Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that scales unusually well with resolution, and the combination of an Intel Core i5-9400 with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 produces a distinct bottleneck profile. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 181.8 FPS, which drops to 153 FPS at High and 131.7 FPS at Ultra. Moving to 1440p, the same settings show 156.7 FPS, 127.5 FPS, and 103.9 FPS respectively, while 4K Ultra falls to 56.3 FPS. The scaling pattern reveals that the RTX 5080 is the primary driver at higher resolutions, but at 1080p the CPU begins to assert its influence as the frame rate ceiling approaches.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS curve across resolutions tells a clear story about system balance. At 1080p Low, the system produces 181.8 FPS, and moving to 4K Low yields 126.5 FPS—a 30.4% reduction in performance. However, at Ultra settings, the drop is far more severe: 131.7 FPS at 1080p collapses to 56.3 FPS at 4K, a 57.2% decline. This disparity indicates that the RTX 5080’s rendering workload scales dramatically with pixel count, while the CPU’s contribution remains relatively constant.

The data shows a consistent pattern where Low settings at any resolution produce the highest frame rates, with Medium and High falling in between. At 1440p, the spread is 156.7 FPS at Low versus 103.9 FPS at Ultra, a 33.7% gap. At 1080p, the gap narrows to 27.5% (181.8 FPS versus 131.7 FPS), suggesting that the CPU is becoming a limiting factor at lower resolutions where the GPU has headroom to render more frames.

The most telling observation is the diminishing returns of resolution scaling at lower quality presets. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is 70.2 FPS (126.5 versus 56.3), while at 1080p the same comparison yields only a 50.1 FPS difference (181.8 versus 131.7). This indicates that the GPU is the dominant constraint at 4K, while the CPU constrains performance at 1080p. The RTX 5080’s 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient even at 4K Ultra, so the bottleneck is compute-bound rather than memory-bound.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake refresh generation, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) are modest by modern standards, but they are adequate for a city builder that likely relies on single-threaded simulation logic. The CPU’s benchmark scores reflect its mid-range positioning: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125 place it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs.

In Steamworld Build, the CPU’s role becomes apparent at 1080p where frame rates approach 182 FPS. At that point, the processor’s six threads are likely saturated by game logic, pathfinding, and agent simulation, preventing the RTX 5080 from pushing beyond that ceiling. The 1440p High result of 127.5 FPS is still high enough to suggest that the CPU has sufficient headroom at this resolution, but the 1080p Low result of 181.8 FPS is close to the practical limit for this processor in this title.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-9400 is tightly clustered. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300 in average benchmarks, a mere 0.2% difference, while the Intel Xeon E-2134 is 0.4% faster. The Intel Core i7-8809G is 0.6% faster, but the differences are negligible in real-world gaming. None of these rival CPUs would meaningfully change the frame rate profile observed in Steamworld Build, as the game appears to scale primarily with GPU load rather than raw CPU throughput.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die. Its 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines provide substantial compute throughput, with a FP32 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS. The GPU’s base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2617 MHz, and its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory operates across a 256-bit bus at 1875 MHz, yielding 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The RTX 5080’s percentile ranking of 89 versus all GPUs confirms its high-end positioning, and its average benchmark score of 59,188 is 1.6% higher than the Intel Arc A570M and 1.9% lower than the Intel Arc Pro A60. In Steamworld Build, the GPU’s dominance is evident at 4K, where even Low settings produce 126.5 FPS—a result that would be impossible for a weaker GPU. The 4K Ultra result of 56.3 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS result in the entire dataset, indicating that the RTX 5080 is fully utilized at this resolution and preset.

The GPU’s rendering capabilities are further highlighted by the pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s, which allow it to handle the dense geometry and detailed textures typical of city builders at high resolutions. The 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores provide additional headroom for future features, though Steamworld Build likely does not utilize them heavily. The 360 W TDP and suggested 750 W PSU indicate a power-hungry component, but the data shows that it delivers consistent performance across all tested settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 600th out of 1,730 tested combos in Steamworld Build, placing it in the 65th percentile of all tested configurations. This ranking reflects the imbalance between the two components: the GPU is high-end, but the CPU is a six-thread part from 2018 that holds back the system in CPU-bound scenarios. The fact that this combo outperforms 65% of all tested combos reflects the RTX 5080’s raw power, but the ranking also suggests that pairing this GPU with a more modern processor would yield better results.

The measured FPS data supports this analysis. At 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 56.3 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a high-refresh-rate display. At 1440p Ultra, the result of 103.9 FPS is solid, and at 1080p Ultra, 131.7 FPS is excellent. The combo’s ranking would likely improve significantly with a CPU that has higher single-thread performance, as the 1080p results show signs of CPU limitation. However, for a city builder where frame rates above 60 FPS are often unnecessary, this combo delivers playable performance at all tested resolutions and settings.

The data indicates that the RTX 5080 is the star of this pairing, but the i5-9400 is a bottleneck at lower resolutions. The 600th ranking out of 1,730 combos is respectable, but it underscores that the CPU is the weaker link. Users who prioritize 4K gaming will find this combo more than adequate, while those targeting 1080p high-refresh-rate play may be better served by a stronger processor.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Steamworld Build?

A: The highest average FPS is 181.8 at 1920x1080 with Low settings, followed by 169 at 1080p Medium and 156.7 at 1440p Low.

Q: Does this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, the 4K Ultra result is 56.3 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. All other tested resolutions and settings exceed 60 FPS, including 4K High at 82.7 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5080 has an average benchmark score of 59,188, which is 1.6% higher than the Intel Arc A570M (58,239) and 2.5% higher than the Intel Arc A580 (57,756).

Q: What is the CPU’s percentile ranking versus all CPUs?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 is in the 50th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2,305. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2,300 (0.2% difference).

Q: How much does performance drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 153 at 1080p to 127.5 at 1440p and 82.7 at 4K, representing a 46% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the combo CPU-limited or GPU-limited at 1080p Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 181.8 FPS, and the relatively small gap between Low and Ultra (181.8 versus 131.7) suggests the CPU is the limiting factor, as the GPU has ample headroom at this resolution.