What's New on RigSync: April 2026

After building RigSync, I kept asking myself one question: "Can the performance estimations be improved more?"

Anyone can build a compatibility checker that tells you if a CPU fits a motherboard socket. The hard part is making sure your performance predictions are realistic. When RigSync estimates that a build should hit around 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p, I need to be reasonably confident that number reflects what you'll actually see - or at least gets you in the right ballpark. Real-world performance will vary based on your specific setup, but the predictions should be grounded in reality, not marketing hype.

That's what this update is about - refining the systems behind the scenes to make those estimates as reliable as possible or as close as possible to avoid dissappointment.

The Improved Scoring System

CPUs and GPUs don't perform the same way across different tasks. A processor that's great for gaming might not excel as much for video editing workloads. A GPU that crushes 4K gaming could be overkill for office work.

RigSync has scores for every CPU and GPU across multiple use cases - gaming, content creation, development work, streaming, AI/ML tasks, and more. Each component gets individual performance scores based on what it's actually good at, not just a single "overall" number that's used as the unique performance value for every case.

This update refines how those scores are calculated and validated. When you tell RigSync you're building a PC for video editing, it's selecting components that score well specifically for content creation workloads. When you're building a development machine, it prioritizes CPU performance characteristics that matter for compiling code and running virtual machines. For office work, it will often recommend a CPU with integrated graphics and save you money.

The difference now? The scores are more precise, tested against a wider range of hardware combinations, and better reflect real-world performance characteristics.

Scoring Beyond the Chipset

Most PC building sites treat all GPUs with the same chipset as identical. But different manufacturers produce the same chipset with varying clock speeds, cooling solutions, and power limits.

RigSync now scores each individual GPU model based on its actual specifications - not just the chipset. An ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4070 running at 2610 MHz gets a different gaming score than an MSI Ventus RTX 4070 at 2475 MHz because that 135 MHz difference translates to real performance variance.

This helps answer the "$100 price difference" question - whether you're paying for measurably better performance or just brand markup. The scoring accounts for boost clocks, game clocks, memory clocks, and memory bandwidth, giving you a realistic comparison between specific models rather than generic chipset categories.

It's not a perfect predictor of real-world performance (cooling efficiency, power limits, and silicon quality vary), but it provides much better granularity than treating all RTX 4070s and other GPUs as identical.

How RigSync Uses These Scores

The optimization engine finds the optimal component balance by analyzing compatibility, performance scores, user preferences, and budget constraints across thousands of possible builds.

Depending on what you're building for, RigSync weights different components differently. A gaming build? GPU gets priority. Development machine? CPU takes the lead. Streaming setup? Balance between both with extra emphasis on CPU cores. A work gaming rig? It finds that balance between gaming performance and productivity capabilities.

This ties directly into that budget-first philosophy I mentioned when introducing RigSync. The system isn't just throwing the most expensive GPU at your build - it's finding the optimal balance of components that work together for your specific use case, all while staying within your budget. The priority is to always stay within your budget and optimize for your needs, but it can sometimes go slightly over if it doesn't find parts within the initial budget constraints. And if a graphics card does not meet the minimum performance requirements, it will give you suggestions about which ones will give you a better experience for the money.

The solver runs through thousands of component combinations in milliseconds, testing compatibility, calculating performance scores, and ensuring everything fits together physically and electrically. It's doing the research work that used to take hours of forum browsing and benchmarking comparisons.

Testing Across the Spectrum

It tests every game's performance benchmark results across five different hardware tiers (Budget, Entry, Mainstream, High-End, Enthusiast) and three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K). That's 15 different scenarios per game to ensure the FPS estimates are in the right ballpark.

Your PC won't perform exactly like the estimations show. Your system has variables it can't account for. Maybe you've got 47 Chrome tabs open. Maybe your GPU drivers are two months old. Maybe you're running Discord, OBS, Spotify, and three background monitoring tools. Or maybe your PC is just having a bad day because Windows decided to index your entire hard drive.

The goal isn't perfect accuracy (that's impossible). The goal is to get you close enough that you're not disappointed with your build.

This Is Just the Beginning

The optimizer is in constant improvement.

Hardware changes constantly. New CPUs launch with different performance characteristics. Games get patched and optimized. Benchmarks evolve. What works great today might need refinement tomorrow.

RigSync isn't a static tool - it's a continuous effort to make PC building less frustrating and more accessible. These April improvements are one step in that direction. There will be more. The scoring system will get more accurate. The optimizer will get smarter. The compatibility checks will catch more edge cases.

Beyond the technical improvements, I want RigSync to become a community for people to share their experiences. That's the long-term vision - a place where builders can learn from each other and see what actually works in real-world use.

What This Means for You

These improvements don't change how you use RigSync - you still pick your games or workload, set your budget, and let it build something optimized for you. But behind the scenes, the recommendations are more accurate and better balanced for what you actually need.

Whether you're using the Game-Based Builder to optimize for specific titles, the Custom Builder to fine-tune every parameter, or the Component Browser to hand-pick parts, the refined scoring system ensures you're getting components that make sense together.

No sponsored placements. No affiliate pressure to recommend expensive parts you don't need. Just data-driven recommendations based on what actually performs well for your use case, with realistic performance expectations built in.

Want to see these improvements in action? Try building something with the Custom Builder and compare a gaming build to a development build with the same budget. You'll see how component priorities shift based on your use case.

Still curious about how the whole system works? Check out How RigSync Actually Works for the full breakdown.

Welcome to RigSync - where every build is actually optimized for you.