Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder where simulation depth and population counts matter more than raw frame rate heroics, but the pairing of the Intel Core i7-13700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 still delivers a wide spectrum of performance across its four graphical presets. The measured data shows that the Ultra preset is the only setting that forces a significant compromise on the RTX 5090, while the High, Medium, and Low presets all provide playable to exceptionally high frame rates depending on the resolution. For gamers seeking the definitive visual experience without dipping into the sub-60 FPS territory, the High preset is the clear target. At 3840x2160, High yields an average of 87 FPS, which is a substantial 50% improvement over the Ultra preset's 58 FPS average, while still offering the major visual upgrades over Medium. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, and the data indicates it is best reserved for those who prioritize image quality above all else, as it is the only preset that pushes the average frame rate below the 60 FPS threshold at 4K. Conversely, the Low preset at 1440p and 1080p produces frame rates of 286 and 384 FPS respectively, which are far beyond the refresh rate capabilities of most displays, making it a less sensible choice for typical use. The sweet spot for this combination is the High preset, which balances the visual fidelity of the game's art style with the raw power of the RTX 5090, ensuring a smooth experience at both 1440p and 1080p with average frame rates of 164 and 258 FPS respectively.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the extensive database of tested hardware combinations, the pairing of the Intel Core i7-13700K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 56 out of 3706 tested configurations in Steamworld Build. This places the system in the top 1.5% of all tested combos, underscoring its high-end positioning. The ranking reflects the synergy between the two components in this specific simulation title, which is known for being more demanding on the processor than on the graphics card. The i7-13700K's strong multi-threaded performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 30745 and Passmark multithread score of 45887, helps manage the complex game logic and agent simulations that occur as a city grows. Meanwhile, the RTX 5090's immense graphical horsepower, with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, ensures that the visual rendering is never a bottleneck at the tested settings. The rank of 56 indicates that while there are a handful of combinations that perform better, likely featuring even higher-end server or workstation CPUs, this consumer desktop setup is exceptionally well-balanced for Steamworld Build. The data shows that the i7-13700K, with a percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs, and the RTX 5090, with a percentile rank of 92 among all GPUs, are both individually top-tier parts, and their combination results in a top-tier experience for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best graphical preset to use with the RTX 5090 and i7-13700K at 4K resolution?

A: The High preset is the recommended choice for 4K. It produces an average frame rate of 87 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, drops the average to 58 FPS, which can feel less fluid.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 384 FPS, which is 210 FPS higher than the Ultra preset's 174 FPS average. This represents a 121% performance increase, but the frame rates are so high that the difference is only relevant for competitive or high-refresh-rate scenarios.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck in Steamworld Build with this configuration?

A: Benchmark results indicate that the CPU is a limiting factor at lower resolutions. The frame rate gain from 1440p to 1080p is not proportional to the reduction in pixel count, suggesting that the Intel Core i7-13700K's processing power is being fully utilized. At 1080p Low, the average frame rate is 384 FPS, which indicates a strong CPU, but the scaling pattern shows the game logic is demanding.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of memory provide an advantage in this game?

A: The data does not include specific VRAM usage metrics, but the GPU's high memory capacity is part of its overall high-performance profile. The benchmark results show that the GPU is capable of pushing high frame rates at all tested settings, and the 32 GB capacity ensures that memory is unlikely to be a limiting factor at 4K with High or Ultra settings.

Q: What is the average frame rate difference between the Medium and High presets at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset produces an average of 219 FPS, while the High preset produces an average of 164 FPS. This is a 55 FPS difference, indicating that the High preset is 25% more demanding than Medium at this resolution.

Q: How does the i7-13700K compare to its nearest rival in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: According to the data, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 has an average benchmark score of 46971, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-13700K's average score of 46881. This indicates that the two processors are essentially performance equals in general compute tasks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data for Steamworld Build with this hardware combination shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the game is heavily CPU-bound, with the RTX 5090 rarely being the limiting factor. The Low preset produces an average of 384 FPS, which is a staggering performance ceiling that showcases the i7-13700K's single-thread and multi-thread capabilities. Moving to the Medium preset, the average drops to 344 FPS, with a minimum and maximum of 293 and 396 FPS respectively, showing that even at this high frame rate, the frame times are relatively consistent. The High preset at 1080p yields an average of 258 FPS, while the visually intensive Ultra preset still manages a very playable 174 FPS average. At 2560x1440, the load shifts slightly towards the GPU. The Low preset still achieves an impressive 286 FPS average, and the Medium preset delivers 219 FPS. The High preset at 1440p provides a smooth 164 FPS average, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors. The Ultra preset at this resolution produces an average of 111 FPS, a solid performance level for the highest visual settings. The most demanding scenario is at 3840x2160. The Low preset yields a high average of 151 FPS, demonstrating the GPU's strength. The Medium preset drops to 116 FPS average, with a minimum of 98 FPS, which is still comfortably within the VRR range. The High preset at 4K maintains an average of 87 FPS, making it the best choice for a high-fidelity, high-refresh experience. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 60 FPS, with an average of 58 FPS. This data shows that the RTX 5090 provides enough headroom to run the game at high frame rates on all but the most demanding setting and resolution combination.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a significant insight into the system's bottleneck in Steamworld Build. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 384 FPS at 1080p to 286 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of 98 FPS (25.5%). Further scaling to 4K brings the average down to 151 FPS, which is a 60.7% drop from the 1080p figure. This massive reduction in performance as resolution increases indicates that the load is being transferred from the CPU to the GPU. At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely the primary bottleneck, as it must prepare all the frames that the GPU can easily render. As the resolution increases, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and its raw power dictates the final frame rate. This pattern is consistent across all settings. For instance, at the High preset, the frame rate drops from 258 FPS at 1080p to 164 FPS at 1440p (a 36.4% decrease), and then to 87 FPS at 4K (a 66.3% decrease from 1080p). The scaling factor is more pronounced at higher settings because the GPU's workload per pixel increases. The data shows that the Intel Core i7-13700K, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, is sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 at 1080p, but the game's simulation logic becomes a limiting factor as the resolution drops. This is common in city builders, where the CPU is responsible for simulating thousands of agents and their interactions. The RTX 5090's performance is so high that it can render frames more quickly than the CPU can calculate the game state at lower resolutions, leading to a CPU-bound scenario.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K plays a crucial role in the performance of Steamworld Build, a genre that is notoriously demanding on processor resources. With 16 cores (8 performance and 8 efficiency) and 24 threads, the CPU is well-equipped to handle the complex simulations that occur as a city expands. The base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensure that both lightly-threaded tasks, like the main game loop, and heavily-threaded tasks, like pathfinding for many citizens, are processed quickly. The benchmark data for the CPU shows strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 30745 and a Geekbench multicore score of 19429. These scores indicate that the processor can handle the parallel workloads that Steamworld Build presents, especially when tracking the needs and actions of a large population. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache is also beneficial, as it allows for fast data access for the many concurrent calculations. While the RTX 5090 is responsible for the visual output, the i7-13700K's performance is what allows the game to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions. The fact that the frame rate at 1080p Low is 384 FPS, more than double the 4K High result, shows that the CPU is capable of generating a high number of simulation steps per second. However, the scaling data also suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, as the GPU is capable of rendering even more frames if given the chance. The CPU's performance is a key reason why this combination ranks as high as 56th out of 3706 in this game, as it provides the necessary processing power to keep up with the demands of a growing city in Steamworld Build.