Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build, a city builder from 2023, presents an interesting scalability challenge for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination. The measured data reveals a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-limited as resolution drops. The benchmark results indicate that the RTX 5070's raw power is often held in check by the aging six-core i5-9400, particularly at 1080p, while at 4K the GPU's capabilities are more fully utilized, though still not to the extent one might expect from a 30.87 TFLOPS card. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across all presets and resolutions to determine the optimal settings and the precise role each component plays.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific hardware pairing, the data points to High settings as the optimal choice for 4K resolution. At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers an average of 64 FPS, which is a playable frame rate for a city builder. The step up to Ultra at this resolution yields only 43 FPS, a significant 32.8% drop from High, which is likely to feel sluggish for a genre that requires frequent camera movements and UI interaction. Conversely, the Medium preset at 4K provides 85 FPS, but High offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance for a relatively modest 24.7% reduction in average frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the choice becomes more nuanced. The High preset achieves an excellent 121 FPS average, while Medium delivers 144 FPS. Both are well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. The data shows that Ultra at this resolution drops to 82 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 32.2% performance hit compared to High. Given that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at this resolution, the recommendation is to stick with High to maximize visual quality without sacrificing the high frame rate, as the jump from High to Ultra offers diminishing returns in fidelity for a substantial FPS cost.

At 1920x1080, the CPU becomes the primary limiting factor. The High preset produces 150 FPS, while Medium and Ultra yield 167 and 128 FPS respectively. Interestingly, the Low preset only pushes the average to 184 FPS, a mere 22.7% improvement over High. This narrow spread across all settings indicates that the i5-9400 is saturated and cannot feed the RTX 5070 enough data to see a significant frame rate increase from lowering graphical loads. For the best experience, High settings at 1080p is the most sensible choice, as it provides a 150 FPS average while avoiding the heavier CPU overhead that might be associated with Ultra settings, which drop to 128 FPS. The performance gains from selecting Low over High do not justify the substantial loss in visual quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, with its 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, provides a memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. In Steamworld Build, this memory configuration appears to be more than sufficient, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K does not suggest a memory capacity bottleneck. The GPU's core specifications, including 6144 shading units and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, contribute to its 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The benchmark results show that this compute power is the dominant factor in performance at 4K, where the average FPS scales inversely with the preset quality level.

The GPU's role shifts dramatically depending on the resolution. At 4K, the RTX 5070 is the clear bottleneck. The progression from Low (112 FPS) to High (64 FPS) to Ultra (43 FPS) shows a consistent decline that is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The 2.6x performance difference between Low and Ultra at 4K highlights the immense workload placed on the graphics card. However, at 1080p, the GPU's influence wanes. The difference between Low (184 FPS) and High (150 FPS) is only 18.5%, suggesting that the GPU has spare capacity that is not being used. The GPU is capable of far more, but the CPU cannot keep up with the demands of the game's simulation and draw calls at lower resolutions. The RTX 5070 sits in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, which are professional workstation cards, indicating its high-end placement in the consumer market.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Steamworld Build, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 holds a combo rank of 1339 out of 3706 tested combinations. This places it in the top 36.1% of all configurations, which is a respectable position but not a top-tier one. The ranking is likely pulled down by the CPU, which only sits in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 82nd percentile. This mismatch creates a bottleneck that prevents the system from achieving the high frame rates that the GPU alone could deliver at 1080p.

The data suggests that this combo is better suited for higher resolutions where the GPU can be more fully utilized. At 4K, the system performs admirably, but its rank is still affected by the CPU's inability to maintain minimum frame rates in more complex scenes. The combo's overall rank of 1339 indicates that while it is a capable system for this title, there are many other combinations that deliver better overall performance. The primary reason for this is the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions, which is a common issue when pairing a high-end modern GPU with an older mid-range processor. The performance is consistent with what one would expect from a system where the GPU is far more powerful than the CPU, leading to diminishing returns on CPU-heavy tasks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The data shows a tight cluster of results at this resolution, indicating a CPU bottleneck. The Low preset yields an average of 184 FPS. Moving to Medium increases the visual load but only drops the average to 167 FPS (a 9.2% decrease). High settings produce 150 FPS, and Ultra brings up the rear with 128 FPS. The minimum FPS recorded for Medium was 142 FPS, with a maximum of 192 FPS, showing some variance but never dipping to an unplayable level. The frame rate spread between Low and Ultra is just 56 FPS, which is narrow when compared to the 4K results, reinforcing the idea that the CPU is the limiting factor here.

2560x1440: The GPU begins to assert its dominance at this resolution. The Low preset averages 158 FPS. Medium settings deliver 144 FPS (min 122, max 165), which is a 9.7% drop from Low. High settings provide a strong 121 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is now 76 FPS, a wider margin than at 1080p. This shows that the GPU is becoming more of a constraint, but the CPU is still influential, as the High to Ultra drop (39 FPS) is more significant than the Low to Medium drop (14 FPS), suggesting that the higher presets are starting to tax the GPU more heavily.

3840x2160: The RTX 5070 is the clear bottleneck here, with results showing a steep curve. The Low preset achieves 112 FPS. Medium settings average 85 FPS (min 73, max 98), a 24.1% reduction. High settings produce 64 FPS, a 42.9% drop from Low. Ultra settings are the most demanding, yielding only 43 FPS. The frame rate spread from Low to Ultra is 69 FPS, which is a significant performance range. The step from High to Ultra is particularly punishing, with a 32.8% performance loss, making Ultra a poor choice at this resolution. The GPU's 12 GB of VRAM and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth are clearly being taxed, as the visual complexity of the city and its effects at 4K Ultra is substantial.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling behavior from 1080p to 4K reveals the fundamental imbalance of this system. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 150 at 1080p to 121 at 1440p (a 19.3% decrease), and then to 64 at 4K (a 47.1% decrease from 1440p). This non-linear drop is characteristic of a system transitioning from a CPU-bound state at 1080p to a GPU-bound state at 4K.

At Low settings, the drop is less severe in relative terms: 184 FPS at 1080p, 158 FPS at 1440p (a 14.1% decrease), and 112 FPS at 4K (a 29.1% decrease from 1440p). This suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU is still handling a significant workload at 4K. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop is smaller than the 1440p to 4K drop for all presets indicates that the CPU has more headroom as resolution increases, allowing the GPU to become the primary limiting factor. The data shows that the RTX 5070 is not being fully utilized at 1080p, as the frame rate is capped by the i5-9400's processing power. Only at 4K does the GPU's performance start to be the deciding factor, with the scaling pattern closely following the expected workload increase. The combination of the 6-core, 6-thread CPU with a 2.90 GHz base clock and a 4.10 GHz boost clock is not sufficient to keep up with the GPU's potential at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system?

A: The data indicates that playing at 3840x2160 with High settings provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, yielding a 64 FPS average. This avoids the severe performance drop seen at Ultra (43 FPS) while still leveraging the GPU's power at 4K.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck for the RTX 5070 in this game?

A: Yes, the benchmark data strongly suggests a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and High settings is only 34 FPS (184 vs 150), indicating that the CPU is limiting performance. At 4K, the wider spread between settings (112 FPS for Low vs 43 FPS for Ultra) shows the GPU is the primary constraint.

Q: How does the RTX 5070's performance compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5070's average benchmark score is 40377, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580, 0.8% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, and 2% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile. It is 1.2% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro 5300.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 73 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. The next lowest is 122 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings. All other recorded minimums were not provided or were higher.

Q: Is there a large performance gap between High and Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the performance cost of Ultra is significant. At 4K, High averages 64 FPS while Ultra averages 43 FPS, a 32.8% drop. At 1440p, the drop is 32.2% (121 FPS to 82 FPS), and at 1080p, it is 14.7% (150 FPS to 128 FPS). The gap widens with resolution.

Q: What are the clock speeds of the Intel Core i5-9400?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 6 cores and 6 threads, and its performance is rated in the 47th percentile of all CPUs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It features 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory. In the context of Steamworld Build, this CPU is the primary limiting factor at lower resolutions. The benchmark results show that at 1080p, the frame rates are consistently high across all settings, but the narrow spread indicates that the CPU cannot process the game's simulation logic fast enough to push frame rates higher, regardless of the graphical load.

The CPU's performance is reflected in its benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 5141. These scores place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, which is 0.2% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, which is 0.4% faster. This level of performance is adequate for playing the game, but it prevents the RTX 5070 from achieving its full potential. At 4K, the CPU has more time to work between frames, which allows the GPU to become the bottleneck, but even then, the CPU's 6 threads may cause occasional hitches in complex scenes, though the minimum FPS data is not available for all presets to confirm this. The data indicates that this is a classic case of a high-end GPU being paired with a mid-range CPU, resulting in a system that is well-balanced for 4K gaming but leaves performance on the table at 1080p.