Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + AMD Radeon RX 7700

The measured frame rates for this combination place it in the 1324th position out of 2996 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The Ryzen 5 3600, a 6-core/12-thread Zen 2 processor with a 3.60 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost clock, pairs with the Radeon RX 7700, a 16 GB GDDR6 GPU on the RDNA 3.0 architecture. The data set covers three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K) and four quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), with average FPS ranging from 42 at 4K Ultra to 126 at 1080p Low. This analysis interprets those measured rows to guide settings, explain component roles, and contextualize the combination's standing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy across presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 126 avg FPS, Medium drops to 98, High to 74, and Ultra to 70. The gap between Medium and High is 24 FPS, while High to Ultra is only 4 FPS — indicating diminishing returns beyond High. For 1440p, the pattern shifts: Low yields 102, Medium 79, High 60, and Ultra 57. The Medium-to-High drop is 19 FPS, but High-to-Ultra is just 3 FPS. At 4K, Low produces 75, Medium 59, High 44, and Ultra 42. Here the High-to-Ultra delta narrows to 2 FPS, making Ultra a marginal upgrade over High.

For a smooth experience, the data suggests Medium as the balanced default across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium's 98 FPS keeps headroom above typical 60 FPS targets, and it avoids the steep 24 FPS penalty incurred by moving to High. At 1440p, Medium's 79 FPS remains comfortably above 60, whereas High falls to exactly 60 — a borderline result that could dip under load. At 4K, Medium's 59 FPS is nearly at the 60 FPS threshold, with min FPS recorded at 50; this preset is playable but requires tolerance for occasional drops. High at 4K (44 avg) is best reserved for users prioritizing visual fidelity over smoothness, as the 15 FPS loss from Medium is substantial. Ultra at any resolution adds minimal FPS cost over High (2-4 FPS) but also yields no measured min/max data to verify stability, so High remains the safer choice when chasing maximum quality.

The measured min and max FPS values appear only for Medium presets: 1080p (84-113), 1440p (67-91), and 4K (50-67). These ranges reveal that Medium provides consistent frame pacing, with the 4K min at 50 FPS being the only sub-60 value. Lacking min/max data for other presets, the analysis cannot confirm their frame-time stability, but the average scores alone position Medium as the most reliable preset for this CPU-GPU pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming with this combo?

A: Medium at 79 avg FPS is the strongest choice, as it stays well above 60 FPS and has a measured min of 67. High drops to 60 avg, and Ultra to 57, both risking dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RX 7700's 16 GB VRAM affect Microsoft Flight Simulator performance?

A: With 16 GB of GDDR6 across a 256-bit bus (624.1 GB/s bandwidth), the GPU has ample memory capacity for the game's high-resolution textures. The 4K Medium result (59 FPS) suggests VRAM is not a limiting factor at these settings, as the GPU's compute throughput — 25.18 TFLOPS FP32 — appears to be the binding constraint.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: The 126 FPS at 1080p Low suggests the CPU can feed the GPU effectively at high frame rates. The 6-core/12-thread configuration with a 4.20 GHz boost clock delivers single-thread scores like 2124 in Cinebench R23, which aligns with the game's simulation-heavy workload.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 4K Ultra?

A: The measured average is 42 FPS. This is the lowest score in the data set, and the lack of min/max values for Ultra means frame-time consistency is unknown. For 4K, Medium (59 avg) or High (44 avg) are more practical.

Q: How does this combo compare to the RX 7700's nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 7700's average benchmark score is 15852, placing it within 1.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129) and 1% of the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014). In game-specific terms, this means the combo's FPS results are representative of that performance tier.

Q: Should I use Low settings to maximize FPS?

A: Low delivers the highest FPS at every resolution (126 at 1080p, 102 at 1440p, 75 at 4K), but the jump from Low to Medium costs 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 at 1440p, and 16 at 4K. Given that Medium provides a measured min FPS above 50 at all resolutions, the visual quality gain is typically worth the FPS trade-off.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7700 is the primary driver of resolution-dependent performance. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth (256-bit bus) provides the memory throughput needed for high-resolution rendering. The GPU's boost clock of 2459 MHz and game clock of 2041 MHz sustain its 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The compute capability — 25.18 TFLOPS FP32 — is the same for FP16 (1:1 ratio), indicating balanced throughput for shader workloads.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role scales with resolution and settings. At 1080p, the combo achieves 126 FPS on Low, but this drops to 98 on Medium and 74 on High. The 52 FPS difference between Low and High at 1080p shows the GPU's sensitivity to shadow quality, texture filtering, and object density — all of which increase shading unit utilization. At 4K, the same preset progression yields 75 (Low), 59 (Medium), and 44 (High) FPS. The 4K-to-1080p ratio at High is 44/74 = 0.59, meaning 4K High runs at 59% of 1080p High's frame rate. This is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, as pixel count quadruples while the GPU's fill rate (236.1 GPixel/s) and texture rate (393.4 GTexel/s) become the limiting factors.

The GPU's percentile rank of 58 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15852, places it in the mid-range tier. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 3060 Ti (16129, -1.7% delta) and RX 9060 (16014, -1% delta). Against those, the RX 7700's 16 GB VRAM is a distinguishing feature, but in this game, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (42) suggests that VRAM capacity is not the bottleneck — rather, the raw shader throughput is. The lack of measured min/max data for most presets means the GPU's frame-time consistency cannot be fully assessed, but the 4K Medium min of 50 FPS indicates the GPU can maintain playable lows when settings are moderated.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the fully measured rows show: Low at 126 avg, Medium at 98 avg (min 84, max 113), High at 74 avg, and Ultra at 70 avg. The delta from Low to Medium is 28 FPS (22% reduction), Medium to High is 24 FPS (24% reduction), and High to Ultra is only 4 FPS (5% reduction). This suggests that High and Ultra place similar load on the GPU, with Ultra's additional effects (likely higher shadow resolution and draw distance) costing minimal performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low 102, Medium 79 (min 67, max 91), High 60, and Ultra 57. The Low-to-Medium drop is 23 FPS (23%), Medium-to-High is 19 FPS (24%), and High-to-Ultra is 3 FPS (5%). The percentage reductions mirror 1080p closely, indicating that scaling from 1080p to 1440p (1.78x pixel count) affects all presets proportionally. The Medium min of 67 FPS at 1440p is the only sub-60 min in the entire data set, confirming that 1440p Medium is the highest preset/resolution combination that maintains a 60+ FPS minimum.

At 3840x2160, the scores are: Low 75, Medium 59 (min 50, max 67), High 44, and Ultra 42. The Low-to-Medium drop is 16 FPS (21%), Medium-to-High is 15 FPS (25%), and High-to-Ultra is 2 FPS (5%). The 4K Medium min of 50 FPS is the lowest recorded min, showing that even the balanced preset cannot guarantee 60 FPS at this resolution. The 4K Ultra score of 42 FPS is the worst measured result, and given its proximity to High (44), Ultra offers no practical benefit at 4K.

Comparing across resolutions at the same preset: 1080p Low (126) vs 1440p Low (102) vs 4K Low (75) shows a 19% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 26% drop from 1440p to 4K. For Medium: 98 (1080p) → 79 (1440p) → 59 (4K), with drops of 19% and 25%. For High: 74 → 60 → 44, drops of 19% and 27%. For Ultra: 70 → 57 → 42, drops of 19% and 26%. The consistency of these percentages (19-21% for 1080p→1440p, 25-27% for 1440p→4K) indicates a uniform scaling pattern across presets, reinforcing that the GPU is the dominant factor in frame rate changes.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is approximately 40-42% across all presets. Specifically, Low goes from 126 to 75 (40% reduction), Medium from 98 to 59 (40%), High from 74 to 44 (41%), and Ultra from 70 to 42 (40%). This uniformity is striking — regardless of quality preset, the 4x pixel count of 4K reduces FPS by roughly 60% of the 1080p value. This pattern strongly indicates a GPU-bound scenario, as CPU-related bottlenecks would typically show larger percentage drops at higher resolutions only if the GPU were overwhelmed — but here, the consistent ratios suggest the GPU's fill rate and shading units scale predictably with pixel count.

The 1440p to 4K scaling shows a 26-27% FPS drop for all presets, which aligns with the pixel count increase of 1.78x (2560x1440 = 3.69M pixels vs 3840x2160 = 8.29M pixels). If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS at 1440p and 4K would be similar, but the data shows a clear decline, confirming the RX 7700 is the bottleneck. The CPU's role becomes more apparent at 1080p Low, where 126 FPS approaches the practical limit for a 6-core Zen 2 processor in a simulation-heavy title; the single-thread score of 2124 in Cinebench R23 and 3dmark_single_thread of 696 indicate adequate per-core performance, but the 1080p Low result is the only one exceeding 120 FPS, hinting at CPU headroom constraints beyond that point.

The measured min/max data for Medium presets provides additional insight into scaling behavior. At 1080p Medium, the min is 84 and max is 113 (range of 29 FPS). At 1440p Medium, min is 67 and max is 91 (range of 24 FPS). At 4K Medium, min is 50 and max is 67 (range of 17 FPS). The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that GPU load becomes more consistent as pixel count increases, reducing frame-time variance. This is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where the workload is more uniform, whereas CPU-bound scenarios often exhibit larger FPS swings due to game logic spikes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 3000 series, built on Zen 2 architecture (Matisse codename) using TSMC's 7 nm process. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost of 4.20 GHz, combined with 32 MB of shared L3 cache, provide the computational foundation for Microsoft Flight Simulator's simulation logic, which includes flight physics, weather systems, and terrain streaming. The CPU's benchmark scores are modest: Cinebench R23 multi-core 15045, single-core 2124; Geekbench multi-core 7372, single-core 1536; 3dmark_max_threads 4603, single_thread 696.

In the context of this game, the CPU's role is to maintain a minimum frame rate floor, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU can render frames quickly. The measured 1080p Low average of 126 FPS suggests the CPU can feed the GPU up to that level, but the lack of min/max data for Low means we cannot assess whether the CPU causes frame drops. The 1080p Medium min of 84 FPS is the highest recorded min, indicating the CPU can sustain that level when the GPU is not maxed out. However, at 1080p Ultra (70 FPS), the CPU still has headroom since the GPU is likely the bottleneck.

The CPU's percentile rank of 71 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17035, places it near the Intel Core i5-11400 (17067, -0.2% delta) and Intel Core i7-1260P (17007, +0.2% delta). This suggests the 3600 is a mid-pack performer, sufficient for 60 FPS targets but not for extreme frame rates. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 4605 and 8_threads of 3844 reveal that the 12 threads are utilized effectively, but the single-thread score of 696 is modest, which could matter in a game known for its single-threaded simulation components. The fact that 1080p Low reaches 126 FPS — more than double the 4K Ultra score — implies the CPU is not the primary limiter at higher resolutions, but at 1080p Low, it may cap performance below what the GPU could deliver.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 1324 out of 2996 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 56th percentile (since 1324/2996 = 0.442, meaning it outperforms 44.2% of combos and is beaten by 55.8%). This mid-tier ranking aligns with the component-level percentiles: the CPU is at the 71st percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 58th percentile among all GPUs. The game-specific rank is lower than the CPU percentile but higher than the GPU percentile, indicating that the game's performance is more sensitive to GPU capability than CPU capability — a conclusion supported by the resolution scaling analysis.

The ranking context becomes clearer when comparing to the nearest rivals. The CPU's close competitors — Intel Core i5-11400 and Intel Core i7-1260P — have average scores within 0.2% of the 3600, meaning that swapping to either would likely produce nearly identical FPS in this game. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 3060 Ti, is 1.7% faster in average benchmark score, which could translate to 1-2 FPS difference in the measured presets (e.g., 4K Medium might go from 59 to 60). The RX 9060 is 1% faster, and the Radeon Pro W5500 is 1.1% slower, placing the RX 7700 in a tightly packed performance band.

Given the rank of 1324 of 2996, this combo sits slightly below the median. The measured FPS data explains why: at 4K Ultra (42 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (57 FPS), the combo falls short of high-refresh or max-quality expectations. However, at 1080p Medium (98 FPS) and 1440p Medium (79 FPS), it delivers solid performance. The ranking reflects that many other combos — likely those with newer CPUs (e.g., Zen 4 or Raptor Lake) or higher-tier GPUs — achieve better results at the same settings. The combo's strength lies in its balance: the 16 GB VRAM future-proofs for texture-heavy scenarios, and the 6-core/12-thread CPU handles the game's threading model adequately. For users targeting 60 FPS at 1440p or 4K, this combo is positioned at the edge: 1440p Medium achieves 79 FPS with a 67 FPS min, while 4K Medium achieves 59 FPS with a 50 FPS min — the latter barely missing the 60 FPS mark. The rank of 1324 reflects this "almost there" nature, where the combo is capable but not dominant in the game's most demanding configurations.