Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that scales heavily with both resolution and graphical preset, and the data for the Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 shows a clear hierarchy of performance. The measured frame rates across twelve distinct configurations reveal that this combo is capable of smooth play at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain high refresh rates at 4K, particularly when settings are pushed beyond Medium. The relationship between the CPU's six performance cores and the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM defines the experience, with the game becoming increasingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions and more CPU-sensitive at lower ones. This analysis breaks down the exact measured numbers to identify the optimal settings for various display targets and explains where the bottleneck lies.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating a strong GPU limitation at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 225 at 1920x1080 to 143 at 2560x1440, a 36% reduction, and then further to 76 at 3840x2160, another 47% drop from the 1440p figure. This trend shows that even at the lowest graphical preset, the RTX 4060’s rendering workload at 4K nearly triples the time taken per frame compared to 1080p.

Moving to Medium settings, the average FPS at 1920x1080 is 172, which drops to 110 at 2560x1440 and then to 58 at 3840x2160. The scaling pattern here is similar, with the 4K figure representing just 34% of the 1080p performance. At High settings, the averages are 129 at 1080p, 82 at 1440p, and 43 at 4K, with the 4K result falling to one-third of the 1080p value. The Ultra preset shows the most aggressive scaling, with 87 FPS at 1080p, 55 at 1440p, and 29 at 4K, where the frame rate becomes nearly unplayable for a city builder that benefits from smooth camera panning.

The consistent drop pattern across all presets suggests that the limiting component at 4K is the GPU, as the CPU’s workload does not increase proportionally with pixel count. The RTX 4060’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely saturated at 3840x2160, particularly with higher texture detail. At 1080p, however, the scaling from Low to Ultra shows a different story: the 225 FPS at Low drops to 87 FPS at Ultra, a 61% reduction, which is less severe than the resolution scaling but still substantial. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU, and the graphical preset becomes the primary performance lever.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 225 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. This represents the peak performance of the Intel Core i5-12400F and RTX 4060 combination in Steamworld Build, where the CPU’s six cores and 12 threads can keep up with the GPU’s output.

Q: Can this system run Steamworld Build at 4K with a consistent 60 FPS?

A: No, the data shows no 4K configuration reaches 60 FPS on average. The closest is the Low preset at 3840x2160, which averages 76 FPS, but the Medium preset averages 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS, indicating that even mid-range settings cannot maintain a locked 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4060 at 1080p compared to 4K on the same settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS at 1920x1080 is 172, which is 2.97 times higher than the 58 FPS at 3840x2160. At High settings, the difference is 3.0 times (129 vs 43 FPS), and at Low settings, it is 2.96 times (225 vs 76 FPS), showing a consistent tripling of performance when dropping from 4K to 1080p.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded for any configuration?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 49 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset, where the average is 58 FPS and the maximum is 67 FPS. This shows that even at 4K Medium, the frame time variance is noticeable but not extreme.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The combo rank is 1992 out of 3706 tested combinations, placing it in the 46th percentile of all systems evaluated. This indicates a mid-pack position, where many other CPU and GPU pairings deliver either higher average frame rates or better consistency.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM of the RTX 4060 sufficient for Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The measured data shows 55 FPS average at 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, which is playable but not high-refresh. The 8 GB VRAM is likely a limiting factor at this preset, as the frame rate drops significantly from the Medium preset’s 110 FPS, suggesting that memory bandwidth or capacity constraints are affecting performance.

Settings Recommendations

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p displays, the Medium preset offers an average of 172 FPS with a minimum of 147 FPS and a maximum of 198 FPS, providing a smooth and responsive experience that exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors. The High preset at 129 FPS is also viable, but the jump from Medium to High costs 43 FPS, while the jump from Low to Medium costs 53 FPS, indicating that Medium is the sweet spot for balancing visual quality and frame rate. Ultra at 87 FPS is playable but introduces a significant performance penalty for diminishing visual returns in a city builder where UI elements and map panning are frequent.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again provides the best balance, with an average of 110 FPS and a minimum of 93 FPS, ensuring that most gameplay stays above 90 FPS. The High preset at 82 FPS is acceptable for slower gameplay, but the Medium preset’s higher minimum frame rate makes it the recommended choice for consistent smoothness. The Low preset at 143 FPS is overly aggressive in reducing visual quality, while Ultra at 55 FPS dips below the 60 FPS threshold, making it less ideal for a game that requires frequent camera movements.

For 4K displays, the Low preset at 76 FPS is the only configuration that averages above 60 FPS, but the visual sacrifice is substantial. The Medium preset at 58 FPS with a 49 FPS minimum is borderline, and the High preset at 43 FPS is noticeable stuttery for a city builder. Given the data, the best 4K experience is the Low preset for playability, or Medium if the user tolerates occasional frame drops below 50 FPS. The Ultra preset at 29 FPS is not recommended for any scenario, as it falls below the threshold for comfortable interaction with the game’s interface and population management.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 1992 out of 3706 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the lower-middle range of all systems evaluated. This ranking reflects the measured frame rates across the twelve configurations, where the combo achieves high performance at 1080p but falls behind more powerful GPUs at 4K. The percentileVsAllCpus for the i5-12400F is 73, and the percentileVsAllGpus for the RTX 4060 is 61, suggesting that the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in the overall benchmark database, but the game’s scaling behavior shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing’s rank indicates that many systems with higher-end GPUs or newer CPUs achieve better average frame rates in Steamworld Build. The combo’s position at 46% of the tested field is driven by the 4K results, where the RTX 4060’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus struggle with the increased pixel count. At 1080p, the combo would likely rank higher, but the aggregate rank across all resolutions pulls it down. The nearest rivals for the CPU, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with a deltaPct of 0 and the Intel Core 3 201E at -0.1, show that the i5-12400F’s processing power is competitive, but the GPU’s nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon HD 7790 at -0.2, highlight that the RTX 4060 is not at the top of the GPU hierarchy.

The ranking also reflects the game’s genre, where city builders often rely more on CPU simulation for population and resource management, but the visual rendering still taxes the GPU heavily. The data shows that the combo is capable of delivering high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the 4K results in particular drag the overall rank down, making this system better suited for 1080p or 1440p gameplay.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060’s role in this game is defined by its 8 GB GDDR6 memory, a 128-bit bus, and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth, which directly influence the measured frame rates at different resolutions. The 1830 MHz base clock and 2460 MHz boost clock, along with 3072 shading units, provide sufficient raw compute for Steamworld Build’s rendering, but the memory subsystem becomes the primary constraint at 4K. The data shows that at 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 76 at Low to 29 at Ultra, a 62% reduction, which is more severe than the 61% reduction at 1080p (225 to 87 FPS). This indicates that the GPU’s texture bandwidth and memory capacity are stretched at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 performance is adequate for the game’s geometry and lighting, but the 8 GB VRAM is a limiting factor for Ultra presets at 1440p and 4K. The measured 55 FPS at 2560x1440 Ultra and 29 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra suggest that the memory bus width of 128 bits, rather than the raw compute, is the bottleneck. The 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p Medium and High, where the averages are 172 and 129 FPS respectively, but the 4K Medium result of 58 FPS shows a significant drop that aligns with the doubling of pixel count and the associated memory traffic.

The GPU’s benchmark scores provide context for its overall performance: a Passmark G3D score of 19545 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 place it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. In Steamworld Build, the GPU’s role is to render the voxel-based environments and UI elements, and the data indicates that it excels at 1080p, maintains playability at 1440p, but requires reduced settings at 4K. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 780M with a deltaPct of 0.3, shows that the RTX 4060 is only slightly ahead of integrated graphics in average benchmark score, but the measured game FPS demonstrates its discrete advantage in sustained rendering.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rate ranges from 225 FPS at Low to 87 FPS at Ultra. The Low preset achieves 225 FPS, which is the highest measurement in the entire dataset. Medium averages 172 FPS with a minimum of 147 FPS and a maximum of 198 FPS, providing a wide window of performance. High averages 129 FPS, and Ultra drops to 87 FPS, showing a 61% reduction from Low to Ultra. These numbers indicate that 1080p is well within the capability of this combo, with even the most demanding preset remaining above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 143 FPS, which is a 36% drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 110 FPS with a minimum of 93 FPS and a maximum of 126 FPS, keeping the experience above 90 FPS for most of the time. High averages 82 FPS, and Ultra averages 55 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS target. The 1440p Medium configuration is the only one with a recorded minimum and maximum, showing a tighter frame time distribution compared to the other presets.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 76 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration above 60 FPS. Medium averages 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS, indicating frequent dips below 50 FPS. High averages 43 FPS, and Ultra averages 29 FPS, which is the lowest measured average in the dataset. The 4K results show a clear pattern: the RTX 4060 cannot sustain high settings at this resolution, and even Medium requires compromises in visual quality to maintain playability.

The data also shows that the jump from Medium to High at each resolution costs a consistent amount of performance: 43 FPS at 1080p (172 to 129), 28 FPS at 1440p (110 to 82), and 15 FPS at 4K (58 to 43). This suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth is increasingly strained as resolution increases, making the High preset less attractive at higher pixel counts.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F’s role in Steamworld Build is defined by its 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The CPU’s benchmark results, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12380 and a single-core score of 1680, indicate strong processing power for the game’s simulation logic, which handles population, resource management, and building placement. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide adequate data locality for the game’s entity tracking.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops are consistent with GPU load. At 1080p Low, the 225 FPS average is likely close to the CPU’s limit for the game’s simulation tick rate, but the CPU’s single-thread performance of 3481 in Passmark and 909 in 3DMark single-thread suggests it can handle the game’s main thread efficiently. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5895 and 2-thread score of 1699 indicate that the CPU scales well with multi-threaded workloads, which is beneficial for a city builder that spreads simulation across multiple cores.

The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus of 73 places it above average, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with a deltaPct of 0 and the Intel Core 3 201E at -0.1, showing that the i5-12400F is competitively positioned. In Steamworld Build, the CPU’s role is more pronounced at lower resolutions and settings, where the GPU is not fully utilized. For example, at 1080p Low, the 225 FPS is likely limited by the CPU’s ability to process game logic, while at 4K Ultra, the GPU’s rendering load dominates. The 12 threads and 4.40 GHz boost clock provide enough headroom to prevent CPU-induced stutters in typical city-building scenarios, where the game simulates hundreds of entities simultaneously. The data does not show any configuration where the CPU causes a frame rate wall, as even the highest FPS at 1080p Low is well above the refresh rate of most displays.