Steamworld Build

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance tier of the Intel Core i5-14400F in this combo?

A: The CPU sits at the 88th percentile among all tested processors. Its average benchmark score of 32,508 places it virtually level with the Intel Core i7-12800H, which scores 32,513 (a 0% delta), and just 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 at 32,446.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its closest GPU rivals based on synthetic scores?

A: The RTX 5090’s average benchmark score of 84,306 is nearly identical to the RTX 5090 D (84,241, +0.1%) and the RTX 5050 Mobile (84,171, +0.2%). It leads the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 by 1.3% (83,209) and trails the NVIDIA CMP 40HX by 1.6% (85,637). The GPU ranks in the 94th percentile overall.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 58. This is the most demanding preset tested, and it still delivers a playable frame rate, though it is well below the 84.9 FPS seen at High settings at the same resolution.

Q: Does the CPU hold back the GPU at 1080p?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080, the average FPS scales from 176 at Ultra to 326.5 at Low. The scaling factor between Low and Ultra is roughly 1.85x, indicating the CPU can push very high frame rates, but the gap suggests that at lower settings, the bottleneck shifts more toward the processor’s single-thread performance.

Q: What is the significance of the combo’s rank among all tested systems?

A: This specific pairing of the Core i5-14400F and RTX 5090 ranks 35th out of 1,730 tested combos in Steamworld Build. That places it in the top 2% of all configurations tested for this game, reflecting an exceptionally strong match for the title’s demands.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded results?

A: In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 21,914 in multi-core and 3,093 in single-core, a ratio of about 7.1x. This indicates a strong multi-threaded capability, which is relevant for a city builder that must simulate numerous entities simultaneously.

How This Combo Ranks

The Core i5-14400F paired with the RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 35 out of 1,730 tested combinations in Steamworld Build. This places the system in the top 2% of all configurations analyzed, a position that reflects both the high absolute performance of the components and their effective cooperation in this specific title. The rank is particularly notable given that the CPU is not a flagship part; it sits at the 88th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 94th percentile. The combination outperforms the vast majority of systems, many of which likely feature more expensive processors, suggesting that the game’s workload is more sensitive to GPU throughput than to raw CPU muscle.

However, the rank also reveals a ceiling. Being 35th out of 1,730 means there are 34 configurations that deliver higher average FPS in this game. Those systems likely combine top-tier CPUs with the same or similar GPUs, indicating that while the i5-14400F is sufficient, it does not extract the absolute maximum from the RTX 5090. The delta between this combo and the very top is not quantified in the data, but the position suggests a small but measurable gap. For a city builder, where late-game simulation can become CPU-bound, this rank is a strong endorsement of the i5-14400F’s capabilities, though it stops short of being the definitive best pairing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor built on Intel’s Raptor Lake architecture (Raptor Lake-R refresh). Its base clock is 2.50 GHz, boosting up to 4.70 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 20 MB L3 cache. This configuration provides a balanced mix of high single-thread speed and respectable multi-thread throughput.

In the context of Steamworld Build, a city builder that simulates resource flows, worker paths, and building upgrades, the CPU’s role is critical. The game’s logic often scales with the number of active entities, and the i5-14400F’s multi-core performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21,914, ensures that large cities remain fluid. The single-core score of 3,093 in the same benchmark indicates that the per-thread performance is also strong, which helps with the game’s primary simulation thread.

The benchmark results show that at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 326.5 FPS. This high frame rate is a direct result of the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU quickly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. In contrast, at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 58, a figure that is more GPU-limited. The CPU’s 65W TDP and 10nm process node suggest it can sustain these performance levels without thermal throttling in most desktop configurations, though the data does not measure sustained clocks under load.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). The results show a clear pattern of scaling with both resolution and quality.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 326.5 FPS on Low, 297.3 FPS on Medium, 260.8 FPS on High, and drops to 176 FPS on Ultra. The transition from Low to Ultra represents a 46% reduction in frame rate, with the most significant drop occurring between High and Ultra (a 32.5% decrease). This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are particularly demanding on the GPU, even at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scores are 281.6 FPS (Low), 223.8 FPS (Medium), 165.7 FPS (High), and 114.9 FPS (Ultra). The scaling here is steeper; Ultra is 59% slower than Low. Compared to 1080p, the 1440p results show an average decrease of about 15-20% across settings, which aligns with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops further: 149.7 FPS (Low), 114.2 FPS (Medium), 84.9 FPS (High), and 58 FPS (Ultra). The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration tested that falls below 60 FPS, making it the hardest test for this combo. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is 31.7%, similar to the 1080p drop, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional graphical features have a consistent relative cost regardless of resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a flagship GPU built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, featuring the GB202 chip with 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is essential for high-resolution textures and complex scenes in a city builder. The GPU’s boost clock is 2407 MHz, with a base of 2017 MHz.

In Steamworld Build, the GPU’s role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings rise. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 58, which is a 66% reduction from the 4K Low result of 149.7 FPS. This scaling indicates that the game’s Ultra settings, likely including advanced shadow techniques, ambient occlusion, and particle effects, place a heavy load on the GPU’s compute and rasterization units.

The RTX 5090’s 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate provide ample headroom for the game’s drawing calls and texture streaming. The 176 ROPs handle pixel fill at a rate of 423.6 GPixel/s, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates at 4K. The benchmark results show that at 1440p Ultra, the combo still achieves 114.9 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU can comfortably handle the game’s demands at lower resolutions, leaving more headroom for the CPU to process simulation logic.

The GPU’s 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306, confirms its position near the top of the performance stack. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84,241 (a 0.1% difference), showing that this GPU is at the very peak of the product stack. The 32 GB VRAM ensures that even the most texture-heavy city builds will not run out of memory, though the game’s requirements are not specified in the data.