Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing produces a striking split in Microsoft Flight Simulator: massive GPU headroom meets a mid-range CPU from 2019. The recorded data shows that this combination delivers smooth, playable performance across every tested resolution and preset, but the pattern of frame rates reveals where the CPU begins to assert its influence. This analysis examines the measured FPS values, the component roles, and how this specific pairing ranks against other tested combinations in the database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4090 is the dominant force. The average frame rates scale cleanly with the graphics workload: Low settings produce 112.3 FPS, Medium drops to 105.2 FPS, High settles at 81.6 FPS, and Ultra remains above the 60 FPS threshold at 77.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 7.1 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is a more substantial 23.6 FPS, indicating a significant jump in shading and texture complexity. The difference between High and Ultra is only 3.8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds effects that are relatively cheap on this GPU.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates rise across the board, but the scaling becomes less uniform. Low averages 126.7 FPS, Medium 115 FPS, and both High and Ultra share an identical 104.4 FPS. This exact match between High and Ultra is a notable data point, as it implies that at this resolution, the CPU is beginning to limit the GPU. The RTX 4090 can render the Ultra settings at the same speed as High because the processor cannot feed it frames any faster.

At 1920x1080, the pattern intensifies. Low reaches 135.4 FPS, Medium 127.1 FPS, High 108.8 FPS, and Ultra 107 FPS. The delta between High and Ultra shrinks to just 1.8 FPS, and the overall spread from Low to Ultra is 28.4 FPS. Compared to 4K, where the spread was 34.5 FPS, the 1080p results show less differentiation between presets, reinforcing the idea that the CPU is capping the maximum achievable frame rate regardless of how much graphical work is assigned to the GPU.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 77.8 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: What is the highest preset that maintains 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: All four presets clear 60 FPS at 2560x1440. The highest, Ultra, averages 104.4 FPS, identical to the High preset average at that resolution.

Q: Why do High and Ultra produce the same frame rate at 1440p?

A: The recorded data shows both 2560x1440 High and Ultra averaging exactly 104.4 FPS. This suggests the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, becomes the limiting factor before the RTX 4090's rendering workload changes between those two presets.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 scores 2124 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 15045 in multi-core. The multi-core score is 7.1 times higher, but flight simulators like this often rely heavily on single-thread performance for physics and AI calculations.

Q: What is the best settings choice at 1080p for maximum visual quality?

A: Ultra settings at 1920x1080 average 107 FPS. Since this is well above 60 FPS and only 1.8 FPS slower than High, the database indicates Ultra is the most demanding preset that remains fully playable.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combination ranks 570th out of 3714 tested combos, placing it in the top 15.4% of all recorded configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

CPU and GPU Roles

The RTX 4090's raw capability is evident in the 4K results, where frame rates drop by 20% to 30% from 1440p, consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the primary driver: Low to Ultra spans 34.5 FPS, and the GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are being utilized to their full extent. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is more than sufficient for this flight sim's terrain rendering.

The CPU's role emerges at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rate difference between Medium (127.1 FPS) and Ultra (107 FPS) is only 20.1 FPS, while at 4K the same preset gap is 27.4 FPS. More telling is the High to Ultra delta: at 1440p it is exactly zero, and at 1080p it is 1.8 FPS. This suggests that the Ryzen 5 3600's 3.60 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost clocks cannot generate enough draw calls or simulation updates to push the GPU beyond approximately 135 FPS in this workload. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 2562 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2124 are moderate figures, and they appear to establish a ceiling that the RTX 4090 reaches at 1080p Low.

The scaling between resolutions confirms this split. From 1080p Low (135.4 FPS) to 4K Low (112.3 FPS), the drop is 17.1%. From 1080p Ultra (107 FPS) to 4K Ultra (77.8 FPS), the drop is 27.3%. The larger percentage loss at Ultra settings indicates that the GPU is doing substantially more work there, while at Low settings the CPU is the bottleneck at both resolutions. In essence, the GPU dictates how fast the game can render complex scenes, but the CPU dictates the absolute maximum frame rate in simpler scenes.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals for the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, the database shows a tight cluster of CPUs with nearly identical average benchmark scores. The Intel Core i7-1260P scores 17007, just 0.2% lower than the Ryzen 5 3600's 17035. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 17067, 0.2% higher, and the AMD EPYC 7573X and EPYC 7742 score 17070 and 16998, respectively, both within 0.2% of the target CPU. For gaming, the i5-11400 and i7-1260P are the most relevant comparisons, as they would likely produce very similar frame rates in Microsoft Flight Simulator, given the near-identical average scores. The EPYC server chips may have different memory latency characteristics, but their benchmark parity suggests similar CPU-bound behavior.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, the nearest rivals are a more diverse set. The Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326, essentially tied with the RTX 4090's 60347 average benchmark score, showing a delta of 0%. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 0.3% slower, and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% faster. These are professional workstation GPUs, and their benchmark parity with the RTX 4090 is surprising given the gaming focus of the GeForce card. However, for this flight simulator, the recorded FPS values would likely be very similar with any of these GPUs at 4K, provided the CPU is not the limiting factor. The AMD Radeon PRO V710 is 2.9% slower, which would translate to roughly 2 to 3 FPS lower at 4K Ultra, a negligible difference in practice.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 77.8 FPS. This leaves a comfortable margin above the playable threshold, allowing for some frame rate dips without dropping below 60.

At 2560x1440, Ultra is again the best choice, averaging 104.4 FPS. This is identical to the High preset, so there is no performance cost to selecting Ultra. The database shows that the CPU is the limiting factor here, and the GPU has spare capacity.

At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 107 FPS. The difference between High (108.8 FPS) and Ultra (107 FPS) is small enough that the visual quality gain from Ultra is worth the 1.8 FPS trade-off. All presets exceed 100 FPS at this resolution, so the recommendation is simply to use the highest quality settings available.

The Verdict

The data is clear: this PC can run Microsoft Flight Simulator at all three tested resolutions with every preset exceeding the 60 FPS playable threshold. At 4K Ultra, the average of 77.8 FPS confirms that the RTX 4090 has enough compute power and memory bandwidth to handle the game's most demanding settings. At 1440p and 1080p, all presets run at 104.4 FPS or higher, meaning the user can enable maximum visual quality without any playability concerns.

The only caveat is the CPU ceiling. The Ryzen 5 3600 keeps frame rates in the 104 to 135 FPS range at lower resolutions, which is excellent for smooth gameplay, but it prevents the RTX 4090 from demonstrating its full potential. A user with a high refresh rate 1080p monitor will see the same frame rate at High and Ultra settings, indicating that the CPU, not the GPU, is the deciding factor. For 4K gaming, this pairing is well balanced, as the GPU is heavily utilized and the CPU can keep up with the lower frame rate demands. Ultimately, the verdict by resolution is positive: 4K Ultra at 77.8 FPS, 1440p Ultra at 104.4 FPS, and 1080p Ultra at 107 FPS all represent fully playable experiences.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 3714 tested combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 570th. This places it in the top 15.4% of all recorded configurations, a strong showing given that the CPU is an older, mid-range part. The high rank is almost entirely attributable to the RTX 4090, which sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs in the database. The Ryzen 5 3600, by contrast, is in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 17035 is closely matched by several rivals.

The rank of 570 suggests that many faster CPU and GPU combinations exist, but this specific pairing is still far above the median. For a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy simulation and rendering demands, the 570th position out of 3714 indicates that the RTX 4090 compensates for the CPU's limitations, especially at 4K where the GPU is the primary workload driver. The data implies that upgrading the CPU would push this combo much higher in the rankings, but as configured, it remains a well-above-average performer for this title.