Pc Building Simulator

Pc Building Simulator places modest demands on hardware, and the combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a range of experiences that shift dramatically based on resolution and quality settings. The measured FPS data reveals a system that can handle high refresh rates at 1080p, but which becomes progressively more constrained as resolution climbs, with the Ultra preset at 4K falling below playable thresholds. This analysis explores the CPU and GPU roles, provides settings guidance, and contextualizes the data within the broader benchmark database.

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

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz, with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, and it carries a 9 MB shared L3 cache. This processor has a TDP of 65 W and uses the Intel Socket 1151. In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-9400 scores 668 in Cinebench R15 multi-core, 2784 in R20 multi-core, and 6629 in R23 multi-core, with single-core scores of 94, 392, and 935 respectively. In Geekbench, it achieves 5141 multi-core and 1389 single-core.

The processor's percentile rank versus all CPUs is 47, placing it just below the midpoint of the database. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2% delta), the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, -0.4% delta), the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, 0.3% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, 0.4% delta). The i5-9400's average benchmark score is 2254, which is statistically indistinguishable from these competitors, indicating that its six physical cores without hyper-threading are competitive with various other mid-range offerings from the same era.

For Pc Building Simulator, the CPU's role is less about raw multi-threaded throughput and more about maintaining consistent frame pacing. The game's simulation logic, which tracks component compatibility, temperatures, and system boot sequences, is largely single-threaded. The i5-9400's single-core performance, as reflected in its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935, provides adequate headroom for these tasks. The 6-core configuration ensures that background processes and the game's UI do not starve the main simulation thread. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 173 FPS, which suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at these settings, as the frame rate is far above typical display refresh rates. However, the relatively modest single-thread performance compared to newer architectures could become a limiting factor if the simulation complexity were to increase, but within the measured data, the CPU appears sufficient.

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

The measured FPS data for this combo provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the optimal balance of visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 87 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops slightly to 82 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves 123 FPS, and Low reaches 173 FPS. For a standard 60 Hz or 144 Hz display, the High preset at 1080p is the recommended starting point, as it provides a 87 FPS average that is smooth and visually detailed without the marginal frame rate cost of Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the High preset yields 55 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced interaction. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 77 FPS, offering a better balance for higher refresh rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 52 FPS, which is still serviceable but begins to show the GPU's limitations. For users with a 1440p display, the Medium preset is the sweet spot, as it maintains a 77 FPS average with only a modest reduction in visual fidelity compared to High. The 4K resolution data shows that High and Ultra presets produce 29 FPS and 27 FPS respectively, which are below the 30 FPS threshold generally considered minimally playable, while Medium at 4K reaches 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS, making it the only viable 4K option.

The best experience per the measured rows is therefore the High preset at 1080p, which combines strong visual quality with a 87 FPS average. For those prioritizing frame rate, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a substantial boost to 123 FPS with likely minimal perceptible difference in a simulation game where textures and effects are not the primary focus. The Ultra preset provides only marginal gains over High in this title, as the measured difference is just 5 FPS at 1080p, suggesting diminishing returns for the additional graphics load.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the average FPS for this combo at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 87 at 1920x1080 with the High preset, with no minimum or maximum values reported for this configuration.

Q: How does the Ultra preset at 2560x1440 compare to the High preset at the same resolution?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 averages 52 FPS, while the High preset at the same resolution averages 55 FPS, a difference of only 3 FPS, indicating that Ultra offers negligible performance benefit over High at 1440p.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, only the Medium preset achieves a playable average of 40 FPS (with a minimum of 34 FPS), while High (29 FPS) and Ultra (27 FPS) fall below 30 FPS, making Medium the only acceptable 4K option.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144 Hz monitor at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 averages 173 FPS, which is the only measured preset that consistently exceeds 144 FPS. The Medium preset averages 123 FPS, which is below 144 Hz but still smooth, while High (87 FPS) and Ultra (82 FPS) are better suited for 60 Hz displays.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 3172 out of 3723 total combos tested in Pc Building Simulator, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, indicating that while it is not a top-tier performer, it is far from the bottom.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo at any resolution and setting?

A: The only preset with a reported minimum FPS is Medium, with a minimum of 34 FPS at 3840x2160, 66 FPS at 2560x1440, and 104 FPS at 1920x1080, showing that the Medium preset maintains a consistent frame rate across all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ranks 3172 out of 3723 tested combinations in Pc Building Simulator. This places it in the 15th percentile of all combos, meaning that approximately 85% of tested systems outperform it in this specific game. This rank is notably lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest—the CPU is at the 47th percentile and the GPU is at the 53rd percentile—which implies that Pc Building Simulator's performance characteristics are not directly correlated with synthetic benchmark scores.

The low rank suggests that the game may favor configurations with higher core counts or faster memory bandwidth, as the i5-9400's 6-core/6-thread layout and the GTX 1660 SUPER's 6 GB GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus may not be optimally suited for this title's specific engine demands. The combo's rank of 3172 indicates that while it provides playable frame rates at most settings, it is outclassed by a significant majority of other hardware pairings, including those with older but higher-core-count CPUs or GPUs with larger memory pools. The nearest GPU rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940, 0.4% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 580 (12928, 0.4% delta), showing that the GTX 1660 SUPER is roughly equivalent to these in raw compute, yet the combo rank suggests other factors are at play in this simulation title.

This ranking serves as a caution that raw component performance does not always translate to in-game success, particularly in simulation genres where system logic and memory access patterns dominate over pure graphics throughput. The data implies that users seeking a higher rank in this benchmark database should consider alternative component pairings, but for those with this specific combo, the measured FPS remains sufficient for an enjoyable experience at 1080p and 1440p with appropriate settings.

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

The resolution scaling data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as pixel count increases, which provides insight into which component is the primary bottleneck. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 87 at 1920x1080 to 55 at 2560x1440 (a 37% reduction) and then to 29 at 3840x2160 (a 47% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is nearly linear with the increase in pixel count, suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GTX 1660 SUPER's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is being saturated as resolution increases, which is consistent with the observed frame rate drops.

At the Medium preset, the scaling is slightly less steep: 123 FPS at 1080p, 77 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 40 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the constraining resources, rather than the CPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences between resolutions at lower settings, where the GPU is less stressed. The fact that the Low preset still shows significant drops—from 173 FPS at 1080p to 109 FPS at 1440p (37% drop) and 57 FPS at 4K (48% drop)—confirms that the GPU is the limiting component across all settings.

The i5-9400's six cores and 4.10 GHz boost clock appear sufficient to feed the GPU at all resolutions, as evidenced by the 173 FPS at 1080p Low, which is well above what the GPU can sustain at higher resolutions. The data suggests that overclocking or upgrading the GPU would yield the most significant FPS improvements at 1440p and 4K, while the CPU has headroom to spare. The 4K performance, particularly the sub-30 FPS averages at High and Ultra settings, clearly indicates that this combo is not designed for 4K gaming without significant setting compromises.

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

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combo's performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 173 FPS, which is the highest recorded frame rate for this combo. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 123 FPS, with a minimum of 104 FPS and a maximum of 141 FPS, indicating a consistent frame pacing. The High preset at 1080p averages 87 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 82 FPS, showing that the jump from High to Ultra costs only 5 FPS on average.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 109 FPS, which is still above 100 FPS and suitable for high refresh rate gaming. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 77 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 89 FPS, providing a stable experience for 75 Hz or 144 Hz displays with V-Sync. The High preset at 1440p averages 55 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 52 FPS, both of which are playable on 60 Hz monitors but not ideal for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 57 FPS, which is surprisingly playable for 4K, though it likely sacrifices significant visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 4K averages 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS, making it the only 4K preset that maintains a playable minimum frame rate. The High preset at 4K drops to 29 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 27 FPS, both of which are below the 30 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This breakdown shows that the combo is best utilized at 1080p for high refresh rates, 1440p for balanced performance, and only 4K with Low or Medium settings for those prioritizing resolution over quality.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, with a die size of 284 mm² and 6,600 million transistors. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU core has a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz, with 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. Its compute capabilities include 5.027 TFLOPS FP32 and 10.05 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1), with a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s. The GPU's TDP is 125 W and it requires a single 8-pin power connector with a suggested PSU of 300 W.

In synthetic benchmarks, the GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12699 in Passmark G3D, 5076 in Passmark GPU Compute, and 52490 in Geekbench OpenCL with 57102 in Vulkan. Its percentile rank versus all GPUs is 53, placing it just above the midpoint. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940, 0.4% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 580 (12928, 0.4% delta), and the AMD Radeon 740M (12870, 0.9% delta), showing that it is closely matched with these other mid-range options.

For Pc Building Simulator, the GPU's role is primarily in rendering the 3D shop environment, component models, and case lighting effects. The game is not graphically intensive compared to AAA shooters, which is why the GTX 1660 SUPER can achieve 173 FPS at 1080p Low. However, the 6 GB VRAM capacity becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where higher resolution textures and effects can exceed the memory capacity, leading to the observed frame rate drops. The 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p workloads, but at 4K, the GPU's fill rate and memory subsystem are saturated, as evidenced by the 29 FPS average at High settings. The boost clock of 1785 MHz provides adequate performance for this simulation title, but the data suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at resolutions above 1440p, and users should expect to lower settings to maintain playable frame rates.