Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a remarkably balanced experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the data showing that the combination ranks in the top 95th percentile out of 1,795 tested combos. The most striking finding is that this pairing achieves playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra settings, which is rare for a flight simulator, yet the performance scaling reveals that the CPU becomes the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions, capping the GPU's potential.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates where the system's limits lie. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 159.6 FPS, which drops to 147.9 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 133.7 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a modest 16.2% decline from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is not being pushed to its absolute maximum at lower resolutions. The pattern becomes more pronounced at higher settings: with Ultra presets, the frame rate falls from 132.7 FPS at 1080p to 104.2 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 76.6 FPS at 4K, a 42.3% drop across the resolution range.

The scaling data suggests that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5500's six cores and twelve threads are the limiting factor, as the RTX 4090's massive 82.58 TFLOPS of compute power cannot be fully utilized. The frame rate difference between 1080p Low (159.6 FPS) and 1440p Low (147.9 FPS) is only 7.3%, while the difference between 1440p Low and 4K Low is 9.6%, showing a relatively flat curve that points to CPU saturation. However, at Ultra settings, the scaling becomes steeper, with a 13.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 26.5% drop from 1440p to 4K, indicating that the GPU begins to take on more responsibility as the visual workload increases.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for Microsoft Flight Simulator's vast terrain streaming and high-resolution textures. The GPU's memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, and this configuration clearly excels at 4K, where the Ultra preset still manages 76.6 FPS. The data shows that the GPU's 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs is justified by its performance in this title, though the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions prevents it from reaching even higher frame rates.

The Ada Lovelace architecture's 16,384 shading units and 512 tensor cores deliver substantial raw compute, but in this specific game, the limiting factor at 1080p is not the GPU. At 4K Ultra, the RTX 4090's 24 GB memory buffer ensures that texture loading does not cause performance dips, as evidenced by the smooth 76.6 FPS average. The 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler design indicate that the card is built for sustained high-performance workloads, which is essential for a flight simulator where long sessions are common.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest recorded average frame rate is 159.6 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: Yes, the data shows 4K performance ranging from 133.7 FPS at Low settings to 76.6 FPS at Ultra settings, all above playable thresholds.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested system configurations?

A: The combo ranks 95th out of 1,795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 5.3% of all systems.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average frame rate drops from 147.9 FPS at Low settings to 104.2 FPS at Ultra settings, a 29.5% reduction.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: Yes, at 1080p resolution, the frame rate ceiling appears to be around 159 FPS regardless of settings, indicating the CPU limits performance before the GPU does.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 159.6 FPS on Low, 149.7 FPS on Medium, 134.3 FPS on High, and 132.7 FPS on Ultra. The tight spread between High and Ultra (1.2%) suggests that the CPU is the primary constraint, as the GPU has sufficient headroom to handle the additional visual effects without significant frame rate penalties.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured averages are 147.9 FPS (Low), 136.0 FPS (Medium), 106.5 FPS (High), and 104.2 FPS (Ultra). The gap between Medium and High widens to 21.7%, indicating that the GPU begins to take on a more significant role at this resolution, while the CPU remains relatively unburdened.

At 3840x2160, the results show 133.7 FPS (Low), 103.6 FPS (Medium), 81.8 FPS (High), and 76.6 FPS (Ultra). The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K represents a 42.7% reduction, demonstrating that the GPU is now the dominant factor. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is 6.4%, which is smaller than the 13.8% gap between Medium and High, suggesting that the Ultra preset introduces diminishing returns in visual quality relative to performance cost.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's 95th rank out of 1,795 tested combinations places it in the top 5.3% of all systems evaluated for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is an exceptional result, particularly given that the CPU is a mid-range 5000-series part. The Ryzen 5 5500 itself holds a 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20,875, placing it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-12500 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, and 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 7J13.

The RTX 4090, meanwhile, sits in the 91st percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 66,473. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (0.4% lower), NVIDIA Tesla P40 (0.5% higher), and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (0.9% lower), though these are professional-grade cards rather than gaming-focused products. The combination of a high-percentile GPU with a mid-tier CPU still achieves top-tier gaming performance because the game's engine scales well with the GPU's massive memory bandwidth and compute resources at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K gaming, the data suggests that High settings (81.8 FPS) provide the best balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, as the jump to Ultra (76.6 FPS) yields only a 6.4% performance penalty while the visual improvement is marginal. At 1440p, High settings (106.5 FPS) are recommended for competitive smoothness, though Medium (136.0 FPS) offers a substantial frame rate boost if motion clarity is prioritized over visual detail.

At 1080p, the situation is more nuanced. Low settings (159.6 FPS) maximize frame rate, but the CPU bottleneck means that Ultra settings (132.7 FPS) still deliver excellent performance with only a 16.9% reduction. Given that the system can maintain 60+ FPS even at 4K Ultra, users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors should consider Medium (149.7 FPS) as the sweet spot, as it offers a 12.8% improvement over Ultra while maintaining high visual quality. The data indicates that Medium settings at 1080p provide 149.7 FPS, which is 88.6% of the maximum achievable frame rate, making it the most efficient choice for this resolution.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500 features six cores and twelve threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for gaming, but the 3rd generation PCIe interface may limit data transfer speeds in some scenarios. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by 3dmark_single_thread score of 836, is crucial for flight simulators, which often rely heavily on a single core for physics and flight model calculations.

The benchmark data shows that the Ryzen 5 5500 achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16,429 and a single-core score of 2,319, placing it in a competitive position among its peers. The PassMark multi-thread score of 19,330 and single-thread score of 3,058 further confirm its balanced performance profile. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is evident in the frame rate plateau at 1080p, where the system cannot exceed 159.6 FPS even at Low settings, suggesting that the CPU's processing speed limits the simulation's update rate. The CPU's 65 W TDP and AM4 socket compatibility make it an accessible choice, and its 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects its solid standing, though the 0.1% delta to the Intel Core i5-12500 indicates that rival options offer nearly identical computational performance.