Microsoft Flight Simulator

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 405th out of 2,996 tested combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places this combo in the top 13.5% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given the game's reputation for demanding both CPU and GPU resources. The ranking reflects a pairing where one component is clearly a generation ahead of the other: the RTX 5090 D sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 3600 lands at the 71st percentile among all CPUs. This gap matters because Flight Simulator is known to scale with both components, and the data suggests the CPU is the more limiting factor in this duo.

Looking at the GPU's benchmark context, the RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score of 77,712 places it just 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. These are tight margins, indicating that in raw compute terms, the 5090 D is competitive with those mobile GPUs despite being a desktop flagship. However, the measured FPS in this game tells a different story, as the combination of the 5090 D with the Ryzen 5 3600 produces frame rates that are playable across all settings but never reach the extremes one might expect from a 92nd-percentile GPU.

The CPU's own benchmark profile shows a passmark multithread score of 17,700, which puts it within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-1260P and 0.2% below the Intel Core i5-11400. These rival comparisons are useful because they frame the Ryzen 5 3600 as a mid-pack performer in synthetic tests, yet in Flight Simulator the actual FPS results reveal how the game's engine interacts with this specific CPU-GPU combination. The combo rank of 405 out of 2,996 suggests that while many configurations outperform this one, a substantial majority of tested systems deliver worse results, making this pairing a viable option for flight simulation enthusiasts.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data covers four settings presets across three resolutions: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 135 FPS on average, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combination. Moving to Medium drops the average to 124 FPS, High settles at 111 FPS, and Ultra comes in at 109 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 26 FPS, representing a 19% performance penalty for the highest quality settings. This indicates that even at Ultra, the combo maintains a comfortable frame rate for most displays.

At 1440p, the trend continues but with narrower gaps. Low produces 126 FPS, Medium 115 FPS, High 104 FPS, and Ultra 102 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 24 FPS, or 19%, which mirrors the 1080p scaling. Notably, the step from High to Ultra at 1440p costs only 2 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional visual fidelity comes at minimal performance cost at this resolution. For players prioritizing smoothness, Medium at 1440p offers 115 FPS with a 98 FPS minimum, which is a solid balance.

At 4K, the picture changes. Low delivers 114 FPS, Medium 104 FPS, High 88 FPS, and Ultra 84 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 30 FPS, or 26%, indicating that the GPU is being pushed harder at this resolution. The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum FPS of 88 and a maximum of 119, which is the only preset with min/max data available across all resolutions. Given that the 5090 D has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, the GPU is not running out of VRAM at any preset, so the performance differences stem from compute load rather than memory capacity.

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the target display. For 1080p and 1440p, the Ultra preset provides 109 and 102 FPS respectively, which is smooth for a flight simulator. At 4K, High at 88 FPS is the recommendation if visual quality is paramount, while Medium at 104 FPS offers a 16 FPS advantage with a 88 FPS minimum that still feels responsive. The data shows no preset produces unplayable frame rates, so the choice hinges on whether the user prefers maximum fidelity or maximum headroom.

# Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 135 at 1080p to 126 at 1440p (a 7% decrease) and then to 114 at 4K (a 16% decrease from 1440p). This relatively modest scaling at Low suggests that the CPU is a significant contributor to frame rate at lower graphical loads, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames quickly. The Ryzen 5 3600's 6 cores and 12 threads at 3.6 GHz base and 4.2 GHz boost are likely the bottleneck here, capping performance even when the GPU has capacity to spare.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 124 FPS at 1080p, 115 FPS at 1440p (a 7% drop), and 104 FPS at 4K (a 10% drop from 1440p). The consistent percentage decreases across Low and Medium indicate that the CPU is still the limiting factor at these lower graphical presets. However, at High settings, the scaling steepens: 111 FPS at 1080p, 104 FPS at 1440p (a 6% drop), and 88 FPS at 4K (a 15% drop from 1440p). The larger drop from 1440p to 4K at High suggests the GPU is beginning to take on more of the workload, though the CPU still plays a role.

At Ultra settings, the pattern becomes clearer: 109 FPS at 1080p, 102 FPS at 1440p (a 6% drop), and 84 FPS at 4K (an 18% drop from 1440p). The widening gap between 1440p and 4K as settings increase indicates that the RTX 5090 D is being utilized more fully at higher resolutions and presets. Yet even at 4K Ultra, the 84 FPS average shows that this GPU is not fully maxed out, because the Ryzen 5 3600 cannot feed frames fast enough to reach the GPU's potential. The data suggests that upgrading the CPU would yield larger gains at 1080p and 1440p, while the GPU becomes the primary constraint only at 4K Ultra.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 135 FPS, making it the fastest configuration tested for this combo. Medium averages 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 and maximum of 142, providing a solid middle ground. High averages 111 FPS, and Ultra averages 109 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is just 2 FPS, which is negligible for most users. The minimum FPS for Medium at 1080p is 105, which is higher than the average FPS for High and Ultra, indicating that Medium offers both higher average performance and a more consistent frame pacing.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 126 FPS, Medium averages 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 and maximum of 132, High averages 104 FPS, and Ultra averages 102 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 98 FPS is the lowest recorded across all settings at this resolution, but it remains above typical 60 Hz refresh rates. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 2 FPS, similar to 1080p. The data shows that 1440p Ultra delivers 102 FPS, which is 7 FPS lower than 1080p Ultra, a modest penalty for the increased resolution.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 114 FPS, Medium averages 104 FPS with a minimum of 88 and maximum of 119, High averages 88 FPS, and Ultra averages 84 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K provides the best balance, with an average of 104 FPS and a minimum of 88 FPS that stays comfortably above 60 FPS. High and Ultra at 4K both dip into the 80s, which is still playable but shows the GPU is working harder. The step from High to Ultra at 4K costs 4 FPS, the largest such penalty across all resolutions, suggesting that the Ultra preset's extra effects have a measurable impact at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best ratio of average to minimum FPS, with minimums at 105, 98, and 88 for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The Low preset has no recorded minimum, which might indicate less variance, but the data only provides min/max for Medium. This pattern suggests that Medium is the most stable preset for this combo, providing high averages without the risk of severe frame drops.

# GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a 32 GB GDDR7 card with a 512-bit memory bus and 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, this memory capacity is more than sufficient, as the game's largest texture sets are unlikely to exceed even half of that allocation. The 5 nm Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 21,760 shading units and 680 tensor cores provides substantial compute power, but the measured FPS shows that this power is not fully realized in this pairing. The GPU's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz are high, yet the frame rates at 1080p Low (135 FPS) are far below what this GPU could theoretically deliver if paired with a stronger CPU.

The GPU's passmark G3D score of 44,065 places it at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% lower) and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% higher). These synthetic benchmarks suggest the 5090 D is a top-tier performer, but in Flight Simulator, the 4K Ultra average of 84 FPS is the key metric. The 32 GB VRAM ensures that no texture streaming issues occur, and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth prevents memory bandwidth from becoming a bottleneck at any resolution. The data indicates that the GPU is not the limiting factor in this combo; rather, the CPU's ability to process the simulation's physics and AI calculations holds back the 5090 D.

The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is impressive on paper, but Flight Simulator's workload is not purely GPU-bound. The game's complex flight models and scenery generation rely heavily on CPU single-thread performance, which the Ryzen 5 3600 provides at a modest level. The 5090 D's 176 ROPs and 680 TMUs handle the rendering pipeline efficiently, but the frame rates at 1080p versus 4K show only a 24% drop from Low to Ultra at 4K, indicating that the GPU has headroom even at the highest settings. For users considering this GPU, the data suggests that a higher-end CPU would unlock more of its potential in this specific title.

# FAQ

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: This combo ranks 405th out of 2,996 tested combinations, placing it in the top 13.5% of all tested systems.

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest average FPS at 1080p?

A: The Low preset provides the highest average FPS at 1080p with 135 FPS, followed by Medium at 124 FPS, High at 111 FPS, and Ultra at 109 FPS.

Q: How much does the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 111 at 1080p to 104 at 1440p, then to 88 at 4K, representing a 21% decrease from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for Medium settings at 4K?

A: At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 88, with an average of 104 and a maximum of 119.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score of 77,712 is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 ranks at the 71st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,035.

# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 3000 series, built on the Zen 2 architecture with a 7 nm process. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz provide moderate single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 696 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,124. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, these scores matter because the game's simulation logic is heavily dependent on single-thread performance. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps with data locality, but the 6 cores are fewer than what many modern flight simulators prefer.

The CPU's benchmark profile shows a passmark multithread score of 17,700, which places it within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-1260P and 0.2% below the Intel Core i5-11400. These rivals represent comparable performance tiers, and the data indicates that the Ryzen 5 3600 is not a high-end CPU by 2025 standards. Its 65 W TDP is modest, and its dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth is typical for the platform. In Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is to handle the flight dynamics, weather systems, and AI traffic, all of which are single-thread heavy.

The measured FPS data reveals the CPU's influence most clearly at 1080p Low, where the average of 135 FPS is 21 FPS higher than at 4K Low (114 FPS). This gap suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU is the primary determinant of frame rate, as the GPU has spare capacity. At 4K Ultra, the average of 84 FPS is only 51 FPS lower than 1080p Low, indicating that the GPU becomes more involved at higher resolutions. The CPU's 3DMark multi-thread score of 4,605 and 16-thread score of 4,605 show that it can utilize all 12 threads, but the single-thread score of 696 highlights its limitation for simulation workloads.

The Ryzen 5 3600's launch MSRP is $199, and it remains an active production CPU, but its performance in Flight Simulator is constrained by its architecture. The Zen 2 design, while efficient, lacks the higher IPC of newer Zen 3 or Zen 4 parts, and the 4.2 GHz boost clock is not exceptional. The data shows that upgrading to a CPU with higher single-thread performance would likely improve frame rates across all settings, particularly at 1080p and 1440p where the CPU is the bottleneck. For this combo, the RTX 5090 D is clearly the stronger component, and the Ryzen 5 3600's 71st percentile CPU ranking underscores the imbalance in this pairing.