Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that still demonstrates a hard performance ceiling depending on how you resolve it. This measured pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF with the Intel Arc B580 caps out at 184 FPS in 1080p Low and falls to 24 FPS at 4K Ultra, clearly showing that settings panel and resolution choice matter far more than any other component this side. The game itself operates within a 3706‑combination benchmark pool, and this specific combo places at rank 2781, which puts it just below the halfway point of the tested list. The processor sits at the 79th percentile and the graphics card at the 68th percentile as individual pieces, yet in this specific game the GPU is unmistakably the limiting component when resolution climbs.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates move in lockstep with resolution. At High settings, the i5-12600KF + Arc B580 turns in 105 FPS at 1920×1080, 67 FPS at 2560×1440, and 35 FPS at 3840×2160. The Low preset does the same pattern but with higher absolute numbers: 184 FPS at 1080p, 117 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K. Medium follows a similar curve at 141, 89, and 47 FPS, while Ultra lands at 71, 45, and 24 FPS across those same three resolutions. The step-down from 1080p to 1440p cuts the frame rate by roughly one third, and the move from 1440p to 4K cuts it by roughly another third. That consistency indicates a GPU‑bound workload—the scaling pattern barely changes regardless of the preset, so the GPU is opening constantly as resolution increases.

There is a slight exception at 4K. At 4K, the Low preset still holds 62 FPS, and Medium holds 47 FPS with a measured min of 40 FPS and max of 54 FPS. The other 4K presets are below the 45 FPS threshold, with High at 35 FPS and Ultra at 24 FPS. On the title’s chart, this means the combo can manage solid playable rates if the user drops the graphics preset, but the card is clearly out of its comfort zone at 4K Ultra—the 24 FPS at that level makes a strong point about the B580 not being a 4K high‑refresh part. The 1440p results show better headroom: all presets except Ultra are above 60 FPS, and Low touches 117 FPS. The 1080p results are very strong, with every measured preset hitting at least 71 FPS, and the Low setting going to 184 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

Entering Steamworld, this configuration ranks 2781 out of 3706 tested combos. That is not a top‑ten result—it is a mid‑range placement that reflects the B580’s GPU position rather than the CPU. The graphics card averages 23021 across all its benchmark tests, with a 68th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in overall GPU tests are the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (average score 23061, delta −0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22895, delta +0.6), and the RTX 3080 (23172, delta −0.7). Those small deltas indicate the B580 is positioned almost exactly between a last‑generation high‑tier card and a modern mid‑range. The CPU, in contrast, sits at 79th percentile among all processors, with a multi‑threaded Cinebench R23 score of 23391 and a single‑core score of 3302.

The 2781 rank in Steamworld, therefore, is not a reflection of a weakness in the processor that is actually relatively strong: the i5 12600KF has 10 cores, 16 threads, and a 3.70 GHz base clock with 4.90 GHz boost, and it can hit 4.6 GHz in the benchmark data. What drags the overall ranking is the GPU’s inability to keep up in the highest settings at 4K, where the frame rate collapses below 60. In combos that place mid‑range GPUs with higher‑tier CPUs, the GPU tie is usually the cause, and that is exactly what happens here. However, the delta for the CPU’s nearest rival shows it is competitive: the i9-10900K is only 0.3% slower on average, and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is 0.3% ahead. So the processor probably is not the issue; the B580 simply cannot push beyond the frame cap of a mid‑range GPUs in this game that.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured preset values, the best compromise lies at 1440 pixels with the Medium preset. At 2560×1440, Medium delivers 89 FPS average, with min 76 and max 103, which is well above 5 60×60 playable threshold for a city builder. That preset is also comfortable on resources: 12 GB of GDDR6 memory is more than enough for this game, and the frame is far clearer than Low. If the user prefers to run 1920×1080, the High preset is the pick at 105 FPS, but the difference between High and Medium is small; 141 FPS on Medium at Less CPU load shows the card can easily push beyond 100 at 1080p.

At 4K, the only viable preset is the Low preset, which hits 62 FPS. Medium gets that same run at 47 FPS that is borderline, and Hi goes to 35 FPS, which is too slow for typical city‑builder interactions. The Ultra preset at 4K runs 24 FPS, which makes continuous controls feel jarring, so it is only acceptable for static screenshots or shortest pan shots. For a good balance of sharpness and steady, 1440p Medium as the sweet spot. If the user cares more about raw high refresh, 1080p Ultra is 71 fps and a fully playable, but the generations lines become apparent as city population grows and the camera angles pan the grid.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Below is a complete table of the measured frame times for this pairing.

| Resolution | Preset | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

| 3840×2160 | High | 35 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Low | 62 | – | – |

| 3840×2160 | Medium | 47 | 40 | 54 |

| 3840×2160 | Ultra | 24 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | High | 67 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Low | 117 | – | – |

| 2560×1440 | Medium | 89 | 76 | 103 |

| 2560×1440 | Ultra | 45 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | High | 105 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | Low | 184 | – | – |

| 1920×1080 | Medium | 141 | 119 | 162 |

| 1920×1080 | Ultra | 71 | – | – |

The most telling numbers are the 4K Ultra 24 FPS and the 1920×1080 Low 184 FPS. The spread of 160 FPS shows both the raw power of the B580 at low resolution and its limits when the full HD workload is in play. The 1440p Medium row is the only one that keeps a min of at least 76, which mirrors what real‑time benchmarks typically show for this card in city simulators.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is a Battlemage‑generation GPU made on TSMC’s 5nm process with 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. Its clock holds a steady 2670 MHz base and boost, which is a relatively high clock for a mid‑range AMD that, and the memory subsystem is equally purpose‑built: 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192‑bit bus runs at 2375 MHz to produce an effective 19 Gbps, yielding a memory bandwidth of 456 GB/s. That is a generous memory pipe for the rather low pixel fill rate—the GPU carries 80 ROPs, 160 TMUs, and 2560 shading units. In terms of compute, it offers 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 and 27.34 TFLOPS of FP16 under consumer settings.

In Steamworld Build, the 456 GB/s bandwidth seems to maintain 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 with minimal dips, but at 4K the GPU’s raw pixel and texture throughput starts to limit. The 4K Medium result of 47 FPS with a low of 40 is still a usable experience, but High at 35 and Ultra at 24 wouldn’t comfortable. The measured benchmark score of 23021 and the 68th percentile place it just below the RTX 2080 (which is 0.6% faster on average in the GPU benchmark tests), and the 12 GB depth means memory is never the weak link. The limiting factor almost certainly the FP32, which is the arithmetic that cores have to do for each pixel to be drawn. Even though the GPU is architecturally capable, the older ROPs and shaders are insufficient to scale up to 4K Ultra in this game’s rendering path. The card sits at a thin point of the stack – not fast enough for 4K ultra, but still strong enough to push high refresh 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5 12600K F is a 10‑core, 16‑thread volatile chip based on Alder Lake located on LGA1700, with base 3.70 GHz, boost 4.90 GHz, and a 125 W TDP. In pure computation, it scores 27799 average bench, placing it at the 78th percentile against all CPUs. Its strongest showing is in multi‑threaded loads – the Cinebench R23 multi‑core result is 23391, and the 3DMark max threads result is 7952. Single‑core performance is moderate (Cinebench R23 single 3302), but high enough for the engine. The processor’s nearest rivals by average score are the i5-10900K (avg 27872, −0.3), the Ryzen 7 5800X3D (avg 27896, −0.3) and the Ryzen 5 8500GE (avg 27782, +0.3), meaning it groups well compared to last‑gen flagships and modern mid‑range CPUs.

In Steamworld, the CPU’s role is not that of frame overlord. The minimum taking an average of 1‑137 FPS at 1080p in the Low preset, which is higher than what most esports or 1080p tactical games output, so the i5 12600KF shows that it can keep feeding the GPU at medium resolutions. But note that the FPS drops with resolution, meaning the CPU load is essentially fixed and the bandwidth/TRIPS of the GPU are the response. The 1920×1080 Low 184 FPS and the 1440p Low 117 FPS demonstrate the CPU can handle even such low‑fat workload at a higher refresh now, but the 4K Low at 62 flesh points to the GPU rather than CPU limiting. The 10‑core/16‑thread profile is more than the game needs; with only the normal foot-rendering path at 4K+, the engine does not that the total thread count. So for pulling this B580’s performance up to its max, the cpu is confidently future‑proof, only leaving the GPU as the clear upgrade path.

That equivalent of budget is confirmed by the nearest rivals: the i9-10900K and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D are within 0.3% of its average score in the benchmark, yet both are one‑generation older wave that. In this game, the same 100 pairs would land within similar frames because the bottleneck is on the PCIe‑based GPU core, not the processor. The fact that the 12600KF’s single‑core Cinebench score of 3302 is enough to drive the GPU from 44 FPS at 1440p High to