Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that responds strongly to both CPU and GPU resources, and the pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with the Intel Arc B570 produces a performance profile that is highly dependent on resolution and quality settings. The measured data reveals a system that can deliver high refresh rates at 1080p but becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution scales, ultimately struggling to maintain playable frame rates at 4K with maximum quality. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, explores the roles of the processor and graphics card, and provides clear guidance on how to best configure this combination for optimal gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates where the bottleneck lies in this system. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces an average of 93 FPS, which drops to 59 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 31 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 36% performance reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p, the system has headroom, but as pixel count increases, the Intel Arc B570 becomes the limiting factor.

The data for Low settings reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 162 FPS, indicating that the Ryzen 7 7700X can push very high frame rates when the GPU load is light. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 103 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 55 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 66%, nearly identical to the High preset drop, which suggests the GPU is equally stressed regardless of quality level at 4K.

The Medium preset provides the only complete min/max data in the pack, offering insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 124 FPS with a minimum of 106 and maximum of 143, showing a tight 37 FPS range. At 1440p Medium, the average is 79 FPS with a range of 67 to 91 (24 FPS spread), and at 4K Medium, the average is 42 FPS with a range of 35 to 48 (13 FPS spread). Interestingly, the absolute frame time variance shrinks as resolution increases, but the relative variance grows—at 4K, the minimum is 83% of the average, while at 1080p, the minimum is 85% of the average.

The Ultra preset reveals the hardest performance ceiling. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 63 FPS, which drops to 40 FPS at 1440p and 21 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is below the generally accepted threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating that this combination cannot handle maximum quality at native 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 67% reduction, matching the pattern seen at other settings, which confirms that resolution scaling is consistent and the limiting component is the GPU across all quality levels.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combination can achieve at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average at 1920x1080 is 162 FPS, which occurs with Low settings. At High settings, the average is 93 FPS, and at Medium, it is 124 FPS.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K with High settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average frame rate is 31 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS target many players prefer, but the game remains technically playable at lower quality presets, with 4K Low achieving 55 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 1440p?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 1440p. The Ryzen 7 7700X can produce 162 FPS at 1080p Low, but at 1440p Low, the average drops to 103 FPS, indicating the Intel Arc B570 cannot maintain the same throughput as resolution increases.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 124 FPS average, while Ultra delivers 63 FPS. This represents a 49% reduction in performance when moving from Medium to Ultra, a significant cost for the visual quality increase.

Q: Does the system provide consistent frame times at 1440p Medium?

A: Yes, at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the measured minimum FPS is 67 and the maximum is 91, with an average of 79. The spread of 24 FPS indicates reasonably stable performance, though not perfectly locked.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest rival in raw benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% lower than the Intel Arc A750 (20582).

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, codenamed Battlemage, and manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, along with 18 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a fixed clock speed of 2500 MHz for both base and boost, which is notable for its consistency. Memory is 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities are rated at 11.52 TFLOPS for FP32 and 23.04 TFLOPS for FP16 (2:1 ratio), with pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s. These specifications place the Arc B570 in the 65th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc A750 (avg score 20582, delta -0.1%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (avg score 20534, delta 0.1%), indicating it sits in a competitive mid-range performance tier.

In Steamworld Build, the GPU's role is clearly demonstrated by the resolution scaling data. The transition from 1080p to 4K at any given settings preset results in roughly a two-thirds reduction in average FPS, which is consistent with the GPU being the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this game at the tested resolutions, as the data shows no anomalous performance cliffs that would indicate memory capacity issues. The memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s appears adequate for the game's demands, as the scaling from Medium to High to Ultra shows predictable performance degradation rather than sudden drops.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combination depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, all settings presets are playable, but the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with an average of 124 FPS and a minimum of 106 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining smooth frame delivery. The High preset at 1080p delivers 93 FPS, which is also excellent, but the 25% performance reduction from Medium to High may not justify the visual difference for all players. Ultra at 1080p drops to 63 FPS, which is playable but approaches the lower bounds of what is considered smooth for a city builder.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, producing an average of 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS. This keeps the experience above 60 FPS with reasonable consistency. The High preset at 1440p averages 59 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, and the Low preset at 103 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for the performance gain. Ultra at 1440p should be avoided, as the 40 FPS average falls below acceptable smoothness thresholds.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher quality settings. The Low preset averages 55 FPS, which is the only 4K option that approaches playability. Medium at 4K averages 42 FPS, and High drops to 31 FPS. Ultra at 4K is not viable at 21 FPS. For 4K users, the Low preset is the only reasonable choice, though players may prefer to reduce resolution to 1440p and use Medium settings for a better overall experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for Steamworld Build with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Intel Arc B570 is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 162 FPS average
• Medium: 124 FPS average (min 106, max 143)
• High: 93 FPS average
• Ultra: 63 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 103 FPS average
• Medium: 79 FPS average (min 67, max 91)
• High: 59 FPS average
• Ultra: 40 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 55 FPS average
• Medium: 42 FPS average (min 35, max 48)
• High: 31 FPS average
• Ultra: 21 FPS average

The data reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions: the difference between Low and Ultra settings is substantial. At 1080p, the gap between Low (162 FPS) and Ultra (63 FPS) is 99 FPS, representing a 61% reduction. At 1440p, the gap is 63 FPS (103 to 40), a 61% reduction. At 4K, the gap is 34 FPS (55 to 21), also a 61% reduction. This consistency suggests that the performance scaling between quality presets is uniform regardless of resolution, indicating that the GPU's workload scales predictably with both resolution and quality settings.

The Medium preset data with min/max values provides insight into frame time stability. At 1080p, the range is 106 to 143 FPS, a 37 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range is 67 to 91 FPS, a 24 FPS spread. At 4K, the range is 35 to 48 FPS, a 13 FPS spread. The absolute range shrinks as resolution increases, but the relative range (spread divided by average) remains fairly consistent: 30% at 1080p, 30% at 1440p, and 31% at 4K. This indicates that frame pacing issues scale proportionally with performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael. It features a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 105 W TDP. The CPU has a 32 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core, along with 64 KB L1 cache per core. It supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. The processor is built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 7700X demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. It scores 19,088 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1,987 in single-core, along with 12,451 in Geekbench multicore and 2,289 in single-core. Its 3DMark scores range from 1,090 (single-thread) to 8,859 (16 threads), showing good scaling across thread counts. The CPU's average benchmark score is 35,909, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (avg score 35,802, delta 0.3%) and the Intel Core 7 250H (avg score 35,728, delta 0.5%).

For Steamworld Build, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 162 FPS, indicating the 7700X can feed the GPU effectively at high frame rates. The 8-core, 16-thread configuration is well-suited for city builders, which often simulate numerous entities and require consistent multi-threaded performance. The high boost clock of 5.40 GHz helps with single-threaded game logic, while the 32 MB L3 cache provides fast access to frequently used data. The CPU's performance at 1080p suggests it is not the primary bottleneck at any tested setting, as the FPS scaling between resolutions follows GPU expectations.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Intel Arc B570 in Steamworld Build ranks 2,977 out of 3,706 total tested combos. This places the pairing in the 20th percentile of all combinations, indicating that while it is not a top-tier performer for this specific game, it is far from the bottom. The rank reflects that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates in Steamworld Build, likely due to more powerful GPUs that can handle the game's demands at higher resolutions and settings.

The rank of 2,977 out of 3,706 suggests that this combo is positioned below the median performance level for this game. This is consistent with the measured data, which shows the system struggling at 4K with high quality settings. The Intel Arc B570, while competitive in its price and performance tier (65th percentile overall), does not provide the raw throughput needed for demanding 4K scenarios in this city builder. The Ryzen 7 7700X, however, is a strong CPU (85th percentile overall) and is likely not the limiting factor in most scenarios.

The performance gap between this combo and higher-ranked configurations is primarily attributable to GPU capabilities. The measured FPS data shows that the system can achieve excellent frame rates at 1080p and good rates at 1440p with medium settings, but the GPU's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K at high quality. Players using this combination will get the best experience by targeting 1080p or 1440p, where the CPU's strength can be fully utilized and the GPU's limitations are less impactful. The ranking reflects a system that is well-balanced for mainstream gaming but not optimized for maximum quality at high resolutions.