Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a demanding title that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and the Intel Core i5-14600K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER proves to be a highly capable pairing for it. The measured results show a system that can deliver smooth frame rates across a wide range of settings and resolutions, but the data also reveals clear priorities for how to configure the game for the best experience. This analysis breaks down the measured performance to guide you toward the optimal settings for your display and performance goals.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows a clear hierarchy in performance scaling across the four settings presets. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium is substantial, moving from 184.7 FPS to 140.5 FPS, but the leap to High brings a more significant cost, dropping to 107.9 FPS. The step to Ultra further reduces performance to 102 FPS. This pattern repeats at 1440p, with Low at 148.7 FPS, Medium at 112.8 FPS, High at 84.3 FPS, and Ultra at 78.5 FPS. At 4K, the relationship is similar: Low yields 107.7 FPS, Medium 83.1 FPS, High 64.9 FPS, and Ultra 61.8 FPS.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the High preset is the sweet spot for this combination, provided you are targeting 60 FPS or higher. At 1080p and 1440p, High delivers well over 60 FPS, and even at 4K it maintains a playable 64.9 FPS. The Ultra preset offers diminishing returns, costing a noticeable chunk of performance—roughly 5-6 FPS at 1080p and 1440p, and about 3 FPS at 4K—for what is often a marginal visual improvement in a flight simulator where you are often looking at distant scenery. If you have a high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p monitor, the Medium preset is the optimal choice, as it provides a massive frame rate boost—over 30% higher than High at 1440p—while still looking far better than Low. The Low preset is only recommended for the most extreme frame rate chasing, as it sacrifices too much visual detail for the simulator's core experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary driver of the frame rate differences between settings presets. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, is sufficient for the asset streaming demands of Microsoft Flight Simulator. The card’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and its 7168 shading units are put to work heavily as you increase the graphical load. The data confirms this, as the performance delta between Low and Ultra settings is significant at all resolutions, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario at higher quality levels.

The GPU's performance is not uniform across the board; it scales with resolution and settings in a predictable way. The card sits in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 42576 puts it in a close race with its nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, with a performance delta of less than 2%. This indicates that while it is not the absolute fastest, it is a very solid performer for this specific workload. The fact that it can push over 100 FPS at 1080p with High settings and still manage a respectable 64.9 FPS at 4K on the same preset shows that the RTX 4070 SUPER has enough headroom to handle a demanding title like this without being a bottleneck at standard resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a classic scaling pattern as you move from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 184.7 FPS at 1080p to 148.7 FPS at 1440p, a 19.5% reduction, and then further down to 107.7 FPS at 4K, a 41.7% reduction from the 1080p figure. This indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is still the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the workload increases significantly with pixel count.

The scaling becomes even more pronounced at higher settings. At High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 21.9% (from 107.9 to 84.3 FPS), and the drop to 4K is a massive 39.9% (from 107.9 to 64.9 FPS). This steep decline at 4K, particularly when compared to the 1080p results, strongly suggests that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary bottleneck at that resolution. The CPU, with its high single-thread performance, is able to keep up with the data feed, but the GPU is overwhelmed by the sheer number of pixels it needs to render. For a smooth 4K experience, you would need to settle for High settings or lower, as the Ultra preset dips to 61.8 FPS, which is right at the edge of playability for many.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of all tested hardware combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER holds a very strong position. The data places this combo at rank 286 out of 1795 total tested combinations. This puts it in the top 16% of all systems, which is a clear indication that it is a well-balanced, high-performance setup. It outperforms the vast majority of other systems that have been benchmarked with this game.

This ranking is not just about the individual components, but how they work together. The i5-14600K is a strong CPU, sitting in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and it provides a solid foundation for the RTX 4070 SUPER to do its work. The fact that the combo ranks this high suggests that the CPU is not holding the GPU back in a significant way, allowing the system to achieve its full potential in this simulation. While it is not at the very top of the charts, it is comfortably in the upper echelon, making it a reliable and powerful choice for this specific game.

CPU Role

While the GPU handles the heavy lifting of rendering, the Intel Core i5-14600K plays a crucial supporting role in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This game is known for its complex physics and AI calculations, which rely heavily on the CPU. The i5-14600K, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, provides ample multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881 and Passmark multithread score of 38682 demonstrate its capability to handle the game's background simulation threads without issue.

However, it is the single-thread performance that is often more critical for the main game loop. The i5-14600K excels here, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2803. This is where the CPU's 5.30 GHz boost clock and Raptor Lake architecture shine. The data shows that the CPU is not a major limiting factor, as the FPS scales primarily with resolution and GPU settings. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and Intel Core i5-14600KF, have an average score within 0.4% of the i5-14600K, indicating that performance is consistent with top-tier consumer processors. This strong single-core performance ensures that the CPU can feed the GPU with data fast enough, preventing stutters and frame drops in CPU-intensive scenarios like flying over dense cities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a detailed breakdown of the average FPS measured for this specific hardware combination across all tested resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. With Low settings, it achieves an average of 184.7 FPS. Moving to Medium settings, the average drops to 140.5 FPS. The High preset produces an average of 107.9 FPS, while the Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding an average of 102 FPS. This shows that at this resolution, the system has enough headroom to run on a high-refresh-rate monitor with Medium settings or a standard 60Hz monitor on Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. The Low preset averages 148.7 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth. The Medium preset delivers 112.8 FPS, a great result for a 1440p monitor with a 120Hz refresh rate. The High preset brings the average down to 84.3 FPS, which is ideal for a 1440p/60Hz display. The Ultra preset, while still playable, sees the average dip to 78.5 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the workload on the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. The Low preset achieves an average of 107.7 FPS, proving that the system can handle 4K if you are willing to compromise on visual quality. The Medium preset produces an average of 83.1 FPS, which is a very playable result for 4K. The High preset averages 64.9 FPS, which is right at the cusp of ideal smoothness for many players. Finally, the Ultra preset is the most demanding, with the average falling to 61.8 FPS. This final figure highlights that the RTX 4070 SUPER, while powerful, is taxed to its limits at 4K with maximum settings.