Steamworld Build

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings for this combo?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 combination delivers an average of 115 FPS at 1920x1080 on High settings, making it a very smooth experience for a city builder.

Q: How does the RTX 5050's benchmark score compare to its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT?

A: The RTX 5050 has an average benchmark score of 21035, while the RX 5600 XT scores 20713. This puts the RTX 5050 1.6% ahead of the RX 5600 XT in the database's aggregate GPU benchmarks.

Q: What is the best performance setting at 1440p according to the measured data?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields the highest average frame rate at 127 FPS, while the Medium preset offers a still-excellent 97 FPS average with higher visual fidelity.

Q: Does the Ryzen 7 7700's multi-threaded performance significantly outpace its single-threaded performance?

A: Yes. In Cinebench R23, the processor scores 18760 points in the multicore test versus 1930 points in the single-core test, indicating strong scaling across its 8 cores and 16 threads.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from Medium to Ultra at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rate drops from 52 FPS on Medium to 26 FPS on Ultra, a reduction of exactly 26 FPS or 50% of the Medium preset's performance.

Q: What is the combo's standing among all tested system combinations for Steamworld Build?

A: The combo ranks 1755 out of 2924 tested combinations, placing it in the lower half of the database's tested configurations for this specific game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 320.0 GB/s. With a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, the card's memory runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). The GPU's 2560 shading units and 80 tensor cores provide the raw compute throughput for this game's rendering tasks.

The RTX 5050's FP32 performance is rated at 13.17 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 205.8 GTexel/s. Its pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s helps determine how quickly geometry is rasterized, which is relevant for a city builder where large amounts of on-screen structures and terrain must be drawn. The card's 32 ROPs are the final stage in the rendering pipeline, and their throughput directly impacts fill-rate-bound scenarios.

For Steamworld Build specifically, the data shows that VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth play a critical role at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 26 FPS, which is a substantial decline from the 52 FPS average at 4K Medium. This suggests that the 8 GB VRAM buffer is being stressed by the Ultra preset's higher-resolution textures and increased draw distances, causing the GPU to fall behind.

The RTX 5050's benchmark results place it at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21035. Its nearest competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, trails by 1.6% in aggregate scores. Interestingly, the RTX 5050 also outperforms the older AMD Radeon HD 8970M by 1% and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile by 1.6%, though it lags slightly behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL by 0.6%.

The scaling from Low to Medium settings demonstrates the GPU's headroom: at 1080p, the average frame rate goes from 200 FPS on Low to 153 FPS on Medium, showing that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at lower settings. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with even the Low preset only reaching 67 FPS average.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 7000 series, based on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael) and fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, and its 65W TDP is notably efficient for a desktop part. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, providing a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s.

The processor's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. This substantial L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores, which is beneficial for simulation-heavy genres like city builders where many entities must be tracked simultaneously.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 7700 demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance: it scores 18760 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 8484 in 3DMark's 16-thread test, and 34470 in Passmark's multithread test. Its single-threaded performance is also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1930 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2525. The processor's percentile ranking of 87 among all CPUs confirms its position as a high-end mainstream part.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.1% faster), Intel Core 5 221E (0.2% faster), AMD Ryzen 9 270 (0.4% faster), and Intel Core i9-13905H (0.6% faster). These margins are minimal, indicating that the Ryzen 7 7700 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

For Steamworld Build, the CPU's 16 threads are likely beneficial for managing the game's simulation logic, which includes resource production chains, worker pathfinding, and building construction queues. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 200 FPS average, suggesting that the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently even at high frame rates. However, at 4K Ultra, the 26 FPS average indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU's strong multi-threaded scores suggest it is not the primary constraint at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 200 FPS, while Medium averages 153 FPS with a minimum of 130 FPS and a maximum of 176 FPS. High settings bring the average down to 115 FPS, and Ultra drops to 77 FPS. These numbers show that even the Ultra preset remains comfortably playable at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance scales as expected. Low averages 127 FPS, Medium averages 97 FPS (with min/max of 83/112), and High averages 73 FPS. Ultra falls to 49 FPS, which is still playable but marks the point where visual fidelity begins to compromise smoothness. The step from Medium to High at 1440p represents a 24 FPS average drop, while the step from High to Ultra is another 24 FPS drop.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus become significant constraints. Low averages 67 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 52 FPS with a minimum of 44 and maximum of 59. High averages 39 FPS, and Ultra averages just 26 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 15 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 13 FPS. The most dramatic single-step decline is from High to Ultra, which costs 13 FPS average, leaving the game at the edge of playability.

The data reveals that the Medium preset provides the only 4K result with a recorded minimum frame rate above 40 FPS, making it the most consistent option at that resolution. At 1080p and 1440p, the Medium preset also offers the best balance of frame rate stability, with the only recorded minimum FPS values in the dataset being 130 and 83 respectively.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1755 out of 2924 tested combos for Steamworld Build. This places the system in the bottom 40% of the database's tested configurations, which is notable given that both components individually hold respectable percentile rankings (87th for the CPU, 66th for the GPU).

The gap between the CPU's and GPU's percentile rankings suggests that the processor has more headroom than the graphics card in this pairing. The Ryzen 7 7700's aggregate benchmark score of 40081 places it within 0.6% of its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-13905H, while the RTX 5050's score of 21035 is within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT.

The combo's rank of 1755 indicates that many other pairings deliver higher frame rates in this game, likely due to more powerful GPUs being paired with similar or better CPUs. However, the rank must be interpreted in context: the measured FPS data shows that this combo can achieve 200 FPS at 1080p Low, which is far above playable thresholds, so the rank reflects relative performance rather than absolute inadequacy.

The disparity between the CPU's high percentile (87) and the combo's sub-50th percentile rank suggests that the RTX 5050 is the limiting factor in this pairing for Steamworld Build. Upgrading the GPU would likely yield larger gains than upgrading the CPU, based on the benchmark data available.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p displays, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point, delivering 153 FPS average with a minimum of 130 FPS. This provides a substantial improvement over High (115 FPS) while maintaining frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 77 FPS is acceptable for those prioritizing visual quality, but the 76 FPS drop from Low to Ultra suggests diminishing returns.

At 2560x1440, Medium again offers the best balance with 97 FPS average and a minimum of 83 FPS. High at 73 FPS is also viable, but the step to Ultra (49 FPS) introduces noticeable judder in a game where camera panning across a city is common. For competitive or high-refresh-rate play, Low at 127 FPS is the only option that exceeds 120 FPS at this resolution.

For 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. Low at 67 FPS is the only preset that reliably exceeds 60 FPS, while Medium at 52 FPS (minimum 44) is playable but with occasional dips. High at 39 FPS and Ultra at 26 FPS are not recommended for continuous play, as they fall below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider the absolute minimum for playability.

The data supports a clear hierarchy: Medium is the "sweet spot" preset at 1080p and 1440p, while Low is the only truly smooth option at 4K. The Ultra preset's performance penalty is disproportionately large at every resolution, likely due to the 8 GB VRAM capacity being exceeded by the highest-quality textures. Users with 4K displays should either accept Low settings or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p and using Medium for a better overall experience.