Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator with Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

This combination of an Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers playable but not exceptional performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator, ranking 1529th out of 1795 tested combos. The data shows a system that is firmly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the GTX 1070's 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus proving to be the limiting factor as settings and resolution increase. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 81.1 FPS, but this drops to 26.3 FPS at 4K Ultra, revealing a performance curve that is steep and consistent with a mid-range Pascal GPU paired with a modern 10-core Raptor Lake processor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 81.1 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that exceeds 80 FPS, indicating that high refresh rate play is only possible at the lowest settings and resolution.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its closest rivals in GPU benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 12331, placing it 0.7% above the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, 1.3% below the GeForce GTX 880M, 1.4% below the GTX 1650 SUPER, and 1.7% below the Tesla K20Xm. These deltas are all within 2%, showing that the GPU sits in a tightly clustered performance band.

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

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F ranks in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25236. This places it in the upper tier of desktop processors, though its nearest rivals show it is not an outlier in either direction.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 81.1 FPS, which is the highest score in the dataset. The CPU's single-thread score of 960 in 3dMark and multi-thread score of 7314 in 3dMark indicate sufficient headroom, while FPS drops of 45% from 1080p Low to 1440p Low and 43% from 1440p Low to 4K Low point to GPU limitations.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings produce 51.4 FPS while High settings produce 41.9 FPS, a difference of 9.5 FPS or roughly 18.5% lower performance for the High preset. This suggests a noticeable visual quality gain may be worth the FPS cost, depending on user preference.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM sufficient at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows 4K performance is poor across all settings, with Ultra at 26.3 FPS and High at 28 FPS. While VRAM capacity is not directly measured, the 8 GB GDDR5 allocation and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth are consistent with a GPU that struggles at 3840x2160, where even Low settings only yield 46 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the dominant component in this pairing for Microsoft Flight Simulator. With 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, the Pascal-based GP104 chip provides a raw compute foundation of 6.463 TFLOPS FP32. The GPU's base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz are modest by modern standards, but the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth is the more critical specification for this game's texture-heavy workloads.

Benchmark data shows the GTX 1070 sits at the 51st percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 12331. Its nearest rivals include the GTX 1650 SUPER (12504, 1.4% faster) and the GTX 880M (12490, 1.3% faster), placing it in the mid-range tier. The measured FPS results confirm this positioning: at 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 43.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for smooth flight simulation. At 4K, the GPU is clearly overwhelmed, with the best 4K result being 46 FPS at Low settings and the worst being 26.3 FPS at Ultra.

The GPU's DirectX 12 support (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility are relevant for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which can leverage these modern graphics APIs. However, the lack of RT cores and tensor cores means the card relies entirely on rasterization performance, and the data indicates that the 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but is pushed to its limits at 4K, where texture streaming and draw distances degrade performance significantly.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly demonstrates a GPU-bound system. At Low settings, the combo produces 81.1 FPS at 1920x1080, 66.6 FPS at 2560x1440, and 46 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 17.9% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 30.9% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 43.3%, which is substantial but not as severe as some more GPU-limited titles might show, suggesting the CPU provides some support at lower resolutions.

At High settings, the scaling pattern is similar but with lower absolute values: 45.7 FPS at 1080p, 41.9 FPS at 1440p, and 28 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is only 8.3%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 33.2%. This indicates that at High settings, the 1080p result is already constrained, and the GPU's limitations become more pronounced as resolution increases. The Ultra preset tells the same story: 43.8 FPS at 1080p, 38.1 FPS at 1440p, and 26.3 FPS at 4K, with the 4K result being the lowest in the entire dataset.

The resolution scaling data suggests that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p Low, the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads can feed the GPU adequately, allowing 81.1 FPS. As resolution increases, the GPU's pixel fill rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s become saturated, and the FPS drops accordingly. Users targeting 4K would need to accept Low settings for playable frame rates, while 1440p offers a more balanced experience with Medium settings at 51.4 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1529th out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 15% of all tested systems. This low ranking is primarily attributable to the GTX 1070, which is now an end-of-life product, rather than the CPU. The i5-13400F, by contrast, ranks in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, showing that the processor is not the weak link in this pairing.

In GPU benchmark terms, the GTX 1070's average score of 12331 places it just above the Quadro K4200 (12241, 0.7% slower) and just below the GTX 880M (12490, 1.3% faster). This clustering means that users upgrading from any of these GPUs would see negligible performance differences in this game, as the deltaPct values are all within 1.7%. The CPU, meanwhile, with an average score of 25236, is nearly identical to the Core i7-13620H (25201, 0.1% slower) and Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, 0.5% faster), indicating that the processor is well-matched to its peers.

The rank of 1529 out of 1795 is consistent with the measured FPS data. A combo that can only achieve 43.8 FPS at 1080p Ultra will naturally fall behind systems with more modern GPUs. However, the rank also indicates that there are 266 combos that perform worse, meaning this is not the lowest-performing configuration in the database. For users with this hardware, the data suggests that the GTX 1070 is the primary upgrade target to improve standing in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance across all settings. Low settings produce 81.1 FPS, Medium produces 64.7 FPS, High produces 45.7 FPS, and Ultra produces 43.8 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is only 1.9 FPS, which is within measurement noise, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds visual features that do not significantly impact this GPU at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the FPS drops across the board. Low settings yield 66.6 FPS, Medium yields 51.4 FPS, High yields 41.9 FPS, and Ultra yields 38.1 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the only configuration in this resolution that exceeds 50 FPS, making it the most viable option for smoother gameplay. The drop from 1080p Medium (64.7 FPS) to 1440p Medium (51.4 FPS) is 20.6%, which is manageable, but the drop from 1080p Low (81.1 FPS) to 1440p Low (66.6 FPS) is 17.9%, showing that even Low settings are affected by the resolution increase.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes marginal. Low settings produce 46 FPS, Medium produces 39.2 FPS, High produces 28 FPS, and Ultra produces 26.3 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only one above 40 FPS, and even that is below the 60 FPS target. The 4K Medium to High drop is 11.2 FPS (from 39.2 to 28), which is a significant 28.6% reduction, indicating that High settings at 4K are not advisable with this GPU. The overall range across all 12 measured configurations spans from 26.3 FPS (4K Ultra) to 81.1 FPS (1080p Low), a 3.1x difference that underscores the GPU's sensitivity to resolution and settings.

Settings Recommendations

For users prioritizing smooth gameplay, the 1080p Low preset at 81.1 FPS is the clear choice, as it is the only configuration that approaches high refresh rate territory. However, flight simulation benefits from visual detail for situational awareness, so the 1080p Medium preset at 64.7 FPS offers a better balance, providing 60+ FPS while presumably improving texture and shadow quality over Low.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 51.4 FPS is the recommended compromise, as it stays above 50 FPS and is only 15.2 FPS below the 1080p Medium result. The High preset at 41.9 FPS is still playable but may feel less fluid during dense scenery or weather effects. The Ultra preset at 38.1 FPS is best avoided unless visual fidelity is the sole priority, as the FPS cost over High is only 3.8 FPS but the visual gain may be marginal.

At 4K, the Low preset at 46 FPS is the only viable option for playable performance, but even this falls short of 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 39.2 FPS is borderline, and High (28 FPS) and Ultra (26.3 FPS) are not recommended for any but the most static flight scenarios. Given the data, the optimal experience for this combo is 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium, depending on the user's display resolution and tolerance for lower FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing ample processing power that is rarely the bottleneck. With 10 cores and 16 threads, the Raptor Lake-S architecture CPU has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and per-core L2 cache of 1.25 MB help feed the GPU efficiently, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is more apparent.

Benchmark data confirms the CPU's strength: a PassMark multi-thread score of 25032 and a single-thread score of 3634, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21279 and single-core score of 3004. The 3dMark results show scaling from 960 (single-thread) to 7314 (16-thread), indicating good multi-threading capabilities. The CPU's 82nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average score of 25236, places it in the upper tier, and its nearest rivals (Core i7-13620H at 25201, Ryzen 5 5600X3D at 25365) are within 0.5% of its performance.

In this game, the CPU's role is to handle flight physics, AI traffic, and world generation, while the GPU renders the scene. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 81.1 FPS, which is likely CPU-limited to some degree, as the GTX 1070 is capable of higher frame rates in less demanding titles. However, as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's performance headroom is not fully utilized. The data indicates that this CPU would not bottleneck a more powerful GPU in Microsoft Flight Simulator, making it a solid foundation for future GPU upgrades.