Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that scales predictably with resolution, and the Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 demonstrates a clear GPU-bound progression across the tested settings. At 1080p, the average frame rates range from 168.2 FPS on Ultra to 378.7 FPS on Low, indicating an exceptionally high ceiling where the RTX 4090 is rarely the limiting factor. Moving to 1440p, the same settings yield 108.7 FPS (Ultra) and 277.9 FPS (Low), showing a substantial but expected drop as pixel count increases. The transition to 4K is the most punishing: Ultra falls to 55.3 FPS, while High reaches 86.7 FPS, and Low manages 146.9 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra represents a reduction of approximately 67%, which illustrates that the GPU’s rendering load dominates at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads are more than sufficient to feed the pipeline at lower pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a consistent pattern: as resolution increases, average FPS decreases monotonically across every preset. At 1080p High, the system produces 256.1 FPS, which drops to 162.7 FPS at 1440p High—a 36.5% reduction. The same settings at 4K yield 86.7 FPS, another 46.7% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that Steamworld Build’s rendering engine scales heavily with pixel throughput, and the RTX 4090’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are being taxed more severely as resolution climbs. The Low preset tells a similar story: 378.7 FPS at 1080p, 277.9 FPS at 1440p, and 146.9 FPS at 4K, with the 4K figure representing a 61.2% drop from 1080p. These percentages suggest that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p to the GPU at 4K, particularly on the Ultra preset where the 55.3 FPS result is the lowest recorded in the entire dataset. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (146.9 vs. 55.3 FPS) is a 2.7x difference, which is larger than the 2.3x gap at 1080p, confirming that graphics settings have a more pronounced impact at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090’s specifications directly explain its behavior in Steamworld Build. With a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, the GPU operates at high frequencies, but the benchmark results indicate that raw clock speed is not the sole determinant of performance. The 24 GB VRAM capacity is unlikely to be a bottleneck in a city builder, as the game’s asset streaming and population simulation do not typically exhaust such a large memory pool. Instead, the 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are more relevant to the observed frame rates. At 4K Ultra, the 55.3 FPS result suggests that the GPU’s shading units (16,384) and ROPs (176) are working near their limit, whereas at 1080p Low, the 378.7 FPS figure indicates that the GPU is far from saturated, and the CPU’s single-thread performance (5,003 in Cinebench R23) becomes more influential. The GPU’s 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66,473, places it slightly behind the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (deltaPct -0.4%) and ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (deltaPct 0.5%), but these rivals are data-center parts, not gaming cards, so the RTX 4090’s gaming-oriented architecture is better suited to this title’s demands.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall ranking of tested hardware combinations for Steamworld Build, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a combo rank of 19 out of 1,730 tested configurations. This places it in the top 1.1% of all combinations, indicating that the system is exceptionally well-matched for this game. The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 94, and its average benchmark score of 54,097 is only 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, which scores 54,450. The i7-14700F also trails the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D by 1.1% (54,681) but beats the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 by 1.2% (53,469) and the AMD EPYC 7313P by 1.7% (53,206). These small deltas suggest that the CPU is not a weak link in this combination; the GPU’s 91st percentile ranking and 66,473 average score are similarly strong, though the nearest rivals are professional-grade cards rather than consumer gaming GPUs. The high combo rank reflects that both components are near the top of their respective categories, and the measured frame rates confirm that this system can handle Steamworld Build at any resolution without dropping below playable thresholds.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 168.2 FPS, High reaches 256.1 FPS, Medium achieves 338.6 FPS, and Low peaks at 378.7 FPS. The jump from Ultra to High is 87.9 FPS, while the jump from High to Medium is 82.5 FPS, and from Medium to Low is 40.1 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings are lowered. At 2560x1440, the corresponding figures are 108.7 FPS (Ultra), 162.7 FPS (High), 213.1 FPS (Medium), and 277.9 FPS (Low). The gap between Ultra and High here is 54 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the 1080p gap. At 3840x2160, the results are 55.3 FPS (Ultra), 86.7 FPS (High), 113.9 FPS (Medium), and 146.9 FPS (Low). The Ultra-to-High gap narrows to 31.4 FPS, while the Medium-to-Low gap is 33 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s performance ceiling compresses the differences between presets at 4K. Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently yields the highest frame rates, with 4K Low (146.9 FPS) still exceeding 1080p Ultra (168.2 FPS) by a narrow margin, underscoring the GPU’s capability even at lower quality settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired visual fidelity. For 4K, the Ultra preset is only viable for users who prioritize image quality over frame rate, as the 55.3 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold often considered smooth. The High preset at 4K, delivering 86.7 FPS, offers a better balance, providing a 56.8% improvement over Ultra while maintaining high visual detail. The Medium preset at 113.9 FPS is the best choice for 4K users who want a high refresh rate experience, as it more than doubles the Ultra result and still retains acceptable visual quality. For 1440p, the Ultra preset achieves 108.7 FPS, which is playable on most high-refresh monitors, but the High preset at 162.7 FPS is recommended for competitive or fast-paced play, as it offers a 49.8% boost over Ultra with minimal visual compromise. At 1080p, all presets exceed 168 FPS, so the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation for maximum quality, with the 168.2 FPS result being sufficient for even the fastest displays. The Low presets, while producing the highest frame rates (378.7 FPS at 1080p), are only advisable for users with 240 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors who demand absolute maximum frame rates, as the visual degradation is significant. Overall, the data suggests that High or Medium presets at 4K, High at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p provide the best experience per the measured rows, balancing frame rate and visual fidelity without exceeding the hardware’s limits.