How accurate is part ranking to RL?

[Inumizu]

I bought this game because I intend to build a PC and figured I might learn a thing or two about components and what they need to interact, so I don't buy parts that don't mesh with each other... but I was wondering how accurate the part ranking is if I am looking at it as a reference to purchase RL parts with?

Appreciate any input... as it is kind of hard to find a one stop shop for these types of things.

[BonPadre]

Part ranking app is only "in game performance" related, and while it may sound pretty decently done (as far as standing goes), there are many options out there with IRL benchmarks comparison sites, and a lot of very good YouTube videos made by knowledgeable peeps.

I personally would listen more to those IRL inputs than base my decisions from a game ranking system.

Also, in game prices do not reflect reality, so ofc when you have a IRL decision to make, unlike in this game, you'll have the biggest decider ever, aka your wallet.

You also need to know what you dedicate your PC for (but I guess it will be gaming) but also the games you prefer to play or intend to play.

As a lot of action and fast moving games will rely on the GPU mostly, while simulation games, city builders etc, with a lot of detailed actions and many calculations needed by the PC will rely a lot on the CPU / RAM, and way less on the GPU.

So when you make IRL decisions to buy parts and have to fit a given budget, better know what parts will be under stress more often due to your own use of the PC and what you plan to do.

Thus if you plan to play on a lot of fast moving action game, you can then go way cheaper on the CPU side, while you may need to take a more expansive beefy GPU.
Going 50/50 budget like $250 for CPU and $250 for GPU may be a bad decision, while going in the $100 for CPU and going then $350 for GPU would make way more sense, and yet both final costs are identical.
Then you factor in RAM as well, and once more you may be better by getting only 8GB of RAM and putting the difference cost between 8GB of RAM and 16GB of RAM in the GPU, having an even better GPU.

An example would be, if you plan to play Assasin's Creed Odyssey at recommanded (and not minimum) requirements, a "poor" CPU is fine, but you'll need a very decent GPU.

PC building simulator does not really transcribe that for instance. And Benchmark scores in PC building simulator is heavily influenced by GPU.

And on the other hand, a city builder that has a lot of calculation going in the background like Cities: Skyline, a good to very good CPU and a good amount of RAM will be needed in order to have a fluid visual game once the city is getting big, while the GPU will have little to do with that.

So yeah the game will help you get a feel for what GPU / CPU is a better performer, but the game will never really teach you how to build (or choose) parts for a PC that will fit what you plan to do with and not really "overbuilding" your next PC, if you plan to play older game, non action games and not really AAA games (actual or incoming)

I hope this helps a bit.

[T-Bone Biggins]

This is a game first and foremost. It gets things fairly close at times but don't count on it for real life builds. They had to balance it for gameplay purposes especially in pricing and the benchmarks in-game are not accurate compared to real life benchmarking. GamersNexus videos and articles are a good start. Even goes into detail about thermals in various cases versus how well those cases reduce noise. Goes deep into hardware to flush out false advertising etc. Also be sure to look up stuff relevant to today, not stuff from several years ago.

[Inumizu]

Thanks :)

[MJ7791]

This game is okay for basic knowledge if you want to see where parts are meant to be located, how components are connected to the PC, thermal compound placement, etc, but I wouldn't use it to plan a PC. My first build, I used Pcpartpicker.com and read many forums on reddit and PCMR before playing this game. Finished the build first time with no problems. PCPP gave me a general idea what parts are needed and told me if one part would ruin the entire build, i.e. a 250w PSU does not power a Ryzen 5 2600x build with 32GB RAM. The website also provided links to vendors with the component for sale.

If you're looking for a simple way to build without many problems, I suggest playing this game so you know where components are meant to be located and the basics of the build process. Then try PCpartpicker to nail down your desired parts and ask many questions on here or reddit. I'd read alot of the forums too. Many questions are already answered. Good luck!

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

They are not exactly accurate, some of the GPU comparisons are quite a bit off and CPU comparisons as well. Lot of the big multi-core CPUs like Threadrippers and Xeons are actually rubbish when it comes to gaming performance for instance etc,
Keep in mind it`s still a game not accurate real-life comparison.