Pc Building Simulator

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

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer codename) using TSMC's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz, with a 105 W TDP. The CPU's defining feature for simulation workloads is its large 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is particularly relevant for games like Pc Building Simulator that involve managing numerous objects, inventory items, and physics interactions in a persistent world.

The processor's PassMark multithread score is 20363, with a single-thread score of 2941. In Pc Building Simulator, the simulation logic — tracking component compatibility, thermal states, and system assembly mechanics — benefits from both strong single-thread performance for core game logic and respectable multithread throughput for background simulation tasks. The CPU's floating-point math score of 34511 and integer math score of 60033 indicate balanced computational capabilities, which is relevant because the game's simulation of PC assembly involves both discrete integer-heavy calculations (component IDs, slot assignments) and floating-point operations (thermal modeling, power draw approximations).

The Ryzen 5 5500X3D sits at the 85th percentile of all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 37018. Its nearest rivals show extremely tight clustering: the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F scores 36945 (0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 scores 36938 (0.2% higher), and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37112 (0.3% lower). This places the 5500X3D in a performance band where no single processor has a decisive lead; the data indicates that for Pc Building Simulator, the CPU's cache advantage may matter more than raw clock speed differences across these rivals.

With a boost clock of 4.00 GHz and the large L3 cache, the CPU demonstrates that it can keep the simulation's object tracking responsive at high frame rates. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 295 FPS, which is a frame rate where CPU-bound behavior typically manifests — yet the CPU sustains this without becoming a bottleneck, as the frame rates scale predictably with resolution changes.

FAQ

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500X3D compare to its closest CPU rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 37018. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores 36945, which is 0.2% lower. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 scores 36938 (0.2% lower), and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37112 (0.3% higher). The clustering is extremely tight, with all four rivals within a 0.5% band.

Q: What resolution and settings combination delivers the highest average FPS for this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 295, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 259 FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings. At 2560x1440 Low, the average drops to 253 FPS, showing a modest 14% decrease from the 1080p Low result.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at higher resolutions?

A: The data indicates a GPU-bound trend at higher resolutions. From 1080p High (228 FPS) to 1440p High (148 FPS), the frame rate drops by 35%. From 1440p High to 4K High (77 FPS), it drops by another 48%. The CPU maintains its simulation workload across resolutions, while the GPU's rendering load increases, making the RTX 4080 SUPER the primary limiter at 4K.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 387th out of 3002 tested combinations in Pc Building Simulator, placing it in the top 13% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the balance of the Ryzen 5 5500X3D and RTX 4080 SUPER in this simulation title.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 54209. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 scores 54247 (0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (1.1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (2.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon 8060S scores 55757 (2.8% higher). Despite the RTX 4080 SUPER being end-of-life, it remains competitive with these alternatives.

Q: What memory and cache configuration does the CPU use?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500X3D supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. It has 64 KB L1 cache per core, 512 KB L2 cache per core, and 96 MB shared L3 cache. It also supports ECC memory, which is unusual for a desktop gaming CPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings presets provides a clear picture for optimal configuration. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields 295 FPS, Medium yields 259 FPS, High yields 228 FPS, and Ultra yields 223 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 36 FPS (12% reduction), while the step from High to Ultra costs only 5 FPS (2% reduction). This suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot at 1080p — it delivers 228 FPS while providing substantially better visual fidelity than Low, and the incremental cost to Ultra is minimal.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low delivers 253 FPS, Medium delivers 209 FPS, High delivers 148 FPS, and Ultra delivers 141 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is significant (61 FPS, 29% reduction), while High to Ultra is again small (7 FPS, 5% reduction). Here, Medium offers the best balance: 209 FPS is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on 1440p monitors, and the visual upgrade from Low to Medium is more noticeable than the performance cost. For users prioritizing visual quality, High at 148 FPS still exceeds 144 Hz, making it a viable choice.

At 3840x2160, the presets produce 154 FPS (Low), 109 FPS (Medium), 77 FPS (High), and 73 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset at 109 FPS is the only setting above 100 FPS at 4K, making it the recommended choice for smooth gameplay. High at 77 FPS is playable but below the 90-100 FPS threshold that many users consider optimal for simulation titles. Ultra at 73 FPS is only 4 FPS lower than High, suggesting diminishing returns from High to Ultra at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the data shows that the Ultra preset provides minimal gains over High (typically 4-7 FPS difference), while Medium offers the best performance-per-visual-fidelity tradeoff at 1440p and 4K. At 1080p, High is recommended because the frame rate remains above 220 FPS and the visual upgrade from Medium is more pronounced than the performance cost.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 387th out of 3002 tested combinations in Pc Building Simulator. This places the system in the top 12.9% of all tested configurations, which is an exceptional result for a simulation game that often emphasizes CPU performance over GPU power.

The ranking is particularly notable given the CPU's specifications. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D has 6 cores and 12 threads, which is modest by modern standards, yet its 96 MB L3 cache provides a significant advantage in simulation workloads where data locality and cache hits matter. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests that it outperforms many higher-core-count processors in this game's specific workload.

The GPU contributes substantially to this ranking as well. The RTX 4080 SUPER sits at the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 34245 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth ensure that texture streaming and rendering at 4K resolutions do not introduce bottlenecks.

The 387th rank out of 3002 combos means there are 386 configurations that perform better and 2615 that perform worse. This places the combo in the upper echelon of tested systems, demonstrating that the combination of the 5500X3D's cache-heavy design and the RTX 4080 SUPER's raw rendering power is well-matched for Pc Building Simulator's demands.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals distinct scaling patterns across resolutions that indicate where the bottleneck shifts between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the frame rates are 295 FPS (1080p), 253 FPS (1440p), and 154 FPS (4K). From 1080p to 1440p, the drop is 42 FPS (14%), and from 1440p to 4K, the drop is 99 FPS (39%). This progressive decline suggests the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases, even at Low settings where rendering overhead is minimized.

At Medium settings, the frame rates are 259 FPS (1080p), 209 FPS (1440p), and 109 FPS (4K). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 50 FPS (19%), and from 1440p to 4K is 100 FPS (48%). The percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is larger than at Low settings, indicating that the Medium preset's additional rendering effects (shadows, textures, post-processing) amplify the GPU's workload disproportionately at higher resolutions.

High settings show the most dramatic scaling: 228 FPS (1080p), 148 FPS (1440p), and 77 FPS (4K). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 80 FPS (35%), and from 1440p to 4K is 71 FPS (48%). The 1080p to 1440p drop is notably steeper than at Low or Medium, suggesting that High settings introduce effects that are particularly expensive at 1440p. At Ultra settings, the frame rates are 223 FPS (1080p), 141 FPS (1440p), and 73 FPS (4K), with drops of 82 FPS (37%) and 68 FPS (48%) respectively.

The consistent 48% drop from 1440p to 4K across Medium, High, and Ultra settings indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor in this resolution range. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB VRAM and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle 4K textures, but the rendering workload at 4K — approximately four times the pixel count of 1080p — overwhelms the GPU's compute capabilities. Conversely, the smaller drops from 1080p to 1440p at Low (14%) and Medium (19%) settings suggest the CPU can keep up with the simulation workload, while the GPU handles the increased pixel count efficiently.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 295 FPS, making the game feel extremely responsive with no perceivable lag. Medium settings yield 259 FPS average, with a minimum of 220 FPS and maximum of 298 FPS, showing tight frame pacing. High settings average 228 FPS, while Ultra settings average 223 FPS — a remarkably small difference of only 5 FPS between High and Ultra at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show more separation between presets. Low settings average 253 FPS, which is still above 240 Hz refresh rates. Medium settings average 209 FPS, with a minimum of 178 FPS and maximum of 240 FPS — the wider min-max range indicates more frame time variance than at 1080p. High settings average 148 FPS, and Ultra settings average 141 FPS. The 7 FPS difference between High and Ultra mirrors the 1080p pattern, confirming that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly demanding.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary constraint. Low settings average 154 FPS, which is still highly playable. Medium settings average 109 FPS, with a minimum of 93 FPS and maximum of 126 FPS — the minimum frame rate of 93 FPS is the lowest recorded in any Medium setting across all resolutions, but remains above 90 FPS for smooth gameplay. High settings average 77 FPS, and Ultra settings average 73 FPS. The 4 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 4K is the smallest across all resolutions, suggesting that the Ultra preset's marginal visual improvements are negligible at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz, with 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. It features 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, delivering 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s.

The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. In Pc Building Simulator, this memory configuration is more than sufficient — the game's textures and 3D models of PC components are relatively simple compared to modern AAA titles, and the 16 GB capacity ensures no VRAM limitations even at 4K Ultra settings. The pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and the 112 ROPs handle the game's rendering efficiently.

The RTX 4080 SUPER's benchmark results show it operating at the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54209. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (54247, 0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828, 1.1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698, 2.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon 8060S (55757, 2.8% higher). Despite being end-of-life, the RTX 4080 SUPER remains competitive with these alternatives.

The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures full compatibility with Pc Building Simulator's rendering pipeline. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 indicates strong DX12 performance, while the Geekbench Vulkan score of 260075 and OpenCL score of 219065 demonstrate versatile compute capabilities. The PassMark G3D score of 34245 and GPU compute score of 19822 provide additional context for the GPU's overall performance.

The GPU's 320 W TDP and triple-slot design require a 700 W recommended PSU, with a single 16-pin power connector. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures sufficient bandwidth for data transfer between the CPU and GPU. The display outputs include one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports, supporting high refresh rate monitors at 1440p and 4K.

In Pc Building Simulator, the GPU's role is primarily rendering the simulation's 3D environment — the workbench, components, and case — rather than processing complex physics or simulation logic. The measured FPS data shows that at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with frame rates dropping to 73 FPS at Ultra settings. This is not a reflection of GPU inadequacy but rather the inherently demanding nature of 4K rendering, which requires approximately four times the pixel throughput of 1080p. The RTX 4080 SUPER handles this workload admirably, maintaining 73 FPS at 4K Ultra — a playable frame rate for a simulation title where precise mouse control matters more than twitch reflexes.