Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i7-12700K compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i7-12700K posts an average benchmark score of 35684, placing it 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (35802) and 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-14500HX (35940). It is 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700T (35468) and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13800H (35416). Its percentile ranking against all CPUs is 89, indicating strong overall compute performance.

Q: What is the RTX 4060's standing relative to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score is 23181, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23321) and 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (23338). It sits 0.7% above the Intel Arc B580 (23021) and 0.8% above the AMD Radeon 760M (22999). The GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 66.

Q: How does the i7-12700K's multi-threaded performance look in Cinebench?

A: In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 29241 in multi-core and 4128 in single-core. In Cinebench R20, the multi-core score is 12281 and single-core is 1733. The R15 multi-core score is 2947 with a single-core score of 415. These results demonstrate robust scaling across thread counts, consistent with its 12-core, 20-thread configuration.

Q: What is the RTX 4060's memory configuration and bandwidth?

A: The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clock is 2125 MHz, which translates to 17 Gbps effective. This configuration is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, though the 8 GB capacity may be a limiting factor at higher resolutions in memory-intensive titles.

Q: What are the measured frame rates for this combo at 1080p with Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 120.4 FPS. This is the highest measured average across all tested resolutions and settings, indicating that the combination of the i7-12700K and RTX 4060 can deliver very high frame rates when graphical load is minimized.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo rank in Microsoft Flight Simulator is 1007 out of 1795 total tested combinations. This places it in the upper-middle portion of the distribution, meaning it outperforms a slight majority of tested systems but is not near the top tier of configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node at TSMC. Its boost clock reaches 2460 MHz, with a base clock of 1830 MHz. The GPU contains 3072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output pipelines. It also features 24 ray tracing cores and 96 tensor cores, which are relevant for Microsoft Flight Simulator's rendering workload, though the game's performance here appears more dependent on raw rasterization throughput.

The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 15.11 TFLOPS, with FP16 at the same 15.11 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio). The pixel rate is 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate is 236.2 GTexel/s. These figures indicate a mid-range part that can handle the game's dense scenery rendering at moderate settings, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity and 128-bit memory bus (272.0 GB/s bandwidth) may constrain performance at 4K, particularly when texture detail is increased.

The RTX 4060's role in this game becomes clearer when examining measured results. At 1080p, the GPU is capable of producing 120.4 FPS at Low settings, showing headroom for high refresh rate monitors. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 39.3 FPS, suggesting the GPU's memory bandwidth or compute resources become a bottleneck at higher resolutions. The transition from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent drop, indicating that the GPU's shading and memory subsystems are heavily taxed by the game's higher-detail settings.

The GPU's TDP is 115 W, with a suggested PSU of 300 W. It uses a 1x 12-pin power connector and occupies a dual-slot form factor measuring 240 mm in length. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, all of which are relevant for modern game compatibility. Its production status is marked as end-of-life, which may affect availability but not current performance characteristics.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows clear scaling patterns across resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 120.4 FPS at Low, 94.6 FPS at Medium, 70.1 FPS at High, and 68.6 FPS at Ultra. Moving to 1440p, the same settings produce 92.9, 76.6, 58.9, and 50.4 FPS respectively. At 4K, the numbers fall to 66.3, 54.2, 41.9, and 39.3 FPS.

The drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 54.1 FPS (120.4 to 66.3), a reduction of approximately 45%. This indicates that even at the lowest settings, resolution scaling has a significant impact, pointing to the GPU as the primary limiting factor. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4128) is likely sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth become saturated as pixel count increases.

Comparing High settings specifically: 70.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 58.9 FPS at 1440p (an 11.2 FPS decrease) and then to 41.9 FPS at 4K (a 17.0 FPS decrease from 1440p). The steeper decline from 1440p to 4K suggests that the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain frame rates when pixel throughput demands double from 1440p to 4K.

The Ultra settings show the least absolute variance across resolutions: 68.6, 50.4, and 39.3 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. This compression of frame rates at higher settings indicates that the game's Ultra preset is heavily GPU-bound, and the RTX 4060's resources are exhausted regardless of resolution. The CPU's role diminishes as settings increase, which is typical for a flight simulator where scenery complexity and draw distance dominate the rendering load.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1007 out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the system in the 56th percentile of all tested combos, meaning it outperforms roughly 56% of configurations in this specific game. The ranking reflects the game's unique demands, which favor strong single-threaded CPU performance (the i7-12700K delivers a Geekbench single-core score of 2561) alongside a mid-range GPU.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 89 among all CPUs is notably higher than the GPU's percentile of 66 among all GPUs. This disparity suggests that the system's overall game performance is more constrained by the RTX 4060 than by the i7-12700K. In a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for high CPU overhead in physics and scenery loading, the 12-core, 20-thread processor provides ample headroom, but the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and memory bandwidth become the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The combo rank of 1007 indicates that while this configuration is respectable, it is not optimized for maximum frame rates in this simulator. The measured data shows that at 1080p High, the system achieves 70.1 FPS, which is playable but not exceptional for a title that can benefit from higher frame rates during complex flight maneuvers. At 4K Ultra, the 39.3 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold that many users consider smooth.

Given the CPU's strong synthetic scores (e.g., 29241 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 9979 in 3DMark max threads), the system could likely benefit from a more powerful GPU to better utilize the processor's capabilities. However, the 1007 rank out of 1795 combos shows that many other systems with similar or worse CPUs but better GPUs outperform this configuration in Microsoft Flight Simulator, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor for this game.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 70.1 FPS, which is smooth for most flight simulation scenarios. The Ultra preset at 1080p achieves 68.6 FPS, only 1.5 FPS lower than High, making it a viable choice for users prioritizing visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 94.6 FPS offers a substantial frame rate boost with modest visual compromises, and Low at 120.4 FPS is ideal for competitive or high-refresh-rate play.

At 2560x1440, the High preset produces 58.9 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 76.6 FPS is the recommended balance, providing a 17.7 FPS improvement over High while maintaining acceptable visual quality. The Low preset at 92.9 FPS offers the best performance at this resolution, though users may find the visual trade-offs too significant. The Ultra preset at 50.4 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided unless the user prioritizes maximum detail over smoothness.

For 3840x2160 (4K), the measured results are more constrained. The Medium preset at 54.2 FPS is the only setting that approaches playability, while High (41.9 FPS) and Ultra (39.3 FPS) fall below 45 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter in a game that requires precise control. The Low preset at 66.3 FPS is the best 4K option, offering a playable frame rate with significantly reduced visual detail. Users targeting 4K should consider using the Low preset or reducing the resolution to 1440p for a better experience.

The data indicates that the sweet spot for this combination is 1080p with High or Ultra settings, or 1440p with Medium settings. At 4K, the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are insufficient to maintain high frame rates with detailed graphics, so users should either accept lower settings or play at lower resolutions. The i7-12700K's processing power is not the limiting factor in any scenario, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate drops across resolutions when settings are held constant.