Pc Building Simulator

Pc Building Simulator is a uniquely CPU-heavy simulation title, and the benchmark results for the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D confirm that the processor is the primary bottleneck at most settings. The data shows a massive 16-core, 32-thread CPU paired with a flagship 32 GB GPU, creating a system where frame rates are often dictated by the processor's threading capabilities rather than the graphics card's raw power. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, contextualizes the combo's rank, and provides clear settings guidance based on the empirical data.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic CPU-limited scenario that transitions into a more balanced workload at the highest resolution. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 350 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 300 FPS, a 14.3% reduction, and at 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 187 FPS, a 37.7% drop from the 1080p figure. This steep decline at lower settings and higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is finally being engaged as pixel count rises, but even at 4K Low, the frame rate is so high that the CPU is still likely feeding frames faster than a typical display can refresh.

The pattern shifts dramatically when looking at higher quality presets. At High settings, the 1080p average is 270 FPS, which drops to 179 FPS at 1440p (a 33.7% decrease) and then to 94 FPS at 4K (a 47.5% decrease from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows a similar trend: 266 FPS at 1080p, 171 FPS at 1440p, and 89 FPS at 4K. The consistent gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is telling. At 1080p, the difference between Low (350 FPS) and Ultra (266 FPS) is 84 FPS, or 24%. At 4K, that gap narrows to 98 FPS (187 vs 89), which represents a 52.4% reduction from Low to Ultra. This widening gap at 4K demonstrates that the RTX 5090 D's capabilities become the limiting factor only when both resolution and graphical complexity are at their maximum.

The data indicates that the RTX 5090 D is severely underutilized at 1080p and 1440p, where the Ryzen 9 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads are the constraining element. The game's simulation logic, which must track numerous system components and their interactions, appears to be heavily single-threaded or limited by the CPU's 3.40 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock. At 4K Ultra, the GPU's 176 ROPs and 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth finally become relevant, yet the 89 FPS average still suggests that even at this extreme setting, the CPU is not fully off the hook. The scaling from 1080p Ultra (266 FPS) to 4K Ultra (89 FPS) is a 66.5% reduction, which is more than the pure pixel count increase would suggest, indicating that the game's CPU overhead at Ultra settings compounds with the higher resolution demand.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 100th out of 3,723 tested combos in Pc Building Simulator. This places it in the top 2.7% of all configurations tested, which is an exceptional result for a game that is known to be simulation-heavy and potentially CPU-bound. The 100th rank out of 3,723 is a strong indicator that this pairing is near the top of the performance hierarchy for this title, with only 99 other combinations delivering higher average frame rates across the tested resolutions and settings.

The rank becomes even more impressive when considering the CPU's benchmark percentile. The Ryzen 9 5950X sits in the 91st percentile of all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 51,947. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX (average score 52,073, delta of -0.2%), the AMD EPYC 8124P (average score 52,121, delta of -0.3%), and the Intel Core i7-14700 (average score 52,301, delta of -0.7%). These deltas are all within 1% of the Ryzen 9 5950X's score, showing that the CPU is competitive with modern high-end processors despite being from the 5000 series. The fact that this older architecture still trades blows with newer chips in synthetic benchmarks suggests that its 16 cores and 32 threads remain highly relevant for simulation workloads.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5090 D ranks in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (average score 76,904, delta of 1.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (average score 78,940, delta of -1.6%), and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (average score 79,396, delta of -2.1%). While these deltas are small in percentage terms, the raw scores are dominated by the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance. The combination of a top-10% CPU and a top-10% GPU yields a top-3% combo rank, which is expected but still notable given the game's age (released in 2019) and its tendency to favor high core counts for simulation logic.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D plays a secondary role in Pc Building Simulator's performance profile, but its specifications ensure that it never becomes a limiting factor except at the most demanding settings. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. This is paired with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, along with 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The sheer size of the memory pool is overkill for this game, which is unlikely to use even a fraction of 32 GB at 4K, but the bandwidth and ROP count are what drive the frame rate at higher resolutions.

At 1080p and 1440p, the GPU's role is minimal. The data shows that at 1440p Low, the combo hits 300 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame delivery rate. The RTX 5090 D's 5 nm process node and Blackwell 2.0 architecture are more than capable of handling this game's graphics workload, which is relatively simple compared to modern AAA shooters. The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is vastly more than needed, making the 300 FPS at 1440p Low a CPU ceiling rather than a GPU limitation. The same logic applies at 1080p, where all settings produce frame rates above 266 FPS, indicating the GPU is never the bottleneck.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced at 4K, particularly at Medium settings where the measured data includes a min FPS of 113 and a max FPS of 153, with an average of 133 FPS. This 40 FPS range between min and max suggests variability that could be attributed to GPU load fluctuations. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 89 FPS, which is still highly playable, and the GPU's 176 ROPs are likely being exercised to their full extent. The RTX 5090 D's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compliance ensure it can handle any API the game throws at it, but the benchmark results show that the GPU's vast resources are mostly idle until resolution and settings are maxed out. The 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU indicate this is a power-hungry card, but for this specific title, the performance headroom is enormous.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive picture of how this combo performs across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 350 FPS, Medium produces 308 FPS (with a min of 262 and max of 354), High produces 270 FPS, and Ultra produces 266 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 84 FPS, or 24%, which is relatively small given the visual quality difference. The 1080p numbers suggest that the CPU is the hard limit here, as even the most demanding preset stays above 266 FPS, which is well beyond the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 300 FPS, Medium at 254 FPS (with a min of 216 and max of 292), High at 179 FPS, and Ultra at 171 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 129 FPS, or 43%, which is significantly steeper than at 1080p. This indicates that the GPU is starting to contribute more to the performance equation, but the 300 FPS at Low still points to CPU limitation. The Medium preset's min FPS of 216 is notable because it shows that even at 1440p, the frame rate can dip significantly, but the average remains high.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 187 FPS, Medium at 133 FPS (with a min of 113 and max of 153), High at 94 FPS, and Ultra at 89 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 52.4% reduction, which is the largest percentage drop across all resolutions. This is the only resolution where the GPU's limitations become apparent, particularly at High and Ultra where the averages fall below 100 FPS. The 4K Medium preset shows the widest min-max spread (113 to 153 FPS), suggesting that the combination of CPU and GPU load creates some frame pacing variability. Overall, the 4K numbers are still excellent for a simulation game, with even the worst-case Ultra preset averaging 89 FPS, which is smooth and playable.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is the dominant component in this pairing for Pc Building Simulator, and its 16 cores and 32 threads are the primary reason for the high frame rates at lower resolutions. The CPU's base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz, combined with 64 MB of L3 cache, provide strong single-threaded performance for the game's core simulation loop. The synthetic benchmarks back this up: the Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 26,017, while the single-core score is 1,614. The Geekbench multi-core score is 15,233, and the single-core score is 2,083. These numbers indicate a CPU that excels at both multi-threaded workloads and single-threaded tasks, which is ideal for a simulation game that likely uses multiple threads for different system components.

The 3DMark results show a clear scaling pattern: 944 for single-thread, 1,856 for 2 threads, 3,595 for 4 threads, 6,598 for 8 threads, 10,810 for 16 threads, and 11,597 for max threads. This scaling is nearly linear, indicating that the CPU's 16 cores are effectively utilized when the workload demands it. In Pc Building Simulator, where the game must simulate the interactions of individual components (CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, cooling), the 32 threads allow for parallel processing of these subsystems. The PassMark multi-thread score of 45,424 is particularly telling, as it places the CPU in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 51,947.

The CPU's role is most evident in the 1080p and 1440p Low settings results, where the frame rates hit 350 FPS and 300 FPS respectively. These numbers are so high that they can only be explained by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls faster than the graphics card can process them. The Ryzen 9 5950X's 4.90 GHz boost clock ensures that even single-threaded simulation tasks are handled quickly, while the 32 threads prevent any one core from becoming a bottleneck when multiple system components are being simulated simultaneously. The 105 W TDP is relatively modest for a 16-core CPU, which speaks to the efficiency of the Zen 3 architecture, but the performance data shows that this processor is more than adequate for this game's demands, even at 4K where the GPU takes on a larger role.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate, but the data strongly suggests that high refresh rate gaming is the primary strength of this pairing. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 266 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any monitor on the market. The difference between High (270 FPS) and Ultra (266 FPS) is negligible, so players should select Ultra for the best visual quality without sacrificing performance. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 308 FPS, but the visual downgrade from Ultra is not worth the 42 FPS gain since 266 FPS is already beyond the refresh rate of most displays.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts slightly. The Ultra preset averages 171 FPS, which is still excellent for high refresh rate gaming, but the High preset at 179 FPS offers a marginal 8 FPS improvement. The data suggests that 1440p Ultra is the sweet spot, as the 171 FPS average is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on 1440p monitors. The Medium preset at 254 FPS is overkill for most displays, and the visual quality loss from Ultra is significant. For players with 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors, 1440p Ultra is the clear choice, as it maxes out the visual fidelity while maintaining frame rates that exceed the refresh rate.

At 3840x2160, the settings recommendation becomes more nuanced. The Ultra preset averages 89 FPS, which is playable but may not be ideal for players with 120 Hz or higher refresh rate 4K displays. The High preset at 94 FPS is only 5 FPS faster, so the visual quality of Ultra is worth the small performance cost. The Medium preset at 133 FPS is the best option for players seeking higher frame rates at 4K, as it provides a 44 FPS improvement over Ultra (from 89 to 133 FPS) while still maintaining good visual quality. The Medium preset's min FPS of 113 ensures that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above 100 FPS. For 4K gaming, Medium is the recommended preset for a balance of visual fidelity and smoothness, while Ultra is for players who prioritize graphics over frame rate and are satisfied with 89 FPS. The Low preset at 4K offers 187 FPS, but the visual quality loss is substantial, making it only suitable for competitive play where frame rate is paramount.