Microsoft Flight Simulator

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the Intel Arc B370 occupies a position near the bottom of the tested field in Microsoft Flight Simulator. With a combo rank of 2770 out of 2996 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the 7th percentile of all tested configs — meaning roughly 93% of the combos in the database deliver higher average frame rates in this flight simulator.

This placement is unsurprising given the GPU's overall standing. The Arc B370 itself ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs tested on the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, with a score of 1184. Its nearest rivals tell a telling story: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 scores 1186 (0.2% higher), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 scores 1190 (0.5% higher), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M scores 1192 (0.7% higher). These are legacy or low-power mobile parts, which contextualizes the Arc B370's performance tier. The only rival it beats is the AMD FirePro M2000, which scores 1168 — 1.4% lower.

The CPU, meanwhile, is a much stronger component. The Core Ultra 5 225 sits in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36938. Its nearest rivals cluster tightly: the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F scores 36945 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37018 (-0.2%), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093 (-0.4%), and the Intel Core i9-12900T scores 37112 (-0.5%). This suggests the processor is not the bottleneck in this pairing — the data points squarely at the GPU as the limiting factor.

The measured FPS confirms this asymmetry. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 50 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 28 FPS. The spread between the strongest CPU performance percentile and the weakest GPU percentile in this combo creates a situation where the graphics card dictates the experience almost entirely.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics solution built on the Xe3-LPG architecture, using the Panther Lake chip. Its specifications reveal a part designed for efficiency rather than high-end gaming: 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, 20 raster output units, and 10 ray tracing cores. The base clock runs at 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2400 MHz, producing a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, and 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. Its power envelope is just 25 W, and it operates as an IGP with no power connectors and no dedicated memory — the memory is "System Shared" with bandwidth described as "System Dependent."

The implications for Microsoft Flight Simulator are significant. This game is known for loading vast scenery, detailed terrain mesh, and complex weather systems — all of which place heavy demands on memory bandwidth. With system-shared memory, the Arc B370 must compete with the CPU for the same memory resources, and the bandwidth is entirely dependent on the system's configuration. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth of the Core Ultra 5 225's dual-channel DDR5 support is the ceiling here, but the shared nature of the memory means real-world available bandwidth will be lower.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places this GPU in a performance class that struggles with modern gaming loads. The measured FPS data reflects this: even at 1080p Low, the combo only reaches 50 FPS average, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 17 FPS. The 10 ray tracing cores are present, but the overall compute throughput of 6.144 TFLOPS is modest, and the FP16 rate of 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1) suggests limited headroom for the kind of compute-heavy rendering that modern flight simulators increasingly use.

The GPU's 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs is the single most important data point for understanding this combo's performance. When the graphics solution sits below 95% of all tested GPUs, no amount of CPU headroom can compensate.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of what settings are playable at each resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 50 FPS average, which is the only setting level that crosses the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay — though it does not quite reach it. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 39 FPS average with a minimum of 33 FPS and a maximum of 45 FPS, which is playable but with noticeable stutter in dense scenery. High at 1080p drops to 30 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28 FPS.

At 1440p, the situation tightens further. Low delivers 41 FPS, Medium delivers 32 FPS (minimum 27, maximum 36), High delivers 24 FPS, and Ultra delivers 23 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium at 1440p is 9 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 8 FPS — suggesting that each settings tier costs roughly 20-25% performance at this resolution.

At 4K, only Low remains marginally playable at 30 FPS. Medium drops to 23 FPS (minimum 20, maximum 27), High falls to 18 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 17 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is just 1 FPS, indicating that the GPU is so saturated at this resolution that the additional settings overhead makes little measurable difference.

The data suggests that for a playable experience, 1080p Low is the only configuration that approaches acceptable frame rates. For users willing to tolerate lower smoothness, 1080p Medium at 39 FPS offers a balance between visual quality and responsiveness — the 33 FPS minimum is low but not catastrophic. At 1440p, the Low preset at 41 FPS is the only viable option, and 4K should be avoided entirely as even Low only reaches 30 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Microsoft Flight Simulator at 60 FPS in any configuration?

A: No. The highest measured average FPS across all tested settings and resolutions is 50 FPS at 1080p Low. No preset at any resolution reaches 60 FPS.

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

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 scores 1186 (0.2% higher), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 scores 1190 (0.5% higher), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M scores 1192 (0.7% higher). Only the AMD FirePro M2000 scores lower at 1168 (1.4% below).

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark standing relative to other processors?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225 ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 36938. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, scores 36945 — essentially identical, while the Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37018 (0.2% higher).

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p Low to 4K Low?

A: The average FPS drops from 50 at 1080p Low to 30 at 4K Low, representing a 40% reduction in frame rate for a 4x increase in pixel count.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium?

A: The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 27 FPS, with an average of 32 FPS and a maximum of 36 FPS.

Q: Does the GPU have dedicated memory?

A: No. The Arc B370 uses "System Shared" memory with a "System Shared" type and bus width, and its bandwidth is described as "System Dependent." It has no dedicated VRAM.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable but steep scaling curve across resolutions. At Low settings, the combo delivers 50 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 9 FPS (18%), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 11 FPS (27%). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 20 FPS, or 40%.

At Medium settings, the pattern shifts. The combo delivers 39 FPS at 1080p, 32 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 7 FPS (18%), while the 1440p to 4K drop is 9 FPS (28%). The total drop is 16 FPS, or 41%.

At High settings, the numbers are 30 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 6 FPS (20%), the 1440p to 4K drop is 6 FPS (25%), and the total drop is 12 FPS, or 40%.

At Ultra settings, the combo achieves 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and 17 FPS at 4K. The drops are 5 FPS (18%) and 6 FPS (26%), totaling 11 FPS, or 39%.

The consistency of these percentage drops — hovering around 18-20% for 1080p to 1440p, and 25-28% for 1440p to 4K — indicates that the GPU is the limiting component across all resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling would flatten at lower resolutions, but the consistent degradation suggests the Arc B370's compute and memory bandwidth constraints dominate. The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical across all four settings levels reinforces this interpretation: the GPU is saturated at every resolution and settings combination tested.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2 (Arrow Lake architecture). It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. Its cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes.

In CPU benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 225 demonstrates solid multi-threaded performance. It scores 25891 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3655 in single-core, while Cinebench R20 shows 6317 multi-core and 891 single-core. PassMark results include a multithread score of 30459, a single-thread score of 4412, and physics score of 2342. The 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that this processor is well above average.

However, in Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's strong benchmark showing does not translate into high frame rates because the GPU cannot keep up. The data shows that the combo's performance is consistently limited by the Arc B370. The CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads — with no hyperthreading — are sufficient for the game's demands, and the 4.90 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance, which is often critical for flight simulator physics and scenery loading.

The memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is a potential concern, but the CPU's L3 cache of 20 MB helps mitigate memory latency. The data suggests the CPU is not the constraint: the FPS drops proportionally with resolution increases, which is a GPU-bound signature. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a plateau or less severe drops at higher resolutions, but the consistent 18-28% drops across resolution tiers point to the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers four resolutions and four settings levels each, providing a comprehensive matrix of performance.

1920x1080:

• Low: 50 FPS average
• Medium: 39 FPS average, 33 FPS minimum, 45 FPS maximum
• High: 30 FPS average
• Ultra: 28 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 41 FPS average
• Medium: 32 FPS average, 27 FPS minimum, 36 FPS maximum
• High: 24 FPS average
• Ultra: 23 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 30 FPS average
• Medium: 23 FPS average, 20 FPS minimum, 27 FPS maximum
• High: 18 FPS average
• Ultra: 17 FPS average

The Medium preset rows include min and max FPS data, while Low, High, and Ultra rows only report averages. At 1080p Medium, the spread between minimum and maximum is 12 FPS, indicating notable frame time variance. At 1440p Medium, the spread is 9 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it is 7 FPS. This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is consistently saturated, reducing the variance that comes from CPU-bound scenes.

The largest single gap between settings at any resolution is between Low and Medium at 1080p, which shows an 11 FPS difference (50 to 39). The smallest gap is between High and Ultra at 1440p, with just 1 FPS difference (24 to 23). This compression at the top settings levels indicates diminishing returns — the GPU's limited resources are already exhausted by the High preset, so Ultra adds little additional cost but also delivers little additional visual benefit at these frame rates.

The data as a whole tells a coherent story: this combo is GPU-limited at every resolution and settings level, the CPU has ample headroom that cannot be utilized, and the system-shared memory architecture of the Arc B370 is a fundamental constraint for a game as data-intensive as Microsoft Flight Simulator.