Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 capable of running Microsoft Flight Simulator at 60 FPS in this configuration?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The measured data shows 106 FPS at 1080p Low and 85 FPS at 1440p Low with the RTX 5050. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 82 FPS. However, at Ultra settings, the average falls below 60 FPS at all resolutions, with 59 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 35 FPS at 4K.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU-GPU pairing?

A: For a smooth experience, 1080p Medium is the sweet spot, delivering 82 FPS average with a minimum of 70 FPS. If you prefer higher visual quality, 1440p Medium still provides a playable 66 FPS average. 4K is only viable at Low settings, where it reaches 63 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5050's VRAM capacity affect performance in this simulator?

A: The RTX 5050 comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 35, suggesting the 8 GB frame buffer becomes a limiting factor at the highest resolution and settings, as the gap between 4K Medium (49 FPS) and 4K High (37 FPS) is substantial.

Q: Is the i5-9400 holding back the RTX 5050 in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, but the CPU's limitations appear at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 106 FPS, and at 1440p Low, it hits 85 FPS. The performance scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K at Low settings (106 to 85 to 63 FPS) is less than linear, indicating the CPU is not fully saturating the GPU at lower resolutions but becomes less of a constraint as resolution increases.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: This specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1814 out of 2996 total tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the lower portion of the database, indicating that while it can run the game, many other combinations deliver higher frame rates.

Q: What kind of performance can be expected at 1440p with this setup?

A: At 1440p, users can expect an average of 85 FPS on Low, 66 FPS on Medium, 50 FPS on High, and 48 FPS on Ultra settings. The Medium setting offers the best balance, as it stays above 60 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is the primary driver of frame rates in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and its 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical factor at higher resolutions. The card operates with a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, paired with 2560 shading units. Its memory subsystem, consisting of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, delivers 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the data shows a sharp performance cliff at 4K.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 49 at Medium to 37 at High, a 24.5% decrease for one step up in settings. The gap between High and Ultra is smaller, from 37 to 35 FPS, indicating that the GPU is already saturated and the extra settings overhead has diminishing returns. The 8 GB frame buffer is likely the culprit, as ultra-high-resolution textures in a flight simulator can easily exceed this capacity. This explains why 4K Low (63 FPS) performs nearly as well as 1440p High (50 FPS) — the GPU is not being fed enough data at Low settings to hit its memory limit, but at High and Ultra, memory pressure becomes severe.

Benchmark scores for the RTX 5050 reinforce its mid-range positioning. Its Passmark G3D score of 17326 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2502 place it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (with a deltaPct of 1.6, meaning the RTX 5050 is 1.6% faster) and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (which is 1.6% faster than the RTX 5050). This places the GPU in a competitive but not top-tier bracket, which aligns with its measured performance in this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1814 out of 2996 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 60th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning roughly 40% of the combos in the database deliver worse performance, and about 60% deliver better. This ranking is modest, reflecting the fact that both components are mid-range or older-generation parts.

The CPU itself sits in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2% slower), the Intel Core i7-10710U (0.3% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (0.4% faster). These are all comparable in computational power, but none of them are modern high-end parts. The GPU, by contrast, is in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, showing that the graphics card is the stronger component in this pairing.

The ranking suggests that this combo is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it will not excel at 4K. For a flight simulator, which is heavily CPU-dependent for physics and world simulation, the i5-9400's position in the 47th percentile is a potential concern. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 106 FPS, which is respectable, but the CPU's six cores and six threads (with no hyper-threading) may struggle to maintain smooth frame pacing in dense urban areas or with heavy weather effects, even though the average FPS numbers look acceptable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) and four settings levels (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). Here is the full breakdown:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 106 FPS average
• Medium: 82 FPS average, with a minimum of 70 and maximum of 95
• High: 62 FPS average
• Ultra: 59 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 85 FPS average
• Medium: 66 FPS average, with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 76
• High: 50 FPS average
• Ultra: 48 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 63 FPS average
• Medium: 49 FPS average, with a minimum of 42 and maximum of 56
• High: 37 FPS average
• Ultra: 35 FPS average

At 1080p, the system is capable of delivering a smooth experience across all settings, with even Ultra staying just below the 60 FPS threshold at 59 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 24 FPS (106 to 82), while the jump from Medium to High costs 20 FPS (82 to 62). The step from High to Ultra is only 3 FPS (62 to 59), indicating that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor.

At 1440p, the story changes. Low settings still deliver a comfortable 85 FPS, but Medium drops to 66 FPS, which is still playable. High and Ultra both fall below 60 FPS, at 50 and 48 FPS respectively. This suggests that users targeting 1440p should stick to Medium settings for a consistent experience.

At 4K, only Low settings are playable, at 63 FPS. Medium drops to 49 FPS, and High and Ultra are in the mid-30s, which is not smooth for a flight simulator that requires precise control. The data clearly shows that 4K is not a practical target for this combo unless users are willing to accept significant compromises in visual quality.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about which component is the bottleneck. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 106 at 1080p to 85 at 1440p (a 19.8% decrease) and then to 63 at 4K (a 40.6% decrease from 1440p). This scaling pattern is not fully linear — going from 1080p to 4K is a 4x increase in pixel count, but the frame rate only drops by 40.6% from 1440p to 4K, suggesting the GPU is not the sole constraint at lower resolutions.

At Medium settings, the scaling is more uniform: 82 FPS at 1080p, 66 FPS at 1440p (19.5% drop), and 49 FPS at 4K (25.8% drop from 1440p). This pattern indicates that as settings increase, the GPU becomes more heavily utilized, and the resolution scaling becomes more predictable.

At High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 19.4% (62 to 50 FPS), and from 1440p to 4K it is 26% (50 to 37 FPS). The Ultra settings show a similar trend: 59 to 48 FPS (18.6% drop) and then 48 to 35 FPS (27.1% drop).

The consistent 18-20% drop from 1080p to 1440p across all settings suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor in this range. However, the larger drop from 1440p to 4K (25-40%) indicates that the 8 GB VRAM limit of the RTX 5050 becomes increasingly problematic as resolution increases. The CPU, with its six cores and six threads, appears sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the memory bandwidth and capacity of the GPU are the clear bottlenecks.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. This processor was released in October 2018 and is now end-of-life, but its performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator is still relevant for this pairing.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a modest level of performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 6629 in multi-core and 935 in single-core. Its Geekbench multicore score is 5141, with a single-core score of 1389. These numbers place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, meaning half of all tested processors are faster. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, has an almost identical average score (2259 vs 2254 for the i5-9400), putting them within 0.2% of each other.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is to handle the complex world simulation, physics calculations, and AI traffic. The six cores and six threads are sufficient for the game's demands, but the lack of hyper-threading could be a limitation in scenarios with heavy CPU load. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 106 FPS, which is high, but the CPU is likely the reason why the 4K Low frame rate (63 FPS) is not proportionally higher. When the resolution increases, the GPU takes on more work, but the CPU still has a baseline workload that cannot be reduced.

The boost clock of 4.10 GHz is respectable for single-threaded tasks, and the 9 MB of L3 cache helps with the game's large world data. However, the i5-9400's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s is modest by modern standards, which may contribute to the performance ceiling in this simulation-heavy title. For users considering this combo, the CPU is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it will not be the component that enables high-refresh-rate or 4K experiences. The data indicates that the RTX 5050 is the stronger component in this pairing, and the i5-9400 should be seen as a capable but not exceptional foundation for this game.