Microsoft Flight Simulator

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with this Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination reveals a clear pattern: the Medium preset delivers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium produces 83.9 FPS average, which is 34.6% higher than High's 62.4 FPS while remaining visually respectable. The jump from Medium to High costs 21.5 FPS at 1080p, a substantial drop that suggests the GPU is being pushed hard by the higher-quality terrain and lighting systems.

At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 69 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth for flight simulation. High at this resolution drops to 53.5 FPS, and Ultra falls further to 50.2 FPS. The data indicates that Medium is the highest preset that consistently holds playable frame rates at 1440p. For 3840x2160, even Medium struggles at 48.8 FPS, while Low achieves 61.8 FPS. Given that flight simulators demand precision in camera movement and instrument reading, the Low preset at 4K is the only viable option, though the visual compromise is considerable.

The Ultra preset is uniformly disappointing: 63 FPS at 1080p, 50.2 FPS at 1440p, and 38.5 FPS at 4K. The gap between High and Ultra is small (0.6 FPS at 1080p, 3.3 FPS at 1440p, 2.1 FPS at 4K), yet the performance cost is significant. This suggests Ultra's additional features—likely enhanced shadows or volumetric effects—are not worth the frame rate sacrifice. The data points to Medium as the sweet spot, with Low as a fallback for 4K users.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 1102 out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the distribution. The percentile context is important: the RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, while the i7-14700KF ranks at the 96th percentile among all CPUs. This disparity—a top-tier processor paired with a mid-range graphics card—explains the combo's modest ranking.

The combo's position suggests that the GPU is the primary constraint in this pairing. The CPU's strong benchmark scores (Cinebench R23 multi-core at 44557, single-core at 6290) indicate it is capable of feeding the GPU with data, but the RTX 2070 SUPER's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance limits how many frames the system can render. In a flight simulator known for complex scenery streaming, this imbalance becomes evident in the measured FPS data.

Compared to other tested combos, this pairing is not optimized for high-refresh-rate displays. The 1080p Low result of 114.1 FPS is the only measurement that approaches competitive e-sports territory, while all other presets fall below 90 FPS. The ranking reflects that many combinations—likely those with newer GPUs—achieve higher frame rates in this title. However, the CPU's headroom means that a future GPU upgrade would likely improve the combo's rank substantially without requiring a processor change.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), while the GPU boost clock reaches 1770 MHz from a 1605 MHz base. These specifications place the card in the mid-range tier of the GeForce 20-series, with a PassMark G3D score of 18169 and a 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical factor. The game's high-resolution textures and detailed scenery can consume significant memory, especially at 4K resolution. The measured data shows that at 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 61.8 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is both bandwidth-limited and possibly VRAM-constrained. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is modest by modern standards, and the game's need to stream terrain data likely stresses this resource.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the NVIDIA RTX A400 (0.5% lower) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (2.5% lower), indicating the RTX 2070 SUPER is positioned at a specific performance tier. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 94918 provide additional context for its compute capabilities. For this game, the GPU's 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs determine the pixel throughput, and the measured FPS at Ultra settings (38.5 FPS at 4K) reflects the limits of these resources under heavy load.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range was tested. Low produces 114.1 FPS, Medium 83.9 FPS, High 62.4 FPS, and Ultra 63 FPS. The near-identical High and Ultra results (0.6 FPS apart) are notable—they suggest the Ultra preset's additional graphical features are not heavily GPU-bound at this resolution, or that the game's engine reaches a CPU-side limit around 63 FPS. The 50.2 FPS gap between Low and Ultra (114.1 vs 63) shows the dramatic cost of maximum fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scores are 89.1 FPS (Low), 69 FPS (Medium), 53.5 FPS (High), and 50.2 FPS (Ultra). The drop from Low to Medium is 20.1 FPS, while Medium to High costs 15.5 FPS. Notably, the High-to-Ultra gap shrinks to 3.3 FPS, reinforcing the pattern seen at 1080p. At this resolution, the GPU's pixel throughput becomes more relevant, and the 64 ROPs are tasked with filling more pixels.

At 3840x2160, the results compress significantly: Low 61.8 FPS, Medium 48.8 FPS, High 36.4 FPS, and Ultra 38.5 FPS. The High and Ultra results are again similar (2.1 FPS apart), but now they fall below 40 FPS, which is generally considered the minimum for acceptable flight simulation. The 4K Low result is the only 4K measurement that exceeds 60 FPS, and it does so by just 1.8 FPS. This breakdown illustrates the GPU's diminishing capacity as resolution increases, with the gap between Low and Ultra shrinking from 51.1 FPS at 1080p to 23.3 FPS at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS decline from 1080p to 4K follows a consistent pattern across settings, but the magnitude varies. For Low settings, 1080p yields 114.1 FPS, 1440p yields 89.1 FPS (a 21.9% drop), and 4K yields 61.8 FPS (a 45.8% drop from 1080p). For Medium, the numbers are 83.9, 69, and 48.8 FPS—drops of 17.8% and 41.8% respectively. High settings show 62.4, 53.5, and 36.4 FPS, representing 14.3% and 41.7% reductions.

These percentages reveal that the scaling is not linear. The 1080p-to-1440p transition costs roughly 15-20% performance depending on settings, while the 1440p-to-4K transition costs an additional 25-30%. This non-linear behavior indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s) and pixel fill rate (113.3 GPixel/s) become progressively more strained as pixel count increases. The 4K resolution has 4 times the pixels of 1080p, yet the FPS does not drop by 75%—it drops by roughly 45-50% for most settings.

This pattern suggests that the limiting component shifts as resolution increases. At 1080p, the game may be partially CPU-bound, given the i7-14700KF's strong performance but the GPU's mid-range capabilities. As resolution rises, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, evidenced by the compression of FPS differences between High and Ultra at 4K (only 2.1 FPS apart). The data implies that at 4K, the RTX 2070 SUPER is saturated, and the CPU's headroom (28 threads, 5.6 GHz boost) cannot compensate for the GPU's rendering limits.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz boosts to 5.60 GHz, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive: Cinebench R23 multi-core at 44557 and single-core at 6290, with a PassMark single-thread score of 4480.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is primarily simulation logic, physics calculations, and scenery streaming. The game is known for being demanding on single-thread performance, and this processor's single-core capabilities are strong—the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6290 places it in the top tier. However, the measured FPS data shows that even with this CPU, the system cannot maintain high frame rates at high settings, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios.

The 33 MB of shared L3 cache is beneficial for the game's asset streaming, as it reduces the need to fetch data from system memory. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all processors confirms its high-end positioning, and its nearest rivals include the Core i7-14700K (0% delta) and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (-0.4% delta). This places the i7-14700KF at the upper echelon of processing power. The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this combination; rather, it provides ample headroom for the RTX 2070 SUPER to be the constraining factor.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings produces 83.9 FPS, which is the highest frame rate above 60 FPS with balanced visual quality. At 2560x1440, Medium achieves 69 FPS, which is also playable. 4K is only viable at Low settings (61.8 FPS).

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 22206, placing it 0.5% above the NVIDIA RTX A400 (22307) and 2.5% above the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21670). Its PassMark G3D score is 18169, and it ranks at the 65th percentile among all GPUs.

Q: Is the i7-14700KF CPU powerful enough for this game?

A: Yes, the CPU is very capable. It ranks at the 96th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 70104. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 44557 and single-core is 6290, indicating strong performance for flight simulation workloads.

Q: Why is the Ultra preset only slightly better than High in some cases?

A: At 1080p, Ultra produces 63 FPS versus High's 62.4 FPS (0.6 FPS difference), and at 1440p the gap is 3.3 FPS. This suggests the Ultra preset's additional features are not heavily GPU-bound, or the game engine reaches a performance ceiling around these frame rates.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among tested configurations?

A: This i7-14700KF and RTX 2070 SUPER combination ranks 1102 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the distribution.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: The data shows 4K performance is poor at all settings (36.4-61.8 FPS). The 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth may be insufficient for the game's high-resolution textures, though the GPU's overall compute limits (9.062 TFLOPS) are likely the primary constraint.