Pc Building Simulator

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

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 4 (Phoenix) architecture using TSMC's 4 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, drawing a 65 W TDP. The chip features a 16 MB shared L3 cache, with 64 KB L1 and 1 MB L2 per core. Memory support is DDR5 over a dual-channel bus, providing 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU sits on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with PCIe Gen 4 (20 lanes) connectivity.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 8400F demonstrates strong scaling from single-thread to multi-thread workloads. Its 3DMark single-thread score is 951, while the 2-thread score reaches 1874, and the 16-thread score hits 6091. The max-threads score of 6165 is only marginally higher than the 16-thread result, indicating the processor's 12 threads are nearly fully utilized by that point. Cinebench R23 scores are 2943 single-core and 20851 multi-core, which places the chip in the 77th percentile among all CPUs tested.

In Pc Building Simulator, the CPU's role is less about raw gaming performance and more about maintaining a stable simulation environment. The game's workload involves physics calculations, component interactions, and system state tracking, which benefit from multi-threaded throughput. The 8400F's 12 threads provide ample parallel processing capacity for these simulation tasks. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 125 FPS average, suggesting the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. However, as resolution increases, the frame rate drops significantly, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

The nearest rivals for the 8400F include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (0.2% higher average score), Intel Core i7-11850H (0.3% higher), Intel Core i7-13620H (0.4% higher), and AMD EPYC 9474F (0.4% lower). These deltas are small, confirming the 8400F sits in a competitive performance band. For a simulation game like Pc Building Simulator, the CPU's consistent multi-threaded performance across these rivals means the choice between them would have minimal impact on gameplay, with differences well under 1% in synthetic averages.

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

Examining the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, the data reveals a clear pattern: Low settings always deliver the highest frame rates, while Ultra settings deliver the lowest. At 1080p, Low averages 125 FPS, Medium averages 88 FPS, High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 59 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is a 37 FPS drop (30%), while the jump from Medium to High is a 26 FPS drop (30%). The transition from High to Ultra is only a 3 FPS drop (5%), suggesting diminishing returns in quality per frame lost.

At 1440p, the same ordering holds: Low averages 79 FPS, Medium 56 FPS, High 39 FPS, and Ultra 38 FPS. The relative drops are similar, with Low to Medium losing 23 FPS (29%), Medium to High losing 17 FPS (30%), and High to Ultra losing only 1 FPS (3%). At 4K, Low averages 41 FPS, Medium 29 FPS, High 21 FPS, and Ultra 20 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 12 FPS (29%), Medium to High is 8 FPS (28%), and High to Ultra is 1 FPS (5%).

The consistent pattern across all resolutions—where High to Ultra yields only a 3-5% performance penalty—suggests that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual overhead relative to High in this game. For the best experience, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a balanced 88 FPS average with a minimum of 75 FPS and maximum of 102 FPS, providing smooth gameplay without the frame rate volatility seen at lower settings. If the user prioritizes maximum smoothness, Low at 1080p delivers 125 FPS, but the jump to Medium retains most of the visual fidelity while only sacrificing 30% of the frame rate.

At 1440p, Medium delivers 56 FPS with a minimum of 47 FPS, which remains playable for a simulation game. The High preset at 1440p drops to 39 FPS, which may feel less responsive. At 4K, no preset achieves 60 FPS; the best is Low at 41 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. Therefore, the recommended preset is Medium at 1080p or 1440p, depending on the display's native resolution, as it provides the best compromise between frame rate and visual quality. Ultra at any resolution is not recommended, as the performance gain from High to Ultra is negligible while the visual improvement is likely marginal.

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

The measured FPS data shows a dramatic decline as resolution increases, which clearly indicates the Intel Arc B390 is the primary bottleneck in this combo. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 125 at 1080p to 79 at 1440p (a 37% reduction) and further to 41 at 4K (a 67% reduction from 1080p). At Medium settings, the averages are 88, 56, and 29 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively—a 36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 67% drop from 1080p to 4K. High settings show 62, 39, and 21 FPS, with drops of 37% and 66% respectively. Ultra settings yield 59, 38, and 20 FPS, with drops of 36% and 66%.

The near-consistent 36-37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p (which has 1.78 times the pixels) and 66-67% reduction from 1080p to 4K (which has 4 times the pixels) indicates a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rate would remain more stable across resolutions, as the simulation workload would stay constant while only the rendering load changes. The fact that frame rates scale almost inversely with pixel count—4K having 4x the pixels of 1080p and delivering roughly one-third the FPS—points to the GPU's fill rate and shading capabilities being saturated.

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution (IGP) with a base clock of 300 MHz and boost clock of 2500 MHz. It has 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, yielding a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput is 7.680 TFLOPS, and the memory bandwidth is "System Dependent," meaning it shares system memory. This configuration is clearly not designed for high-resolution gaming, and the data confirms that even at 1080p, the GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates at higher settings.

The percentile ranking of the Arc B390 is 9th among all GPUs, placing it in the bottom decile. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% higher score), GeForce 800M (1.5% higher), GT 625 OEM (2.5% higher), and GT 710 (2.7% higher)—all entries from the entry-level or legacy segments. This context explains why 4K Ultra yields only 20 FPS: the GPU's architectural capabilities are insufficient for the pixel throughput required at that resolution. For a simulation game like Pc Building Simulator, the CPU could potentially handle higher frame rates, but the GPU's rendering limits cap performance regardless of settings.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2650th out of 3002 tested combos in Pc Building Simulator. This places it in the bottom 12% of all configurations tested, which is consistent with the GPU's low percentile ranking (9th) dragging down an otherwise competent CPU. The Ryzen 5 8400F alone sits in the 77th percentile among all CPUs, but the Arc B390's 9th percentile ranking among GPUs means the overall combo performance is heavily constrained by the graphics subsystem.

The rank of 2650 out of 3002 means the combo outperforms only 352 other configurations, which are likely those with even weaker GPUs or severely outdated CPUs. The 3002 total combos tested include a wide range of hardware pairings, and this particular pairing occupies a niche where the CPU is overqualified for the GPU. The data suggests that users would achieve significantly better results by pairing the 8400F with a more capable discrete GPU, but within the constraints of this specific combo, the performance ceiling is set by the Arc B390.

The delta between the combo's rank and what the CPU alone would suggest (77th percentile) highlights a substantial imbalance. The CPU's synthetic average benchmark score is 25005, with nearest rivals all within 0.4% of that figure. Yet in actual gameplay, the combo struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 1080p High (62 FPS) and drops below 30 FPS at 4K Medium (29 FPS). This indicates that the GPU is the dominant factor in the combo's ranking, and any improvement in the GPU would yield substantial gains in the game's measured performance.

# FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 125, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 88 FPS at the same resolution with Medium settings.

Q: At what resolution and settings does the combo fail to maintain 30 FPS?

A: At 3840x2160, all settings except Low fail to reach 30 FPS. Low averages 41 FPS, Medium averages 29 FPS, High averages 21 FPS, and Ultra averages 20 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25005, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (24964) and 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i7-13620H (24911). It trails the AMD EPYC 9474F by 0.4% (25103).

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile?

A: The Intel Arc B390 ranks in the 9th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463, which is 1.3% lower.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High averages 39 FPS while Ultra averages 38 FPS—a difference of only 1 FPS (3%). This suggests Ultra offers minimal performance cost over High.

Q: Does the combo perform better at 1080p Medium or 1440p Low?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 88 with a minimum of 75 and maximum of 102. At 1440p Low, the average FPS is 79. The 1080p Medium setting delivers 11% higher average FPS and a higher minimum frame rate, making it the better choice for consistent performance.

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

1920x1080:

• Low: average 125 FPS
• Medium: average 88 FPS, minimum 75 FPS, maximum 102 FPS
• High: average 62 FPS
• Ultra: average 59 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: average 79 FPS
• Medium: average 56 FPS, minimum 47 FPS, maximum 64 FPS
• High: average 39 FPS
• Ultra: average 38 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: average 41 FPS
• Medium: average 29 FPS, minimum 25 FPS, maximum 34 FPS
• High: average 21 FPS
• Ultra: average 20 FPS

The data shows that only the Medium settings at 1080p and 1440p include minimum and maximum frame rate measurements. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 75 FPS ensures no significant drops below the average, while the maximum of 102 FPS indicates headroom for burst performance. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 47 FPS is above the 30 FPS playability threshold but may be noticeable during demanding simulation scenes. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 25 FPS and maximum of 34 FPS show a tight range around the 29 FPS average, meaning the experience is consistently sub-30 FPS.

The Ultra settings at all resolutions provide the lowest frame rates, with 59 FPS at 1080p being the only Ultra configuration above 40 FPS. The High settings at 1440p (39 FPS) and 4K (21 FPS) are closely matched to their Ultra counterparts (38 FPS and 20 FPS respectively), suggesting the game's Ultra preset adds little rendering overhead beyond High. The Low settings provide the most playable experience at higher resolutions, with 41 FPS at 4K being the only 4K configuration above 30 FPS.

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

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, manufactured on Intel's 3 nm process. Its chip is codenamed Panther Lake, and it belongs to the Arc Graphics-M generation. The GPU has no dedicated VRAM; instead, it uses "System Shared" memory, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This means the GPU relies on the CPU's DDR5 memory bandwidth (83.2 GB/s for the 8400F) for all graphics data, which creates a significant bottleneck for high-resolution textures and frame buffers.

The GPU's clock speeds are 300 MHz base and 2500 MHz boost, with a TDP of 80 W. It has 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS. The bus interface is IGP, meaning it connects directly to the system rather than a PCIe slot. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In Pc Building Simulator, the GPU's limitations become apparent at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra average of 20 FPS and 4K High average of 21 FPS indicate that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are insufficient for the pixel load. The 24 ROPs, while capable of 60.00 GPixel/s, are not enough to sustain modern rendering at 4K with high-quality settings. The "System Shared" memory architecture means that as resolution increases, the memory bandwidth demand grows, competing with CPU operations for the same DDR5 bandwidth.

The GPU's 9th percentile ranking confirms its entry-level status. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it just above the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% lower), GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% lower), GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% lower), and GT 710 (1443, 2.7% lower). These are all legacy or ultra-low-end parts, indicating the Arc B390 is positioned at the very bottom of the GPU performance spectrum. For a game like Pc Building Simulator, which is not graphically demanding by modern standards, the GPU still manages to deliver playable frame rates at 1080p Low (125 FPS) and Medium (88 FPS), but anything beyond that requires compromises in resolution or settings. The data suggests that the GPU is the definitive limiting factor in this combo, as the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance (77th percentile) cannot compensate for the GPU's rendering constraints.