Steamworld Build

Steamworld Build is a city builder that leans heavily on CPU simulation for its economic and population systems, but the GPU still carries the rendering load as settlements grow dense. This analysis pairs the Intel Core i9-14900K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, using measured frame rate data across three resolutions and four quality presets. The combo ranks 830th out of 1,730 tested combinations, placing it in the upper half of the database, with results that show a clear performance ceiling at higher settings and resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Steamworld Build?

A: At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a 241.5 FPS average on Low settings, which is the highest measured result. Even Ultra settings at this resolution produce a 93.5 FPS average, indicating a fully playable experience.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearest rivals in overall GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 30,109, sitting within 0.6% of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30,097) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29,928). The data shows a near-tie with the AMD Radeon RX 570, which scores 30,158 with a delta of -0.2%.

Q: Is the Core i9-14900K a top-tier processor relative to other CPUs tested?

A: The i9-14900K holds a 97th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79,824. Its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 7413, scores 80,041, which is only 0.3% higher, making them statistically equivalent.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 2560x1440 with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 113.4 FPS at 2560x1440 on Medium settings. This is a substantial jump from the 59.4 FPS seen on Ultra, showing that one step down in quality nearly doubles performance.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves a comfortable margin above 60 FPS with a 78.9 FPS average. Medium settings yield 61.8 FPS, which barely clears the threshold, while High and Ultra fall to 44.8 and 31.3 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the combo’s in-game rank translate to real-world performance?

A: The rank of 830 out of 1,730 combos places this pairing in the top half of all tested systems. The data suggests it is a balanced match for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but 4K Ultra is beyond its capability, as indicated by the sub-60 FPS results.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 3,840 shading units and 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 28 Gbps effective, which yields a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is critical for Steamworld Build because the game’s asset streaming and texture loads at higher resolutions directly tax bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock is 2280 MHz with a boost clock of 2497 MHz, and it produces a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s alongside a texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s.

For this city builder, the GPU’s role is to handle the draw calls for buildings, terrain, and the continuous simulation updates. The measured data shows that at 3840x2160, the RTX 5060 begins to bottleneck, with the average FPS dropping from 78.9 on Low to 31.3 on Ultra. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra preset likely exceeds comfortable memory allocation, contributing to the steep performance decline. The FP32 throughput of 19.18 TFLOPS provides solid compute headroom, yet the game’s simulation logic on the CPU side appears to scale better than the GPU rendering load at lower resolutions.

The RTX 5060’s position in the GPU hierarchy confirms its mid-range status. With a percentile rank of 73 among all GPUs, it sits just behind the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which has an identical average score of 30,097. The delta of 0% against the RX 7700 XT indicates that in raw compute terms, these cards are interchangeable. However, the 8 GB memory capacity may be a limiting factor in texture-heavy scenarios, which is reflected in the 4K results where the frame rate dips below playable thresholds.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks 830th out of 1,730 tested combos for Steamworld Build. This places the pairing in the 48th percentile of all systems, meaning roughly half of the tested configurations outperform it. The ranking reflects a balance between a high-end CPU and a mid-range GPU, where the processor’s capabilities are not fully utilized at higher resolutions due to GPU limitations.

The i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a boost clock of 6.00 GHz, and it holds a 97th percentile ranking among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 79,824 is within 0.7% of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF and 0.9% of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K. This CPU strength suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, such as the simulation aspects of Steamworld Build, the system has significant headroom. However, the GPU’s 73rd percentile ranking creates an imbalance that the in-game rank captures.

In practical terms, the combo’s rank of 830 means that while the CPU can drive high frame rates at lower resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution and settings increase. The measured data supports this: at 1920x1080, the combo achieves 241.5 FPS on Low, but at 3840x2160 on Ultra, it drops to 31.3 FPS. This indicates that the combo is optimized for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the GPU can keep pace with the CPU’s output.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the recommended starting point. The measured average of 113.4 FPS provides a smooth experience for a city builder, where frame drops during large-scale construction are less noticeable than in fast-paced genres. Moving to High at the same resolution yields 90.2 FPS, which is still playable but offers diminishing returns over Medium.

At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 138.3 FPS, making it the optimal choice for users with high refresh rate monitors. The Ultra preset at this resolution produces 93.5 FPS, which is acceptable but not necessary given the modest visual improvements in this genre. For 4K users, the Low preset is the only viable option, with a 78.9 FPS average. Medium at 4K drops to 61.8 FPS, which is borderline, but the data suggests that High and Ultra are not recommended due to sub-60 FPS averages.

The data clearly shows a performance cliff at 3840x2160, where the GPU struggles to maintain fluid frame rates. The 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are likely contributors, as the higher resolution demands more memory bandwidth. For this reason, users targeting 4K should stick to Low or Medium settings, while 1440p users have more flexibility across the preset range.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest performance. The Low preset achieves 241.5 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 182 FPS, still an excellent result, while High produces 138.3 FPS. The Ultra preset yields 93.5 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a playable, albeit less fluid, experience.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably. Low settings produce 150.9 FPS, a 37.5% reduction from the 1080p Low result. Medium follows with 113.4 FPS, and High drops to 90.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at this resolution gives 59.4 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target, indicating that this is the edge of the GPU’s capability for high-quality settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become pronounced. The Low preset achieves 78.9 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 61.8 FPS. High settings produce 44.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 31.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 17.1 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is also 17 FPS, suggesting a consistent performance cost per quality tier. Across all resolutions, the scaling from Low to Ultra shows that the RTX 5060 has a 7.7x performance range at 1080p (241.5 to 93.5 FPS), but only a 2.5x range at 4K (78.9 to 31.3 FPS), highlighting the diminishing returns at higher pixel counts.