Steamworld Build

Settings Recommendations

For Steamworld Build, the measured data reveals a clear hierarchy across the four available presets at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 106 FPS, followed by Medium at 81 FPS, High at 60 FPS, and Ultra at 41 FPS. The Medium preset provides a compelling balance, with a minimum frame rate of 69 FPS and a maximum of 93 FPS, indicating consistent performance that comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for smooth city-building gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low delivers 67 FPS on average, Medium drops to 51 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS, High reaches 38 FPS, and Ultra falls to 26 FPS. The Medium preset remains the most sensible choice for 1440p, as its 44 FPS minimum is still playable for a genre where absolute frame rates matter less than stability. The High preset's 38 FPS average is acceptable but leaves little headroom for complex scenes with many buildings and citizens.

At 3840x2160, all presets struggle. Low averages 35 FPS, Medium averages 27 FPS with a minimum of 23 FPS, High drops to 20 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 14 FPS. None of these configurations deliver a consistently smooth experience at 4K. The Low preset is the only viable option, though even it falls short of the 60 FPS target.

The optimal experience across the board is the Medium preset at 1920x1080, which yields 81 FPS average with a 69 FPS minimum. This combination provides a substantial performance buffer over High (60 FPS average) while maintaining visual quality that is meaningfully better than Low. For users prioritizing frame rate above all, the Low preset at 1080p offers the highest measured average at 106 FPS. At higher resolutions, the Medium preset is recommended as the best compromise, though users should be prepared for the 4K experience to remain below 30 FPS regardless of settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 operates as an integrated graphics processor with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. Its memory configuration is entirely system-shared, meaning the GPU draws from the host system's DDR4 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This architecture fundamentally limits the Arc B390's performance ceiling, as memory bandwidth is system-dependent rather than fixed.

The GPU's compute specifications are modest: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. It features 12 ray tracing cores, though the game's city-builder genre likely does not leverage ray tracing heavily. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, indicating entry-level performance.

The system-shared memory architecture is particularly consequential for Steamworld Build, a game that must manage increasingly complex city simulations with many entities. As the city grows, memory pressure increases, and the shared memory pool must serve both CPU and GPU demands. The measured frame rates reflect this constraint: at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 14, suggesting that the GPU cannot keep pace with the rendering demands at high resolutions and settings.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Arc B390's 1482 Steel Nomad score is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX's 1463, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M's 1460, 2.5% higher than the GT 625 OEM's 1446, and 2.7% higher than the GT 710's 1443. These deltas are small, confirming that the Arc B390 sits firmly in the entry-level segment. In Steamworld Build, this translates to playable frame rates only at lower resolutions and settings, with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2573 out of 2924 tested combos for Steamworld Build. This places it in the bottom 12% of all configurations tested, reflecting the GPU's entry-level positioning rather than any deficiency in the CPU. The rank underscores that this pairing is heavily GPU-limited in this game.

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D itself is a strong performer, with an average benchmark score of 27896 and an 80th percentile ranking against all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (avg score 27887, 0% delta), Intel Core i9-10900K (avg score 27872, 0.1% delta), AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (avg score 27932, -0.1% delta), and Intel Core i5-12600KF (avg score 27799, 0.3% delta). The CPU is competitive with these alternatives, but none of that compute headroom translates to frame rates when paired with the Arc B390.

The combo's rank of 2573 out of 2924 means that approximately 351 tested combinations performed worse. This is consistent with a system where the GPU's 9th percentile ranking dominates the overall experience. Users with this pairing should understand that upgrading the GPU would yield substantially larger performance gains in Steamworld Build than any CPU change, as the 5800X3D's processing capabilities far exceed what the Arc B390 can utilize at higher settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates span a wide range. Low settings produce an average of 106 FPS, Medium yields 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS and maximum of 93 FPS, High delivers 60 FPS, and Ultra drops to 41 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 25 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 21 FPS, and High to Ultra is 19 FPS. This linear degradation suggests the GPU scales predictably with settings at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 67 FPS for Low, 51 FPS for Medium (minimum 44 FPS, maximum 59 FPS), 38 FPS for High, and 26 FPS for Ultra. The resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by approximately 37% at Low, 37% at Medium, 37% at High, and 37% at Ultra. This consistent percentage drop indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor across all settings at this resolution transition.

At 3840x2160, the averages fall to 35 FPS for Low, 27 FPS for Medium (minimum 23 FPS, maximum 31 FPS), 20 FPS for High, and 14 FPS for Ultra. The move from 1440p to 4K reduces frame rates by approximately 48% at Low, 47% at Medium, 47% at High, and 46% at Ultra. The nearly uniform percentage drops across all settings at both resolution transitions confirm that the Arc B390's rendering throughput is the dominant constraint.

The Medium preset at 1080p (81 FPS average) is the only configuration that exceeds 80 FPS. At 1440p, the Low preset barely achieves 67 FPS, and at 4K, even Low drops to 35 FPS. The Ultra preset never exceeds 41 FPS at any resolution, making it impractical for this GPU in Steamworld Build.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable pattern consistent with GPU-bound performance. At Low settings, the progression is 106 FPS at 1080p, 67 FPS at 1440p, and 35 FPS at 4K. This represents a 37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 48% reduction from 1440p to 4K, for a cumulative 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

At Medium settings, the progression is 81 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. The percentage reductions are 37% and 47%, respectively, for a cumulative 67% reduction. At High settings, the progression is 60 FPS, 38 FPS, and 20 FPS, with reductions of 37% and 47%, totaling a 67% reduction. At Ultra settings, the progression is 41 FPS, 26 FPS, and 14 FPS, with reductions of 37% and 46%, again totaling approximately 66%.

The consistency of these percentage reductions across all settings is a strong indicator that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rate drops to be less severe at higher resolutions, where the GPU has more work to do per frame. Instead, the uniform scaling suggests that the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth constraints dominate at every resolution and settings combination.

The absolute frame rates at 4K—35 FPS at Low, 27 FPS at Medium, 20 FPS at High, and 14 FPS at Ultra—are all below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. Even the best 4K result (Low, 35 FPS) is only marginally playable. This indicates that 4K gaming is not a realistic option for this combo in Steamworld Build, and users should target 1080p or 1440p for acceptable performance.

FAQ

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

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers 81 FPS average with a minimum of 69 FPS and maximum of 93 FPS, providing the best balance of visual quality and performance. The Low preset achieves 106 FPS but sacrifices visual fidelity, while High drops to 60 FPS and Ultra to 41 FPS.

Q: Can this combo run Steamworld Build at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 35 FPS, Medium averages 27 FPS (minimum 23 FPS), High averages 20 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. None of these configurations reach the 60 FPS threshold, so 4K is not recommended for a smooth experience.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 is 1.3% higher than the GT 520MX's 1463, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M's 1460, 2.5% higher than the GT 625 OEM's 1446, and 2.7% higher than the GT 710's 1443. These small deltas confirm entry-level positioning.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D ranks in the 80th percentile among CPUs, while the Arc B390 ranks in the 9th percentile among GPUs. The uniform frame rate scaling across resolutions confirms that the GPU's rendering throughput limits performance.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the measured average is 51 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS and maximum of 59 FPS. This is playable but below the 60 FPS target, with occasional dips into the 40s during complex scenes.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for Steamworld Build?

A: The combo ranks 2573 out of 2924 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 12%. This reflects the GPU's entry-level performance rather than the CPU, which performs competitively against rivals like the Intel Core i9-10900K and Intel Core i5-12600KF.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a Zen 3 architecture processor on the AMD Socket AM4 platform, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It features 8 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. The 105 W TDP indicates a desktop-class power envelope, and the processor supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth. The 96 MB shared L3 cache is a defining feature of the 5800X3D, providing substantial cache capacity for workloads that benefit from large data reuse.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5800X3D demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14317 and a single-core score of 1452. Geekbench results show 11765 multicore and 2017 single-core. PassMark testing reveals a multithread score of 28309, with integer math at 88608 and floating-point math at 50100. The 3DMark results show 16-thread performance of 7299 and single-thread performance of 884, indicating solid scaling across thread counts.

Despite this strong compute performance, the 5800X3D's role in Steamworld Build is secondary to the GPU. The game's city-builder genre typically involves significant CPU work for simulation logic, population management, and pathfinding, and the 5800X3D's 8 cores and 16 threads are well-suited to these tasks. The large L3 cache may help with the game's object tracking and entity management, potentially reducing memory access latency for frequently accessed simulation data.

However, the measured frame rates show no evidence of CPU limitation. If the CPU were constraining performance, we would expect higher frame rates at lower resolutions to be capped, and the gap between 1080p and 4K would narrow. Instead, the consistent percentage drops across resolutions (37% from 1080p to 1440p, and 47% from 1440p to 4K) indicate that the GPU's throughput is the limiting factor at every settings level. The 5800X3D's processing headroom is more than sufficient to feed the Arc B390, which ranks in the 9th percentile of all GPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores include the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (0% delta), Intel Core i9-10900K (0.1% delta), AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (-0.1% delta), and Intel Core i5-12600KF (0.3% delta). These nearly identical scores suggest that swapping the 5800X3D for any of these alternatives would have negligible impact on Steamworld Build performance, since the GPU bottleneck would remain unchanged. For users considering upgrades, the data clearly points to the GPU as the component that determines frame rates in this game.