Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator pairs a 6-core/12-thread Intel Core i5-10400F with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and the measured results reveal a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but shows signs of CPU limitation at 1080p. The RX 7900 XTX, with its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivers enormous bandwidth, while the i5-10400F’s 4.30 GHz boost clock and 12 MB of shared L3 cache provide adequate but not exceptional feeding power. This combination ranks 776th out of 3714 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 21% of all configurations, which is respectable given the CPU’s mid-range standing (68th percentile among all CPUs) paired with a GPU that sits at the 64th percentile.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that the Ultra preset is only marginally faster than High at every resolution, while demanding a significant performance cost. At 3840x2160, Ultra delivers 64 FPS average versus 67 FPS on High — a negligible 3 FPS difference that does not justify the extra graphical load. At 2560x1440, the gap widens slightly to 5 FPS (86 vs 91), and at 1920x1080 it is again 3 FPS (107 vs 110). In all cases, High provides nearly identical performance to Ultra, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional settings have minimal impact on this particular scene or that the system is already bottlenecked elsewhere. For the best experience, High is the recommended preset across all resolutions, as it captures essentially all of the visual fidelity of Ultra while offering a small but consistent FPS buffer.

The Medium preset, however, shows a different story. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 102 FPS, which is a substantial 22 FPS jump over High. At 2560x1440, Medium hits 114 FPS (min 97, max 131), and at 1920x1080 it reaches 123 FPS (min 104, max 141). If fluidity is the priority, Medium offers the best balance between visual quality and frame rate, particularly at 4K where the jump from High to Medium is 22 FPS versus only 3 FPS from High to Ultra. The Low preset provides the highest frame rates — 113 FPS at 4K, 125 FPS at 1440p, and 134 FPS at 1080p — but the visual downgrade is severe compared to Medium, which only costs 24 FPS at 4K and 11 FPS at 1440p. Given that Medium’s minimum frame rates (76 FPS at 4K) remain above the 60 FPS threshold, Medium is the safest recommendation for smooth gameplay without sacrificing too much detail.

FAQ

Q: Can this combination handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but barely. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 64 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target. However, the margin is thin, and any complex scenery or weather effects could push it below that threshold. High settings provide 67 FPS, offering a slightly safer buffer.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data indicates CPU limitation is emerging at 1920x1080. The FPS difference between Low (134 FPS) and Ultra (107 FPS) is only 27 FPS, whereas at 4K the difference is 49 FPS (113 vs 64). This compression of frame rates at lower resolutions suggests the i5-10400F is capping performance before the RX 7900 XTX can fully stretch its legs.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from High to Medium?

A: The gain is substantial at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, Medium is 22 FPS faster than High (89 vs 67). At 2560x1440, the gain is 23 FPS (114 vs 91). At 1920x1080, the gain is 13 FPS (123 vs 110). This makes Medium an attractive option for users prioritizing frame rate over maximum fidelity.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like on Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset shows a narrow band between minimum and maximum FPS. At 3840x2160, the range is 76 to 102 FPS (spread of 26 FPS). At 2560x1440, it is 97 to 131 FPS (spread of 34 FPS). At 1920x1080, it is 104 to 141 FPS (spread of 37 FPS). These ranges indicate reasonably stable performance without extreme dips.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 776th out of 3714 combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 21% of all tested systems. This is a strong showing, though not elite, reflecting the CPU’s mid-tier position relative to the GPU’s high-end capabilities.

Q: Does the RX 7900 XTX’s 24 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: The 24 GB GDDR6 memory with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures that VRAM capacity is never a bottleneck, even at 4K Ultra. However, the measured FPS data shows that performance is limited by compute and CPU feeding rather than memory, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings rather than hitting a VRAM wall.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that transitions from CPU-bound to GPU-bound as resolution increases. At 1080p High, the system averages 110 FPS; at 1440p High, it drops to 91 FPS (a 17% decrease); and at 4K High, it falls to 67 FPS (a 39% decrease from 1080p). This pattern is consistent with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the RX 7900 XTX’s rendering load scales with pixel count. The i5-10400F’s six cores are sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 1080p, but the GPU is not being fully utilized there — evidenced by the relatively small FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p (134 vs 107 FPS).

At 4K, the scaling behavior changes dramatically. The difference between Low (113 FPS) and Ultra (64 FPS) is 49 FPS, indicating the GPU is now the clear limiting factor. The RX 7900 XTX’s 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 479.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are being pushed hard at 3840x2160, and the CPU’s role diminishes. Interestingly, the 4K Low preset (113 FPS) is nearly as fast as the 1080p Ultra preset (107 FPS), showing that at 4K Low, the system still has headroom, but at 4K Ultra, it is firmly GPU-limited. The 1440p results sit in between: 125 FPS on Low, 114 FPS on Medium, 91 FPS on High, and 86 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1440p to 4K on Ultra is a 25% drop (86 to 64 FPS), which is less severe than the 28% drop from 1080p to 1440p on High (110 to 91 FPS), suggesting the GPU handles the 4K workload more gracefully than the CPU handles the 1080p workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across settings is as follows: Low delivers 134 FPS, Medium delivers 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 and a maximum of 141, High delivers 110 FPS, and Ultra delivers 107 FPS. The tight spread between High and Ultra (only 3 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are not taxing the GPU heavily, but the jump from Medium to High (13 FPS) is more pronounced. The minimum FPS on Medium (104 FPS) is only 3 FPS below the average for High, indicating that Medium provides a smoother experience in demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, Low hits 125 FPS, Medium averages 114 FPS (min 97, max 131), High averages 91 FPS, and Ultra averages 86 FPS. The gap between Medium and High (23 FPS) is significant, and the gap between High and Ultra (5 FPS) is small. The 1440p Medium minimum of 97 FPS remains well above 60 FPS, making it a strong choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 3840x2160, Low delivers 113 FPS, Medium averages 89 FPS (min 76, max 102), High averages 67 FPS, and Ultra averages 64 FPS. The drop from Medium to High (22 FPS) is the largest single-settings jump at any resolution, and the 4K Ultra average of 64 FPS is only 4 FPS above the 60 FPS target, leaving little headroom for complex scenes.

The data shows a consistent pattern: Medium is the sweet spot for frame rate, High and Ultra are nearly identical, and Low is only useful for maximum FPS at the cost of visual quality. The minimum FPS values are only provided for Medium settings, and they show that even at 4K, the system does not dip below 76 FPS, which is an excellent result for a flight simulator known for unpredictable scenery loads.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of an Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 776th out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 79th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong result, but it is notably lower than what the GPU alone might suggest, given that the RX 7900 XTX’s average benchmark score (19410) puts it in the 64th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (deltaPct 0.4) and NVIDIA TITAN Xp (deltaPct 1.2). The CPU’s average benchmark score (14185) places it in the 68th percentile, with nearest rivals like the Intel Xeon 6756E (deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (deltaPct -0.6).

The rank of 776 suggests that the i5-10400F is holding back the RX 7900 XTX in this title. If the GPU were paired with a stronger CPU, the combo rank would likely be higher, as the GPU has demonstrated it can deliver 134 FPS at 1080p Low, which is far above the 60 FPS target. However, the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to avoid severe bottlenecks, as evidenced by the 64 FPS result at 4K Ultra. The rank is respectable, but it is clear that this is a GPU-heavy pairing where the CPU is the weaker link. In a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for its complex CPU-bound simulation logic, a higher-core-count processor would likely improve the 1080p results and push the combo rank higher.

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. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 cache per core. Its memory bandwidth is 42.7 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 bus, and it supports PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 10283 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1451 in single-core, with a PassMark multithread score of 12115 and a single-thread score of 2541. These scores place it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, which is mid-range for modern processors.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU’s role is most apparent at 1080p, where the FPS differences between settings are compressed. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 134 (Low) to 107 (Ultra), a spread of only 27 FPS. This narrow range indicates that the CPU is limiting the maximum frame rate, as the GPU is capable of rendering more frames but is being held back by the processor’s ability to handle the game’s simulation logic. The 6 cores and 12 threads are adequate, but the 2.90 GHz base clock means that when all cores are active, the boost clock of 4.30 GHz may not be sustained, particularly in complex scenes with heavy AI and physics calculations. The 12 MB of L3 cache is shared across all cores, which helps with data sharing but is smaller than what higher-end CPUs offer.

At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s influence diminishes as the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent with GPU-bound behavior, and the CPU’s 68th percentile standing is not a liability at these resolutions. However, for users targeting high refresh rates at 1080p, the i5-10400F will cap performance, and a processor with higher single-thread performance or more cores would allow the RX 7900 XTX to reach its full potential. The CPU’s 65 W TDP is modest, and its 14 nm process means it runs cooler than newer chips, but the lack of an unlocked multiplier prevents overclocking to mitigate the bottleneck. Overall, the i5-10400F is a capable partner for the RX 7900 XTX at high resolutions, but it is the limiting factor at 1080p, and users should adjust their expectations accordingly.