Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator was measured with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile at 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets. The combination ranks 815th out of 3714 tested combinations in this game. The CPU sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU sits at the 84th percentile among all GPUs, yet the measured frame-rate rows show that Microsoft Flight Simulator remains strongly sensitive to resolution and settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS values decline consistently when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Low settings, the row sequence is 166 average FPS at 1920x1080, 133 at 2560x1440, and 98 at 3840x2160. At Medium settings, the sequence is 129, 104, and 77. At High settings, it is 97, 78, and 58. At Ultra settings, it is 92, 74, and 55. The lowest average FPS in the entire measured set is 55, from the 3840x2160 Ultra row, while the highest is 166, from the 1920x1080 Low row.

This pattern points to a limiting component that is heavily exercised by resolution. Lowering the pixel count produces large gains in every preset row. The 3840x2160 Low row averages 98, while the 1920x1080 Low row averages 166. The 3840x2160 Medium row averages 77, while the 1920x1080 Medium row averages 129. These are not small shifts; they track the pixel workload directly. The CPU in this pairing holds strong general benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2204 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4713, so the measured FPS decline is better explained by the GPU-side workload.

The Medium preset is the only settings row that includes min and max values. At 3840x2160 Medium, the min is 65 and the max is 88. At 2560x1440 Medium, the min is 88 and the max is 119. At 1920x1080 Medium, the min is 109 and the max is 148. Within that limited data, the frame-time spread becomes wider as resolution increases, with the 3840x2160 row showing a larger gap between min and max than the 1920x1080 row.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread Arrow Lake-HX processor with a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3. It is built on a 3 nm TSMC process with 17,800 million transistors and a die size of 243 mm². Memory support is dual-channel DDR5 with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Its multi-threaded benchmark results are substantial. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 35589, the Geekbench multi-core score is 20795, and the Passmark multithread score is 55759. Single-thread results are also high: Cinebench R23 single-core scores 2204, Geekbench single-core scores 2458, and Passmark single-thread scores 4713. The aggregate CPU benchmark position is the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 67469.

The nearest CPU rivals in the database are all close. The Intel Xeon w5-3525 has an average score of 67673 with a deltaPct of -0.3. The AMD EPYC 4484PX has an average score of 67822 with a deltaPct of -0.5. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX has an average score of 67868 with a deltaPct of -0.6. The Intel Xeon 6515P has an average score of 67006 with a deltaPct of 0.7. These narrow deltas place the 275HX in a tight pack of high-end processors, all within a percent of each other.

In the game results, the CPU has enough headroom to deliver high frame rates when the GPU workload is reduced. The 1920x1080 Low row reaches 166 average FPS, and the 1920x1080 Medium row reaches 129. Those numbers are far above the 3840x2160 Ultra result of 55. Given the CPU's 94th-percentile standing and its single-thread results, the measured FPS ceiling at lower resolutions is not obviously capped by CPU throughput.

Settings Recommendations

The measurements provide a clear ranking of settings per resolution. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 98, Medium averages 77, High averages 58, and Ultra averages 55. The Medium row also carries a min of 65 and a max of 88. That makes Medium the highest settings tier in the 3840x2160 data with an average clearly above the High and Ultra rows. The 3840x2160 High row averages 58, which is above the Ultra row's 55, but both are below the Medium row's 77.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 133, Medium averages 104, High averages 78, and Ultra averages 74. The High row is above Ultra by a measurable margin, but Medium is further ahead at 104. For users who want more detail than Low while maintaining a higher average than Ultra, the Medium row at 2560x1440 offers the strongest measured average outside the Low row. The Medium row also has the only min/max data at this resolution: 88 min and 119 max.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 166, Medium averages 129, High averages 97, and Ultra averages 92. Every 1920x1080 row averages above 90, so the FPS constraint is weaker at this resolution. The Medium row again provides the only min/max range: 109 min and 148 max. The High row's 97 average and the Ultra row's 92 average are close, so moving from Ultra to High may not require a large frame-rate sacrifice. The data does not include image-quality metrics, so the recommendation is based on measured FPS only. The Medium preset stands out because it remains above the High and Ultra rows at every measured resolution while also being the only preset with min/max frame data.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank in Microsoft Flight Simulator is 815 out of 3714 tested combinations. That places this CPU/GPU pairing in the upper portion of the list, though not at the top. The CPU's generic percentile is 94, and the GPU's generic percentile is 84, but the game-specific result is a rank of 815.

The measured FPS help explain this game-specific position. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 55 on Ultra to 98 on Low. At 2560x1440, it ranges from 74 on Ultra to 133 on Low. At 1920x1080, it ranges from 92 on Ultra to 166 on Low. A game with this degree of settings and resolution sensitivity can put a 94th-percentile CPU and 84th-percentile GPU into a middle-high combo ranking rather than a top-tier one.

The rank is also informative relative to the nearest CPU and GPU rivals. The CPU is within 0.3-0.6% of three rival processors and 0.7% ahead of a fourth. The GPU is within 0.8-0.9% of three rival GPUs and 0.9% behind another. The combination's 815th rank is therefore not a reflection of weak components; it reflects how Microsoft Flight Simulator uses this specific pair.

FAQ

Q: What average FPS does the combo produce with the Low preset at 1920x1080?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 averages 166 FPS, the highest measured average in the dataset.

Q: Which measured row has the lowest average FPS?

A: The 3840x2160 Ultra row has the lowest average at 55 FPS.

Q: What min and max FPS are recorded at 3840x2160 Medium?

A: The 3840x2160 Medium row has an average of 77, with a min of 65 and a max of 88.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX compare with its nearest CPU rivals?

A: Its average benchmark score is 67469, with a 94th percentile ranking. The nearest rivals are the Intel Xeon w5-3525 at 67673 with a deltaPct of -0.3, the AMD EPYC 4484PX at 67822 with a deltaPct of -0.5, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX at 67868 with a deltaPct of -0.6, and the Intel Xeon 6515P at 67006 with a deltaPct of 0.7.

Q: How does the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile compare with its nearest GPU rivals?

A: Its average benchmark score is 43667, with an 84th percentile ranking. The nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 at 43301 with a deltaPct of 0.8, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile at 43268 with a deltaPct of 0.9, the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB at 43262 with a deltaPct of 0.9, and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 at 44075 with a deltaPct of -0.9.

Q: Where does this combo rank among tested CPU and GPU combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: It ranks 815 out of 3714 tested combos.

Measured FPS Breakdown

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|

| 3840x2160 | Low | 98 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 77 | 65 | 88 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 58 | — | — |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 55 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 133 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 104 | 88 | 119 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 78 | — | — |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 74 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 166 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 129 | 109 | 148 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 97 | — | — |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 92 | — | — |

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile uses the AD103 chip on TSMC 5 nm, with 45,900 million transistors and a die size of 379 mm². Its base clock is 1335 MHz, its boost clock is 1695 MHz, and its memory clock is 2250 MHz, listed as 18 Gbps effective. The memory subsystem is 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 576.0 GB/s bandwidth. The compute configuration includes 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 76 RT cores, and 304 tensor cores. FP32 throughput is 32.98 TFLOPS, and FP16 throughput is 32.98 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio.

In synthetic benchmark results, the GPU scores 27212 in Passmark G3D, 984 in Passmark G2D, 180831 in Geekbench OpenCL, 170774 in Geekbench Vulkan, 262 in Passmark DirectX 11, 173 in Passmark DirectX 10, 107 in Passmark DirectX 12, 310 in Passmark DirectX 9, and 12347 in Passmark GPU compute. Its aggregate GPU benchmark position is the 84th percentile, with an average benchmark score of 43667. The nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 at 43301 with a deltaPct of 0.8, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile at 43268 with a deltaPct of 0.9, the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB at 43262 with a deltaPct of 0.9, and the NVIDIA RTX A6000 at 44075 with a deltaPct of -0.9.

The measured game rows show the GPU's role clearly. At 3840x2160, moving from Low to Medium changes the average from 98 to 77, and moving from Medium to High changes it from 77 to 58. The Ultra row averages 55. At 2560x1440, the same settings ladder is 133, 104, 78, and 74. At 1920x1080, it is 166, 129, 97, and 92. The 16 GB VRAM and 576.0 GB/s bandwidth are present in the specifications, while the frame-rate measurements show a GPU that is heavily taxed as both resolution and settings increase.