On a NVIDIA RTX 4090 (paired with a balanced Intel Core i9-14900K-class CPU), X-Plane 12 runs at roughly 78 FPS at 4K with our optimized settings — up from about 79FPS with everything maxed. Here's the configuration and what each setting costs.
The NVIDIA RTX 4090 is a flagship 4K-class graphics card with 24GB of VRAM, and X-Plane 12 is a demanding, graphically heavy game. Paired with the Intel Core i9-14900K, it runs well at 4K — about 78 FPSwith FrameCoach's optimized settings. That already clears a smooth frame rate on High, so our tuning keeps the visuals as high as possible instead of chasing extra frames.
Across resolutions you can expect around 152 FPS at 1080p and 138 FPS at 1440p, dropping to roughly 78 FPS at 4K. Its 24GB of VRAM is plenty for X-Plane 12, so textures can stay maxed. The biggest free win is DLSS upscaling — set it to Quality for a large FPS boost at little visual cost.
| Resolution | All-High FPS | Optimized FPS |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p | 152 | 152 |
| 1440p | 140 | 138 |
| 4K | 79 | 78 |
⚡ Fine-tune this for your exact CPU & target FPS →
🎯 Can the NVIDIA RTX 4090 run X-Plane 12? See the verdict →
With FrameCoach's optimized balanced settings, the NVIDIA RTX 4090 averages around 78 FPS at 4K in X-Plane 12 — up from about 79 FPS with everything on High.
At 1440p with optimized settings, the NVIDIA RTX 4090 averages roughly 138 FPS in X-Plane 12 — a smooth experience.
Use a balanced preset, keep ray tracing off for maximum FPS, and ease the heaviest options like Cloud Quality and World Objects Density down a notch. The full per-setting breakdown is above.
FPS figures are estimates from a generalized model (hardware tier × game load × per-setting weights), not live benchmarks — real performance varies by scene, drivers and game version.