Microsoft Flight Simulator

The data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 presents a compelling case study in system balancing. This combination lands at rank 1493 out of 1795 tested combos, placing it in the lower tier of configurations for this demanding title. The measured frames per second reveal a system that is consistently playable at lower settings but struggles to maintain high refresh rates at higher presets, with the relationship between resolution, settings, and the underlying hardware telling a clear story about where the bottlenecks lie.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant and reveals the GPU as the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 90.8 FPS, but this falls to 72.9 FPS at 1440p and further to 53.7 FPS at 4K. This represents a 40.8% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at the Low preset, which is a substantial penalty that points directly at the graphics card struggling to fill the increasing pixel count.

The scaling pattern becomes more telling when examining the High and Ultra presets. At High settings, the drop is from 52.9 FPS at 1080p to 42.5 FPS at 1440p and finally 30.9 FPS at 4K — a 41.6% loss from 1080p to 4K. The Ultra preset shows similar behavior, starting at 52.1 FPS at 1080p and falling to 30.4 FPS at 4K, a 41.7% decrease. This consistent ~41% reduction across all presets suggests that the RTX 2060's rendering capabilities are the dominant factor, as the CPU is not able to compensate for the increased resolution demands.

Interestingly, the Medium preset shows the steepest relative drop, going from 71.2 FPS at 1080p to 54.9 FPS at 1440p and 40.1 FPS at 4K — a 43.7% reduction. This slightly larger percentage drop at Medium settings hints that this preset may be hitting a particular resource limit on the GPU, possibly related to the 6 GB VRAM capacity or the memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The data indicates that the RTX 2060 is the star player in this performance story, with the CPU maintaining a supporting role that becomes less relevant as resolution climbs.

How This Combo Ranks

At rank 1493 out of 1795 combos, this pairing sits in the bottom 17% of tested configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is a low placement that reflects the combined performance profile of the Ryzen 5 5500 and RTX 2060. The CPU sits at the 79th percentile among all CPUs in the benchmark database, which is a respectable position, but the GPU's 58th percentile ranking pulls the overall combo down significantly for this particular game.

The gap between the CPU's percentile and the combo's rank suggests that Microsoft Flight Simulator is heavily dependent on graphics processing power. The data shows that even with a mid-range CPU, the system cannot overcome the GPU's limitations in this title. Comparing to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 5500 scores within 0.2% of the Intel Core i5-12500 and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, indicating that CPU performance is not the differentiator here. The GPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Radeon RX 7600S and AMD Radeon Pro 5600M — are within 1.7% of its average score, showing that the RTX 2060 is a known quantity with limited headroom for improvement.

This rank placement implies that users seeking better performance in this game would need to look at substantially more powerful graphics solutions. The 1493rd position among 1795 combos is a clear signal that this hardware pairing is not optimized for the demanding flight simulator, and the measured FPS data confirms that only the Low preset at 1080p breaks the 90 FPS barrier.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 brings 6 cores and 12 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. This Zen 3 architecture processor scores 16,429 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,319 in single-core tests, numbers that place it well within the mid-range desktop segment. The 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth provide adequate feeding for the GPU in most scenarios.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the graphics card. At 1080p Low settings, the system hits 90.8 FPS, which is a solid result that shows the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output when the graphics load is light. However, as settings increase to High or Ultra at 1080p, the frame rate settles around 52-53 FPS, suggesting that the CPU is not the bottleneck — otherwise, we would see similar FPS across different settings at the same resolution.

The 3DMark benchmark scores offer additional insight: the single-thread score of 836 and 2-thread score of 1,645 indicate moderate single-core performance, while the max-thread score of 5,411 shows reasonable scaling across the 12 threads. The PassMark multi-thread score of 19,330 and single-thread score of 3,058 further confirm that this CPU is capable but not exceptional. For a flight simulator that historically favors strong single-core performance, the Ryzen 5 5500's 4.20 GHz boost clock provides adequate, if not spectacular, support for the graphics pipeline.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 90.8 FPS, Medium drops to 71.2 FPS, and both High and Ultra cluster tightly at 52.9 FPS and 52.1 FPS respectively. This tight clustering at the higher presets indicates that the GPU is reaching a performance plateau where additional graphical features cost more than they deliver in visual quality.

Moving to 1440p, the Low preset still manages a respectable 72.9 FPS, but Medium falls to 54.9 FPS, and High and Ultra sit at 42.5 FPS and 43.1 FPS. The Ultra preset actually outperforms High at this resolution by 0.6 FPS, which is a minor anomaly that could be attributed to driver optimizations or workload distribution. At 4K, the Low preset drops to 53.7 FPS, Medium to 40.1 FPS, and High and Ultra both hover around 30 FPS — 30.9 FPS and 30.4 FPS respectively.

The pattern across all resolutions shows that the gap between Low and Medium is substantial, while the difference between High and Ultra is minimal. This suggests that the Ultra preset in this game may not add significant rendering complexity beyond High, or that the RTX 2060 is unable to fully utilize the additional features. The data also shows that 4K gaming is only viable at Low settings with this hardware, producing just above 30 FPS, which is borderline for a flight simulator that benefits from smoother visuals.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it achieves 53.7 FPS. At Medium settings it drops to 40.1 FPS, and at High or Ultra it falls below 31 FPS, which is not ideal for a smooth experience.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data suggests 1080p is the most versatile, offering 90.8 FPS at Low, 71.2 FPS at Medium, and around 52 FPS at High or Ultra. This resolution provides the widest range of playable settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as shown by the consistent ~41% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across all presets. The CPU's 79th percentile ranking and the tight FPS clustering at High and Ultra settings indicate it is not the primary bottleneck.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in this game?

A: The Ultra preset offers negligible performance differences from High. At 1080p, Ultra is 0.8 FPS slower, at 1440p it is 0.6 FPS faster, and at 4K it is 0.5 FPS slower. The visual quality difference may not justify any potential stability concerns.

Q: What is the performance percentile of the RTX 2060?

A: The RTX 2060 sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16,074. Its nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Radeon RX 7600S and AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, all within 1.7% of each other.

Q: Does the system maintain playable FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, at Low settings it achieves 72.9 FPS, and at Medium it reaches 54.9 FPS. High and Ultra presets deliver 42.5 FPS and 43.1 FPS, which are playable but may feel less smooth in a flight simulator context.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this hardware pairing depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset at 90.8 FPS offers the smoothest gameplay, but Medium at 71.2 FPS provides a better balance of visual quality and performance. The High preset at 52.9 FPS is the highest quality setting that remains comfortably playable, while Ultra at 52.1 FPS offers no measurable benefit.

For 1440p displays, the Low preset at 72.9 FPS is the only setting that delivers a consistently smooth experience. Medium at 54.9 FPS is acceptable for most users, but High at 42.5 FPS and Ultra at 43.1 FPS may introduce noticeable stuttering in a game that requires precise control. The data suggests that 1440p users should stick with Medium or lower to maintain frame rates above 50 FPS.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. Only the Low preset at 53.7 FPS provides a playable experience, and even this is borderline for a flight simulator where smooth camera movements are critical. Medium at 40.1 FPS and High at 30.9 FPS are below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. The recommendation is to use 1080p with Medium or High settings for the best overall balance, or 1440p with Low settings if higher resolution is preferred.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is a key constraint. The GPU's 1,920 shading units and 48 ROPs provide the raw compute power, while the 1,365 MHz base clock and 1,680 MHz boost clock determine how quickly it can process frames. The 12 nm Turing architecture and 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die give it a distinctive performance profile.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a mixed picture: the PassMark G3D score of 14,111 and average benchmark score of 16,074 place it at the 58th percentile. The DirectX 12 test score of 53 is notably lower than the DirectX 11 score of 110, which may impact performance in modern titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator that leverage newer APIs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 67,425 indicates solid compute capabilities, but the game's engine appears to favor the DirectX 11 path based on the measured results.

The 6 GB VRAM capacity is a potential limitation at higher settings and resolutions. The data shows that the Ultra preset at 4K produces 30.4 FPS, which is the lowest measured result, suggesting that memory pressure may be contributing to the performance ceiling. The RTX 2060's position at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, with nearest rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 7600S (0.5% faster) and AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (1.7% faster), confirms that this is a mid-range graphics solution that cannot fully satisfy the demands of a high-fidelity flight simulator at maximum settings.