Microsoft Flight Simulator

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a playable experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, but the data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by resolution and settings. The measured frame rates show a clear pattern: performance scales dramatically with both resolution and quality presets, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary limiting factor at higher loads, while the i5-10400F keeps pace adequately at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data shows a steep performance curve as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 112.7 FPS, which drops to 89.3 FPS at 1440p and further to 65 FPS at 4K. This represents a 42% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, a substantial hit that points to the GPU being pushed harder as pixel count rises. The scaling is not linear, however, which suggests the CPU is still contributing meaningfully at the lower resolution end.

Moving to High settings, the frame rates are 67.3 FPS at 1080p, 53 FPS at 1440p, and 39.6 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 21%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 25%. This relatively consistent percentage decline indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER is handling the resolution scaling without hitting a hard CPU bottleneck, but the absolute numbers at 4K are clearly below the 60 FPS threshold that many users would consider smooth.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story but with lower absolute values. At 1080p, the combo manages 64 FPS, which is still playable, but at 1440p it falls to 46.4 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 38.5 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 3.3 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional visual fidelity comes at a relatively small cost at this resolution. However, at 4K, the Ultra preset yields 38.5 FPS versus 39.6 FPS on High, a negligible difference that implies the GPU is already saturated and the extra settings have little headroom to work with.

What the data reveals about the limiting component is nuanced. At 1080p Low, the 112.7 FPS figure indicates that the i5-10400F is capable of feeding the GPU at a high rate, but the CPU's 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock is not the primary constraint here. The RTX 2070 SUPER, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases. The 4K Low figure of 65 FPS versus 1080p Low at 112.7 FPS shows the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being taxed heavily, while the CPU maintains enough throughput to avoid becoming the limiting factor until the frame rate exceeds roughly 100 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's position in the broader tested landscape is documented by the comboRankInGame field, which places this configuration at rank 1076 out of 1795 tested combos. This means the i5-10400F and RTX 2070 SUPER combination sits in the top 40% of all tested systems for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is a respectable showing given the game's reputation for being demanding on both CPU and GPU resources.

To contextualize this rank, consider the individual component percentiles. The CPU has a percentileVsAllCpus of 73, meaning it outperforms 73% of all CPUs in the database, while the GPU has a percentileVsAllGpus of 65, outperforming 65% of all GPUs. The combo rank of 1076 out of 1795 is slightly lower than what either percentile alone would suggest, which indicates that the pairing is not perfectly balanced for this specific game. The CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU, and in Microsoft Flight Simulator, where the rendering engine can be heavily GPU-bound at high settings, the RTX 2070 SUPER is likely holding the combo back from a higher rank.

The nearestRivals data for the CPU shows it is closely matched with processors like the AMD EPYC 7552 (deltaPct of 0.4) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (deltaPct of -0.8). These are not direct gaming competitors, but the small deltas indicate that the i5-10400F's average benchmark score of 14168 is well within the noise of its immediate peers. For the GPU, the nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX A400 with a deltaPct of -0.5, meaning the RTX 2070 SUPER's average score of 22206 is nearly identical to that professional card. The RTX 4060 Mobile is 2.3% ahead, while the GTX TITAN Z is 0.9% behind, showing that the desktop RTX 2070 SUPER remains competitive in raw compute terms.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER's specifications are directly relevant to its performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The card has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game's texture streaming requirements, but the data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls to 38.5, which suggests the memory subsystem is being pushed near its limits. The 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs provide the raw pixel throughput, rated at 113.3 GPixel/s, which is what allows the card to maintain playable frame rates at 1440p but not at 4K with maximum settings.

The clocks are also a factor. The base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz are modestly high, but the card's FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS is what determines the shader workload capacity. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, which relies heavily on draw calls and complex geometry for terrain and aircraft models, this compute throughput is the primary driver of frame rate at lower resolutions. The 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in this title, as the game's rendering path does not heavily employ ray tracing or DLSS in the measured presets.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 22206 places it at the 65th percentile of all GPUs, which aligns with its measured performance in this game. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651 and the Passmark G3D score of 18169 are both indicative of a mid-to-high range card that can handle 1440p gaming well but struggles at 4K with demanding titles. In this specific game, the 4K Medium result of 50.4 FPS shows that the card has enough headroom to run at a moderate preset, but the Ultra preset at 38.5 FPS confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at the highest resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The data shows that 1080p is the most consistent resolution, with all presets except Ultra exceeding 64 FPS. At 1440p, only the Low preset (89.3 FPS) and Medium preset (72 FPS) provide smooth frame rates, while the High preset at 53 FPS is borderline.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 4K?

A: At 4K, the Ultra preset yields 38.5 FPS versus 39.6 FPS for High, a difference of only 1.1 FPS. This negligible gap indicates that the GPU is fully saturated at 4K, and the extra visual fidelity of Ultra does not meaningfully impact performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 112.7 FPS, which is high enough that the i5-10400F's 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 4.30 GHz boost clock is likely the limiting factor. The CPU's average benchmark score of 14168 places it above 73% of all CPUs, but at this low GPU load, the CPU's single-thread performance becomes the constraint.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems?

A: The comboRankInGame field places this configuration at rank 1076 out of 1795 tested combos, which is in the top 40% of all systems tested for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rival, the RTX A400?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 22206, while the RTX A400 scores 22307, a deltaPct of -0.5. This means the two cards are essentially equivalent in raw performance, though the RTX A400 is a professional card with different software optimizations.

Q: What is the lowest measured frame rate for this combo?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 38.5 at 4K with Ultra settings. The highest is 112.7 at 1080p with Low settings, showing a wide performance range across the tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for this combo depends on the target resolution. At 1080p, the High preset at 67.3 FPS provides a smooth experience with good visual fidelity, while the Medium preset at 85 FPS offers higher headroom for complex scenes. The Ultra preset at 64 FPS is still playable but offers only marginal visual gains over High for a 3.3 FPS cost.

For 1440p, the Medium preset at 72 FPS is the clear recommendation, as it delivers smooth frame rates while the High preset at 53 FPS may feel less fluid during dense terrain flyovers. The Low preset at 89.3 FPS is an option for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, but the visual downgrade is significant. The Ultra preset at 46.4 FPS is borderline and not recommended for consistent playability.

At 4K, the data shows a stark choice. The Low preset at 65 FPS is the only configuration that achieves a consistently smooth frame rate, while Medium at 50.4 FPS is acceptable for slower flight phases but may feel choppy during fast maneuvers. The High preset at 39.6 FPS and Ultra at 38.5 FPS are both below the 40 FPS threshold and should be avoided unless the user prioritizes visual quality over smoothness. The 4K Medium preset is the best compromise, offering a 50.4 FPS average that remains playable while retaining more visual detail than Low.

The overall recommendation is to target 1080p High or 1440p Medium for the best balance of quality and performance. At 4K, users should accept the Low preset as the practical maximum for smooth gameplay, or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p to unlock higher settings without sacrificing frame rate.