Microsoft Flight Simulator

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in Microsoft Flight Simulator presents a fascinating study in component balance. The data shows a system capable of extraordinary frame rates, yet the performance distribution across resolutions reveals where the CPU and GPU each take their turn as the limiting factor. This analysis breaks down the measured results to understand what this specific combination delivers.

Settings Recommendations

For this hardware pairing, the measured data clearly indicates that the Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding an average of 74.5 FPS at 3840x2160, 102.3 FPS at 2560x1440, and 132.7 FPS at 1920x1080. While these numbers are all playable, the drop from High to Ultra at 4K is significant, moving from 81.2 FPS to 74.5 FPS. The High preset offers a more compelling balance, especially at 4K where it maintains an average of 81.2 FPS, staying comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold that many flight sim enthusiasts prefer for smooth panning over detailed scenery.

Interestingly, the Medium preset at 4K delivers 104.6 FPS, which is a substantial 23.4 FPS improvement over High. This suggests that the step from Medium to High introduces a heavy load on the GPU without a proportional visual benefit for this particular scene. At 1440p, the High preset reaches 109.1 FPS, while Medium is at 146.9 FPS. Given the RTX 4090’s immense power, the recommendation is to prioritize High settings for the best visual fidelity per frame, as it keeps the experience fluid without sacrificing the detailed terrain and aircraft models that define this simulator. For users with high-refresh-rate 1440p displays, Medium or Low becomes viable, with Low hitting 170.6 FPS, but for most, High is the sweet spot.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark data places this specific CPU-GPU combination at rank 60 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the system in the top 3.3% of all configurations tested. The ranking reflects how well the i5-12400F keeps up with the RTX 4090, which is no small feat. The CPU’s performance percentile versus all CPUs is 77, while the GPU sits at 91 against all GPUs. This discrepancy suggests that while the GPU is near the top of its class, the CPU is solidly above average but not elite, which could explain why the combo does not rank even higher.

The data implies that the i5-12400F is a capable partner, but not the absolute ideal match for the RTX 4090’s full potential. Rivals to the CPU, such as the Intel Core i7-8700K, score nearly identically in average benchmarks, with a delta of only 0.1%. This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, this 12th-gen i5 performs on par with older high-end chips. The ranking of 60th suggests that many combos with higher-end CPUs (like i7 or i9 parts) or more balanced pairings achieve better overall performance in this specific title, which is known for its heavy single-threaded and multi-threaded demands.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed powerhouse here, with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The memory operates at 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective. This massive memory allocation is critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams high-resolution textures and terrain data. The measured results show that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU is not overwhelmed, as the frame rate only drops to 74.5 FPS, indicating that the memory subsystem is capable of feeding the rendering engine without becoming a bottleneck.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also notable, with a base of 2235 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz. In this game, the data suggests that the GPU is not always the limiting factor. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system hits 185.5 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it only reaches 132.7 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is a drop of 52.8 FPS, which is less severe than the drop from 1440p to 4K at the same settings. This indicates that the RTX 4090 is often waiting on the CPU to provide draw calls and simulation data, especially at lower resolutions. The GPU’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is more than sufficient for the rendering load, but the frame rate ceilings are dictated by how quickly the CPU can prepare frames.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers remarkable performance across all presets. Low is the fastest at 185.5 FPS, followed by Medium at 167.9 FPS, High at 135 FPS, and Ultra at 132.7 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is only 2.3 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset’s additional effects (like enhanced lighting or reflections) are not heavily taxing the GPU at this resolution. The 1080p results show a clear CPU limitation; the jump from Low to High costs 50.5 FPS, but the system still remains well above 130 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong. Low hits 170.6 FPS, Medium trails at 146.9 FPS, High drops to 109.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 102.3 FPS. The scaling is more linear here, with a 68.3 FPS difference between Low and Ultra. At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to feel the pressure. Low still achieves 136 FPS, but Medium falls to 104.6 FPS, High to 81.2 FPS, and Ultra to 74.5 FPS. This breakdown shows that the RTX 4090 is so powerful that even at 4K, it only starts to show strain on the High and Ultra presets, where the pixel count and shader complexity finally outpace the CPU’s ability to feed it.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data suggests yes, particularly at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 185.5 FPS, but the 4K Low result is 136 FPS. The 4K result is still high, but the gap between 1080p and 4K is smaller than expected, indicating that the CPU limits the maximum frame rate before the GPU can be fully utilized.

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo?

A: The measured data shows that 2560x1440 on High offers an excellent balance, with an average of 109.1 FPS. This resolution provides high detail without the frame rate penalty seen at 4K, where High drops to 81.2 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-12400F compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-12400F scores an average benchmark of 19221, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210, 0.1% delta). It also edges out the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (19167, 0.3% delta) but falls slightly behind the AMD EPYC 7773X (18979, 1.3% delta).

Q: Does the RTX 4090’s 24 GB VRAM matter for this title?

A: Yes, the 24 GB of GDDR6X memory is a major asset. Microsoft Flight Simulator is known for large texture sets, and the 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that the GPU can access this data quickly. The fact that 4K Ultra still achieves 74.5 FPS indicates that VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor.

Q: Is the RTX 4090’s performance consistent with its high benchmark percentile?

A: The GPU sits in the 91st percentile among all GPUs, with a passmark G3D score of 38194. In game, it delivers 132.7 FPS at 1080p Ultra, which is very high. However, the frame rates are often capped by the CPU, as evidenced by the small delta between 1080p and 1440p results at high settings.

Q: What does the combo’s rank of 60 out of 1795 indicate?

A: It shows this is a top-tier configuration. The rank indicates that while the RTX 4090 is a dominant GPU, the i5-12400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is a solid but not exceptional partner. The 77th percentile CPU score means many other CPUs could push the GPU even harder.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache are adequate for gaming, but the data from Microsoft Flight Simulator shows that the CPU is the primary limiter at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 185.5 FPS, but at 1440p Low, it only drops to 170.6 FPS. This 14.9 FPS drop is surprisingly small, suggesting that the CPU is already working near its maximum capacity to produce frames, and the GPU has headroom to spare.

The CPU’s single-threaded performance, as measured by a 3dmark single-thread score of 909 and a cinebench r23 single-core score of 2332, is critical for this game’s main thread. The data shows that even with a powerful GPU, the i5-12400F can push frame rates above 130 FPS at 1080p Ultra, but it cannot sustain the RTX 4090’s full potential, which would likely exceed 200 FPS in less CPU-intensive scenes. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the i7-8700K, score almost identically, reinforcing that this 12th-gen i5 provides comparable performance to older high-end parts in this workload.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the bottleneck dynamics. At Low settings, the frame rates are 185.5 FPS (1080p), 170.6 FPS (1440p), and 136 FPS (4K). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 14.9 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 34.6 FPS. This pattern shows that at Low settings, the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p and 1440p, as the GPU can easily handle the low graphical load. At 4K, the GPU starts to become more involved, but the frame rate is still high.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is different: 132.7 FPS (1080p), 102.3 FPS (1440p), and 74.5 FPS (4K). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 30.4 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 27.8 FPS. This more uniform scaling indicates that at Ultra, the GPU is heavily taxed at all resolutions, and the CPU is less of a bottleneck. The data implies that for this combo, the RTX 4090 only becomes the definitive limiting factor at 4K with high settings. At 1080p and 1440p, the i5-12400F’s 4.40 GHz boost clock and 6 cores are sufficient to keep frame rates high, but the system’s overall ceiling is determined by the CPU’s ability to process the simulation logic, not the GPU’s rendering speed.