Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator with Intel Core i7-13700K + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

This combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX lands at rank 198 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 11% of all configurations. The pairing of a 16-core Raptor Lake CPU with a 24 GB RDNA 3 flagship GPU produces a system that handles this flight sim with authority, though the data reveals interesting bottlenecks at different resolution and settings tiers.

How This Combo Ranks

The rank of 198 out of 1795 combos is strong, but not elite — it suggests that while this hardware is well above average for Microsoft Flight Simulator, there is headroom above it. The CPU sits at the 93rd percentile against all processors, while the GPU holds the 85th percentile against all graphics cards. This slight imbalance hints that the GPU might be the limiting factor in some scenarios, despite its high-end positioning. The i7-13700K's average benchmark score of 47282 places it within a tight cluster of rivals: it trails the Intel Core i7-13700KF by just 0.1%, sits 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4364P, 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i9-12900F, and 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 5945. These deltas are negligible in real-world terms, meaning the CPU is competitive with the best in its class. For the GPU, the RX 7900 XTX's average score of 44019 puts it 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580, 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile, 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000, and 2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. The GPU's standing is more variable against rivals, but the measured FPS in this specific game shows the card performing admirably.

GPU Role

The RX 7900 XTX brings a substantial 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth — a figure that matters greatly for a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams vast terrain and scenery data. The memory clock runs at 2500 MHz with 20 Gbps effective speed, while the GPU core operates with a base clock of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost clock of 2498 MHz. This clock configuration allows the card to maintain high throughput during sustained loads. The 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 96 ray accelerators provide ample raw power, though Microsoft Flight Simulator's workload is more bandwidth-intensive than compute-heavy. The 192 render output units and 384 texture mapping units ensure that pixel and texture throughput (479.6 GPixel/s and 959.2 GTexel/s respectively) keep up with 4K demands. Interestingly, the GPU's percentile rank of 85 against all GPUs is lower than the CPU's 93, and the measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 108.7 FPS — a figure that suggests the CPU is doing heavy lifting at lower resolutions, while the GPU takes over at higher ones.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K features 16 cores and 24 threads, split between performance and efficiency cores, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This high boost clock is crucial for flight simulation, which relies heavily on single-thread performance for physics and AI calculations. The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores confirm this strength: 5505 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 2850 in Geekbench single-core, and 4333 in PassMark single-thread. Multi-threaded performance is equally robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 45887. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help maintain data locality for the game's complex world streaming. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though the measured FPS data does not specify which was used. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are standard for this generation. The CPU's position relative to rivals — within 0.5% of the nearest competitors — indicates that the 13700K is not leaving performance on the table in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers 189.9 FPS on Low settings, 151.1 FPS on Medium, 113.6 FPS on High, and 108.7 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p results show 150.8 FPS on Low, 121.2 FPS on Medium, 90.3 FPS on High, and 86.7 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 4K, the numbers drop to 112.6 FPS on Low, 84.2 FPS on Medium, 68.1 FPS on High, and 65 FPS on Ultra. The pattern across resolutions reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra narrows as resolution increases: at 1080p, Low is 81.2 FPS ahead of Ultra; at 1440p, that gap shrinks to 64.1 FPS; at 4K, it narrows to 47.6 FPS. This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes the primary constraint at 4K, while the CPU's influence is more pronounced at 1080p. The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS is playable, but the 1080p Ultra figure of 108.7 FPS shows the combo is capable of high refresh rates when resolution is lowered.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low falls from 189.9 to 150.8 (a 39.1 FPS loss), Medium from 151.1 to 121.2 (29.9 FPS loss), High from 113.6 to 90.3 (23.3 FPS loss), and Ultra from 108.7 to 86.7 (22 FPS loss). The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more dramatic: Low drops 38.2 FPS to 112.6, Medium drops 37 FPS to 84.2, High drops 22.2 FPS to 68.1, and Ultra drops 21.7 FPS to 65. The percentage losses tell a clearer story: from 1080p to 4K, Low settings lose 40.7% of performance, Medium loses 44.3%, High loses 40.1%, and Ultra loses 40.2%. This relatively uniform percentage loss across settings — hovering around 40-44% — suggests that the scaling is driven primarily by pixel count rather than settings complexity. The fact that even Low settings at 4K can only reach 112.6 FPS, while 1080p Low hits 189.9 FPS, points to the GPU's fill rate limits being the dominant factor at higher resolutions. The CPU's strong single-thread performance keeps frame rates from collapsing at lower resolutions, where the game's simulation logic often becomes the bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance for optimizing the experience. At 4K, Ultra delivers 65 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. Dropping to High at 4K yields 68.1 FPS — a modest 3.1 FPS improvement that may not justify the visual downgrade. Medium at 4K jumps to 84.2 FPS, a 19.2 FPS gain over Ultra, representing the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness for 4K displays. For 1440p, High produces 90.3 FPS, which is solid, but Medium at 121.2 FPS offers a substantial 30.9 FPS improvement for a minor visual reduction — this appears to be the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors. At 1080p, the data shows that Ultra at 108.7 FPS is more than sufficient for standard 60 Hz displays, and even High at 113.6 FPS provides a comfortable margin. The 1080p Low setting of 189.9 FPS is useful for competitive or esports scenarios, though flight sims rarely demand such high rates. Overall, the data suggests that Medium settings at 4K or 1440p provide the best experience per measured row, offering frame rates well above playability thresholds while maintaining reasonable visual quality.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 4K gaming in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The measured FPS data shows strong performance at both ends: 1080p Ultra achieves 108.7 FPS, while 4K Ultra hits 65 FPS. The combo is capable at 4K, but 1080p and 1440p provide significantly higher frame rates, with 1440p Medium reaching 121.2 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-13700K's average benchmark score of 47282 is within 0.5% of all four nearest rivals: it trails the i7-13700KF by 0.1%, beats the AMD EPYC 4364P by 0.3%, beats the Intel Core i9-12900F by 0.4%, and trails the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 5945 by 0.5%.

Q: What GPU benchmark scores does the RX 7900 XTX achieve?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 44019, with notable individual results including 31238 in PassMark G3D, 189573 in Geekbench OpenCL, 192597 in Geekbench Vulkan, and 6841 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12.

Q: Does the frame rate drop uniformly when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The percentage loss is roughly uniform across settings — Low loses 40.7%, Medium loses 44.3%, High loses 40.1%, and Ultra loses 40.2% — indicating the drop is primarily pixel-count driven rather than settings-dependent.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 4K display?

A: Medium settings at 4K achieve 84.2 FPS, which is 19.2 FPS higher than Ultra's 65 FPS and 16.1 FPS higher than High's 68.1 FPS. This makes Medium the most effective preset for 4K in terms of measured frame rate.

Q: How does the GPU compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti?

A: The RX 7900 XTX's average benchmark score of 44019 is 2% lower than the RTX 4070 Ti's 44900, placing it slightly behind that rival in overall synthetic benchmarks, though the measured FPS in Microsoft Flight Simulator shows strong real-world performance.