Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a striking dataset in Microsoft Flight Simulator, where the results reveal a system dominated by a massive GPU capability constrained by an older CPU platform. The measured FPS across all resolutions and settings demonstrates a narrow performance envelope, suggesting that the Ryzen 5 2600 is the primary limiter in this configuration. This combination ranks 829th out of 3714 tested combos, placing it in the top 22% of all systems, a position driven almost entirely by the RTX 5090's raw power, yet the CPU prevents the system from reaching the heights its GPU alone could achieve.

FAQ

Q: What is the single highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The maximum average FPS is 118, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the only configuration in the dataset to exceed 115 FPS, indicating the ceiling for this CPU-GPU pairing.

Q: How does the combo rank relative to other tested systems?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 829th out of 3714 tested combos. This places it in the upper quartile of all configurations tested, though not near the top tier, reflecting a significant CPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the lowest measured average FPS, and under what conditions?

A: The lowest average FPS is 79, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is only 3 FPS lower than the 4K High preset, showing that graphical settings have a muted impact at this resolution.

Q: Does increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K cause a proportional performance drop?

A: No, the drop is not proportional. From 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 at High settings, average FPS falls from 97 to 82, a 15 FPS reduction (approximately 15%). At Low settings, the drop is from 118 to 99 FPS, a 19 FPS reduction (approximately 16%), far less than the 4x pixel count increase would suggest if the GPU were the sole bottleneck.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most stable performance at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an average of 100 FPS with a minimum of 85 and maximum of 115 FPS. This is the only 1440p setting with recorded min/max values, offering the most complete stability data in the dataset.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's benchmark percentile compare to the combo's in-game rank?

A: The RTX 5090 sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Despite the GPU's top-tier standing, the combo's 829th rank out of 3714 (top 22%) shows the CPU pulls the overall performance down substantially.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings overwhelming resources to this pairing, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory runs at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective), while the GPU core operates between a 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost clock. These specs translate into a compute capacity of 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 and a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s, figures that place the card in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its PassMark G3D score of 39,650 and average benchmark score of 79,842 confirm its elite status among tested graphics hardware.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role appears secondary to the CPU in this specific combo. The evidence lies in the FPS scaling: at 1920x1080 Low, the system hits 118 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it only drops to 79 FPS. If the RTX 5090 were the limiting component, the 4x pixel increase from 1080p to 4K would cause a far more dramatic FPS collapse. Instead, the modest 33% reduction in FPS (from 118 to 79) indicates that the GPU has ample headroom even at 4K Ultra, with the Ryzen 5 2600 failing to feed it enough data. The 32 GB VRAM pool is never a constraint in this title, as even the highest settings at 4K do not show the GPU struggling to maintain frame delivery.

Nearest rival comparisons for the RTX 5090 show it is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT in average benchmark score. These rivals are far behind in gaming performance, yet the in-game results here are mediocre relative to the GPU's synthetic scores, reinforcing that the CPU is the star of the bottleneck story. The RTX 5090's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 18,355 further underscores its capability, yet this combo cannot translate that into proportionally high in-game FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions reveals a system where CPU limitation flattens the performance curve. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, average FPS drops from 97 to 90, a 7 FPS reduction. From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at the same settings, FPS falls from 90 to 82, another 8 FPS drop. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at High is 15 FPS, or roughly 15%. This shallow scaling curve is atypical for a GPU-bound scenario, where 4K typically halves or worse the 1080p performance.

At Low settings, the pattern repeats: 118 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p, and 99 FPS at 4K. The 19 FPS gap between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is the largest in the dataset, yet it still represents only a 16% reduction. For context, if the RTX 5090 were fully utilized, the pixel count difference between these resolutions would typically produce a 50-70% FPS penalty, assuming no other limiter. The data instead shows that the Ryzen 5 2600's single-thread performance, with a Geekbench single-core score of 1,154 and PassMark single-thread of 2,239, caps the frame rate at every resolution.

The Medium settings at 2560x1440 provide the most instructive scaling data, with an average of 100 FPS, a minimum of 85, and a maximum of 115. The 30 FPS spread between min and max indicates frame pacing variability that is characteristic of CPU-bound scenarios, where the GPU waits for the CPU to submit draw calls. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 91 FPS with a min of 77 and max of 104, showing that even at higher resolution, the CPU remains the constraining factor, as the FPS delta between resolutions (9 FPS) is far smaller than the resolution delta itself.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best raw performance. Low settings produce 118 FPS average, Medium 108 FPS, High 97 FPS, and Ultra 96 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 92 and maximum of 124 FPS, providing the only full min/max data at 1080p. The gap between Low and Ultra is 22 FPS, indicating that settings have a moderate impact at this resolution, but the ceiling of 118 FPS suggests the CPU prevents higher frame rates even at minimal graphical load.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but begins to show resolution pressure. Low settings yield 110 FPS average, Medium 100 FPS, High 90 FPS, and Ultra 89 FPS. The Medium preset records a min of 85 and max of 115 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 21 FPS, nearly identical to the 1080p gap, which is unusual because higher resolution should amplify settings differences if the GPU were the bottleneck. The consistency of this 21-22 FPS spread across resolutions points to a CPU-imposed frame rate ceiling that shifts only slightly with resolution.

At 3840x2160, the full dataset shows the tightest grouping. Low settings average 99 FPS, Medium 91 FPS, High 82 FPS, and Ultra 79 FPS. The Medium preset has a min of 77 and max of 104 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 20 FPS, again consistent with lower resolutions. The maximum average FPS at 4K (99) is only 19 FPS below the 1080p maximum (118), meaning the system loses just 16% performance going from the lowest resolution to the highest. This is a hallmark of a severe CPU bottleneck, as the GPU is clearly not the limiting factor at any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 829 out of 3714 tested combinations places it in the top 22.3% of all systems tested for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This position is notable because the RTX 5090 alone sits in the 92nd percentile of GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 2600 is in the 75th percentile of CPUs. The gap between the GPU's percentile and the combo's rank quantifies the drag imposed by the CPU. If the GPU were the sole determinant, this system would likely rank near the top 5% of combos, given the 5090's dominance.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 2600's average benchmark score of 21,484 is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i9-11900H. It trails the Intel Xeon D-1746TER by 0.7% and the AMD EPYC 9454 by 1.2%. These margins are negligible, but none of these rivals would be considered top-tier gaming CPUs in the current landscape, reinforcing that the 2600 is a mid-range part from 2018 being paired with a flagship 2025 GPU. The combo rank reflects this mismatch: it outperforms many older CPU + high-end GPU combos, but falls short of systems with modern CPUs that can feed the RTX 5090 adequately.

The data indicates that this combo's rank is inflated by the GPU's ability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, but it is far from the potential of the RTX 5090. For comparison, the GPU's nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks, the Tesla P100, has an average score 0.3% lower, yet that GPU lacks the gaming features and driver optimization of the 5090. The 829th rank reflects the RTX 5090's brute force, but it also serves as a warning about pairing a 6-core, 12-thread Zen+ CPU with a 575W flagship GPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen architecture, manufactured on a 12nm process at GlobalFoundries. It features a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, with 16 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory bandwidth is limited to 46.9 GB/s with dual-channel DDR4 support, and it connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes. The CPU's benchmark results show a PassMark multithread score of 13,160, a Geekbench multi-core score of 5,648, and a single-core score of 1,154, with the latter being particularly relevant for gaming performance.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy single-threaded CPU demands, the Ryzen 5 2600's single-core performance is the primary constraint. The PassMark single-thread score of 2,239 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 157.3 are modest by modern standards, and the data suggests they cap the frame rate at approximately 118-124 FPS regardless of resolution. The CPU's 12nm process and 65W TDP also indicate a part designed for efficiency rather than maximum clock speed, with the 3.90 GHz boost clock being its practical ceiling.

The CPU's percentile rank of 75th among all CPUs places it in the upper three-quarters, but its nearest rivals include mobile and server parts, not desktop gaming CPUs. The Intel Core Ultra 5 228V is only 0.2% faster in average score, yet it is a much newer architecture. This shows that the Ryzen 5 2600's raw compute is not drastically outdated, but its per-core performance and IPC improvements in newer CPUs are where the gap lies. In this game, the CPU's ability to process the flight simulation's complex physics and draw calls is what limits the combo, as evidenced by the FPS data remaining relatively flat across resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Given the CPU-bottlenecked nature of this combo, the optimal settings strategy is to prioritize visual quality at the highest resolution possible without sacrificing frame rate stability. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers 79 FPS average, which is playable but the lowest in the dataset. The High preset at 4K offers 82 FPS, only 3 FPS more, making the visual upgrade from High to Ultra worthwhile if the user values fidelity over a marginal FPS gain. However, the Medium preset at 4K provides 91 FPS with a minimum of 77 and maximum of 104, offering the best balance of smoothness and quality for those who prefer a higher frame rate cushion.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset stands out as the best measured configuration, with 100 FPS average, 85 FPS minimum, and 115 FPS maximum. This preset provides a 15 FPS improvement over High and 11 FPS over Ultra, while the min/max spread of 30 FPS indicates some variability but still well within playable territory. The Low preset at 1440p yields 110 FPS, but the visual drop is substantial for only 10 FPS over Medium, making Medium the clear recommendation at this resolution.

For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset at 96 FPS is nearly identical to High at 97 FPS, meaning there is no reason to drop below Ultra if targeting 1080p. The Medium preset at 108 FPS with a min of 92 and max of 124 offers the highest minimum frame rate in the entire dataset, making it the best choice for competitive or simulation-focused play where frame dips are problematic. The Low preset's 118 FPS is the absolute maximum, but the 22 FPS gain over Ultra is not worth the massive visual downgrade. Overall, the data suggests that Medium settings at 1440p or High settings at 4K provide the best experience per the measured rows, as they balance the CPU's frame rate ceiling with the RTX 5090's ample graphical headroom.