Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 compare to its closest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225’s average benchmark score of 36,938 is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which scores 36,945 (0% delta). It sits slightly behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37,018, -0.2%), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37,093, -0.4%), and the Intel Core i9-12900T (37,112, -0.5%). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to its nearest competitors?

A: The RTX 4080’s average benchmark score of 54,247 is a hair ahead of the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209, +0.1%). It leads the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828) by 1.1%, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698) by 2.6%, and the AMD Radeon 8060S (55,757) by 2.7%. The 4080 is effectively at parity with the SUPER variant.

Q: What is this combo's rank among all tested CPU/GPU pairings for Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: This specific configuration (Core Ultra 5 225 + RTX 4080) ranks 215th out of 3,714 tested combos in the game. That places it in the top ~5.8% of all pairings, indicating a very strong setup for this title.

Q: What kind of frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the measured average FPS is 99. Dropping to Medium yields 132 FPS, while Ultra produces 95 FPS. Low settings push the average to 170 FPS. The data confirms this combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p play.

Q: Does the CPU hold back the GPU at lower resolutions?

A: At 1080p Low, the average FPS reaches 211, which is a massive jump from 1440p Low (170 FPS). The scaling from 1440p to 1080p is not as steep as from 4K to 1440p, suggesting the CPU begins to exert a limiting influence at very high frame rates, though the 10-core processor still delivers excellent results.

Q: Is the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for this game at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 70 FPS. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory, paired with 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, is enough to handle the high-resolution textures and draw distances in Microsoft Flight Simulator without exceeding capacity at this tested configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 uses the AD103 chip on the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for a flight simulator that streams vast amounts of terrain and scenery data. The GPU’s boost clock of 2505 MHz, combined with 9,728 shading units, delivers substantial raw compute power, reflected in its 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU’s role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 70, while at 4K High it is 73—a modest gap. This small difference between Ultra and High at 4K suggests that the game is heavily GPU-bound at this resolution, with the RTX 4080’s 16 GB frame buffer and 112 ROPs managing the pixel output efficiently. The GPU’s 761.5 GTexel/s texture rate and 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are well-matched to the game’s need for detailed ground textures and cockpit displays.

The RTX 4080’s 76 RT cores and 304 Tensor cores are relevant for the game’s optional ray-traced effects, though the measured data focuses on standard rasterization. The fact that Low settings at 4K produce 125 FPS, versus 70 FPS at Ultra, shows a 78% performance swing driven entirely by GPU load. This indicates the RTX 4080 has ample headroom to prioritize visual fidelity without sacrificing playability. The GPU’s 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,247, confirms it is a top-tier part, trailing only the 4080 SUPER by 0.1% in synthetic tests.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and RTX 4080 achieves rank 215 out of 3,714 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in the top 5.8% of all configs in the database, which is an excellent result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The ranking is driven primarily by the GPU’s strength, as the CPU’s synthetic score (36,938) is only 85th percentile among all processors, while the GPU sits at 86th percentile.

The combo’s position becomes clearer when examining the CPU’s nearest rivals. The Core Ultra 5 225 trades blows with the Ryzen 5 5600F and Ryzen 5 5500X3D, differing by less than 0.5% in average score. This means the CPU is not the differentiator here; the RTX 4080 is what pushes this combo into the top 215. For context, a combo ranked 215th out of 3,714 is in the top ~5.8%, meaning roughly 94% of tested systems are slower in this game. This is a strong result for a desktop build using a 10-core, 10-thread CPU that consumes only 65 W TDP.

The ranking also suggests that higher-ranked combos likely pair the RTX 4080 with faster CPUs like the Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 series, or use RTX 4090-class GPUs. However, the delta in actual FPS would be modest at 4K, where the GPU is the bottleneck. At 1080p, a faster CPU might push the average above the 211 FPS seen at Low settings, but the practical difference is limited by the game’s engine and the law of diminishing returns.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers strong results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 211 FPS, Medium yields 164 FPS (with min of 139 and max of 188), High gives 123 FPS, and Ultra drops to 117 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is just 6 FPS, suggesting that Ultra is a viable setting for competitive play on high-refresh monitors. The 1080p Medium frame times (139-188 FPS) show good consistency, with no major stutters indicated.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages decline predictably. Low settings hit 170 FPS, Medium averages 132 FPS (min 112, max 152), High drops to 99 FPS, and Ultra sits at 95 FPS. The delta between High and Ultra narrows to just 4 FPS at this resolution, reinforcing that the visual uplift from Ultra is minimal in terms of cost. For 1440p gaming, High settings at 99 FPS are excellent, while Ultra remains above 90 FPS, which is smooth for a flight simulator.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4080 shows its strength. Low settings average 125 FPS, Medium averages 97 FPS (min 83, max 112), High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra averages 70 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 3 FPS at 4K, making Ultra the obvious choice for maximum fidelity without meaningful performance loss. The 4K Medium frame time range (83-112 FPS) is wider than at lower resolutions, but still playable. The 4K Low result of 125 FPS is impressive, showing the GPU has headroom even at this demanding resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 211 at 1080p to 170 at 1440p (a 19% reduction) and then to 125 at 4K (a 41% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario: the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough frames at 1080p, but the GPU’s workload increases with pixel count.

At High settings, the progression is 123 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p (a 20% drop), and 73 FPS at 4K (a 41% drop from 1080p). The consistent ~20% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~40% from 1080p to 4K across Low, Medium, and High settings indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at all resolutions tested. The RTX 4080’s 716.8 GB/s memory bandwidth and 16 GB capacity scale well with resolution, but the raw shading power dictates the frame rate.

Ultra settings show a similar trend: 117 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p (a 19% drop), and 70 FPS at 4K (a 40% drop). This uniformity suggests the game’s rendering pipeline is well-optimized, with no sudden bottlenecks appearing at higher resolutions. The CPU’s 10 cores and 10 threads are sufficient to maintain frame pacing, as evidenced by the smooth scaling. If the CPU were the limiter, we would expect a smaller drop from 1440p to 4K (since the GPU becomes more loaded) and a larger drop from 1080p to 1440p—this is not the case, confirming the GPU is the dominant factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor from the Arrow Lake-S family, built on TSMC’s 3 nm process. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, reflected in a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655. Multi-core performance is solid for its class, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 30,459.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU handles game logic, physics, and AI traffic. The game is known for being CPU-sensitive at lower resolutions, but this combo’s data shows the Core Ultra 5 225 keeps pace. At 1080p Low, the 211 FPS average suggests the CPU can feed the RTX 4080 at high rates. The CPU’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce latency when accessing terrain data, which is a common workload in flight sims.

The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36,938, places it within 0.5% of several rivals, including the Ryzen 5 5600F and Ryzen 5 5500X3D. This parity means that swapping to a different mid-range CPU would not meaningfully change FPS in this game. The 65 W TDP is modest, and the CPU’s 10 threads are enough to avoid becoming a bottleneck even at 4K, where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor.

The CPU’s Passmark single-thread score of 4,412 is strong, ensuring that the game’s main thread (which handles cockpit systems and weather updates) runs smoothly. The data shows that the Core Ultra 5 225 is a balanced partner for the RTX 4080, providing enough headroom to avoid constraining the GPU at any setting while remaining a power-efficient choice. Its performance in Cinebench R20 (multi-core 6,317, single-core 891) confirms it is a capable desktop processor, even if it does not lead its class in raw throughput.