Microsoft Flight Simulator

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti produces a clear and predictable scaling pattern in Microsoft Flight Simulator. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 200.8 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that figure to 160.4 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low it falls further to 115.1 FPS. This represents a 42.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the lowest preset. The scaling is similar at Medium settings: 156.4 FPS at 1080p, 123.5 FPS at 1440p, and 89.1 FPS at 4K. At High settings, the progression is 118.9 FPS, 91.4 FPS, and 70.0 FPS respectively. The Ultra preset shows 111.4 FPS at 1080p, 91.9 FPS at 1440p, and 67.1 FPS at 4K.

The pattern indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, but the CPU still holds significant influence at lower resolutions. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings is 40.4 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K at Low is 45.3 FPS. This relatively even distribution suggests that neither component is completely bottlenecking the system across the resolution range. However, the smaller absolute drops at higher settings — from 118.9 to 91.4 to 70.0 FPS on High — indicate that the rendering load grows more uniformly when visual complexity increases. At Ultra, the 4K result of 67.1 FPS sits only 3.7 FPS below the High 4K result, showing that the GPU is nearing its saturation point with the most demanding settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals how this specific CPU-GPU combination behaves under increasing pixel counts. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 200.8 FPS at 1080p to 160.4 FPS at 1440p, a 20.1% decrease. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is from 160.4 to 115.1 FPS, a 28.2% decrease. This progressive decline is typical for a system where the GPU handles the majority of the pixel-pushing work. The RTX 5070 Ti’s 896.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 16 GB of GDDR7 memory provide ample headroom, so the scaling is smooth rather than abrupt.

At Medium settings, the pattern shifts slightly. The 1080p result of 156.4 FPS drops to 123.5 FPS at 1440p (a 21.0% decrease) and then to 89.1 FPS at 4K (a 27.9% decrease). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Medium suggests that the game’s rendering pipeline is well-balanced for this hardware. At High settings, the percentage drops become steeper: 23.1% from 1080p to 1440p, and 23.4% from 1440p to 4K. The Ultra preset shows the smallest relative drop from 1080p to 1440p at 17.5%, but the 4K result of 67.1 FPS indicates that the GPU is working near its limit.

The data points to the RTX 5070 Ti as the primary constraint at 4K, particularly at Ultra settings where the 67.1 FPS result is close to the 70.0 FPS High result. At 1080p, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent — the difference between Low (200.8 FPS) and Ultra (111.4 FPS) is 89.4 FPS, showing that the i5-14600KF can feed the GPU effectively even at high frame rates. The 14 cores and 20 threads, combined with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, provide sufficient single-thread performance for the simulator’s simulation-heavy workload.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti holds a combo rank of 142 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 7.9% of all tested configurations, which is a strong result given the game’s demanding nature. The rank reflects the synergy between the CPU and GPU — neither component is holding the other back to a significant degree.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 49367 places it in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, scores 49166 with a deltaPct of 0.4, meaning the 14600KF is effectively identical in performance. The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X scores 49062 with a deltaPct of 0.6, so the 14600KF leads by a small margin. These close margins indicate that the CPU is not the differentiator in this combo’s rank.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 52086 places it in the 87th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, scores 52085 with a deltaPct of 0.0, making them statistical equals. The AMD Radeon RX 7700S scores 52505 with a deltaPct of -0.8, and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M scores 53414 with a deltaPct of -2.5. Given that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates in this game, the RTX 5070 Ti’s position relative to these rivals directly influences the combo’s rank.

The rank of 142 out of 1795 is particularly notable because it places this combo ahead of many configurations with more expensive CPUs or GPUs. The data suggests that the balance between the i5-14600KF and the RTX 5070 Ti is near-optimal for this title, where the CPU’s strong single-thread performance complements the GPU’s high memory bandwidth and rendering capabilities.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC. It contains 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, with 8960 shading units and 280 texture mapping units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2452 MHz. Its memory subsystem consists of 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is crucial for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams large amounts of terrain and aircraft data.

The GPU’s benchmark scores demonstrate its capability. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 6604. Its Geekbench OpenCL score is 231226, and its Vulkan score is 227554. The Passmark G3D score is 32974, with a GPU compute score of 20203. These figures place the GPU in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival, the RTX 4080, has an identical average score of 52085 with a deltaPct of 0.0, indicating that these two GPUs are essentially interchangeable in raw compute terms.

In the context of this game, the GPU’s role is evident from the resolution scaling data. At 4K Ultra, the 67.1 FPS result shows that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU has enough headroom to process the simulation logic. The 16 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game’s high-resolution textures, and the 896.0 GB/s bandwidth allows for fast streaming of world data. The boost clock of 2452 MHz provides the raw speed needed to maintain frame rates above 60 FPS at 4K across all settings except Ultra, where it dips to 67.1 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience. At 4K, the High preset delivers 70.0 FPS, which is 3.1 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 67.1 FPS but 19.1 FPS lower than the Medium preset’s 89.1 FPS. The High preset represents a balanced point where visual quality remains high while frame rates stay above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset’s 67.1 FPS is still playable, but the marginal visual improvement over High may not justify the 4.1% performance reduction.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 91.4 FPS, which is nearly identical to the Ultra preset’s 91.9 FPS. This suggests that at 1440p, the difference between High and Ultra is negligible in terms of performance, making Ultra the better choice for maximum visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 123.5 FPS offers a significant boost for users with high-refresh-rate displays, while Low at 160.4 FPS is reserved for competitive or maximum-frame-rate scenarios.

At 1080p, all settings deliver playable frame rates. The High preset’s 118.9 FPS is smooth, and the Ultra preset’s 111.4 FPS is only 6.3% lower. The Medium preset’s 156.4 FPS and Low preset’s 200.8 FPS provide headroom for users with 144Hz or 240Hz monitors. For the best visual experience at 1080p, Ultra is recommended since the performance cost is minimal. Across all resolutions, the High preset offers the most consistent experience relative to visual quality, making it the default recommendation for most users.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 200.8 FPS on Low, 156.4 FPS on Medium, 118.9 FPS on High, and 111.4 FPS on Ultra. The transition from Low to Medium costs 44.4 FPS, while Medium to High costs 37.5 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 7.5 FPS. The small difference between High and Ultra at 1080p indicates that the Ultra preset’s additional effects have a limited impact at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the results are 160.4 FPS on Low, 123.5 FPS on Medium, 91.4 FPS on High, and 91.9 FPS on Ultra. Notably, the Ultra result is slightly higher than High by 0.5 FPS, which is within measurement variance. This anomaly suggests that at 1440p, the High and Ultra presets impose a similar rendering load on the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the results are 115.1 FPS on Low, 89.1 FPS on Medium, 70.0 FPS on High, and 67.1 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Medium to High is 19.1 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 2.9 FPS. The 4K Low result of 115.1 FPS is particularly impressive, showing that the RTX 5070 Ti can handle 4K gaming at lower settings with substantial headroom. The 4K Ultra result of 67.1 FPS is the only measured scenario below the 70 FPS mark, but it remains playable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake-R architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 125W TDP. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory through a dual-channel interface, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700 platform. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 32889 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4643 in single-core. Its Geekbench scores are 15636 multi-core and 2778 single-core. The Passmark multithread score is 38697, with a single-thread score of 4273. These results place the CPU in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49367. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, scores 49166 with a deltaPct of 0.4, making the two nearly identical.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU’s single-thread performance is critical due to the game’s simulation-heavy workload. The boost clock of 5.30 GHz ensures that the main simulation thread can run at maximum speed, while the 14 cores handle background tasks like terrain loading and AI traffic. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is important for the game’s data streaming. At 1080p Low, the 200.8 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU can drive frame rates well beyond 144Hz, indicating that it is not a limiting factor at lower resolutions. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, the CPU’s performance ensures that the simulation logic does not cause frame rate dips below the GPU’s rendering output.