Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build pairs the Intel Core i5-14600KF with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, a combination that delivers a wide spread of frame rates depending on how aggressively you push the settings. The data shows a system capable of handling the city builder genre with ease at lower presets, but the transition to Ultra reveals a significant performance cost that shifts the bottleneck. This analysis breaks down the measured results across resolutions and settings, interprets the scaling behavior, and contextualizes the combo's standing against the broader database.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows that the 3840x2160 Medium preset delivers an average of 106 FPS, while the 3840x2160 High preset averages 79 FPS. For a 60 FPS target, the 4K Medium setting provides substantial headroom, and even 4K High comfortably exceeds the threshold.

Q: How much of a frame rate penalty does the Ultra preset impose at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 201 FPS on Medium to 101 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 50% reduction in average performance when moving to the highest quality settings.

Q: Is the RTX 5080 the limiting factor at 1080p with Low settings?

A: No. The measured 378 FPS average at 1920x1080 on Low suggests the CPU becomes the primary constraint at this extreme, as the GPU is likely capable of rendering frames faster than the processor can feed it.

Q: Does the CPU's performance relative to its rivals align with its in-game ranking?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 49394 is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900's score of 49228. However, the combo ranks 159th out of 3706 tested combinations, indicating that the pairing's overall position is influenced by more than just raw CPU compute.

Q: What is the frame time variance like at 4K Medium?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 106, with a minimum of 90 FPS and a maximum of 122 FPS. This indicates a relatively tight frame time distribution, suggesting consistent performance without major stutters.

Q: How does the 4K Low preset compare to the 1080p Ultra preset in terms of average FPS?

A: The 4K Low preset averages 139 FPS, while the 1080p Ultra preset averages 159 FPS. This shows that resolution scaling has a more pronounced impact on performance than the visual quality uplift from Low to Ultra at these specific points.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. The GPU’s base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2617 MHz. These specifications position it as a high-end part, and the measured data in Steamworld Build confirms its capability, particularly at higher resolutions where memory bandwidth and raw compute are critical.

The role of the GPU becomes increasingly apparent as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 378 on Low to 159 on Ultra, showing that even at the highest settings, the GPU has ample headroom. Moving to 2560x1440, the spread narrows slightly, with Ultra demanding 101 FPS. At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes the dominant factor; the Ultra preset drops to an average of 54 FPS, while the Low preset still achieves 139 FPS. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is likely sufficient for the textures and assets in a city builder, and the high bandwidth helps maintain performance when the simulation view expands to show large, detailed cities.

The data reveals a clear pattern: the RTX 5080 is the primary driver of performance at 4K, where the difference between Low and Ultra settings is a 85 FPS swing. This indicates that the GPU's compute units are heavily taxed by the higher visual fidelity. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8637 and the Passmark G3D score of 36565 further contextualize its raw power, which aligns with the high frame rates observed at lower resolutions. The GPU's average benchmark score of 56083 places it 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, though in this specific game, the performance is far more dependent on the settings and resolution chosen.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the "Medium" preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience, delivering an average of 201 FPS with a minimum of 171 FPS and a maximum of 231 FPS. This combination provides a fluid simulation with significant headroom above standard 144Hz refresh rates, making it ideal for players who value smoothness and responsiveness.

For users with 4K displays, the "High" preset at 3840x2160 is the recommended starting point. It achieves an average of 79 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS target for most displays. The "Medium" preset at 4K, with an average of 106 FPS, is a better option if you prefer a larger safety margin for complex scenes, but the "High" preset provides a noticeable visual upgrade without sacrificing playability.

The "Ultra" preset is only advisable at 1080p, where it still maintains a high average of 159 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 101 FPS, which is playable but may not be optimal for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 4K, the Ultra preset's 54 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold, and its use is not recommended based on the data. The "Low" preset, while achieving high frame rates, does not leverage the hardware's potential and is not a sensible choice for this configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5080 and i5-14600KF produce exceptional frame rates across all settings. The Low preset averages 378 FPS, Medium averages 315 FPS with a minimum of 268 FPS and a maximum of 363 FPS, High averages 236 FPS, and Ultra averages 159 FPS. The performance delta between Low and Ultra is 219 FPS, indicating that even the most demanding settings at this resolution are well within the hardware's capabilities.

Stepping up to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high but show a more pronounced impact from the settings. The Low preset averages 262 FPS, Medium averages 201 FPS with a range of 171 to 231 FPS, High averages 150 FPS, and Ultra averages 101 FPS. The drop from Medium to Ultra is exactly 100 FPS, highlighting the computational cost of the highest quality effects at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more aggressive. The Low preset averages 139 FPS, Medium averages 106 FPS with a minimum of 90 FPS and a maximum of 122 FPS, High averages 79 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 85 FPS, and the data shows that the Ultra preset is the only one that fails to maintain a 60 FPS average. The 4K Medium preset, with its 90 FPS minimum, demonstrates a stable performance profile that avoids significant dips.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a consistent pattern of performance scaling that points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At the Low setting, the average FPS drops from 378 at 1920x1080 to 262 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 30.7%, and then to 139 at 3840x2160, a further reduction of 47.0% from 1440p. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels being processed directly impacts the frame rate.

For the Medium setting, the averages are 315 FPS at 1080p, 201 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36.2%, and from 1440p to 4K it is 47.3%. The High setting follows a similar trajectory, with 236 FPS at 1080p, 150 FPS at 1440p (a 36.4% drop), and 79 FPS at 4K (a 47.3% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that the resolution scaling is independent of the visual complexity, reinforcing the notion that the GPU is the limiting component.

The Ultra setting shows the largest absolute drop, from 159 FPS at 1080p to 101 FPS at 1440p (a 36.5% drop) and finally to 54 FPS at 4K (a 46.5% drop). The fact that the scaling factor remains relatively stable around 30-36% for the first step and 46-47% for the second step indicates a predictable relationship between pixel count and performance. This behavior is expected when the GPU's fill rate and shading units are saturated, and it confirms that the CPU is not the primary constraint in these higher-resolution scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF features 14 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has 24 MB of shared L3 cache. In Steamworld Build, a city builder that typically involves complex simulation logic and AI pathfinding, the CPU's role is to manage the game's underlying systems. The benchmark results show that this processor is more than capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions.

At 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS of 378 is exceptionally high. This suggests that the CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4594 and Passmark single-thread score of 4273, is sufficient to keep up with the GPU's output. However, the data indicates that the CPU may become a limiting factor at this extreme, as the frame rate is likely constrained by the game's simulation thread rather than the GPU.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and a Passmark multithread score of 38697, are robust. In a city builder, these threads can be utilized for parallel tasks like resource management, but the game's performance scaling from 1080p to 4K suggests that the GPU becomes the dominant factor as resolution increases. The CPU's average benchmark score of 49394 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, which scores 49228, indicating that the i5-14600KF is competitive in general compute tasks. The lack of a significant bottleneck at 1440p and 4K is evident from the consistent frame rates, which are primarily dictated by the GPU's workload.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 achieves a rank of 159 out of 3706 tested combos in Steamworld Build. This places the setup in the top 4.3% of all configurations in the database, which is a strong showing for a high-end pairing.

This ranking is somewhat lower than what the individual component scores might suggest. The CPU's average benchmark score of 49394 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, and its performance is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, which has a delta of just 0.3%. The GPU's average benchmark score of 56083 places it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 8060S, trailing by 0.6%.

The discrepancy between the high individual component percentiles and the slightly lower combo rank suggests that the game's performance is not solely dependent on raw compute power. Steamworld Build may not scale perfectly with the extreme thread counts or the specific architectural features of this hardware. The measured FPS data shows that the combo excels at lower resolutions and settings, but the 4K Ultra preset, which yields an average of 54 FPS, likely drags down the overall ranking when compared to other combos that might handle that specific scenario better. The rank of 159 indicates that while this is a very capable system, there are 158 other configurations that, on average, deliver better performance in this specific title, possibly due to differences in how the game utilizes the hardware.