Microsoft Flight Simulator

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1080p, the data shows this combination can run the game at Ultra settings while maintaining 106.4 FPS on average. That is comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold, and it represents the highest visual preset available. Pushing to 1440p, the Ultra preset still delivers 98.9 FPS, which is a relatively small drop from the 1080p result, indicating the hardware has substantial headroom at this resolution. At 2160p, Ultra remains the best playable setting with 71.5 FPS, still clearing the 60 FPS line, though the margin narrows considerably compared to the lower resolutions. The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at each resolution is therefore Ultra across all three: 106.4 FPS at 1920x1080, 98.9 FPS at 2560x1440, and 71.5 FPS at 3840x2160. Every resolution tested supports the maximum visual quality setting without dropping below the playable threshold, which is an unusual result for a flight simulator known for heavy scenery loads.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions reveals how the workload shifts between the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra is 27.6 FPS (134.0 down to 106.4), a relatively modest gap that suggests the CPU is holding back the GPU at lower settings. When the resolution increases to 2560x1440, the spread between Low and Ultra narrows to 24.9 FPS (123.8 down to 98.9). At 3840x2160, the Low to Ultra delta grows to 42.5 FPS (114.0 down to 71.5), which indicates the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck as pixel count rises. The RTX 5080's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are being utilized more fully at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 3600's six cores and twelve threads appear sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions but create a more balanced or GPU-limited scenario at higher ones. Interestingly, the 1080p Low result of 134.0 FPS is the highest recorded number in the entire dataset, yet at 4K Low the same CPU and GPU combination only reaches 114.0 FPS. That 20.0 FPS drop at the same settings, purely from resolution change, points to the GPU becoming the limiting factor. At 1440p, the Medium preset hits 116.3 FPS while 4K Medium drops to 103.2 FPS, a smaller relative decline than the Low preset comparison, which suggests the rendering pipeline scales unevenly across settings. The CPU's single-thread performance, as reflected in its 3dmark single thread score of 696, likely matters more in this simulation at lower resolutions where draw calls and physics updates dominate frame time. At 4K, the GPU's raw throughput, represented by its 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 compute, takes over as the primary constraint.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 71.5 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 1440p?

A: Ultra settings are playable at 2560x1440, with an average of 98.9 FPS recorded in the database.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra?

A: The average FPS drops from 106.4 at 1920x1080 to 71.5 at 3840x2160, a difference of 34.9 FPS while keeping the same Ultra preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more responsible for frame rate at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset reaches 134.0 FPS while Ultra reaches 106.4 FPS, a spread of 27.6 FPS. This relatively small gap suggests the Ryzen 5 3600 is limiting performance at lower settings, since raising visual quality does not proportionally reduce frame rate.

Q: Does the game run better at Medium settings than High at 4K?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 Medium settings produce 103.2 FPS while High settings produce 78.2 FPS. The difference of 25.0 FPS reflects the increased rendering load of High settings.

Q: What rank does this combination hold among all tested combos for this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination ranks 602 out of 3714 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 16.2 percent of all tested systems.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals in the database, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 sits extremely close to several other processors. The Intel Core i7-1260P has an average benchmark score of 17007, which is a 0.2 percent difference from the Ryzen 5 3600's 17035. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 17067, also a 0.2 percent delta in the opposite direction. The AMD EPYC 7573X and AMD EPYC 7742 round out the immediate competition with scores of 17070 and 16998 respectively, each within 0.2 percent of the Ryzen 5 3600. These are all effectively equivalent performers in synthetic benchmarks, meaning a system built with any of them would likely show very similar frame rates in this game when paired with the same GPU. For the GPU side, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 8060S with an average score of 55757, just 0.6 percent lower, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB at 55698, 0.7 percent lower. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828, 2.3 percent lower. On the other side, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE scores 57367, which is 2.2 percent higher than the RTX 5080. These deltas are small enough that in practical gaming scenarios, particularly at 4K where the GPU is the bottleneck, the frame rate differences would be minimal. The recorded FPS data for this combo shows 4K Ultra at 71.5 FPS, and a system with a RX 9070 GRE would likely land within a few frames of that figure based on the 2.2 percent benchmark advantage. The CPU alternatives are even closer, with all four rivals within 0.2 percent, so swapping the Ryzen 5 3600 for an Intel Core i5-11400 or Core i7-1260P would produce nearly identical results in this flight simulator.

The Verdict

The data clearly answers whether this PC can run Microsoft Flight Simulator: it can, and at maximum settings across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 106.4 FPS, well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, Ultra settings maintain 98.9 FPS, still a substantial margin. Even at 3840x2160, the most demanding scenario in the dataset, Ultra settings produce 71.5 FPS, which clears the playability line by 11.5 FPS. The verdictByResolution confirms all four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable at every resolution tested. The weakest result in the entire dataset is 71.5 FPS at 4K Ultra, and that is still above the playable threshold. This is a combination that does not require compromising visual quality to achieve smooth frame rates. The only caveat visible in the data is that the 4K Ultra margin is thinner than the others, so users who prefer a larger frame rate buffer might choose High settings at 4K, which delivers 78.2 FPS. However, based strictly on the 60 FPS playability threshold, every preset at every resolution is playable, and the highest quality option is the safe recommendation everywhere.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 602 out of 3714 tested combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places this system in the top 16.2 percent of all recorded configurations, a strong showing for a CPU that was released in 2019 paired with a GPU from 2025. The CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 71, meaning it outperforms 71 percent of processors in the database. The GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 87, meaning it outperforms 87 percent of graphics cards. The combination of a mid-range older CPU with a high-end current GPU creates an interesting imbalance: the GPU is clearly the stronger component in general benchmarks, but the game's frame rates at 1080p suggest the CPU still holds the system back from reaching the GPU's full potential. At 4K, the GPU takes over and the ranking likely reflects the RTX 5080's dominance. The gap between the combo's overall rank and the GPU's individual percentile suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, this system performs worse than its GPU alone would indicate. Given that the database contains 3714 combos, being at 602 means there are 3112 tested systems that rank lower, and 601 that rank higher. This is a system that can play the game at the highest settings, but its rank indicates that other combinations, likely with newer or higher-end CPUs, achieve even better frame rates in this simulation-heavy title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the recorded average frame rates are 134.0 FPS on Low settings, 122.1 FPS on Medium, 114.0 FPS on High, and 106.4 FPS on Ultra. The progression shows a steady decline of roughly 8 to 12 FPS per settings tier, with the largest single drop being 8.1 FPS from Low to Medium. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 123.8 FPS on Low, 116.3 FPS on Medium, 102.0 FPS on High, and 98.9 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Medium to High at this resolution is 14.3 FPS, which is the largest single-tier decline in the entire dataset, suggesting High settings introduce a significant rendering cost at 1440p. At 3840x2160, the measurements are 114.0 FPS on Low, 103.2 FPS on Medium, 78.2 FPS on High, and 71.5 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Medium to High at 4K is 25.0 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 6.7 FPS. Comparing across resolutions at the same settings: Low goes from 134.0 at 1080p to 123.8 at 1440p to 114.0 at 4K, a steady 10 FPS decline per step. Medium goes from 122.1 to 116.3 to 103.2, with a larger 13.1 FPS drop between 1440p and 4K. High goes from 114.0 to 102.0 to 78.2, where the 4K penalty becomes severe at 23.8 FPS below the 1440p result. Ultra goes from 106.4 to 98.9 to 71.5, with a 27.4 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K. The data shows that the cost of 4K rendering grows as settings increase, which is typical of GPU-bound workloads. The minimum and maximum FPS values are not recorded in the database, so only average frame rates are available for this analysis. The overall pattern indicates that this system provides smooth performance across all settings at 1080p and 1440p, and only at 4K does the frame rate begin to approach the 60 FPS threshold, with Ultra being the only preset that comes relatively close. All twelve measured configurations exceed 60 FPS, making this one of the more capable combinations in the database for this particular flight simulator.