Microsoft Flight Simulator

The pairing of an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a strong Microsoft Flight Simulator experience at 1080p and 1440p, with a clear ceiling at 4K. Across twelve measured configurations — three resolutions, four presets each — the combo clears the 60 FPS threshold in ten of them. The two misses both occur at 3840x2160, where High averages 58.4 FPS and Ultra averages 56.1 FPS. Below is a step-by-step walk through the measured data, how the two components divide the workload, and where this pairing sits among the thousands of hardware combinations tested in the game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

All figures below are measured average frame rates for the Ryzen 9 7900X + RTX 5070 pairing in Microsoft Flight Simulator; minimum and maximum frame rates were not captured for these runs.

At 1920x1080, the combo scales from 176.4 FPS on Low up to 100.6 FPS on Ultra. Medium lands at 140.7 FPS and High at 102.8 FPS. The spread between the cheapest and most expensive preset is 75.8 FPS, and even the heaviest preset holds a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS playability line — Ultra clears it by 40.6 FPS.

At 2560x1440, Low delivers 140.2 FPS, Medium 109.3 FPS, High 83.5 FPS, and Ultra 78.9 FPS. The Ultra-to-Low spread narrows to 61.3 FPS. Every preset remains above 60 FPS, though the margin at Ultra tightens to 18.9 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the numbers shift decisively. Low still manages 105.4 FPS and Medium 83.9 FPS — both comfortably playable — but High drops to 58.4 FPS and Ultra to 56.1 FPS. That is a shortfall of 1.6 and 3.9 FPS against the 60 FPS threshold respectively. The drop from Medium (83.9) to High (58.4) at 4K is the single largest per-step decline in the dataset at 25.5 FPS, marking the point where the RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 across a 192-bit bus runs out of headroom at this pixel count.

A consistent pattern across all three resolutions: the gap between High and Ultra is small (2.2 FPS at 1080p, 4.6 FPS at 1440p, 2.3 FPS at 4K), while the gap between Medium and High is large (37.9 FPS at 1080p, 25.8 FPS at 1440p, 25.5 FPS at 4K). High is the expensive preset in this title; Ultra adds comparatively little additional cost on top of it.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling between resolutions reveals which component sets the pace. Moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 quadruples the pixel count, and the frame rate response indicates how GPU-bound the title is at each step.

At Ultra, frame rates go 100.6 → 78.9 → 56.1 across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. That is a 21.7 FPS loss going to 1440p and another 22.8 FPS loss going to 4K — a proportional decline that tracks the growing pixel load, which is the signature of GPU-bound operation. The RTX 5070, with 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput and 672.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, is the limiting component at High and Ultra at every resolution tested.

The CPU side shows up in the ceiling. At 1080p Low — the configuration where the GPU is least stressed — the run posts 176.4 FPS. The Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread Zen 4 part with a 5.60 GHz boost clock, 64 MB of shared L3 cache, and DDR5 support over a dual-channel bus delivering 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. Its single-thread credentials (1093 in 3DMark single-thread, 2016.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 2617 in Geekbench single-core) matter here: flight simulation with streaming world data leans on fast individual cores, and the 7900X sits in the 91st percentile of all tested CPUs. Even so, the fact that 1080p Low tops out at 176.4 rather than climbing higher suggests the CPU and memory subsystem, not the GPU, establishes that ceiling.

In short: the GPU governs playability at 1440p and 4K, the CPU establishes the maximum frame rate at low settings and low resolution, and the measured data shows the crossover between those regimes sits between Medium and High.

How this Combo Ranks

Against the full database, the Ryzen 9 7900X + RTX 5070 pairing ranks 714th out of 3714 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in roughly the top fifth of all combos — consistent with the components' individual standings, where the CPU sits in the 91st percentile of all CPUs and the GPU in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs.

The ranking makes sense given the measured results. Ten of twelve configurations clearing 60 FPS is a strong showing, but the two 4K failures at High and Ultra prevent the pairing from ranking higher. For context on the component-level scores behind that rank: the 7900X posts 12536 in 3DMark max-threads, 4820.5 in Cinebench R15 multi-core, and 51406 in PassMark multithread, with an overall average benchmark score of 53288. The RTX 5070 carries an average benchmark score of 40377, backed by a PassMark G3D result of 29137, a Geekbench Vulkan score of 178923, and 5077 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals by aggregate score are a mixed field. The AMD EPYC 7313P averages 53206 — within 0.2 percent of the 7900X's 53288. The Intel Xeon Phi 7290 averages 53469, 0.3 percent higher. The Intel Xeon 634 averages 52974, 0.6 percent lower. And the Intel Core i7-14700F averages 53620, 0.6 percent higher. All four sit essentially level with the 7900X in aggregate throughput, meaning a build around any of them would deliver comparable overall compute; the 7900X's advantage in this specific title is its strong single-thread results (1093 3DMark single-thread, 4238 PassMark single-thread), which flight simulation rewards.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals by average score are the AMD Radeon Pro 580 at 40318 (0.1 percent below the RTX 5070's 40377), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 at 40063 (0.8 percent below), the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 40870 (1.2 percent above), and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile at 39568 (2 percent below). By aggregate benchmark score these cards cluster tightly around the 5070, so a system built around any of them would be expected to land in the same general performance band in Microsoft Flight Simulator — though the 5070's Blackwell 2.0 architecture, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, and 48 RT cores plus 192 tensor cores give it feature-set advantages for this workload.

Swapping either the CPU or the GPU for one of these listed rivals would be expected to produce a similar experience: 1080p and 1440p fully playable at all presets, 4K playable through Medium.

Best Settings per Resolution

Using the 60 FPS threshold:

• 1920x1080: Ultra is the most demanding playable preset at 100.6 FPS average — a margin of 40.6 FPS over the threshold.
• 2560x1440: Ultra remains playable at 78.9 FPS average, clearing the threshold by 18.9 FPS.
• 3840x2160: Medium is the most demanding playable preset at 83.9 FPS average. High (58.4) and Ultra (56.1) both fall short.

Note the interesting wrinkle at 4K: Medium at 83.9 FPS actually outpaces 1440p Ultra at 78.9 FPS. A player prioritizing frame rate at high pixel density could run 4K Medium and get a higher average than dropping to 1440p Ultra — more pixels per frame at a higher frame rate, in effect.

FAQ

Q: Can the Ryzen 9 7900X + RTX 5070 run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K?

A: Yes, but only up to Medium settings. At 3840x2160, Low averages 105.4 FPS and Medium averages 83.9 FPS, while High (58.4) and Ultra (56.1) fall below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the best settings configuration overall?

A: 1440p Ultra at 78.9 FPS is the highest visual quality that stays above 60 FPS. Players wanting more headroom can take 1080p Ultra at 100.6 FPS; players wanting 4K can take Medium at 83.9 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Ultra, average frame rate falls from 100.6 to 56.1 FPS — roughly a 44 percent reduction, proportional to the fourfold increase in pixels.

Q: Does the CPU or the GPU limit this game?

A: The GPU limits playability at High and Ultra presets, as shown by frame rates declining proportionally with resolution. The CPU determines the ceiling at low settings, with 1080p Low topping out at 176.4 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested hardware?

A: It ranks 714 out of 3714 tested combinations — approximately the top fifth of the database.

Q: Which preset costs the most performance?

A: The step from Medium to High. At 1080p that step costs 37.9 FPS, at 1440p 25.8 FPS, and at 4K 25.5 FPS — far more than the step from High to Ultra, which costs only a few FPS at every resolution.

The Verdict

Yes — this PC runs Microsoft Flight Simulator, with one caveat at 4K. Per the measured verdict data:

• 1920x1080: playable on all four presets (Low 176.4, Medium 140.7, High 102.8, Ultra 100.6). Best setting: Ultra at 100.6 FPS.
• 2560x1440: playable on all four presets (Low 140.2, Medium 109.3, High 83.5, Ultra 78.9). Best setting: Ultra at 78.9 FPS.
• 3840x2160: playable on Low (105.4) and Medium (83.9) only. Best setting: Medium at 83.9 FPS.

The Ryzen 9 7900X's 12 Zen 4 cores and strong per-thread results keep the simulation side fed, and the RTX 5070's 30.87 TFLOPS of shading throughput and 672.0 GB/s of GDDR7 bandwidth handle the rendering load through 1440p Ultra without compromise. At 4K, the combo is a Medium-settings machine: fully playable, but a step away from the maximum preset. For a flight-sim build targeting 1440p — arguably this title's sweet spot for this hardware — the pairing is a clear success, ranking 714th of 3714 tested combinations with double-digit frame rate margins above 60 FPS in every 1080p and 1440p configuration measured.