Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + RTX 4070 Ti combo rank in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The combo ranks 186th out of 1,795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 10.4% of all systems for this title.

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system delivers 195.9 FPS average, which is the highest measured result across all resolutions and settings.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo produces 65.3 FPS average, which remains playable for a flight simulator.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from Low to Ultra at the same resolution?

A: At 1080p, dropping from Low (195.9 FPS) to Ultra (106.9 FPS) represents a 45.4% reduction in average frame rate.

Q: What is the GPU's VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Q: What are the CPU's core and clock specifications?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows that High settings at 2560x1440 provides the optimal balance for this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator. At this configuration, the system achieves 91.6 FPS average, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth flight simulation while maintaining visual quality.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, Ultra at 1920x1080 delivers 106.9 FPS, which is still highly playable and only 8.9 FPS lower than High at the same resolution. The step from Ultra to High costs 8.9 FPS at 1080p, but the visual improvement in scenery detail is substantial.

At 4K resolution, High settings (67.7 FPS) are preferable over Ultra (65.3 FPS) because the 2.4 FPS difference is minimal, yet High reduces rendering load noticeably. The Medium preset at 4K (88.5 FPS) offers a significant headroom for demanding flight scenarios with dense scenery.

The Low preset at any resolution produces frame rates well above 100 FPS (111.5 FPS at 4K, 152.5 FPS at 1440p, 195.9 FPS at 1080p), but these settings strip away the visual immersion that defines this simulator. The recommendation is to avoid Low unless competitive frame rates are absolutely required.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 186 out of 1,795 tested systems places it in the 89.6th percentile of all configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This means the system outperforms roughly 90% of tested combos while being surpassed by only 10% of higher-end configurations.

This ranking is consistent with the individual component performance. The RTX 4070 Ti holds the 85th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 8400F sits at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs. The GPU's slight edge over the CPU in percentile ranking suggests the graphics card is the primary driver of this combo's strong position.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta), AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (-0.1% delta), and AMD EPYC 9474F (-0.2% delta), indicating the 8400F's processing power is competitive with older high-end chips. The GPU's nearest rivals include the RTX 5090 Mobile (-0.6% delta) and Intel Arc A730M (-1.5% delta), showing the 4070 Ti holds its own against newer mobile flagships.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results across all settings. Low produces 195.9 FPS, Medium achieves 148.3 FPS, High reaches 115.8 FPS, and Ultra maintains 106.9 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 89.0 FPS drop, with the largest single-step decline occurring between Low and Medium (47.6 FPS).

At 2560x1440, performance remains robust. Low yields 152.5 FPS, Medium hits 120.0 FPS, High delivers 91.6 FPS, and Ultra produces 85.3 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 6.3 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at higher settings in this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system still performs admirably. Low achieves 111.5 FPS, Medium reaches 88.5 FPS, High produces 67.7 FPS, and Ultra delivers 65.3 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 2.4 FPS, indicating that Ultra is viable at 4K without meaningful performance sacrifice.

The data reveals that resolution scaling affects the combo more than settings scaling. Moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings reduces performance by 48.1 FPS (115.8 to 67.7), while moving from Low to Ultra at 1080p reduces performance by 89.0 FPS.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti's 12 GB GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth proves sufficient for Microsoft Flight Simulator's demanding scenery streaming. The game's large texture datasets benefit from this capacity, and the 192-bit memory bus provides adequate throughput for 4K resolution workloads.

The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2310 MHz deliver strong raw compute performance. With 7,680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, the card processes geometry and textures efficiently. The 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores provide additional acceleration for DirectX 12 Ultimate features, though the game's measured results indicate traditional rasterization is the primary workload.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 40.09 TFLOPS places it firmly in the high-performance segment. The 208.8 GPixel/s pixel rate and 626.4 GTexel/s texture rate ensure smooth handling of the game's environmental details at high resolutions.

The card's performance percentile of 85 indicates it outperforms 85% of all GPUs. In this game specifically, the GPU is the more influential component, as evidenced by the larger FPS differences between settings at each resolution.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 8400F's 6 cores and 12 threads based on Zen 4 architecture provide sufficient processing power for Microsoft Flight Simulator's simulation logic. The 4.20 GHz base clock and 4.70 GHz boost clock ensure responsive single-thread performance, which is critical for flight physics and AI calculations.

The CPU's 16 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core help maintain smooth frame delivery in complex scenarios. The 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth via dual-channel DDR5 support feeds data to the GPU efficiently, reducing potential bottlenecks.

Cinebench R23 results show a multicore score of 20,851 and single-core score of 2,943, indicating balanced performance. The 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and max-threads score of 6,165 demonstrate consistent scaling across workloads.

The CPU sits at the 82nd percentile among all processors, with its nearest rival being the Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta). This suggests the 8400F provides comparable processing power to a previous-generation 8-core chip, which is sufficient for this simulator's demands.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At High settings, performance declines from 115.8 FPS at 1080p to 91.6 FPS at 1440p (a 20.9% drop), then to 67.7 FPS at 4K (a further 26.1% drop). This progressive decline indicates the GPU becomes increasingly constrained as pixel count rises.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern changes. Performance drops from 195.9 FPS at 1080p to 152.5 FPS at 1440p (a 22.2% drop), then to 111.5 FPS at 4K (a 26.9% drop). The similar percentage drops across settings suggest that resolution scaling is consistent regardless of graphics load.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the 195.9 FPS result approaches the CPU's rendering ceiling, as the GPU has more headroom to render frames quickly. At 4K with Ultra settings, the 65.3 FPS result is clearly GPU-bound, as the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them.

The data indicates that between 1440p and 4K, the system transitions from a balanced CPU-GPU configuration to a GPU-limited one. Players seeking maximum frame rates should target 1080p or 1440p, while those prioritizing visual fidelity can safely use 4K Ultra with the understanding that the GPU will be the limiting factor.