Microsoft Flight Simulator

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 presents a deeply lopsided matchup in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The benchmark data shows a configuration where the CPU is operating far above the GPU's capabilities, resulting in frame rates that are consistently low across all tested settings. This combination ranks at 1659 out of 1795 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 8 percent of all configurations for this title, making it a pairing that will struggle to deliver a playable experience outside of very specific conditions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is sharp and unequivocal, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck in nearly every scenario. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 54.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 43.3 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 11.1 FPS, and then plummets to 30.5 FPS at 3840x2160. This pattern shows that even at the lowest graphical fidelity, the RX 580 cannot maintain playable rates at 4K, as the pixel count overwhelms the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and the Polaris 20 chip.

The scaling becomes more punishing at higher presets. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate at 1080p is a marginal 28.8 FPS, which drops to 21.3 FPS at 1440p and then to 20.1 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1440p and 4K at Ultra is only 1.2 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is so saturated at this quality level that increasing resolution has a diminishing impact on performance; the card is already at its limit rendering the scene complexity.

At Medium settings, the resolution scaling is equally telling. The 1080p result of 40.2 FPS drops to 32 FPS at 1440p and then to 25.4 FPS at 4K. This consistent decline across all settings confirms that the RX 580’s render output is the limiting factor. The data indicates that 1080p is the only viable resolution for this combo, and even then, only Low settings approach a smooth 60 FPS target, while High settings yield just 33.8 FPS, making the experience feel sluggish.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580, with its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, is the clear performance ceiling in this pairing. Its boost clock of 1340 MHz and base clock of 1257 MHz are modest by modern standards, and the benchmark results show the card is unable to keep pace with the demands of Microsoft Flight Simulator’s rendering engine. The GPU's percentile rank among all GPUs is 53, placing it in the middle of the pack, but its average benchmark score of 13559 is only 0.1 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 and 1.1 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 455, underscoring its age and limited compute resources.

The data shows that the RX 580’s 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs are insufficient for high-fidelity flight simulation. At Ultra settings, the card can only muster 20.1 FPS at 4K, which is effectively a slideshow. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 28.8 FPS average is far below the threshold for smooth motion. The GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark score of 43, compared to its DirectX 11 score of 60, suggests that the card is not well-optimized for the modern API that Microsoft Flight Simulator utilizes, further hampering performance in this title.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is not the primary issue; rather, the card's raw compute power, measured at 6.175 TFLOPS for FP32, is the limiting factor. The high texture detail and complex geometry of the flight sim require more processing throughput than the Polaris architecture can deliver. The result is that the RX 580 consistently delivers frame rates below 35 FPS in all High and Ultra settings across every resolution, making it unsuitable for a game that demands high frame rates for a responsive flying experience.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1659 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 8 percent of all configurations. This rank is an indictment of the pairing, as the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor; the GPU's performance is dragging the entire system down. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is closer to the bottom of the database than the middle, and users would need to make significant compromises to achieve playable frame rates.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 35355 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals like the Intel Core i5-14400 and Intel Core i7-13800H scoring 35336 and 35416, respectively—all within a 0.3 percent delta. This shows the processor is a high-end part capable of handling the simulation’s physics and AI calculations with ease. However, the GPU’s average score of 13559 places it in the 53rd percentile, with nearest rivals like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and GTX 950 scoring nearly identically. The massive gap between the CPU’s high percentile and the GPU’s mid-tier percentile explains why the combo rank is so poor; the system is held back by the weakest link.

The data shows that this combo is not optimized for this game. While the CPU could easily feed a more powerful GPU, the RX 580 cannot translate that processing power into higher frame rates. The result is a rank that suggests any user with this pairing would see a significant improvement by upgrading the graphics card, as the CPU has ample headroom. The 1659 rank is a clear warning that this is a mismatched build for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and the measured FPS data confirms this verdict.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's capabilities across all settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 54.4 FPS on Low, 40.2 FPS on Medium, 33.8 FPS on High, and 28.8 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium is a 14.2 FPS drop, while the drop from Medium to High is 6.4 FPS, showing that the card has some headroom at the lowest preset but struggles as graphical complexity increases.

At 2560x1440, the averages fall to 43.3 FPS on Low, 32 FPS on Medium, 28.2 FPS on High, and 21.3 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p Low setting is the only configuration that approaches a playable 45 FPS, but it is still below the 60 FPS target. The drop from Low to Medium at this resolution is 11.3 FPS, indicating that the GPU is becoming more sensitive to settings changes as pixel count rises.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 30.5 FPS on Low, 25.4 FPS on Medium, 19.8 FPS on High, and 20.1 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with no setting reaching 31 FPS. The anomaly of Ultra (20.1 FPS) being slightly higher than High (19.8 FPS) is a negligible difference that falls within measurement variance, but it does highlight how the card is completely bottlenecked at this resolution. The data shows that the only way to achieve a semi-smooth experience is to use 1080p with Low settings, and even then, the 54.4 FPS average may dip in complex scenes with dense terrain or weather effects.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its benchmark scores are exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979 and a single-core score of 4091. This performance places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-14400 and Intel Core i9-12900HX, are all within a 0.3 percent delta in average score, confirming that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this combo.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU handles the complex flight model, weather simulation, and AI traffic, all of which are heavily threaded. The 20 threads of the i7-12700KF are more than sufficient for these tasks, and the high single-thread performance of 4091 in Cinebench R23 ensures that the main game loop runs efficiently. The data shows that the CPU is capable of far more than the RX 580 can deliver, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rates do not improve when resolution is lowered, which would typically indicate a CPU limitation.

Instead, the frame rates scale with resolution and settings, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU's 3dmark 16-thread score of 9282 and max-thread score of 9983 show that it has ample processing power to feed the GPU, but the RX 580 simply cannot keep up with the rendering demands. The CPU's role here is to provide a stable platform, and it does so admirably, but the user is left with a system where the graphics card is the sole reason for the low performance metrics.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 54.4 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-12700KF or the AMD Radeon RX 580 the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 53rd percentile, and the frame rates drop significantly with higher resolutions and settings, indicating the RX 580 is the limiting component.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations in the database?

A: This combo ranks 1659 out of 1795 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 8 percent of all configurations.

Q: Can this system run the game at 4K resolution?

A: No, the measured data shows that at 3840x2160, the highest average FPS is 30.5 on Low settings, with High and Ultra settings yielding just 19.8 and 20.1 FPS, respectively, which is not playable.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 54.4 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 28.8 FPS. This is a difference of 25.6 FPS, or roughly 47 percent lower performance on Ultra.

Q: Which resolution gives the most playable experience with this hardware?

A: The only resolution that approaches playable frame rates is 1920x1080. At this resolution, Low settings provide 54.4 FPS, while Medium and High settings provide 40.2 and 33.8 FPS, respectively, which are acceptable for a flight simulator.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable configuration for this combo is 1920x1080 resolution. At this resolution, the Low preset is the only one that delivers a frame rate close to 60 FPS, averaging 54.4 FPS. This should be the default choice for users who prioritize smoothness, as Microsoft Flight Simulator benefits from consistent frame rates to avoid stuttering during flight.

For users who want better visual fidelity, the Medium preset at 1080p, which averages 40.2 FPS, is the best compromise. This setting provides a significant improvement in texture detail and lighting over Low, and the 40 FPS average is still within the range of what many players consider acceptable for a simulation title. The High preset at 1080p, at 33.8 FPS, is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 28.8 FPS is not recommended, as the visual gains do not justify the performance loss.

At 1440p and 4K, the data suggests avoiding this combo entirely. The 1440p Medium setting at 32 FPS and the 4K Low setting at 30.5 FPS are the only options that come close to 30 FPS, but they are still too low for a comfortable experience. The recommendation is to stick to 1080p and use the Medium preset as a starting point, then adjust individual settings like volumetric clouds and terrain detail down to achieve a stable 40 FPS or higher, since the data shows the GPU is too weak to handle higher resolutions with this CPU.