Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: What average frame rate does this combo achieve at 4K with Ultra settings in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers an average of 76.1 FPS. This is the lowest average among the four tested presets at this resolution, with High settings producing 82.4 FPS, Medium producing 109.5 FPS, and Low producing 142.9 FPS.

Q: How does the 1080p performance compare between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields 192.3 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 132.3 FPS. The gap between these presets is 60 FPS, representing a 31% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings at this resolution.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested configurations for this game?

A: This particular CPU-GPU combination ranks 32nd out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 1.8% of all configurations evaluated, indicating exceptionally strong performance for this title.

Q: Which resolution shows the smallest performance difference between Medium and High settings?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium produces 147.8 FPS while High produces 111.5 FPS, a difference of 36.3 FPS. At 1920x1080, the difference between Medium (178.1 FPS) and High (143.1 FPS) is 35 FPS. The 4K resolution shows the smallest relative gap, with Medium at 109.5 FPS and High at 82.4 FPS, a 27.1 FPS difference.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM appear necessary for this game's tested settings?

A: The benchmark data shows no indication of VRAM-related performance limits, as the card's 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provides substantial headroom. The measured frame rates scale consistently with preset changes, suggesting that memory capacity is not a bottleneck at any tested resolution or quality level.

Q: How does this combo's CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25064, placing it essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, which scores 25057 (0% delta). It sits 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, showing near-identical synthetic performance among these four processors.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 21,760 shading units and 170 RT cores. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator's extensive terrain streaming and detailed scenery rendering. The memory clock operates at 1750 MHz, translating to 28 Gbps effective, while the GPU boosts to 2407 MHz from a 2017 MHz base.

The benchmark results show clear GPU scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, the card delivers 192.3 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 132.3 FPS on Ultra — a 60 FPS reduction. The pattern continues at 1440p, where Low produces 182 FPS and Ultra produces 107.1 FPS. At 4K, the spread narrows: Low yields 142.9 FPS, Medium 109.5 FPS, High 82.4 FPS, and Ultra 76.1 FPS. This progressive compression of frame rates at higher resolutions indicates the GPU is increasingly utilized as pixel count rises.

The RTX 5090's compute capabilities are substantial, with FP32 performance rated at 104.8 TFLOPS and texture rate at 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s supports high-resolution rendering without fill-rate limitations. The card's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84306, places it near the top of the performance hierarchy, though its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84241 (0.1% higher delta), and the RTX 5050 Mobile scores 84171 (0.2% higher delta).

The GPU's 575 W TDP and suggested 950 W PSU indicate substantial power requirements, but the benchmark data shows no thermal throttling artifacts in the measured frame rates. The dual-slot design with a 304 mm length accommodates the massive cooler needed for sustained performance in this demanding simulator.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 4K resolution, the data shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. Ultra settings deliver 76.1 FPS average, which is playable but leaves little headroom for complex scenes. High settings at 82.4 FPS provide a modest 8.3% improvement over Ultra while likely reducing some of the more demanding visual effects. Medium settings at 109.5 FPS offer a substantial 43.9% improvement over Ultra, making this the most balanced choice for 4K if smoothness is prioritized over maximum quality.

At 1440p, the situation is more favorable for higher presets. Ultra achieves 107.1 FPS, which exceeds the 4K Medium result and approaches what many displays can natively support. High settings produce 111.5 FPS, a marginal 4.1% gain over Ultra, suggesting that the visual quality differences between these two presets are not worth the frame rate sacrifice at this resolution. Medium at 147.8 FPS provides excellent smoothness for those with high-refresh displays.

For 1080p, all presets exceed 130 FPS, with Low at 192.3 FPS and Medium at 178.1 FPS both providing excellent responsiveness. Ultra at 132.3 FPS remains above the 120 FPS threshold, making it viable for high-refresh gaming. The data indicates that Medium is the optimal preset at 1080p: it delivers 178.1 FPS, only 7.4% below Low, while offering substantially better visual quality than Low and a 34.6% improvement over Ultra.

The best overall experience per the measured rows depends on display capabilities. For 60 Hz displays, Ultra at 4K (76.1 FPS) or 1440p (107.1 FPS) provides smooth performance with maximum fidelity. For 120 Hz displays, Medium at 4K (109.5 FPS) or Ultra at 1440p (107.1 FPS) are appropriate. For 144 Hz or higher displays, Medium at 1440p (147.8 FPS) or High at 1080p (143.1 FPS) are recommended.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 32nd out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 1.8% of all evaluated systems. This exceptional ranking reflects the combination of a top-tier GPU with a capable mid-range processor. The RTX 5090's 94th percentile GPU ranking (average score 84306) provides the primary performance driver, while the Ryzen 5 8400F's 82nd percentile CPU ranking (average score 25064) ensures the processor does not become a limiting factor.

The combo's rank is particularly notable given the CPU's synthetic benchmark profile. The Ryzen 5 8400F's average score of 25064 places it in a tight cluster with the Ryzen 7 2700X (25057, 0% delta), Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (25099, -0.1% delta), and Ryzen 5 7500F (24993, 0.3% delta). This grouping indicates that the processor's performance is comparable to several other mid-range options, yet the overall combo still achieves a top-32 ranking due to the GPU's dominance.

The measured frame rates support this interpretation. At 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 76.1 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth simulation gameplay. At lower resolutions, the frame rates scale to very high levels, with 1080p Low reaching 192.3 FPS. These results demonstrate that the RTX 5090's raw compute power (104.8 TFLOPS FP32, 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth) is the key factor in this combo's high ranking.

Compared to other combinations in the database, this setup's 32nd place ranking out of 1795 combos indicates that only 31 configurations achieve better performance in this specific game. Given that the GPU sits at the 94th percentile, the ranking is consistent with expectations for a flagship graphics card paired with a solid mid-range CPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 (Phoenix) architecture, manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz boosts to 4.70 GHz, and the 65 W TDP keeps power consumption modest. The processor supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth, which is adequate for feeding the RTX 5090 in this simulator.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20851 and single-core score of 2943. The 3DMark results show scaling from 951 (single-thread) to 6165 (max threads), with the 8-thread score of 5275 indicating that the processor handles moderate thread counts well. PassMark multithread score of 24530 and single-thread score of 3684 reinforce the CPU's balanced performance profile.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is known for its demanding single-thread performance requirements, and the Ryzen 5 8400F's single-core capabilities appear sufficient based on the measured results. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 192.3 FPS, suggesting that CPU overhead is not limiting even at high frame rates. The 1080p Ultra result of 132.3 FPS further indicates that the CPU can sustain high throughput while the GPU renders complex scenes.

The CPU's 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide reasonable memory hierarchy for the simulator's data access patterns. The 4 nm process and 25,000 million transistors on a 178 mm² die enable high clock speeds while maintaining the 65 W TDP. The unlocked multiplier allows overclocking, though the stock boost clock of 4.70 GHz already delivers strong performance.

The processor ranks at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25064. Its nearest rivals — the Ryzen 7 2700X (25057), Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (25099), and Ryzen 5 7500F (24993) — all fall within a 0.3% performance band, indicating that this CPU generation offers tightly clustered performance among mid-range options. For this game specifically, the CPU's role is to maintain adequate frame pacing and avoid bottlenecks, which the data confirms it does effectively across all tested resolutions and settings.