Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 show a clear and consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 117.4 FPS, which drops to 96.8 FPS at 1440p and further to 68.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 41.8% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K on the Low preset, indicating that the GPU is the primary scaling factor as pixel count rises.

Moving to the High preset, the pattern shifts slightly. At 1080p the system produces 70.2 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 54.9 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 42.7 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is 39.2%, which is slightly less severe than on Low settings. This suggests that at higher graphical loads, the CPU begins to play a more meaningful role in limiting performance, as the scaling curve flattens somewhat when the GPU is already heavily burdened.

The Medium preset shows 91.3 FPS at 1080p, 73.9 FPS at 1440p, and 53.1 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 19.1%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 28.1%. This non-linear behavior is typical of a system where the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory interface begin to constrain performance at higher resolutions, particularly when texture quality increases.

Ultra settings tell a similar story with 68.5 FPS at 1080p, 55.5 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is below the 40 FPS threshold that many users consider playable for a flight simulator, where smooth panning is critical. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on Ultra is 46% performance loss, the steepest of any preset, which points to the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources being exhausted at 4K with maxed settings.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 3600 with its 6 cores and 12 threads is capable of feeding the RTX 4060 adequately across all presets. However, at 4K, the limiting component is clearly the GPU. The 4K to 1080p FPS ratios across presets range from 0.54 on Ultra to 0.58 on Low, confirming that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K regardless of preset. At 1440p, the system appears reasonably balanced, with the CPU and GPU sharing the workload more evenly.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, housing 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die. Its boost clock of 2460 MHz is relatively high for a mainstream card, and the 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 17 Gbps effective across a 128-bit bus, yielding 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications are directly relevant to how the card performs in Microsoft Flight Simulator, a title that is notoriously demanding on both raw compute and memory throughput.

The RTX 4060's FP32 throughput of 15.11 TFLOPS is adequate for the game's rendering workload, but the 128-bit memory bus is a notable constraint. Flight Simulator streams vast amounts of terrain and photogrammetry data, and the 272.0 GB/s bandwidth must handle both geometry and texture data. The measured results show that at 4K Ultra, the card drops to 37 FPS, which is only 54% of the 1080p Ultra result of 68.5 FPS. This disproportionate drop suggests that memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor as resolution increases, forcing the GPU to fetch more data per frame.

The card's 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present but do not appear to provide a decisive advantage in this title's standard benchmark runs, as the data shows no ray tracing-specific measurements. The 48 ROPs and 236.2 GTexel/s texture rate are mid-range figures, and the 118.1 GPixel/s pixel rate means the card can fill 4K frames but with less headroom than higher-tier Ada Lovelace parts.

VRAM capacity is another consideration. The 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p across all presets in these measurements, but at 4K Ultra, the game's high-resolution textures likely approach the limit. The 4K High result of 42.7 FPS versus 4K Medium's 53.1 FPS shows a 19.6% penalty for the High preset over Medium, which is a larger gap than the 1080p equivalent (70.2 vs. 91.3 FPS, a 23.1% difference). This indicates that texture quality settings interact with VRAM capacity and bandwidth in a way that becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 66 among all GPUs places it in the upper-middle tier, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600M with an average score of 23321, which is 0.6% higher, and the Intel Arc B580 at 23021, which is 0.7% lower. These close margins suggest that the RTX 4060's performance in synthetic benchmarks translates to competitive real-world results in Flight Simulator, but the card's memory subsystem is what separates it from more capable options.

Settings Recommendations

For users targeting 60 FPS as a playable threshold, the data provides clear guidance. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver 91.3 FPS, High delivers 70.2 FPS, and even Ultra maintains 68.5 FPS, all comfortably above 60. This means 1080p users can run Ultra settings without sacrificing smoothness, as the 68.5 FPS result exceeds the target by 14.2%.

At 1440p, the situation requires more careful selection. Medium settings produce 73.9 FPS, which is above 60, while High produces 54.9 FPS and Ultra produces 55.5 FPS. Notably, the Ultra result at 1440p (55.5 FPS) is actually slightly higher than the High result (54.9 FPS), which is an anomaly in the measured data. This could be due to specific optimization paths in the game engine, but the practical takeaway is that 1440p users should select Medium for a consistent 60+ FPS experience, or accept a modest compromise on High/Ultra for improved visual fidelity.

At 4K, no preset achieves 60 FPS. Low settings deliver 68.4 FPS, which is the only 4K option above 60, while Medium produces 53.1 FPS, High produces 42.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 37 FPS. For 4K users, Low settings are the only viable option for smooth performance, but the visual trade-off is substantial. Medium at 4K offers a balance at 53.1 FPS, which may be acceptable for a flight simulator where the pace is slower than a first-person shooter.

The optimal experience per the measured rows is 1080p Ultra at 68.5 FPS, which provides the highest visual quality while maintaining a frame rate that is 14% above the 60 FPS target. For 1440p, Medium at 73.9 FPS is the recommended balance, offering a 23% margin over the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K, users must accept either Low at 68.4 FPS or Medium at 53.1 FPS, with the latter providing a better visual experience at the cost of 22.4% lower frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 1024th out of 1795 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 57th percentile of all configurations in the database. This is a middle-of-the-pack result, reflecting the fact that the CPU is a 2019-era part while the GPU is a 2023-era part, creating a generational mismatch.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 76 among all processors is stronger than the combo's overall ranking, indicating that the Ryzen 5 3600 is not the primary limiting factor in this pairing. Its average benchmark score of 18129 places it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150) and 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101), showing that the CPU is competitive with newer mid-range parts despite its age. In synthetic multi-threaded tests, the Ryzen 5 3600 scores 15045 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2124 in single-core, which are respectable figures for a 6-core/12-thread Zen 2 chip.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 66 is lower than the CPU's 76, and its average benchmark score of 23181 places it near the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23321, 0.6% higher) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (23338, 0.7% higher). This suggests that the RTX 4060 is the weaker link in this pairing, and its 8 GB VRAM capacity is a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The combo's 1024th rank out of 1795 means there are 771 tested combinations that perform better in Flight Simulator. This indicates that while the pairing is functional and capable of 60+ FPS at 1080p and 1440p Medium, it does not stand out among the database's tested configurations. The rank is likely dragged down by the 4K results, where the GPU's memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity become significant constraints.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, but only at Low settings (68.4 FPS) or Medium settings (53.1 FPS). High settings produce 42.7 FPS and Ultra drops to 37 FPS, both below the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the best 1080p preset for this system?

A: Ultra settings are viable at 1080p, delivering 68.5 FPS, which is 14.2% above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium (91.3 FPS) and High (70.2 FPS) also exceed 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 23181. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23321 (0.6% higher), while the Intel Arc B580 scores 23021 (0.7% lower).

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck for the RTX 4060?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 18129 is within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-11400 and 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, indicating it is not a significant bottleneck. The CPU ranks 76th percentile overall, higher than the GPU's 66th percentile.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured result is 54.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. Medium settings produce 73.9 FPS, providing a smoother experience.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1024th out of 1795 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 57th percentile of all configurations in the database.