Microsoft Flight Simulator

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 produces a distinct performance profile in Microsoft Flight Simulator, one where the GPU’s memory bandwidth and the CPU’s six physical cores interact in revealing ways. The measured data shows a system that is capable of smooth flight at lower resolutions, but which begins to strain as pixel counts and graphical fidelity rise. This analysis breaks down the measured frames per second, the scaling behavior across resolutions, and what the hardware specifications imply about the bottlenecks at play.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a heavy dependence on the graphics processor, particularly at higher settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 94.8 FPS at 1080p to 54 FPS at 4K, a drop of approximately 40% that suggests the CPU can feed frames quickly but the GPU’s rendering capacity becomes the limiting factor. Moving to High settings, the 1080p average of 55.7 FPS drops to 28.6 FPS at 4K, indicating that the gap widens as the shading workload increases.

The scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU that has a 128-bit memory bus and 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 2560x1440, the RX 6600 manages 74.2 FPS on Low and 40.6 FPS on High, which sits nearly halfway between the 1080p and 4K results for each setting. This linear degradation points to fill-rate and pixel processing as the primary constraints, rather than a sudden cache or bandwidth cliff. The data implies that the Radeon RX 6600 is the dominant bottleneck at 4K, where even the Ultra preset only achieves 29.6 FPS, barely above the High preset’s 28.6 FPS.

Notably, the jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 12.1 FPS (from 40.7 to 28.6), while the jump from High to Ultra costs only 1.0 FPS (from 28.6 to 29.6). This suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional features do not scale linearly with the GPU’s available resources, and that the card is already saturated at High. At 1080p, the story differs: the drop from Low to High is 39.1 FPS (from 94.8 to 55.7), showing that the CPU still has headroom but the GPU is increasingly loaded. The conclusion is that this combo is well-balanced at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the GPU’s 8 GB frame buffer and 128-bit interface become clear limiting factors.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest measured average is 94.8 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The RX 6600 has an average benchmark score of 25235, which is within 0.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (25120) and within 0.2% of the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180). It is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon 890M at 25246.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 4K resolution?

A: No, the data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor. At 3840x2160, the average frame rate stays below 54 FPS even on Low, while the CPU’s single-thread score of 909 in 3dMark indicates it can push frames faster at lower resolutions (94.8 FPS at 1080p Low).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 74.2 FPS while Ultra averages 41.2 FPS, a difference of 33 FPS. This shows a significant performance cost for maximum visual fidelity.

Q: How does the i5-12400F rank against its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19221, which is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 1.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7773X (18979). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS by 0.7% (19364).

Q: Is the combo’s performance rank in this game relatively strong?

A: The combo ranks 1479 out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the lower half of all tested systems for this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the most balanced performance, delivering 69.6 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while providing a substantial visual upgrade over Low (94.8 FPS). At 2560x1440, Medium also stands out with 55.8 FPS, which is playable and significantly smoother than High (40.6 FPS) or Ultra (41.2 FPS).

If the user prioritizes smoothness over fidelity, Low at 1440p (74.2 FPS) is the better choice than High at 1080p (55.7 FPS), as the resolution increase offers more perceived detail than the graphical preset. At 4K, the data suggests avoiding Ultra entirely, as it only yields 29.6 FPS, barely above High’s 28.6 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K (40.7 FPS) is the only 4K option that approaches playability, though it still falls short of 60 FPS.

The Ultra preset is consistently the worst value across all resolutions: it provides less than a 3 FPS improvement over High at 1440p (41.2 vs 40.6) and is actually slower than High at 1080p (53.2 vs 55.7). This indicates that the Ultra preset’s additional effects tax the GPU without proportional visual benefit. For most users, Medium at 1080p or 1440p represents the sweet spot, offering frame rates above 55 FPS while retaining enough detail for flight simulation.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1479 out of 1795 tested combinations places this system in the 18th percentile of all tested hardware pairings for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is a lower-tier position, reflecting the RX 6600’s mid-range status (69th percentile among all GPUs) and the i5-12400F’s solid but not exceptional standing (77th percentile among all CPUs). The rank suggests that while this combo is far from the weakest, it is outclassed by a majority of tested systems in this demanding title.

The GPU’s nearest rivals include the RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6700M, which score nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks, yet the combo rank indicates that real-world flight simulation performance depends heavily on other factors such as memory bandwidth and driver optimization. The CPU’s nearest rivals, including the older i7-8700K, show that the i5-12400F is competitive with previous-generation high-end parts, but this does not translate into a high combo rank because the game’s engine appears to be more sensitive to GPU throughput than CPU thread count.

Given that the data is measured, this rank is a reliable indicator of expected performance. The fact that the combo sits at 1479 out of 1795 suggests that users should not expect high frame rates at maximum settings, but the measured FPS numbers show that it can handle the game at reduced settings with playable results.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s boost clock is 2491 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz and a base clock of 1626 MHz. These specifications are central to understanding the measured FPS figures.

The 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K with High settings, the frame rate drops to 28.6 FPS, suggesting that the memory interface is saturated. The pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s are moderate for a card in this class, which explains why the Ultra preset at 1080p (53.2 FPS) performs worse than High (55.7 FPS) — the extra pixel and texture work overwhelms the GPU’s available throughput.

The GPU’s FP32 compute of 8.928 TFLOPS is the raw computational horsepower, but flight simulation tends to be more memory-bound than compute-bound. The 128-bit bus is the likely culprit for the 4K performance cliff, as the bandwidth cannot keep up with the increased resolution. The GPU’s percentile rank of 69 among all GPUs confirms it is a mid-tier part, and the measured data in this game aligns with that position.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 94.8 FPS on Low, 69.6 FPS on Medium, 55.7 FPS on High, and 53.2 FPS on Ultra. The step from Low to Medium costs 25.2 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 13.9 FPS, and High to Ultra costs only 2.5 FPS. This shows diminishing returns at the top end.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 74.2 FPS on Low, 55.8 FPS on Medium, 40.6 FPS on High, and 41.2 FPS on Ultra. Interestingly, Ultra is slightly faster than High at this resolution, a statistical anomaly that suggests the Ultra preset’s specific settings do not always increase load. The difference between Low and Medium is 18.4 FPS, while Medium to High is 15.2 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 54 FPS on Low, 40.7 FPS on Medium, 28.6 FPS on High, and 29.6 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 13.3 FPS, while Medium to High is 12.1 FPS, and High to Ultra is a negligible 1.0 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU hits a hard wall at 4K, where even dropping to Low cannot push above 54 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has 18 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 or DDR5 memory. The CPU’s single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its 3dMark single-thread score of 909 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU’s role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the CPU can drive the GPU to 94.8 FPS, which is close to the GPU’s ceiling. However, at 4K, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the frame rate drops to 54 FPS on Low, indicating the GPU is saturated.

The CPU’s multi-threaded scores are respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518 and a Passmark multithread score of 19433. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is well-suited for flight simulation, which can utilize multiple threads for scenery loading and AI traffic. The 18 MB L3 cache is sufficient for the game’s data streaming needs, and the 10 nm process node keeps power consumption moderate at a 65 W TDP.

The CPU’s percentile rank of 77 among all CPUs shows it is above average, but its nearest rivals include the i7-8700K and Ryzen 5 7533HS, which have very similar average scores. This suggests that the i5-12400F is not a limiting factor in this game; rather, the RX 6600’s GPU performance dictates the overall frame rates, especially at higher resolutions.