Pc Building Simulator

Pc Building Simulator is far more demanding on the CPU than the GPU, and the Intel Core i9-14900K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combo is so fast that it often becomes the limiting factor, especially at lower resolutions. The data shows a system that dominates the game's benchmark rankings but exhibits a performance curve that inverts the typical GPU-bound scaling pattern.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals that this combination is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 261.7 FPS, while at 1440p High it drops to 163.5 FPS, and at 4K High it falls to 85.9 FPS. The most telling evidence is the jump from 1080p to 1440p: a 37.5% reduction in average FPS (from 261.7 to 163.5). This steep drop indicates that the CPU is stretched to its limits at 1080p, where the RTX 4090 is not being fully utilized. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is a more modest 47.5% reduction (from 163.5 to 85.9), suggesting the GPU begins to take on a more significant role as resolution increases.

The data for Low settings reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system achieves a staggering 472.4 FPS, which drops to 330.9 FPS at 1440p Low (a 30% decrease) and then to 171.1 FPS at 4K Low (a 48.3% decrease from 1440p). The fact that the 4K Low result (171.1 FPS) is still higher than the 1440p High result (163.5 FPS) shows that the game's simulation logic and CPU overhead dominate the frame rate far more than visual fidelity. At 4K Ultra, the system manages 80.3 FPS, which is only 6.5% lower than the 4K High result of 85.9 FPS, whereas the gap between 1080p Ultra (250.9 FPS) and 1080p High (261.7 FPS) is a mere 4.1%. This pattern confirms that the RTX 4090's massive compute resources are largely idle in this simulation title, with the CPU's thread scheduling and core count being the primary drivers of performance.

FAQ

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much from 1080p to 1440p?

A: The average FPS falls from 472.4 at 1080p Low to 330.9 at 1440p Low, a 30% reduction. This steep decline indicates the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p, and as resolution increases, the GPU begins to matter more, but the CPU's limit is still the dominant factor.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB of VRAM ever a limitation in this game?

A: No. The benchmark results show no VRAM-related stutter or performance collapse at any resolution or setting. Even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains an average of 80.3 FPS, and the VRAM size is far beyond what this simulation title requires.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The data places this combo at rank 12 out of 1769 tested combinations in Pc Building Simulator. This places it in the top 1% of all tested systems.

Q: What is the best setting to use for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 1440p, the High setting (163.5 FPS) and Medium setting (234.9 FPS) both exceed 144 FPS, while Ultra (155.4 FPS) also clears that threshold. For a 240Hz monitor, only the Medium and Low presets at 1440p are sufficient, with Low hitting 330.9 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU's 24-core/32-thread configuration help in this game?

A: Yes. The simulation's logic appears to scale with the available threads, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate remains exceptionally high even at 4K Low (171.1 FPS). The CPU's high multi-threaded performance is the key enabler for these results.

Q: Is there a significant difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS difference is small. At 1080p, High yields 261.7 FPS and Ultra yields 250.9 FPS, a 4.1% difference. At 4K, the difference is 85.9 FPS vs 80.3 FPS, a 6.5% difference. The visual gains from Ultra are not reflected in a major performance cost.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's role in this game is surprisingly subdued. With a 24 GB GDDR6X memory pool and a 384-bit bus delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, the card has the raw specifications to handle any visual load. Its base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz are high, but the benchmark data suggests these clocks are rarely the limiting factor. The GPU's 16384 shading units and 128 RT cores provide immense parallel processing power, yet the game's simulation nature means that this hardware is often waiting on the CPU.

The evidence for this is the performance delta between settings. At 4K, moving from Low (171.1 FPS) to Medium (121.6 FPS) represents a 29% drop, while moving from High (85.9 FPS) to Ultra (80.3 FPS) is only a 6.5% drop. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU's workload increases with settings, but the CPU's frame generation rate is the ceiling. The card's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute is massive, but in Pc Building Simulator, the data shows that the GPU is only fully utilized at the highest resolution and settings, where it still manages to produce playable frame rates. The passmark_g3d score of 38194 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9223 confirm the card's theoretical prowess, but the game's measured FPS at 4K Ultra (80.3 FPS) shows that even the most powerful consumer GPU cannot overcome the CPU bottleneck in this title.

Settings Recommendations

For a 60Hz display, any setting from High to Ultra at 4K is viable, with 4K High providing a comfortable 85.9 FPS and 4K Ultra hitting 80.3 FPS. The data shows that 4K Medium (121.6 FPS) is also an option for those wanting a smoother experience without a major visual compromise. For 144Hz displays, the 1440p High setting (163.5 FPS) is the optimal balance, as it exceeds the refresh rate while offering better visuals than Medium. At 1080p, the High preset (261.7 FPS) is recommended over Ultra (250.9 FPS), as the performance difference is minimal and the frame rate is already far beyond any high-refresh display's capability. The Low presets are not recommended for general use, as they produce extremely high frame rates (472.4 FPS at 1080p) that offer no practical benefit and likely sacrifice significant visual fidelity. The best experience per the measured rows is the 1440p High setting, which delivers 163.5 FPS and represents a strong middle ground between resolution, visual quality, and frame rate headroom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low setting produces 472.4 FPS, Medium yields 368.8 FPS, High hits 261.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 250.9 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is only 10.8 FPS, indicating a diminishing return on visual settings. At 1440p, the results are 330.9 FPS (Low), 234.9 FPS (Medium), 163.5 FPS (High), and 155.4 FPS (Ultra). The transition from 1080p to 1440p causes a significant drop across all settings, with the Low setting falling by 141.5 FPS. At 4K (3840x2160), the frame rates are 171.1 FPS (Low), 121.6 FPS (Medium), 85.9 FPS (High), and 80.3 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result is notable because it is higher than the 1440p High result (163.5 FPS), further proving the CPU-bound nature of the game. Across all resolutions, the Ultra preset is consistently the slowest, but the performance penalty over High is modest: 4.1% at 1080p, 5.0% at 1440p, and 6.5% at 4K. The system never drops below 80 FPS in any measured configuration, making it capable of a smooth experience even at the most demanding 4K Ultra setting.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is the star of this benchmark. With 24 cores and 32 threads, the CPU provides ample parallelism for the simulation's logic. Its base clock of 3.20 GHz and boost clock of 6.00 GHz are impressive, but the data shows that the multi-threaded performance is what matters most. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872 and the Passmark multithread score of 58674 confirm the CPU's dominance in heavily threaded workloads. The passmark_data_compression score of 792694 and the passmark_data_encryption score of 46813 further illustrate the CPU's ability to handle complex calculations, which are likely relevant to the game's simulation of PC building.

The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide fast access to frequently used data, reducing latency in the simulation's decision-making processes. The CPU's performance percentile is 97, meaning it outperforms 97% of all CPUs in the benchmark database. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7413, has an average score that is 0.3% lower, while the Intel Core i9-14900KF is 0.7% higher. This puts the i9-14900K at the top of the consumer desktop heap. The game's results reflect this: the 472.4 FPS at 1080p Low is a score that only a CPU with this level of multi-threaded throughput could achieve, as the GPU is clearly not the limiting factor at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 12 out of 1769 tested combos in Pc Building Simulator. This places it in the 99th percentile of all systems tested, meaning it is faster than 99.3% of the configurations in the database. The data shows that this combo is not the absolute fastest, but it is exceptionally close. The ranking reflects the balance of a top-tier CPU and GPU, but the game's CPU-bound nature means that the CPU's contribution is more significant. The GPU's percentile is 91, which is lower than the CPU's 97, suggesting that the RTX 4090 is not fully utilized in this title, and a slightly less powerful GPU might achieve similar results. However, the 24 GB VRAM and high bandwidth ensure that there are no memory-related bottlenecks, which is crucial for a game that simulates complex systems. The rank of 12 confirms the CPU's 24-core design, which is the key differentiator in this simulation. Rivals like the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K (0.9% higher average CPU score) might offer marginal improvements, but the data indicates that this combo is already in the top tier for this game.