Microsoft Flight Simulator

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER shows a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 78.8 FPS average, which is the sweet spot for smooth flight simulation without sacrificing visual fidelity. Low reaches 103 FPS but drops the graphical detail that makes the game's scenery compelling, while High (57.1 FPS) and Ultra (53.4 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold that flight simulators benefit from for smooth panning across terrain.

The data indicates that Medium at 1080p is the recommended preset for this combination. It provides a 41.6 FPS advantage over Ultra at the same resolution, and the 25.7 FPS gap between Medium and High shows that the preset scaling is not linear — Medium extracts substantially more performance with modest visual compromises. At 2560x1440, Medium again proves optimal with 63.4 FPS, which is playable and only 17.7 FPS below the Low preset's 81.1 FPS. High and Ultra at 1440p fall to 44.4 FPS and 43.6 FPS respectively, which are marginal for a simulator where smooth frame pacing matters.

At 3840x2160, no preset maintains 60 FPS. Low hits 57 FPS, Medium 46.8 FPS, Ultra 35.8 FPS, and High 33.1 FPS. The recommendation is to avoid 4K with this combo unless the user accepts Low settings, which still only reaches 57 FPS. The verdict is clear: Medium at 1080p or 1440p provides the best balance of playability and visual quality, with the 1440p Medium option being the most demanding acceptable configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU106 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operations pipelines, along with 34 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1470 MHz and boosts to 1650 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical specification for Microsoft Flight Simulator's streaming-heavy workloads.

The GPU's benchmark profile places it at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (scoring 19680, a 0.5% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (19706, 0.3% delta). This indicates the RTX 2060 SUPER sits in a competitive band where small percentage differences separate it from higher-tier cards.

In the game's measured FPS data, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p Medium settings, but the 4K results reveal its limits. The drop from 57 FPS at 4K Low to 33.1 FPS at 4K High demonstrates that the GPU's compute throughput — 7.181 TFLOPS FP32 and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate — becomes the bottleneck as settings increase. The pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s also constrains 4K output, where the sheer number of pixels overwhelms the rasterization pipelines.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1317 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the lower-mid tier of all possible configurations, which is consistent with the GPU's 63rd percentile standing and the CPU's 88th percentile ranking. The combo rank of 1317 indicates that approximately 73% of tested combinations outperform it, but the data shows this is primarily a GPU-limited pairing rather than a CPU bottleneck.

The CPU, Intel Core i5-14400F, sits at the 88th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 32508. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513, 0% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446, 0.2% delta), and AMD Ryzen 7 250 (32584, -0.2% delta). This clustering within 0.2% shows the i5-14400F is performance-competitive with mobile and desktop chips across a narrow band. However, in this game combo, the GPU's 63rd percentile is the limiting factor, dragging the overall ranking down.

The gap between the CPU's strong percentile and the combo's lower rank suggests that Microsoft Flight Simulator at these settings is more dependent on GPU throughput. The RTX 2060 SUPER's nearest GPU rivals — RTX 2070 (0.5% ahead) and GTX TITAN (0.3% ahead) — all fall within a 1.3% band, meaning the combo ranking is not significantly altered by small GPU performance differences.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across presets are: Low 103, Medium 78.8, High 57.1, and Ultra 53.4. The progression from Low to Medium is a 24.2 FPS drop, while Medium to High drops 21.7 FPS, and High to Ultra drops only 3.7 FPS. This nonlinear scaling indicates that the Ultra preset adds minimal graphical overhead over High at 1080p, while Low to Medium represents a substantial visual upgrade for a moderate performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 81.1, Medium 63.4, High 44.4, and Ultra 43.6. The 1440p data shows a similar pattern, with Medium offering 19.0 FPS more than High. The close margin between High and Ultra (0.8 FPS difference) at 1440p reinforces that Ultra provides negligible benefit over High for this GPU. The jump from 1080p Medium (78.8) to 1440p Medium (63.4) is a 15.4 FPS reduction, which is a manageable cost for the resolution increase.

At 3840x2160, the measured values are: Low 57, Medium 46.8, High 33.1, and Ultra 35.8. Notably, Ultra (35.8 FPS) outperforms High (33.1 FPS) by 2.7 FPS, which is an anomaly in the data — likely due to specific scene variance or driver behavior. The 4K Low to Medium gap is 10.2 FPS, and Medium to High drops 13.7 FPS. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best performance-to-quality ratio, with 1080p Medium (78.8 FPS) being the highest playable configuration above 60 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this combo. At Low settings, 1080p delivers 103 FPS, 1440p 81.1 FPS, and 4K 57 FPS — a reduction of 21.3% from 1080p to 1440p and 29.7% from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, the scaling is 78.8 to 63.4 to 46.8 FPS, with drops of 19.5% and 26.2% respectively. These percentage drops are roughly proportional to the pixel count increase, which is the signature of a GPU-limited scenario.

The High preset shows a steeper decline: 57.1 FPS at 1080p, 44.4 at 1440p (22.2% drop), and 33.1 at 4K (25.5% drop). Ultra follows a similar pattern with 53.4 to 43.6 to 35.8 FPS. The consistent 20-30% reductions across presets indicate that the RTX 2060 SUPER's pixel throughput is the limiting component, not the CPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions at lower settings, but the data shows no such plateau.

The 4K Low result of 57 FPS is the only 4K preset near playable, and it still represents a 44.7% reduction from 1080p Low. This scaling behavior confirms that users seeking higher resolutions must reduce settings proportionally, and that the GPU's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 105.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the ceiling for this game's rendering demands.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process at Intel. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB L1 per core, 1.25 MB L2 per core, and 20 MB shared L3. Memory support includes both DDR4 and DDR5 in dual-channel configuration.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 21914, while single-core scores 3093. Geekbench multicore reaches 11209 and single-core 2333. Passmark multithread scores 25783 with a single-thread score of 3723. The CPU's 88th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 32508 place it well above the GPU's 63rd percentile, indicating the processor is not the primary constraint in this combo.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU handles simulation logic, physics, and AI traffic, which are highly threaded workloads. The 10 cores and 16 threads provide ample parallel capacity, and the 4.70 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-thread performance for the game's main thread. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking — even at 1080p Low (103 FPS), the frame rate scales with GPU settings rather than hitting a CPU-imposed ceiling. The CPU's nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i7-12800H and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645, all score within 0.2% of each other, confirming the i5-14400F is in a competitive performance tier that exceeds this GPU's capabilities.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 60+ FPS at 1920x1080?

A: Medium delivers 78.8 FPS average at 1080p, which is the only preset above 60 FPS other than Low (103 FPS). High and Ultra fall to 57.1 and 53.4 FPS respectively.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: Only at Low settings, which reaches 57 FPS at 3840x2160. Medium drops to 46.8 FPS, while High and Ultra produce 33.1 and 35.8 FPS respectively, all below playable thresholds.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU scores 19774 on average, with the RTX 2070 at 19680 (0.5% slower) and GTX TITAN at 19706 (0.3% slower). All rivals are within a 1.3% band.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU ranks at the 88th percentile, while the GPU is at the 63rd. FPS drops across resolutions are proportional to pixel count, indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the FPS difference between 1080p and 1440p at Medium settings?

A: 1080p Medium averages 78.8 FPS, while 1440p Medium averages 63.4 FPS — a 15.4 FPS reduction that still remains playable.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a meaningful boost over High?

A: No. At 1080p, Ultra (53.4 FPS) is only 3.7 FPS slower than High (57.1 FPS). At 1440p, the difference is 0.8 FPS, and at 4K, Ultra (35.8 FPS) actually outperforms High (33.1 FPS) by 2.7 FPS.