Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder where the pace of your colony’s growth hinges on a smooth frame rate, and this pairing of an Intel Core i5-12400 with an Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable experience that scales predictably with resolution and settings. The benchmark data shows a combination that behaves like a balanced, mid-range setup: it can push high refresh rates at 1080p, remains very comfortable at 1440p with some adjustments, and falls into challenging territory at 4K, where only the lowest presets provide a fluid feel.

Resolution Scaling

The most telling pattern in the measured FPS data is how sharply performance degrades as resolution climbs, which points directly at the GPU as the primary limiting factor in this configuration. At 1920x1080, the Intel Arc B570 produces an average of 162 FPS on Low settings, which is exceptionally high and suggests the CPU is more than capable of feeding the graphics card in this scenario. Moving to 2560x1440, that same Low preset drops to 103 FPS, a reduction of roughly 36%, while at 3840x2160, the average falls further to 55 FPS, representing a 66% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline with each pixel count increase is classic GPU-bound behavior.

The pattern holds across all quality presets. At High settings, the averages are 93 FPS at 1080p, 59 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is a 34 FPS loss, while the jump to 4K costs another 28 FPS. The data indicates that while the i5-12400 has enough single-threaded power to keep up at lower resolutions, the Arc B570’s raw throughput—measured at 11.52 TFLOPS FP32—simply cannot sustain high frame rates at 4K. The fact that Low settings at 4K (55 FPS) outperform Ultra settings at 1440p (40 FPS) reinforces that pixel count is the dominant cost driver here.

This scaling behavior suggests that for a 1440p monitor, the user has headroom to use Medium or High settings for a 60+ FPS experience, but for 4K displays, the card is only viable for less demanding visual configurations. The 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for this game’s textures at all tested resolutions, as the FPS drops correlate more with rendering resolution than memory capacity limits.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 2,924 tested combinations for this game, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 and Intel Arc B570 lands at rank 2,320. That places it in the lower third of all combos, which is a sobering statistic when you consider the individual component benchmarks. The CPU alone sits at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs tested in the database, while the GPU is at the 65th percentile among all GPUs. Yet, the combination underperforms relative to those individual standings, which implies that Steamworld Build’s engine may not leverage the full potential of this hardware pairing.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the GPU, the Arc B570’s average benchmark score of 20,556 is virtually identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534), the Intel Arc A750 (20,582), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20,662), with delta percentages of 0.1%, -0.1%, and -0.5% respectively. This tells us the GPU is performing exactly in line with its expected class. For the CPU, the i5-12400’s average score of 18,683 is nearly tied with the AMD EPYC 7643 (18,697, -0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i7-1355U (18,730, -0.3% delta), again showing no anomalous behavior from the processor.

The low combo rank, therefore, is not a sign of a defective part but rather an indication that this game does not scale well with the combination’s specific strengths. The i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads, while excellent for general productivity, may not be the ideal fit for a city builder that likely favors higher core counts for simulation logic, even though the measured FPS at 1080p Low (162) shows no obvious CPU bottleneck. The data suggests that while the parts are solid individually, the game’s engine does not reward this pairing with top-tier percentile placement, so users should temper expectations about hitting the top of leaderboards.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Steamworld Build at 60 FPS on a 1440p monitor?

A: Yes, at 2560x1440, the average FPS is 59 on High settings and 79 on Medium settings, so either preset will keep you near or above the 60 FPS target, with Medium providing more headroom.

Q: What is the best setting for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, Low settings produce an average of 55 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that exceeds 30 FPS. Medium yields 42 FPS, High drops to 31 FPS, and Ultra falls to 21 FPS.

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

A: The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. At 1080p, the FPS ranges from 63 to 162, but at 4K, it drops to 21 to 55, showing that the Arc B570’s rendering capacity is what caps performance as pixel count increases.

Q: How does this combo compare to similar hardware in the database?

A: This pairing ranks 2,320 out of 2,924 combos for Steamworld Build. The GPU’s average benchmark score is within 0.5% of the Intel Arc A750 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, so users can expect similar performance to those cards.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings average 162 FPS, while Ultra settings average 63 FPS, a difference of 99 FPS. This indicates that Ultra settings roughly halve the frame rate compared to Low, making it a significant visual trade-off.

Q: Does the 10 GB VRAM cause any issues in this game?

A: The measured FPS data shows no signs of a VRAM-related stutter or drop, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution. The 10 GB capacity on a 160-bit bus appears adequate for the tested scenarios, with the lowest average FPS of 21 occurring at 4K Ultra, which is more likely a compute limitation than a memory one.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates provides a full picture of what to expect from this hardware in Steamworld Build. At 1920x1080, the averages are 162 FPS on Low, 124 FPS on Medium, 93 FPS on High, and 63 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset also recorded a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS, showing a stable frame time distribution. None of the other presets at this resolution have min or max values listed, but the averages alone indicate a very playable experience across the board, with even Ultra clearing the 60 FPS threshold comfortably.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 103 FPS on Low, 79 FPS on Medium, 59 FPS on High, and 40 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset here shows a min of 67 FPS and a max of 91 FPS, which means that even in the worst-case measured moment, the frame rate stays above 60 FPS. High settings hover just below the 60 FPS target, so users seeking a locked 60 could opt for Medium or make minor tweaks. Ultra at 1440p is playable but not ideal for fast-paced camera movements, as the 40 FPS average will feel less smooth.

At 3840x2160, the picture changes dramatically. The averages are 55 FPS on Low, 42 FPS on Medium, 31 FPS on High, and 21 FPS on Ultra. Medium is the only preset with min/max data, showing 35 FPS minimum and 48 FPS maximum. This data confirms that 4K is only viable for users who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, and even then, Low settings are recommended for a consistent experience above 50 FPS. The 21 FPS at Ultra is essentially a slideshow for a genre that requires constant menu interaction and camera panning, so that preset should be avoided entirely at this resolution.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the component that dictates most of the performance variation in this test, and its specifications explain why. The card has 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, with a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s, which are the raw throughput numbers that govern how quickly the card can fill the screen with rendered geometry and apply textures. The 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is a modest figure for a modern GPU, which aligns with the observed performance drops at higher resolutions.

Memory configuration plays a supporting role. The 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus delivers 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Steamworld Build’s textures at all settings, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling. The card’s 19,600 million transistors on a 5 nm TSMC process give it a 272 mm² die size, and its 150 W TDP with a suggested 450 W PSU makes it an efficient choice for a mid-range build. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8, which is not a bottleneck for this game given the measured performance.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 20,556. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750, scores 20,582 with a -0.1% delta, meaning the two cards are effectively identical in raw compute power. This is useful context: users considering an upgrade from the A750 to the B570 would see no measurable difference in this game. The card’s DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 capability are modern, but the game’s engine does not appear to leverage any unique features to push this card higher in the ranks.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a solid partner for the Arc B570, and its benchmark results show it is more than capable of avoiding a bottleneck in most scenarios. This 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S family has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. Its single-thread performance is strong, as shown by a Geekbench single-core score of 1,848 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,257, which are the metrics that matter most for a city builder’s game logic and UI responsiveness.

Multi-threaded performance is also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15,989 and a Passmark multithread score of 18,747. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5,873 and max-thread score of 5,890 are nearly identical, indicating that the processor’s 12 threads are fully utilized without any thermal or power throttling issues. The CPU sits at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18,683, placing it just 0.1% below the AMD EPYC 7643 in the nearest rivals list.

In practical terms, the CPU’s role in Steamworld Build is to handle the simulation tick rate and entity updates, and the high FPS at 1080p Low (162) suggests there is no CPU limitation at lower resolutions. However, the combo rank of 2,320 out of 2,924 suggests that the game may not fully utilize the i5-12400’s architecture, possibly due to the engine’s reliance on fewer, heavier threads. The 65 W TDP and 163 mm² die size indicate an efficient chip that will not produce excessive heat in a standard build, allowing the GPU to operate without thermal interference from a high-temperature CPU cooler.