Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: How does this CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 posts an average benchmark score of 20875, placing it nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-12500 (20897, delta -0.1%) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20900, delta -0.1%). It sits marginally ahead of the AMD EPYC 7J13 (20845, delta +0.1%) and trails the Intel Core i5-12600T (20817, delta -0.2%) by a hair.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other graphics cards in the database?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 achieves an average benchmark score of 41687, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (41610, delta +0.2%), while it edges out the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (41441, delta +0.6%) by a narrow margin.

Q: What frame rates can this combo deliver at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, measured average FPS ranges from 164.4 on Low settings down to 99.3 on Ultra. Medium settings yield 138 FPS, and High settings produce 103.3 FPS. The data shows a clear scaling curve with settings presets.

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

A: This pairing of Ryzen 5 5500 and RTX 5070 ranks 379th out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 21% of all configurations. That rank reflects the balance between the CPU's 79th percentile standing and the GPU's 83rd percentile performance.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the GPU provide, and why might that matter?

A: The RTX 5070 offers 672.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth across a 192-bit bus, paired with 12 GB of GDDR7 memory. For a flight simulator that streams large terrain and scenery data, this bandwidth figure is substantial, and the data suggests it helps maintain playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: Yes, the measured spread is substantial. At 2560x1440, Low settings average 143.4 FPS while Ultra drops to 81.3 FPS — a 62.1 FPS difference. Medium (111.3 FPS) and High (83.1 FPS) occupy the middle ground, showing that the Ultra preset imposes a heavy load on this hardware combination.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 brings six cores and twelve threads to Microsoft Flight Simulator, operating at a base clock of 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. This Zen 3 architecture part, built on the Cezanne codename using TSMC's 7 nm process, sits in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s of dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth frame the CPU's capacity for feeding the simulation's complex world-streaming logic.

Benchmark results show the CPU's single-threaded strength: a 3DMark single-thread score of 836 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319. Multi-threaded scaling is evident in the 3DMark max-threads score of 5411, which is only slightly above the 8-thread score of 4593, indicating diminishing returns beyond eight threads. The PassMark multithread score of 19330 and physics score of 896 further illustrate the processor's capability under sustained loads.

In the context of this flight simulator, the CPU's role appears significant at lower resolutions where the GPU is less burdened. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 164.4 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra the frame rate falls to 99.3 FPS — a pattern suggesting the CPU maintains adequate throughput while the GPU handles the visual load. The CPU's 12 threads align with the simulation's tendency to use multiple cores for weather, physics, and AI traffic calculations. The 6-core configuration with a 65 W TDP represents a power-conscious choice, and the unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking headroom, though performance data here reflects stock operation.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset emerges as the most balanced choice across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers 138 FPS — comfortably above typical high-refresh displays. At 1440p Medium, 111.3 FPS remains smooth, and at 4K Medium, 81 FPS stays playable. The step from Medium to High costs roughly 25% of frame rate at each resolution: from 138 to 103.3 FPS at 1080p, from 111.3 to 83.1 FPS at 1440p, and from 81 to 62.4 FPS at 4K.

Ultra settings push the hardware hardest, producing 99.3 FPS at 1080p, 81.3 FPS at 1440p, and 59.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure dips below the 60 FPS threshold, which may matter for users prioritizing frame consistency. Low settings, while delivering 164.4 FPS at 1080p and 143.4 FPS at 1440p, sacrifice visual fidelity that flight simulation enthusiasts typically value for terrain detail and cockpit readability.

The data suggests High settings at 1440p (83.1 FPS) offer a strong experience, but Medium at 1440p (111.3 FPS) provides a larger buffer for demanding scenes like dense urban areas or weather-heavy conditions. For 4K users, Medium at 81 FPS is the pragmatic recommendation, as Ultra at 59.1 FPS risks occasional dips below smooth thresholds.

How This Combo Ranks

Ranked 379th out of 1795 tested combinations, this Ryzen 5 5500 + RTX 5070 pairing sits in the upper tier of configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The rank reflects the synergy between a CPU in the 79th percentile and a GPU in the 83rd percentile — both components perform above the median but neither dominates the other.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 20875 places it nearly even with the Intel Core i5-12500 (20897, delta -0.1%), suggesting that users of either platform would see similar CPU-bound behavior in this simulator. The GPU's score of 41687 puts it slightly ahead of the RTX 3090 (41441, delta +0.6%), an interesting comparison given the 3090's larger memory footprint. The measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (59.1 FPS) and 4K High (62.4 FPS) indicate the combo handles 4K gaming, though the rank suggests room for improvement with higher-tier CPUs or GPUs.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB205 chip, produced on TSMC's 5 nm process. Its 31,100 million transistors and 263 mm² die size house 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2325 MHz and boosts to 2512 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus.

The 12 GB of GDDR7 memory delivers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for Microsoft Flight Simulator's streaming of high-resolution terrain textures and photogrammetry data. The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores support ray-traced effects and DLSS features, though measured FPS data reflects standard rasterization performance. Compute benchmarks show a PassMark G3D score of 29137 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 185269, placing the GPU in the 83rd percentile of all graphics cards.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions and settings. The delta between 1080p Low (164.4 FPS) and 4K Low (103.7 FPS) is 60.7 FPS, while the delta between 1080p Ultra (99.3 FPS) and 4K Ultra (59.1 FPS) is 40.2 FPS. This pattern indicates the GPU scales well with resolution, maintaining playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra. The 250 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest this is a power-hungry part, but the measured performance justifies the thermal envelope.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces 164.4 FPS on Low, 138 FPS on Medium, 103.3 FPS on High, and 99.3 FPS on Ultra. The spread of 65.1 FPS between Low and Ultra shows how drastically settings affect performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, results are 143.4 FPS on Low, 111.3 FPS on Medium, 83.1 FPS on High, and 81.3 FPS on Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 1.8 FPS, suggesting the Ultra preset at 1440p is primarily GPU-bound with little CPU influence.

At 3840x2160, the combo delivers 103.7 FPS on Low, 81 FPS on Medium, 62.4 FPS on High, and 59.1 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results show a smoother degradation curve compared to lower resolutions, with each settings step costing roughly 20 FPS until the final step from High to Ultra, which costs only 3.3 FPS.

Across all resolutions, Low settings provide the highest frame rates but the data shows diminishing returns — 4K Low (103.7) nearly matches 1080p High (103.3), indicating that at Low settings the GPU has ample headroom.

Resolution Scaling

Transitioning from 1080p to 4K reveals how the limiting component shifts with workload. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 164.4 FPS at 1080p to 103.7 FPS at 4K — a 36.9% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 138 FPS to 81 FPS, a 41.3% reduction. At High settings, 103.3 FPS falls to 62.4 FPS, a 39.6% reduction. At Ultra settings, 99.3 FPS drops to 59.1 FPS, a 40.5% reduction.

The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that resolution scaling is the dominant factor, with the GPU becoming progressively more loaded as pixel count rises. The 4K Ultra result of 59.1 FPS indicates the GPU is approaching its limits, while the 1080p Low result of 164.4 FPS shows the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions — but the CPU's 79th percentile standing means it's not a bottleneck at any measured configuration.

Interestingly, the delta between 1440p and 4K is smaller than between 1080p and 1440p at every settings level. For example, at High settings, 1080p to 1440p costs 20.2 FPS (103.3 to 83.1), while 1440p to 4K costs 20.7 FPS (83.1 to 62.4). This near-linear scaling suggests the GPU's memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s is sufficient to handle the increased pixel throughput without hitting a bandwidth wall, though the 12 GB frame buffer may become a constraint at 4K Ultra in texture-heavy scenarios.