Microsoft Flight Simulator

This analysis examines the performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the Intel Arc B570 in Microsoft Flight Simulator, using measured data from the benchmark database. The combination ranks 2988 out of 3714 tested combos for this title, placing it in the lower-middle tier of systems. The data shows that this is a capable setup for 1080p and 1440p at reduced settings, but it falls short of the 60 FPS threshold at 4K. The following sections break down the measured frame rates, the role of each component, and the practical implications for a builder.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this CPU/GPU pairing reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 86 FPS on Low settings, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. Moving to Medium settings, the average drops to 67 FPS, with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 77 FPS. High settings produce an average of 50 FPS, while Ultra yields 48 FPS. This indicates that at 1080p, the system can comfortably exceed the 60 FPS playable threshold only on Low and Medium presets; High and Ultra remain below it.

At 2560x1440, the performance degrades noticeably. Low settings still achieve an average of 69 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings fall to 54 FPS on average, with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS. High settings drop further to 41 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 39 FPS. The pattern here is consistent: only the Low preset is playable at 1440p, and even that margin is slim—just 9 FPS above the threshold.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles across the board. Low settings produce an average of 51 FPS, which is close to playable but still below the 60 FPS mark. Medium settings average 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. High settings average 30 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. No preset at 4K clears the playable threshold, and the gap grows as settings increase. The data shows a steep drop-off from 1440p to 4K, particularly on Medium and High presets, where the average FPS falls by roughly 25-30%.

The minimum and maximum FPS values, where recorded, provide additional context. At 1080p Medium, the 57 FPS minimum means the system occasionally dips below the 60 FPS line, even though the average is above it. At 1440p Medium, the 46 FPS minimum indicates more substantial stuttering, while the 62 FPS maximum shows that the system can hit playable rates but not sustain them. At 4K Medium, the 34-46 FPS range confirms that the experience is consistently sub-60.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions and presets reveals how the CPU and GPU share the workload in Microsoft Flight Simulator. At 1080p, the gap between Low (86 FPS) and Ultra (48 FPS) is 38 FPS, a 79% difference. This wide spread suggests that the GPU is the primary limiter as settings increase, since higher presets demand more shading, texture, and geometry work. The CPU, a 6-core/12-thread Zen 3 part with a 3.60 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost clock, has enough headroom at 1080p to feed the GPU, but the Arc B570’s 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 10 GB of GDDR6 memory become the bottleneck as the rendering load grows.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds but with a narrower spread. Low (69 FPS) to Ultra (39 FPS) is a 30 FPS difference, or 77%. The absolute numbers are lower across the board, which indicates that the GPU is doing more work per frame. The Arc B570’s 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 160-bit bus are sufficient for 1440p on Low, but the 10 GB VRAM pool and 2304 shading units start to show their limits at Medium and above. The CPU’s role diminishes here—the Ryzen 5 5500’s single-thread score of 836 in 3DMark and 2319 in Cinebench R23 suggest it can keep up with the frame pacing, but the GPU’s raw throughput is the binding constraint.

At 4K, the GPU dominates the performance picture entirely. The spread from Low (51 FPS) to Ultra (28 FPS) is 23 FPS, a smaller relative gap (45%) compared to lower resolutions. This compression occurs because both presets are heavily GPU-limited; the 4K pixel count forces the Arc B570 to work at its maximum capacity regardless of settings. The CPU’s influence is minimal at this resolution, as evidenced by the fact that even Low settings cannot reach 60 FPS—the GPU simply cannot fill 8.3 million pixels per frame fast enough, regardless of how efficiently the CPU feeds it.

The component roles are further clarified by the benchmark scores. The Ryzen 5 5500’s multi-threaded performance (16,429 in Cinebench R23, 5,386 in 3DMark 16-thread) is solid for a six-core part, but Microsoft Flight Simulator is known for heavy single-thread dependency. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 836 and Geekbench single-core score of 1,730 are adequate but not exceptional, meaning the CPU can handle the simulation logic and draw calls at lower resolutions. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU’s pixel and texture throughput becomes the deciding factor, and the data shows that the Arc B570 is the limiting component above 1080p Medium.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 Medium is 67 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playable threshold. The minimum recorded is 57 FPS, so there are occasional dips, but the overall experience is playable.

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

A: Only the Low preset clears 60 FPS at 2560x1440, with an average of 69 FPS. Medium falls to 54 FPS, and High and Ultra are below 41 FPS, so Low is the only viable option for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with this combo?

A: No preset at 3840x2160 reaches 60 FPS. The highest average is 51 FPS on Low settings, with Medium at 40 FPS, High at 30 FPS, and Ultra at 28 FPS. The system is not suitable for 4K in this game.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B570’s average benchmark score is 20,556. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20,534 (0.1% higher), the Intel Arc A750 scores 20,582 (0.1% lower), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20,662 (0.5% lower). The differences are negligible, so performance should be similar among these cards.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 stack up against its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500’s average benchmark score is 19,593. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 scores 19,617 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core i5-12500 scores 19,668 (0.4% higher), the Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19,499 (0.5% lower), and the Intel Core i5-11600KF scores 19,723 (0.7% higher). These are all within a 1% band, so CPU performance is effectively interchangeable.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p Ultra?

A: The measured average is 48 FPS, which is 12 FPS below the 60 FPS threshold. This preset is not playable by the standard metric, though it may be acceptable for slower, less demanding flight scenarios.

The Verdict

This system can run Microsoft Flight Simulator, but the playable range is narrow. At 1920x1080, the Low and Medium presets clear the 60 FPS threshold, with averages of 86 FPS and 67 FPS respectively. The Medium preset is the best choice here, as it offers a reasonable visual quality boost while maintaining an average above the playable line, despite occasional dips to 57 FPS. High and Ultra presets at 1080p are not playable, averaging 50 FPS and 48 FPS.

At 2560x1440, only the Low preset is playable, averaging 69 FPS. This is a marginal pass, and the 1440p Medium preset falls to 54 FPS, which is below the threshold. For builders with a 1440p monitor, the system will require aggressive settings reductions to maintain smooth frame rates. The 4K resolution is not viable for this game—no preset reaches 60 FPS, and the best case is 51 FPS on Low, which still falls short.

The practical verdict is that this combo is a 1080p machine for Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the ability to stretch to 1440p only at the lowest settings. The 60 FPS threshold is a hard line that the system cannot cross at 4K, and even at 1440p it only barely touches it on Low. The data suggests that a builder should target 1080p Medium for the best balance of visuals and performance, or accept 1440p Low if resolution is a priority.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals are all within a 0.7% performance delta of the Ryzen 5 5500. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 is 0.1% faster, the Intel Core i5-12500 is 0.4% faster, and the Intel Core i5-11600KF is 0.7% faster. The Intel Core i7-10700F is 0.5% slower. In practice, swapping the Ryzen 5 5500 for any of these parts would yield nearly identical frame rates in Microsoft Flight Simulator, since the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at the resolutions where this system is playable.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B570’s nearest rivals are also tightly clustered. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile is 0.1% faster, the Intel Arc A750 is 0.1% slower, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% slower. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M is 0.4% faster. These deltas are trivial, so any of these GPUs would produce the same FPS numbers within a fraction of a frame. The Arc A750 is a particularly relevant comparison, as it is also an Intel discrete GPU with similar architecture, though the B570’s newer Xe2-HPG design does not translate into a meaningful benchmark advantage in this data.

The implication is that a builder could substitute any of these CPUs or GPUs without materially changing the gaming experience. The system’s overall rank of 2988 out of 3714 combos reflects this mid-tier positioning—it is not a high-end setup, but it is also not at the bottom of the pack. The performance envelope is defined more by the resolution and settings choices than by the specific silicon.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2988 out of 3714 tested combinations places this system in the 20th percentile of all tested hardware pairings for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is not a flattering position—it means roughly 80% of tested systems perform better in this game. The rank is driven primarily by the GPU’s limitations at higher resolutions and settings, as the CPU’s performance is adequate for the game’s demands at 1080p.

Breaking down the rank, the system’s strengths are at 1080p Low and Medium, where it achieves playable frame rates. However, the inability to maintain 60 FPS at 4K, or even at 1440p Medium, pulls the overall standing down. The data shows that the Arc B570’s 10 GB VRAM and 160-bit memory bus are undersized for a simulator that scales heavily with resolution and texture quality. Similarly, the Ryzen 5 5500’s single-thread performance, while not a bottleneck at 1080p, does not provide enough headroom to compensate for the GPU’s weaknesses at higher loads.

In practical terms, a rank of 2988 means that most other systems will deliver smoother gameplay in Microsoft Flight Simulator, particularly at 1440p and above. The combo is best suited for a builder who prioritizes 1080p gaming and is willing to compromise on settings. For those aiming for higher resolutions or maxed-out presets, this pairing would be a poor choice, as the data clearly shows it falls short of the 60 FPS target in those scenarios. The system is functional, but it is firmly in the "entry-level for this game" category.