Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator: Intel Core i7-13700K + AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

The measured data for this combination shows a system that can handle Microsoft Flight Simulator across all tested settings, but with significant compromises required at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the combo delivers playable frame rates even at Ultra, while 4K demands a drop to Low settings for a smooth experience. The Intel Core i7-13700K provides substantial headroom, while the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT becomes the limiting factor as resolution climbs, making this pairing best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming with adjusted presets.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset depends entirely on target resolution, as the measured rows show a consistent pattern of frame rate erosion with each step up in quality. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 98 FPS average, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium at the same resolution drops to 77 FPS, High to 58 FPS, and Ultra to 55 FPS. For flight simulation, where smooth panning over terrain is critical, the Medium preset at 1080p strikes the best balance — 77 FPS average with a minimum of 65 FPS and maximum of 88 FPS provides a stable experience with room for complex scenery.

At 2560x1440, the situation tightens considerably. Low yields 79 FPS, Medium drops to 62 FPS (minimum 52, maximum 71), High falls to 46 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 44 FPS. The Medium preset remains the recommended choice here, as it stays above 60 FPS average while offering better visual fidelity than Low. The 46 FPS at High is playable but approaches the threshold where frame pacing becomes noticeable in a sim title that emphasizes smooth camera movement.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves a consistently smooth experience by conventional standards. Low delivers 59 FPS average, Medium 46 FPS (minimum 39, maximum 52), High 34 FPS, and Ultra 33 FPS. For 4K users, Low is the only viable choice if aiming for near-60 FPS, while Medium offers a more visually rich experience at the cost of dropping below 60 FPS. The 33-34 FPS results at High and Ultra are below the threshold for comfortable play in this genre. The data suggests that 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium are the sweet spots for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 2745 out of 3714 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in the lower portion of the distribution — roughly the 26th percentile of all combinations tested. This ranking reflects the GPU's position as a mid-range part from an earlier generation, despite the CPU being a high-end current-generation processor.

The rank indicates that while the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU effectively at lower resolutions, the overall combo score is dragged down by the graphics card's limitations at higher settings and resolutions. For context, the CPU alone sits in the 89th percentile among all tested CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 59th percentile among all tested GPUs. The combo rank of 2745 out of 3714 suggests that most better-performing combinations pair this class of CPU with a stronger GPU, or pair this GPU with a less powerful CPU to balance the system.

The delta between CPU and GPU capability is stark: the i7-13700K's average benchmark score of 46881 places it within 0.5% of rivals like the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46971, -0.2% delta), AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47022, -0.3% delta), AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (46654, 0.5% delta), and Intel Xeon w3-2535 (46653, 0.5% delta). Meanwhile, the RX 5700 XT's average score of 16361 is within 0.9% of rivals including the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16351, 0.1% delta), NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16408, -0.3% delta), AMD Radeon PRO W7500 (16415, -0.3% delta), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16504, -0.9% delta). The CPU is a top-tier performer, while the GPU is firmly mid-pack, and Microsoft Flight Simulator's scaling behavior exposes this imbalance at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with a Navi 10 chip manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1605 MHz, a game clock of 1755 MHz, and a boost clock of 1905 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Its 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines deliver a pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 9.754 TFLOPS.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1080p, the CPU can keep the GPU well-fed, as evidenced by the 98 FPS at Low settings. The jump from Low to Ultra at 1080p only costs 43 FPS (98 to 55), suggesting the GPU is handling the increased load without the CPU becoming a bottleneck. At 1440p, the same Low-to-Ultra transition costs 35 FPS (79 to 44), and at 4K it costs 26 FPS (59 to 33). This diminishing gap indicates the GPU is becoming the primary constraint as resolution increases.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for the tested settings in this game, but the memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s appears to be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the average drops to 33 FPS. The GPU's end-of-life production status and its successor, Navi II, further contextualize its position as a part that was designed for 1080p and 1440p gaming of its era, which aligns with the measured results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are: Low 98 FPS, Medium 77 FPS (minimum 65, maximum 88), High 58 FPS, and Ultra 55 FPS. The Medium preset offers the most complete data with a 13 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, indicating reasonable frame consistency. The gap between High and Ultra is only 3 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns beyond the High preset at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are: Low 79 FPS, Medium 62 FPS (minimum 52, maximum 71), High 46 FPS, and Ultra 44 FPS. The Medium preset's 19 FPS spread (52 to 71) is wider than at 1080p, indicating more frame time variability as the GPU works harder. The High-to-Ultra gap narrows to just 2 FPS, reinforcing that Ultra provides marginal visual benefit over High at this resolution for this GPU.

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are: Low 59 FPS, Medium 46 FPS (minimum 39, maximum 52), High 34 FPS, and Ultra 33 FPS. The Medium preset shows a 13 FPS spread, matching 1080p Medium's range but at a much lower absolute level. The High-to-Ultra difference is a single FPS, making Ultra effectively indistinguishable from High in performance terms at 4K. The Low preset at 59 FPS is the only 4K option that approaches a 60 FPS target, and even that falls just short of the mark.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low settings provide the highest frame rates, Ultra the lowest, with Medium serving as a middle ground that often provides the best balance of performance and visual quality. The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium presets, shows that 1080p Medium never dips below 65 FPS, 1440p Medium stays above 52 FPS, and 4K Medium stays above 39 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p and then to 4K reveals how this combination scales with pixel count. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 98 FPS at 1080p to 79 FPS at 1440p (a 19 FPS reduction, or roughly 19%) and then to 59 FPS at 4K (a further 20 FPS reduction, or roughly 25%). At Medium settings, the progression is 77 FPS to 62 FPS to 46 FPS — a 15 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 16 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the progression is 58 FPS to 46 FPS to 34 FPS, with an 12 FPS drop followed by another 12 FPS drop. At Ultra settings, the progression is 55 FPS to 44 FPS to 33 FPS, with an 11 FPS drop followed by another 11 FPS drop.

The percentage drops from 1080p to 4K are substantial: Low loses 40% of its frame rate, Medium loses 40%, High loses 41%, and Ultra loses 40%. This remarkably consistent ~40% reduction across all settings indicates that the scaling is driven primarily by pixel count rather than settings complexity. The GPU is the limiting component in this scaling behavior — as resolution increases, the RX 5700 XT's fixed shading resources and memory bandwidth are spread across more pixels, and the CPU's performance headroom becomes irrelevant.

The near-identical percentage drops across settings also suggest that Microsoft Flight Simulator's workload scales uniformly with resolution for this GPU. Unlike some titles where higher settings introduce additional CPU-side calculations, the measured data shows that the frame rate reduction from 1080p to 4K is consistent regardless of preset. This points to a GPU-bound scenario at 1440p and 4K, while 1080p results may still benefit from the CPU's strong single-threaded performance — the i7-13700K scores 2116 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 4333 in Passmark single-thread, both excellent figures.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 provides the highest frame rates across all settings, with Low achieving 98 FPS and Medium achieving 77 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium still reaches 62 FPS, making it viable, while 3840x2160 only approaches playable levels at Low (59 FPS).

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Ultra delivers 55 FPS versus High's 58 FPS, a 3 FPS difference. At 1440p, Ultra delivers 44 FPS versus High's 46 FPS, a 2 FPS difference. At 4K, Ultra delivers 33 FPS versus High's 34 FPS, a 1 FPS difference. The performance cost of Ultra over High is minimal, but the absolute frame rates at 1440p and 4K are low regardless.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this system?

A: The data shows the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU's average benchmark score of 46881 places it in the 89th percentile, while the GPU's score of 16361 places it in the 59th percentile. The consistent ~40% frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates GPU-bound scaling rather than CPU limitations.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 46 FPS, with a minimum of 39 FPS and a maximum of 52 FPS. This provides playable performance but does not consistently maintain 60 FPS, which may matter for smooth flight simulation.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested combinations?

A: It ranks 2745 out of 3714 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the lower 26% of all tested systems. This reflects the GPU's mid-range position despite the high-end CPU.

Q: Does the Medium preset provide stable frame times?

A: The measured minimum and maximum values for Medium show spreads of 13 FPS at 1080p (65 to 88), 19 FPS at 1440p (52 to 71), and 13 FPS at 4K (39 to 52). The 1440p spread is the widest, indicating more frame time variability at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus, with PCIe Gen 5 connectivity providing 20 lanes from the CPU. The processor also includes UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics, though the discrete RX 5700 XT handles rendering in this configuration.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the 98 FPS result suggests the processor can feed the GPU efficiently. The i7-13700K's benchmark scores support this capability: 30745 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 2116 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 19429 in Geekbench multicore, and 2529 in Geekbench single-core. The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for flight simulation, which often relies on a few heavily loaded threads for flight model and scenery processing.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 89 among all tested CPUs places it well above the GPU's 59th percentile, confirming that the processor is not the bottleneck in this system. The nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks — AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (46971, -0.2% delta), AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 (47022, -0.3% delta), AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (46654, 0.5% delta), and Intel Xeon w3-2535 (46653, 0.5% delta) — all score within one percent of the i7-13700K, indicating that any of these processors would produce similar results when paired with the same GPU in this game.

The Passmark multithread score of 45887 and Passmark single-thread score of 4333 further illustrate the CPU's strength. At 1080p, where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU's capability allows the RX 5700 XT to reach its maximum measured output of 98 FPS at Low settings. As resolution increases, the CPU's advantage becomes less relevant, and the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become the determining factors. The 16 cores and 24 threads provide ample parallelism for any background tasks, but the measured FPS data shows that Microsoft Flight Simulator's performance ceiling for this combo is set by the graphics card, not the processor.