Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the Intel Core i3-12100F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: This combination ranks 2278 out of 3714 tested combos in the database for this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field.

Q: What average frame rate does this combo achieve at 1080p with Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system delivers an average of 106 FPS, which is the highest measured result across all tested settings and resolutions.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 85 FPS while the Ultra preset averages 48 FPS, making the Low preset roughly 77% faster in average frame rate.

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

A: The lowest minimum frame rate recorded is 42 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with Medium settings; the other Medium preset runs show minimums of 57 FPS at 1440p and 70 FPS at 1080p.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the limiting factor at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS drops to 35, and the delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 28 FPS (from 63 to 35), indicating the GPU is heavily constrained at this resolution and preset.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest GPU rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5050 posts an average benchmark score of 21035, sitting 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (score 20713) and 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (score 21153).

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 16,900 million transistors on a 149 mm² die. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, with memory running at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical resource for Microsoft Flight Simulator given the extensive texture streaming and terrain detail.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities are modest: 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, yielding 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The tensor core count of 80 and RT core count of 20 support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), though flight sim workloads typically lean more on traditional rasterization than ray tracing. The pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s and texture rate of 205.8 GTexel/s are the throughput limits that frame the measured FPS results.

Examining the measured data, the RTX 5050 shows a clear scaling pattern across settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 106 at Low to 59 at Ultra, a 47 FPS spread that shows the GPU has headroom at lower presets but becomes saturated at Ultra. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 37 FPS (85 Low to 48 Ultra), and at 4K, it narrows further to 28 FPS (63 Low to 35 Ultra). This compression of the settings delta at higher resolutions is the signature of a GPU that is progressively more bound as pixel count rises.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5050 scores 17326 in Passmark G3D and 9184 in GPU compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2502. The percentile standing of 66 against all GPUs suggests this is a mid-range part, which aligns with the observed performance: capable at 1080p and 1440p on lower presets, but struggling to maintain playable rates at 4K Ultra. The nearest rival data shows the RX 5600 XT at 1.6% lower average score, meaning the RTX 5050 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S family, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 3.30 GHz with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and carries 12 MB of shared L3 cache, with 1.25 MB L2 and 80 KB L1 per core. The 58 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support make it a mainstream desktop part, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes is more than adequate for the RTX 5050's PCIe 5.0 x8 bus connection.

Benchmark results show the i3-12100F performing strongly in single-threaded tasks: a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1674 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1932. Multi-threaded results are more moderate, with Cinebench R23 multi-core at 11860 and Geekbench multi-core at 7252. The 3DMark thread scaling is telling: 8-thread score of 4026 is nearly identical to the max-thread score of 4023, confirming that the 4-core/8-thread configuration saturates quickly. The Passmark multithread score of 14015 and single-thread score of 3444 further illustrate this dual character of strong per-core performance but limited parallel throughput.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, CPU load is significant due to flight dynamics, weather simulation, and AI traffic calculations. The i3-12100F's 4 cores are sufficient for the game's primary simulation thread, but the lack of additional cores may constrain performance in densely populated areas or with heavy add-on scenery. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 106 FPS average, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower settings. However, at 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 59 FPS, and the gap between Low and Ultra (47 FPS) is the largest across all resolutions, indicating that the CPU is not the sole bottleneck — the GPU's workload at Ultra settings also matters.

The CPU's percentile standing of 68 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13494, places it near the Intel Core i5-9500 (0.3% higher score) and the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta). This is a budget-conscious processor that pairs logically with a mid-range GPU, and the measured FPS data reflects a balanced but not high-end system.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the i3-12100F and RTX 5050 produce the following average frame rates across presets: Low at 106 FPS, Medium at 82 FPS (with a minimum of 70 and maximum of 95), High at 62 FPS, and Ultra at 59 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 24 FPS drop, while the step from High to Ultra is only 3 FPS, showing diminishing returns at the top end. The Medium preset's minimum of 70 FPS is notably higher than the High and Ultra averages, suggesting that Medium is the sweet spot for smooth 1080p gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 85 FPS on Low, 66 FPS on Medium (minimum 57, maximum 76), 50 FPS on High, and 48 FPS on Ultra. The relative scaling is similar to 1080p, but the absolute numbers are lower by roughly 20-25% at each preset. The Low-to-Medium drop is 19 FPS, while High-to-Ultra is only 2 FPS, reinforcing the pattern that the higher presets are GPU-limited regardless of resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 63 FPS, Medium at 49 FPS (minimum 42, maximum 56), High at 37 FPS, and Ultra at 35 FPS. This is the only resolution where Low remains above 60 FPS, and the Medium preset's minimum of 42 FPS is below the 60 FPS target. The gap between Low and Medium is 14 FPS, and between High and Ultra is just 2 FPS, meaning the GPU is severely constrained at 4K with any preset above Low.

The minimum frame rates recorded only for Medium presets are 70 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K. These minimums show a consistent degradation of frame pacing as resolution increases, with the 4K Medium minimum falling below typical 60 FPS thresholds.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2278 out of 3714 tested combinations places this system in the 61st percentile — meaning 61% of tested combos perform better in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is a mid-pack result that aligns with the component choices: a 4-core CPU and a mid-range GPU are not top-tier hardware for a simulation that scales with both CPU and GPU resources.

The GPU's percentile standing of 66 against all GPUs is slightly higher than the combo's game-specific percentile, suggesting that the CPU may be holding the system back in this title. The CPU's percentile of 68 is comparable, but the game's heavy single-threaded and multi-threaded demands on the 4-core design likely create a ceiling.

Relative to the nearest rivals, the RTX 5050 outperforms the RX 5600 XT by 1.6% in synthetic average score, yet both are in the same performance class. The i3-12100F is nearly tied with the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta) and 0.3% behind the i5-9500, meaning CPU upgrades in this class would yield marginal gains. The data suggests that to move meaningfully up the combo ranking, a user would need both a stronger CPU (more cores) and a stronger GPU, as the current pairing sits in a plateau where neither component is dramatically weaker than the other.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p gameplay, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It delivers an average of 82 FPS with a minimum of 70 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. The High and Ultra presets both hover near 60 FPS (62 and 59 respectively), but the minimum frame rates are not recorded for those settings, meaning the Medium preset's documented minimum of 70 FPS offers more confidence in frame pacing. The Low preset at 106 FPS is viable for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, but the visual quality trade-off is substantial for only a 24 FPS gain over Medium.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again stands out with an average of 66 FPS and a minimum of 57 FPS. The Low preset at 85 FPS is smoother but lacks visual detail; the High and Ultra presets at 50 and 48 FPS respectively are below the 60 FPS target. Medium provides the best balance of playable frame rates and visual fidelity at this resolution.

For 4K, the Low preset is the only option that maintains an average above 60 FPS (63 FPS). The Medium preset averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS, which is playable but not smooth. High and Ultra at 37 and 35 FPS respectively are stutter-prone for a flight sim where smooth panning is essential. The recommendation is to use Low at 4K or drop to 1440p Medium for a significantly better experience.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but consistent across presets. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 106 at 1080p to 85 at 1440p (a 19.8% drop) and then to 63 at 4K (a 25.9% drop from 1440p). At Medium, the progression is 82 to 66 (19.5% drop) then 66 to 49 (25.8% drop). At High, it is 62 to 50 (19.4% drop) then 50 to 37 (26% drop). At Ultra, it is 59 to 48 (18.6% drop) then 48 to 35 (27.1% drop).

The consistent pattern — roughly 19-20% loss from 1080p to 1440p and 26-27% loss from 1440p to 4K — indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component as resolution increases. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the FPS does not drop by a proportional amount, suggesting the CPU is partially bound at 1080p and becomes less relevant as the GPU workload dominates at higher resolutions.

At 1080p, the CPU's influence is more evident: the Low preset hits 106 FPS, but the Ultra preset only reaches 59 FPS, a 47 FPS difference that is larger than at any other resolution. This implies that at 1080p Low, the CPU can drive the GPU to high frame rates, but at 1080p Ultra, the GPU's rendering load becomes the constraint. By 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that the CPU's role diminishes, and the settings delta shrinks to 28 FPS (63 Low to 35 Ultra).

The data shows this is a balanced pairing for 1080p and 1440p Medium play, but the 4K experience is strictly GPU-bound with Low settings being the only viable preset. The RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM and 320 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the game's needs at lower resolutions but become a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the 35 FPS average reflects the GPU's inability to process the increased pixel and texture loads.