Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator with Intel Core i5-10400F + AMD Radeon RX 7700

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 produces a balanced 1080p and 1440p experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with 4K remaining playable only at reduced settings. The combination ranks 1324th out of 2996 tested combos, placing it in the 44th percentile of all system configurations tested for this title. The data shows a system that delivers smooth performance at mainstream resolutions while revealing clear scaling limitations as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 256 KB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration, providing 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU supports PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes from the processor.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10283 and a single-core score of 1451. Geekbench results show 6257 multi-core and 1420 single-core. The CPU's percentile ranking against all CPUs is 68, indicating it outperforms roughly two-thirds of processors in the database. Its average benchmark score of 14185 places it within 0.2% of the Intel Xeon 6756E, 0.3% behind the Intel Core 7 160UL, 0.5% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7552, and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is primarily in handling flight model calculations, weather systems, and AI traffic. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock provides adequate single-thread performance for the simulation's core logic. The 3DMark results show a single-thread score of 688, scaling to 4748 with 16 threads, demonstrating strong multi-threading capability when the simulation leverages multiple cores. The Passmark physics score of 696 suggests the CPU handles the physics calculations typical of flight simulation without becoming a bottleneck at 1080p, where the measured FPS at High settings reaches 74.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process. It contains 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die. The GPU has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units, along with 40 ray tracing cores. Its base clock is 1900 MHz, with a game clock of 2041 MHz and a boost clock of 2459 MHz. Memory configuration is 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth at an effective memory speed of 19.5 Gbps.

The GPU's benchmark performance shows a Passmark G3D score of 20974 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 106028. In terms of compute capability, it delivers 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The GPU's percentile ranking against all GPUs is 58, and its average benchmark score of 15852 places it 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 370X, 1% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9060, 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500, and 1.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.

For flight simulation, the GPU handles terrain rendering, aircraft exteriors, and cockpit instrumentation. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is substantial for this title, which loads extensive texture data for scenery. The measured FPS data shows the GPU's capability scaling with resolution. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 126 FPS, while at 4K Low, it drops to 75 FPS. The pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s support the rendering demands of dense scenery areas. The GPU's 96 ROPs help maintain fill rates at higher resolutions, though the data indicates diminishing returns as pixel count increases.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals clear settings tiers for optimal experience across resolutions. At 1080p, the Medium preset provides an average of 98 FPS with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 113, offering the best balance of smoothness and visual fidelity. The High preset at 1080p yields 74 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 70 FPS. The Low preset achieves 126 FPS but sacrifices visual quality unnecessarily.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 and maximum of 91, remaining above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth simulation. High at 1440p produces 60 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 57 FPS. For 1440p users, Medium represents the sweet spot, providing headroom above 60 FPS while maintaining acceptable visual detail.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS average. Medium delivers 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 and maximum of 67, while Low achieves 75 FPS. High and Ultra both fall below 45 FPS. For 4K displays, the Low preset at 75 FPS provides the most playable experience, though users may prefer Medium at 59 FPS if they prioritize visual quality over the small FPS margin. The data suggests that 4K users should accept either reduced settings or lower frame rates, as the GPU cannot sustain 60 FPS at higher settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers an average of 98 FPS with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 113, providing the best combination of performance and visual quality. High achieves 74 FPS, and Ultra drops to 70 FPS, while Low reaches 126 FPS but with reduced visual detail.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, at 2560x1440 the Medium preset achieves 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS. The High preset averages exactly 60 FPS, while Ultra falls slightly below at 57 FPS. Low reaches 102 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with the RX 7700 in this title?

A: At 3840x2160, only the Low preset exceeds 60 FPS, achieving 75 FPS. Medium averages 59 FPS with a range of 50 to 67 FPS. High and Ultra produce 44 FPS and 42 FPS respectively, making them less suitable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance impact flight simulation?

A: The i5-10400F scores 10283 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4748 in 3DMark 16-thread tests. This 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock provides sufficient processing power for flight model calculations and weather simulation without bottlenecking the GPU at 1080p and 1440p.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the measured minimum FPS values are 84 at 1080p, 67 at 1440p, and 50 at 4K. The corresponding maximum values are 113, 91, and 67 respectively, indicating moderate frame time variance that remains within acceptable bounds for simulation gameplay.

Q: Where does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This system ranks 1324th out of 2996 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the upper-middle range of all configurations in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows how system performance scales across resolutions, revealing the balance between CPU and GPU limitations. Starting at 1080p Low with 126 FPS, the system drops to 102 FPS at 1440p Low and 75 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 19% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 40% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 98 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 59 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 19%, while the drop to 4K is 40%. High settings show 74 FPS at 1080p, 60 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K, with reductions of 19% and 41% respectively. Ultra settings follow the same pattern: 70 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K.

The consistent ~19% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and ~40% reduction from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The pixel count increases from 2.07 million at 1080p to 3.69 million at 1440p (a 78% increase), yet FPS drops only 19%, suggesting some CPU limitation at 1080p that becomes less prominent at higher resolutions. The 4K pixel count of 8.29 million represents a 300% increase over 1080p, yet FPS drops only 40%, indicating that the simulator's rendering workload does not scale linearly with pixel count. The GPU's 16 GB VRAM and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth appear sufficient to handle the texture loads at all resolutions, as the scaling pattern remains consistent across settings presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 126 FPS. Medium settings produce 98 FPS average with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 113, providing consistent frame delivery. High settings yield 74 FPS average, and Ultra produces 70 FPS average. The spread between Low and Ultra is 56 FPS, indicating substantial performance headroom from settings adjustments.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong. Low settings achieve 102 FPS average. Medium delivers 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 and maximum of 91. High produces 60 FPS average, and Ultra achieves 57 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 45 FPS, and the Medium preset remains the only one with a recorded minimum above 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, performance drops significantly. Low settings achieve 75 FPS average. Medium produces 59 FPS average with a minimum of 50 and maximum of 67. High delivers 44 FPS average, and Ultra achieves 42 FPS average. The difference between Low and Ultra is 33 FPS, and no preset maintains a consistent 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K produces approximately one-third of the FPS of the Low preset at 1080p.

The data shows diminishing returns from settings changes at higher resolutions. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 56 FPS. At 1440p, the same settings change costs 45 FPS. At 4K, it costs only 33 FPS. This indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU's rendering workload is dominated by pixel processing rather than settings-dependent effects, reducing the relative impact of quality presets.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 ranks 1324th out of 2996 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it at approximately the 44th percentile of all configurations. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking and GPU's 58th percentile ranking individually suggest that the combo performs slightly below what either component's standalone percentile would predict, likely due to the simulation's demanding nature on both processor and graphics resources simultaneously.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score show tight competition: the Intel Xeon 6756E scores 14163 (0.2% behind), the Intel Core 7 160UL scores 14232 (0.3% ahead), the AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115 (0.5% behind), and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277 (0.6% ahead). These small percentage differences indicate the i5-10400F sits in a competitive mid-range performance band.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 370X at 15862 (0.1% behind), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 at 16014 (1% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 at 15679 (1.1% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at 16129 (1.7% ahead). The RX 7700's position among these rivals shows it performs within a narrow band of mid-range graphics cards, with no rival more than 1.7% different in average benchmark score.

The combo's rank of 1324 out of 2996 indicates that while this system is not at the top tier for flight simulation, it outperforms a majority of tested configurations. The measured FPS data supports this positioning: at 1080p Medium, it achieves 98 FPS, which is well above playable thresholds. At 1440p Medium, 79 FPS remains smooth. Only at 4K with higher settings does the system fall below 60 FPS, and even then, the Low preset at 75 FPS provides a viable option. This places the combo firmly in the capable mid-range category for Microsoft Flight Simulator, suitable for mainstream resolution gaming with high settings.