Microsoft Flight Simulator

How This Combo Ranks

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 lands at rank 1712 out of 2996 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places this system in the lower-middle tier of all tested configurations, meaning it will run the sim but is far from the top of the leaderboard. The data suggests this is a functional, mid-range pairing rather than a high-end one.

Looking at the individual components, the CPU sits at the 73rd percentile among all processors tested, with an average benchmark score of 19593. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing are remarkably close: the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 scores 19617, just 0.1% higher, while the Intel Core i5-12500 is 0.4% ahead at 19668. The Intel Core i7-10700F trails this chip by 0.5% at 19499, and the Intel Core i5-11600KF leads by 0.7% at 19723. What this tells us is that the Ryzen 5 5500 is sitting in a very tight performance cluster — the differences between these four rivals are all under a single percentage point, making them effectively interchangeable in raw compute terms.

The GPU presents a more interesting story. The Radeon RX 9060 sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16129, which is 0.7% higher. The AMD Radeon R9 370X and AMD Radeon RX 7700 both score within 1% of this card, at 15862 and 15852 respectively. The AMD Radeon Pro W5500 trails by 2.1% at 15679. The fact that a modern RDNA 4.0 card is competing with a last-generation RTX 3060 Ti — and even an ancient R9 370X — in aggregate benchmarks suggests the RX 9060's real-world gaming performance may be more nuanced than raw compute scores indicate.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator specifically, the combination's rank of 1712 out of 2996 means roughly 57% of tested combos outperform it. This is a simulator that heavily rewards both strong single-threaded CPU performance and substantial GPU memory bandwidth, and this pairing delivers neither at the top tier. The measured FPS data will reveal whether this rank is CPU-limited, GPU-limited, or a balanced bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured FPS across all settings and resolutions, the data points toward Medium settings as the best experience for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 86 FPS average with a minimum of 73 FPS and maximum of 99 FPS. That is a smooth, playable experience for a flight simulator where sudden frame drops during complex scenery loading can be jarring. Low at the same resolution hits 111 FPS, but the visual quality degradation in a game that is largely about visual immersion is likely not worth the extra 25 frames.

At 2560x1440, Medium produces 69 FPS average with a minimum of 59 FPS and maximum of 80 FPS. The minimum of 59 FPS is just at the edge of what most players would consider acceptable for a smooth experience. High at 1440p drops to 52 FPS average, which is playable but noticeably less fluid. The Medium preset at 1440p appears to be the sweet spot for maintaining both visual fidelity and frame pacing.

For 4K (3840x2160), Medium yields 51 FPS average with a minimum of 44 FPS and maximum of 59 FPS. The minimum of 44 FPS suggests occasional stutters in dense scenarios, which can be problematic in a simulator where precise control matters. Low at 4K produces 66 FPS average, which is smoother but sacrifices significant visual detail. Given that this is a flight simulator where the scenery is the experience, the data suggests that Medium at 1440p is the optimal balance, with Medium at 1080p being the safer choice for those who prioritize consistent frame rates over resolution.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. At 1080p it produces 62 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 50 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 37 FPS. The incremental visual gains from Ultra over High do not justify the performance cost, particularly when the average frame rates approach or drop below the 60 FPS threshold that most players target.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is primarily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but shows signs of CPU limitation at lower ones. Looking at the Medium settings row, which has the most complete data, we see 86 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 19.8%, and from 1440p to 4K is 26.1%. The scaling is not perfectly linear, which is typical, but the consistent degradation across resolutions indicates the GPU is the primary constraint.

However, the Low settings row tells a different story. At 1080p, Low produces 111 FPS, which drops to 89 FPS at 1440p (a 19.8% decrease) and then to 66 FPS at 4K (a 25.8% decrease from 1440p). The fact that Low settings at 1080p cannot reach significantly higher than 111 FPS suggests a CPU ceiling. The Ryzen 5 5500, with its 6 cores and 12 threads based on Zen 3 architecture, has solid single-threaded performance — its 3DMark single-thread score is 836 and Cinebench R23 single-core is 2319 — but Microsoft Flight Simulator's engine is notoriously demanding on CPU single-thread performance for physics and scenery calculations.

The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is revealing. At 1080p, the spread from Low (111 FPS) to Ultra (62 FPS) is 49 FPS, or 44.1%. At 1440p, the spread narrows to 39 FPS (from 89 to 50), and at 4K it narrows to 29 FPS (from 66 to 37). This diminishing gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, while at 1080p the CPU's limitations prevent the GPU from fully stretching its legs even at Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS table for this combination is as follows:

At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 111 FPS. Medium settings deliver 86 FPS average, with a minimum of 73 FPS and maximum of 99 FPS. High settings drop to 65 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 62 FPS average. The relatively small gap between High and Ultra at 1080p — just 3 FPS — suggests that the Ultra preset's additional rendering features are not heavily impacting performance at this resolution, possibly due to the CPU limiting both.

At 2560x1440, Low settings average 89 FPS. Medium settings produce 69 FPS average, with a minimum of 59 FPS and maximum of 80 FPS. High settings drop to 52 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 50 FPS average. The High-to-Ultra gap narrows to just 2 FPS at 1440p, further indicating that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck and the extra Ultra features are being constrained by raw throughput.

At 3840x2160, Low settings average 66 FPS. Medium settings produce 51 FPS average, with a minimum of 44 FPS and maximum of 59 FPS. High settings drop to 39 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 37 FPS average. At 4K, the High-to-Ultra gap is again just 2 FPS, and even Low settings cannot maintain a consistent 60 FPS in all scenarios given the 44 FPS minimum at Medium.

The minimum FPS data at Medium settings across resolutions — 73 at 1080p, 59 at 1440p, and 44 at 4K — shows a consistent pattern of frame time spikes that scale with resolution. These minimums are likely the result of complex scenery loading or dense urban areas, which are common in this simulator.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, fabricated on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It packs 29,700 million transistors on a 199 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 149.2M per mm². The card features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 28 ray tracing cores.

The GPU's clock behavior is notable. The base clock is 1700 MHz, the game clock is 2400 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2990 MHz. The memory operates at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivers 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is likely a constraint at 4K resolution, where the measured FPS drops significantly. The 8 GB capacity combined with the relatively narrow 128-bit bus means the card cannot feed the GPU core fast enough at high resolutions in a texture-heavy game like this simulator.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks show strong compute capabilities — the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3322, and the Geekbench OpenCL score is 88183 — but the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 44 is notably low, which is curious given the DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2). The Vulkan score of 39476 is more respectable. In aggregate, the GPU's average benchmark score is 16014, placing it at the 59th percentile, with the nearest rival being the RTX 3060 Ti at 0.7% higher.

The pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s suggest the card should handle 1080p and 1440p well, which the measured FPS confirms. The FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS is solid for a card in this class. The 132 W TDP with a single 8-pin power connector and 300 W suggested PSU indicates this is a power-efficient design.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Cezanne, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of L3 cache. The base clock is 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. This is a 65 W TDP part on the AM4 socket with PCIe Gen 3 support.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark results paint a picture of a processor that is competitive in multi-threaded workloads but less impressive in single-threaded tasks. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 16429, while the single-core score is 2319. The Geekbench multi-core score is 7976 versus 1730 single-core. The PassMark single-thread score is 3058, and the 3DMark single-thread score is 836. These single-threaded scores are adequate but not exceptional for a modern CPU.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known to be heavily dependent on single-threaded CPU performance for its simulation engine, the Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread capabilities are likely the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system produces 111 FPS, which is respectable but not exceptional, and the High-to-Ultra gap being only 3 FPS suggests the CPU is preventing the GPU from showing its full potential.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s with dual-channel DDR4 support is modest by modern standards, and the PCIe Gen 3 interface could potentially limit the GPU's data transfer speeds, though the impact of this depends on the game's asset streaming patterns. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 19593, with its nearest rival being the Ryzen AI 5 430 at just 0.1% difference, indicates this is a well-rounded mid-range processor that performs as expected for its class.

FAQ

Q: Can this combination run Microsoft Flight Simulator smoothly at 1080p?

A: Yes, at Medium settings the system achieves 86 FPS average with a minimum of 73 FPS at 1920x1080. Low settings push this to 111 FPS average, while High and Ultra produce 65 FPS and 62 FPS respectively. For consistent 60+ FPS gameplay, Medium settings are recommended.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU pairing?

A: The data suggests 2560x1440 at Medium settings provides the optimal balance, delivering 69 FPS average with a 59 FPS minimum. At 4K, even Medium settings dip to 51 FPS average with a 44 FPS minimum, which may cause noticeable stutters in dense areas.

Q: Is this system more CPU-limited or GPU-limited in this game?

A: The data indicates both, depending on resolution. At 1080p, the small FPS gap between High and Ultra (3 FPS) suggests CPU limitation. At 4K, the larger overall FPS drops and the narrowing gap between Low and Ultra point to GPU limitation, particularly due to the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its nearest rivals for this workload?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 scores 19593 on average, which is 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (19617), 0.4% below the Intel Core i5-12500 (19668), 0.5% above the Intel Core i7-10700F (19499), and 0.7% below the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19723). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 4K with this setup?

A: At 3840x2160, Low settings produce 66 FPS average, Medium produces 51 FPS average with a 44 FPS minimum, High produces 39 FPS, and Ultra produces 37 FPS. For playable 4K, Low settings are the only option that maintains a 60+ FPS average.

Q: Does the RX 9060's 8 GB VRAM cause issues in this game?

A: The measured data suggests yes at higher resolutions. The significant FPS drops at 4K across all settings, combined with the 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth on a 128-bit bus, indicate that the memory subsystem is a limiting factor. The card's nearest rival, the RTX 3060 Ti, scores 0.7% higher in aggregate benchmarks, and both cards have similar memory configurations.