Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator pairs the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, a combination that produces a wide spread of frame rates depending on resolution and settings. The data shows a system where the GPU is clearly the dominant force, but the CPU’s six Zen 2 cores still set a ceiling on performance at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases, with the gap between 1080p and 4K being most pronounced at lower settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 140 FPS at 1920x1080 to 118 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 22 FPS. This relatively modest 15.7% drop indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is still holding the system back even at 4K, as the GPU has enough headroom to render the scene quickly.

Moving to Medium settings, the scaling pattern shifts. The average FPS goes from 128 at 1080p to 119 at 1440p, and finally to 97 at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 22 FPS, or 18.5%, which is larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (9 FPS, or 7%). This suggests that the RTX 4080 is becoming the limiting factor as resolution climbs, but the CPU still manages to keep up at 1440p.

High settings show a similar trend. From 115 FPS at 1080p, the average falls to 99 FPS at 1440p and then to 73 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure represents a 36.5% reduction from the 1080p result, signalling that the GPU’s workload is now substantial enough to dominate the frame rate. The progression from 1440p to 4K is a 26 FPS drop, which is nearly triple the 16 FPS drop seen from 1080p to 1440p.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates across the board. The averages are 113 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K. The scaling here is more linear, with drops of 18 FPS and 25 FPS for each resolution step. The 4K Ultra result of 70 FPS is the most demanding scenario in the dataset, and it still remains playable, which points to the RTX 4080’s raw power.

The overall pattern indicates that the RTX 4080 is the primary performance driver at 4K, as the frame rate differences between settings narrow. At 1080p, the spread between Low and Ultra is only 27 FPS (140 vs 113), while at 4K, the spread is 48 FPS (118 vs 70). This widening gap confirms that the GPU becomes more relevant as resolution increases, with the CPU’s influence diminishing.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU and GPU combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, this pairing holds a specific position. The comboRankInGame field lists a rank of 577 out of 3714 tested combos, placing it in the top 15.5% of all configurations. This is a strong showing, considering the CPU is a budget-oriented 4000-series part paired with a flagship-tier GPU.

The percentileVsAllCpus for the Ryzen 5 4600G is 71, meaning it outperforms 71% of all CPUs in the database. The GPU’s percentileVsAllGpus is 86, which is notably higher. This discrepancy suggests that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing, and the CPU is likely holding back the system’s overall ranking in this CPU-heavy flight simulator.

When compared to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 4600G is virtually tied with the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE, which has an average score of 17482 versus 17507, a delta of 0.1%. It also sits close to the Intel Core 7 150U, which trails by 0.6%, and the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE, which leads by 0.6%. The Intel Core i3-14100T is slightly ahead at 17648, a 0.8% margin. These are all small differences, meaning the CPU’s standing is not a major differentiator among these similar parts.

The GPU’s nearest rivals show a similar tight cluster. The RTX 4080’s average score of 54247 is within 0.1% of the RTX 4080 SUPER, and it is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X. The AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and AMD Radeon 8060S both outperform it by 2.6% and 2.7% respectively. This indicates that the RTX 4080 is a mid-pack performer in its own tier, with no single rival having a decisive advantage.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. It houses 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, with a transistor density of 121.1M per mm². The GPU features 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines, alongside 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores.

Its memory subsystem is a key asset for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams vast amounts of terrain and scenery data. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This is ample for the game’s high-resolution textures, and the data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the average frame rate stays above 70 FPS, indicating no obvious memory capacity bottleneck.

Clock speeds are also relevant. The base clock is 2205 MHz, with a boost clock of 2505 MHz. The memory operates at 1400 MHz, with an effective data rate of 22.4 Gbps. These clocks contribute to a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 48.74 TFLOPS, which matches the FP16 output at a 1:1 ratio.

The GPU’s benchmarks reinforce its high-end status. In PassMark’s G3D test, it scores 34457, and its OpenCL score in Geekbench is 214739, with a Vulkan score of 263779. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test yields a score of 6567. These figures are consistent with a card that can handle the most demanding flight simulation scenarios, but the measured FPS data shows it is not fully utilized at lower resolutions due to the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the RTX 4080 delivers high averages across all settings. Low settings produce 140 FPS, Medium drops to 128 FPS with a minimum of 109 and maximum of 147, High yields 115 FPS, and Ultra stays at 113 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 27 FPS, which is moderate, but the fact that Ultra still exceeds 110 FPS shows that the GPU is not the bottleneck here.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are lower but still strong. Low settings reach 130 FPS, Medium averages 119 FPS with a range of 101 to 137, High hits 99 FPS, and Ultra manages 95 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is more noticeable on High settings (16 FPS) than on Low (10 FPS), which again points to the GPU becoming more involved.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates reflect the GPU’s heavy workload. Low settings average 118 FPS, Medium averages 97 FPS with a minimum of 83 and maximum of 112, High drops to 73 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 70 FPS. The 4K results are the only ones where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the frame rates scale directly with settings.

The Medium settings data is the only set with min and max FPS values, providing a glimpse of frame time consistency. At 1080p, the range is 109 to 147, a spread of 38 FPS. At 1440p, the range tightens to 101 to 137, a 36 FPS spread. At 4K, the range narrows further to 83 to 112, a 29 FPS spread. This suggests that as resolution increases, the frame pacing becomes more stable, likely because the CPU is less prone to causing spikes.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest average is 140 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 the bottleneck at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra result of 70 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, and the large drops from lower settings indicate the GPU is the limiting component at this resolution.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 4600G compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 4600G has an average benchmark score of 17507, which is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE and 0.6% ahead of the Intel Core 7 150U. It trails the AMD Ryzen 3 8300GE by 0.6% and the Intel Core i3-14100T by 0.8%.

Q: What is the frame rate spread between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings average 130 FPS, while Ultra averages 95 FPS, resulting in a 35 FPS spread.

Q: Does the game use more than 16 GB of VRAM at 4K?

A: The data does not show VRAM usage, but the 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth does not appear to cap performance, as even 4K Ultra stays above 70 FPS.

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

A: It ranks 577th out of 3714 combos, placing it in the top 15.5% of all tested systems for this game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 4000-series desktop processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Renoir. It uses a 7 nm process from TSMC, with 9,800 million transistors on a 156 mm² die. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 65 W TDP is modest, and it supports DDR4 memory on a dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s.

The cache hierarchy is a key factor for gaming. Each core has 64 KB of L1 and 512 KB of L2, with a shared 8 MB L3 cache. This 8 MB L3 is on the smaller side for modern games, but Microsoft Flight Simulator’s performance does not appear to be severely penalized based on the measured FPS. The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus of 71 indicates it is a solid mid-range part.

In this game, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p. The fact that Low settings only reach 140 FPS, while the GPU can likely push higher, suggests that the Ryzen 5 4600G is the limiting factor. The single-thread performance is also a consideration, as the Cinebench R23 single-core score is 1919, and the 3DMark single-thread score is 726. These are not exceptional numbers, which aligns with the frame rate ceiling seen at lower resolutions.

The multi-threaded benchmarks show a capable processor for its class. The Cinebench R23 multicore score is 13593, and the PassMark multithread score is 15992. The 3DMark max threads score is 4889, which is close to the 16-thread score of 4863. This indicates that the CPU scales well with additional threads, but the game may not be able to fully utilize all 12 threads.

The CPU’s integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics are present, but they are irrelevant in this configuration with a discrete RTX 4080. The PCIe Gen 3 interface with 20 lanes could be a minor limitation for the GPU, but the measured FPS data does not show any obvious PCIe bottleneck, as the 4K results are strong.

Overall, the Ryzen 5 4600G serves as a capable companion to the RTX 4080, but it is not a perfect match. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU prevents the system from reaching the GPU’s full potential. At 4K, the GPU takes over as the primary driver, and the CPU’s limitations are less apparent. This is a pairing where the GPU is clearly the star, but the CPU is adequate enough to deliver playable frame rates across all tested settings.