Pc Building Simulator

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 lands at rank 1710 out of 3002 tested combos in Pc Building Simulator. That places this pairing in the lower-middle portion of the database, roughly the 43rd percentile of all tested system configurations. This is not a top-tier combination for this simulation title, but it is far from the bottom of the barrel.

Looking at the individual components, the CPU is the stronger half of this pairing. The Core i7-13700K sits in the 89th percentile against all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 46881. Its nearest rivals show how tight the competition is at this level: the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 scores 46971 (just 0.2% ahead), the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 scores 47022 (0.3% ahead), while the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX and Intel Xeon w3-2535 both trail by 0.5% with scores of 46654 and 46653 respectively. The i7-13700K is effectively in a dead heat with these alternatives, trading blows within a single percentage point.

The GPU tells a different story. The Radeon RX 9060 sits in the 59th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16129 — just 0.7% ahead. The AMD Radeon R9 370X trails by 1% at 15862, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 also trails by 1% at 15852, and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 is 2.1% behind at 15679. This GPU is solidly mid-pack, and in a simulation game like Pc Building Simulator, that mid-pack GPU becomes the limiting factor more often than the CPU.

The combination of a top-decile CPU with a mid-tier GPU means the system's overall ranking is dragged down by the graphics card. In a game about building PCs, the irony is not lost: this is a configuration where the processor is ready for heavier lifting, but the GPU holds the system back from higher placements in the combo rankings.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings presets points to Medium as the sweet spot for this combo. At 1920x1080 Medium, the system delivers 175 FPS average with a minimum of 149 FPS and a maximum of 201 FPS. That is a smooth, consistent experience with plenty of headroom above typical 60 Hz or even 144 Hz displays.

At 2560x1440 Medium, the average drops to 111 FPS with a minimum of 94 FPS and a maximum of 127 FPS. The minimum frame rate here is still comfortably above 60 FPS, making this a viable option for high-refresh 1440p monitors. The 94 FPS floor means even demanding scenes in Pc Building Simulator should not produce noticeable stutter.

The Ultra preset is where things get questionable. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 118 FPS, which is still playable, but at 1440p Ultra it falls to 74 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 39 FPS. The jump from Medium to Ultra at 1440p costs 37 FPS (from 111 down to 74), which is a 33% performance hit for what is likely a modest visual improvement in a simulation title.

High settings sit between Medium and Ultra, but the data shows Medium is the better choice. At 1080p, High delivers 124 FPS versus 175 FPS on Medium — a 51 FPS difference. At 1440p, High gives 78 FPS versus 111 FPS on Medium. The Medium preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, particularly for those targeting high refresh rates.

For 4K users, Low settings at 82 FPS is the only preset that breaks past 60 FPS. Medium at 4K drops to 58 FPS, which is borderline, while High (41 FPS) and Ultra (39 FPS) fall below playable thresholds for most users. If 4K is the target, Low is the only reasonable preset, and even then the margin above 60 FPS is thin.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions. Starting with the Medium preset, which has full min/max data for all three resolutions, the progression is telling: 175 FPS at 1080p, 111 FPS at 1440p, and 58 FPS at 4K.

The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 64 FPS, a 37% reduction. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 53 FPS, a 48% reduction. In a purely CPU-limited scenario, resolution changes would have minimal impact on frame rates. Here, the steep decline as resolution increases points directly at the GPU as the bottleneck.

Consider the pixel count math: 4K has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, and 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p. The FPS drops are not perfectly proportional to pixel count, but they are substantial enough to confirm the GPU is the limiting component. The RX 9060's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is simply not enough to feed a 4K frame buffer efficiently at higher settings.

The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 247 FPS at 1080p, 156 FPS at 1440p, and 82 FPS at 4K. Even at the lowest settings, where the CPU has more room to stretch, the GPU still cannot maintain high frame rates at 4K. The 1080p Low number of 247 FPS suggests the CPU could push even higher if the GPU allowed it, but the 4K Low result of 82 FPS shows the GPU hitting its ceiling.

The i7-13700K, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, is more than capable of feeding frames in this simulation. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 and single-core score of 2116 indicate strong all-around performance. The bottleneck is unambiguously the RX 9060 at higher resolutions.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results span a wide range depending on settings. Low delivers 247 FPS average, which is an excellent result for competitive or high-refresh play. Medium drops to 175 FPS with a minimum of 149 FPS and maximum of 201 FPS. High comes in at 124 FPS, and Ultra at 118 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is significant at 51 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 6 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low produces 156 FPS, Medium delivers 111 FPS with a minimum of 94 FPS and maximum of 127 FPS, High drops to 78 FPS, and Ultra falls to 74 FPS. The Medium to High gap here is 33 FPS, and the High to Ultra gap narrows to just 4 FPS. This reinforces that Ultra offers little over High at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the results are more constrained. Low gives 82 FPS, Medium delivers 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS, High drops to 41 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 39 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the only non-Low option that approaches playability, and even then, the 49 FPS minimum means dips below 50 FPS in busier scenes.

The measured data shows that this combo is best suited to 1080p or 1440p gaming. At 1080p, every preset except maybe Ultra delivers smooth performance. At 1440p, Medium is the clear choice. At 4K, only Low settings are viable for consistent 60+ FPS, and Medium is borderline at 58 FPS average.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 4 nm process. It packs 29,700 million transistors into a 199 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 149.2 million per square millimeter. The GPU has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 28 ray tracing cores.

Clock speeds are respectable: a base clock of 1700 MHz, a boost clock of 2990 MHz, and a game clock of 2400 MHz. The memory runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed. This translates to a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is the key limitation in Pc Building Simulator at higher resolutions. The game's measured performance at 4K shows the GPU struggling, and the memory configuration is a likely culprit. With only 8 GB of VRAM and a narrow 128-bit bus, the GPU cannot efficiently handle the data throughput required for 4K textures and geometry.

The GPU's benchmark scores put it in perspective. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3322, its Geekbench OpenCL score is 88183, and its Vulkan score is 39476. Passmark results show 17631 in G3D and 9919 in GPU compute. These numbers align with its percentile ranking of 59 against all GPUs.

The nearest rival data shows this GPU is essentially equivalent to an RTX 3060 Ti (0.7% ahead of the RX 9060), which is telling for its class. The RX 9060's 132 W TDP and single 8-pin power connector make it an efficient card, but efficiency does not compensate for the memory bandwidth limitations at 4K.

In this specific game, the GPU's role is clear: it handles 1080p and 1440p well, but it is the component that prevents this combo from achieving high frame rates at 4K. The CPU is not the issue — the i7-13700K has the compute headroom to push well beyond what the GPU can deliver at higher resolutions.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Pc Building Simulator?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the strongest resolution, with Medium settings delivering 175 FPS average and a minimum of 149 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium still provides 111 FPS average with a 94 FPS minimum, making it a viable option. 4K is only playable on Low settings at 82 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 0.7% ahead at 16129, while the AMD Radeon R9 370X and AMD Radeon RX 7700 are both 1% behind at 15862 and 15852 respectively. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 2.1% at 15679.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is the limiting component. The i7-13700K ranks in the 89th percentile for CPUs, while the RX 9060 ranks in the 59th percentile for GPUs. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are steep, indicating GPU limitation. At 1080p Low, the system hits 247 FPS, but at 4K Low it drops to 82 FPS.

Q: What settings preset provides the smoothest experience?

A: Medium settings offer the best balance. At 1080p, Medium delivers 175 FPS with a minimum of 149 FPS. At 1440p, Medium gives 111 FPS with a minimum of 94 FPS. The min/max data is only available for Medium across all resolutions, showing consistent frame delivery.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Only at Low settings, where it averages 82 FPS. Medium at 4K drops to 58 FPS with a 49 FPS minimum, which is borderline. High (41 FPS) and Ultra (39 FPS) at 4K are not playable for most users.

Q: How does the i7-13700K compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 46881. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900 is 0.2% ahead at 46971, and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 is 0.3% ahead at 47022. The AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX and Intel Xeon w3-2535 both trail by 0.5% with scores of 46654 and 46653.