Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a strictly limited experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with playable frame rates only achievable at lower resolutions and settings. At 4K, no preset reaches the 60 FPS threshold, while 1440p offers a single playable setting and 1080p allows only Low and Medium presets to hit the target. The data indicates this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it provides a comfortable margin above the playability threshold, but it struggles significantly at higher resolutions due to the game’s demanding nature.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, no settings preset achieves the 60 FPS playability threshold. The best result comes from the Low preset, which averages 56.9 FPS, falling just short of the target. The High preset drops to 31.7 FPS, while Medium and Ultra produce 44.7 FPS and 28.4 FPS respectively. For 4K gaming, this hardware combination simply cannot maintain smooth performance at any quality level.

At 2560x1440, the only playable preset is Low, which delivers an average of 77.4 FPS. This provides a 28.9% buffer above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset comes close at 58.7 FPS but fails to clear the bar, while High and Ultra sit at 48.0 FPS and 41.9 FPS respectively. Users seeking 1440p performance must accept minimal graphical quality.

At 1920x1080, two presets are playable. The Medium preset is the best playable option, delivering 74.2 FPS on average, which sits 23.7% above the threshold. The Low preset performs even higher at 97.2 FPS, while High (54.9 FPS) and Ultra (51.3 FPS) both fall below 60 FPS. The sweet spot for this combo is 1080p Medium, offering a solid balance between visual fidelity and performance.

CPU and GPU Roles

The performance scaling across resolutions reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At 1080p, the gap between Low (97.2 FPS) and Ultra (51.3 FPS) is 45.9 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor as settings increase. The Ryzen 5 5600X, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears sufficient for the CPU overhead at this resolution, as even the most demanding preset still yields over 50 FPS.

At 1440p, the spread between presets narrows slightly: Low produces 77.4 FPS while Ultra drops to 41.9 FPS, a difference of 35.5 FPS. The GPU’s workload increases with resolution, and the Arc B580’s performance ceiling becomes more apparent. The GPU’s 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely adequate for texture streaming, but the compute demands at higher resolutions outpace the card’s 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 throughput.

At 4K, the situation becomes GPU-bound. The difference between Low (56.9 FPS) and Ultra (28.4 FPS) is 28.5 FPS, but the absolute performance is low across all settings. The Arc B580’s 80 ROPs and 213.6 GPixel/s pixel rate cannot sustain high frame rates at 3840x2160. The CPU’s role diminishes at this resolution; the data shows that even the lowest settings cannot hit 60 FPS, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck.

Comparing resolution scaling, dropping from 4K Low to 1440p Low improves performance from 56.9 FPS to 77.4 FPS, a 36% increase. Dropping from 1440p Low to 1080p Low yields 97.2 FPS, a further 25.6% gain. This pattern confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides sufficient headroom at 1080p to let the GPU stretch its legs.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and Intel Arc B580 ranks 2848th out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the lower 23.3% of all configurations. The ranking reflects the demanding nature of the game and the mid-range positioning of both components.

Looking at the CPU’s standalone performance, the Ryzen 5 5600X sits at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21771. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H (21749, deltaPct 0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U (21874, deltaPct -0.5%), and the Intel Core i7-11700 (21891, deltaPct -0.5%). This indicates the CPU is competitive with higher-tier laptop and desktop parts, but its performance is not exceptional.

The Intel Arc B580 ranks at the 68th percentile among GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23021. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23061, deltaPct -0.2%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22895, deltaPct 0.6%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (23172, deltaPct -0.7%), and NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, deltaPct -1%). Despite the varied naming, these scores show the Arc B580 performs within a narrow band of these older or differently-purposed cards.

The combination’s low rank in this specific game stems from Microsoft Flight Simulator’s heavy reliance on both CPU single-thread performance and GPU rasterization throughput. The CPU’s single-thread score of 1541 in Cinebench R23 and the GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 15748 are adequate for many titles, but this simulator demands more. The data shows that while each component performs adequately in isolation, their combined output in this workload lands them in the bottom quarter of tested systems.

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best average FPS is 56.9 on Low settings, which falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold. Every other preset performs worse: Medium at 44.7 FPS, High at 31.7 FPS, and Ultra at 28.4 FPS.

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

A: Low is the only playable preset at 2560x1440, delivering an average of 77.4 FPS. Medium comes close at 58.7 FPS but misses the 60 FPS threshold by 1.3 FPS.

Q: Which settings at 1080p are above 60 FPS?

A: Low and Medium are playable, averaging 97.2 FPS and 74.2 FPS respectively. High (54.9 FPS) and Ultra (51.3 FPS) both fail to reach 60 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bigger bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. Performance drops significantly as resolution increases: at Low settings, 1080p yields 97.2 FPS, 1440p yields 77.4 FPS, and 4K yields 56.9 FPS. The CPU’s 6-core/12-thread configuration appears sufficient at 1080p, as the GPU limits performance even at lower settings.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested systems?

A: It ranks 2848th out of 3714 combos, placing it in the bottom 23.3% of configurations tested in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The CPU performs at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU performs at the 68th percentile, but their combined output in this specific game is below average.

Q: What is the highest preset that maintains 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: Medium, with an average of 74.2 FPS. This provides a 23.7% margin above the threshold, while the next step up (High) drops to 54.9 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

3840x2160:

• Low: 56.9 FPS average
• Medium: 44.7 FPS average
• High: 31.7 FPS average
• Ultra: 28.4 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 77.4 FPS average
• Medium: 58.7 FPS average
• High: 48.0 FPS average
• Ultra: 41.9 FPS average

1920x1080:

• Low: 97.2 FPS average
• Medium: 74.2 FPS average
• High: 54.9 FPS average
• Ultra: 51.3 FPS average

The data reveals a consistent pattern: each resolution step down yields substantial gains. Moving from 4K Ultra to 1440p Ultra improves from 28.4 FPS to 41.9 FPS, a 47.5% uplift. From 1440p Ultra to 1080p Ultra, performance rises to 51.3 FPS, another 22.4% gain. The most efficient configuration in the dataset is 1080p Low at 97.2 FPS, which is 3.4 times faster than 4K Ultra. The minimum FPS and maximum FPS values are not recorded in the dataset, so all figures represent average performance over the test runs.

The Verdict

This PC can run Microsoft Flight Simulator, but with significant caveats. At 1920x1080, it delivers playable performance on Low (97.2 FPS) and Medium (74.2 FPS) settings, with the Medium preset serving as the recommended choice for a balance of quality and smoothness. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset achieves playable performance at 77.4 FPS, making 1440p viable only for users willing to accept minimal graphical detail. At 3840x2160, no settings preset reaches 60 FPS, with the best case being Low at 56.9 FPS — a marginal miss that may be tolerable for some players but does not meet the playable threshold.

The hardware combination ranks in the bottom quarter of tested systems for this title, reflecting the game’s heavy demands. The Ryzen 5 5600X provides adequate CPU performance, but the Intel Arc B580’s capabilities are stretched thin beyond 1080p. Users targeting 4K or high-detail 1440p should consider more powerful GPU options. For 1080p Medium gaming, however, this combo delivers a smooth experience with room to spare above the 60 FPS target.