Pc Building Simulator

Pc Building Simulator is a simulation title where frame pacing and component interaction matter more than raw graphical spectacle, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti proves to be a potent combination. The benchmark data shows that this system places 614th out of 1769 tested combos, placing it comfortably in the top third of all configurations tested for this game. This pairing demonstrates a strong balance, though the data reveals distinct roles for the CPU and GPU depending on resolution and settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor features a 12 MB shared L3 cache and 256 KB L2 cache per core, along with 64 KB of L1 cache per core. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 42.7 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 interface. The chip's single-thread performance, as measured by its 3dmark single-thread score of 688 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1453, is adequate for gaming, but its multi-threaded capabilities are more substantial, as shown by a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297.

In Pc Building Simulator, the CPU's influence is most visible at lower resolutions, where the GPU is not the primary bottleneck. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 258.3 FPS. This high frame rate suggests that the i5-10400F has sufficient headroom to feed the RTX 3080 Ti, but it is not limitless. The 3dmark 16-thread score of 4748 and the max-threads score of 4735 show that the CPU scales well with load, but its performance in simulation tasks, like the PassMark physics score of 696, indicates that it can become a limiting factor in complex game states. The processor sits at the 73rd percentile when compared to all CPUs, and its nearest rivals show a tight cluster: it is 0.4% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7552, but 1.1% behind the Intel Core i5-8500 and 1.2% behind the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546. This data shows the i5-10400F is a solid mid-range performer that will not cripple the system, but it is not a high-end part that will push frame rates to their absolute limits.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the dominant component in this system. Built on the Ampere architecture with an 8 nm process, it packs 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The GPU has 80 RT cores and 320 Tensor cores, and it operates with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory runs on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The card is rated for a 350 W TDP and requires a 750 W power supply. Its raw compute power is substantial, with an FP32 throughput of 34.10 TFLOPS.

The GPU's influence is clear in the measured frames. Even at 4K Ultra, the system manages 56.3 FPS, which is playable, but the card truly shines at lower resolutions and settings. At 1440p High, it delivers 113.8 FPS, and at 1080p High, it jumps to 181.7 FPS. The GPU's performance relative to its rivals is notable. It is only 0.5% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 in average benchmark score, and it is 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070. The GPU sits at the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, confirming its high-end status. The data suggests that the RTX 3080 Ti is strong enough to make the CPU the primary bottleneck in many scenarios, especially at 1080p where frame rates are exceptionally high.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across different settings and resolutions provides a clear picture of how this combo behaves. At 1080p, the system is capable of very high frame rates. With Low settings, it hits 258.3 FPS, and with Medium settings, it still achieves 223.8 FPS. High settings yield 181.7 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 173.5 FPS. The jump from Low to Ultra at 1080p costs about 85 FPS, which is a significant drop but still leaves the system well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many monitors support.

At 1440p, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute numbers. Low settings produce 219.7 FPS, Medium settings deliver 165.8 FPS, and High settings provide 113.8 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p yield 112.9 FPS, which is only marginally lower than the High preset. This suggests that the visual difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is not worth the slight performance hit, making High the sweet spot for a high-refresh-rate 1440p monitor. At 4K, the system becomes more GPU-bound. High settings produce 62 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 56.3 FPS. Medium settings at 4K offer a more comfortable 85.1 FPS, and Low settings reach 121.8 FPS. For a smooth 4K experience, Medium settings are the best option, as they provide a clear frame rate advantage over High and Ultra while still offering better visuals than Low. The data indicates that High settings at 1440p offer the best balance of image quality and performance, providing 113.8 FPS which is ideal for most gaming scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i5-10400F and the RTX 3080 Ti ranks 614th out of 1769 combos tested in Pc Building Simulator. This places the system in the 65th percentile of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given that the list includes many newer and more expensive parts. The ranking suggests that this pairing is well-matched for this game, as the CPU does not overly bottleneck the GPU at higher resolutions, and the GPU provides enough power to push high frame rates at lower resolutions. The CPU's performance, while not top-tier, is sufficient to avoid severely limiting the GPU's output in this simulation title, which is less reliant on raw single-thread performance than other genres. The data shows that the combo outperforms lower-ranked systems by a wide margin, and it is competitive with systems that feature more recent CPUs, but it falls short of the top-tier rankings that are dominated by the latest flagship processors and graphics cards.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component in this system. At 1080p High, the system achieves 181.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 113.8 FPS, which is a 37% reduction. Stepping up to 4K High, the frame rate falls to 62 FPS, which is a further 46% reduction from 1440p. This steep drop-off indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the workload on the GPU increases significantly with resolution. The CPU's role is more prominent at 1080p, where the frame rates are high enough that the processor's performance ceiling is reached.

This is further confirmed by looking at the Low settings data. At 1080p Low, the system hits 258.3 FPS, which is a very high number. At 1440p Low, it drops to 219.7 FPS, a 15% reduction, and at 4K Low, it falls to 121.8 FPS, a 45% reduction from 1440p. The fact that the 4K Low frame rate is still above 120 FPS shows that the RTX 3080 Ti has immense raw power, but the scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is still the bottleneck at 4K. The data shows that the system is most balanced at 1440p, where the CPU and GPU are both working hard, but at 1080p, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, preventing the system from reaching even higher frame rates. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the CPU has enough headroom to handle the lower frame rates without being saturated. This analysis suggests that for this combo, 1440p is the optimal resolution to maximize the potential of both components.