Microsoft Flight Simulator

The pairing of AMD’s Ryzen 5 4600G with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 presents an extreme generational and performance-class contrast for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 2 part aimed at mainstream desktops, while the RTX 5090 is a flagship Blackwell GPU with a 575W TDP. The measured frame rates reveal that even with this massive GPU headroom, the game’s behavior is heavily dictated by both resolution and the CPU’s capabilities.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drops is surprisingly modest given the GPU’s extreme power. At 1080p High settings, the combo averages 115 FPS. Moving to 1440p High reduces that to 107 FPS, a decline of 8 FPS or roughly 7%. Stepping up to 4K High yields 83 FPS, which is 32 FPS lower than the 1080p result—a 28% drop. This scaling curve indicates that the RTX 5090 is not the primary limiting factor at lower resolutions; the GPU has ample headroom, and the frame rate is likely constrained by the CPU’s single-thread performance and the game’s engine.

The Low settings tell a similar story. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 140 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 130 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls further to 118 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is 22 FPS, or 15.7%. This is a smaller relative drop than at High settings, which suggests that when the graphical load is light, the CPU bottleneck becomes more pronounced. The GPU is so fast that even at 4K Low, it is not being pushed hard enough to fully utilize its potential, leaving the Ryzen 5 4600G as the bottleneck.

At Medium settings, the pattern holds with a tighter spread. The 1080p Medium average is 128 FPS, 1440p Medium is 119 FPS, and 4K Medium is 107 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 21 FPS, or 16.4%. Interestingly, the Ultra preset shows the smallest absolute difference in FPS across resolutions. The 1080p Ultra average is 113 FPS, 1440p Ultra is 105 FPS, and 4K Ultra is 79 FPS. The 34 FPS gap between 1080p and 4K Ultra is the largest of any settings tier, indicating that at Ultra, the GPU finally starts to become more relevant, though the CPU still exerts a strong influence.

The data suggests that this game, at these settings, is not purely GPU-bound even at 4K. The RTX 5090’s raw throughput is so high that it can handle the 4K Ultra workload at 79 FPS, but the CPU’s ability to feed the render pipeline is the limiting factor. The relatively small FPS differences between Low and Ultra at the same resolution—for instance, 140 FPS vs 113 FPS at 1080p—show that turning down settings does not unlock massive gains, as the CPU ceiling is reached quickly.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Renoir. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65W TDP. In synthetic benchmarks, its single-thread performance is modest; for example, it scores 726 in 3DMark single-thread and 1919 in Cinebench R23 single-core. Multi-threaded scores are more respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 13593 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 6637.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy single-thread reliance, the 4600G’s single-core scores are the primary constraint. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1430 and the 4-thread score of 2732 indicate that the CPU’s performance scales well up to a few threads but does not have the sheer clock speed or IPC of higher-end parts. The boost clock of 4.20 GHz is decent, but the Zen 2 architecture is older than the Blackwell GPU it is paired with.

The CPU’s 8 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for most tasks, but the game’s streaming of terrain and weather data may benefit from more cache. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 140 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum frame generation capability in this title. The fact that 4K Low still achieves 118 FPS reinforces that the CPU is doing the heavy lifting; the GPU is not being stressed until the resolution and settings are pushed to the extreme.

The CPU’s percentile ranking is 71% against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17507. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE, scores 17482, a delta of 0.1%. This places the 4600G in the mid-range tier for CPUs, which is a logical fit for its launch MSRP of $154. However, pairing it with a GPU that has a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs creates a significant imbalance. The CPU is simply not fast enough to fully unlock the RTX 5090’s potential, as evidenced by the frame rates that plateau even when settings are lowered.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 4600G and RTX 5090 ranks 486th out of 3714 tested combos in this game. This places it in the top 13% of all combinations, which is a strong result on the surface. However, this ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU’s immense power. The RTX 5090 alone ranks in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, score 79605, a delta of 0.3%, showing that the 5090 is at the top of the GPU hierarchy.

The CPU’s ranking is much lower, at the 71st percentile, which means that the combo’s overall rank is dragged down by the processor. In a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, where CPU performance is critical for physics and AI calculations, this imbalance is more impactful than in GPU-bound titles. The data suggests that the combo’s rank of 486 confirms the GPU’s ability to brute-force high resolutions, but it also highlights that the CPU is a weak link.

When comparing the FPS at 4K Ultra (79 FPS) to the FPS at 1080p Ultra (113 FPS), the combo loses 30% of its performance by moving to 4K. This is a significant drop, but it is not as severe as it could be with a weaker GPU. The RTX 5090’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensure that memory bandwidth is never a constraint, even at 4K Ultra. The GPU’s 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 170 RT cores provide immense compute headroom, but the CPU cannot feed it fast enough to achieve higher frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest averages. Low settings produce 140 FPS, Medium 128 FPS, High 115 FPS, and Ultra 113 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 27 FPS, showing that the CPU is the primary limiter at this resolution. The Medium preset has a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 147 FPS, indicating some frame-time variance but overall solid performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop slightly but remain high. Low settings yield 130 FPS, Medium 119 FPS, High 107 FPS, and Ultra 105 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 25 FPS, still a small gap. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a minimum of 101 FPS and a maximum of 137 FPS, suggesting that the game is still CPU-bound, as the GPU has plenty of headroom.

At 3840x2160, the averages are lower but still playable. Low settings achieve 118 FPS, Medium 107 FPS, High 83 FPS, and Ultra 79 FPS. The Medium preset records a minimum of 91 FPS and a maximum of 124 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 39 FPS, which is larger than at lower resolutions. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU begins to play a more significant role, especially at Ultra settings where the RTX 5090’s compute and memory resources are more heavily utilized.

The data shows that the combo never drops below 79 FPS at any resolution or setting tested, which is impressive for a flight simulator. However, the frame rates are not as high as they would be with a stronger CPU, particularly at 1080p where the GPU is clearly underutilized. The 140 FPS at 1080p Low is likely near the CPU’s maximum, as increasing to Medium only drops it to 128 FPS, a 12 FPS difference.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a flagship GPU with a 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool, a 512-bit memory bus, and 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2017 MHz, with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The GPU has 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. This hardware provides 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU’s role is to render complex scenery, clouds, and lighting. The RTX 5090’s massive memory bandwidth and capacity ensure that high-resolution textures and draw distances do not cause stuttering or memory swapping. The fact that 4K Ultra averages 79 FPS shows that the GPU can handle the load, but the CPU is not providing enough data to push the frame rate higher.

The GPU’s benchmark scores are exceptional. It scores 18355 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 334370 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 376728 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its Passmark G3D score is 39650, and its Passmark GPU compute score is 26756. These numbers place it far above the CPU’s relative performance, reinforcing that the GPU is not the bottleneck in this system.

At 4K Low, the combo achieves 118 FPS, which is only 22 FPS less than 1080p Low. This small difference indicates that the GPU is not being fully utilized at 4K Low; the CPU is still the limiting factor. Even at 4K High (83 FPS), the GPU is likely not running at 100% utilization, as the CPU’s frame generation is capped. The RTX 5090’s power is only fully realized when the CPU can keep up, which is not the case with the Ryzen 5 4600G.

The GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, confirms its status as a top-tier part. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, which scores 79605, a delta of 0.3%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, which scores 78940, a delta of 1.1%. This shows that the RTX 5090 is at the very top of the performance stack, but its potential is wasted by the CPU pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo can achieve in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

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

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 79 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this system for Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the primary bottleneck, as FPS drops are modest when increasing resolution, and lowering settings does not yield large FPS gains.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 486th out of 3714 tested combos.

Q: How does the RTX 5090’s benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 5090 scores 79842 on average, which is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB’s score of 79605.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 101.