Steamworld Build

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a robust experience in Steamworld Build, with performance scaling predictably across the game’s four quality presets. At 1080p, the Ultra preset still produces an average of 117.9 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth play, while the High preset reaches 171.4 FPS. The Medium preset offers a substantial jump to 226.4 FPS, but the most striking result is the Low preset at 296.6 FPS, indicating that the CPU has significant headroom. Moving to 1440p, the Ultra preset drops to 70.7 FPS, which remains playable, while High holds at 107 FPS. At 4K, the Ultra preset falls to 40.6 FPS, which is borderline for a city builder, making High at 55.3 FPS the most balanced option for that resolution. Given the data, the High preset is the recommended starting point for most users, as it provides a substantial quality improvement over Medium while maintaining frame rates above 55 FPS at 4K and well over 100 FPS at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i5-14400F and RTX 3080 ranks 504th out of 1730 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the upper third of all systems evaluated. This ranking reflects a pairing that is well-matched for the game’s demands, though it is not at the very top tier. The CPU itself sits at the 88th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32508. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests include the Intel Core i7-12800H (avg score 32513, delta 0%), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (avg score 32446, delta 0.2%), and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (avg score 32584, delta -0.2%). These deltas are negligible, indicating that the i5-14400F is statistically tied with these chips in terms of raw processing power. The GPU is at the 80th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35787. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (avg score 35860, delta -0.2%), the AMD Radeon 880M (avg score 35646, delta 0.4%), and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (avg score 36101, delta -0.9%). The tight deltas here suggest that the RTX 3080 is firmly in a competitive mid-to-high tier, and the combo’s rank in game reflects this balance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is a substantial component in this pairing, built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip. It comes with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 320-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1188 MHz, which translates to 19 Gbps effective, while the base clock is 1440 MHz and the boost clock reaches 1710 MHz. These specifications are crucial for Steamworld Build, a genre that can become demanding when rendering large, detailed cities with many objects on screen. The GPU’s 28,300 million transistors on an 8 nm Samsung process provide the raw compute needed for high-resolution textures and complex geometry. In the measured results, the GPU’s strength is evident when comparing the Low preset at 4K (102 FPS) to the Ultra preset at 4K (40.6 FPS). The 61.4 FPS gap between these settings is almost entirely due to the increased GPU load from higher-quality shadows, reflections, and draw distances. At 1080p, the gap between Low (296.6 FPS) and Ultra (117.9 FPS) is even larger in absolute terms, but the relative drop is similar, confirming that the RTX 3080 is the primary driver of frame rate changes across quality settings. The GPU’s 8704 shading units and 272 texture mapping units process the game’s art assets efficiently, but the data shows that Ultra settings at 4K are pushing the card to its limits.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming?

A: The High preset at 4K yields an average of 55.3 FPS, which is the best balance of quality and performance. The Ultra preset drops to 40.6 FPS, which may feel less responsive, while the Medium preset at 78.6 FPS is also viable but with reduced visual fidelity.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32508, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513, delta 0%) and the AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584, delta -0.2%). It is also statistically tied with the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446, delta 0.2%).

Q: Is the RTX 3080’s 10 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: The data shows no VRAM-related stutters or crashes at any resolution or preset, indicating that 10 GB of GDDR6X memory is adequate for Steamworld Build’s needs, even at 4K Ultra settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the combo delivers 171.4 FPS, while at 1440p High it drops to 107 FPS. This is a 64.4 FPS reduction, showing that the GPU is still the main limiting factor at this quality level.

Q: How does the GPU rank against similar cards?

A: The RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 35787, placing it at the 80th percentile. It is within 1% of the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, delta -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101, delta -0.9%), and just ahead of the AMD Radeon 880M (35646, delta 0.4%).

Q: Can the CPU keep up with the GPU at Low settings?

A: Yes. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 296.6 FPS, and at 1440p Low it hits 189.3 FPS. The CPU’s 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU even at very high frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound behavior. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 171.4 at 1080p to 107 at 1440p, a 37.6% reduction, and then to 55.3 at 4K, a further 48.3% reduction. This consistent decrease as pixel count increases indicates that the RTX 3080 is the limiting component at this quality level. The same trend holds for the Medium preset, where 1080p yields 226.4 FPS, 1440p yields 145.7 FPS, and 4K yields 78.6 FPS. Even at the Low preset, which is less demanding on the GPU, the scaling is steep: 296.6 FPS at 1080p, 189.3 FPS at 1440p, and 102 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic drop, from 117.9 FPS at 1080p to 70.7 FPS at 1440p and 40.6 FPS at 4K. The fact that the CPU’s synthetic benchmark scores are statistically tied with rivals like the Core i7-12800H suggests that the processor is not the bottleneck in these scenarios. If the CPU were limiting, the frame rate would plateau at higher resolutions rather than continuing to fall. Instead, the data shows a near-linear relationship between pixel count and frame time, which is the signature of a GPU-bound workload. This is typical for a city builder where draw calls and object complexity scale with resolution, and it confirms that users looking to play at 4K should expect the RTX 3080 to be the decisive factor in achievable frame rates.