Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 reveals a clear progression as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 155 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 125 FPS, a reduction of 30 FPS. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 92 FPS. This scaling pattern—roughly a 20% hit from 1080p to 1440p and another 26% from 1440p to 4K at Low settings—indicates that even at the lowest quality preset, the rendering load grows substantially with pixel count.

The High settings curve tells a similar story. At 1080p High, the average is 91 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 73 FPS, and at 4K High, it reaches 54 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K at High settings is 37 FPS, which is a 41% reduction. This is a steeper relative decline than the Low settings curve, suggesting that the higher quality preset amplifies the resolution penalty. The Ultra preset follows the same pattern: 86 FPS at 1080p, 70 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K.

The Medium settings data includes min and max FPS values, which provide additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 121 FPS with a minimum of 103 and maximum of 139. At 1440p Medium, the average is 97 FPS with a range of 83 to 112. At 4K Medium, the average is 72 FPS with a range of 61 to 83. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS narrows slightly as resolution increases—36 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 22 FPS at 4K. This tightening range suggests that frame time consistency improves at higher resolutions, likely because the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck and its workload is more uniform.

The limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU has more headroom to feed frames, and the 155 FPS Low result shows the combo can push high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily taxed. At 4K, the GPU workload dominates, and the 92 FPS Low versus 51 FPS Ultra delta of 41 FPS demonstrates that settings have a larger impact than resolution alone. The data shows that this pairing is playable at all tested resolutions, but the 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS sits right at the edge of smooth gameplay, while 1080p Low at 155 FPS leaves substantial performance on the table for competitive or high-refresh displays.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock is 2.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The CPU has a 12 MB shared L3 cache, with 80 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core. This is a desktop-class chip with a 65 W TDP, and it supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The processor is unlocked? No—the multiplier is locked, and it has no integrated graphics.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-11400F posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14340 and a single-core score of 2024. Its Geekbench scores are 7737 multicore and 1777 single-core. The 3DMark results show scaling from 868 single-thread to 5652 max-threads, with 5619 at 16 threads. This scaling pattern indicates that the CPU gains meaningful performance from additional threads, but the gains taper off after 8 threads (4691) to max threads (5652). The PassMark multithread score is 16908, with a single-thread score of 2981.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the i5-11400F sits within a tight band. The AMD EPYC 7H12 scores 17120, just 0.3% lower. The Intel Core i5-12450H scores 17239, 0.4% higher. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G scores 17278, 0.6% higher, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U scores 17074, 0.6% lower. This means the i5-11400F is effectively in a dead heat with these processors on average benchmark score, despite being an older architecture. Its percentile versus all CPUs is 71, indicating it outperforms the majority of tested processors.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU role is evident in the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the 155 FPS average shows the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck. The drop to 91 FPS at 1080p High—a 64 FPS reduction—suggests that the game's simulation logic and scenery processing load the CPU more heavily at higher settings. The 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to maintain playable frame rates across all settings, but the data shows that the CPU does not prevent the GPU from becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The locked multiplier means no overclocking headroom, but the boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides adequate single-thread performance for this flight simulator, which typically relies on strong per-core performance for its physics and AI computations.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 4 nm process. It packs 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. The GPU has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 raster operation units, along with 56 ray tracing cores. Its base clock is 1330 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's FP32 performance is 36.13 TFLOPS, with matching FP16 at a 1:1 ratio. The pixel rate is 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate is 564.5 GTexel/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9070 achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 131539, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 58705. The PassMark G3D score is 25381, with a GPU compute score of 14737. Its percentile versus all GPUs is 69. The nearest rivals show a tight grouping: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z scores 23736 (0.6% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S scores 24063 (0.8% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile scores 23628 (1.1% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER scores 24170 (1.2% higher). This places the RX 9070 in the upper-midrange tier of the GPU benchmark database.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role scales with resolution and settings. At 4K, the difference between Low (92 FPS) and Ultra (51 FPS) is 41 FPS, showing that the GPU is heavily taxed by the highest quality preset. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's texture requirements at 4K, as there is no indication of memory-related stuttering in the min FPS data. At 1080p Low, the 155 FPS average suggests the GPU is not the limiting factor; the CPU or other system components cap the frame rate. The 20.1 Gbps effective memory speed and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth provide ample data throughput for the game's world streaming, which is a common bottleneck in flight simulators that load large scenery areas. The boost clock of 2520 MHz contributes to the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at 1440p, where the data shows 125 FPS at Low and 73 FPS at High.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 1098 out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 30% of all tested pairings. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU: the i5-11400F is a mid-range processor from 2021, while the RX 9070 is a current-generation GPU from 2025. The combination outperforms many older or lower-tier pairings but sits below top-end systems with higher-core-count CPUs or flagship GPUs.

The data shows that the combo's performance is more GPU-limited than CPU-limited at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the 51 FPS average is respectable but not exceptional for a modern GPU, suggesting that the CPU may be holding back the RX 9070 in the most demanding scenarios. Conversely, at 1080p Low, the 155 FPS result indicates the GPU has headroom that the CPU cannot fully utilize. This imbalance is typical for a pairing where the CPU is several generations older than the GPU. The rank of 1098 out of 3714 suggests that there are 1097 combos that perform better, but also 2616 that perform worse. For a flight simulator, which is known for being CPU-intensive due to its complex simulation logic, the i5-11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads prove adequate, but not exceptional.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K?

A: Yes. The measured data shows 54 FPS average at 4K High and 51 FPS at 4K Ultra. At 4K Medium, the average is 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS, indicating playable performance across all settings.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 73 FPS average, while Ultra delivers 70 FPS. Medium delivers 97 FPS with a range of 83 to 112 FPS. The data suggests High or Ultra are viable for visually rich gameplay, while Medium offers higher frame rates.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F scores 17177 average, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120), 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239), 0.6% lower than the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278), and 0.6% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074).

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth. The measured FPS data shows no min FPS anomalies at 4K, suggesting the VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's texture and scenery data.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 155 FPS average, while Ultra delivers 86 FPS. This is a difference of 69 FPS, indicating that graphics settings have a significant impact on performance at this resolution.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1098 out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 30% of all tested pairings, with 2616 combos ranking below it.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings produce 155 FPS, Medium settings produce 121 FPS with a minimum of 103 and maximum of 139, High settings produce 91 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 86 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 69 FPS, showing that settings have a substantial impact on performance.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low at 125 FPS, Medium at 97 FPS with a range of 83 to 112, High at 73 FPS, and Ultra at 70 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 55 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p but still significant. The Medium preset's minimum of 83 FPS indicates that even the lowest frame rates remain above 60 FPS, providing a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low at 92 FPS, Medium at 72 FPS with a range of 61 to 83, High at 54 FPS, and Ultra at 51 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 41 FPS, the smallest of the three resolutions. The Medium preset's minimum of 61 FPS shows that frame rates dip below 60 FPS, which may be noticeable in a flight simulator with its slow, deliberate camera movements. The Ultra preset at 51 FPS is the lowest measured result, but it remains playable for a simulation genre that does not require twitch-reflex frame rates.

Across all resolutions and settings, the combo shows a consistent pattern: Low settings always exceed 90 FPS, Medium settings stay above 60 FPS minimum, High settings remain above 50 FPS, and Ultra settings never drop below 51 FPS. This range of results makes the combo versatile for different display resolutions and quality preferences, with the 1440p Medium and High presets offering the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth performance.