Microsoft Flight Simulator

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile produces a measured performance profile in Microsoft Flight Simulator that is best described as mid-tier among the 3,714 tested combinations. The CPU holds a 79th percentile ranking against all processors, while the GPU sits in the 73rd percentile, yet the combined system only reaches the 1978th position out of 3,714. Across all measured resolutions, the Medium preset consistently delivers a playable frame rate at 1080p and 1440p, while the 4K resolution demands the Low preset to maintain a smooth experience. The data shows a clear progression of frame rates as resolution and quality settings change, with the Low preset at 1080p hitting 119 FPS and the Ultra preset at 4K dropping to 40 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates provide a clear basis for choosing a preset that balances visual fidelity and smoothness. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 119 FPS, Medium 93 FPS (with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 107), High 70 FPS, and Ultra 66 FPS. The Medium preset offers the best balance at this resolution, as it remains well above the 60 FPS threshold while providing a higher quality image than Low. The Ultra preset, at 66 FPS, is still playable but leaves little headroom for complex scenes.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an average of 75 FPS (min 64, max 86), which is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS. High yields 56 FPS, Ultra 54 FPS, and Low 96 FPS. The 96 FPS from Low is high, but it comes with a significant visual quality reduction. The Medium preset is again the recommended choice for 1440p, as it maintains a stable frame rate with moderate quality.

At 3840x2160, the situation reverses: only the Low preset reaches 71 FPS, while Medium falls to 55 FPS, High to 42 FPS, and Ultra to 40 FPS. For a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option. If visual quality is prioritized over absolute smoothness, the Medium preset at 55 FPS is still usable, but the frame rate dips below the commonly accepted threshold. The data indicates that the Medium preset is the best overall compromise for 1080p and 1440p, while the Low preset is required for 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS is 66.

Q: How does the CPU compare to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H has an average benchmark score of 27,507, which is 0.1% behind the Ryzen 7 5800’s 27,535.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory capacity?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Q: What is the highest average FPS measured at 4K?

A: The Low preset at 3840x2160 yields 71 FPS, the highest among the 4K settings.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1978th out of 3,714 tested combinations.

Q: Does the GPU support DirectX 12 Ultimate?

A: Yes, the GPU’s API support includes DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is ranked 1978 out of 3,714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This position sits just above the midpoint of all tested configurations. The CPU’s individual percentile is 79, with an average benchmark score of 27,507, while the GPU’s percentile is 73, with an average score of 27,435. These two scores are high for their respective pools, yet the combined rank is only around the 53rd percentile of the 3,714 combos. The CPU is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (delta -0.1%) and is 0.3% behind the Intel Core i5-12600K and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X. The GPU is exactly tied with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (delta 0%) and is 0.5% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. Despite these near-parity benchmarks, the flight simulator’s specific workload does not allow the combo to climb higher in the ranking, indicating that the game’s performance is not a simple sum of CPU and GPU capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates span three resolutions and four quality settings. At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers an average of 71 FPS, the Medium preset 55 FPS (with minimum 47 and maximum 63), High 42 FPS, and Ultra 40 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset reaches 96 FPS, Medium 75 FPS (min 64, max 86), High 56 FPS, and Ultra 54 FPS. At 1920x1080, the Low preset hits 119 FPS, Medium 93 FPS (min 79, max 107), High 70 FPS, and Ultra 66 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one that includes both minimum and maximum values in the data, giving a frame time range of 79–107 at 1080p and 64–86 at 1440p. The Ultra preset is consistently slower than High at every resolution: at 1080p, 66 vs 70; at 1440p, 54 vs 56; at 4K, 40 vs 42. The Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that exceeds 100 FPS, reaching 119 FPS. The spread between the lowest and highest presets at 1080p is substantial, with Low at 119 FPS and Ultra at 66 FPS. At 4K, the Low preset’s 71 FPS is 31 FPS higher than the Ultra’s 40 FPS, showing the significant impact of quality settings at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

As the resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, the average FPS declines across all four presets. For the Low preset, the frame rate goes from 119 to 96 to 71. For Medium, it goes from 93 to 75 to 55. For High, from 70 to 56 to 42. For Ultra, from 66 to 54 to 40. The consistent downward trend indicates that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as pixel count grows. At 1080p, the CPU’s 14 cores and 4.5 GHz boost clock are likely sufficient to keep the frame rate high, but the dramatic drop to 4K suggests that the GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM and 256 GB/s bandwidth are stressed by the higher resolution. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 53 FPS (119 vs 66), while at 4K the difference narrows to 31 FPS (71 vs 40). This narrowing gap suggests that at 4K, the GPU is already saturated, so reducing quality settings has less impact on the frame rate than it does at 1080p. The resolution scaling data implies that the system is GPU-limited at 4K, whereas at 1080p the CPU still has headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mobile processor with 14 cores and 18 threads, a base clock of 3.60 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. It has an 18 MB shared L3 cache, 2 MB per-core L2 cache, and a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 12,804.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,647.5 in single-core. Its Passmark multithread score is 21,100, and its single-thread score is 3,399. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 27,507, which places it in the 79th percentile. It is 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 and 0.3% behind the Intel Core i5-12600K. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU handles the flight model, weather, and AI traffic. With 18 threads, it can manage these parallel workloads effectively, and the boost clock of 4.5 GHz assists with single-threaded tasks. The measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 119 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor at that resolution. The CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals is extremely close, with a delta of just 0.1% to the Ryzen 7 5800, so the CPU is effectively equivalent to that desktop-class part in overall benchmark score.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is an Ada Lovelace GPU with 4,608 shading units, 144 tensor cores, and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1395 MHz and boost clock is 1695 MHz, with a memory clock of 2000 MHz. The GPU has a Passmark G3D score of 19,587 and a DirectX 12 score of 85, and it ranks in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, which has a delta of 0%, meaning the two are exactly tied in average benchmark score. The GPU’s performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator is directly visible in the measured frame rates: it delivers 119 FPS at 1080p Low but drops to 40 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 8 GB VRAM is likely sufficient for the game’s textures, but the bandwidth of 256 GB/s may be a limiting factor at high resolutions. The GPU’s compute performance is 15.62 TFLOPS FP32, yet the simulation still causes a significant frame rate drop at 4K. The fact that the GPU is tied with the RX 6700 XT in synthetic benchmarks, yet the 4K Ultra result is only 40 FPS, shows that Microsoft Flight Simulator is a demanding title that stresses the GPU’s rendering pipeline.