Microsoft Flight Simulator

The benchmark data for Microsoft Flight Simulator on the Intel Core i5-10400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti reveals a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution, with the CPU providing a solid but secondary foundation. The measured results show a clear hierarchy where the GPU's immense power is often the deciding factor, yet the CPU's capabilities set the ceiling for maximum frame rates at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and performance, with the "High" preset emerging as the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, High delivers 96.3 FPS, which is only slightly below the 125.2 FPS of Medium but offers a substantial visual upgrade. The jump to Ultra at 1080p yields 93.1 FPS, a mere 3.2 FPS drop from High, suggesting that for users prioritizing image quality, Ultra is a viable option at this resolution without a significant performance penalty.

Moving to 2560x1440, the High preset produces 77.4 FPS, which remains comfortably playable. The Medium preset offers a notable boost to 103.7 FPS, but the visual compromise may not be worth the 26.3 FPS gain for most users. Ultra at 1440p drops to 75.1 FPS, only 2.3 FPS behind High, making High the superior choice as it provides nearly identical performance with less demand on the system. At 3840x2160, High achieves 56 FPS, which is smooth for a flight simulator, while Ultra falls to 52.2 FPS. The gap between Medium (72 FPS) and High (56 FPS) is significant, but High remains the sweet spot for a balance of detail and fluidity.

Data suggests that "High" is the optimal preset for this combination, as it consistently provides the best frame rate-to-quality ratio. The Ultra preset offers diminishing returns, with only minor FPS differences compared to High at 1080p and 1440p, but a more pronounced drop at 4K. For users with high refresh rate monitors, the Medium preset at 1440p (103.7 FPS) or Low at 1080p (132 FPS) might be preferable, but for general play, High is recommended.

FAQ

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The data shows a difference of 38.9 FPS, with Low achieving 132 FPS and Ultra reaching 93.1 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a significant load on the system, reducing performance by about 30% compared to Low.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K resolution with the High preset?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is 56. This suggests that the combination of the RTX 3080 Ti and Core i5-10400F can handle 4K gaming, but frame rates are not optimal for fast-paced action, making it more suited for the slower-paced gameplay of a flight simulator.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more of a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data implies that the GPU is less of a limiting factor at 1080p, as the FPS difference between Low (132 FPS) and High (96.3 FPS) is large. This suggests the CPU's performance, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, may be a more significant constraint when trying to achieve very high frame rates at this resolution.

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at the Medium preset?

A: The average FPS drops from 125.2 at 1080p to 72 at 4K, a decrease of 53.2 FPS. This substantial drop highlights the heavy reliance on the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power as resolution increases.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti's performance compare to its nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41224, which is 0.5% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090's score of 41441. This indicates that the two cards are very closely matched in synthetic tests, with the 3080 Ti trailing by a negligible margin.

Q: What is the system's overall rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 533 out of 1795 tested combinations. This places it in the top 30% of all systems, indicating that it is a high-performance pairing, though not at the very top of the leaderboard.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 384-bit bus width providing a massive 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams vast amounts of terrain and scenery data. The GPU's 10240 shading units and 80 RT cores, based on the Ampere architecture, are built to handle complex rendering tasks. Its boost clock of 1665 MHz and base clock of 1365 MHz are modest, but the sheer number of cores compensates, delivering 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

The data shows that the GPU's performance is directly tied to resolution. At 4K, the GPU is heavily taxed, with the High preset yielding only 56 FPS. This is a significant drop from the 96.3 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power are the primary factors at higher resolutions. The GPU's percentile rank of 83 against all other GPUs confirms its high-end status. Its average benchmark score of 41224 is only 0.5% below the RTX 3090, showing that it is a top-tier card despite being slightly behind the flagship. The GPU’s role here is to provide the necessary headroom for high-detail rendering, and the benchmark results show it performs admirably, though not without limits at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti achieves a rank of 533 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 70th percentile of all systems, indicating a strong performance that is better than the majority of tested configurations. The rank reflects a balance between the CPU’s mid-range capabilities and the GPU’s high-end power. The CPU, with an average benchmark score of 14168, ranks in the 73rd percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU’s score of 41224 places it in the 83rd percentile against all GPUs.

This disparity suggests that the CPU is the weaker link in this pairing. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7552 with a score of 14115, are only 0.4% behind, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C is 0.8% ahead. This shows that the i5-10400F is comparable to other mid-range processors. However, the GPU is nearly on par with the RTX 3090, which is a top-tier card. The ranking of 533 out of 1795 suggests that while the GPU can push high frame rates, the CPU may hold back performance in scenarios that are more dependent on single-threaded or lightly threaded tasks, which are common in flight simulators.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear trend of decreasing performance as resolution increases, which is expected given the GPU's workload. From 1080p to 1440p at the High preset, the average FPS drops from 96.3 to 77.4, a decrease of 18.9 FPS (about 19.6%). From 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops further to 56, another decrease of 21.4 FPS (about 27.6%). This scaling pattern shows that the performance penalty is not linear, with a more substantial drop at higher resolutions.

This behavior points to the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU is better able to feed the GPU, but at 4K, the GPU’s processing power and memory bandwidth are fully utilized. The difference between Low and Ultra settings also scales with resolution. At 1080p, the gap is 38.9 FPS, while at 4K, the gap narrows to 43.4 FPS (from 95.6 to 52.2). This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU is more of a limiting factor, while at higher resolutions, the GPU’s limits are more apparent. The data indicates that for this game, the system is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where it can achieve high frame rates with high settings, but at 4K, users must accept lower settings or frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 132 for Low, 125.2 for Medium, 96.3 for High, and 93.1 for Ultra. The difference between Low and Medium is 6.8 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is more pronounced at 28.9 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra is minimal at 3.2 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset at 1080p offers little performance cost for the visual improvement.

At 2560x1440, the values are 123.7 for Low, 103.7 for Medium, 77.4 for High, and 75.1 for Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 20 FPS, and from Medium to High is 26.3 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is again small at 2.3 FPS. At 3840x2160, the values are 95.6 for Low, 72 for Medium, 56 for High, and 52.2 for Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 23.6 FPS, and from Medium to High is 16 FPS. High to Ultra shows a 3.8 FPS difference.

The data shows that the performance penalty for increasing settings is not uniform across resolutions. At 1080p, the Low to Medium transition is small, but at 4K, it is larger. This suggests that the GPU is more sensitive to settings changes at higher resolutions, where its resources are more strained. The overall pattern is that the system can achieve high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with any preset, but at 4K, users must choose between lower settings for smoother gameplay or higher settings for better visuals.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide adequate bandwidth for most tasks. Its benchmark scores, such as 10297 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1453 in single-core, indicate a solid mid-range performer. The CPU's percentile rank of 73 against all CPUs shows it is above average but not exceptional.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and AI, which can be demanding. The data suggests that the CPU is capable of sustaining high frame rates at 1080p, as evidenced by the 132 FPS on Low settings. However, the CPU's performance ceiling appears to be around 132 FPS, as even at 1080p Low, the frame rate does not go higher. This indicates that the CPU is a limiting factor when trying to achieve extremely high frame rates. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-8500 with a score of 14332, are only 1.1% higher, showing that the i5-10400F is well-matched with other mid-range CPUs. The boost clock of 4.30 GHz is sufficient for the game's single-threaded tasks, but the 6-core limit may be a bottleneck in more complex scenarios with heavy AI or multiplayer interactions.