Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that scales heavily with GPU load, and this Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 pairing delivers a remarkably consistent experience across the board, though the settings menu is where the real performance story unfolds. The data shows that this combo is far more capable at 1080p and 1440p than at 4K, with the Ultra preset presenting the only significant challenge to maintaining high frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that the High preset is the optimal choice for this combination, offering the best balance of visual fidelity and performance across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, High delivers 177 FPS, which is 54.8 FPS below the Low preset's 223.9 FPS but still far above the 122.2 FPS seen at Ultra. The gap narrows at 2560x1440, where High produces 111.5 FPS compared to 77.7 FPS at Ultra, showing that High maintains a commanding lead over the most demanding preset. At 3840x2160, High is the only preset that keeps the experience playable, hitting 60.1 FPS, while Ultra drops to 43.1 FPS.

The Medium preset is a viable alternative for users who want a slight visual upgrade over High without sacrificing too much performance. At 1080p, Medium yields 204.1 FPS, which is 27.1 FPS higher than High, and at 1440p it reaches 151.8 FPS, a 40.3 FPS improvement over High. However, at 4K, Medium falls to 77.8 FPS, which is still above High's 60.1 FPS, but the visual difference between Medium and High is typically less pronounced in a city builder where texture detail and shadow quality matter more than particle effects. The data strongly suggests that High is the sweet spot, as it provides a 39.4% FPS increase over Ultra at 1440p while keeping the visual experience close to the maximum.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz are modest by modern standards, but the benchmark results indicate that this is sufficient for Steamworld Build's simulation logic. The CPU's multi-threaded performance, as measured by Cinebench R23, reaches 10297 points, while single-core performance sits at 1453 points. These scores place the i5-10400F in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with its average benchmark score of 14168 being nearly identical to the AMD EPYC 7552, which scores 14115 with a deltaPct of 0.4%.

In Steamworld Build, the CPU's role is primarily to manage the game's simulation of workers, resources, and building construction. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 223.9 FPS, which suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do. However, the 6-core/12-thread configuration with a 12 MB shared L3 cache is adequate for handling the game's background calculations without causing frame rate dips. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s, paired with dual-channel DDR4 support, is sufficient for a city builder that does not demand extreme memory throughput.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, which is crucial for handling the high-resolution textures and draw distances common in city builders.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 37283. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 37507 with a deltaPct of -0.6%, indicating they are essentially equivalent in synthetic tests. In Steamworld Build, the RTX 4070's FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS allows it to render the game's detailed 3D models and lighting effects efficiently. The data reveals that the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K, where the Ultra preset drops to 43.1 FPS, while at lower resolutions the GPU has ample headroom to push frame rates well above 100 FPS. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is not a constraint in this title, as even at 4K Ultra the game does not appear to exceed this allocation based on the measured performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results across all presets. Low settings produce 223.9 FPS, Medium reaches 204.1 FPS, High hits 177 FPS, and Ultra drops to 122.2 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 101.7 FPS, representing a 45.4% performance reduction when maxing out the settings. This resolution is clearly GPU-bound, but the RTX 4070 has enough power to keep even the most demanding preset well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a more pronounced drop from the 1080p results. Low settings yield 194.1 FPS, Medium produces 151.8 FPS, High reaches 111.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 77.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra expands to 116.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is starting to feel the pressure of additional pixels. At this resolution, High still offers a smooth experience, while Ultra remains playable but noticeably less fluid.

At 3840x2160, the performance landscape changes dramatically. Low settings still manage 105.5 FPS, which is impressive, but Medium drops to 77.8 FPS, High falls to 60.1 FPS, and Ultra plummets to 43.1 FPS. The 4K resolution exposes the GPU's limits, as the gap between Low and Ultra is 62.4 FPS, but the relative drop is steeper than at lower resolutions. High settings barely hit the 60 FPS mark, making it the only preset that delivers a consistently smooth 4K experience.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS across all presets drops by approximately 30-40%, while the jump from 1440p to 4K causes a further 40-50% reduction. Specifically, at High settings, the FPS goes from 177 at 1080p to 111.5 at 1440p (a 37% decrease) and then to 60.1 at 4K (a 46% decrease from 1440p). This scaling behavior indicates that the system is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, as the CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution.

The fact that Low settings at 4K still achieve 105.5 FPS, while Ultra at 1080p hits 122.2 FPS, reveals that the GPU's raw compute power is sufficient to handle the game at any resolution, but the settings presets have an outsized impact on performance. The data suggests that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p Low (where frame rates exceed 200 FPS) to the GPU at 4K Ultra (where frame rates drop below 50 FPS). This is typical for a city builder where the simulation logic is not heavily threaded, and the GPU must render increasingly complex scenes as resolution and settings increase.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 587th out of 1730 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the top 34% of all configurations. This rank is respectable for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU, but it indicates that other components—likely faster CPUs—can push the RTX 4070 to higher frame rates in this title. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all processors suggests that while the i5-10400F is not a top-tier performer, it is more than adequate for this game, especially given that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings.

The combo's rank of 587 out of 1730 is particularly notable because it outperforms many systems with newer or more expensive CPUs, thanks to the RTX 4070's strong showing. The data implies that users who upgrade to a faster CPU would see modest gains in Steamworld Build, but the GPU would remain the limiting factor at 4K Ultra. Conversely, upgrading the GPU while keeping the i5-10400F would likely yield significant improvements at 1080p and 1440p, where the current GPU is already delivering high frame rates, but the CPU might start to bottleneck at very high refresh rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: High is the only preset that achieves 60 FPS at 3840x2160, hitting 60.1 FPS. Medium reaches 77.8 FPS, but High offers the best visual quality while maintaining a smooth experience.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: At 1080p and 1440p, the GPU is the primary limiter, as frame rates drop significantly when moving from Low to Ultra settings. At 4K, the GPU becomes even more dominant, with Ultra falling to 43.1 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest competitors in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 scores 37283 on average, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507) and 1.9% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (38008). This indicates the GPU is competitive with these rivals.

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

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo delivers 151.8 FPS, which is 40.3 FPS higher than High settings (111.5 FPS) and 74.1 FPS higher than Ultra (77.7 FPS).

Q: Does the i5-10400F bottleneck the RTX 4070 in this game?

A: The CPU's performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297, appears sufficient. The data shows no signs of CPU limitation, as frame rates scale consistently with GPU load across resolutions.

Q: What is the performance drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 177 at 1920x1080 to 111.5 at 2560x1440 and then to 60.1 at 3840x2160, representing a 66.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K.