Steamworld Build

# Steamworld Build with Intel Core i5-14600KF + Intel Arc B390

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the Intel Arc B390 produces a highly constrained gaming experience in Steamworld Build, where the GPU's modest compute capabilities sharply limit playability. Benchmark data shows this combo ranks 2573rd out of 2924 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12% of all systems measured for this title. The Arc B390, an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture with a 3 nm process node, delivers only 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput and sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs — a figure that explains why even a strong 14-core CPU cannot rescue frame rates at higher settings. The measured results reveal a system that is playable only at 1080p with reduced quality presets, with performance collapsing as resolution and settings increase.

Settings Recommendations

The data overwhelmingly favors Low settings across all resolutions, with Medium as a secondary option only at 1080p. At 1920x1080, Low delivers an average of 106 FPS, which is 25 FPS higher than Medium's 81 FPS and 46 FPS higher than High's 60 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 25 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs another 21 FPS, indicating a steep performance penalty for each quality tier. At 2560x1440, Low produces 67 FPS, which remains smooth, but Medium drops to 51 FPS and High falls to 38 FPS — the latter being marginal for a city builder where camera panning and zooming demand consistent frame pacing. At 3840x2160, even Low only manages 35 FPS, which is below the threshold most players would consider comfortable.

Ultra settings are effectively unplayable at every resolution: 41 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K. The pattern is clear — this combo's best experience is achieved at 1080p with Low settings, where the 106 FPS average provides ample headroom for the simulation overhead that city builders accumulate as populations grow. Players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate might accept Medium at 1080p (81 FPS), but the 25 FPS sacrifice for marginally better textures and shadows is steep given the GPU's limitations. The data suggests that Low at 1080p is the only preset that consistently exceeds 100 FPS, making it the recommended choice for maintaining responsiveness during large-scale construction and resource management.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated GPU (IGP) with a 300 MHz base clock and a 2500 MHz boost clock, drawing 80 W TDP with no power connectors required. Its memory configuration is entirely system-dependent — "System Shared" for size, type, bus width, and bandwidth — meaning the GPU borrows from the CPU's DDR4 or DDR5 pool, which creates a fundamental bandwidth bottleneck. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts: the GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% faster), GeForce 800M (1.5% faster), GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% faster), and GeForce GT 710 (2.7% faster). These are all entry-level GPUs from over a decade ago, which contextualizes the Arc B390's positioning as a basic integrated solution rather than a discrete gaming part.

The GPU's compute resources are sparse: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 24 ROPs, and 12 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are modest figures that directly translate to the measured FPS degradation. In Steamworld Build, which renders detailed isometric environments with many small objects, the GPU's 24 ROPs become a limiting factor at higher resolutions — the 4K Ultra result of 14 FPS is consistent with a part that simply cannot fill enough pixels per frame. The shared memory architecture also means that as the game's asset footprint grows (more buildings, more workers, more animations), the GPU competes with the CPU for the same memory bandwidth, exacerbating the performance cliff between Low and Ultra settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system with severe resolution sensitivity. At Low settings, the progression is 106 FPS (1080p) → 67 FPS (1440p) → 35 FPS (4K), representing a 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 48% further drop from 1440p to 4K. This is not a linear scaling pattern — the 4K result is disproportionately low, suggesting that the shared memory bandwidth and limited ROP count cause superlinear degradation as pixel count increases. At Medium settings, the pattern is similar: 81 → 51 → 27 FPS, with the 4K result again falling off more steeply than the resolution increase alone would predict. High settings show 60 → 38 → 20 FPS, and Ultra shows 41 → 26 → 14 FPS.

The data indicates that the CPU's role diminishes as resolution increases — at 1080p Low, the Core i5-14600KF's 14 cores and 20 threads are likely keeping the GPU fed, but at 4K, the GPU is so overwhelmed that CPU headroom becomes irrelevant. The 1080p Low result of 106 FPS versus 4K Low of 35 FPS is a 3x performance gap for a 4x pixel increase, which suggests some degree of CPU involvement at the lower resolution. However, the 4K Ultra result of 14 FPS — barely interactive — confirms that the Arc B390's fill rate and memory subsystem are the dominant constraints at higher resolutions. Players should treat 4K as a showcase-only resolution for this combo, useful for screenshots but not for actual gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2573rd out of 2924 tested combinations in Steamworld Build, placing it in the bottom 12% of all systems. This ranking is driven almost entirely by the GPU's 9th percentile standing — the CPU, by contrast, is a strong performer. The Intel Core i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49394, putting it at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, and it outperforms its nearest rivals slightly: the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.3% slower), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (0.4% slower), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (0.8% slower), while the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 is 0.8% faster. This is a top-tier CPU paired with a bottom-tier GPU, creating a massive imbalance that the FPS data reflects.

The rank disparity is stark: the CPU sits comfortably in the top 10% of all processors, yet the combined system lands in the bottom 12% of all tested combos for this game. This suggests that Steamworld Build's performance is heavily GPU-dependent, and the Arc B390's integrated nature cannot leverage the CPU's 24 MB of L3 cache or 5.30 GHz boost clock effectively. In other games with lighter graphics loads, this combo might rank higher, but for a city builder with continuous rendering of complex scenes, the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The data implies that upgrading the GPU alone — even to a modest discrete part — would dramatically improve this combo's standing, whereas upgrading the CPU would yield minimal gains.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo playable at 4K in Steamworld Build?

A: Barely, and only at Low settings, where it averages 35 FPS. Medium drops to 27 FPS, High to 20 FPS, and Ultra to 14 FPS. The 4K results suggest the GPU's shared memory and 24 ROPs cannot handle the pixel workload.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming?

A: Low at 1080p delivers 106 FPS, which is the only preset above 100 FPS in the entire dataset. Medium at 81 FPS is acceptable, but High (60 FPS) and Ultra (41 FPS) are progressively less smooth.

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

A: The Core i5-14600KF's average benchmark score is 49394, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, and 0.8% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 is 0.8% faster.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: Low averages 67 FPS, while Ultra averages 26 FPS — a 41 FPS difference. Medium sits at 51 FPS and High at 38 FPS, showing that each settings tier costs roughly 10-15 FPS at this resolution.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data strongly indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The GPU ranks in the 9th percentile among all GPUs (3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482), while the CPU ranks in the 90th percentile. The FPS scaling with resolution and settings is consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

Q: Does this combo have a launch MSRP for the CPU?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF has a launch MSRP of $294. The Intel Arc B390 has no listed launch MSRP, as it is an integrated GPU solution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear hierarchy: Low averages 106 FPS, Medium averages 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 93, High averages 60 FPS, and Ultra averages 41 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded min/max values, indicating frame pacing variance of roughly 24 FPS between the floor and ceiling. At 2560x1440, Low drops to 67 FPS, Medium to 51 FPS (min 44, max 59), High to 38 FPS, and Ultra to 26 FPS. The 1440p Medium min/max spread is 15 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is more consistently saturated at higher resolution. At 3840x2160, Low produces 35 FPS, Medium 27 FPS (min 23, max 31), High 20 FPS, and Ultra 14 FPS. The 4K Medium min/max spread is just 8 FPS, indicating that the GPU is pegged near its limit regardless of scene complexity.

The stepwise degradation across settings is consistent: at every resolution, each settings tier costs roughly 20-30% of the previous tier's frame rate. The 4K Low result of 35 FPS is notable because it is lower than the 1440p Ultra result of 26 FPS only at the extreme ends — 4K Low exceeds 1440p Ultra by 9 FPS, but this is a pyrrhic victory since both are below comfortable playability thresholds. The data shows that the combo's sweet spot is 1080p Low to Medium, with 1440p only viable at Low, and 4K reserved for static scenes rather than active gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 125 W TDP. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz boosts to 5.30 GHz, and it features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, with ECC memory support enabled. Its benchmark results are strong: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 32544, Geekbench multicore hits 17085, and Passmark multithread reaches 38697. Single-thread performance is also solid, with Cinebench R23 singlecore at 4594 and Geekbench singlecore at 2445.

In Steamworld Build, the CPU's role is to handle the simulation layer — population calculations, resource distribution, and AI for workers and production chains. The data indicates that even at 1080p Low (106 FPS), the CPU is not the primary constraint, as the GPU's 9th percentile ranking would bottleneck any modern title. However, the CPU's high single-thread performance (4273 in Passmark single thread) is valuable for a genre where game logic often runs on a few main threads. The 5.30 GHz boost clock and 24 MB L3 cache likely help maintain consistent frame times during large-scale city expansion, even if the GPU cannot translate that into higher FPS. The 90th percentile CPU ranking versus 9th percentile GPU ranking creates a 10x percentile gap, which is the defining characteristic of this combo — a high-end processor completely held back by its integrated graphics. For players who plan to add a discrete GPU later, this CPU provides substantial headroom, but as configured, the Arc B390 caps the experience at 1080p Low.