Pc Building Simulator

# Pc Building Simulator — Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

This combination of Intel’s flagship 14th-generation processor and NVIDIA’s upper-tier Ada Lovelace GPU produces an unusual performance profile in Pc Building Simulator, one where the GPU becomes progressively less relevant as resolution drops and where frame rates reach levels that suggest the simulation’s logic—not the hardware—is the true ceiling. The measured data reveals a system that behaves differently from typical gaming builds, with the CPU’s 24 cores and 32 threads providing ample headroom while the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 16 GB of VRAM and high memory bandwidth dominate at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate delta from 1080p to 4K is extreme, indicating a workload that transitions from CPU-bound to GPU-bound with unusual clarity. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 223 at 1920x1080 to 141 at 2560x1440, a 36.8% reduction, and then further to 73 at 3840x2160, representing an additional 48.2% drop from 1440p. The cumulative scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 67.3% decrease in average FPS, which is substantial but not linear—the step from 1440p to 4K is proportionally larger than the step from 1080p to 1440p, suggesting that the GPU’s rendering pipeline becomes the dominant constraint only at the highest pixel counts.

Low settings tell a different story. At 1920x1080 Low, the system achieves 468 average FPS, but this drops to 295 at 2560x1440 (a 37% decrease) and then to 154 at 3840x2160 (a 47.8% decrease from 1440p). The fact that 1080p Low produces nearly triple the frame rate of 4K Low strongly implies that at lower resolutions, the simulation is hitting a CPU-side limit—likely related to the game’s shop-building logic and component interaction calculations rather than pure graphics rendering. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are simply not being fully utilized below 4K.

Medium settings reveal the most interesting scaling pattern. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 331 with a minimum of 282 and maximum of 381. Moving to 1440p Medium yields 209 average (178 min, 240 max), a 36.9% drop, while 4K Medium produces 109 average (93 min, 126 max), a 47.8% reduction from 1440p. The min-to-max spread narrows as resolution increases—from a 99 FPS range at 1080p to a 62 FPS range at 1440p and a 33 FPS range at 4K—indicating that higher resolutions smooth out frame time variance by making the GPU the consistent bottleneck rather than the CPU’s variable load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K brings 24 cores, 32 threads, and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz to this pairing, and the benchmark results in Pc Building Simulator show that this processor is almost certainly not the limiting factor at any resolution tested. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5 and single-core score of 2262.5 place it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rival—the Intel Core i9-14900KF—scores only 0.3% higher on average, confirming that the 14900K is at the top of the desktop heap.

In Pc Building Simulator specifically, the game’s simulation elements—tracking component prices, compatibility checks, and customer orders—are largely single-threaded in nature, yet the 14900K’s single-thread performance is so strong (Geekbench single-core score of 2655, Passmark single-thread score of 4697) that it would take an extraordinarily demanding simulation to bottleneck it. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system reaches 468 FPS, which is far beyond what any display can show and suggests the game engine itself has a frame cap or CPU-side ceiling around this range.

The 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide substantial on-die storage for game logic and asset data, while the processor’s 125W TDP (with boost capabilities well beyond that) ensures sustained performance under the load of running a shop simulation with multiple concurrent systems being built and tested. The 14900K’s Passmark multi-thread score of 58674 and data compression score of 792694 indicate massive parallel capability, though Pc Building Simulator appears to leverage only a fraction of this headroom given the frame rates observed.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance headroom. The 209 average FPS at 2560x1440 Medium is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay, and the recorded minimum of 178 FPS ensures no perceptible stutter even during complex simulation events like system boot sequences or benchmark runs within the game. The 240 maximum FPS shows the system has additional capacity, meaning the experience remains stable without hitting a hard ceiling.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, 4K Ultra at 73 average FPS is playable but leaves little margin for demanding in-game scenes. The drop from 109 FPS at 4K Medium to 73 FPS at 4K Ultra represents a 33% performance cost for the higher preset, which may not justify the visual gains in a game where much of the screen is occupied by UI panels and component lists. The 1080p Ultra setting at 223 average FPS is another strong option for those with high-refresh-rate displays, though the resolution limits the visible detail of the 3D workbench environment.

The Low preset at any resolution produces frame rates (468 at 1080p, 295 at 1440p, 154 at 4K) that exceed what most monitors can display, but the visual compromise of Low settings in a game about building and admiring PCs seems counterproductive. The data suggests Medium at 1440p is the sweet spot: it delivers 209 FPS (nearly double the 4K Ultra result) while maintaining enough graphical fidelity to appreciate the components being installed.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 190th out of 3723 tested combos in Pc Building Simulator, placing it in the top 5.1% of all configurations. This is a strong showing, though perhaps not as dominant as the individual component performance would suggest—the CPU sits in the 95th percentile of all processors and the GPU in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, yet their combined rank is slightly lower than those individual standings would imply.

The rank suggests that Pc Building Simulator, being a simulation game, benefits more from balanced configurations than from extreme CPU or GPU overprovisioning. The 14900K’s nearest rivals—the 14900KF (-0.3% delta), Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (-0.6% delta), and AMD EPYC 7413 (-1.2% delta)—all score similarly on average, meaning the CPU choice has minimal impact on this game’s performance. Similarly, the RTX 4080 SUPER’s nearest rivals—the RTX 4080 (-0.1% delta), Radeon Pro W5700X (-1.1% delta), and RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (-2.7% delta)—are all within a few percentage points, indicating that the GPU tier matters more than the specific model.

The 190th rank out of 3723 combos means there are 189 configurations that perform better, likely those pairing the top-end CPUs (possibly with higher boost clocks or more cache) with the absolute fastest GPUs available. However, the gap is unlikely to be large given that the measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (73 FPS) are already at the threshold of smooth playability, and higher-performing combos would only push this to perhaps 80-85 FPS based on the rival deltas.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and packs 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is particularly relevant for Pc Building Simulator, which renders detailed 3D models of PC components—motherboards with intricate traces, GPUs with visible capacitors, and cases with glass panels—all of which benefit from high texture detail and memory bandwidth.

The GPU’s 10240 shading units and 80 RT cores provide substantial raw compute, reflected in its Passmark G3D score of 34245 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600. These scores place the 4080 SUPER in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival, the RTX 4080, scoring just 0.1% lower on average. The performance difference between the SUPER and non-SUPER variant is negligible in this game, suggesting that the extra compute power of the SUPER (boost clock of 2550 MHz versus the base 2295 MHz) is not the limiting factor.

At 4K resolutions, the GPU’s role becomes clear. The 77 FPS at 4K High and 73 FPS at 4K Ultra are consistent with a GPU that is being pushed to its limits, and the 16 GB VRAM ensures no texture swapping occurs even with the highest quality assets. The GPU’s pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s are put to work at 3840x2160, where the frame rate drops are most pronounced. Interestingly, the GPU’s Passmark DirectX 11 score of 301 is higher than its DirectX 12 score of 134, which aligns with Pc Building Simulator’s likely DX11 rendering path and explains why the GPU performs relatively better in this game than in more modern DX12 titles.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combination is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 468 average FPS
• Medium: 331 average FPS (minimum 282, maximum 381)
• High: 234 average FPS
• Ultra: 223 average FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 295 average FPS
• Medium: 209 average FPS (minimum 178, maximum 240)
• High: 148 average FPS
• Ultra: 141 average FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 154 average FPS
• Medium: 109 average FPS (minimum 93, maximum 126)
• High: 77 average FPS
• Ultra: 73 average FPS

The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent pattern: Ultra costs roughly 52-53% of the Low frame rate at every resolution (223/468 = 47.6% of Low at 1080p, 141/295 = 47.8% at 1440p, 73/154 = 47.4% at 4K). This consistency indicates that the settings presets scale uniformly across resolutions, with the Ultra preset adding approximately double the rendering workload of Low. The High preset sits close to Ultra (within 5-6% at all resolutions), while Medium occupies a middle ground that is approximately 70% of Low’s performance.

The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, shows that frame pacing is excellent: the 1080p minimum of 282 FPS is 85.2% of the average, the 1440p minimum of 178 is 85.2% of average, and the 4K minimum of 93 is 85.3% of average. This consistent ratio suggests the game’s frame time distribution is stable regardless of resolution, with no sudden spikes or drops that would cause perceptible stuttering.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo overkill for Pc Building Simulator?

A: The data suggests yes at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system produces 468 FPS, far exceeding display capabilities. Even at 1440p Ultra (141 FPS) and 4K High (77 FPS), the performance is smooth, indicating the hardware is not fully stressed except at the highest resolution and settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination in this game?

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 at Medium settings (209 average FPS, 178 minimum) offers the best experience, providing high frame rates with visual quality that showcases component details. 4K Ultra (73 FPS) is playable but leaves little headroom.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to the base RTX 4080 in this game?

A: The GPU benchmark data shows the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54209 on average versus the RTX 4080’s 54247, a delta of -0.1% (the SUPER is effectively identical). In Pc Building Simulator, this difference is negligible, so users should not expect meaningful frame rate differences between these two GPUs.

Q: Why is the frame rate so high at 1080p Low (468 FPS)?

A: This high frame rate indicates a CPU or engine limit rather than a GPU limit. The i9-14900K’s strong single-thread performance (Geekbench score of 2655) and the game’s relatively simple rendering at Low settings allow the system to reach this ceiling, which is likely a game engine frame rate cap.

Q: Does the 16 GB of VRAM matter for this game?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6X memory on the RTX 4080 SUPER provides ample capacity for Pc Building Simulator’s textures and models. The 736.3 GB/s bandwidth ensures smooth 4K performance (77 FPS at High), and there is no evidence in the data of VRAM-related stuttering or texture pop-in.

Q: How does this combo rank relative to all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 190th out of 3723 combos, placing it in the top 5.1%. This is a strong result, though the individual components rank higher (CPU in 95th percentile, GPU in 86th percentile), suggesting the game’s simulation nature limits the benefit of extreme hardware.