Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a demanding title that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER produces a set of measured results that are well worth examining. The data provided shows a clear picture of how this pairing handles the game across multiple resolutions and quality presets, offering a practical guide for anyone considering this hardware. The Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread desktop processor from Intel’s Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, while the RTX 4080 SUPER is an Ada Lovelace-based GPU with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus. This analysis will break down the measured FPS, compare the combo’s standing against other tested systems, and explain how each major component contributes to the final experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The combo ranks 180th out of 2,996 tested combinations, placing it in the top 6% of all systems benchmarked for this specific game. That rank is based on measured performance data, not theoretical estimates, so it reflects real-world results gathered from the exact hardware pairing.

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest average FPS at 1920x1080?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest measured average at 209 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 163 FPS, High at 123 FPS, and Ultra at 117 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 46 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is only 6 FPS, indicating a steep cost for the first step up from Low and a diminishing return at the top end.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its closest rival, the RTX 4080, in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54,209, while the RTX 4080 scores 54,247. This puts the SUPER 0.1% behind the non-SUPER variant in aggregate benchmarks, a negligible difference that suggests the two cards perform nearly identically in synthetic tests. In the context of this game’s measured FPS, that delta is far smaller than the variation between settings presets.

Q: What is the CPU’s percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 90% of processors in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score is 48,995, which places it just below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196, -0.4% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228, -0.5% delta), while slightly ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698, +0.6% delta) and the Intel Core i5-14600K (48,618, +0.8% delta).

Q: Does the measured FPS data include minimum or maximum frame rates for all settings?

A: No. Only the Medium preset at each resolution includes both minimum and maximum FPS values. At 3840x2160 Medium, the range is 82 to 111 FPS; at 2560x1440 Medium, it’s 112 to 151 FPS; and at 1920x1080 Medium, it’s 138 to 187 FPS. All other presets (Low, High, Ultra) report only the average FPS, so frame time consistency cannot be fully assessed for those settings.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the RTX 4080 SUPER provide, and why does it matter for this game?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, delivered via 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus. Flight simulators often stream large textures and terrain data, so this high bandwidth helps maintain consistent frame rates when moving over detailed scenery. The measured data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 69, which is still playable but suggests the memory subsystem is being pushed hard at the highest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 180 out of 2,996 tested configurations puts this system in the top 6% of all results in the benchmark database for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That is a strong showing, but it’s essential to interpret what that rank means given the specific hardware. The RTX 4080 SUPER is an end-of-life product, having been replaced by the GeForce 50 series, yet its performance remains competitive. The GPU’s percentile among all GPUs is 86, meaning it outperforms 86% of graphics cards, while the CPU’s percentile is 90, so both components are above average in their respective pools.

What stands out is the delta between this combo’s rank and the individual component percentiles. A rank of 180 out of 2,996 suggests that many other combinations, likely with higher-end CPUs like the Ryzen 9 7900 or i5-14600K, achieve better results in this specific game. The CPU’s nearest rivals show it’s only 0.5% below the Ryzen 9 7900 in average score, yet in a flight simulator that is heavily CPU-bound at lower resolutions, even small differences can affect the final ranking. The data indicates that this combo is solidly upper-tier, but not elite, and the bottleneck analysis below will clarify where the limits lie.

The rank also benefits from the fact that many tested combos likely use older or weaker CPUs. Since Microsoft Flight Simulator scales with both cores and single-thread performance, the Core Ultra 5 245’s 14 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock are sufficient to avoid major CPU bottlenecks at higher resolutions. At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint, and the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is enough to push 69 FPS on Ultra. At 1080p, however, the CPU’s single-thread score of 4,648 in Cinebench R23 becomes more relevant, and the measured 209 FPS on Low suggests the processor is keeping up with the GPU’s output.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers a clear hierarchy of presets, and the best choice depends on your resolution and tolerance for frame rate drops. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 209 FPS, which is far beyond what any display needs, but it comes at the cost of visual fidelity. The Medium preset drops to 163 FPS, still exceptionally high, while High and Ultra sit at 123 and 117 FPS respectively. Since the gap between High and Ultra is only 6 FPS at 1080p, running Ultra is a reasonable choice if you want maximum visual quality without a significant frame rate penalty. The Medium preset’s minimum FPS of 138 ensures that even demanding scenes stay smooth, making it a safe recommendation for 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low averages 169 FPS, Medium 131 FPS, High 99 FPS, and Ultra 94 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra is just 5 FPS, so again, Ultra is nearly free in performance terms. However, the High preset’s average of 99 FPS is already close to the 100 FPS threshold that many users consider ideal for a smooth experience, and Ultra’s 94 FPS is still playable. The Medium preset’s minimum of 112 FPS is noteworthy because it means the frame rate rarely dips below that level, providing a consistent experience. For 1440p, High or Ultra is recommended, with Ultra being the better choice if your monitor can handle the slightly lower average.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Low averages 125 FPS, Medium 97 FPS, High 73 FPS, and Ultra 69 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum is 82 FPS, which is the only preset at 4K with a reported floor that stays above 60 FPS. High and Ultra both dip below 70 FPS on average, which may cause noticeable stuttering in dense areas. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for 4K, as it provides a playable average of 97 FPS with a minimum of 82 FPS, while High and Ultra offer diminishing visual returns for a 24-28 FPS drop. If you have a 60 Hz display, Ultra’s 69 FPS average is still acceptable, but Medium offers a safer margin.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured results are consistent across three resolutions and four settings, providing a complete picture of performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset leads with an average of 209 FPS. Medium follows at 163 FPS, with a minimum of 138 FPS and a maximum of 187 FPS. High averages 123 FPS, and Ultra averages 117 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium is a 46 FPS drop, while the drop from Medium to High is 40 FPS, and from High to Ultra is only 6 FPS. This indicates that the first two settings increases are costly, but the final step to Ultra is nearly free, likely because the CPU and GPU are already saturated.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 169 FPS, which is a 40 FPS reduction from 1080p Low. Medium averages 131 FPS, with a minimum of 112 FPS and a maximum of 151 FPS. High averages 99 FPS, and Ultra averages 94 FPS. The delta between High and Ultra is 5 FPS, similar to the 1080p pattern. The Medium preset’s minimum of 112 FPS is higher than the average FPS of High and Ultra, which suggests that Medium provides a more consistent frame time experience than the higher presets. This is a key observation for users who prioritize smoothness over absolute visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 125 FPS, Medium averages 97 FPS with a minimum of 82 FPS and a maximum of 111 FPS, High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra averages 69 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium is a 28 FPS drop, from Medium to High a 24 FPS drop, and from High to Ultra just 4 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 82 FPS is the only reported value above 60 FPS at 4K, making it the most reliable choice for maintaining a playable frame rate. The Ultra preset’s 69 FPS average is close to the High preset’s 73 FPS, so the visual difference between those two is unlikely to justify the performance cost if you are sensitive to frame drops.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the primary driver of high-resolution performance in this combo. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator that loads massive texture sets and terrain data. The GPU’s base clock is 2295 MHz, boosting to 2550 MHz, and it contains 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s, which are directly relevant to how quickly the card can fill the screen with detailed scenery.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU’s influence most clearly at 4K. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 125 on Low to 69 on Ultra, a 56 FPS swing that is almost entirely due to the GPU’s workload. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is sufficient to handle 4K Medium at 97 FPS, but the jump to High and Ultra pushes it closer to its limits. The GPU’s percentile rank of 86 against all GPUs indicates that it outperforms the vast majority of cards, yet it is only 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 in average benchmark score, suggesting that the SUPER’s 16 GB memory and higher clocks do not translate into a significant advantage in this title.

The card’s 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but not heavily utilized in this game, as the measured data does not indicate ray tracing or DLSS usage. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is ample for 4K Ultra, where the game might exceed 12 GB in heavy scenes, but the average FPS of 69 shows that raw memory size is not the bottleneck—compute and bandwidth are. The GPU’s 320 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are not reflected in the FPS data, but they imply that sustained performance is achievable, and the measured numbers confirm that the card does not throttle to the point of dropping below 60 FPS at any tested setting.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 plays a supporting but crucial role in this combo, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor. With 14 cores and 14 threads, it relies on a mix of performance and efficiency cores, though the thread count equals the core count, meaning no hyper-threading. The base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, which is essential for a flight simulator that often relies on a single main thread for game logic and physics. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,648 and multi-core score of 32,924 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48,995.

The CPU’s impact is visible in the 1080p results. At 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS reaches 209, which is higher than at any other resolution, indicating that the CPU can feed the GPU enough data to achieve high frame rates. However, the drop from Low to Medium at 1080p is 46 FPS, which is larger than the corresponding drop at 1440p (38 FPS) or 4K (28 FPS). This suggests that the CPU is heavily involved in processing the additional draw calls and object updates that come with higher settings, even at a resolution where the GPU has spare capacity. The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce latency, but the game’s demands still show a measurable performance cost.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, which scores 49,228 (0.5% higher), and the Intel Core i5-14600K, which scores 48,618 (0.8% lower). These small deltas mean that the Core Ultra 5 245 is essentially on par with those chips for general workloads, but in Microsoft Flight Simulator, the specific combination of cores and clocks matters. The CPU’s 5.10 GHz boost clock is the highest among its rivals, which likely helps in single-threaded scenarios, but its 14 threads are fewer than the 24 threads of the Ryzen 9 7900, which could explain why other combos rank higher. At 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, but at 1080p and 1440p, the Core Ultra 5 245 proves capable of maintaining high average FPS, with the data showing no significant frame rate collapse even at Ultra settings.