Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator presents a unique challenge for hardware analysis, demanding both raw GPU throughput for its visual density and significant CPU muscle for its complex flight and weather simulation engines. The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER creates a compelling dataset that reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck depending on resolution and settings. This analysis breaks down the measured performance to understand where the limits lie.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but informative pattern as resolution scales from 1920x1080 up to 3840x2160. At the Low preset, the frame rate drops from 195.8 FPS at 1080p to 169.1 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 119.7 FPS at 4K. This represents a 38.9% reduction in FPS from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest visual quality, the pixel throughput demand of the RTX 4080 SUPER is still a limiting factor, but the headroom is massive.

At the Ultra preset, the scaling pattern shifts more dramatically. The average FPS at 1080p is 117.5, which falls to 90.8 at 1440p (a 22.7% drop) and then to 66.9 at 4K (a 43.1% drop from 1080p). This steeper decline at higher settings suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of VRAM and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the data load, but the raw compute required for the Ultra preset's effects is what curtails performance at higher resolutions.

The interesting insight emerges when comparing the scaling of the Medium preset. At 1080p, it achieves 165.6 FPS, dropping to 129.8 at 1440p and 93.4 at 4K. The 4K figure is still 39.5% higher than the Ultra 4K result, showing that the gap between Medium and Ultra widens with resolution. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces GPU-intensive effects that become exponentially more costly as pixel count increases, whereas the Medium preset maintains a more linear scaling curve. The data suggests that for this combination, the RTX 4080 SUPER has enough power to keep up with the Ryzen 5 8400F at 1080p, but at 4K, the GPU's limits are clearly exposed.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a combo rank of 117 out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 6.5% of all tested combos, a strong showing that reflects the high performance ceiling of both components. The RTX 4080 SUPER's percentile ranking of 88 among all GPUs and the Ryzen 5 8400F's percentile of 82 among all CPUs help contextualize this result.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the broader benchmark suite include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340, with which it trades blows within a 0.2% margin. More relevant to this game is its proximity to the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, which scores a 0.3% higher average benchmark score. This suggests that within the 8000 series, the 8400F is a solid performer, but it is not an outlier in CPU-bound scenarios. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, is only 0.2% behind, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is 2.9% behind. This indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is positioned at the top of its performance tier, giving this combo a high overall ranking that is likely driven more by GPU strength than by CPU leadership.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 10240 shading units and 80 RT cores. Its base clock runs at 2295 MHz, boosting to 2550 MHz, and it is paired with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus. This configuration yields a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s and a peak FP32 throughput of 52.22 TFLOPS. The data indicates that these specifications are not the limiting factor at lower resolutions, where the CPU is likely the bottleneck.

At 1080p Low, the GPU easily pushes 195.8 FPS, but the CPU cannot sustain that rate consistently as settings increase. The jump from Low to High at 1080p results in a 36.2% FPS drop, which is a larger relative decrease than the 30.6% drop seen at 4K for the same setting change. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU's ability to feed the GPU is the limiting factor when visual demands increase, whereas at 4K, the GPU's compute resources are more fully utilized. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 320W TDP and triple-slot design reflect its high power envelope, but the benchmark results show it delivers the expected performance for its class, with a PassMark G3D score of 34245 placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience for this combination depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, all presets are playable, with even Ultra achieving 117.5 FPS. The Medium preset at 165.6 FPS offers a balanced experience, providing a 40.9% performance uplift over Ultra while still maintaining high visual fidelity. For users with high refresh rate monitors, the Low preset at 195.8 FPS is the only option that gets close to maximizing the potential of a 144Hz or 165Hz display.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 98.6 FPS is the sweet spot for smooth gameplay, while Ultra at 90.8 FPS remains acceptable. The Medium preset at 129.8 FPS is the best choice for those prioritizing frame rate over absolute visual quality. At 3840x2160, the data shows that only the Low preset (119.7 FPS) can comfortably exceed the 60 FPS threshold for a smooth experience. The Medium preset at 93.4 FPS is also viable, but High (73.6 FPS) and Ultra (66.9 FPS) require a tolerance for lower frame rates. The recommendation is to start with Medium at 4K and adjust based on personal preferences, as the 16 GB VRAM ensures memory is not a concern at any of these settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low at 195.8, Medium at 165.6, High at 125, and Ultra at 117.5. The delta between Low and Ultra is 78.3 FPS, showing a wide performance spectrum. At 2560x1440, the figures are: Low at 169.1, Medium at 129.8, High at 98.6, and Ultra at 90.8. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 78.3 FPS, identical to the 1080p delta, which is a curious coincidence indicating that the CPU is still the primary bottleneck at these settings.

At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low at 119.7, Medium at 93.4, High at 73.6, and Ultra at 66.9. The gap between Low and Ultra shrinks to 52.8 FPS, confirming that the GPU's workload becomes more uniform across settings at higher resolutions. Comparing across resolutions, the Low preset loses 76.1 FPS going from 1080p to 4K, while Ultra loses 50.6 FPS in the same transition. This suggests that the Low preset is more sensitive to resolution changes because it is less GPU-bound, allowing the CPU to become the limiting factor at 1080p and the GPU to catch up at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 (Phoenix) architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. It has a 16 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus. Its benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20851 and a single-core score of 2943, place it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is most evident in the 1080p results.

The data shows that at 1080p, moving from Low to Medium only drops the FPS from 195.8 to 165.6, but moving from Medium to High drops it to 125. This non-linear scaling indicates that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for lower settings, but the game's simulation thread begins to saturate at High settings. The Ryzen 5 8400F's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, has an identical average benchmark score, suggesting that this CPU is not the primary driver of the combo's high ranking. Instead, it provides a capable foundation that allows the RTX 4080 SUPER to shine, but it does introduce a bottleneck in less GPU-intensive scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play at for maximum frame rate?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 195.8 FPS. For a balance of quality and speed, 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides 129.8 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25064, which is 0% different from the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K Ultra settings?

A: The data shows 4K Ultra achieves 66.9 FPS, and the 16 GB VRAM is enough to render the scene without memory-related stutters, though the frame rate is lower than at other settings.

Q: Why does the FPS drop more from 1080p to 4K at Low settings than at Ultra settings?

A: At Low settings, the FPS drops from 195.8 to 119.7 (a 38.9% decrease), while at Ultra it drops from 117.5 to 66.9 (a 43.1% decrease), indicating that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K regardless of settings.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested system configurations?

A: It ranks 117th out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 6.5% of all results.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 2.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.