Pc Building Simulator

# Pc Building Simulator: Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060

The measured frame rates for this combination span a wide range, from 244 FPS at 1080p Low to 42 FPS at 4K Ultra, indicating a system that scales predictably with both resolution and graphics preset. The combo ranks 2059th out of 3723 tested configurations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, though the absolute performance is sufficient for smooth gameplay at most settings. The data reveals a clear pattern: the RTX 4060 is the dominant performance driver at lower resolutions, while the i5-9400's six-core design becomes an increasingly relevant factor as resolution drops and frame rates climb.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K shows a steep and consistent decline across all settings, which is typical for a simulation title with modest graphical demands. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 133 at 1920x1080 to 84 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 36.8%, and then further to 44 at 3840x2160, representing a 67.7% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate does not quarter—suggesting that other factors, such as CPU overhead or memory bandwidth, are partially mitigating the load.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 244 FPS at 1080p drops to 168 FPS at 1440p (a 31.1% decrease) and then to 88 FPS at 4K (a 63.9% decrease). The fact that 4K Low still delivers 88 FPS while 4K Ultra drops to 42 FPS highlights how much headroom exists in the GPU when graphical effects are minimized. The Medium preset shows the most complete data, with minimum and maximum frame rates recorded: at 1080p, the range is 160-217 FPS with an average of 189; at 1440p, it narrows to 101-137 FPS with an average of 119; and at 4K, it tightens to 53-72 FPS with an average of 62. This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is becoming more uniformly utilized, with less variance in frame delivery.

The difference between 1440p and 4K is larger than the difference between 1080p and 1440p in absolute terms. For example, at High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 49 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 40 FPS—but the percentage drop is actually steeper for the 1440p to 4K transition (47.6% versus 36.8%). This indicates that the RTX 4060's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus start to become limiting factors at 4K, where the higher resolution demands more memory bandwidth for texture streaming and geometry processing. The 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU's 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate is pushed closer to its theoretical ceiling.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 2059 out of 3723 tested configurations, this pairing sits in the 55th percentile of all measured systems in Pc Building Simulator. This ranking reflects a mid-tier position: the RTX 4060 provides solid modern performance, but the i5-9400, with its 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs, does not boost the combination into the upper echelons. The GPU's 61st percentile among all GPUs is notably higher than the CPU's percentile, indicating that the processor is the weaker link in this pairing.

The nearest rival CPUs to the i5-9400, based on average benchmark scores, include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avg score 2259, delta of -0.2%), the Intel Core i7-10710U (avg score 2248, delta of 0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, delta of 0.4%). These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, meaning the i5-9400's 2254 average benchmark score is virtually indistinguishable from its closest competitors. This tight clustering suggests that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would produce negligible changes in Pc Building Simulator performance, as the game is not heavily CPU-bound at most settings.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4060's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (avg score 17666, delta of -0.2%), the AMD Radeon 780M (avg score 17588, delta of 0.3%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (avg score 17551, delta of 0.5%). The RTX 4060's average score of 17639 places it in a very tight cluster with these older or integrated GPUs, which is somewhat surprising given the architecture generational gap. However, the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 and the Passmark G3D score of 19545 indicate that the RTX 4060 excels in synthetic benchmarks, even if its in-game ranking is moderated by the CPU pairing.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1830 MHz with a boost clock of 2460 MHz, and it operates at 2125 MHz memory clock with 17 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's 3072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units provide a compute throughput of 15.11 TFLOPS FP32. The 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present but largely irrelevant for Pc Building Simulator, which is a simulation title that does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS.

In Pc Building Simulator, the GPU's role is primarily to handle the 3D rendering of PC components and the workshop environment. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, even Ultra settings maintain an average of 127 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This suggests that the RTX 4060 is overqualified for 1080p gaming in this title, providing headroom for higher refresh rate monitors. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 80 FPS, still playable, but the 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS indicates the GPU is reaching its limits at the highest resolution and settings combination.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Pc Building Simulator at all tested settings, as the game's textures and models are not particularly demanding. The 4K Medium result of 62 FPS average, with a minimum of 53 FPS, shows that the GPU can handle 4K with moderate settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS suggests that the additional graphical effects at Ultra push the GPU's pixel rate and memory bandwidth beyond comfortable levels. The 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate and 236.2 GTexel/s texture rate are the key specs driving these results, as the game's rendering workload is heavily dependent on these metrics.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At Ultra settings, 1440p delivers 80 FPS average, which is above 60 FPS, while 4K Ultra drops to 42 FPS. For 4K, the Medium preset maintains 62 FPS average with a 53 FPS minimum, making it the highest 4K setting that stays above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, which is within 0.4% of its closest rivals (Intel Core i7-1068NG7 at 2259, Intel Core i7-10710U at 2248, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 at 2246, and Intel Core i3-10305 at 2264). These differences are negligible in real-world Pc Building Simulator performance.

Q: Is the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K in this game?

A: The data shows 4K Medium averages 62 FPS and 4K High averages 44 FPS, indicating the VRAM is not a hard limit at 4K. The GPU's 272.0 GB/s bandwidth and 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate are more limiting factors than the 8 GB capacity.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 244 FPS while Ultra averages 127 FPS, a difference of 117 FPS or approximately 48% lower performance at Ultra. The Medium preset sits between at 189 FPS average, showing a linear scaling trend.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2059th out of 3723 tested combinations, placing it in the 55th percentile. This is a mid-pack ranking, reflecting the i5-9400's 47th percentile CPU score and the RTX 4060's 61st percentile GPU score.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 53 FPS at 4K Medium settings. The 1440p Medium minimum is 101 FPS, and the 1080p Medium minimum is 160 FPS, indicating that frame drops are more pronounced at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 1440p is the recommended configuration. This setting delivers an average of 119 FPS with a minimum of 101 FPS and a maximum of 137 FPS, providing smooth gameplay with a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The 1440p High preset also performs well at 84 FPS average, but the 119 FPS average of Medium offers a more significant performance buffer for scenes with many PC components on screen, which may cause frame rate fluctuations.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset is viable with 127 FPS average, but the Medium preset at 189 FPS average is a better choice for high refresh rate displays, as it provides a 48.8% performance uplift over Ultra. The 244 FPS Low result is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual fidelity. At 4K, the Medium preset is the only configuration that maintains a 60 FPS average (62 FPS), making it the only 4K option for smooth gameplay by the data's measure. The 4K Low preset at 88 FPS is also acceptable, but Medium offers a substantial visual improvement for a 26 FPS cost.

The data shows that the Ultra preset at any resolution provides diminishing returns compared to High. At 1440p, the difference between High (84 FPS) and Ultra (80 FPS) is only 4 FPS, while at 1080p it is 6 FPS (133 FPS versus 127 FPS). At 4K, the difference narrows to 2 FPS (44 FPS versus 42 FPS). This suggests that High preset is nearly indistinguishable from Ultra in performance terms, making High a more efficient choice for users who want near-maximum quality without the slight frame rate penalty.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process node. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth. Its 65 W TDP is modest, and the processor is end-of-life, with a 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

In Pc Building Simulator, the CPU's role is to manage game logic, component simulation, and physics calculations. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 244 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, as the GPU is not heavily taxed at this resolution and settings combination. The fact that 1080p Low (244 FPS) is more than double 4K Low (88 FPS) indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, but at 1080p Low, the CPU's six cores are likely the limiting factor.

The i5-9400's benchmark scores are consistent with a mid-range processor: Cinebench R23 multicore score of 6629, single-core score of 935, and Geekbench multicore of 5141 with a single-core of 1389. The nearest rival CPUs all cluster within 0.4% of the i5-9400's average score of 2254, demonstrating that this processor's performance is firmly in a competitive bracket. The 6-core/6-thread configuration lacks hyper-threading, which may cause occasional frame hitches in CPU-intensive scenes, but the measured minimum FPS data (e.g., 53 FPS at 4K Medium) does not indicate severe stuttering.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s is modest by modern standards, but Pc Building Simulator does not appear to be memory-bandwidth sensitive, as the 4K results show a GPU-bound pattern. The PCIe Gen 3 interface with 16 lanes is sufficient for the RTX 4060, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, meaning the CPU's older PCIe standard does not bottleneck the GPU in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings produce 244 FPS, Medium produces 189 FPS (with a range of 160-217 FPS), High produces 133 FPS, and Ultra produces 127 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decrease, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (55 FPS, or 22.5%). The gap between High and Ultra is minimal at 6 FPS, suggesting that Ultra's additional effects are not computationally expensive at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low at 168, Medium at 119 (101-137 FPS range), High at 84, and Ultra at 80. The drop from Low to Medium is 49 FPS, from Medium to High is 35 FPS, and from High to Ultra is only 4 FPS. Comparing 1080p to 1440p, the performance reduction is 31.1% for Low, 37.0% for Medium, 36.8% for High, and 37.0% for Ultra, showing a consistent scaling factor of approximately 63-69% performance retention when moving from 1080p to 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low at 88, Medium at 62 (53-72 FPS range), High at 44, and Ultra at 42. The drop from Low to Medium is 26 FPS, from Medium to High is 18 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 2 FPS. The 4K results show a more pronounced difference between Low and Medium (29.5% reduction) compared to the difference between Medium and High (29.0% reduction), indicating that the GPU's pixel throughput is the limiting factor at this resolution. The 1440p to 4K transition results in a 47.6% reduction for Low, 47.9% for Medium, 47.6% for High, and 47.5% for Ultra, showing consistent scaling regardless of settings.

The complete data set reveals that the RTX 4060 + i5-9400 combination is capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p (above 127 FPS on all presets), smooth 1440p gaming (above 80 FPS on all presets), and playable 4K only on Low or Medium presets (88 and 62 FPS respectively). The Ultra preset at 4K, at 42 FPS, falls below the 60 FPS threshold and would be unsuitable for fast-paced gameplay, though it may be acceptable for slower simulation gameplay where frame rates are less critical.