Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination delivers a playable Microsoft Flight Simulator experience at 1080p and 1440p, but falls short of the 60 FPS threshold at 4K with higher presets. Benchmark data shows this combo ranks 2024 out of 3714 tested configurations, placing it in the upper-middle tier for this specific title. The pairing is capable of hitting 60 FPS at 4K only on Low settings, while 1440p and 1080p offer more headroom for visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its strongest performance across all presets. The Low preset produces an average of 116.4 FPS, which is nearly double the 60 FPS playability threshold. Medium settings yield 91.2 FPS, still comfortably above the target. High settings deliver 67.8 FPS, maintaining smooth gameplay with a margin of 7.8 FPS. The Ultra preset produces 67.3 FPS, which is almost identical to High, indicating that the visual jump from High to Ultra costs only 0.5 FPS on average at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains respectable but requires more careful preset selection. The Low preset achieves 97.6 FPS, providing a large buffer above the threshold. Medium settings produce 76.5 FPS, still well above 60. High settings drop to 56.7 FPS, which falls 3.3 FPS short of the playability threshold. Ultra settings produce 52.3 FPS, a 7.7 FPS deficit from the target. The scaling from Medium to High at 1440p represents a significant 19.8 FPS drop, showing that this resolution is where the GPU starts to become the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, performance drops considerably. The Low preset is the only option that clears 60 FPS, producing 70.5 FPS. Medium settings average 54.6 FPS, which is 5.4 FPS below the threshold. High and Ultra produce nearly identical results at 40.8 FPS and 41.4 FPS respectively, showing that once the GPU is saturated, preset changes have minimal impact. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is 15.9 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs 13.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is only 0.6 FPS faster than High, indicating diminishing returns at the highest settings.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU benchmarks place the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X in a tight cluster with several alternatives. Its average benchmark score of 27636 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X at 27578, a delta of only 0.2 percent. The Intel Core i5-12600K also scores 27578, making it effectively equivalent in multi-threaded performance. The AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE scores 27712, which is 0.3 percent higher, while the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 scores 27535, 0.4 percent lower. These four rivals all fall within a 0.7 percent band of the 7600X, meaning users upgrading from any of these CPUs would see virtually no difference in Microsoft Flight Simulator performance. The 7600X sits at the 79th percentile among all CPUs, confirming its strong position for this workload.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4060's nearest rivals are unexpected. The AMD Radeon HD 7790 scores 17666, just 0.2 percent higher than the RTX 4060's 17639 average benchmark score. The AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics scores 17588, 0.3 percent lower. The AMD Radeon Pro 560 scores 17551, a 0.5 percent deficit, and the AMD Radeon Pro 460 scores 17509, 0.7 percent lower. These results suggest that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4060's performance tier is closely matched by these older or integrated solutions, though real-world gaming performance in Flight Simulator may diverge due to driver optimization and feature support. The GPU sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs, indicating a mid-range position in the broader market.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, but only with the Low preset. The average FPS at 3840x2160 on Low is 70.5, which exceeds the 60 FPS threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra presets all fall below 60 FPS at this resolution.

Q: What is the best preset for 2560x1440 gameplay?

A: Medium is the best preset that maintains playability, producing 76.5 FPS on average. High and Ultra both fall below the 60 FPS threshold, at 56.7 and 52.3 FPS respectively.

Q: Does the Ultra preset at 1080p sacrifice much performance compared to High?

A: No. At 1920x1080, Ultra produces 67.3 FPS while High produces 67.8 FPS, a difference of only 0.5 FPS. Both remain above the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals for this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X scores 27636 on average, which is within 0.4 percent of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, Intel Core i5-12600K, AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE, and AMD Ryzen 7 5800. All five CPUs perform effectively identically in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the RTX 4060 a strong performer relative to other GPUs?

A: The RTX 4060 sits at the 61st percentile among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 17639 is closely matched by several AMD Radeon products, with deltas ranging from -0.7 to +0.2 percent. It is a mid-range GPU rather than a high-end solution.

Q: What happens to performance when moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At Medium settings, performance drops from 91.2 FPS at 1080p to 76.5 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 14.7 FPS. At High settings, the drop is from 67.8 to 56.7 FPS, a reduction of 11.1 FPS, which pushes the 1440p result below the playability threshold.

The Verdict

This PC can run Microsoft Flight Simulator at all three tested resolutions, but the playable settings vary significantly. At 3840x2160, only the Low preset clears the 60 FPS threshold with an average of 70.5 FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall short at 54.6, 40.8, and 41.4 FPS respectively, making them unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the system offers two playable presets. Low produces 97.6 FPS and Medium produces 76.5 FPS, both comfortably above 60. High and Ultra are not playable, with averages of 56.7 and 52.3 FPS.

At 1920x1080, every preset is playable. Low achieves 116.4 FPS, Medium achieves 91.2 FPS, High achieves 67.8 FPS, and Ultra achieves 67.3 FPS. The system meets the 60 FPS requirement across the board at this resolution, making 1080p the only resolution where users have complete freedom in preset selection.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals how the balance between CPU and GPU shifts across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the CPU's performance is more prominent, as evidenced by the small delta between High and Ultra presets. The 67.8 FPS at High and 67.3 FPS at Ultra suggest that the Ryzen 5 7600X, with its 6 cores and 12 threads and boost clock of 5.30 GHz, is sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The single-thread performance, indicated by a 3dmark single-thread score of 1060 and a cinebench R23 single-core score of 1965, helps maintain frame pacing in this CPU-intensive flight simulator.

As resolution increases to 2560x1440, the GPU begins to dominate. The 19.8 FPS drop from Medium to High at this resolution contrasts with the 0.5 FPS drop from High to Ultra at 1080p. This indicates that the RTX 4060's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus become limiting factors as pixel count rises. The GPU's 272.0 GB/s bandwidth and 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 performance are adequate for 1080p but struggle with the increased fill rate demands at 1440p High and Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The near-identical scores for High and Ultra (40.8 vs 41.4 FPS) show that the RTX 4060 has reached its rendering ceiling regardless of preset complexity. The CPU's role diminishes further at this resolution, as the 4K pixel workload overwhelms the GPU's 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate. The scaling from 1080p Medium to 4K Medium shows a drop from 91.2 to 54.6 FPS, a 36.6 FPS reduction that cannot be mitigated by CPU upgrades.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the best playable setting is Low, which produces an average of 70.5 FPS. This provides a 10.5 FPS margin above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra are not recommended at this resolution as they fall to 54.6, 40.8, and 41.4 FPS respectively.

At 2560x1440, the best playable setting is Medium, averaging 76.5 FPS. This offers a 16.5 FPS buffer over the threshold. Low also works at 97.6 FPS, but Medium provides better visual quality while maintaining playability. High and Ultra should be avoided at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, the best playable setting is Ultra, producing 67.3 FPS. This is only 0.5 FPS lower than High, making the Ultra preset the clear choice for maximum visual fidelity. All presets at 1080p exceed the 60 FPS threshold, so users can select based on visual preference rather than performance constraints. The margin above the threshold ranges from 7.3 FPS at Ultra to 56.4 FPS at Low.