Microsoft Flight Simulator

The measured performance data for Microsoft Flight Simulator on the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile combination shows a clear pattern across resolutions and presets. The dataset includes 12 FPS measurements (four presets at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K), plus full CPU and GPU specifications and benchmark scores. The CPU is a 14-core / 18-thread Meteor Lake part with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, while the GPU is a Blackwell 2.0 chip with 8 GB of GDDR7 memory. The combo ranks 2,057th out of 3,714 tested combinations. This page analyzes the resolution scaling, GPU and CPU roles, measured FPS, settings recommendations, and the combo’s standing against other tested systems, using only the data provided.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS for this combo reveals a consistent pattern of decline as resolution increases. At High settings, the average frame rate is 69 at 1920x1080, 55 at 2560x1440, and 41 at 3840x2160. At Low settings, the numbers are 117, 95, and 70 respectively. Medium settings produce 91, 74, and 54, while Ultra settings yield 65, 53, and 39. In every preset, the FPS at 2560x1440 is lower than at 1920x1080, and the FPS at 3840x2160 is lower still. This pattern is expected because higher resolutions require the GPU to process more pixels, but the magnitude of the drop reveals something about the limiting component.

The gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K. For example, at High settings, the difference between 1080p and 1440p is 14 FPS (69 to 55), while the difference between 1440p and 4K is also 14 FPS (55 to 41). However, the relative change is steeper going to 4K because the pixel count increases more substantially from 1440p to 4K than from 1080p to 1440p. At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 91 at 1080p to 74 at 1440p, then to 54 at 4K. The fact that FPS declines at every step across all four presets indicates that the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions, as the CPU’s workload is largely independent of resolution. In a flight simulator, the CPU must handle physics, flight model, and AI, but those tasks do not scale with pixel count. The data shows that the GPU becomes more stressed as resolution increases, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at 1440p and 4K.

At 1080p, the FPS values are high enough that the CPU might also play a role. For instance, the Low preset at 1080p reaches 117 FPS, which is close to the CPU’s performance ceiling for this game. The data does not provide separate CPU vs. GPU frame time, but the fact that the FPS at 1080p is roughly double that at 4K for each preset suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The scaling behavior—where FPS falls by a similar absolute amount (around 14–27 FPS) across presets—indicates that the GPU’s rendering capacity is the dominant constraint, not the CPU or memory bandwidth.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is a 50-series chip based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process. It has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. The base clock is 907 MHz, and the boost clock is 1425 MHz, while the memory operates at 1500 MHz (24 Gbps effective). The GPU contains 4608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, 48 ROPs, 36 ray tracing cores, and 144 tensor cores. Its FP32 compute is 13.13 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 205.2 GTexel/s. These specifications place it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29928. Compared to its nearest rivals, it is 0.1% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 0.5% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti, 0.6% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 6800, and 1.7% slower than the RX 6700.

The 8 GB VRAM is a notable factor for this game. Microsoft Flight Simulator is known for large texture data, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 39, which is the lowest of all measured rows. At 4K High, the FPS is 41, and at 4K Medium it is 54. The VRAM capacity is fixed at 8 GB, and the memory bandwidth of 384 GB/s is sufficient for the data throughput at these resolutions, but the FPS numbers suggest that the GPU’s compute and shading capacity, rather than memory bandwidth alone, are the limiting factors. The boost clock of 1425 MHz is relatively modest for a high-end mobile GPU, but the Blackwell architecture’s efficiency may compensate. The GPU’s average benchmark score relative to the RTX 3070 Ti and RX 6800 indicates that this mobile GPU performs roughly at the level of a desktop RTX 3070 Ti, which is a strong result for a mobile chip.

The memory clock of 1500 MHz (24 Gbps effective) and the 128-bit bus yield a bandwidth of 384 GB/s. In comparison to the GPU’s compute throughput, this bandwidth is ample for 1080p and 1440p, where the FPS exceeds 90 and 50, respectively. At 4K, the FPS drops to 39–54, and the bandwidth may become a secondary factor, but the data does not allow us to separate bandwidth from compute limitations. The 8 GB VRAM is not directly measured in the FPS data, but the fact that the 4K Ultra preset (which likely uses the most textures) produces the lowest FPS (39) suggests that the GPU’s memory and compute are both taxed at that setting.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: The average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 69.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The GPU has an average benchmark score of 29928, which is 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and 0.5% higher than the RTX 2080 Ti.

Q: What is the minimum and maximum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 74, with a minimum of 63 and a maximum of 85.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-core score compare to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H has an average benchmark score of 29083, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The combo ranks 2,057th out of 3,714 tested combinations.

Q: What is the boost clock of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H?

A: The boost clock is 4.60 GHz.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The table below lists every measured FPS value from the FACT PACK, organized by resolution and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|---------|---------|

| 1920x1080 | Low | 117 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 91 | 78 | 105 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 69 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 65 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 95 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 74 | 63 | 85 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 55 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 53 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 70 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 54 | 46 | 63 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 41 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 39 | — | — |

The data shows that at every resolution, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS, followed by Medium, then High, and Ultra consistently yields the lowest. For the Medium preset, the minimum and maximum FPS are provided, giving a range of variability. At 1080p Medium, the range is 78 to 105; at 1440p Medium, 63 to 85; and at 4K Medium, 46 to 63. These ranges indicate that the frame time variance is relatively tight, with the min and max values staying close to the average. At 1080p, the Ultra preset’s average of 65 is only 4 FPS lower than High’s 69, while at 1440p the gap is 2 FPS (55 vs. 53), and at 4K the gap is also 2 FPS (41 vs. 39). This suggests that the difference between High and Ultra is small in terms of FPS, but Ultra may offer a visual quality increase that is not reflected in the numbers.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 91 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 2560x1440, Medium yields 74 FPS, still above 60, while High and Ultra drop to 55 and 53 FPS, respectively. At 3840x2160, Medium gives 54 FPS, which is close to 60, while High and Ultra fall to 41 and 39 FPS. For a flight simulator, where smooth camera panning and detailed scenery are important, a consistent frame rate is crucial. Medium achieves that at 1080p and 1440p, and at 4K it remains playable, albeit slightly below 60 FPS.

The High preset is a reasonable choice for users who prioritize visual quality over a few extra frames per second. High provides 69 FPS at 1080p, 55 at 1440p, and 41 at 4K. The Ultra preset offers no FPS advantage over High; in fact, it is consistently 2–4 FPS lower at every resolution. Therefore, High is a better choice than Ultra, as it provides a higher frame rate while presumably offering slightly lower visual fidelity. The Low preset achieves the highest FPS—117 at 1080p, 95 at 1440p, and 70 at 4K—but it likely sacrifices significant visual detail. For users with 1080p or 1440p displays who prefer high refresh rates, Low or Medium may be ideal, but for those using 4K displays, Medium is the only preset that stays above 50 FPS.

In summary, the data recommends Medium for the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, especially at 1440p and 4K. High is a viable choice for 1080p, but for 1440p and 4K, High and Ultra both fall below 60 FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended because it delivers the same or lower FPS than High while presumably adding only marginal visual improvements.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a 14-core, 18-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a TDP of 28 W. The CPU’s cache includes 112 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. The CPU’s integrated graphics is Arc Xe-LPG 96EU, and it is a mobile segment chip with a production status of Active.

In benchmark tests, the CPU scores 11875.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1700 in single-core. Its PassMark multi-thread score is 22422, and single-thread score is 3521. These results place the CPU in the 81st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29083. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (average score 29123, a delta of -0.1%), the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 (29245, -0.5%), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28940, +0.5%), and the Intel Core i5-13500HX (29270, -0.6%). This means the Core Ultra 5 135H performs almost exactly on par with a desktop Ryzen 7 5800X, despite being a low-power mobile chip.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU is responsible for the flight model, physics, and AI simulation. The measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 117, which is high and suggests that the CPU is capable of driving the game at that frame rate. At 1080p Medium, the FPS is 91, and at 1080p High/Ultra it drops to 69 and 65, indicating that the CPU can sustain those frame rates without becoming a bottleneck. At higher resolutions, the CPU’s workload remains constant, so the FPS drops are attributed to the GPU. The CPU’s 14 cores and 18 threads are more than enough for the game’s threading, and the boost clock of 4.60 GHz provides strong single-thread performance, which is often critical for flight simulators that rely on a single main thread for the core simulation loop. The data does not isolate CPU FPS, but the fact that the 1080p Low preset achieves 117 FPS indicates that the CPU is not limiting at that resolution and preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile ranks 2,057th out of 3,714 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the combo in the 55th percentile of tested systems, meaning that 2,057 combinations are faster and 1,657 are slower. The CPU alone sits in the 81st percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, but the combined rank is lower than either component’s individual percentile. This discrepancy suggests that the overall system performance is not solely determined by the CPU and GPU; other factors such as memory, storage, or system cooling may also affect the game’s performance. The combo rank indicates that while this laptop configuration is capable of running the game at playable frame rates, it is not among the top performers.

The CPU’s average benchmark score is 29083, which is only 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, a desktop CPU. The GPU’s average score is 29928, which is 0.1% slower than the RTX 3070 Ti. When combined, the system produces FPS that range from 117 at 1080p Low to 39 at 4K Ultra. The rank of 2,057 suggests that there are many combinations of higher-end CPUs and GPUs that achieve higher FPS, but this mobile combo still delivers playable performance across all measured settings. The percentile values indicate that the CPU is stronger relative to other CPUs than the GPU is relative to other GPUs, which may explain why the combo rank is lower than the CPU’s percentile—the GPU is the more limiting component in this pairing. The data does not provide direct comparisons to other combos in the game, but the rank gives a clear indication of the system’s standing: it is a mid-tier performer, with about 55% of tested systems faster.