Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator with AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 represents a mid-range 2019-era CPU combined with a 2016-era GPU, and in Microsoft Flight Simulator this pairing lands at rank 1524 out of 1795 tested combos. That places it in the bottom 15% of all configurations, which is a striking result for a system whose individual components sit near the 76th percentile among CPUs and 51st percentile among GPUs. The data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics card in this particular simulator, with the CPU showing it can push far higher frame rates when the GPU workload is reduced.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of GPU limitation as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 82.6 FPS, but this drops to 64 FPS at 1440p and further to 47.7 FPS at 4K. That represents a 42% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The scaling is steeper at higher settings: at Ultra, the system moves from 47.7 FPS at 1080p to 37.3 FPS at 1440p and 27.7 FPS at 4K, a 42% drop as well. The consistency of this percentage drop across settings suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions, since a CPU-limited system would show less FPS degradation when pixel count increases.

The High preset tells a similar story with slightly different numbers: 47.1 FPS at 1080p, 37.5 FPS at 1440p, and 30.7 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 20.4% at High, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 18.1%. These diminishing returns as resolution climbs are classic GPU-bound behavior. What is notable is that the 4K Ultra result of 27.7 FPS is the only measurement below 30 FPS, suggesting that this combination can maintain playable frame rates at 4K only when settings are reduced to Medium or below. The data implies that at 1080p, the GTX 1070's 256-bit memory bus and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to feed the render pipeline, but at 4K the 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and the GPU's compute throughput become the limiting factor.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 brings six cores and twelve threads based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost up to 4.20 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU scores 4605 in 3DMark 16-thread tests and 696 in single-thread tests, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15045 and single-core score of 2124. These numbers place it slightly behind the Intel Core i5-11400 by 0.1% and slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS by 0.2% in average benchmark score. The 3600's passmark multithread score of 17700 and single-thread score of 2562 suggest a balanced processor that should not bottleneck a GTX 1070 in most games.

However, Microsoft Flight Simulator is known for heavy simulation workloads, and the data here shows the CPU is not the primary constraint at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 82.6 FPS, which is well above what the GPU can sustain at higher settings. The fact that dropping from Ultra to Low at 1080p yields a 73% FPS increase (from 47.7 to 82.6) indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU with enough frames when the GPU workload is light. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 51.2 GB/s bandwidth appear adequate for this game's demands, as evidenced by the CPU's 76th percentile ranking among all processors. The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the system is approaching a CPU ceiling around 82-83 FPS, but this is far above the GPU's capability at higher settings.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured rows, the most balanced experience appears at 1080p Medium with 64 FPS, which is identical to the 1440p Low result of 64 FPS. For players prioritizing smoothness, 1080p Low at 82.6 FPS offers the highest headroom, while 1080p High at 47.1 FPS provides a reasonable visual upgrade at a 24% FPS cost. At 1440p, the choice is starker: Medium delivers 54.1 FPS, which is playable, while High drops to 37.5 FPS and Ultra to 37.3 FPS — nearly identical to High, suggesting diminishing returns between those two presets at this resolution. The 4K results are marginal: Medium at 34.7 FPS is the highest playable option, with Low at 47.7 FPS being the only 4K preset that clears 40 FPS.

The data implies that this system's sweet spot is 1080p High or 1440p Medium, depending on display resolution. At 1080p, High offers a 35% FPS improvement over Ultra while looking nearly as good in the measured data. At 1440p, Medium is the clear recommendation because it maintains 54.1 FPS, a 44% improvement over Ultra's 37.3 FPS. For 4K, Low at 47.7 FPS is the only preset that provides a consistently smooth experience, as even Medium dips to 34.7 FPS and Ultra falls to 27.7 FPS, which is below typical playability thresholds. The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent pattern: Ultra costs roughly 40-45% of the Low FPS at every resolution, reinforcing that settings adjustments matter more than resolution changes for this combo.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it achieves 47.7 FPS. At Medium, the average drops to 34.7 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 27.7 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold often considered minimally playable.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data shows the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions above 1080p Low. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 82.6 FPS, but increasing settings to Ultra at the same resolution drops FPS to 47.7, indicating the GTX 1070 limits performance once graphics load rises.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This configuration ranks 1524 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 15% of all systems tested for this game.

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

A: Medium at 1440p delivers 54.1 FPS, which is the highest playable setting. High drops to 37.5 FPS and Ultra to 37.3 FPS, so Medium offers the best balance between visual quality and performance.

Q: Does the GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The 4K results show significant FPS drops: 47.7 at Low, 34.7 at Medium, and 27.7 at Ultra. While the 8 GB capacity is not directly measured as exhausted, the steep decline from Low to Ultra at 4K suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s and compute capabilities are stretched at this resolution.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 holding back the GTX 1070?

A: Benchmark data shows the 3600 scores 4605 in 3DMark 16-thread tests and 15045 in Cinebench R23 multicore, placing it 76th percentile among CPUs. At 1080p Low, the system hits 82.6 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit, but at higher settings the GPU becomes the constraint, so the CPU is not limiting in this game's typical usage.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is built on the Pascal architecture with a GP104 chip manufactured on a 16 nm process, featuring 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. Its base clock of 1506 MHz boosts to 1683 MHz, with memory running at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus for 256.3 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power place it at the 51st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12331. Its nearest rivals include the Quadro K4200 (0.7% higher score) and the GTX 1650 SUPER (1.4% higher score), showing this card sits at a competitive but aging performance level.

In this game, the GTX 1070's role is clearly the limiting factor. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (27.7) versus 1080p Low (82.6) shows a 66% performance range that tracks closely with GPU workload. The card's 107.7 GPixel/s pixel rate and 202.0 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for 4K Ultra in a simulator that renders dense terrain and complex geometry. However, at 1080p Medium (64 FPS) and 1440p Medium (54.1 FPS), the card demonstrates it can handle moderate settings well. The data suggests the 8 GB VRAM is adequate for 1080p and 1440p at all tested settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 27.7 FPS indicates the card's compute and memory bandwidth are overwhelmed at that resolution. The GPU's passmark DirectX 12 score of 48 (versus 100 for DirectX 11) is particularly telling, as Microsoft Flight Simulator uses DirectX 12, potentially explaining why the card underperforms relative to its older API results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 82.6 FPS on Low, 64 FPS on Medium, 47.1 FPS on High, and 47.7 FPS on Ultra. The near-identical High and Ultra results (47.1 vs 47.7) suggest a GPU ceiling around 48 FPS at this resolution for demanding presets. At 2560x1440, the figures are 64 FPS on Low, 54.1 FPS on Medium, 37.5 FPS on High, and 37.3 FPS on Ultra. Again, High and Ultra are virtually identical, reinforcing that the Ultra preset offers no measurable benefit over High for this GPU. At 3840x2160, the results are 47.7 FPS on Low, 34.7 FPS on Medium, 30.7 FPS on High, and 27.7 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result equals the 1080p Ultra result exactly (47.7 FPS), which is a striking coincidence suggesting both configurations hit the same GPU ceiling.

The pattern across all resolutions shows that Low to Medium provides a 22-29% FPS reduction, while Medium to High costs an additional 11-27%, and High to Ultra is nearly free (0-3% difference). This suggests the Ultra preset in this game is not well-optimized for the GTX 1070, with the card being unable to take advantage of whatever additional effects Ultra enables. The 1440p Medium result of 54.1 FPS is particularly interesting because it matches the 1080p High result of 47.1 FPS in relative positioning — both are roughly 35% below their respective Low presets, indicating consistent scaling behavior regardless of resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1524 out of 1795 tested combinations, this system falls in the bottom 15% of all configurations tested in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is a poor result relative to the individual components' standings: the Ryzen 5 3600 sits at the 76th percentile among CPUs, while the GTX 1070 sits at the 51st percentile among GPUs. The discrepancy suggests that this game is particularly demanding on the GPU, and the GTX 1070's age (released in 2016) shows more here than in less demanding titles. The CPU's nearest rivals — the Core i5-11400 (0.1% lower score) and Ryzen 5 7535HS (0.2% higher score) — would likely produce similar results with the same GPU, indicating the CPU is not the differentiator in this ranking.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context: the GTX 1650 SUPER scores 1.4% higher on average, and the GTX 880M scores 1.3% lower, so the GTX 1070 is squarely mid-pack for its generation. Yet in this simulator, the 1524th rank out of 1795 combos implies that many systems with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs outperform this pairing. The data suggests that for Microsoft Flight Simulator specifically, GPU investment matters far more than CPU choice, as the 3600's strong multi-threaded performance (Cinebench R23 multicore of 15045) cannot compensate for the GTX 1070's limitations at higher settings. The rank also indicates that this combo is better suited for 1080p gaming, where it achieves playable frame rates across all settings, than for 1440p or 4K, where only Low or Medium presets remain viable.