Microsoft Flight Simulator

# FAQ

Q: What is the comboRankInGame for this Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER configuration?

A: The combo ranks 425th out of 2,996 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 14.2% of all tested combos for this title.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 compare to its nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 36,938 is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36,945, 0% delta), and it sits 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37,018) and 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37,093). It also trails the Intel Core i9-12900T (37,112) by 0.5%.

Q: What is the memory configuration of this CPU, and how does it affect performance?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It has a 20 MB shared L3 cache, with 192 KB L1 and 3 MB L2 per core. This memory subsystem is critical for feeding the 10 cores and 10 threads in simulation workloads.

Q: What are the GPU's clock speeds and memory specifications?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER has a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective).

Q: What is the best-performing settings preset at 1080p based on measured FPS?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 183, followed by Medium at 143, High at 107, and Ultra at 102. The Medium preset offers a balanced experience with a minimum FPS of 121 and maximum of 164.

Q: How does the GPU's percentile ranking compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 43,223 is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262) and 0.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (43,268), while trailing the RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667) by 1%.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER serves as the primary rendering engine in this Microsoft Flight Simulator configuration, and the measured FPS data reveals a GPU that is well-matched to the simulation's demands. The card's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the texture streaming and terrain data that Flight Simulator constantly loads. The boost clock of 2475 MHz, combined with 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs, provides the raw compute throughput needed for the game's complex scenery rendering.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 35.48 TFLOPS is particularly relevant here, as Flight Simulator relies heavily on traditional rasterization rather than ray tracing for its primary visuals. The 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are present but less critical for this title's default rendering path. The pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s indicate the card can handle high-resolution texture filtering and pixel fill without becoming a bottleneck.

Looking at the measured results, the GPU demonstrates a clear scaling pattern across settings presets. At 4K, the jump from Low (109 FPS average) to Ultra (61 FPS average) represents a 44% performance drop, showing that the GPU is heavily taxed by the highest quality settings. The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum FPS of 72 and maximum of 98, with an average of 85, indicating the card maintains playable framerates even at this demanding resolution when settings are moderated.

The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the upper tier of available hardware, and its average benchmark score of 43,223 is within 1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667). This suggests that the desktop RTX 4070 SUPER delivers performance comparable to a top-tier mobile GPU, though the desktop card benefits from its 220 W TDP and dedicated thermal solution. The card's 16-pin power connector and 550 W suggested PSU indicate it draws significant power, but the dual-slot design keeps it manageable for most ATX cases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions reveals a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, with CPU headroom becoming more apparent at lower settings. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by 19.6% at High settings (107 to 86), by 19.2% at Medium (143 to 115), by 19.1% at Low (183 to 148), and by 19.5% at Ultra (102 to 82). This nearly uniform ~19% reduction across all presets indicates that resolution scaling is consistent regardless of quality level.

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a more pronounced drop. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 86 to 64, a 25.6% reduction. Medium settings drop from 115 to 85 (26.1%), Low from 148 to 109 (26.4%), and Ultra from 82 to 61 (25.6%). This steeper decline at higher resolutions suggests the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, as pixel count increases by 2.25x from 1440p to 4K but FPS only decreases by about a quarter.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts depending on resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 183 approaches what might be considered a CPU ceiling for this simulation, as the Core Ultra 5 225's 10 cores and 10 threads are tasked with physics, AI, and simulation logic. The fact that 1080p Ultra (102 FPS) is only 4.8% faster than 4K Ultra (61 FPS) when the pixel count doubles suggests that at Ultra settings, the GPU is the primary bottleneck even at 1080p.

At Medium settings, the minimum FPS values provide additional insight. At 1080p, the minimum is 121 FPS, at 1440p it's 98 FPS, and at 4K it's 72 FPS. These minimums indicate that frame pacing remains stable across resolutions, with no sudden stutters or hitches that would suggest memory bandwidth limitations. The 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth appears sufficient for the 12 GB frame buffer, even at 4K Ultra where texture memory usage would be highest.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER achieves a rank of 425 out of 2,996 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 85.8th percentile of all tested systems. This top-15% ranking reflects a balanced configuration where both CPU and GPU contribute meaningfully to overall performance.

The CPU's percentile of 85 among all processors is nearly identical to the combo's rank percentile, suggesting that the processor is not holding back the system in this title. Similarly, the GPU's 83rd percentile aligns closely with the combo's overall position. This alignment indicates that neither component is significantly bottlenecking the other in Flight Simulator, which is notable given the game's reputation for being particularly demanding on both CPU and GPU resources.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 225's performance in this combo is consistent with its synthetic benchmark scores. The 0% delta versus the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and -0.2% versus the Ryzen 5 5500X3D suggest that any of these CPUs would produce similar results when paired with the RTX 4070 SUPER. The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern, with deltas ranging from -0.1% to -1% against the Quadro M6000 variants and RTX 4090 Mobile.

The 425th rank out of 2,996 combos represents a strong showing for a mid-range desktop configuration. Systems ranked above this combo likely include higher-tier CPUs like Core i9 or Ryzen 9 processors paired with RTX 4080 or 4090 GPUs, or configurations with more specialized simulation hardware. The fact that this combo achieves this rank with a 65 W TDP CPU and 220 W TDP GPU demonstrates efficient performance per watt in this workload.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 brings 10 cores and 10 threads to this Microsoft Flight Simulator configuration, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. The lack of hyperthreading means the 10 threads are all physical cores, which can be advantageous for simulation workloads that benefit from dedicated processing resources. The CPU's 3 nm process node and Arrow Lake architecture (Arrow Lake-S codename) represent a modern design, with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die.

The CPU's cache hierarchy is substantial: 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and a 20 MB shared L3 cache. This large L3 cache is particularly important for Flight Simulator, which frequently accesses terrain and aircraft data. The DDR5 memory support with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 225 demonstrates strong single-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4,412. Multi-threaded performance is equally impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and a Passmark multithread score of 30,459. These scores place the CPU at the 85th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 36,938.

The measured FPS data suggests that at 1080p Low settings, the CPU may become the limiting factor. The 183 FPS average at this setting is likely approaching the simulation's engine limit, as the CPU must process flight physics, weather systems, and AI traffic while the GPU handles rendering. The fact that 4K Ultra achieves 61 FPS while 1080p Ultra achieves 102 FPS indicates that at Ultra settings, the GPU is the primary constraint, but the CPU still maintains enough headroom to avoid causing frame drops.

The CPU's 65 W TDP is notably efficient for a desktop processor with this level of performance. The passmark physics score of 2,342 and floating-point math score of 92,038 indicate strong computational capability for the physics simulations that Flight Simulator runs constantly. The data compression score of 302,811 and encryption score of 22,285 round out a well-rounded compute profile.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across settings presets shows a clear hierarchy: Low delivers 183 FPS, Medium delivers 143 FPS (with a minimum of 121 and maximum of 164), High delivers 107 FPS, and Ultra delivers 102 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 40 FPS (28% reduction), while the gap between Medium and High is 36 FPS (25% reduction). The smallest delta is between High and Ultra at just 5 FPS (4.7% reduction), suggesting diminishing returns at the highest quality settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 148 for Low, 115 for Medium (minimum 98, maximum 132), 86 for High, and 82 for Ultra. The percentage reduction from 1080p is consistent across presets, ranging from 19.1% to 19.6%. The Medium preset at 1440p maintains a minimum FPS of 98, which is still comfortably above 60 FPS and provides a smooth experience for most users.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 109 for Low, 85 for Medium (minimum 72, maximum 98), 64 for High, and 61 for Ultra. The 4K Medium preset's minimum of 72 FPS is notable, as it indicates that even at this demanding resolution, the combination maintains playable framerates without significant stuttering. The Ultra preset at 4K achieves an average of 61 FPS, which is right at the threshold for smooth gameplay on standard 60 Hz displays.

The scaling between resolutions reveals that the GPU is the dominant factor at 4K, while the CPU contributes more at lower resolutions. The 4K Low preset's 109 FPS is particularly interesting, as it shows that even with minimal graphics quality, the system can achieve high framerates at 4K, suggesting that the RTX 4070 SUPER has sufficient bandwidth and compute capacity for this resolution when not heavily tasked with visual effects.

Settings Recommendations

For users with a 1080p display, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with an average FPS of 143 and a minimum of 121. This provides a 45% performance headroom over the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining better visual fidelity than Low. The High preset at 107 FPS is also viable, but the 25% performance drop from Medium may not justify the visual improvement for most users. The Ultra preset at 102 FPS is only 5 FPS below High, making it a reasonable choice for those who prioritize maximum quality and have a 100 Hz or higher refresh rate display.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again provides the best experience, with an average of 115 FPS and a minimum of 98. This delivers smooth gameplay with only a 15% reduction from the Low preset's 148 FPS. The High preset at 86 FPS is still above 60 FPS and may be preferable for users with G-Sync or FreeSync displays who can tolerate slight frame rate fluctuations. The Ultra preset at 82 FPS is also playable, though users with 144 Hz displays may notice the drop from Medium.

For 4K displays, the Medium preset is the strongest recommendation, delivering an average of 85 FPS with a minimum of 72. This provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold and maintains visual quality that is significantly better than Low. The High preset at 64 FPS is marginally above 60 FPS and may be acceptable for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate stability. The Ultra preset at 61 FPS is right at the edge of playability and is only recommended for users with VRR displays or those who cap their frame rate at 60 FPS.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best experience per the measured data. It maintains minimum FPS values above 70 at 4K, above 95 at 1440p, and above 120 at 1080p, ensuring smooth frame pacing without the visual compromises of Low settings. The High preset is a viable alternative for users who prioritize visual quality, but the performance cost of 20-25% over Medium may not justify the incremental improvement in graphics.