Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is notoriously demanding, and the measured data for the Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 confirms that this combination is positioned in the middle of the pack. With a combined rank of 989 out of 1795 tested configurations, this system delivers playable but not exceptional frame rates, with the balance of load shifting significantly depending on the resolution and quality preset selected. The data indicates a setup that is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p play but will require careful settings management to maintain smooth visuals at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and clearly illustrates where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 118.9 FPS, but this falls to 96.3 FPS at 1440p and further to 70.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 40.8% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at the lowest quality preset, which strongly suggests that the CPU is keeping pace while the GPU is being increasingly taxed as pixel count grows.

The scaling pattern becomes even more telling at higher quality settings. Moving from 1080p High (70.8 FPS) to 4K High (43.9 FPS) results in a 38% drop, while the Ultra preset sees a similar proportional decline from 66.5 FPS at 1080p to 41 FPS at 4K. The consistency of this drop across all presets—roughly a 36-41% reduction from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the rendering pipeline is scaling predictably with resolution, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions.

However, the gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution reveals the CPU’s role. At 1080p, the difference between Low (118.9 FPS) and Ultra (66.5 FPS) is 52.4 FPS, or 44.1%. At 4K, this same preset gap is only 29.4 FPS (70.4 vs 41). The shrinking absolute difference at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases, while at 1080p, the lower-end settings allow the CPU to push frame rates higher, exposing the graphics card’s limitations even at the lowest quality.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060’s specifications directly inform these measured results. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, the card offers 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest for 4K gaming in a title as texture-heavy as Microsoft Flight Simulator. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 41, which is below the 43.9 FPS seen at 4K High, indicating that the extra graphical load at Ultra pushes the card’s memory subsystem and shading capabilities to their limits.

Clock speeds are relatively high, with a base of 1830 MHz and a boost of 2460 MHz, yet the card’s 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the key metric. This compute capacity, combined with 3072 shading units, allows the card to handle the game’s complex scenery rendering, but the 8 GB frame buffer appears to be a constraining factor at 4K. The difference between 4K High (43.9 FPS) and 4K Ultra (41 FPS) is only 2.9 FPS, a marginal gain that suggests the card is hitting a hard performance ceiling, likely memory capacity or bandwidth related, rather than raw compute limits.

The card’s position in the benchmark hierarchy reinforces this interpretation. With a percentile rank of 66 among all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 23181, the RTX 4060 sits close to rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (deltaPct -0.6%) and the Intel Arc B580 (deltaPct 0.7%). These are performance-class cards, not enthusiast-tier hardware, and the measured FPS in this simulator reflects that positioning, particularly at 1440p and 4K where the card’s 128-bit memory interface becomes a liability.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play at with this hardware?

A: The data clearly favors 1080p, where even the Ultra preset maintains an average of 66.5 FPS. At 1440p, the High preset still achieves 57 FPS, but 4K drops to 41 FPS at Ultra, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth simulation gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Arc B580?

A: According to the benchmark data, the RTX 4060 has an average score of 23181, while the Intel Arc B580 scores 23021, giving the RTX 4060 a 0.7% advantage. This is a negligible difference, suggesting they are effectively interchangeable in performance.

Q: Does the CPU become a bottleneck at any settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the CPU achieves 118.9 FPS, which is the highest recorded frame rate, indicating the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well. However, the GPU’s performance ceiling is evident, as the same preset at 4K only reaches 70.4 FPS, showing the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The data suggests it is barely sufficient. At 4K High, the card manages 43.9 FPS, but moving to Ultra only reduces performance to 41 FPS, a small 2.9 FPS drop. This indicates the card is likely hitting VRAM or bandwidth limits, preventing it from fully utilizing the Ultra settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 75.7 FPS, while High averages 57 FPS. This is a significant 18.7 FPS difference, which suggests that the High preset introduces substantial graphical effects that heavily tax the GPU.

Q: How does this CPU-GPU combo rank overall for this game?

A: The combination ranks 989 out of 1795 tested configurations, placing it in the 55th percentile. This indicates it is a mid-range performer, capable of solid 1080p play but not competitive at 4K with higher-end hardware.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the data points to the High preset at 1080p as the optimal choice. This configuration yields an average of 70.8 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for a smooth experience, while still offering the enhanced visual fidelity that Low and Medium presets lack. The Ultra preset at 1080p is also viable at 66.5 FPS, but the 4.3 FPS gain from High to Ultra does not justify the additional graphical load, especially given the diminishing returns observed.

At 1440p, the Medium preset becomes the recommended choice, delivering 75.7 FPS. This is a substantial improvement over High’s 57 FPS, and the visual difference between Medium and High in a flight simulator is often less critical than maintaining a consistent frame rate for cockpit instrumentation and terrain rendering. The High preset at 1440p is borderline, but the 57 FPS average may suffer from stutters during complex scenery loading.

For 4K, the Low preset is the only playable option, providing 70.4 FPS. Medium drops to 54.7 FPS, which is marginal, and High and Ultra fall below 44 FPS, which is too low for a simulated flight experience where smooth camera panning is essential. Users with 4K displays should accept reduced visual quality to maintain playability, as the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus are not sufficient for higher presets at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as settings increase and resolution scales. At 1920x1080, the progression is: Low at 118.9 FPS, Medium at 94 FPS, High at 70.8 FPS, and Ultra at 66.5 FPS. The largest single step is from Medium to High, a 23.2 FPS drop, which indicates that the High preset enables significant rendering features that heavily impact performance.

At 2560x1440, the same settings yield 96.3 FPS (Low), 75.7 FPS (Medium), 57 FPS (High), and 50.6 FPS (Ultra). The drop from Medium to High is 18.7 FPS, while from High to Ultra it is 6.4 FPS. This narrowing difference at higher settings suggests that the card is becoming saturated, and the additional features enabled by Ultra have less relative impact.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are 70.4 FPS (Low), 54.7 FPS (Medium), 43.9 FPS (High), and 41 FPS (Ultra). The step from Low to Medium is 15.7 FPS, but from High to Ultra it is only 2.9 FPS. This near-flat performance at the top end confirms that the RTX 4060 reaches its absolute limit at 4K Ultra, with the 41 FPS average representing the hard ceiling of this hardware combination. The data shows that the card’s performance scales nearly linearly with pixel count at lower settings but flattens out at higher presets, a classic sign of a memory bandwidth or capacity constraint.