Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build, a city-builder released on November 30, 2023, was tested with the Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080. The measurement set covers 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 resolutions across four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), yielding 12 average FPS measurements. For the Medium preset, minimum and maximum frame rates are also provided. This analysis uses only the data from that benchmark run.

Resolution Scaling

Frame rates scale in a tightly grouped pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p, the Low preset averages 397 FPS, while at 4K it drops to 134 FPS. Medium similarly goes from 304 FPS at 1080p to 102 FPS at 4K, High from 228 FPS to 77 FPS, and Ultra from 154 FPS to 52 FPS. The proportional drop is very consistent across presets: each step from 1080p to 1440p to 4K removes roughly one-third of the remaining performance. That consistency indicates the limiting factor is the fill rate level even though the GPU has spare capabilities. The i7-14700KF's single-core performance appears sufficient; Cinebench R23 score is 6235, and the CPU never appears to bottleneck the results at lower resolutions. The biggest scaling hit occurs from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, where every preset loses about 34–37% of its FPS. For example, at High, 1440p average 145 FPS falls to 100 FPS at 4K, and at Medium, 194 FPS becomes 102 FPS. At the Ultra preset, the 1440p average of 98 FPS is already below 100, and 4K Ultra reaches 52 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s shader and ROP a particularity limit extreme preset usage. The consistent ratio across all presets implies the GPU—the RTX 4080 with its 16 GB of memory—is the primary scaling hardware, while the CPU’s 20 cores and 28 threads provide plenty of headroom for the game’s simulation logic even at high frame rates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can this combo run Steamworld Build at 4K with a stable frame rate?

A: The 4K Medium preset averages 102 FPS, and the timer gives a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 118 FPS. High disk consisting of 75 lies only 77 FPS, so Medium is the highest preset in 4K that maintains an average above 100 frames.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: Its average benchmark score is 54247, while the nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54209, a delta of 0.1%. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (delta -1.1%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12GB scores 55698 (delta -2.6%).

Q: Is the CPU sufficient to push high frame rates at 1080p?

A: In this test, the 1080p Low preset reaches 397 FPS, Medium 304, High 228, and Ultra 154. The CPU’s multithread score in Cinebench R23 is 44167, placing it at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, so it is not a limiting factor.

Q: What is the rank of this CPU+GPU combination in this specific game?

A: Across all tested combos, the i7-14700KF with RTX 4080 ranks 180th out of 3706 configurations, placing it in the top decile of the measured field.

Q: Which preset provides the highest minimum FPS?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p has a minimum of 259 FPS and a maximum of 350 FPS, which is the only setting where minimum and maximum values were recorded.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest neighbors in benchmark performance?

A: The i7-14700KF average benchmark score is 70163, while the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996 (delta 0.2%), the Ryzen 9 7940HX 69875 (0.4%), and the Ryzen 9 7950X 69515 (0.9%). The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K scores 70879, a delta of -1%.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3706 tested configurations in Steamworld Build, the i7-14700KF + RTX 4080 combination holds the 180th position. That rank reflects the strong balance between the CPU’s raw single-and multi-threaded power and the RTX 4080’s 16 GB memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth. To put the GPU part in context, the RTX 4080 has a 16GB GDDR6X frame buffer and a 256-bit memory bus, along with 9728 shading units. The nearest GPU rivals, the RTX 4080 SUPER and the RX 6750 GRE, have average score deltas of 0.1% and -2.6% respectively, showing the 4080 sits within the top tier of graphics cards. The CPU’s 20-core/hM rate 28-thread design and 5.60 GHz boost clock deliver enough headroom for the simulation logic. In a slow-paced game like Steambox Build, such a rank indicates the combination can handle heavily populated saves, but the data shows that at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 52 FPS, which prevents the best visual quality from being used on a 4K display.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in relation to the measured environment, the preset choice depends strongly on resolution. At 1080p, Ultra still averages 154 FPS and High 228, so the highest quality is clearly playable. At 2560x1440, High at 97 FPS and Medium at 194 FPS are both comfortable; Ultra at 194 FPS but it’s only 98 FPS, still above 60 but the user may choose High for a more fluid frame window. At 3840x2160, the data reveals a clear cutoff: the Low preset yields 134 FPS, Medium gives 102 FPS, High gives 77 FPS, and Ultra only 52 FPS. To maintain a 60+ FPS average in 4K, the user should choose Medium or Low, because High and Ultra drop below the 80 FPS average. For the 1080p and 1440p classes, Medium also warrants attention, but the dataset also gives the frame-rate bounds for that preset: 1080p Medium has a spread between 259 and 350 FPS and 1440p Medium has a 165–223 FPS range, so it offers a consistent experience. All presets follow the core benchmark averages: Low always provides the highest, and Ultra the lowest. The most balanced configuration for 4K is with the Medium preset, which keeps the average above 100 FPS while showing more visual detail than Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates for each preset are: Low at 397 FPS, Medium at 304 FPS (271–340), High at 228, and Ultra at 154. The wide gap between Low and Medium (about 100 FPS) indicates that the difference between the lowest and next-lowest presets is the difference between the GPU idling and being moderately stressed, whereas the gap from Medium to Ultra (150 to 304) is large between each increment. At 2560x1440, the numbers fall to 253 FPS (Low), 194 FPS (Medium), with a min–max of 165–223, 145 FPS (High), and 98 FPS (Ultra). Here, the Ultra preset just crosses the pseudo 100 FPS line. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 134, Medium at 102 (min 87, max 118), High at 77, and Ultra at 52. The 4K Medium row is the only data point where both the minimum and maximum frame rates are recorded, allowing a glimpse at the stability: a 31 FPS spread between 1024p and 1660p only, Medium makes 87 FPS the typical minimum for that preset. In total, the 12 measured rows cover 4 settings at 4 resolutions, and for each resolution, the order is always Low > Medium > High > Ultra. That ordering confirms a standard scaling curve, with the largest relative drop occurring when moving from High to Ultra at every resolution (e.g., from 52 to 30% at 4K compared to the 144 FPS average).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF comes with 20 physical cores, 28 threads overall, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The L3 cache is 33 MB shared, and the CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual‑channel mode, though per‑cache and memory bandwidth values are not measured in this game. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 44167 and its single‑score of 6235 place it in the 94th percentile of all tested CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 70163, moderately above the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, which is only -1% behind. For Steamworld Build, the data suggests the CPU is not the bottleneck: at the lowest resolution and settings, the system still delivers 397 FPS, meaning the GPU can free itself to render at 397 FPS, but the CPU still has enough capacity to process the simulation. The 20‑core configuration with hyperthreading (28 threads) is particularly useful for a city builder that may spawn hundreds of citizens and financial operations; the typical GPU pair with holding‑core performance can prevent frame drops when the city grows. The boost clock’s 5.60 GHz rate offers strong single‑core latency, which is on par with the two closest CPU rivals: the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (delta 0.4%) and the Ryzen 9 7950X (0.9%) each have average scores that are only lower by less than 1%.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, includes 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. Its base clock is 2205 MHz, with a boost up to 2505 MHz, and the 16 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1400 MHz (effective 22.4 Gbps) across a 256-bit bus, giving 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s average benchmark score across tests is 54247, and it sits at the 86th percentile among all GPUs. In Steamworld Build specifically, the GPU’s performance is the dominant scaling factor, as evidenced by the uniform drop from 1080p to 4K at every preset. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 52 FPS, likely due to the pixel compute demands of the 4K (3840x2160) framebuffer, which is 4× the 1080p area. The GPU roles are clear: in this game, the RTX 4080 delivers more than 100 FPS at 1080p and Délion1440p in all presets, but only the Medium and Low presets remain above 100 FPS at 4K. The large memory pool and high bandwidth are not exploited, but the many shading units enable strong fill rates; the measured row at 4K reveals that the GPU consumes more than twice the time needed for the CPU at 1440p on the same Ultra preset, indicating a typical GPU‑bounded scenario. For those who want to stay at 4K ultra‑high quality, the RTX 4080 shows its limits; the lower presets provide a much safer experience.