Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — Intel Core i3-12100F + AMD Radeon RX 9060

This combination of an Intel Core i3-12100F and an AMD Radeon RX 9060 produces a playable but constrained experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the data showing a clear pattern: the pairing lands at rank 1712 out of 2996 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the benchmark database. The measured frames per second range from 37 FPS at 4K Ultra to 111 FPS at 1080p Low, which tells a story of a system that can handle the simulator at reduced settings but struggles to maintain high frame rates when visual fidelity increases.

FAQ

Q: What is the best-performing settings preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The data shows the Ultra preset delivers 62 FPS average, High delivers 65 FPS, Medium delivers 86 FPS, and Low delivers 111 FPS at 1920x1080. The Medium preset provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate headroom, with a 86 FPS average and a minimum of 73 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1712 out of 2996 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 57th percentile of all tested combos, meaning roughly 43% of tested systems perform worse and 57% perform better.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 65 at 1920x1080 to 52 at 2560x1440 and then to 39 at 3840x2160. This represents a 40% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating the GPU becomes increasingly stressed at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary limiter. The CPU has a 4-core, 8-thread configuration with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz and scores 11860 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, placing it at the 68th percentile among all CPUs. The GPU sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, and the frame rate drops significantly when resolution increases, which is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The only settings preset with recorded minimum FPS values is Medium across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 73 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it drops to 59 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it falls to 44 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rival?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, which is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (score 16129). It sits 1% above the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (score 15852) and 1% above the AMD Radeon R9 370X (score 15862).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F brings a 4-core, 8-thread configuration based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock runs at 3.30 GHz with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and it carries 12 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a modest CPU by modern standards, but its single-thread performance is respectable: the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674 and the 3DMark single-thread score of 893 both indicate solid per-core capability, which matters for Microsoft Flight Simulator's primary simulation thread.

The CPU's benchmark profile shows a clear pattern: multi-threaded performance is adequate but not exceptional. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 places it at the 68th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13494. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core 3 N355 (score 13492, 0% delta), the Intel Core i5-9500 (score 13452, 0.3% delta), and the Intel Core 5 120UL (score 13594, -0.7% delta). This means the i3-12100F sits essentially on par with those processors, neither significantly ahead nor behind.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's 4-core limitation becomes apparent in the frame rate data. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 111 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower settings. However, the CPU's 8 threads are fully utilized in the simulation workload, and the data shows that increasing resolution does not proportionally increase CPU load — instead, the frame rate drops, indicating the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The CPU's 58 W TDP and 163 mm² die size reflect a modest power envelope, and its 3DMark scores (4051 for 16 threads, 4026 for 8 threads, 4023 for max threads) show that scaling beyond 8 threads yields negligible gains, confirming the 4-core/8-thread design's limits.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1712 out of 2996 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, which places it in the lower 43% of all tested systems. This is a below-average position, but context matters: the game is known for heavy CPU and GPU demands, and the measured frame rates show the combo can still deliver playable performance at most settings.

The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU's 68th percentile standing and the GPU's 59th percentile standing. The CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in the synthetic benchmarks, but the game's behavior at higher resolutions reveals that the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth become limiting factors. The combo's rank of 1712 suggests that many other tested systems outperform it, but the data also shows this is not a bottom-tier pairing — the 4K Low result of 66 FPS demonstrates that the hardware can handle the game when settings are reduced.

Compared to the GPU's nearest rivals, the RX 9060's position is tight: it sits 0.7% below the RTX 3060 Ti and 1% above the RX 7700. This narrow spread means the combo's ranking would shift slightly depending on which rival GPU is paired with the same CPU, but the overall rank of 1712 reflects the specific i3-12100F + RX 9060 pairing's measured performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. The Low preset achieves 111 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate across all resolutions and settings. Medium drops to 86 FPS with a minimum of 73 FPS and a maximum of 99 FPS. High settles at 65 FPS, and Ultra produces 62 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 49 FPS, which is substantial but shows the combo can maintain playable frame rates even at the highest settings at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates decline across the board. Low produces 89 FPS, Medium produces 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS, High produces 52 FPS, and Ultra produces 50 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low is 22 FPS (from 111 to 89), while the drop at Ultra is 12 FPS (from 62 to 50). This pattern indicates that lower settings are more resolution-sensitive, while higher settings are already constrained by the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low produces 66 FPS, Medium produces 51 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 59 FPS, High produces 39 FPS, and Ultra produces 37 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is the lowest measured value, and even the 4K Medium minimum of 44 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many users consider smooth. The 4K Low result of 66 FPS is the only 4K setting that clears 60 FPS, and it does so by a narrow margin.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the spread from minimum to maximum is 26 FPS (73 to 99); at 1440p, it widens to 21 FPS (59 to 80); at 4K, it narrows to 15 FPS (44 to 59). This tightening spread at higher resolutions suggests the GPU becomes more consistently saturated, reducing frame time variance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. It features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz, with memory operating at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). The 8 GB GDDR6 memory sits on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's benchmark results show a mixed profile: the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3322 and the Geekbench OpenCL score of 88183 indicate reasonable compute capability, while the Passmark G3D score of 17631 places it at the 59th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 16014 is nearly identical to the RTX 3060 Ti's 16129, with a delta of -0.7%. The RX 9060 also sits 1% above the RX 7700 (score 15852) and 1% above the R9 370X (score 15862), showing it clusters closely with those cards.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus become apparent limitations. The game's high-resolution textures and detailed scenery demand significant memory bandwidth, and the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is modest for 4K rendering. The frame rate data supports this: at 4K, the combo drops to 39 FPS at High and 37 FPS at Ultra, which are below the 60 FPS threshold. Even at 1080p, the Ultra preset only reaches 62 FPS, suggesting the GPU is near its limit when the simulator's highest settings are enabled. The GPU's 21.43 TFLOPS FP32 performance is respectable, but the memory subsystem appears to be the constraining factor at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests the Medium preset offers the best experience for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo produces 86 FPS average with a minimum of 73 FPS, which provides comfortable headroom above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS, which is still playable but closer to the edge. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 51 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but remains within the range of acceptable playability for a flight simulator where frame rates can vary with scenery complexity.

The High preset is a reasonable alternative for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate stability. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 65 FPS, which is above 60; at 1440p High, it drops to 52 FPS; at 4K High, it falls to 39 FPS. The Ultra preset offers the lowest frame rates across all resolutions, with 62 FPS at 1080p being the only Ultra result that approaches playability. For users who want the highest visual fidelity, the Ultra preset at 1080p is viable, but the 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is likely too low for comfortable gameplay.

The Low preset provides the highest frame rates but sacrifices significant visual quality. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 111 FPS; at 1440p Low, it produces 89 FPS; at 4K Low, it manages 66 FPS. These results make Low the only preset that maintains 60+ FPS at 4K, which may appeal to users with high-refresh-rate displays or those who prioritize smoothness over scenery detail. However, the Low preset in Microsoft Flight Simulator removes many of the visual features that make the game immersive, so the Medium preset at 1080p or 1440p represents the best compromise between visual quality and performance.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a clear resolution scaling pattern. At Low settings, the combo delivers 111 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K — a drop of 22 FPS from 1080p to 1440p (20% reduction) and another 23 FPS from 1440p to 4K (26% reduction). At High settings, the progression is 65 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K — a drop of 13 FPS from 1080p to 1440p (20% reduction) and another 13 FPS from 1440p to 4K (25% reduction). The consistent 20-25% reduction per resolution step across different settings indicates a GPU-bound scenario.

The data reveals that the combo's scaling is slightly steeper than ideal. From 1080p to 4K, the Low preset loses 45 FPS (from 111 to 66), representing a 41% reduction; the High preset loses 26 FPS (from 65 to 39), a 40% reduction. This consistent ~40% loss from 1080p to 4K suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM capacity are the limiting factors, as the rendering resolution increases the demand on those resources.

The CPU's role in this scaling is secondary. At 1080p Low, the 111 FPS result indicates the CPU can feed the GPU adequately when the GPU is not heavily loaded. However, the CPU's 4-core/8-thread design may become a factor at higher frame rates, as the simulation's main thread cannot scale beyond its single-core performance. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674 are decent but not exceptional, and the data suggests that the combo's performance at 1080p is closer to the CPU's limit than at higher resolutions where the GPU dominates.

The resolution scaling analysis points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck. The RX 9060's 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM are adequate for 1080p and 1440p Medium settings, but the 4K results show the GPU struggling to maintain playable frame rates except at Low settings. The CPU, with its 68th percentile standing, provides sufficient single-thread performance for the game's simulation logic, but the overall combo's rank of 1712 out of 2996 reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions. Users seeking better 4K performance would need a GPU with more VRAM and bandwidth, while users satisfied with 1080p Medium can expect a smooth experience with this pairing.