Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti reveals a clear and consistent pattern: performance degrades predictably as resolution climbs, but the magnitude of that drop tells an interesting story about where the bottleneck sits. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 101.6 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire set. Moving to 1440p Low drops the average to 79.9 FPS, a reduction of roughly 21%. Pushing further to 4K Low yields 57.2 FPS, which is about 44% below the 1080p Low figure. These are substantial losses, but they follow the expected curve for a GPU-bound scenario at lower settings.

However, the scaling pattern shifts when settings are cranked up. At Ultra settings, the 1080p result is 54.6 FPS, the 1440p result is 48.1 FPS, and the 4K result is 34.3 FPS. The jump from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra costs only about 12% of the frame rate, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs about 29%. This is a much gentler slope than what appears at Low settings. The data implies that at Ultra presets, the game becomes increasingly constrained by the CPU and other system components, not just the GPU. The RTX 3060 Ti is still the primary driver of resolution scaling, but the i5-12400's six cores and twelve threads are clearly working hard to feed the simulation engine, especially at higher visual fidelity.

What does this say about the limiting component? At Low settings, the GPU is the clear bottleneck — the frame rate scales almost linearly with pixel count, which is the classic signature of a graphics-card-bound workload. At Ultra settings, the scaling is flatter between 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that the CPU's ability to process the simulation's complex flight models and scenery data becomes a more significant factor. The result is that this combo delivers playable frame rates at 1440p across most settings, but 4K Ultra is the only configuration that falls below 35 FPS, confirming that 4K is a stretch target for this hardware pairing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a six-core, twelve-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and it carries 18 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12400 posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249. Its PassMark multithread score is 18747, with a single-thread score of 3456. These numbers place the CPU in the 77th percentile of all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 19850. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores 19831 (a delta of 0.1%), and the Intel Core i5-11600K at 19771 (a delta of 0.4%). The i5-12400 sits essentially level with these parts, meaning its compute performance is well within the expected range for a mid-range desktop processor.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is critical because the game simulates atmospheric physics, terrain streaming, and aircraft systems in real time. The data shows that at 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 54.6 FPS, while at 1080p Low it reaches 101.6 FPS — a difference of 47 FPS purely from settings changes. This gap is far larger than what a pure GPU bottleneck would produce, indicating that the i5-12400's thread scheduling and cache performance are actively influencing the frame rate at higher presets. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5873 and max-thread score of 5890 suggest that the CPU can handle a moderate thread load, but it is not a high-core-count monster. In a flight simulator, where single-thread performance often matters more than raw multithreading, the i5-12400's single-core score of 910 in 3DMark and 2249 in Cinebench R23 are the more relevant metrics.

The boost clock of 4.40 GHz is respectable but not exceptional, and the data implies that the CPU's frequency headroom is what keeps 1080p Ultra playable at 54.6 FPS. If the CPU were significantly weaker, the 1080p Ultra result would likely collapse toward the 4K Ultra figure of 34.3 FPS. Instead, the i5-12400 holds its ground, suggesting that Alder Lake's architecture is well-suited to the game's demands.

Settings Recommendations

Looking at the measured rows, the best experience per the data comes from balancing frame rate and visual fidelity at 1440p Medium, which delivers 62.1 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider smooth, and it maintains a higher level of detail than Low settings. At 1440p High, the average drops to 46.1 FPS, which is noticeably less fluid but still playable for a simulation genre that prioritizes immersion over twitch responsiveness. If the player prefers 1080p, the Medium preset at 76.9 FPS is the sweet spot — it offers a significant visual upgrade over Low (101.6 FPS) without the steep cost of High (58.9 FPS) or Ultra (54.6 FPS).

For 4K, the data is less forgiving. The best 4K result is Low at 57.2 FPS, which is playable but strips away much of the visual detail that makes Flight Simulator impressive. 4K Medium drops to 48.7 FPS, and 4K High is 36.5 FPS. The worst case is 4K Ultra at 34.3 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that 4K is viable only at Low settings, and even then, the frame rate is marginal. For most players, 1440p Medium is the recommended starting point, with 1080p Medium as a fallback if they prioritize higher frame rates or have a lower-refresh-rate display.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination ranks 1247th out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the lower half of the database, which might seem surprising given the respectable individual component scores. However, the context matters: Flight Simulator is an exceptionally demanding title, and the 1795 combos tested include many high-end configurations with more powerful CPUs and GPUs. The RTX 3060 Ti sits in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25120, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180, delta -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (25235, delta -0.5%). These are all closely matched parts, so the GPU is not the weak link.

The rank of 1247 out of 1795 implies that this combo is beaten by roughly 70% of tested configurations. This is not a criticism of the components themselves — the i5-12400 is a capable mid-range CPU, and the RTX 3060 Ti is a solid mainstream GPU — but in a game that punishes both CPU and GPU heavily, the combination simply does not have enough headroom to compete with higher-tier hardware. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can deliver playable frame rates at medium to high settings, but it is not a top-tier performer for Flight Simulator specifically.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units, along with 38 ray tracing cores and 152 tensor cores. Its base clock is 1410 MHz, boosting to 1665 MHz, and it delivers 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The memory runs at 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective. In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 3060 Ti scores 20349 in PassMark G3D and 10006 in PassMark GPU compute. Its average benchmark score is 25120, placing it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role is to render the terrain, aircraft, and weather effects. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at most settings, but the data shows a clear drop at 4K Ultra (34.3 FPS) compared to 4K Low (57.2 FPS). This 23 FPS difference at the same resolution is purely a settings-driven change, reflecting the increased shading and texture loads. The GPU's 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a key asset here — Flight Simulator streams large amounts of scenery data, and the high memory bandwidth helps maintain consistent frame rates. However, the GPU is not powerful enough to sustain 60 FPS at 1440p High (46.1 FPS) or 1080p Ultra (54.6 FPS), indicating that the RTX 3060 Ti is a mid-range part that struggles with the game's most demanding presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are: Low 101.6 FPS, Medium 76.9 FPS, High 58.9 FPS, and Ultra 54.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 24.7 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 18 FPS, and High to Ultra is only 4.3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns over High, making High a more efficient choice at 1080p if the player wants a visual upgrade without a major frame rate hit.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 79.9 FPS, Medium 62.1 FPS, High 46.1 FPS, and Ultra 48.1 FPS. Notably, Ultra (48.1 FPS) is actually slightly higher than High (46.1 FPS), which is an anomaly in the data. This could be due to measurement variance, but it also indicates that the Ultra preset does not necessarily impose a heavier load than High in this specific configuration. The 1440p Medium result of 62.1 FPS is the most balanced figure in the entire dataset, offering a playable frame rate with a reasonable visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 57.2 FPS, Medium 48.7 FPS, High 36.5 FPS, and Ultra 34.3 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 8.5 FPS, Medium to High is 12.2 FPS, and High to Ultra is 2.2 FPS. The 4K results are all below 60 FPS, confirming that this resolution is not ideal for this combo. The 4K Low figure of 57.2 FPS is the only 4K setting that approaches playability, and even then, it is marginal.

FAQ

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

A: The data indicates that 1440p Medium offers the best balance, delivering 62.1 FPS. 1080p Medium is also strong at 76.9 FPS, while 4K is only playable at Low settings with 57.2 FPS.

Q: Why does 1440p Ultra (48.1 FPS) outperform 1440p High (46.1 FPS)?

A: This is an anomaly in the measured data. The difference is within a small margin, and the Ultra preset may have slightly different optimization paths in the game engine, but the two settings are effectively equivalent in performance for this combo.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this game?

A: At Low settings, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution. At Ultra settings, the CPU becomes more influential, as the frame rate differences between 1080p and 1440p shrink to 12%.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 25120, which is within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (25287) and 0.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (25235). The differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: 4K is only viable at Low settings, where the combo achieves 57.2 FPS. 4K Medium is 48.7 FPS, 4K High is 36.5 FPS, and 4K Ultra is 34.3 FPS, all of which are below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all tested CPUs?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 sits in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19850. Its closest rival is the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores 19831, a delta of 0.1%.