Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination delivers a solid, if not spectacular, experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The data shows this pairing is capable of smooth frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with high settings, but it begins to struggle at 4K. The benchmark results indicate that the RTX 3070 is the primary driver of performance, with the CPU providing ample headroom across all tested resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest preset that maintains 60 FPS at 1920x1080?

A: The Ultra preset runs at an average of 77.1 FPS at 1080p, making it the most demanding setting that clears the 60 FPS threshold. High settings reach 77.9 FPS, while Medium and Low hit 104.3 and 134.1 FPS, respectively.

Q: Can this combination handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, the system is playable only on Low and Medium presets, with average FPS of 82 and 64. High and Ultra presets fall below 60 FPS, averaging 48.1 and 46.4 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest competitors in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700 has an average benchmark score of 25517, placing it at the 78th percentile of all CPUs. It is nearly identical to the Intel Xeon D-2752TER, which scores 25530 (a 0.1% difference), and the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U, which scores 25485 (a 0.1% difference).

Q: Which component is more likely to bottleneck performance in this game?

A: The GPU. The RTX 3070 sits at the 61st percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is at the 78th percentile. The gap in relative standing, combined with the steep FPS drops from 1440p to 4K, suggests the graphics card is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 2560x1440?

A: The Low preset averages 105.5 FPS, while Ultra averages 58.2 FPS. This represents a performance drop of 47.3 FPS when moving from the least to the most demanding settings.

Q: Is the RTX 3070's performance close to any other graphics cards in the database?

A: The RTX 3070's average benchmark score is 17208, which is very close to the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083, a 0.7% difference) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037, a 1% difference).

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals a clear division of labor between the Ryzen 7 5700 and the RTX 3070 in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The CPU's benchmark scores are robust—its Cinebench R23 multicore result is 20655, and it handles 16 threads with a 3DMark score of 6628. This suggests the processor is not the primary constraint in this title. The GPU, however, shows a more pronounced impact on frame rates as resolution increases.

Evidence for this comes from the scaling between presets. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low (134.1 FPS) and Ultra (77.1 FPS) is 57 FPS. At 2560x1440, the same preset comparison yields a 47.3 FPS gap (105.5 vs 58.2). At 3840x2160, the gap narrows to 35.6 FPS (82 vs 46.4). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions is a classic sign of GPU limitation—when the GPU is fully saturated at 4K, even dropping to Low settings cannot fully compensate for the pixel throughput required.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 134.1 FPS, which is a high frame rate that requires strong single-thread performance. The Ryzen 7 5700's single-thread score of 3296 in Passmark and 2916 in Cinebench R23 ensures it can feed the GPU at these speeds. However, the fact that frame rates do not scale proportionally with resolution—1080p Ultra is 77.1 FPS, but 1440p Ultra is 58.2 FPS—indicates that the RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the deciding factors for visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1620 out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 43rd percentile of all possible pairings, which is a middle-of-the-pack result. The ranking suggests that while this system is far from the top performers, it is also not an entry-level setup.

The rank is influenced more by the GPU than the CPU. The RTX 3070's percentile rank of 61 among all GPUs is lower than the CPU's percentile rank of 78 among all CPUs. This mismatch suggests that the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing for this specific game. If the CPU were paired with a more powerful GPU, the combo rank would likely improve significantly. Conversely, the data implies that upgrading the CPU alone would yield diminishing returns in this title, as the RTX 3070 would remain the bottleneck.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For users seeking similar performance, the nearest rivals to the CPU and GPU provide useful reference points. The Ryzen 7 5700's average benchmark score of 25517 is nearly identical to the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (25530, -0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U (25485, +0.1% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H (25550, -0.1% delta). Any of these processors would deliver functionally equivalent CPU-bound performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator, meaning the frame rates would be within a rounding error of each other.

On the GPU side, the RTX 3070's average score of 17208 is closely matched by the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083, +0.7% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037, +1% delta). The RX 7600 XT is particularly interesting as a modern alternative, but the data shows it would perform within 1% of the RTX 3070 in this game. The GTX 690 is an older dual-GPU card, yet its score suggests it could deliver comparable average frame rates, though its 2 GB frame buffer per GPU might cause issues at higher resolutions that the benchmark does not capture.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system is comfortably above 60 FPS on all presets. The Low preset averages 134.1 FPS, Medium 104.3 FPS, High 77.9 FPS, and Ultra 77.1 FPS. The minimal difference between High and Ultra (0.8 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not heavily taxing this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance drops but remains playable on three of four presets. Low averages 105.5 FPS, Medium 84.6 FPS, and High 60.8 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 58.2 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The 2.6 FPS difference between High and Ultra is small, but it is enough to push the experience into sub-60 territory.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles. Low averages 82 FPS, which is playable, and Medium averages 64 FPS, which just clears the threshold. High drops to 48.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 46.4 FPS. The 15.9 FPS gap between Medium and High at 4K is the largest preset-to-preset drop in the entire dataset, highlighting the GPU's inability to handle the increased geometry and texture loads at this resolution.

The Verdict

The verdict data is clear: this PC can run Microsoft Flight Simulator, but the experience varies dramatically by resolution. At 1920x1080, every preset from Low to Ultra clears 60 FPS, with the Ultra preset achieving 77.1 FPS. This is the ideal resolution for this combo if the user wants maximum visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the system remains playable on High settings, which average 60.8 FPS. Low and Medium presets also exceed 60 FPS, but Ultra falls short at 58.2 FPS. Users with 1440p monitors should stick to High settings for a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, only Low (82 FPS) and Medium (64 FPS) are playable. High and Ultra presets are not viable, with averages below 50 FPS. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo requires significant compromises in visual quality.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which averages 77.1 FPS. This setting provides the highest visual quality while maintaining a comfortable frame rate cushion above the playability threshold.

For 2560x1440, the best playable preset is High, averaging 60.8 FPS. While this is only 0.8 FPS above the threshold, it is the highest quality setting that does not drop below 60 FPS. The Ultra preset's 58.2 FPS average is too close to the limit for consistent performance.

For 3840x2160, the best playable preset is Medium, averaging 64 FPS. This setting offers a balance between visual quality and performance, with a small buffer above the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset is also playable at 82 FPS, but it sacrifices too much visual detail for the modest performance gain.