Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160, the system does not reach the 60 FPS playable threshold at any preset. The best result is 50.5 FPS on Low settings, with High at 31.6 FPS, Medium at 44.8 FPS, and Ultra at 28.3 FPS.

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

A: Low is the only playable preset at 2560x1440, delivering 72.4 FPS on average. Medium falls to 57.6 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold, while High (42.5 FPS) and Ultra (38.8 FPS) are further behind.

Q: Which settings are playable at 1080p?

A: Low and Medium both clear 60 FPS, with averages of 92.9 FPS and 71 FPS respectively. High sits at 56.1 FPS, narrowly missing the threshold, and Ultra drops to 49.5 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic tests?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X has an average benchmark score of 53288, placing it 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 7313P, 0.6% above the Intel Xeon 634, and 0.6% below the Intel Core i7-14700F. It also trails the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 by 0.3%.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic tests?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290. It is effectively tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (0% delta), 0.1% above the AMD Radeon 680M, 0.6% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM, and 0.8% above the AMD Radeon RX 7600.

Q: What is the overall ranking of this CPU and GPU combination for this game?

A: The combo ranks 2967 out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it in the lower portion of the database. This reflects the GPU's mid-range standing (58th percentile among all GPUs) rather than the CPU's strong synthetic position (91st percentile among all CPUs).

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded data shows a clear pattern where the GPU becomes the dominant constraint as resolution increases, while the CPU's headroom remains largely unused. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 92.9 FPS on Low, but drops to 56.1 FPS on High, a reduction of 36.8 FPS, or roughly 40%. At 2560x1440, the same Low-to-High transition yields 72.4 FPS down to 42.5 FPS, a 29.9 FPS drop. At 3840x2160, Low produces 50.5 FPS while High produces 31.6 FPS, a 18.9 FPS decrease.

The scaling between resolutions reinforces this interpretation. Moving from 1080p Low to 1440p Low reduces the average from 92.9 FPS to 72.4 FPS, a 20.5 FPS loss. Moving from 1440p Low to 4K Low further reduces it to 50.5 FPS, another 21.9 FPS loss. These reductions are roughly proportional to the increase in pixel count, which indicates that rendering load, handled primarily by the GPU, is the limiting factor.

The CPU, a 12-core, 24-thread Zen 4 processor with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz and a 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs, has far more compute headroom than this game's flight simulation workloads require. The GPU, a Turing-based part with 1920 shading units and 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, ranks in the 58th percentile among all GPUs. The data suggests that at every preset and resolution tested, the RTX 2060 is the bottleneck, and upgrading the CPU alone would not yield meaningful FPS gains in this title.

The preset scaling also shows this. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Medium is 21.9 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 14.9 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 6.6 FPS. This diminishing return pattern indicates that the GPU's shading and memory resources are progressively saturated as visual complexity increases. At 4K, the same pattern appears: Low to Medium is a 5.7 FPS drop, Medium to High is a 13.2 FPS drop, and High to Ultra is a 3.3 FPS drop. The absolute FPS values are all below 60, confirming that the GPU cannot sustain playable frame rates at this resolution regardless of settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2967 out of 3714 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 20th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 80% of recorded combinations deliver higher average FPS in this game.

This ranking is notably lower than what the CPU's synthetic scores might suggest. The Ryzen 9 7900X sits in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53288, but the RTX 2060 sits in only the 58th percentile among GPUs, with an average score of 15290. The game's heavy reliance on GPU throughput, as evidenced by the resolution scaling described above, means the GPU's mid-range standing drags the overall combo ranking down.

The rank also reflects the fact that Microsoft Flight Simulator is a demanding title that pushes graphics hardware hard even at moderate settings. With the best playable result being 92.9 FPS at 1080p Low, and with 4K entirely unplayable, this combo behaves like a system built around a capable CPU paired with an entry-level-to-midrange GPU. In the database's tested pool, 747 combos rank below this one, which shows that there are still slower systems, but the overall position is firmly in the lower half of results.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals in the database, the Ryzen 9 7900X has an average benchmark score of 53288. The AMD EPYC 7313P scores 53206, a 0.2% difference, and would behave nearly identically in CPU-bound scenarios. The Intel Xeon 634 scores 52974, 0.6% lower, and the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 scores 53469, 0.3% higher. The Intel Core i7-14700F scores 53620, 0.6% higher, representing the closest match on the upper side. For this game, where the CPU is not the limiting factor, all four alternatives would deliver virtually the same FPS as the Ryzen 9 7900X when paired with the same GPU.

For the GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 scores 15283 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon 680M scores 15270 (0.1% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM scores 15199 (0.6% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 scores 15171 (0.8% higher). These deltas are all within 1%, meaning any of these GPUs would produce nearly indistinguishable FPS in Microsoft Flight Simulator when paired with the same CPU. The RTX 3050 OEM and RX 7600 are particularly close, with deltas of 0.6% and 0.8% respectively, so users with those cards should expect the same playable settings and similar average FPS at each resolution.

The practical implication is that this combo's performance profile is not unique. A system with any of the CPU rivals and any of the GPU rivals would land within roughly 1% of the measured FPS values, which translates to less than 1 FPS of difference at most settings. The bottleneck is so firmly on the GPU side that CPU choice among these options is effectively irrelevant for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces the following average FPS: Low runs at 92.9 FPS, Medium at 71 FPS, High at 56.1 FPS, and Ultra at 49.5 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is the largest single-step drop at 21.9 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 14.9 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 6.6 FPS. Only Low and Medium clear the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 72.4 FPS, Medium at 57.6 FPS, High at 42.5 FPS, and Ultra at 38.8 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 14.8 FPS, the Medium-to-High drop is 15.1 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra drop is 3.7 FPS. Only Low remains above 60 FPS, and it does so with a 12.4 FPS margin.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 50.5 FPS, Medium at 44.8 FPS, High at 31.6 FPS, and Ultra at 28.3 FPS. No preset reaches 60 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 5.7 FPS, the Medium-to-High drop is 13.2 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra drop is 3.3 FPS. The best case, Low, still falls 9.5 FPS short of the playable threshold.

The data shows a consistent pattern: at every resolution, the gap between Low and Medium is the largest or tied for the largest drop, indicating that the Medium preset introduces a significant rendering cost. The High-to-Ultra gap is consistently the smallest, suggesting that Ultra adds less incremental load relative to High. Across resolutions, the FPS loss from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 20.5 FPS on Low to 10.7 FPS on Ultra, while the loss from 1440p to 4K ranges from 21.9 FPS on Low to 10.5 FPS on Ultra. The absolute FPS values at 4K are low enough that even the relatively smaller drops between presets keep the system firmly below playable.

The Verdict

The data indicates that this PC can run Microsoft Flight Simulator, but only at specific resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the system clears 60 FPS on Low (92.9 FPS) and Medium (71 FPS), but falls short on High (56.1 FPS) and Ultra (49.5 FPS). At 2560x1440, only Low reaches the threshold with 72.4 FPS, while Medium (57.6 FPS), High (42.5 FPS), and Ultra (38.8 FPS) all miss it. At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS, with the best result being 50.5 FPS on Low.

The verdict from the database is clear: this combo is playable at 1080p with two preset options, playable at 1440p with only the Low preset, and not playable at 4K under any tested setting. The 60 FPS threshold is the reference point, and the system crosses it in three of the twelve tested configurations. For users who prioritize frame rate, 1080p Medium is the highest quality setting that remains comfortably above the threshold, with a 11 FPS margin. For users who need 1440p, the Low preset is the only choice, and it still provides 12.4 FPS of headroom. At 4K, the system is not viable for this game, as even the lowest settings leave the frame rate 9.5 FPS below the playable threshold.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Medium, with an average of 71 FPS. This provides an 11 FPS margin over the threshold, making it a stable choice. Low is also playable at 92.9 FPS, but Medium offers higher visual quality while retaining a comfortable buffer. High falls short at 56.1 FPS, so it is not recommended if the 60 FPS target is strict.

At 2560x1440, the only preset that clears 60 FPS is Low, with an average of 72.4 FPS. This is the sole playable option at this resolution, and it provides a 12.4 FPS margin. Medium drops to 57.6 FPS, which is 2.4 FPS below the threshold, so users who insist on 60 FPS must accept Low settings at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, there is no preset that reaches 60 FPS. The closest is Low at 50.5 FPS, which is 9.5 FPS short. Since no settings meet the playable threshold, the database records no best settings for this resolution. Users who want to run this game at 4K would need a different GPU, as the RTX 2060 cannot sustain playable frame rates regardless of the preset chosen.