Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder where the pacing of simulation logic often matters more than raw pixel pushing, and the measured data for the Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 confirms this. The combination delivers playable frame rates across all tested resolutions, but the scaling pattern reveals that the game becomes progressively less demanding on the GPU as resolution drops, shifting the bottleneck toward the processor. At 4K Ultra, the average of 57 FPS is the lowest recorded point, while dropping to 1080p Low produces 353 FPS, a sixfold increase that shows the headroom available when the GPU is not saturated.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that resolution is the primary lever on performance for this combo. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 252 FPS at 1920x1080 to 160 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 85 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 37% reduction when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47% drop when stepping up to 4K. The pattern is similar at Medium settings, where 320 FPS at 1080p drops to 214 FPS at 1440p and then to 113 FPS at 4K. The Low preset shows the same trend with 353 FPS at 1080p, 280 FPS at 1440p, and 148 FPS at 4K.

The scaling behavior suggests the RTX 4090 is the limiting component at 4K, where even the lowest settings cannot push beyond 148 FPS, while at 1080p the CPU begins to constrain performance. At 1080p Low, the 353 FPS result is likely near the ceiling for this processor in this game, since increasing to Medium only yields 320 FPS and High produces 252 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is only 33 FPS, whereas the same settings gap at 4K is 35 FPS, showing that the GPU still has room to respond to settings changes even at high resolution. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 170 FPS, which is higher than the 4K High result of 85 FPS, reinforcing that resolution has a larger impact than preset quality on this hardware.

Settings Recommendations

The Ultra preset is the most demanding option tested, and the data shows it is only viable at 1080p for this combo, where it averages 170 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 108 FPS, which is still smooth, but at 4K it falls to 57 FPS, which may be borderline for players who prefer high refresh rates. The High preset offers the best balance across all resolutions: 252 FPS at 1080p, 160 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K. This preset provides a substantial improvement over Ultra at 4K, with the average rising from 57 to 85 FPS, a gain of 28 FPS that makes the game comfortably playable on a 4K display.

Medium settings are worth considering for those who want higher frame rates without sacrificing too much visual quality. At 1440p, Medium averages 214 FPS with a minimum of 182 FPS and a maximum of 246 FPS, while at 4K it averages 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS. The minimum frame rate data is only available for Medium, showing that this preset has the most consistent performance profile. Low settings push frame rates to 353 FPS at 1080p and 148 FPS at 4K, but the visual trade-off is significant in a city builder where detail matters for readability. Given the measured rows, High at 1440p or 4K appears to be the sweet spot, delivering frame rates above 85 FPS at 4K and above 160 FPS at 1440p without the steep cost of Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 28838 and a Geekbench multicore score of 14367. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4071 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2255. The processor ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 35365 places it close to rivals like the Intel Core i7-13700T, which scores 35403, and the Intel Core i5-13600T, which scores 35305.

In Steamworld Build, the CPU’s role becomes apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 353 FPS, but this is likely limited by the processor’s ability to feed the simulation and draw calls. The 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample parallel processing for a city builder, which often runs multiple simulation threads for resource management, citizen pathfinding, and building updates. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing latency in simulation-heavy scenes. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, such as UI updates or input handling, remain responsive even when the simulation load is high.

The fact that the frame rate does not scale linearly with resolution suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiter. For instance, the difference between 1080p Low (353 FPS) and 1440p Low (280 FPS) is 73 FPS, while the difference between 1440p Low and 4K Low (148 FPS) is 132 FPS. This indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor, while at 1080p the CPU cannot push beyond a certain threshold. The processor’s 3DMark scores support this, with a 16-thread score of 9282 and a max-thread score of 9983, showing that it scales well with additional threads but has a finite ceiling.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700KF with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 104th out of 3706 tested combos in Steamworld Build. This places it in the top 3% of all configurations, which is an impressive result for a processor that was released in late 2021 combined with a GPU that launched in late 2022. The rank indicates that this pairing delivers exceptional performance in this game, likely due to the RTX 4090’s dominance at higher resolutions and the i7-12700KF’s strong multi-threaded capabilities for simulation logic.

Compared to other combos, this setup excels in scenarios where the GPU is the primary constraint. At 4K Ultra, the 57 FPS average is likely near the top of what any current combo can achieve, given the RTX 4090’s position as the fastest consumer GPU. The GPU’s percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347, places it above most rivals, including the Intel Arc Pro A60 which scores 60326 and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 which scores 60140. The CPU’s 85th percentile rank is lower than the GPU’s, but its benchmark scores are still competitive with newer mid-range processors, which helps the combo maintain a high overall rank.

The combo’s rank of 104 out of 3706 suggests that there are 103 other combinations that perform better, but these likely include newer top-tier CPUs like the Core i7-13700T, which scores slightly higher than the i7-12700KF in average benchmarks, paired with the same RTX 4090. The delta between the i7-12700KF and its closest rival, the i7-13700T, is only -0.1%, which means the performance gap is negligible in practice. This combo’s strength lies in its balance—the CPU provides enough threads and clock speed to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at most resolutions, while the GPU handles the heavy lifting at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a massive GPU with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with an effective speed of 21 Gbps, and the core operates at a base of 2235 MHz with a boost of 2520 MHz. The GPU has 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. Its compute performance is rated at 82.58 TFLOPS for FP32, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The GPU’s benchmark scores are impressive, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 and a Passmark G3D score of 38194.

In Steamworld Build, the RTX 4090’s role is most evident at 4K, where it is the bottleneck for all presets. The fact that 4K Low still averages 148 FPS shows that the GPU has enough raw power to handle the game’s rendering demands even at the lowest settings, but the jump to 4K High (85 FPS) and 4K Ultra (57 FPS) indicates that the game’s higher presets introduce effects that significantly tax the GPU. The 24 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for Steamworld Build, which is unlikely to exceed even 8 GB at 4K Ultra, but the memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s helps with texture streaming and draw calls in a city builder where many objects are on screen.

The GPU’s performance at 1440p is particularly strong, with High averaging 160 FPS and Ultra averaging 108 FPS. This suggests that the RTX 4090 is overkill for 1440p in this game, as even the most demanding preset maintains a frame rate well above 100 FPS. At 1080p, the GPU is rarely the limiting factor, and the frame rates are instead constrained by the CPU, as evidenced by the smaller differences between settings at this resolution. The GPU’s 88th percentile rank among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 60347, confirms that it is one of the fastest options available, and its performance in Steamworld Build aligns with that status.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Steamworld Build with this combo?

A: The data shows that 1440p High offers an average of 160 FPS, which is smooth and visually pleasing. At 4K High, the average drops to 85 FPS, which is still playable, but 1440p provides a higher refresh rate without sacrificing much detail.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a significant visual improvement over High?

A: The measured FPS shows that Ultra is much more demanding: at 4K, Ultra averages 57 FPS versus 85 FPS for High, a 49% reduction. At 1080p, Ultra averages 170 FPS versus 252 FPS for High. The frame rate cost suggests that Ultra likely adds heavy effects that are not worth the performance hit for most players.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo averages 353 FPS, which is extremely high, but the frame rate does not scale linearly with settings—Medium is 320 FPS and High is 252 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, as the GPU has ample headroom to render more frames if the processor could deliver them.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 104th out of 3706 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3% of all setups. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 35365 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-13700T (35403) and the Intel Core i5-13600T (35305), while the GPU’s average score of 60347 is close to the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (60140).

Q: What minimum frame rates can be expected at Medium settings?

A: The only preset with minimum FPS data is Medium. At 1080p, the minimum is 272 FPS with an average of 320 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 182 FPS with an average of 214 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 96 FPS with an average of 113 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4090’s 24 GB of VRAM useful for this game?

A: Steamworld Build is a city builder that likely does not require large amounts of VRAM, even at 4K Ultra. The 24 GB capacity is far more than needed, but the GPU’s 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth and 384-bit bus contribute to smooth texture streaming and high frame rates at all tested settings.