Microsoft Flight Simulator

Settings Recommendations

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT combination reveals that the High preset delivers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, but the optimal choice depends heavily on the target display.

At 1920x1080, the High preset achieves 89.3 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over the Ultra preset’s 83.8 FPS while remaining visually rich. The Medium preset at 119.9 FPS offers a significant frame-rate advantage for users prioritizing smoothness over fidelity, but the drop from High to Medium sacrifices noticeable detail without a proportional performance gain relative to the jump from Ultra to High.

Moving to 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 73.0 FPS, which remains playable and visually satisfying. The Ultra preset drops to 68.8 FPS, a modest reduction that may be acceptable for users with adaptive sync displays. The Medium preset at 97.7 FPS is the clear winner for competitive smoothness, while Low at 122.5 FPS is only recommended for users chasing maximum frame rates, as the visual compromise in a flight simulator is substantial.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The High preset produces 52.8 FPS, which is borderline for a smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 50.2 FPS is nearly indistinguishable in performance terms but adds graphical stress. The Medium preset at 70.1 FPS is the recommended choice for 4K, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while preserving enough detail for the simulator’s cockpit and terrain rendering. The Low preset at 90.7 FPS is only for users with high-refresh 4K panels who prioritize fluidity over all else.

The data indicates that High is the best all-around preset for 1080p and 1440p, while Medium is the pragmatic choice for 4K. The Ultra preset provides marginal visual gains over High but costs 5.5 FPS at 1080p, 4.2 FPS at 1440p, and 2.6 FPS at 4K, which is rarely worth the trade-off given the simulator’s demanding scenery streaming.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with High settings provides 89.3 FPS, which is the most balanced point. At 2560x1440 High, the average drops to 73.0 FPS, still smooth. 3840x2160 High falls to 52.8 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for many users.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of frame rate?

A: Across all three resolutions, Ultra is consistently 2.6 to 5.5 FPS slower than High. The largest gap is at 1080p (89.3 vs 83.8 FPS), and the smallest is at 4K (52.8 vs 50.2 FPS). The visual uplift from Ultra is not supported by the measured performance delta.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a bottleneck for the RX 6800 XT in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 153.7 FPS, while at 4K Low it drops to 90.7 FPS. The CPU’s single-thread score of 836 in 3dmark_single_thread and the 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicate it is not the primary constraint at 4K, but at 1080p with low settings, the frame rate ceiling is likely CPU-bound.

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

A: The measured average is 97.7 FPS. This is a strong result, offering a 24.7 FPS improvement over High settings at the same resolution, making Medium the recommended preset for 1440p users who want high refresh rates.

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

A: The combo ranks 597th out of 1795 tested combos for this game, placing it in the upper third of all systems. This ranking reflects the balance between the CPU’s 79th percentile performance and the GPU’s 87th percentile performance.

Q: Does the RX 6800 XT’s 16 GB memory matter for this game?

A: While the fact pack does not provide explicit VRAM usage metrics, the GPU’s 512.0 GB/s bandwidth and 16 GB GDDR6 capacity are consistent with the measured 4K performance. The 90.7 FPS at 4K Low versus 50.2 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates that texture and shading load, not memory capacity, are the primary drivers of the performance difference.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT combination achieves a rank of 597 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 67th percentile of all configurations, meaning roughly one-third of tested systems deliver higher average frame rates in this title.

Examining the individual components provides context for this ranking. The Ryzen 5 5500 sits at the 79th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20875. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores 20897, a delta of -0.1%, indicating near-identical synthetic performance. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE also matches at 20900 (-0.1%), while the AMD EPYC 7J13 is 0.1% behind at 20845.

The Radeon RX 6800 XT performs at the 87th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49982. Its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A550M, scores 49737 (0.5% slower), while the NVIDIA RTX A1000 is 1.7% faster at 50826. The NVIDIA CMP 50HX trails by 1.9% at 49071, and the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 2.6% slower at 48704.

The discrepancy between the GPU’s high percentile (87th) and the combo’s overall rank (67th percentile) suggests that Microsoft Flight Simulator’s CPU demands partially offset the GPU’s strength. The CPU’s 3dmark_max_threads score of 5411 and cinebench_r23_multicore score of 16429 indicate solid multi-threaded performance, but the game’s reliance on single-thread performance, where the CPU scores 836 in 3dmark_single_thread, may limit frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios like dense urban areas or complex weather systems.

The rank of 597/1795 implies that while this combo is not a top-tier configuration for this specific title, it outperforms the majority of tested systems. Users with 1440p displays will find this rank more than adequate, while 4K users may want to consider the Medium preset to reach acceptable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers the following average frame rates across presets:

• Low: 153.7 FPS
• Medium: 119.9 FPS
• High: 89.3 FPS
• Ultra: 83.8 FPS

The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 45.5% reduction in frame rate from the lowest to the highest preset. The step from Medium to High costs 30.6 FPS, which is the largest single-preset drop at this resolution, indicating that High introduces significant shading and geometry workloads.

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are:

• Low: 122.5 FPS
• Medium: 97.7 FPS
• High: 73.0 FPS
• Ultra: 68.8 FPS

The drop from 1080p to 1440p at the same preset is 20.3% for Low (153.7 to 122.5), 18.5% for Medium (119.9 to 97.7), 18.3% for High (89.3 to 73.0), and 17.9% for Ultra (83.8 to 68.8). This consistent reduction across presets indicates that the GPU is scaling predictably with pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the averages are:

• Low: 90.7 FPS
• Medium: 70.1 FPS
• High: 52.8 FPS
• Ultra: 50.2 FPS

The transition from 1440p to 4K results in a 26.0% drop for Low (122.5 to 90.7), 28.2% for Medium (97.7 to 70.1), 27.7% for High (73.0 to 52.8), and 27.0% for Ultra (68.8 to 50.2). These larger percentage drops compared to the 1080p-to-1440p step confirm that 4K resolution places increasing pressure on the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals a clear pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p, the average frame rate across all presets drops by approximately 19%, while from 1440p to 4K, the drop averages approximately 27%. This non-linear scaling is typical for a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels nearly doubles at each step (1080p to 1440p is a 1.78x increase, 1440p to 4K is a 2.25x increase).

The fact that the percentage drop is smaller than the pixel count increase indicates that the RX 6800 XT has sufficient bandwidth and compute resources to partially absorb the additional load. Specifically, at Low settings, the 1080p-to-4K transition costs 63.0 FPS (153.7 to 90.7), while at Ultra settings, the same transition costs only 33.6 FPS (83.8 to 50.2). This suggests that at lower presets, the frame rate is more sensitive to resolution changes because the GPU is not the sole bottleneck — the CPU’s ability to feed draw calls becomes a limiting factor at high frame rates.

Conversely, at Ultra settings, the GPU is more heavily loaded, and the frame rate scaling more closely follows the pixel count. The 27% drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra (68.8 to 50.2) is close to the theoretical 2.25x pixel increase, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint. At Low settings, the 26% drop from 1440p to 4K (122.5 to 90.7) is proportionally smaller, suggesting that the CPU’s 6-core/12-thread configuration with a 3.60 GHz base clock and 4.20 GHz boost clock is reaching its limit around 120-150 FPS.

This behavior implies that for users targeting high refresh rates at 1080p or 1440p with lower presets, the Ryzen 5 5500 will be the limiting component. For users targeting 4K with High or Ultra settings, the RX 6800 XT dominates the performance equation, and the CPU’s impact is minimized. The 512.0 GB/s memory bandwidth of the GPU becomes increasingly relevant at 4K, where texture streaming and terrain data demand high throughput. Overall, the scaling analysis confirms that this combo is best suited for 1440p gaming, where the GPU’s 87th percentile performance can be fully utilized without being held back by the CPU’s single-thread limitations.