Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 show a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the shape of that curve reveals where the bottleneck sits. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 134.9 FPS, which drops to 105.4 FPS at 1440p and 81 FPS at 4K. That scaling pattern—a 22% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and another 23% from 1440p to 4K—indicates the RTX 3070 is still managing the load reasonably well, though the frame rate erosion accelerates as pixel count climbs.

Moving to High settings tells a different story. The 1080p result is 77.8 FPS, dropping to 65.2 FPS at 1440p (a 16% loss) and then to 46.8 FPS at 4K (a 28% loss from 1440p). The steeper percentage drop at 4K under High settings suggests the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, as the higher visual fidelity demands more from the memory subsystem and shading units. Ultra settings compress the range further: 77 FPS at 1080p, 59 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K Ultra narrows to just 12 FPS, which is a sign that the game is hitting a performance ceiling that neither component can fully overcome at that quality level.

Low settings produce the widest spread—from 134.9 FPS at 1080p down to 81 FPS at 4K—which suggests that when graphical load is minimized, the system has more headroom to scale. Medium settings sit between the extremes: 107.3 FPS at 1080p, 85.2 FPS at 1440p, and 63.7 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result is interesting because it exceeds the 1080p Ultra result (63.7 vs 77 FPS), indicating that resolution alone is not the sole determinant of performance; settings quality has a substantial impact. Overall, the data shows that 1080p is the sweet spot for high refresh rates, while 4K requires dropping to Medium or Low to maintain playable frame rates above 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams vast terrain and scenery data, this bandwidth is critical. The benchmark results confirm that the GPU's memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p across all settings, but at 4K Ultra, the 47 FPS average suggests the 8 GB capacity is being pushed hard. The card's base clock of 1500 MHz and boost clock of 1725 MHz, combined with 5888 shading units, provide the raw compute needed to handle the game's complex rendering.

The GPU's 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 performance places it in the upper tier, and its 72nd percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects that. In the nearestRivals data, the RTX 3070 sits close to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which is 0.9% behind in average benchmark score, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which is 1% behind. This proximity in synthetic benchmarks translates to similar real-world behavior, though Flight Simulator's specific demands can tilt the balance. The 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores are present, but this flight sim's workload appears to rely more on traditional rasterization, given that frame rates scale smoothly with resolution changes rather than showing sudden cliffs.

The measured FPS at 4K Low (81 FPS) versus 4K Ultra (47 FPS) shows a 42% performance drop purely from settings changes, which is consistent with a GPU that is capable but not overprovisioned for the most demanding configurations. The 165.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 317.4 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for the game's draw calls, but the 220 W TDP suggests the card operates near its thermal and power limits under sustained load. For users targeting 4K, the data indicates that Medium settings (63.7 FPS) are the practical ceiling for maintaining smooth gameplay, while 1440p Ultra (59 FPS) is borderline.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 8 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but the 75th percentile ranking among all CPUs shows it holds its own. In Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy single-threaded simulation logic, the CPU's single-core performance is key. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1919 and Geekbench single-core score of 1575 indicate solid IPC, while the multi-core results (13593 in Cinebench R23, 6093 in Geekbench) provide enough parallel throughput for background tasks.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at 1080p, where frame rates reach 134.9 FPS at Low settings. However, at 4K, the frame rates drop to 46.8 FPS at High and 47 FPS at Ultra, which is a relatively small difference—suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor at that resolution. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 3070, but the processor's 3.70 GHz base clock may cause occasional hitches in densely populated areas of the sim, though the measured average FPS does not reveal such micro-stutters.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 4600G is remarkably close to the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (0% delta), the Intel Core i5-12450H (0.1% ahead), and the Intel Core i3-14100T (0.8% behind). This clustering suggests that the 4600G's performance is well-balanced for a mid-range CPU, and it does not artificially cap the GPU's output in this game. The PassMark multithread score of 15992 and single-thread score of 2653 reinforce that the CPU can handle the sim's physics and AI calculations without dragging down frame rates, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The data shows that 1440p is the sweet spot. At High settings, the combo delivers 65.2 FPS at 1440p, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, while 4K High drops to 46.8 FPS. For higher refresh rates, 1080p High produces 77.8 FPS, but 1440p offers a better balance of visual fidelity and smoothness.

Q: Can this system run 4K at playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at reduced settings. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 81, and at 4K Medium it is 63.7. However, 4K High (46.8 FPS) and 4K Ultra (47 FPS) fall below what is typically considered smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 28238, which is 0.9% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT and 1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti. It trails the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6% and the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 1.1%.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 4600G a bottleneck for the RTX 3070?

A: The benchmark results do not indicate a severe bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 134.9 FPS, showing the CPU can keep up. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K follows the GPU's expected performance curve, suggesting the CPU provides sufficient throughput.

Q: What settings should be used for a 60 FPS target at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Medium settings yield 85.2 FPS and High settings yield 65.2 FPS, both above 60. Ultra settings drop to 59 FPS, which is just under the target. For a consistent 60 FPS, High settings are recommended.

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

A: The combo ranks 792nd out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 44th percentile. This means there are many faster combos, but also a substantial number that are slower.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination ranks 792nd out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the setup in the upper-middle tier of the database, with roughly 44% of tested combinations outperforming it. Given that the RTX 3070 sits at the 72nd percentile among all GPUs and the 4600G at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, the combo's overall ranking is slightly lower than either component's individual percentile, which indicates that the pairing produces some inefficiency.

The ranking is driven by the game's demanding nature at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the combo delivers strong results—77.8 FPS at High and 134.9 FPS at Low—which would place it competitively against many other setups. However, at 4K Ultra, the 47 FPS result drags down the overall assessment, as many higher-end combos maintain 60+ FPS at that resolution. The gap between the CPU and GPU percentiles suggests that the processor is slightly overqualified relative to the graphics card, but since the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, upgrading the graphics card would yield larger gains than upgrading the CPU.

Compared to the nearest rival combos, the 4600G's performance is nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-12450H (0.1% ahead) and the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (0% delta), which means the choice between these CPUs has minimal impact on overall system ranking. The GPU's rivals—the RX 6600 XT and GTX 980 Ti—are within 1% of the RTX 3070's average score, so swapping the graphics card for either of those would result in a negligible change in the final ranking. The data indicates that this combo is a balanced mid-range option, well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it will not top any charts at 4K. For users prioritizing high frame rates at lower resolutions, this pairing delivers solid performance that competes effectively with more expensive configurations.