Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — Intel Core i5-11400F + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a performance profile in Microsoft Flight Simulator that is heavily dictated by resolution and graphics preset. With measured average frame rates spanning from 53.7 FPS at 4K Ultra to 157.1 FPS at 1080p Low, the data indicates a system where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU's six-core architecture increasingly matters at lower resolutions and reduced settings. The RX 9070 XT, built on RDNA 4.0 architecture with 4096 shading units and a 256-bit memory bus delivering 644.6 GB/s bandwidth, demonstrates substantial headroom when paired with the 11th-generation Core i5 processor, though the overall combo ranks in the 28th percentile among all tested pairings for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent and predictable pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly by settings tier. At Low settings, moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 reduces average FPS from 157.1 to 129.1, a decline of approximately 28 frames per second. Pushing further to 3840x2160 drops the average to 94.6 FPS, meaning the 4K Low result is roughly 60% of the 1080p Low figure. This scaling behavior suggests that at Low settings, the system retains enough GPU headroom that the resolution increase still yields playable frame rates, with the CPU's 12 threads and 4.40 GHz boost clock helping sustain performance.

At Ultra settings, the resolution scaling curve steepens considerably. The 1080p Ultra average of 88.9 FPS falls to 72.6 FPS at 1440p, then to 53.7 FPS at 4K — a cumulative reduction of about 40% from 1080p to 4K. This pattern indicates that at Ultra presets, the Radeon RX 9070 XT becomes the limiting component, as the increased pixel workload and richer graphical effects overwhelm the GPU's capacity. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 48.66 TFLOPS FP32 throughput are sufficient for 1440p Ultra, but 4K Ultra demands more than the card can deliver for a smooth 60 FPS experience.

Medium and High settings exhibit intermediate scaling behavior. High settings drop from 96.2 FPS at 1080p to 76.8 FPS at 1440p and 56.9 FPS at 4K, while Medium goes from 125.1 FPS at 1080p to 99.4 at 1440p and 76.1 at 4K. The High preset at 4K just barely misses the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that the combination of the i5-11400F's single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2029) and the GPU's rasterization capabilities is close to adequate for high-fidelity flight simulation at 4K, but not quite sufficient for consistent smoothness.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 510th out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 28th percentile of all pairings in the benchmark database. This rank reflects the measured average FPS across all resolution and settings configurations, weighted toward the demanding nature of this flight simulator. The relatively modest ranking is notable given the hardware involved — the RX 9070 XT alone sits in the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, while the Core i5-11400F ranks in the 75th percentile among all CPUs.

The discrepancy between individual component rankings and the combined system ranking highlights how game-specific optimization and the CPU-heavy nature of flight simulation affect overall performance. In the GPU benchmark suite, the RX 9070 XT's average score of 39647 places it within 0.6% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (score 39879) and 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (score 39568). The CPU's average benchmark score of 17181 is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta) and within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-1260P (17212).

The 510th rank out of 1795 combos suggests that while this pairing delivers solid frame rates in absolute terms, many other configurations achieve higher performance in this specific title. Flight simulators often favor processors with higher single-thread performance, and the i5-11400F's 2029 Cinebench R23 single-core score, while respectable, does not lead the field. The GPU's 82nd percentile ranking indicates it is not the bottleneck for the combo's overall position; rather, the combination's rank reflects the demanding CPU requirements of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

FAQ

Q: What is the best 4K performance achievable with this combo?

A: According to the measured data, the highest 4K average FPS is 94.6 at Low settings. At Ultra settings, the 4K average drops to 53.7 FPS, which falls just short of the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU's core configuration impact this game?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F features 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost up to 4.40 GHz. Benchmark results show strong multi-threaded capability (Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372) and moderate single-thread performance (2029 in the same test), which is relevant for a flight simulator that often relies on single-threaded physics and rendering logic.

Q: Does the RX 9070 XT's memory bandwidth matter for 4K performance?

A: The GPU's 256-bit memory bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth across 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. The 4K Ultra result of 53.7 FPS suggests that at maximum settings, the memory subsystem and compute units are both stressed, but the most significant FPS gains come from reducing settings rather than relying on memory headroom.

Q: What settings tier offers the best balance for 1440p gaming?

A: At 2560x1440, the measured averages are 129.1 FPS (Low), 99.4 FPS (Medium), 76.8 FPS (High), and 72.6 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset delivers nearly 100 FPS, which is comfortably above display refresh rates of most monitors, while High offers a 4 FPS improvement over Ultra with likely minor visual differences.

Q: How does this combo compare to the GPU's nearest rivals?

A: The RX 9070 XT's average benchmark score of 39647 is within 0.6% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (39879) and 0.2% of the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568). However, in-game performance may differ from synthetic benchmarks due to driver optimization and workload characteristics.

Q: Is 1080p Ultra a viable configuration for this hardware?

A: Yes, the measured 1080p Ultra average of 88.9 FPS indicates that this combination can handle maximum settings at 1080p with substantial margin above 60 FPS. The 1080p Low result of 157.1 FPS shows significant headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors at reduced settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings yields the following average frame rates: Low at 157.1 FPS, Medium at 125.1 FPS, High at 96.2 FPS, and Ultra at 88.9 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is only 7.3 FPS, which is the smallest difference between adjacent settings at this resolution, indicating diminishing returns from the highest preset at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 129.1 FPS (Low), 99.4 FPS (Medium), 76.8 FPS (High), and 72.6 FPS (Ultra). The transition from Low to Medium costs approximately 30 FPS, while the Medium-to-High drop is about 23 FPS. The High-to-Ultra penalty is only 4.2 FPS, suggesting that Ultra at 1440p is nearly as efficient as High in terms of performance cost.

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are 94.6 FPS (Low), 76.1 FPS (Medium), 56.9 FPS (High), and 53.7 FPS (Ultra). This resolution shows the most dramatic setting sensitivity: Low to Medium costs 18.5 FPS, Medium to High costs 19.2 FPS, and High to Ultra costs only 3.2 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 53.7 FPS is the lowest measured value across all configurations, while 4K Low at 94.6 FPS remains highly playable.

Comparing resolution scaling at each settings tier: at Low, 1080p to 1440p costs 28 FPS (17.8% reduction), and 1440p to 4K costs 34.5 FPS (26.7% reduction). At Ultra, 1080p to 1440p costs 16.3 FPS (18.3% reduction), and 1440p to 4K costs 18.9 FPS (26.0% reduction). The consistency of percentage drops across settings indicates that resolution scaling follows a similar pattern regardless of preset, with the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth being the primary factors.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F, based on Rocket Lake architecture and manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process, provides 6 cores and 12 threads with a 65 W TDP. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz boosts to 4.40 GHz, and the processor supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The L3 cache is 12 MB shared, with 80 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core. The 3DMark benchmark results show a progression from 1691 (2 threads) to 5652 (max threads), indicating reasonable scaling across the 12 threads.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is most evident when examining the difference between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (157.1 FPS) and Ultra (88.9 FPS) is 68.2 FPS, which is larger than the gap at 4K between Low (94.6 FPS) and Ultra (53.7 FPS) of 40.9 FPS. This suggests that at lower resolutions, where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU's performance ceiling becomes more relevant. The 157.1 FPS at 1080p Low approaches the practical limit of what this processor can feed to the GPU in this game.

The Cinebench R23 scores of 14372 (multicore) and 2029 (single-core) provide context for the CPU's capability in flight simulation, which typically benefits from strong single-thread performance for main loop logic and terrain rendering. The single-thread score places the i5-11400F in a competitive position, though not at the top tier. The passmark single-thread score of 2981 and multithread score of 16908 reinforce this picture. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 and 8-thread score of 4691 show that performance scales with thread count, which helps when the simulator can utilize additional cores for scenery generation and AI traffic.

The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 17181, places it close to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, -0.2% delta). This indicates that in synthetic workloads, the i5-11400F performs on par with these mobile-oriented competitors, but in a desktop flight simulation context, its six physical cores and higher boost clock contribute to the measured FPS results. The 12 MB shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient to feed the RX 9070 XT without creating a noticeable bottleneck at most settings, though the 4K Ultra result of 53.7 FPS suggests the GPU is the primary limiter in that configuration.