Medium result of 42 FPS is marginal, and the 4K High and Ultra results are not recommended. If 4K is a priority, a stronger GPU would be required, but within this combo's capabilities, 1440p Medium or High is the recommended target.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has 32 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel configuration, providing 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU's synthetic benchmarks are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15236 and a single-core score of 1965. The Geekbench multicore score is 13858, and the single-core score is 2603.

In Steamworld Build, the CPU's role is to handle the simulation logic, pathfinding, and AI for city residents and industrial buildings. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 162 FPS, which suggests the CPU can push the GPU to its limits at lower resolutions. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6879 and max-thread score of 6845 indicate that the CPU's multithreaded performance is consistent, which is important for a city builder that may use multiple threads for different simulation systems.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 79th among all CPUs means it outperforms most processors on the market, and its nearest rivals in synthetic tests are all slightly faster 8-core parts. However, the combo's game-specific ranking of 2320 out of 2924 shows that the CPU's strength does not translate to a high ranking in this game because the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is sufficient for Steamworld Build, as the game does not appear to require more than 6 cores based on the FPS data. The 32 MB of L3 cache likely helps with the simulation data, but the game's performance is ultimately capped by the GPU at higher resolutions.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.30 GHz is high, and the single-thread performance (Geekbench single-core score of 2603) ensures that the main simulation thread can run quickly. However, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra of 21 FPS is so low that even a faster CPU would not improve the result—the GPU is the clear limiting factor. For players using this combo, the CPU is not the concern; the GPU's inability to handle 4K Ultra settings is the primary constraint.