Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator: Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

This combination places the Intel Core i7-12700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in Microsoft Flight Simulator, a title known for its demanding rendering of terrain, weather, and cockpit detail. The measured data spans four settings presets across three resolutions, offering a clear picture of how this pairing scales under load. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 89.6 FPS on Ultra to 167 FPS on Low, while at 3840x2160, the same settings yield 53.3 FPS and 93.7 FPS respectively. These numbers reveal a system that remains highly playable at lower resolutions but begins to strain at 4K with higher presets, suggesting a GPU-bound scenario as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 167 at 1920x1080 to 132 at 2560x1440, then to 93.7 at 3840x2160 — a reduction of approximately 44% from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the decline is from 93.4 to 79 to 55.6 FPS across the same resolutions, a 40% drop. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 89.6 FPS at 1080p, 74.8 at 1440p, and 53.3 at 4K, a 41% reduction. This pattern indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases; the GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra workload exceeds what the card can sustain at high frame rates.

The differential between Low and Ultra at each resolution also grows with pixel count. At 1080p, Low is 86% faster than Ultra (167 vs 89.6 FPS). At 1440p, the gap widens to 76% (132 vs 74.8). At 4K, Low is 76% faster than Ultra as well (93.7 vs 53.3). This suggests that the CPU, with its 12 cores and 20 threads, is not the primary bottleneck at 1080p; the GPU handles the load adequately, but the margin narrows as resolution increases. The data indicates a balanced pairing where neither component is severely underutilized, but the GPU's limits are most apparent at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS dips below 60.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 440th out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 75th percentile overall. This is a strong showing, but not elite — the top 25% of combos likely feature newer GPUs or higher-tier CPUs. The CPU itself holds an 89th percentile ranking against all processors, while the GPU sits at the 83rd percentile against all graphics cards, so the combo's relative position is slightly below what each component's individual percentile might suggest. This discrepancy likely stems from the game's engine, which may not fully utilize all 20 threads of the i7-12700K, or from the GPU's 12 GB memory capacity being a constraint at higher settings.

Compared to the nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark, the i7-12700K trails the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 by 0.3% in average score, leads the Intel Core i7-13700T by 0.6%, and is 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-14500HX. These sub-1% differences are negligible in real-world gaming, meaning the CPU is not a differentiator in this title. On the GPU side, the RTX 3080 Ti is 0.5% behind the RTX 3090, 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300, and 1.1% behind the RTX 5070. Again, these margins are tiny, suggesting that the GPU's performance in this game is well within expected bounds for its class.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo reaches 167 FPS on average, which is the highest measured value across all tested configurations.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K with any preset?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average FPS is 93.7, and with Medium settings it is 76.7, both above 60 FPS. However, High and Ultra presets fall below 60, at 55.6 and 53.3 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the CPU's core count affect performance in this game?

A: The i7-12700K has 12 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost of 5.00 GHz. The data shows that at 1080p, frame rates scale well with settings, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU adequately; the bottleneck shifts to the GPU as resolution increases, not the CPU.

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

A: At 1920x1080 High, the average is 93.4 FPS, while at 2560x1440 High, it drops to 79 FPS, a reduction of 15.4%.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 Ti's memory bandwidth sufficient for this game's textures?

A: The GPU has 912.4 GB/s bandwidth and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. The measured FPS at 4K Medium (76.7) versus 4K Ultra (53.3) suggests that memory bandwidth is adequate, but the higher preset's demand on shading units and RT cores likely causes the drop, not memory capacity alone.

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

A: It ranks 440th out of 1795 combos, placing it in the top 25% of all tested systems for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are 167 on Low, 126.4 on Medium, 93.4 on High, and 89.6 on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium is a 24% decrease, while Medium to High is a 26% drop, and High to Ultra is a mere 4% reduction. This indicates diminishing returns at the highest preset, where visual improvements come at a modest cost to performance. The 1080p results are all above 60 FPS, making this resolution entirely playable with any settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 132 on Low, 103.8 on Medium, 79 on High, and 74.8 on Ultra. The Low to Medium drop is 21%, Medium to High is 24%, and High to Ultra is 5%. Similar to 1080p, the Ultra preset does not heavily penalize FPS compared to High, but the overall frame rates are lower. All presets remain above 60 FPS at 1440p, with Ultra just shy of 75 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the values are 93.7 on Low, 76.7 on Medium, 55.6 on High, and 53.3 on Ultra. The Low to Medium decrease is 18%, Medium to High is 27%, and High to Ultra is 4%. The High and Ultra presets fall below 60 FPS, which may be a concern for users with high-refresh displays. The data shows that 4K requires dropping to Medium or Low to maintain smooth frame rates, and even then, the margin above 60 FPS is comfortable only on Low.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K, based on Alder Lake architecture, provides 12 cores and 20 threads with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its benchmark scores are substantial: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29241 and single-core of 4128, plus a Geekbench multi-core of 13892 and single-core of 2561. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI traffic, and physics calculations, which are typically single-threaded or lightly threaded. The high single-core performance (1043 in 3DMark single-thread) ensures that the game's primary thread does not become a bottleneck, as evidenced by the 167 FPS at 1080p Low.

However, the game does not appear to scale perfectly with the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities. The i7-12700K's PassMark multi-thread score of 34404 is strong, but the 3DMark max-threads score of 9979 suggests that not all threads are equally utilized. The CPU's 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core provide ample data locality for the game's terrain streaming, but the 20 threads exceed what most games, including this flight simulator, can fully exploit. The nearest CPU rivals show deltaPct values within 0.8%, indicating that the i7-12700K's performance is typical for its class; the game's frame rates are more dependent on GPU load than CPU differences.

Settings Recommendations

For users prioritizing smooth frame rates, the Low preset at 2560x1440 offers 132 FPS on average, which is well above 60 and suitable for high-refresh monitors. At 1920x1080, Low hits 167 FPS, but this resolution may not showcase the game's visual fidelity. The Medium preset strikes a balance: 126.4 FPS at 1080p, 103.8 at 1440p, and 76.7 at 4K. This is the recommended choice for most users, as it maintains playable frame rates across all resolutions while providing better visual detail than Low.

The High preset is viable at 1080p (93.4 FPS) and 1440p (79 FPS), but at 4K it drops to 55.6 FPS, which may cause stutter on 60 Hz displays. For 4K users, Medium is the superior option, as it delivers 76.7 FPS — a 38% improvement over High. The Ultra preset should be reserved for 1080p or 1440p users who value maximum visual quality over frame rate; at 4K, Ultra's 53.3 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold. The data suggests that the RTX 3080 Ti, despite its 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, cannot sustain 4K Ultra in this title, so users should prioritize Medium or Low for a consistent experience at that resolution.