Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti delivers a strong performance profile in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with measured frame rates ranging from 62.4 FPS at 4K Ultra to 192.5 FPS at 1080p Low. This combo ranks 148th out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 8.2% of all configurations. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads running Raptor Lake architecture, sits at the 82nd percentile among all processors, while the GPU, built on Blackwell 2.0 with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory, holds the 87th percentile among all graphics cards.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 192.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 4K Ultra, the same configuration drops to 62.4 FPS, showing a substantial range depending on resolution and quality preset.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25236, placing it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13620H and 0.5% ahead of both the AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D leads it by 0.5% with a score of 25365.

Q: What is the GPU's position relative to other graphics cards?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti scores 52086 on average, which is essentially identical to the RTX 4080 at 52085. It trails the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M by 2.5% but leads the NVIDIA RTX A1000 by 2.5%.

Q: How does performance scale between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution?

A: At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra reduces frame rates from 192.5 to 113.7 FPS, a 41% drop. At 1440p, the reduction is from 159 to 90.6 FPS, a 43% decline. At 4K, the drop is from 115.3 to 62.4 FPS, representing a 46% decrease.

Q: What is the memory configuration of this combo?

A: The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus with 896.0 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, with 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core.

Q: Is this combo better suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p or playable 4K?

A: The data shows it can handle both: 113.7 FPS at 1080p Ultra and 71.6 FPS at 4K High. For 4K Ultra, the 62.4 FPS result remains playable but approaches the threshold where some users may prefer lowering settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti carries the primary rendering load in Microsoft Flight Simulator, a title known for demanding both geometry and texture throughput. With 8960 shading units, 280 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines, the GPU processes the vast draw distances and dense scenery typical of flight simulation. The 16 GB GDDR7 frame buffer on a 256-bit interface provides 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves critical when streaming high-resolution terrain and aircraft models at 4K resolution.

Clock behavior shows a base frequency of 2295 MHz with a boost up to 2452 MHz. The memory operates at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective data rate. These specifications, combined with the Blackwell 2.0 architecture's 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores, produce a pixel rate of 235.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput of 43.94 TFLOPS indicates substantial compute headroom for the simulation's physics and weather calculations that offload to the GPU.

The GPU's benchmark standing reinforces its role: it holds the 87th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 52086. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080, matches it almost exactly with a delta of 0%. The RTX 5070 Ti outperforms the RTX A1000 by 2.5% while trailing the Radeon Pro W6600M by 2.5%. In the context of this game, the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading capacity appear sufficient to maintain high frame rates even at Ultra settings, as evidenced by the measured results.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti achieves rank 148 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This top-8.2% placement indicates that this pairing delivers above-average performance for this specific title, which is notable given the game's reputation for heavy CPU utilization in addition to GPU demands.

The CPU contributes meaningfully to this ranking. Its 3DMark results show strong multi-threaded performance with a 16-thread score of 7314 and a max-thread score of 7307, nearly identical, suggesting efficient scaling across its 10 cores and 16 threads. Single-thread performance, measured at 960 in 3DMark, remains competitive. Cinebench R23 results of 21279 multi-core and 3004 single-core place this processor in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs.

The GPU's contribution is equally significant. With a PassMark G3D score of 32974 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6604, the RTX 5070 Ti demonstrates the raw compute necessary for high-fidelity rendering. The 87th percentile GPU ranking, combined with the 82nd percentile CPU ranking, creates a balanced platform where neither component severely bottlenecks the other in most scenarios. The rank of 148 overall reflects this synergy, though the measured FPS data will reveal where each component becomes the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest frame rates. Low settings yield 192.5 FPS, Medium delivers 158.5 FPS, High achieves 117.5 FPS, and Ultra maintains 113.7 FPS. The relatively small gap between High and Ultra (3.8 FPS) suggests diminishing returns at the highest quality preset, while the jump from Low to Medium costs 34 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, frame rates remain robust. Low settings produce 159 FPS, Medium reaches 126.8 FPS, High holds at 95.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 90.6 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at this resolution narrows further to 4.6 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects have minimal impact on this configuration.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to feel the load more substantially. Low settings still deliver 115.3 FPS, which is entirely playable. Medium achieves 88.9 FPS, High manages 71.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 62.4 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra widens to 9.2 FPS at this resolution, showing that the 4K Ultra preset's increased shader complexity and texture demands exact a measurable toll.

The progression across settings at each resolution follows a consistent pattern: Low to Medium costs roughly 20-30% performance, Medium to High costs another 20-30%, and High to Ultra costs only 3-10%. This suggests that Ultra settings are well-optimized relative to High, with the most significant performance investments occurring between Low and Medium.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals how this combo's performance scales with pixel count. At Low settings, frame rates drop from 192.5 to 159 to 115.3 FPS across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. This represents a 17.4% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 27.5% decrease from 1440p to 4K, for a total 40.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

At Ultra settings, the scaling shows a similar pattern but with larger absolute drops. From 113.7 FPS at 1080p, performance falls to 90.6 FPS at 1440p, a 20.3% reduction, then to 62.4 FPS at 4K, a 31.1% reduction from 1440p. The total decrease from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 45.1%.

These scaling characteristics indicate that the GPU becomes increasingly the limiting component as resolution rises. At 1080p, the CPU's single-thread and multi-thread performance likely plays a more significant role, given that frame rates of 192.5 FPS at Low settings approach the point where CPU draw-call overhead and simulation logic could constrain performance. The fact that 1080p Ultra holds above 113 FPS suggests the CPU has sufficient headroom even in demanding scenarios.

At 4K, the GPU's workload increases by roughly four times the pixel count of 1080p, yet frame rates only drop by about 40-45%, not the 75% that pure pixel scaling would suggest. This implies that the flight simulator's rendering is not purely pixel-bound; the CPU continues to contribute to frame generation even at 4K. The RTX 5070 Ti's 896.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 235.4 GPixel/s pixel rate provide substantial throughput, but the 62.4 FPS floor at 4K Ultra indicates that the GPU is approaching its practical limit for this title's most demanding configuration.

The resolution scaling data also highlights the balance of this pairing. At 1080p and 1440p, the combo delivers frame rates that exceed typical high-refresh-rate monitors, making it suitable for competitive or smooth play. At 4K, the results remain playable across all settings, with Ultra dipping to 62.4 FPS but staying above the 60 FPS threshold that many consider acceptable for flight simulation. This balance points to a well-matched CPU-GPU combination where neither component dramatically overshadows the other across the tested resolution range.