Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

This combination places 2912th out of 3714 tested configurations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, putting it in the lower half of the database. The measured frames-per-second data reveals a system that can handle the sim at playable rates, but with significant compromises required at higher resolutions. The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 sits at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks at the 58th percentile among GPUs — a pairing that leans more on the graphics card for this title's workload.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 92 FPS at 1080p to 74 FPS at 1440p, then further to 55 FPS at 4K. This represents a 40% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical preset, the rendering load scales substantially with pixel count.

At Medium settings, the progression is 71 FPS at 1080p, 58 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K — a 41% drop from the lowest to highest resolution. The High preset follows a similar trajectory: 54 FPS at 1080p, 43 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K, which is a 41% reduction. Ultra settings show the steepest relative decline, moving from 51 FPS at 1080p to 41 FPS at 1440p and finally 30 FPS at 4K, a 41% decrease overall.

The consistency of this scaling pattern — roughly 40% performance loss when moving from 1080p to 4K across all four presets — suggests that the limiting component scales predictably with resolution. The RTX 2060's 6 GB of VRAM and 336.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are sufficient to prevent any sudden cliff in performance; instead, the frame rate declines smoothly as the GPU must process more pixels. The fact that the percentage drop is nearly identical across presets indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolution points, with the CPU maintaining its frame delivery regardless of the increased pixel workload.

At 4K, only the Low preset (55 FPS) achieves a comfortably playable frame rate above 50 FPS. Medium manages 42 FPS, while High and Ultra fall to 32 and 30 FPS respectively — the latter two being marginal for a flight simulator where smooth panning is important. The 1440p results are more encouraging, with Low hitting 74 FPS and Medium reaching 58 FPS, both well within smooth territory. At 1080p, all presets except Ultra (51 FPS) exceed 54 FPS, with Low achieving 92 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process node, featuring 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. Its base clock runs at 1365 MHz with a boost clock of 1680 MHz, and the 6 GB of GDDR6 memory operates across a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's pixel rate is 80.64 GPixel/s and texture rate is 201.6 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 6.451 TFLOPS.

In benchmark scores, the RTX 2060 achieves a Passmark G3D score of 14111 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 5488. Its average benchmark score of 15290 places it at the 58th percentile among all GPUs. The nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 with a delta of 0%, the AMD Radeon 680M at 0.1%, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM at 0.6%, and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 at 0.8% — all essentially within statistical noise of each other.

The VRAM capacity of 6 GB appears adequate for Microsoft Flight Simulator's demands at the tested settings, as evidenced by the smooth scaling behavior. The 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present on this die, though the measured FPS data does not indicate whether these are actively utilized in this title. The memory clock of 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) provides sufficient bandwidth to feed the shading units, and the consistent performance degradation with resolution suggests that the GPU is not being throttled by memory capacity constraints.

The GPU's 58th percentile ranking relative to all GPUs indicates mid-pack standing, yet the game's measured results show the RTX 2060 delivering 92 FPS at 1080p Low — a strong outcome that highlights how this simulator can be tuned to run well on mid-range hardware when settings are adjusted appropriately.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: At 1920x1080, the system achieves 92 FPS on Low, 71 FPS on Medium, and 54 FPS on High settings. At 2560x1440, frame rates drop to 74 FPS on Low and 58 FPS on Medium. The data suggests 1080p provides the most headroom for higher quality presets while maintaining smooth performance.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 2060's average benchmark score of 15290 is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (delta 0%), the AMD Radeon 680M (0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (0.6%), and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (0.8%). All five GPUs fall within a 0.8% performance envelope of each other.

Q: Is 4K gaming feasible with this combination?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 55 FPS, while Medium averages 42 FPS. High and Ultra drop to 32 and 30 FPS respectively. For a flight simulator requiring steady visuals, only Low is consistently playable at 4K, and even that hovers near the threshold.

Q: What CPU performance tier does the Ryzen 5 2600 occupy?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484, placing it at the 75th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (delta 0.2%), Intel Core i9-11900H (0.5%), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (-0.7%), and AMD EPYC 9454 (1.2%).

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

A: Across all four presets, the drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is consistently around 40%. For example, at Medium settings, 71 FPS at 1080p becomes 42 FPS at 4K, while at Ultra, 51 FPS becomes 30 FPS.

Q: What is the system's overall ranking among tested combos?

A: This CPU/GPU pairing ranks 2912th out of 3714 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 22% of the database for this specific game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 92 FPS, the highest recorded for this configuration. Medium settings produce 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 82 FPS. High averages 54 FPS, while Ultra drops to 51 FPS. All 1080p presets remain above 50 FPS, making this resolution fully playable across the entire settings range.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low still performs strongly at 74 FPS average. Medium yields 58 FPS with a range of 49 to 66 FPS. High averages 43 FPS, and Ultra settles at 41 FPS. The 1440p results show that Low and Medium provide smooth gameplay, while High and Ultra approach the lower boundary of comfortable playability.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low averages 55 FPS, Medium averages 42 FPS with a minimum of 36 and maximum of 49 FPS. High drops to 32 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 30 FPS. The 4K data indicates that only Low settings maintain a frame rate above the 50 FPS threshold, with Medium barely holding above 40 FPS and High/Ultra hovering near 30 FPS.

The minimum FPS readings available for Medium settings show a consistent pattern: 61 FPS at 1080p, 49 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. These minimums are roughly 14% below their respective averages, indicating relatively stable frame delivery without severe stuttering. The gap between average and minimum FPS widens slightly at higher resolutions, suggesting that complex scenes can cause more pronounced dips when the GPU is under heavier load.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a playability baseline, the data shows that 1080p Medium (71 FPS) is the highest quality preset that clears this threshold at 1080p. At 1440p, Low (74 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS, while Medium (58 FPS) falls just short. At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS — Low tops out at 55 FPS.

If prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate, 1080p Ultra at 51 FPS offers a playable experience with all settings maxed, though it sits below the 60 FPS mark. At 1440p, High (43 FPS) and Ultra (41 FPS) are similar in performance, making High the more sensible choice given the minimal frame rate difference and the visual quality gain from Ultra being modest in this simulator.

The sweet spot for this combination is 1080p High at 54 FPS, which balances visual quality with smoothness. Players willing to accept slightly lower fidelity can step down to Medium at 71 FPS for a more buttery experience. For 1440p, Low at 74 FPS is the most fluid option, while Medium at 58 FPS provides a good compromise between appearance and performance.

At 4K, the only viable option for consistent playability is Low at 55 FPS. Medium at 42 FPS may be acceptable for less demanding flight scenarios, but the data indicates that High and Ultra at 32 and 30 FPS respectively will likely produce noticeable judder during fast camera movements or dense scenery.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 3.90 GHz. It belongs to the Zen+ architecture (Pinnacle Ridge) built on a 12 nm process by GlobalFoundries, with 4,800 million transistors on a 213 mm² die. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s, and its 16 MB of shared L3 cache helps feed the cores during multithreaded workloads.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 2600 scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multicore and 157.3 in single-core. Geekbench results show 5648 multicore and 1154 single-core. Passmark tests reveal 13160 in multithread and 2239 in single-thread, with specific workloads like integer math at 44518, floating point at 22942, and data compression at 187062.

The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all processors indicates solid mid-range positioning. Its nearest rivals — the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (0.2% delta), Intel Core i9-11900H (0.5%), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (-0.7%), and AMD EPYC 9454 (1.2%) — all cluster within a narrow band, suggesting that the Ryzen 5 2600's compute capabilities are well-matched to this peer group.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the measured frame rates show consistent behavior across resolutions, which points to the CPU being capable of feeding the GPU adequately. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see smaller performance gaps between 1080p and 4K as the GPU becomes less utilized. Instead, the uniform 40% scaling pattern indicates that the CPU maintains its frame delivery while the GPU's workload dictates the final output.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2912th out of 3714 tested configurations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 21.6% of all measured systems. This is a below-average standing for this title, which is notable given that both components hover near or above the median in their respective percentile rankings (75th for CPU, 58th for GPU).

The disparity between the component-level percentiles and the in-game rank suggests that Microsoft Flight Simulator is particularly demanding on the combined system configuration. The game's heavy reliance on both CPU simulation and GPU rendering means that mid-range components in either category can drag down overall performance. The Ryzen 5 2600's 6-core/12-thread configuration provides adequate multithreading, but its 3.90 GHz boost clock may limit single-threaded performance in a sim that often depends on main-thread speed.

The RTX 2060's 58th percentile GPU ranking places it near the bottom half of all graphics cards, and its 6 GB VRAM may become a constraint at higher settings in this texture-heavy simulator. However, the measured data shows that the combo can still achieve 92 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that with appropriate settings, even a bottom-quartile system ranking can deliver playable results.

Compared to the 802 other combos that rank below this configuration, the Ryzen 5 2600 + RTX 2060 offers a baseline level of performance for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The 3714 total tested combos span everything from entry-level to flagship hardware, and this pairing lands in the lower segment — but the FPS data confirms that it is capable of running the game at all tested settings and resolutions, just not at the highest quality levels simultaneously.