Microsoft Flight Simulator

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the Intel Core i5-14600KF and Intel Arc B370 shows a combination that struggles to reach playable frame rates at any tested resolution or preset. The playable threshold in the database is 60 FPS, and no configuration in the measured set comes close to that mark.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly low. The Low preset delivers an average of 30 FPS, which is the best result at this resolution. Medium drops to 23 FPS on average, with a minimum of 20 FPS and a maximum of 27 FPS. High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 13 FPS, indicating that the graphics card is heavily taxed even at the lowest settings. None of the 4K presets produce data for minimum or maximum frame rates except Medium, which shows a narrow band of 20 to 27 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern improves but remains below the 60 FPS target. Low averages 41 FPS, a substantial jump from the 30 FPS seen at 4K Low. Medium averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 36 FPS. High averages 24 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra here is 18 FPS, a wider spread than at 4K, which suggests that the GPU has more headroom at this resolution but is still the limiting factor.

At 1920x1080, the best recorded average is 50 FPS on the Low preset. Medium averages 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 45 FPS. High averages 30 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 22 FPS, the largest spread across all resolutions. Even at 1080p Low, the combination falls 10 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold, and the Ultra preset sits at less than half the target.

The data shows a consistent pattern: every preset at every resolution fails to reach 60 FPS. The best case scenario in the entire dataset is 1080p Low at 50 FPS, which is still 16.7% below the playable threshold. The worst case is 4K Ultra at 17 FPS, which is barely a slideshow by modern standards. For a flight simulator that demands smooth visuals for instrument scanning and terrain awareness, none of these results qualify as playable according to the database's threshold.

CPU and GPU Roles

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a strong processor in general compute workloads, sitting at the 90th percentile among all CPUs in the database. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and single-core score of 4594 indicate a capable desktop chip. However, the Intel Arc B370 is an integrated-class GPU with a percentile rank of only 5 among all GPUs, and its sole recorded benchmark, a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184, places it in the company of legacy mobile and desktop parts from over a decade ago.

The scaling between resolutions reveals which component dominates. From 4K to 1440p at Low settings, the average FPS rises from 30 to 41, a 36.7% improvement. From 1440p to 1080p at Low, it rises from 41 to 50, a 22% improvement. This consistent upward trend as resolution drops indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain flat or even drop at lower resolutions as the GPU pushes more frames and exposes CPU limits. Instead, the data shows the GPU gaining headroom at every step down in resolution.

The preset scaling tells the same story. At 1080p, Low averages 50 FPS while Ultra averages 28 FPS, a 44% reduction in performance from the lowest to the highest preset. At 1440p, the same preset change drops from 41 to 23 FPS, a 43.9% reduction. At 4K, Low to Ultra drops from 30 to 17 FPS, a 43.3% reduction. The nearly identical percentage drops across all three resolutions strongly suggest that the GPU's shading and memory throughput, not the CPU's instruction throughput, determine the frame rate.

The CPU does have a role, but it is not the limiting factor here. The i5-14600KF's multi-threaded capabilities, demonstrated by a PassMark multithread score of 38697 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 17085, are more than sufficient for a flight simulator's simulation and physics threads. The Arc B370's FP32 throughput of 6.144 TFLOPS and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are simply too low to feed a modern display pipeline at high settings. Even at 1080p Low, the GPU cannot sustain 60 FPS, which means the CPU is never given the chance to become the bottleneck.

The verdict is clear: this is a GPU-limited configuration across all tested settings and resolutions. The CPU has ample headroom, as evidenced by its 90th percentile ranking, but the GPU's 5th percentile ranking caps the entire system's gaming performance. Users who upgraded the GPU while keeping the same CPU would see dramatic gains, while upgrading the CPU alone would yield almost nothing in this title.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 1080p?

A: No. The best 1080p result in the measured data is 50 FPS on the Low preset, which falls 10 FPS short of the 60 FPS playable threshold. High averages 30 FPS, Medium 39 FPS, and Ultra 28 FPS.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combination?

A: The highest average is 50 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. No other setting or resolution in the dataset reaches this level.

Q: How much performance is lost when switching from Low to Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 41 FPS while Ultra averages 23 FPS, a reduction of 18 FPS or approximately 43.9%. The minimum and maximum data for Low and Ultra are not recorded, but Medium shows a range of 27 to 36 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more responsible for the low frame rates?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Intel Arc B370 ranks at the 5th percentile among all GPUs, while the Intel Core i5-14600KF ranks at the 90th percentile among all CPUs. The consistent frame rate improvements as resolution drops further confirm the GPU bottleneck.

Q: Does the Arc B370 have any settings that reach 60 FPS?

A: No. Across all three resolutions (3840x2160, 2560x1440, and 1920x1080) and all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), no configuration reaches the 60 FPS threshold. The closest is 1080p Low at 50 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combination ranks 3428 out of 3714 tested combos in the database for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom portion of all recorded systems.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database, the Intel Core i5-14600KF has close computational peers that would behave similarly in CPU-bound scenarios. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49228 on average, a mere 0.3% behind the i5-14600KF's average benchmark score of 49394. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G is 0.4% behind, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is 0.8% behind. On the other side, the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 scores 49796, which is 0.8% ahead. For this game, where the CPU is not the bottleneck, swapping the i5-14600KF for any of these processors would produce nearly identical frame rates, assuming the same GPU.

The GPU side is more revealing. The Intel Arc B370's average benchmark score of 1184 places it alongside legacy parts. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 scores 1186, just 0.2% higher, and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 scores 1190, 0.5% higher. The AMD Radeon HD 7650M is 0.7% higher at 1192, while the AMD FirePro M2000 scores 1168, 1.4% lower. These are all older discrete or mobile GPUs with far lower feature sets than the Arc B370, which supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. In practical terms, any of these rivals would deliver similar or slightly worse frame rates in Microsoft Flight Simulator, meaning the system would still fall short of 60 FPS.

For users considering alternatives, the data suggests that the GPU is the component to replace first. The CPU's nearest rivals are all within 1% of its average score, so keeping the i5-14600KF and upgrading the graphics card would be the most effective path to playable frame rates. Conversely, replacing the CPU with a comparable model while keeping the Arc B370 would change almost nothing in this title, since the GPU caps performance at every measured setting.

How This Combo Ranks

The database ranks this combination at 3428 out of 3714 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in the bottom 7.7% of all recorded systems, a position consistent with the measured frame rates. The Arc B370's 5th percentile GPU ranking drags the system down despite the i5-14600KF's 90th percentile CPU ranking.

The rank is not surprising given the data. Every preset at every resolution fails to hit 60 FPS, and the best result is 50 FPS at 1080p Low. The bottom decile ranking reflects a system that cannot deliver a smooth experience in this title under any tested configuration. The 3714 total combos include a wide range of hardware pairings, and landing at 3428 means that roughly 93% of tested systems outperform this combination.

For context, the CPU alone would place in the top 10% of all processors, but the GPU's bottom 5% placement cancels out that advantage. The rank is a direct consequence of the GPU being the system's ceiling. In a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy rendering demands across large scenery areas, a GPU in the 5th percentile cannot sustain modern frame rates. The recorded data confirms this, and the rank reflects it.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Microsoft Flight Simulator? Based on the measured data, the answer is no, not at the 60 FPS playable threshold. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous: 3840x2160 has no playable settings, 2560x1440 has no playable settings, and 1920x1080 has no playable settings. The database records zero configurations that clear 60 FPS.

The best-case scenario across the entire dataset is 1080p Low at 50 FPS, which is still below the threshold. At 1440p, the best is 41 FPS on Low. At 4K, the best is 30 FPS on Low. Every Medium, High, and Ultra preset at every resolution falls further behind. Medium at 1080p delivers 39 FPS, High at 1080p delivers 30 FPS, and Ultra at 1080p delivers 28 FPS.

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is not the problem here. Its benchmark scores place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with strong multi-core and single-core results. The Intel Arc B370, however, ranks in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, and its integrated-class design with system-shared memory cannot keep up with the rendering demands of this flight simulator. The data shows a GPU-limited system across the board.

For anyone considering this combination for Microsoft Flight Simulator, the measured results indicate that a GPU upgrade is mandatory for playable performance. The CPU has enough headroom to support a much faster graphics card, but as configured, this system cannot reach 60 FPS at any resolution or preset in the database.