Steamworld Build

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable, though not dominating, experience in Steamworld Build. The data positions this combination in the 20th percentile of tested configurations, with performance that varies dramatically based on resolution and quality settings. While the CPU holds its own, the GPU's capabilities are the primary factor in determining playability at higher resolutions, and the scaling patterns reveal a system that is well-balanced at 1080p but increasingly GPU-limited as resolution climbs.

FAQ

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

A: This combination ranks 2977th out of 3706 tested combos, placing it in the lower-to-mid range of the database. Its position indicates that while it is capable of running the game, a significant majority of tested systems deliver higher average frame rates.

Q: What is the best frame rate achieved by this combo, and at what settings?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 162 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is a substantial jump from the 93 FPS recorded at the same resolution with High settings.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K resolution with Ultra settings?

A: No, the data shows that at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 21 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. Even at 4K High, the average is only 31 FPS, indicating a challenging scenario for this hardware.

Q: Are there any settings where the frame rate is consistently above 60 FPS?

A: Yes, there are several. At 1920x1080, Low, Medium, and High settings all produce average frame rates above 90 FPS. At 2560x1440, both Low (103 FPS) and Medium (79 FPS) settings achieve averages above 60 FPS. High settings at 2560x1440 (59 FPS) just misses this mark.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration, and does it appear to be a bottleneck?

A: The Intel Arc B570 features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Given the game's genre and the measured frame rates, this memory configuration appears sufficient, as the performance drop from 1440p to 4K is more indicative of raw compute limits than memory capacity constraints.

Q: How does the CPU's single-threaded performance compare to its multi-threaded performance?

A: The Core i3-12100F shows a significant gap between its single-threaded and multi-threaded capabilities. Its 3DMark single-thread score is 893, while its 8-thread score is 4026 and its max-thread score is 4023. This suggests the processor has strong single-core performance relative to its multi-core scaling, which is typical for a 4-core, 8-thread part.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field places this specific configuration at rank 2977 out of 3706 total tested combos. This places it in the bottom quintile of the database, indicating that most other hardware pairings tested yield higher average frame rates in Steamworld Build. The percentileVsAllCpus for the Intel Core i3-12100F is 68, and for the GPU it is 65, suggesting that both components are near the 65th percentile of their respective categories in general benchmark suites. However, in this specific game, the combination's overall rank is much lower, which implies that Steamworld Build's engine is more demanding on the GPU than the average workload, or that the specific balance of this combo is not optimal for this title.

Comparing to the nearest rivals in the database, the CPU's average benchmark score is 13494. This is nearly identical to the Intel Core 3 N355's score of 13492, with a deltaPct of 0. The Intel Core i5-9500 is also very close at 13452, which is only 0.3% slower. The Intel Core 5 120UL is 0.7% faster with a score of 13594, and the Intel Core i7-1250U is 1.1% slower at 13351. These marginal differences mean that for this game, swapping the i3-12100F for any of these rivals would likely result in a negligible change in performance, confirming that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. The GPU's average benchmark score is 20556, which is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, deltaPct 0.1%) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, deltaPct -0.1%). The data suggests that in terms of raw compute, the Arc B570 is on par with these cards, but the in-game performance at 4K suggests that driver optimization or specific game engine factors may be limiting its potential.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and playable frame rates, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the recommended starting point. This configuration produces an average of 79 FPS, with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 91 FPS, ensuring a consistently smooth experience without the need for the lowest quality settings. The 67 FPS minimum is above the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the baseline for fluid gameplay, providing a comfortable margin for complex city-building scenes. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset is even more comfortable, delivering an average of 124 FPS with a minimum of 106 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors.

If the user prioritizes frame rate above all else, the Low preset at 1920x1080 offers an exceptional 162 FPS average, which is more than sufficient for any display. However, the visual compromise may be significant for a game where managing and viewing a detailed city is the core gameplay loop. For users with 4K displays, the data is less encouraging. The Low preset at 3840x2160 yields an average of 55 FPS, which is playable but may dip in busy scenes. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 42 FPS, and the High preset to 31 FPS, making these options less attractive for a genre that benefits from smooth camera panning. The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combo, as it produces an average of only 21 FPS at 4K and 40 FPS at 1440p, which is likely to feel stuttery and unresponsive.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance envelope is wide. The Low preset achieves an average of 162 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo. Medium produces 124 FPS, with a minimum of 106 and maximum of 143. High drops to 93 FPS, and Ultra to 63 FPS. This scaling shows a roughly linear progression in performance cost as settings increase, with a 61% drop in average FPS from Low to Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 103 FPS, which is a 36% reduction from the 1080p Low score. Medium averages 79 FPS, with a minimum of 67 and maximum of 91. High is nearly playable at 59 FPS, while Ultra falls to 40 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 63 FPS, similar to the 99 FPS gap seen at 1080p, but the higher starting point at 1080p means the relative impact is slightly less.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low averages 55 FPS, which is a 47% drop from the 1440p Low score and a 66% drop from the 1080p Low score. Medium averages 42 FPS, with a minimum of 35 and maximum of 48. High drops to 31 FPS, and Ultra to 21 FPS. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (35 FPS) is notably lower than the average, indicating potential for stutter in complex scenes. The progression from 1080p to 4K at each setting level shows a consistent loss of performance, with the most severe drops occurring between 1440p and 4K.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is a discrete GPU with a base and boost clock of 2500 MHz, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using a 5 nm process from TSMC. It features 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, with 18 ray tracing cores. The memory subsystem is 10 GB of GDDR6 running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective), which provides a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s over a 160-bit bus. Its FP32 compute is rated at 11.52 TFLOPS, and the pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s.

In Steamworld Build, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. The measured FPS data shows that this GPU is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver high frame rates at medium to high settings. However, at 4K, the GPU's compute resources are stretched thin. The drop from 55 FPS at 4K Low to 21 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrates that the card's raw processing power is the limiting factor at this resolution. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is not a concern in this game, as the frame rate drops are not indicative of memory swapping or capacity issues, but rather a straightforward compute limitation. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 14195 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649, support the notion that it is a mid-range performer, and the in-game data aligns with this classification.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a TDP of 58 W. It accesses a cache hierarchy of 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores indicate solid single-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674 and a 3DMark single-thread score of 893. Multi-threaded performance is also respectable for a quad-core part, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 7252.

In Steamworld Build, a city builder genre that typically relies on a single main simulation thread, the CPU's strong single-core performance is crucial. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the high frame rates at Low settings (162 FPS). If the CPU were significantly bottlenecked, we would expect to see a plateau in FPS regardless of resolution or settings. However, the FPS scales consistently from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, indicating that the CPU is keeping up with the GPU's demands. The processor's 4 cores and 8 threads are enough to handle the game's background tasks and simulation logic. The CPU's percentile rank of 68 among all CPUs suggests it is a competent performer, and its nearest rivals show minimal performance deltas, meaning that a more powerful CPU would likely yield only minor improvements in this specific game, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear and predictable pattern of scaling as resolution increases. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS at Low settings drops from 162 to 103, a 36% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 124 to 79, a 36% reduction as well. At High settings, the drop is from 93 to 59, a 37% reduction. This consistent ~36% drop across settings indicates that the performance scaling from 1080p to 1440p is uniform, suggesting that both the CPU and GPU are being utilized proportionally.

The scaling from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is more severe. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 103 to 55, a 47% reduction. At Medium, it drops from 79 to 42, a 47% reduction. At High, it drops from 59 to 31, a 47% reduction. This steeper decline suggests that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, as the number of pixels to render increases by 2.25x from 1440p to 4K, but the frame rate does not drop by the same proportion, indicating that the GPU is working harder but is nearing its performance ceiling. The fact that the percentage drop is higher when moving to 4K than when moving to 1440p confirms that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, while the system is more balanced at 1080p and 1440p. This analysis is supported by the minimum FPS data at Medium settings: at 1080p, the minimum is 106, at 1440p it is 67, and at 4K it is 35. The halving of the minimum FPS from 1440p to 4K further emphasizes the GPU's struggle to maintain consistent frame times at the highest resolution.