Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: Can the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K?

A: Yes, but not at the highest quality preset. At 3840x2160, the combo achieves 54.4 FPS on High and 55.9 FPS on Ultra, both below the 60 FPS threshold. The playable settings at 4K are Low at 98.7 FPS and Medium at 74.5 FPS, with Medium being the best setting that stays above 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 1440p for this hardware combination?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset runs at 74.3 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold. Since all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable at this resolution, Ultra is the best choice at an average of 74.3 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its closest rivals in the database?

A: The RTX 4070 sits at the 81st percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 37648, which is 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56. It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile by 1.3% and leads the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 by 1.3%.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 3700X rank among CPUs?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 34260. It is effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 and AMD EPYC 4244P, both within 0.1%, while the Intel Core i5-13450HX is 0.2% higher and the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is 0.5% lower.

Q: What frame rate can this system deliver at 1080p on Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with the Ultra preset, the system averages 92.6 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS playable threshold, and it is the highest quality preset available at that resolution.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 still in production?

A: No, the production status for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is listed as end-of-life. Its release date is 2023-04-11, and its successor is the GeForce 50 series.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Medium, which delivers an average of 74.5 FPS. The High preset drops to 54.4 FPS and Ultra to 55.9 FPS, both below the playable threshold, so Medium is the ceiling for 4K playability.

At 2560x1440, every preset clears the 60 FPS line. Low runs at 130 FPS, Medium at 101.6 FPS, High at 79.5 FPS, and Ultra at 74.3 FPS. The best setting is Ultra at 74.3 FPS, since it is the most demanding preset while still staying above 60 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the system has ample headroom. Low averages 142.8 FPS, Medium 127.8 FPS, High 95.6 FPS, and Ultra 92.6 FPS. The best setting is Ultra at 92.6 FPS, which remains comfortably above the playable threshold.

The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution scales down, the playable preset ceiling rises. At 4K, only Low and Medium qualify; at 1440p and 1080p, all four presets are playable. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers a higher average frame rate than the Ultra preset at 1440p by 18.3 FPS, and the Medium preset at 4K still outperforms the High preset at 4K by 20.1 FPS.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions and presets reveals which component carries more weight in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The CPU, an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, is an 8-core, 16-thread Zen 2 processor with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The GPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, is an Ada Lovelace chip with 5888 shading units and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus.

At 3840x2160, the gap between presets is substantial. Low runs at 98.7 FPS, Medium at 74.5 FPS, High at 54.4 FPS, and Ultra at 55.9 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 24.2 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is 20.1 FPS. Interestingly, Ultra scores slightly higher than High at 4K, by 1.5 FPS, which suggests the GPU is the dominant constraint at this resolution, and the preset scaling is not perfectly linear.

At 2560x1440, the preset spread narrows. Low is 130 FPS, Medium is 101.6 FPS, High is 79.5 FPS, and Ultra is 74.3 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 22.1 FPS, and from High to Ultra it is 5.2 FPS. At 1080p, the spread is even tighter at the top: Low is 142.8 FPS, Medium is 127.8 FPS, High is 95.6 FPS, and Ultra is 92.6 FPS. The High to Ultra delta at 1080p is only 3.0 FPS.

The resolution scaling shows the GPU's role. Moving from 1080p Low to 4K Low drops the average from 142.8 FPS to 98.7 FPS, a 44.1 FPS reduction. From 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra, the drop is from 92.6 FPS to 55.9 FPS, a 36.7 FPS reduction. The RTX 4070, being at the 81st GPU percentile, clearly handles the pixel throughput, but the CPU's 84th percentile standing keeps the lower resolutions from becoming CPU-bound in a way that would flatten the frame rates.

The pattern indicates that at 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, especially at High and Ultra presets where frame rates fall below 60 FPS. At 1440p and 1080p, the combination of CPU and GPU is balanced enough that even Ultra presets remain playable. The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 within 0.1% and the Intel Core i5-13450HX at 0.2%, suggests it is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions, where the GPU workload dominates.

The Verdict

This system can run Microsoft Flight Simulator, but the answer depends heavily on resolution. At 1920x1080, all four presets clear the 60 FPS threshold, with Ultra delivering 92.6 FPS. At 2560x1440, all four presets are also playable, with Ultra at 74.3 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low and Medium clear 60 FPS, with Medium at 74.5 FPS being the best playable setting.

The verdict by resolution is clear: 1080p and 1440p are fully playable at maximum quality, while 4K requires dropping to Medium for a playable experience. The High preset at 4K averages 54.4 FPS and Ultra averages 55.9 FPS, both short of the 60 FPS playable threshold. For users targeting 4K, the Medium preset is the recommended ceiling. For 1440p and 1080p, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice, as it stays above 60 FPS at both resolutions.

The recorded data shows a system that is well suited for high-refresh 1080p and smooth 1440p flight simulation, with 4K available only at reduced settings. The playable threshold is set at 60 FPS, and this combo meets it in 10 of the 12 measured configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are as follows: Low runs at 98.7 FPS, Medium at 74.5 FPS, High at 54.4 FPS, and Ultra at 55.9 FPS. No minimum or maximum frame rates were recorded for any of these configurations, so the analysis relies on average FPS alone. The spread from Low to Ultra is 42.8 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High at 20.1 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 130 FPS, Medium at 101.6 FPS, High at 79.5 FPS, and Ultra at 74.3 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 55.7 FPS, and the largest drop is between Medium and High at 22.1 FPS. The High to Ultra gap narrows to 5.2 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the top end.

At 1920x1080, the averages are: Low at 142.8 FPS, Medium at 127.8 FPS, High at 95.6 FPS, and Ultra at 92.6 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 50.2 FPS, and the largest drop is between Medium and High at 32.2 FPS. The High to Ultra delta is just 3.0 FPS, the smallest preset gap in the entire dataset.

The data also allows for resolution scaling comparisons. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 142.8 FPS at 1080p to 130 FPS at 1440p to 98.7 FPS at 4K. At Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 92.6 FPS at 1080p to 74.3 FPS at 1440p to 55.9 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only Ultra configuration that fails to reach 60 FPS, while the 4K High result at 54.4 FPS is the only other sub-60 FPS configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database, this specific combination of AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 1014 out of 3714 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places the pairing in the top 27.3% of all tested hardware combinations for this game.

The CPU and GPU each hold strong individual positions. The Ryzen 7 3700X is at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34260. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, is just 0.1% behind, while the Intel Core i5-13450HX is 0.2% ahead. The RTX 4070 is at the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37648, and it sits 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56.

The combination rank of 1014 out of 3714 reflects a system that is capable but not at the very top of the leaderboard. The measured frame rates show why: at 4K Ultra and 4K High, the system falls below 60 FPS, which limits its ranking in a game that scales heavily with GPU power at high resolutions. At 1440p and 1080p, however, the combo is strong enough to run the game at maximum quality, which suggests the rank is held back primarily by 4K performance rather than by any weakness at lower resolutions.

The pairing of an 84th percentile CPU with an 81st percentile GPU produces a balanced system for this title. The CPU's nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its average score, and the GPU's nearest rivals are all within 1.3%, so neither component is an outlier in its class. The measured FPS data aligns with these percentile positions: the system is comfortably above the playable threshold at 1080p and 1440p across all presets, and it requires a preset reduction at 4K.