Steamworld Build

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It runs with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, drawing a 125 W TDP. The chip carries 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core, alongside 80 KB of L1 per core. With a 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 70074, this processor sits near the very top of the desktop hierarchy.

For a city builder like Steamworld Build, the CPU's role is substantial because simulation logic, pathfinding, and population calculations scale with core count and thread availability. The 20-core configuration provides ample headroom for background simulation tasks, while the 5.60 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded game logic — often the bottleneck in this genre — runs at high speed. In benchmark comparisons, the i7-14700K is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-14700KF (deltaPct of 0), sits 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9115, and trails the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X by 0.5%.

The measured FPS data reveals that at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 397.5 FPS, which is substantially higher than at 4K Ultra (55.5 FPS). This wide spread indicates that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at extremely high frame rates, but as resolution and visual complexity increase, the workload shifts toward the graphics card. The processor's Passmark multi-thread score of 52392 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44534 confirm strong parallel performance, which helps maintain consistent frame pacing when large cities introduce many simultaneous entity updates.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The data shows a clear performance hierarchy across the four tested presets. At 1080p, Low delivers 397.5 FPS, Medium drops to 337.2 FPS, High falls to 251.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 171 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 226.5 FPS, which represents a 57% reduction in frame rate when moving to the highest preset. At 1440p, the pattern continues: Low produces 281 FPS, Medium 216.8 FPS, High 163.1 FPS, and Ultra 108.5 FPS. At 4K, the numbers compress significantly: Low achieves 146.5 FPS, Medium 113.5 FPS, High 82.2 FPS, and Ultra only 55.5 FPS.

For the best experience, the High preset at 1440p offers a strong balance, delivering 163.1 FPS while maintaining visual fidelity. At 4K, High at 82.2 FPS is playable, but Medium at 113.5 FPS provides a smoother experience with only a modest visual downgrade. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 55.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider essential for smooth gameplay. At 1080p, even Ultra at 171 FPS is far above display refresh rates for most monitors, so players with high-refresh displays can comfortably use Ultra without concern. The data strongly suggests that High is the recommended preset for 1440p and 4K, while Ultra is viable at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rate from 397.5 FPS to 281 FPS, a drop of 116.5 FPS or 29.3%. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low brings the frame rate down to 146.5 FPS, another 134.5 FPS reduction. These large absolute drops indicate that even at Low settings, the GPU is being pushed harder as pixel count increases.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is less dramatic in percentage terms but still significant: 1080p yields 171 FPS, 1440p yields 108.5 FPS, and 4K yields 55.5 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is 32.5% of the 1080p Ultra result. This compression suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are being taxed by the higher resolution and more demanding visual effects.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to push frame rates well beyond typical display capabilities, with even Ultra exceeding 170 FPS. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiter, as evidenced by the 55.5 FPS result at Ultra — a figure that is more than three times lower than the 1080p Low result. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate are substantial, but Steamworld Build's city rendering at 4K Ultra presents a workload that even this flagship GPU cannot overcome to maintain high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 16th out of 1730 tested combos in Steamworld Build. This places it in the top 0.9% of all configurations tested, which is an exceptional result. The ranking reflects the combined capability of this high-end CPU and GPU pairing.

The 16th position out of 1730 combos means that only 15 other hardware combinations produced higher average frame rates in this game. Given that the RTX 4090 is already an end-of-life product with a successor in the GeForce 50 series, and the i7-14700K is a current-generation desktop processor, this combination represents a near-flagship configuration. The percentile data for the individual components supports this: the CPU sits at the 96th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU sits at the 91st percentile among all GPUs.

The fact that this combo achieves such a high rank despite the game being a city builder — a genre that typically relies heavily on CPU simulation — suggests that the 20-core i7-14700K provides sufficient processing power to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4090. The measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings confirms this: even at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 397.5 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: At 1440p High, the combo delivers 163.1 FPS, which offers an excellent balance of visual quality and performance. For 4K, Medium at 113.5 FPS is recommended over Ultra, which drops to 55.5 FPS.

Q: How does the i7-14700K compare to the i7-14700KF in overall benchmarks?

A: The two processors have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with the i7-14700KF at 70104 and the i7-14700K at 70074, resulting in a deltaPct of 0.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 capable of running Steamworld Build at 4K Ultra above 60 FPS?

A: No. The measured 4K Ultra result is 55.5 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold. Players seeking 60+ FPS at 4K should use High settings, which yield 82.2 FPS.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1080p Low settings?

A: The measured average is 397.5 FPS, which is the highest result across all tested configurations in this data set.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The 55.5 FPS result versus 171 FPS at 1080p Ultra indicates that the RTX 4090's rendering workload at 4K is the constraint, not the CPU.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium, 1080p delivers 337.2 FPS while 4K delivers 113.5 FPS, representing a 223.7 FPS reduction or roughly 66% lower frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured results are: Low 397.5 FPS, Medium 337.2 FPS, High 251.4 FPS, and Ultra 171 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline, with the largest single step being from High to Ultra (80.4 FPS drop) and the smallest from Low to Medium (60.3 FPS drop).

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 281 FPS, Medium 216.8 FPS, High 163.1 FPS, and Ultra 108.5 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 64.2 FPS, Medium to High is 53.7 FPS, and High to Ultra is 54.6 FPS. These steps are more uniform than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU workload scales more evenly at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 146.5 FPS, Medium 113.5 FPS, High 82.2 FPS, and Ultra 55.5 FPS. The performance gaps become smaller in absolute terms: Low to Medium is 33 FPS, Medium to High is 31.3 FPS, and High to Ultra is 26.7 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 55.5 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire data set.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings: at Low, 1080p is 397.5 FPS, 1440p is 281 FPS, and 4K is 146.5 FPS. At Medium, 1080p is 337.2 FPS, 1440p is 216.8 FPS, and 4K is 113.5 FPS. At High, 1080p is 251.4 FPS, 1440p is 163.1 FPS, and 4K is 82.2 FPS. At Ultra, 1080p is 171 FPS, 1440p is 108.5 FPS, and 4K is 55.5 FPS.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a chip containing 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. It operates with a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth.

With 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, the RTX 4090 delivers 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s. It also includes 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The GPU has a 450 W TDP and requires a 850 W suggested PSU, with a triple-slot design measuring 304 mm in length.

In Steamworld Build, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution and settings increase. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 397.5 FPS suggests the GPU is not heavily taxed, but at 4K Ultra, the 55.5 FPS result indicates the GPU is fully utilized. The 24 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for this game at any resolution, as city builders typically do not require massive texture budgets. The GPU's percentile ranking of 91 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473, confirms its high-end positioning.

The RTX 4090's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (deltaPct -0.4), NVIDIA Tesla P40 (deltaPct 0.5), and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (deltaPct -0.9). These are professional and workstation cards, indicating that the RTX 4090's performance level is competitive even against non-gaming hardware. However, the measured FPS data for Steamworld Build shows that even this flagship GPU cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra, highlighting the game's demanding rendering requirements at maximum settings.