Microsoft Flight Simulator

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER produces a mid-pack result in Microsoft Flight Simulator, securing a rank of 1343 out of 1795 tested combinations. This places the combo in the 25th percentile overall, indicating that while it is capable of running the simulator, a substantial portion of the tested hardware pairings deliver higher frame rates. The ranking reflects a balance where the CPU is decidedly high-end, but the GPU anchors the system to a more modest performance tier, making this a configuration that prioritizes processing headroom over raw graphical throughput.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1343 out of 1795 places it firmly in the lower-middle segment of the database’s tested configurations. This is a direct consequence of the GPU’s standing; the RTX 2060 SUPER sits at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the GeForce GTX TITAN trails by just 0.3%, the RTX 2070 is 0.5% ahead, the Quadro K5200 is 0.8% ahead, and the Tesla K40m leads by 1.3%. This grouping shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER is competitive with a narrow band of older and newer cards, but it does not break into higher tiers. In contrast, the i7-14700F is a far stronger component, ranking in the 94th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 54097. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, is a mere 0.6% faster, while the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is 1.1% faster, and the i7-14700F outperforms the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 by 1.2% and the AMD EPYC 7313P by 1.7%. The disparity between the CPU’s elite status and the GPU’s mid-range position explains the overall combo rank; the system is essentially GPU-limited in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the optimal experience for this combination is the Medium preset at 1920x1080, which delivers an average of 78.7 FPS. This setting provides a smooth frame rate that is well above the threshold for comfortable play in a simulation genre, where fluid camera movement and dense scenery are common. At this resolution, Low achieves 97.4 FPS, but the visual fidelity reduction is significant, and the gain over Medium is only 18.7 FPS, which may not justify the drop in detail. High and Ultra both produce identical averages of 56.5 FPS at 1080p, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced maneuvers. For users with 2560x1440 displays, Medium is again the recommended starting point, yielding 65.8 FPS, which is a solid result. At 4K, the situation changes drastically; no preset reaches 60 FPS, with Low hitting 57.2 FPS and Medium dropping to 48.1 FPS. Therefore, the data points to Medium as the sweet spot for this hardware, balancing visual quality with playable frame rates across all tested resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 97.4 at 1080p to 81.9 at 1440p, a 15.9% decrease, and then to 57.2 at 4K, a 41.3% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload scales with pixel count. The same trend is visible at Medium: 78.7 FPS at 1080p falls to 65.8 at 1440p and then to 48.1 at 4K. The High preset shows a similar trajectory, dropping from 56.5 at 1080p to 44.7 at 1440p and 32.7 at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 56.5 FPS at 1080p, 43.9 at 1440p, and 31.2 at 4K. Notably, the difference between 1080p and 1440p is consistently around 15 FPS across all settings, while the jump from 1440p to 4K incurs a more substantial penalty of roughly 25 to 27 FPS. This indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K resolution overwhelms the card, making it the definitive bottleneck in this configuration. The CPU’s high single-thread and multi-thread scores, including a Geekbench single-core result of 2711, are not the limiting factor here.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows the following average frame rates: Low produces 97.4 FPS, Medium delivers 78.7 FPS, High matches Ultra at 56.5 FPS. The identical scores for High and Ultra suggest that at this resolution, the GPU’s computational limits are reached before the extra Ultra settings can exert a measurable performance cost, or that the settings have diminishing returns. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are more differentiated: Low runs at 81.9 FPS, Medium at 65.8 FPS, High at 44.7 FPS, and Ultra at 43.9 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to less than one frame, reinforcing the pattern seen at 1080p. At 3840x2160, the results are the lowest across the board: Low averages 57.2 FPS, Medium averages 48.1 FPS, High averages 32.7 FPS, and Ultra averages 31.2 FPS. The 4K results show a clear hierarchy, with Low being the only playable option above 30 FPS, while High and Ultra dip below 33 FPS, making them marginal for a smooth experience. The lack of min and max FPS data means these averages represent the central tendency, but the consistent drop-offs across resolutions point to predictable performance scaling.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combination in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The combo ranks 1343 out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database.

Q: Which settings preset offers the best balance of performance and quality?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 provides an average of 78.7 FPS, which is the recommended balance. At 1440p, Medium also delivers a playable 65.8 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 19774. It is 0.3% slower than the GeForce GTX TITAN, 0.5% slower than the RTX 2070, and 0.8% slower than the Quadro K5200, but 1.3% faster than the Tesla K40m.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 3840x2160. The average FPS drops to 32.7 on High and 31.2 on Ultra, while the CPU’s benchmark performance is in the 94th percentile, showing it is not the bottleneck.

Q: What are the CPU’s core and thread counts?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F has 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz.

Q: How much performance does the combo lose when moving from 1080p to 4K on Medium settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 78.7 FPS at 1080p to 65.8 FPS at 1440p and then to 48.1 FPS at 4K, representing a 30.6 FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. These specifications place it in the top tier of desktop CPUs, and its benchmark results confirm this. In Cinebench R23, it scores 35443 in multi-core and 5003 in single-core, while in Geekbench it achieves 16571 multi-core and 2711 single-core. Its PassMark multithread score of 41765 and single-thread score of 4261 further demonstrate its strength. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy single-thread usage in simulation logic, the CPU’s high single-core performance is critical. However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the limiting component in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 97.4 FPS, which is a high frame rate, but it drops to 56.5 FPS at High settings, indicating that the GPU’s rendering capacity is the constraint. The CPU’s 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide fast data access, which helps maintain consistent frame pacing in complex flight scenarios with dense terrain and weather effects. The 65W TDP and dual-channel memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 indicate a power-efficient design that does not sacrifice throughput. Given that the CPU ranks in the 94th percentile, its role is to provide ample headroom, ensuring that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the sole performance limiter, which the resolution scaling confirms. The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, is only 0.6% faster in average benchmark scores, showing that the i7-14700F is on par with top-tier alternatives, but the GPU’s 63rd percentile standing caps the overall system performance.