Microsoft Flight Simulator

# FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the Intel Core i7-14700F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 20th out of 2,996 tested combinations in the database for this game, placing it in the top 1% of all recorded configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Q: How large is the GPU memory pool and what type is it?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D carries 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The 32 GB frame buffer is substantial for a flight simulator that loads extensive terrain and aircraft scenery.

Q: What are the CPU core and thread counts, and what clock speeds does it reach?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F has 20 cores and 28 threads. Its base clock is 2.10 GHz, and it boosts up to 5.40 GHz. The processor has 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i7-14700F posts an average benchmark score of 53,620, placing it 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (53,288), 0.8% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P (53,206), and 0.3% behind the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53,469). The largest gap is a 0.2% deficit to the Intel Xeon 6505P (53,701).

Q: What is the best measured average FPS at 1080p, and at which settings?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 225 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The same resolution with Medium settings yields 198 FPS, High delivers 149 FPS, and Ultra drops to 142 FPS.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs, and what is its average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090 D ranks in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, scores 78,940 (1.6% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT is 1.1% behind at 76,904.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture part built on TSMC's 5 nm process, with 92,200 million transistors packed into a 750 mm² die. The GPU runs at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The 32 GB GDDR7 frame buffer is paired with a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth — a figure that becomes relevant in Microsoft Flight Simulator, where high-resolution texture streaming and large draw distances can stress memory throughput.

Compute resources are extensive: 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, 176 ROPs, 170 ray tracing cores, and 680 tensor cores. Pixel rate reaches 423.6 GPixel/s, and texture rate hits 1,636.8 GTexel/s. FP32 throughput is 104.8 TFLOPS, matching FP16 output at a 1:1 ratio. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, with display outputs of one HDMI 2.1b port and three DisplayPort 2.1b connectors. The GPU's passmark G3D score is 44,065, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 14,326.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU has headroom at lower resolutions but becomes more of a limiting factor at 4K. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 84 (Ultra) to 151 (Low), while at 1920x1080, the range extends from 142 (Ultra) to 225 (Low). The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 67 FPS, whereas at 1080p it is 83 FPS. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is increasingly responsible for frame delivery, while at 4K, the GPU's rendering workload compresses the spread between settings.

The RTX 5090 D sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904, 1.1% lower), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, 1.6% higher), NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396, 2.1% higher), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, 2.4% higher). The 32 GB memory capacity is particularly notable for flight simulation, as the game can load extensive photogrammetry and high-resolution terrain data without hitting VRAM limits.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a Raptor Lake Refresh part with 20 cores and 28 threads, based on a 10 nm process node with a 257 mm² die size. It runs at a 2.10 GHz base clock and boosts to 5.40 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3. Memory support spans DDR4 and DDR5 in dual-channel configuration, with ECC memory support enabled. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes from the CPU. It has no integrated graphics, a 65 W TDP, and uses the Intel Socket 1700 interface.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is pronounced at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS reaches 225, which is 49% higher than the 4K Low result of 151 FPS. This large gap indicates that the CPU can push frame rates well beyond what the GPU can render at higher resolutions. However, the CPU's 20-core/28-thread configuration is not fully utilized by a flight simulator that historically favors single-thread performance; the single-core Cinebench R23 score of 4,958 and Geekbench single-core score of 2,429 show strong per-core capability, which matters more than raw multi-thread totals for this game's simulation loop.

The CPU's multi-threaded scores are nonetheless high: Cinebench R23 multi-core is 35,122, Cinebench R20 multi-core is 14,751, and Geekbench multi-core is 19,620. The Passmark multi-thread score is 41,317, with single-thread at 4,257. The CPU ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53,620. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Xeon 6505P (53,701, 0.2% higher), Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53,469, 0.3% lower), AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (53,288, 0.6% lower), and AMD EPYC 7313P (53,206, 0.8% lower).

The measured FPS data indicates that CPU scaling saturates at 1080p. From High to Ultra at 1080p, the average FPS drops from 149 to 142, a mere 4.7% penalty. At 1440p, the same settings gap shows a 5% drop (120 to 114 FPS). At 4K, the gap from High to Ultra is also 4.8% (88 to 84 FPS). This consistency suggests that the CPU is not the dominant bottleneck at any resolution when moving between High and Ultra; the GPU handles the additional load. However, the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p (225 to 198 FPS, a 12% drop) shows the CPU can still keep up with the GPU's increased workload at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5090 D with the i7-14700F delivers an average of 225 FPS at Low settings. Moving up to Medium, the average drops to 198 FPS with a minimum of 168 and maximum of 227. High settings yield 149 FPS average, and Ultra produces 142 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 83 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS at Low is 205. Medium settings produce an average of 159 FPS, with a minimum of 136 and maximum of 183. High settings deliver 120 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 114 FPS. The resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 9% at Low settings (225 to 205 FPS), 20% at Medium (198 to 159 FPS), 19% at High (149 to 120 FPS), and 20% at Ultra (142 to 114 FPS).

At 3840x2160, the averages are 151 FPS at Low, 118 FPS at Medium (with a minimum of 100 and maximum of 135), 88 FPS at High, and 84 FPS at Ultra. The 4K results show a compression of frame rates at the higher settings: High and Ultra are separated by only 4 FPS, whereas at 1080p they are separated by 7 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 67 FPS, compared to 63 FPS at 1440p and 83 FPS at 1080p.

The data reveals that Medium settings at 1440p (159 FPS) outperform High settings at 1080p (149 FPS) by 6.7%, indicating that the GPU has enough headroom to handle a resolution increase while maintaining higher quality. At 4K, Medium (118 FPS) is 34% faster than Ultra (84 FPS), but still 25% slower than High at 1440p (120 FPS).

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling in Microsoft Flight Simulator with this combo shows a clear pattern. Going from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by 9% at Low, 20% at Medium, 19% at High, and 20% at Ultra. Going from 1440p to 4K, the drops are 26% at Low, 26% at Medium, 27% at High, and 26% at Ultra. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is remarkably consistent across all settings, hovering around 26-27%, which indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint at these higher resolutions.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a different story. At Low settings, the drop is only 9%, suggesting that the CPU is limiting performance at 1080p Low — the GPU is not fully utilized. At Medium, High, and Ultra, the drops are 20%, 19%, and 20%, respectively, which aligns more closely with the pixel count increase (1080p to 1440p is a 78% increase in pixels, but FPS drops are much smaller, indicating that neither component is purely pixel-bound).

The 1080p to 4K scaling is the most telling. At Low, the FPS drops from 225 to 151, a 33% reduction. At Medium, it drops from 198 to 118, a 40% reduction. At High, it drops from 149 to 88, a 41% reduction. At Ultra, it drops from 142 to 84, a 41% reduction. These figures suggest that as resolution increases, the GPU workload grows faster than the CPU workload, and the RTX 5090 D becomes the limiting factor at 4K regardless of settings.

The fact that the 1440p-to-4K scaling is nearly identical (26-27%) across all settings implies that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck at these resolutions. Conversely, the 1080p-to-1440p scaling at Low (9%) is much smaller than at other settings, indicating that at 1080p Low, the i7-14700F's 5.40 GHz boost clock and 33 MB L3 cache are the limiting factors, not the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting the highest possible frame rates, Low settings at 1080p deliver 225 FPS, which is the best measured result in the dataset. This configuration would suit competitive or high-refresh-rate displays, though the visual quality is necessarily reduced.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, Medium settings at 1440p provide 159 FPS average, with a minimum of 136 and maximum of 183. This combination offers a 20% improvement in resolution over 1080p while maintaining a frame rate that exceeds 120 FPS. At 4K, Medium settings yield 118 FPS average, which is still above the 100 FPS minimum recorded, making it a viable option for high-refresh 4K displays.

High settings at 1440p produce 120 FPS average, and at 4K they produce 88 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs only 6 FPS (120 to 114), and at 4K it costs 4 FPS (88 to 84). Given that Ultra settings typically add marginal visual improvements over High in flight simulators, High settings at 1440p (120 FPS) offer the best compromise for players seeking near-maximum quality without sacrificing smoothness.

Ultra settings at any resolution produce the lowest frame rates: 142 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 84 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 84 FPS is still playable, but the 4K High result of 88 FPS is only 4.8% faster. For players with 4K displays who prioritize visual quality, High settings at 4K are the recommended choice, as the 4 FPS gain from dropping to Medium (118 FPS) is substantial but comes with a notable reduction in visual fidelity.

The data shows that Medium settings at 1440p (159 FPS) outperform High settings at 1080p (149 FPS) by 10 FPS, making Medium at 1440p the superior choice for players with 1440p monitors. Similarly, Medium at 4K (118 FPS) outperforms Ultra at 1440p (114 FPS) by 4 FPS, suggesting that resolution matters more than settings for this GPU in this game. Ultimately, the sweet spot is Medium at 1440p or High at 1440p, depending on whether the user prefers higher frame rates or higher visual quality; both configurations deliver smooth performance without dropping below 120 FPS.