Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build places the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination at rank 136 out of 3706 tested configurations. This pairing delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all presets, with the data suggesting a significant bottleneck shift depending on resolution and quality settings. The following analysis breaks down the measured performance, the role of each component, and what the numbers imply for gameplay.

FAQ

Q: What is the best-performing preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves the highest average frame rate at 327 FPS, followed closely by Medium at 297 FPS. High reaches 252 FPS, while Ultra drops to 170 FPS, showing a steep performance cost for the highest quality settings.

Q: How much does the average FPS drop from 1080p to 4K on the High preset?

A: The average FPS falls from 252 at 1920x1080 to 160 at 2560x1440, and finally to 85 at 3840x2160. This represents a reduction of approximately 66% from the 1080p figure when moving to 4K.

Q: Which resolution shows the smallest performance gap between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 4K, the gap between Low (148 FPS) and Ultra (57 FPS) is 91 FPS. At 1440p, the gap is 172 FPS (280 vs 108), and at 1080p, the gap is 157 FPS (327 vs 170). The smallest absolute difference is at 4K.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 8400F a strong performer relative to other CPUs in the database?

A: The CPU sits at the 77th percentile among all tested processors. Its average benchmark score of 25005 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, which scores 24964, a delta of 0.2%.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The data shows minimum FPS values for Medium settings only: 252 at 1080p, 182 at 1440p, and 96 at 4K. These minimums indicate that even the lowest frame dips remain highly playable.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4090 scores 60347 on average, which is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60326 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 60140 (0.3% delta). It performs 2.5% better than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, which scores 61896.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant graphics processor in this configuration, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus. This memory configuration provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for a city builder where the scene complexity—buildings, roads, and population density—can change rapidly as the player expands. The high bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and draw calls do not become a limiting factor, even when the simulation state grows large.

The GPU's clock speeds are substantial: a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units, explain why the card sustains triple-digit frame rates in most scenarios. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are particularly relevant for Steamworld Build's stylized visuals, which rely heavily on crisp textures and clean geometry rather than complex post-processing effects.

In the measured results, the GPU shows its strength at lower resolutions where frame rates exceed 300 FPS. At 1080p Low, the average is 327 FPS, indicating that the RTX 4090 is nowhere near its computational limits. However, the data reveals a curious pattern: the RTX 4090's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are professional workstation cards like the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, which suggests that raw compute benchmarks do not fully capture gaming performance in this title. The card's 88th percentile ranking among all GPUs underscores that it is an elite performer, yet the game's engine appears to cap effective utilization at higher settings, as seen in the 4K Ultra result of 57 FPS—a figure that seems low for such a powerful GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for most users. At 1440p, Medium delivers an average of 214 FPS with a minimum of 182 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth and leaves headroom for any sudden scene complexity increases. The 1080p Medium result is even stronger at 297 FPS average, with minimums of 252 FPS, ensuring that even the most chaotic city layouts will not cause perceptible stutter.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, the High preset is the recommended choice over Ultra. At 4K, High achieves 85 FPS compared to Ultra's 57 FPS—a 28 FPS difference that represents a 49% performance improvement. The visual gap between High and Ultra in a city builder is often minimal since the genre relies on UI clarity and readability rather than cinematic effects. At 1440p, High reaches 160 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors.

The Low preset is not recommended for this hardware combination. While it produces the highest frame rates (327 FPS at 1080p, 280 FPS at 1440p, 148 FPS at 4K), the visual compromise is unnecessary given that the RTX 4090 can easily handle Medium or High settings. The data indicates that the game becomes CPU-limited at Low settings, as the frame rates at 1080p and 1440p are closer together than they are at higher quality presets, signaling that the GPU is waiting on the processor rather than vice versa.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces a wide spread of results. Low leads with 327 FPS average, followed by Medium at 297 FPS (minimum 252, maximum 342), High at 252 FPS, and Ultra at 170 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the largest single-step drop occurring between High and Ultra, a reduction of 82 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that are disproportionately expensive on the GPU.

The 2560x1440 results show a similar pattern but with lower absolute values. Low achieves 280 FPS, Medium reaches 214 FPS (minimum 182, maximum 246), High hits 160 FPS, and Ultra drops to 108 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 172 FPS, which is a larger absolute gap than at 1080p (157 FPS), indicating that resolution scaling amplifies the cost of higher quality settings.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve compresses significantly. Low produces 148 FPS, Medium 113 FPS (minimum 96, maximum 130), High 85 FPS, and Ultra only 57 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 91 FPS, and notably, the Medium minimum of 96 FPS is close to the High average of 85 FPS, suggesting that 4K resolution places substantial stress on the GPU regardless of quality preset. The 4K Medium result of 113 FPS is the most balanced figure in the entire dataset, offering both high fidelity and smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 8400F and RTX 4090 achieves rank 136 out of 3706 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the top 3.7% of all configurations. This high ranking is expected given the RTX 4090's position as the most powerful consumer GPU in the database, but it is notable that the combo does not rank higher, suggesting that other pairings—likely with more powerful CPUs—achieve better results in this specific game.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark average of 25005 places it at the 77th percentile, which is solid but not exceptional. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (24964, 0.2% delta) and Intel Core i7-13620H (24911, 0.4% delta), both of which are close in raw compute power. However, the RTX 4090's 88th percentile ranking among GPUs means that the graphics card is the standout component in this pairing, and the combo rank reflects that the GPU is doing most of the heavy lifting.

The rank of 136 becomes more impressive when considering that there are over 3700 possible combinations. This places the setup well ahead of the median, but the data implies that the Ryzen 5 8400F is not the ideal partner for the RTX 4090 in a game like Steamworld Build, which may benefit from higher single-thread performance or additional cache. The CPU's single-thread 3DMark score of 951 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943 are respectable, but they do not match the top-tier processors that likely populate the ranks above.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Phoenix, manufactured on a 4nm process. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943 and the 3DMark single-thread score of 951. For a city builder like Steamworld Build, where the simulation logic—pathfinding, resource distribution, and citizen behavior—can be heavily reliant on single-thread performance, these scores are relevant.

The CPU's cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. This 16 MB L3 is modest compared to other desktop processors, and in a game that may have large working sets for simulation data, this could become a limiting factor. However, the CPU's 77th percentile ranking and its benchmark scores—Cinebench R23 multicore at 20851 and PassMark multithread at 24389—indicate that it handles multi-threaded workloads competently.

The measured FPS data reveals the CPU's influence most clearly at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (327 FPS) and Medium (297 FPS) is 30 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High (252 FPS) is 45 FPS. In contrast, at 4K, the Low-to-Medium gap is 35 FPS and the Medium-to-High gap is 28 FPS. This pattern suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary constraint, as the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can feed it data. The Ryzen 5 8400F's 6-core/12-thread configuration is sufficient for most games, but the 4.70 GHz boost clock is not the highest available, which may explain why the combo does not rank higher.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 252 at 1080p to 160 at 1440p (a 36.5% reduction) and then to 85 at 4K (a 46.9% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels rendered directly impacts performance. However, the magnitude of the drop—167 FPS from 1080p to 4K—is substantial, indicating that the RTX 4090 is being pushed hard at higher resolutions.

The Low preset shows a different scaling pattern. From 1080p (327 FPS) to 1440p (280 FPS), the drop is 14.4%, while from 1440p to 4K (148 FPS), the drop is 47.1%. The relatively small drop between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor in this range, as the GPU has enough headroom to handle the increased pixel count without significant frame loss. The sharp drop at 4K indicates that the GPU finally becomes the bottleneck even at Low quality.

The Medium preset's minimum FPS values provide additional insight into scaling behavior. At 1080p, the minimum is 252 FPS; at 1440p, it is 182 FPS; and at 4K, it is 96 FPS. The ratio of minimum to average FPS stays relatively consistent (0.85 at 1080p, 0.85 at 1440p, 0.85 at 4K), suggesting that frame time variance scales proportionally with resolution. This consistency implies that the game's engine maintains stable performance characteristics across resolutions, with no unexpected spikes or drops. The data overall points to a system where the RTX 4090 is the dominant component at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 8400F becomes more relevant at 1080p and 1440p, particularly when graphical settings are lowered.