Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 show a clear pattern of scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 195 FPS average, but this drops to 181 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 138 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 57 FPS loss from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the resolution increase places substantial load on the GPU.

At High settings, the scaling is more pronounced. The 1080p result is 136 FPS, 1440p is 110 FPS, and 4K drops to 81 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K at High is 55 FPS, nearly identical to the Low setting drop, which suggests the GPU is the primary limiter across all quality presets. Medium settings show a similar pattern: 178 FPS at 1080p, 146 FPS at 1440p, and 108 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset yields 130 FPS at 1080p, 105 FPS at 1440p, and 77 FPS at 4K.

The frame time consistency also scales with resolution. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 92 FPS and maximum of 124 FPS, producing a 32 FPS range. At 1440p Medium, the range is 124 to 168 FPS, a 44 FPS spread. At 1080p Medium, the range expands to 151 to 205 FPS, a 54 FPS spread. This data shows that lower resolutions amplify frame pacing variance, while higher resolutions compress the range, which is typical when a GPU is pushed closer to its limits.

The delta between Low and Ultra at each resolution is informative. At 1080p, Low delivers 195 FPS while Ultra delivers 130 FPS, a 65 FPS difference. At 1440p, the difference is 76 FPS (181 vs 105). At 4K, the difference is 61 FPS (138 vs 77). The largest gap appears at 1440p, suggesting that this resolution is where the CPU and GPU are best balanced for this game, allowing settings to have their maximum impact. At 4K, the GPU becomes more saturated, so the relative effect of lowering settings diminishes slightly.

Benchmark results indicate that Microsoft Flight Simulator is heavily GPU-bound with this hardware combination, especially at higher resolutions. The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to feed the rendering pipeline without stuttering at 4K, as evidenced by the 81 FPS average at High settings. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to be less of a bottleneck, since the frame rate drops consistently with resolution rather than plateauing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz are among the highest in the GeForce 40-series, and the data shows that this headroom translates directly into playable frame rates. At 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 77 FPS average, which is remarkable given the game's reputation for demanding hardware. The GPU's 24 GB memory buffer is more than adequate for Microsoft Flight Simulator's high-resolution textures and complex scenery.

The GPU's memory subsystem is a key asset. With a 384-bit bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, the RTX 4090 can move vast amounts of texture data rapidly. This is critical for a flight simulator where the camera can pan across dense urban areas or detailed terrain, requiring constant texture streaming. The 4K Medium result of 108 FPS with a 92 FPS minimum indicates that even under load, the memory pipeline avoids severe hitches.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial. The 16384 shading units and 512 tensor cores provide 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which is more than enough for the DirectX 12 rendering path. The RTX 4090's passmark G3D score of 38194 places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M with a score of 61896 (2.5% higher) and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 with 58657 (2.9% lower). These comparisons are within a narrow band, showing that the RTX 4090's raw rasterization performance is competitive with professional-grade cards.

The high clock speeds contribute to the observed scaling. At 1080p Low, the GPU can push 195 FPS, which is close to the refresh rate limits of many monitors. The fact that this drops to 138 FPS at 4K Low shows that the GPU is being utilized more fully at higher resolutions. The Ultra preset at 4K, with 77 FPS, demonstrates that even the fastest consumer GPU cannot completely overcome the game's heavy shading workloads at maximum quality.

The GPU's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are relevant for future DirectX 12 Ultimate features, though the current measured results do not specifically isolate ray tracing performance. Given that the game is a flight simulator, the primary load is on traditional rasterization, which the RTX 4090 handles with ease. The 176 ROPs and 512 TMUs ensure that fill-rate-heavy scenes, such as clouds and water reflections, do not bottleneck the pipeline.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 8000 series, based on Zen 4 architecture on TSMC's 4 nm process. Its base clock is 4.20 GHz with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, and it has 16 MB of shared L3 cache plus 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark scores show a strong single-thread performance: a 3dmark single-thread score of 951 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943. These are critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which relies heavily on a primary simulation thread.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20851 and a passmark multithread score of 24389. This places the Ryzen 5 8400F in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25005. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F with an average score of 24964 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i7-11850H at 24935 (0.3% higher), and the Intel Core i7-13620H at 24911 (0.4% higher). The data shows that the 8400F sits in a tightly contested performance band, with all these CPUs within 0.4% of each other.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is to handle the simulation logic, including flight physics, weather, and AI traffic. The 12 threads allow for some parallel processing, but the game's core simulation loop is largely single-threaded. The 8400F's 4.70 GHz boost clock helps maintain high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios, such as flying over dense cities at low altitude. The measured results show that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 195 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, as further lowering resolution does not yield proportionally higher frame rates.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface is adequate for feeding the simulation data. The L3 cache of 16 MB is modest but sufficient for the game's working set. The 4 nm process node ensures low latency and high efficiency, which contributes to the consistent frame times observed. The 65 W TDP indicates that the CPU does not throttle under sustained load, maintaining its boost clocks during extended flight sessions.

Compared to its rivals, the 8400F holds its own. The 0.2% delta against the Ryzen 5 7500F is negligible in real-world terms, and the 0.3% delta over the Intel Core i7-11850H shows that the AMD part is not leaving performance on the table. The only negative delta is against the AMD EPYC 9474F, which is 0.4% higher, but that is a server-class chip. For a desktop gaming CPU, the 8400F's performance in this game is more than sufficient to keep the RTX 4090 fed at all resolutions below 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 124th out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the pair in the top 3.3% of all configurations, which is an exceptional result given that the CPU is a mid-range part. The ranking reflects the game's GPU-bound nature, where the RTX 4090's raw power dominates the final score. The fact that a 6-core CPU can pair with the flagship GPU and still rank this high reflects the 8400F's strong single-thread performance.

The rank of 124 out of 3714 means that there are 123 combos that outperform it, but these are almost certainly paired with higher-end CPUs such as the Ryzen 7 or 9 series or Intel Core i7/i9 parts. The delta between the 8400F and those CPUs is likely small in this game, as the GPU does most of the heavy lifting. The data shows that the combo's average FPS at 4K High is 81, which is playable for most users, and at 1440p High it reaches 110 FPS, which is smooth on high-refresh-rate displays.

The ranking also benefits from the RTX 4090's position in the GPU hierarchy. With an average benchmark score of 60347 and an 88th percentile ranking, the GPU is among the top 12% of all graphics cards. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a 0% delta, show that the RTX 4090's lead is narrow in synthetic benchmarks, but in real-world gaming, its drivers and optimizations give it an edge. The 2.9% delta against the AMD Radeon PRO V710 indicates that the RTX 4090 is not untouchable, but for this specific game, the measured FPS data confirms its superiority.

The combo's performance at 4K Ultra (77 FPS) is particularly notable, as many combos with weaker GPUs would struggle to maintain 60 FPS at that preset. The 124th rank out of 3714 is a strong indicator that this configuration is well-balanced for Microsoft Flight Simulator, offering high frame rates across all resolution and quality combinations. For users who prioritize max settings, this combo delivers, and for those who prefer high refresh rates at lower resolutions, it also excels.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 130 FPSebb. This is the lowest 1080p result, but still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's memory bandwidth affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 4090 has 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth across a 384-bit bus. This allows it to maintain 81 FPS at 4K High and 77 FPS at 4K Ultra, showing that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck at these settings.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 8400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data suggests minimal bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 195 FPS, and at 1440p Low it drops to 181 FPS, indicating that the CPU can push high frame rates. The 6-core/12-thread configuration is sufficient for this flight simulator.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at 4K Medium?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 108, with a minimum of 92 FPS and a maximum of 124 FPS. The 32 FPS range indicates stable performance without major hitches.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 124th out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 3.3%. This is a strong result given the CPU's mid-range positioning.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 181 FPS while Ultra delivers 105 FPS, a difference of