Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i3-12100F compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i3-12100F posts an average benchmark score of 13516, which places it 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534), 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462), 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core i3-10105 (13430), and 1.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-7700K (13280). This puts the CPU in the 72nd percentile of all processors.

Q: What is the RTX 5060's standing among GPUs based on its average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 30109, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. It is effectively tied with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, 0% delta), runs 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 570 (30158), and sits 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla M60 (29969) and 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29928).

Q: What is the best 1080p result this combo achieves in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest average FPS at 1920x1080 is 128.7 FPS on Low settings. Medium delivers 100.5 FPS, High delivers 73.7 FPS, and Ultra delivers 72.4 FPS. All four settings produce playable frame rates at 1080p.

Q: Is the RTX 5060's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K in this game?

A: The data shows playable results at 3840x2160. At Ultra settings, the average FPS is 38.7, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Dropping to High yields 42.6 FPS, Medium yields 56.9 FPS, and Low yields 71.6 FPS. The 8 GB GDDR7 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears adequate for the Low and Medium presets at 4K.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded performance?

A: The i3-12100F scores 11912 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1681 in single-core, showing a roughly 7:1 ratio. In PassMark, multi-thread score is 14015 versus 3444 single-thread. The 3DMark scores show 4051 for 16 threads, 4026 for 8 threads, and 4023 for max threads, indicating the 4-core/8-thread design saturates quickly.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in this game's benchmark database?

A: This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 860 out of 1795 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it slightly above the middle of the field. This rank reflects the balance between the i3-12100F's 72nd CPU percentile and the RTX 5060's 73rd GPU percentile.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 brings 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock runs at 2280 MHz with a boost clock of 2497 MHz. The GPU is built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die, achieving a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s.

The 3840 shading units and 120 tensor cores handle the rendering workload in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The data shows that the GPU's capability is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, dropping from High to Low settings raises average FPS from 42.6 to 71.6, a substantial 29 FPS gain. This indicates that the RTX 5060's raw throughput, rated at 19.18 TFLOPS FP32, is being taxed heavily at 4K.

The GPU's 30 RT cores support DirectX 12 Ultimate, which the game can leverage, though the measured results suggest that traditional rasterization performance dominates the scores. The 8 GB VRAM capacity, while not massive by 2025 standards, proves sufficient for this title's asset streaming at 4K, as evidenced by playable Low settings at 71.6 FPS. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 20891 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 120785 place it in the 73rd percentile, confirming its mid-range positioning.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F provides 4 cores and 8 threads with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core feed the 10 nm Alder Lake architecture. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory via a dual-channel bus, though the benchmark results do not specify which memory type was used.

Single-threaded performance is strong: Cinebench R23 single-core scores 1681, and Geekbench single-core hits 2224. This matters for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which relies heavily on the main simulation thread. The PassMark single-thread score of 3444 and 3DMark single-thread score of 893 indicate the architecture's high IPC per core.

Multi-threaded results show the limitation of 4 physical cores: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 11912, and 3DMark 16-thread scores 4051, barely above the 8-thread score of 4026. The max-thread score of 4023 confirms that the CPU cannot scale beyond its 8 threads. In PassMark, the multi-thread score of 14015 and physics score of 985 reflect this constraint. The CPU's 58 W TDP and $97 launch MSRP position it as an entry-level part, yet its 72nd percentile ranking shows it punches above its class in simulation workloads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 128.7 FPS on Low, 100.5 FPS on Medium, 73.7 FPS on High, and 72.4 FPS on Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra is tiny (1.3 FPS), suggesting that the CPU begins to bottleneck the GPU at these settings, since the render load increase does not translate into a proportional FPS drop.

At 2560x1440, the results are 102.5 FPS on Low, 80.3 FPS on Medium, 59.3 FPS on High, and 55.0 FPS on Ultra. The transition from High to Ultra at 1440p costs only 4.3 FPS, again indicating a limiting factor beyond raw GPU throughput.

At 3840x2160, the scores drop to 71.6 FPS on Low, 56.9 FPS on Medium, 42.6 FPS on High, and 38.7 FPS on Ultra. Here, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with each settings tier producing a meaningful FPS step: 14.7 FPS from Low to Medium, 14.3 FPS from Medium to High, and 3.9 FPS from High to Ultra.

The data shows that the RTX 5060 maintains a 60+ FPS experience at 4K only on Low settings. At 1440p, Medium and below exceed 80 FPS, while High and Ultra stay above 55 FPS. At 1080p, all presets except Ultra deliver above 73 FPS, with Low and Medium comfortably above 100 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

Moving from 1080p to 1440p on Low settings, FPS drops from 128.7 to 102.5, a 20.4% reduction. From 1440p to 4K on Low, FPS drops to 71.6, a 30.1% reduction from the 1440p figure. On High settings, the scaling is steeper: 73.7 FPS at 1080p falls to 59.3 FPS at 1440p (19.5% drop) and then to 42.6 FPS at 4K (28.2% drop).

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p, the combo achieves 72.4 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 55.0 FPS (24% reduction). At 4K, it falls to 38.7 FPS, a 29.6% reduction from 1440p. This pattern reveals that the RTX 5060's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p but become stressed at 4K Ultra.

The scaling behavior indicates a mixed bottleneck. At 1080p, the i3-12100F's 4 cores limit the frame rate, as evidenced by the small difference between High (73.7 FPS) and Ultra (72.4 FPS) despite the heavier GPU load. At 4K, the GPU's 19.18 TFLOPS and 119.9 GPixel/s pixel rate become the ceiling, and the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU, as shown by the consistent FPS steps between settings.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p displays, Medium settings at 100.5 FPS deliver the best balance of visual quality and smoothness. High settings at 73.7 FPS are acceptable, but Ultra at 72.4 FPS offers only a marginal visual improvement over High for the same frame rate, making High the more efficient choice. Low at 128.7 FPS is only useful for competitive or minimum-input-lag scenarios.

At 1440p, Medium settings at 80.3 FPS provide the best experience, staying above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining visual fidelity. High at 59.3 FPS is playable but risks dropping below 60 FPS during dense scenery. Ultra at 55.0 FPS is not recommended for this resolution, as the 4.3 FPS gain over High does not justify the settings increase. Low at 102.5 FPS is smooth but sacrifices too much visual detail.

For 4K displays, the data recommends Low settings at 71.6 FPS as the only preset that maintains a smooth experience. Medium at 56.9 FPS is borderline, and High at 42.6 FPS or Ultra at 38.7 FPS will cause noticeable stutter during flight. The 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are the limiting factors here, so users seeking higher 4K quality should consider the RTX 5060's rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which scores identically in benchmarks but may offer different memory configurations.

Overall, the combo's sweet spot is 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium. The i3-12100F's strong single-thread performance handles the simulation logic well, while the RTX 5060 provides sufficient GPU power for these settings. The 860th rank out of 1795 combos reflects this mid-range positioning, offering a practical balance for flight sim enthusiasts on a budget.