Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator places unusual demands on a system, blending heavy CPU simulation logic with GPU-intensive rendering. The data for the Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 reveals a configuration that is consistently playable, but one where the balance of power shifts decisively depending on resolution and quality settings. The measured results show a system that can push high frame rates at 1080p, but which becomes increasingly GPU-bound as the resolution climbs, ultimately settling into a narrow performance band at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The best result is 86 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that breaks the 80 FPS barrier, indicating a clear ceiling for the system at lower graphical loads.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 28 FPS. This is the lowest measured result, making it the most demanding configuration tested. The jump from High to Ultra at this resolution costs only 2 FPS on average (from 30 to 28), suggesting a hard performance wall.

Q: What is the difference in performance between Low and Medium settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, moving from Low to Medium reduces the average from 69 FPS to 54 FPS, a drop of 15 FPS. This indicates that the Medium preset introduces a significant increase in graphical workload compared to the baseline Low preset.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top half of all tested combinations?

A: No, the comboRankInGame places this configuration at 2406 out of 2996 tested combos. This puts it in the lower percentile of tested systems, which reflects the mid-range positioning of the Arc B570 in this specific simulation title.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most consistent frame pacing at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the only configuration in the entire measured set that reports minimum, average, and maximum FPS values (57, 67, and 77 respectively). This data suggests a frame pacing window of 20 FPS, which is tighter than the variance seen at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the CPU's single-threaded performance score?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF scores 1043 in the 3dmark_single_thread benchmark and 3984 in the passmark_single_thread test. These scores, alongside a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, indicate strong single-core capability, which is often critical for flight simulator physics and AI logic.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with a BMG-G21 chip, is the primary driver of visual output in this configuration. Its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s, a figure that becomes a critical constraint at higher resolutions. The GPU's raw compute capabilities are defined by its 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, which together yield an FP32 throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS. The card's fixed clocks are notable: both base and boost are listed at 2500 MHz, with memory clocked at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective).

The data shows the GPU's role becoming more pronounced as resolution scales. At 1920x1080, the GPU has ample headroom; the CPU can feed it frames effectively, allowing the Low preset to reach 86 FPS. However, the performance delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution (86 to 48 FPS) demonstrates that the GPU is still heavily taxed by the full visual feature set. At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The frame rates compress into a range between 28 and 51 FPS, showing that even dropping to Low settings cannot double the performance, unlike at 1080p where Low more than doubles the frame rate of the 4K Ultra result. The memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s appears insufficient to feed the render pipeline efficiently at 4K, as indicated by the severe drop-off in average FPS across all settings at that resolution. The GPU's percentile rank of 65 versus all GPUs, and its proximity to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile in average score, places it in a specific performance tier that is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggles with the 4K demands of this simulation.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of scaling efficiency. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS at High settings drops from 50 to 41, a reduction of 18%. At 4K (3840x2160), the High preset average falls to 30 FPS, a further 27% reduction from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern is typical, but the magnitude of the drop suggests that the GPU is the dominant limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The most telling data point is the Low preset scaling. At 1080p, Low yields 86 FPS. At 1440p, it yields 69 FPS. At 4K, it yields 51 FPS. This is a 20% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 26% drop from 1440p to 4K. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rate to remain relatively flat regardless of resolution, as the CPU workload is resolution-independent. The consistent decline in FPS with every resolution increase, even at Low settings where the GPU load is minimized, confirms that the Arc B570's rendering capabilities (including its pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s) are being saturated.

The 4K Medium preset shows a minimum FPS of 34 and a maximum of 46, indicating that the frame time variance is high. This instability at 4K points to the GPU struggling to maintain consistent throughput, likely due to memory bandwidth limitations. In contrast, the 1080p Medium preset has a much tighter band (57 to 77 FPS), suggesting the GPU has enough resources to handle the scene without frequent stutters. The data implies that the CPU, with its 20 threads and high boost clock, is delivering a consistent stream of draw calls, but the GPU cannot translate that into higher frame rates as the pixel count increases.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience balances frame rate stability with visual fidelity. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. It delivers an average of 67 FPS with a measured minimum of 57 and maximum of 77. This is the only preset that provides complete min/max data, which suggests the benchmark was able to capture a stable run. The High preset at 1080p drops to 50 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices 17 FPS on average for the visual upgrade. The Ultra preset at 1080p (48 FPS) offers no real advantage over High (50 FPS) in terms of average frame rate, making it a poor choice for the performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again appears to be the recommended target. It achieves an average of 54 FPS (with min 46 and max 62), which is the only 1440p configuration with full measurement data. The High preset at 41 FPS is a significant step down, and the Ultra preset at 39 FPS is nearly identical, suggesting that the GPU is unable to leverage the extra settings. The Low preset at 1440p yields 69 FPS, but it does so by stripping out the visual complexity that defines the simulation.

For 3840x2160, none of the presets are ideal. The Low preset (51 FPS) is the only one that approaches playable territory. The Medium (40 FPS) and High (30 FPS) presets are likely too choppy for a smooth experience, and the Ultra preset (28 FPS) is effectively a slideshow. The recommendation is to play at 1440p Medium for the best balance of fidelity and performance, or 1080p Medium for maximum smoothness with the highest measured stability.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame places this specific pairing at 2406 out of 2996 tested combinations. This ranking puts it in the bottom 20% of all tested systems for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is a low rank, but it is important to contextualize it against the individual components. The CPU, Intel Core i7-12700KF, has a percentileVsAllCpus of 85, meaning it is in the top 15% of all CPUs tested. Its average benchmark score of 35365 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i7-13700T (35403) and Intel Core i5-13600T (35305), with a deltaPct of -0.1 and 0.2 respectively.

The GPU, Intel Arc B570, has a percentileVsAllGpus of 65, placing it in the 65th percentile. Its average benchmark score of 20556 is also very close to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Arc A750 (20582, deltaPct -0.1) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, deltaPct 0.1). The fact that both components are performing exactly as their synthetic benchmarks suggest indicates that the low combo rank is not due to a bottleneck or system misconfiguration. Instead, it reflects the heavy demands of Microsoft Flight Simulator on the GPU. The game's rendering engine is likely more demanding than the average title used in the GPU benchmark suite, dragging the combo's ranking down. The data shows a powerful CPU being held back by a mid-range GPU in this specific application.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 86 FPS average
• Medium: 67 FPS average (min 57, max 77)
• High: 50 FPS average
• Ultra: 48 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 69 FPS average
• Medium: 54 FPS average (min 46, max 62)
• High: 41 FPS average
• Ultra: 39 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 51 FPS average
• Medium: 40 FPS average (min 34, max 46)
• High: 30 FPS average
• Ultra: 28 FPS average

The data shows a linear progression of performance loss as resolution increases. At each resolution, the difference between Low and Medium is substantial (19 FPS at 1080p, 15 FPS at 1440p, 11 FPS at 4K). The gap between Medium and High is also significant (17 FPS at 1080p, 13 FPS at 1440p, 10 FPS at 4K). However, the difference between High and Ultra is minimal at every resolution (2 FPS at 1080p, 2 FPS at 1440p, 2 FPS at 4K). This suggests that the Ultra preset's additional settings (likely higher shadow quality, volumetric clouds, and terrain detail) are not being fully rendered due to GPU limitations, or they are extremely expensive for the Arc B570's architecture. The 4K Ultra result of 28 FPS is the absolute worst-case scenario, and the 1080p Low result of 86 FPS is the best-case scenario, providing a clear performance envelope for the hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, which is a significant turbo headroom. Its cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, but the benchmark data does not specify which was used. The processor's TDP is listed at 125 W, and it is built on Intel's 10 nm process node.

In the context of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is to handle the flight model, AI traffic, and physics calculations. The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration. The 3dmark scores show strong scaling: 2065 for 2 threads, 4011 for 4 threads, 7211 for 8 threads, 9282 for 16 threads, and 9983 for max threads. This indicates good multi-threading efficiency. The single-thread score of 1043 in 3dmark and 4071 in cinebench_r23_singlecore are robust, ensuring that the main simulation thread which often runs on a single core is well-served.

The most compelling evidence that the CPU is performing its role is the frame rate scaling. At 1080p Low (86 FPS), the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the GPU has minimal work. However, as the resolution increases, the frame rates drop consistently, showing that the CPU is able to maintain its output while the GPU becomes saturated. If the CPU were weak, we would see frame rates plateau or even drop across all resolutions. Instead, the data shows a clear GPU-bound scenario at 1440p and 4K. The CPU's percentile rank of 85 and its benchmark scores, which are nearly identical to the i7-13700T and i5-13600T, confirm it is delivering expected performance. The bottleneck in this system is unequivocally the Intel Arc B570's rendering throughput, not the processing power of the i7-12700KF.