Steamworld Build

# Steamworld Build with AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + Intel Arc B370

This combination of an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Intel Arc B370 produces a playable but constrained experience in Steamworld Build, a city builder that clearly favors GPU throughput over CPU muscle. The measured data shows this pairing ranks 2683rd out of 2924 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations, which is a direct consequence of the Arc B370's modest graphics capabilities rather than any limitation from the 8-core Ryzen processor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 95 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At Medium settings, the average drops to 73 FPS, while High settings yield 55 FPS and Ultra produces 37 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it within 0.7% of the ATI Radeon HD 7650M (1192) and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186). It trails the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190) by 0.5% and leads the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168) by 1.4%.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 3700X a bottleneck in this game?

A: The data suggests not. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, combined with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is far above the GPU's 5th percentile ranking. At 4K, FPS drops to 18 on High settings, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the FPS range at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the measured average FPS is 46, with a minimum of 39 and a maximum of 53 FPS. This is the only resolution and settings combination in the data with recorded min and max values at 1440p.

Q: How much faster is the CPU compared to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X's average benchmark score of 34260 is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222) and AMD EPYC 4244P (34220), and 0.5% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34083). It trails the Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333) by 0.2%.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 2683 out of 2924 imply?

A: It implies this configuration sits in the bottom tier of tested hardware for Steamworld Build. Approximately 91.7% of tested combos deliver better performance, which aligns with the GPU's low percentile ranking and the measured FPS at higher settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the dominant constraint in this pairing. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 puts it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are all legacy ATI/AMD parts from over a decade ago. The GPU uses system shared memory, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM pool; this is a critical factor for Steamworld Build, a city builder where texture loading and draw calls scale with population and building density.

The Arc B370's clock behavior shows a base of 300 MHz and a boost of 2400 MHz, with a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput of 6.144 TFLOPS is adequate for light workloads, but the 25W TDP and IGP bus interface indicate this is an integrated-class solution. In a city builder, the GPU must handle frequent scene redraws as the camera pans across expanding settlements, and the data shows this part struggles beyond 1080p.

The measured FPS tells a clear story: at 4K High settings, the average is just 18 FPS, which is below playable thresholds. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 12 FPS, making the game effectively unplayable at that resolution. Even at 1440p, High settings only reach 35 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. The GPU's low fill rate and shared memory bandwidth create a situation where increasing resolution has a dramatic impact on performance, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. The Arc B370's 1280 shading units and 20 ROPs are simply insufficient for high-resolution city building, where the combination of geometry and texture work overwhelms the available throughput.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X presents a stark contrast to the GPU. This 8-core, 16-thread processor from the Zen 2 Matisse architecture operates at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boosts to 4.40 GHz, with a 65W TDP. Its benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance: a Cinebench R15 multi-core score of 2092, a Geekbench multi-core score of 8899, and a Passmark multi-thread score of 22458. The single-thread scores are also respectable, with Cinebench R15 at 204 and Geekbench at 1593.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 84th among all CPUs means it outperforms the vast majority of processors on the market. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, 0.1% lower) and the Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333, 0.2% higher), indicating the 3700X is competitively positioned even against much newer parts. The 32 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth provide ample headroom for a city builder, where simulation threads manage resources, pathfinding, and AI behaviors.

In Steamworld Build, the CPU's role is to handle the underlying simulation while the GPU renders the scene. The data shows that this CPU is more than capable of feeding the Arc B370, as evidenced by the FPS scaling pattern. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 95 FPS, which is a strong result and suggests the CPU is not limiting at that resolution. However, even at 4K Low settings, the average FPS is 32, which is only slightly above the 30 FPS threshold for basic playability. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS across resolutions, but the data shows a steep drop from 1080p to 4K, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component in this pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 2683 out of 2924 tested combinations, this pairing places in the bottom 8.2% of all configurations for Steamworld Build. This ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, which ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking does little to boost the overall combo because the game's performance is gated by graphics processing.

The data reveals a significant mismatch: the Ryzen 7 3700X is a high-performing CPU that can handle modern workloads, but the Arc B370 is an entry-level integrated GPU. In a city builder genre where players often zoom out to view large sections of their settlement, the GPU must render many objects simultaneously. The combo's rank suggests that most other tested configurations, including those with older or less capable CPUs but stronger GPUs, outperform this pairing.

The nearest GPU rivals for the Arc B370 — the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, ATI Radeon HD 5770, AMD Radeon HD 7650M, and AMD FirePro M2000 — are all parts from the early 2010s, which contextualizes the GPU's performance tier. The CPU, by contrast, rivals modern processors like the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, showing that the processor is not the reason for this combo's low rank. For Steamworld Build, the rank indicates that users should expect to play at lower resolutions and settings to achieve acceptable frame rates, as confirmed by the measured FPS data.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling across resolutions provides critical insight into which component limits performance. Starting at 1080p Low with 95 FPS, moving to 1440p Low drops the average to 61 FPS (a 35.8% decrease), and 4K Low further drops to 32 FPS (a 47.5% decrease from 1440p). This pattern — where each resolution step costs roughly a third to half of the remaining performance — is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

At High settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 55 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p (a 36.4% decrease), and 18 FPS at 4K (a 48.6% decrease). The Ultra preset shows similar behavior: 37 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p (a 37.8% decrease), and 12 FPS at 4K (a 47.8% decrease). The consistent percentage drops across settings indicate that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, as the number of pixels rendered quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

The Medium settings row, which includes min and max FPS values, further illustrates this. At 1080p Medium, the average is 73 FPS with a range of 62 to 84 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 46 FPS with a range of 39 to 53 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 25 FPS with a range of 21 to 28 FPS. The narrowing of the FPS range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is consistently saturated, leaving little headroom for variance. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat across resolutions, but the data shows a steep decline, confirming that the Arc B370's system shared memory and limited compute resources are the primary constraints for Steamworld Build at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo shows a clear hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 95 FPS average, which is the highest recorded value for this configuration. Medium settings at 1080p produce 73 FPS average, with a minimum of 62 and maximum of 84 FPS. High settings drop to 55 FPS average, and Ultra reduces performance to 37 FPS average. All of these 1080p results are playable, with even Ultra surpassing the 30 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the performance becomes more marginal. Low settings maintain 61 FPS average, which is still comfortable for a city builder. Medium settings average 46 FPS, with a range of 39 to 53 FPS, providing a playable experience with occasional dips. High settings drop to 35 FPS average, which is playable but approaching the lower bound of smooth gameplay. Ultra settings at 1440p produce 23 FPS average, which is below the standard playability threshold and may result in noticeable stuttering during intensive scenes.

At 3840x2160, the performance is largely unplayable for most presets. Low settings achieve 32 FPS average, which is marginally playable but not smooth. Medium settings average 25 FPS, with a range of 21 to 28 FPS, indicating consistent sub-30 FPS performance. High settings drop to 18 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 12 FPS average. The 4K results demonstrate that this combo is not suitable for high-resolution gaming in Steamworld Build, as even the lowest settings barely reach the minimum playable frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo in Steamworld Build depends on the user's resolution preference and tolerance for frame rate fluctuations. At 1920x1080, the High preset at 55 FPS average provides a good balance between visual quality and smoothness, as the game remains above 50 FPS. Users prioritizing smoothness may prefer Medium at 73 FPS, which delivers a significant frame rate boost with only a modest visual compromise. The Low preset at 95 FPS is the smoothest option but sacrifices visual fidelity, which may be acceptable for users who prioritize responsiveness in a fast-paced city builder.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset at 61 FPS average is the recommended choice for playable performance, as it remains above 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 46 FPS average is acceptable for users who can tolerate occasional frame rate dips, as the minimum of 39 FPS remains above the 30 FPS threshold. The High preset at 35 FPS average is borderline, and users should expect noticeable stuttering during complex scenes. The Ultra preset at 23 FPS average is not recommended, as it falls below playable thresholds.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets deliver a consistently smooth experience. The Low preset at 32 FPS average is the only option that approaches playability, but even this will exhibit visible stuttering during intensive gameplay moments. The Medium preset at 25 FPS average and the High preset at 18 FPS average are not recommended for extended play sessions. The Ultra preset at 12 FPS average is effectively unplayable. For 4K users, the data suggests that reducing resolution to 1440p and using Low or Medium settings provides the best balance of visual quality and performance for this hardware combination.