Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator: Intel Core Ultra 5 245 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers exceptional performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator, ranking 38th out of 2,996 tested combos—placing it in the top 1.3% of all configurations. The pairing shows a clear division of labor: at 1080p the CPU sets the ceiling, while at 4K the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. Measured frame rates range from 238 FPS at 1080p Low to 79 FPS at 4K Ultra, demonstrating that this system can handle the most demanding flight simulation scenarios with ease.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1080p Low, the system delivers 238 FPS; moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 192 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low it falls to 142 FPS. That represents a 40% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical preset, the GPU is still being pushed harder as resolution increases.

The picture changes dramatically at Ultra settings. The 4K Ultra result of 79 FPS is 41% lower than the 1080p Ultra score of 133 FPS, a steeper drop than the Low-setting scaling. This suggests that at Ultra, the combination of higher resolution and heavier graphical effects amplifies GPU load disproportionately. The Medium settings tell a similar story: 185 FPS at 1080p, 149 FPS at 1440p, and 110 FPS at 4K—a 41% decline across the resolution ladder.

At High settings, the scaling is more moderate: 139 FPS at 1080p, 112 FPS at 1440p, and 83 FPS at 4K. That's a 40% reduction from 1080p to 4K, slightly gentler than the Ultra scaling. The data suggests that Microsoft Flight Simulator's engine scales predictably with resolution, but the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU at higher pixel counts.

What does this say about the limiting component? At 1080p, the gap between Low (238 FPS) and Ultra (133 FPS) is 105 FPS—a 79% difference attributable purely to settings. At 4K, that same Low-to-Ultra gap is 63 FPS (142 vs. 79), a 44% difference. The narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint. The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are clearly sufficient for even 4K Ultra, as the game never dips below 79 FPS—but the data shows diminishing returns from lowering settings at 4K, since resolution itself is the dominant factor.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 brings 14 cores and 14 threads to this flight simulator, running at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boosting to 5.10 GHz. This is a 3 nm Arrow Lake-S part with 24 MB of shared L3 cache, and it sits in the 90th percentile of all CPUs tested. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,924 and single-core score of 4,648 indicate strong all-around compute capability.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom. At 1080p Low, the system hits 238 FPS—a number that likely approaches the engine's CPU-bound ceiling given the simulator's complex physics, weather simulation, and terrain streaming. The data shows that even with the RTX 5090—one of the most powerful GPUs available—the 1080p results cluster in a range that suggests CPU limitation: 238 FPS at Low, 185 FPS at Medium, 139 FPS at High, and 133 FPS at Ultra.

The CPU's single-thread performance is particularly relevant here. Flight simulators often rely heavily on a single main thread for game logic, and the Core Ultra 5 245's Cinebench R20 single-core score of 1,952 and R15 score of 468 suggest capable per-core throughput. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,394 reinforces this. With 14 threads, the processor can handle background tasks like scenery loading and AI traffic without stealing cycles from the primary simulation thread.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 5 245 is competitive but not dominant. Its average benchmark score of 48,995 is 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196) and 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228). It edges out the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-14600K by 0.8%. These tiny margins indicate that for this game, the CPU is not the differentiator—the GPU handles most of the performance variance across resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed star of this pairing. Built on Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process, this GPU packs 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, and the boost clock reaches 2,407 MHz. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 39,650 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs.

At 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 produces 79 FPS—a playable result that demonstrates the GPU's raw horsepower. The fact that 4K Ultra (79 FPS) is only 41% slower than 1080p Ultra (133 FPS) shows that the GPU has enough memory bandwidth and compute to absorb the 4x pixel increase without collapsing. The 32 GB VRAM is particularly relevant for a flight simulator that loads massive terrain textures and high-resolution satellite imagery.

The GPU's compute capabilities are equally impressive. Its FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s allow it to handle the complex shader work required for volumetric clouds, lighting, and water rendering in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The 170 RT cores provide hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which the simulator can use for realistic reflections and shadows.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79,842 is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605) and 0.6% ahead of the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396). It outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT by 1.1% but trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4%. These margins are remarkably tight, suggesting that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5090 is not as far ahead as its consumer-market positioning might suggest—yet in this game, its real-world results are exceptional.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K Ultra smoothly?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 79 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM ensures no texture streaming bottlenecks.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 a bottleneck for the RTX 5090?

A: At 1080p, the CPU appears to be the limiting factor—the gap between 1080p Low (238 FPS) and 4K Low (142 FPS) shows resolution scaling, but the 1080p Ultra score of 133 FPS suggests CPU headroom is limited. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 5 245's average benchmark score of 48,995 is within 0.8% of all its nearest rivals. It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G by 0.4% and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 by 0.5%, while leading the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-14600K by 0.8%.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 112 FPS at 2560x1440 High settings. This is a strong result that provides headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: Does lowering settings from Ultra to Low provide significant FPS gains?

A: Yes, but the gains shrink at higher resolutions. At 1080p, Low (238 FPS) is 79% faster than Ultra (133 FPS). At 4K, Low (142 FPS) is 80% faster than Ultra (79 FPS). The absolute gain is larger at 1080p (105 FPS vs. 63 FPS at 4K).

Q: Is the RTX 5090's memory capacity relevant for this game?

A: Yes. The 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for Microsoft Flight Simulator's large texture sets. The 4K Ultra result of 79 FPS confirms that memory capacity is not a limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 38th out of 2,996 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 1.3% of all systems tested. That position reflects the strength of pairing a high-percentile CPU (90th percentile) with a high-percentile GPU (92nd percentile). The rank is particularly impressive given that the CPU is not a flagship part—it's a mainstream Ultra 5 with 14 cores—yet it still reaches the upper echelons of performance.

The rank suggests that Microsoft Flight Simulator benefits more from GPU power than CPU core count. The RTX 5090's dominance in raw compute (104.8 TFLOPS FP32) and memory bandwidth (1.79 TB/s) likely contributes more to the 38th-place finish than the CPU's 14 cores. This aligns with the resolution scaling data, which shows GPU-bound behavior at 1440p and 4K.

Within the context of all 2,996 combos, 38th place means only 37 configurations deliver higher frame rates. Given that the RTX 5090 is among the most powerful consumer GPUs available, the ranking likely reflects other systems with even faster CPUs or exotic configurations. The Core Ultra 5 245's 90th percentile CPU score suggests it is not the weakest link in this pairing, but it also is not the strongest possible CPU partner for the RTX 5090.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), providing a complete picture of performance scaling.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 238 FPS average
• Medium: 185 FPS average (158 min, 213 max)
• High: 139 FPS average
• Ultra: 133 FPS average

At 1080p, the system delivers playable frame rates even at Ultra, with the Low-to-Ultra spread of 105 FPS indicating the GPU has ample headroom. The Medium preset's minimum of 158 FPS shows consistent frame delivery.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 192 FPS average
• Medium: 149 FPS average (127 min, 172 max)
• High: 112 FPS average
• Ultra: 107 FPS average

At 1440p, the frame rates remain high, with Ultra still exceeding 100 FPS. The Medium minimum of 127 FPS suggests no problematic stutters. The drop from 1080p to 1440p averages 19% across all settings, showing manageable scaling.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 142 FPS average
• Medium: 110 FPS average (94 min, 127 max)
• High: 83 FPS average
• Ultra: 79 FPS average

At 4K, the system remains playable at all settings, with Ultra hitting 79 FPS and Low reaching 142 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 94 FPS is notable—it indicates that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above 90 FPS. The Ultra result of 79 FPS is the only measurement below 80 FPS across the entire test matrix, confirming that this combo can handle 4K gaming without compromise.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each resolution step from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reduces frame rates by roughly 20-40%, with the largest absolute drops occurring at Low settings and the smallest at Ultra. This indicates that the RTX 5090's performance scales predictably with pixel count, while the CPU's influence becomes negligible at higher resolutions.