Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Intel Arc B570 pairing delivers a narrow but workable window for Microsoft Flight Simulator, with 1080p Medium being the only preset that clears the 60 FPS threshold with headroom to spare. Benchmark data shows this combo is playable at 1440p only on Low settings, while 4K remains entirely out of reach for consistent frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear progression. Low settings produce an average of 86 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combination. Medium settings drop to 67 FPS average, with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 77 FPS. High settings fall further to 50 FPS average, and Ultra bottoms out at 48 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 19 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 17 FPS — a steeper drop than the step from High to Ultra, which only loses 2 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates compress significantly. Low settings average 69 FPS, which is the only playable preset at this resolution. Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS. High settings drop to 41 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 39 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 15 FPS, while High to Ultra shows only a 2 FPS difference, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional load is nearly identical to High at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets reach the 60 FPS playable threshold. Low settings average 51 FPS, Medium averages 40 FPS with a range of 34 to 46 FPS, High averages 30 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium is a 11 FPS drop, from Medium to High is a 10 FPS drop, and High to Ultra loses just 2 FPS. The 4K data reveals that even the least demanding preset leaves the system 9 FPS short of the playable mark.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU's benchmark performance places it in a tight cluster of rivals. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS scores 39603, which is 0.4% below the 9800X3D's average benchmark score of 39768. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 scores 40048, putting it 0.7% ahead. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 scores 39485, trailing by 0.7%. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 scores 40081, leading by 0.8%. In practical terms, any of these processors would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Microsoft Flight Simulator, since the largest delta among them is under 1%.

On the GPU side, the Intel Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 places it alongside the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, which scores 20534 and is 0.1% behind. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, 0.1% ahead. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20480, 0.4% behind, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20662, 0.5% ahead. These four rivals bracket the B570 within a 0.6% band, meaning any of them would produce nearly identical FPS numbers in this game. The B570 sits at the 65th percentile of all GPUs, while the 9800X3D sits at the 87th percentile of all CPUs.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Medium, which averages 67 FPS. This leaves 7 FPS of headroom above the playable threshold, with the minimum of 57 FPS dipping below 60 but the average holding comfortably above it.

At 2560x1440, only Low settings clear the threshold, averaging 69 FPS. The next step up, Medium, drops to 54 FPS average, which falls short of the 60 FPS target. The 9 FPS margin at Low is sufficient for smooth gameplay, but there is no room to increase visual quality.

At 3840x2160, no preset meets the 60 FPS requirement. The best option is Low at 51 FPS average, which is 9 FPS below the playable mark. Medium at 40 FPS and High at 30 FPS are progressively less viable, and Ultra at 28 FPS is the worst performer in the entire dataset.

The Verdict

This PC can run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 1080p and 1440p, but only under specific conditions. At 1920x1080, both Low and Medium presets clear the 60 FPS threshold, with Medium being the recommended choice for the best balance of visual quality and performance. High and Ultra fall short at 50 FPS and 48 FPS respectively.

At 2560x1440, the system is playable only on Low settings, which average 69 FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra all fail to reach 60 FPS, with averages of 54, 41, and 39 FPS. This means users at 1440p must accept reduced visual fidelity to maintain playable frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the system cannot achieve playable performance at any preset. The best result is Low at 51 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra are progressively worse, and none of them approach playability. For 4K gaming, this combination is not viable for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions. At 4K, the frame rate drops from 51 FPS at Low to 30 FPS at High — a 41% reduction in performance. At 1440p, the same preset change reduces FPS from 69 to 41, a 41% drop. At 1080p, the drop is from 86 to 50, a 42% reduction. The consistency of this scaling across resolutions indicates that the GPU's rendering load scales predictably with preset quality, and the B570's 10 GB memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are the limiting factors.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and lower presets. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 86 FPS, which suggests the 9800X3D is capable of feeding the GPU at this level. The 8-core, 16-thread processor with 96 MB of L3 cache provides strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3dmark single-thread score of 1212 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2080. This matters for a flight simulator, which relies heavily on main-thread performance for physics and scenery processing.

The scaling between resolutions tells the same story. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings drops FPS from 86 to 69, a 20% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low drops FPS from 69 to 51, a 26% reduction. This larger drop at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS, indicating the CPU can maintain near-threshold performance even when the GPU is moderately loaded.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination ranks 2988 out of 3714 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in the lower 20% of all configurations tested, which aligns with the measured FPS results. The ranking reflects the B570's position at the 65th percentile of GPUs, which is a mid-range graphics card that struggles with the demanding rendering requirements of this flight simulator.

The CPU's performance, in contrast, is top-tier. The 9800X3D sits at the 87th percentile of all CPUs, and its benchmark scores are strong across the board. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23230 and Geekbench multicore score of 18696 indicate substantial processing power. However, this CPU strength does not compensate for the GPU's limitations in this game, particularly at higher resolutions where the B570 becomes the bottleneck.

The ranking also suggests that this combo is better suited for other types of games or workloads than for Microsoft Flight Simulator at high settings. The data shows that the system performs acceptably at 1080p Medium and 1440p Low, but it cannot handle the Ultra preset at any resolution without dropping well below the 60 FPS threshold. For users considering this pairing specifically for flight simulation, the results indicate that moderate settings and lower resolutions are the only viable options.