Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500X3D posts an average benchmark score of 37,018. This places it 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225, while trailing the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 by 0.2% and the Intel Core i9-12900T by 0.3%. The data shows a tightly clustered group where the 5500X3D is effectively performance-parity with all four rivals.

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

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 holds an average benchmark score of 37,648, putting it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. It sits 0.1% above the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% above the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, while the RTX 4080 Mobile leads it by 1.3% and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 trails by 1.3%. The deltaPct values indicate very minor differences across this group.

Q: Which settings preset yields the highest average frame rate at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves the highest measured average of 155 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 128 FPS, then High at 96 FPS, with Ultra at 92 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a drop of 63 FPS, representing a 40.6% reduction in average frame rate.

Q: Does the 4K Ultra preset maintain playable frame rates?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 55 FPS. This is the lowest measured result across all resolutions and presets. The Medium preset at 4K offers a more comfortable 76 FPS average with a minimum of 65 FPS, indicating the Ultra preset pushes the hardware near its limit.

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

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 690th out of 2,996 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 23% of all combos, suggesting a solid but not top-tier position for this specific title.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures available in the measured data?

A: The only rows with minFPS values are the Medium presets: 109 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The corresponding maxFPS values are 147, 119, and 88. All other preset and resolution combinations lack minimum and maximum data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC. The GPU contains 35,800 million transistors across a 294 mm² die, with 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. The memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth at 21 Gbps effective speed. The base clock runs at 1920 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM capacity is a relevant factor. The game's high-resolution textures and complex scenery rendering place significant demands on memory. At 4K, the GPU's bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s must feed a 3840x2160 framebuffer alongside the streaming terrain data. The benchmark results suggest the VRAM capacity is sufficient even at Ultra settings, as the combo still produces a 55 FPS average at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and an equal 29.15 TFLOPS for FP16 (1:1 ratio). These figures underpin the rasterization and shading workloads that flight simulators generate. The 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for any ray-traced effects or DLSS features the game might leverage, though the measured data does not specify which features were active.

The pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s indicate how quickly the GPU can fill the screen and sample textures. When the resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the pixel throughput requirement quadruples. The data shows the RTX 4070 handles this scaling variably across presets: at Low settings, 4K averages 98 FPS versus 155 FPS at 1080p, while at Ultra settings, 4K averages 55 FPS versus 92 FPS at 1080p. The GPU's role becomes more dominant at higher resolutions and quality settings, where the rendering load increases.

The RTX 4070's production status is listed as end-of-life, with a launch MSRP of 599 USD. The GPU's benchmark percentile of 81 places it above the majority of graphics cards, though its nearest rivals include the RTX 4080 Mobile, which outperforms it by 1.3%. This small margin suggests the desktop RTX 4070 is closely matched with high-end mobile parts in raw compute, but the desktop's dedicated cooling and power delivery may allow sustained performance in prolonged flight sessions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (codenamed Vermeer), produced on TSMC's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. This large L3 allocation is characteristic of the X3D line and can benefit workloads with large working sets.

The CPU's memory support includes DDR4 with dual-channel operation, providing 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. ECC memory is supported, which may appeal to users running long simulation sessions where data integrity matters. The processor uses the AMD Socket AM4 platform and supports PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes from the CPU. The TDP is rated at 105 W, and the multiplier is locked, meaning no overclocking headroom is available through the multiplier.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5500X3D achieves a multithread score of 20,363 and a single-thread score of 2,941. The floating-point math score of 34,511 and integer math score of 60,033 indicate strong arithmetic capability. The physics score of 2,282 and data compression score of 230,392 show varied performance across different workload types. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all processors reflects its competitive position.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role centers on simulation logic, physics calculations, and draw call processing. The 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for the game's threading model, which typically uses fewer threads than many other modern titles. The 96 MB L3 cache is particularly relevant here — flight simulators stream large amounts of terrain and aircraft data, and a larger cache can reduce the need to fetch data from slower system memory.

The boost clock of 4.00 GHz provides reasonable single-thread performance, which matters for the simulator's main thread that handles game logic and scene management. The single-thread score of 2,941 is modest compared to modern high-end parts, but the benchmark results show the combo still achieves playable frame rates across all tested presets. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking suggests it handles the simulation load competently without becoming a severe bottleneck.

The nearest rival data shows the 5500X3D is nearly identical to the Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Core Ultra 5 225 in average score, with differences of just 0.2%. This clustering implies that in CPU-bound scenarios, swapping between these processors would yield negligible performance changes. However, the X3D's larger L3 cache could provide advantages in specific simulator scenarios that synthetic benchmarks do not fully capture.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on preset selection across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 155 FPS, Medium hits 128 FPS, High reaches 96 FPS, and Ultra delivers 92 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 32 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 4 FPS. This suggests that at 1080p, the High preset offers a substantial improvement over Medium in visual quality with a relatively modest frame rate penalty, while Ultra adds little FPS cost but may not deliver proportionally better visuals.

At 1440p, the pattern shifts slightly. Low averages 133 FPS, Medium 103 FPS, High 78 FPS, and Ultra 74 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 25 FPS, while High to Ultra is only 4 FPS. The data indicates that High at 1440p is the balanced choice — it provides 78 FPS, which is above the typical 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the Ultra preset's additional quality comes at a cost of only 4 FPS.

At 4K, the presets produce 98 FPS (Low), 76 FPS (Medium), 57 FPS (High), and 55 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset stands out as the optimal selection at this resolution, offering 76 FPS with a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 88 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while maintaining solid visual quality. The High preset at 57 FPS dips below the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra at 55 FPS further reduces headroom.

The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium presets, shows 109 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. These minimums suggest that the Medium preset maintains consistent frame pacing across all resolutions. The 4K Medium minimum of 65 FPS is particularly notable — it indicates the combo can hold above 60 FPS even during demanding scenes, which is crucial for a flight simulator where terrain density varies dramatically.

The best experience per the measured rows appears to be Medium at 1440p or 4K, depending on display resolution. At 1440p Medium, the average of 103 FPS with a minimum of 88 FPS delivers smooth performance with room to spare. At 4K Medium, the 76 FPS average and 65 FPS minimum provide a better visual experience than 1440p at the cost of some frame rate headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 690th out of 2,996 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This position places the combo in the top 23% of all tested systems. The ranking is a composite measure that accounts for the CPU and GPU's combined capability in this specific game.

The CPU's 85th percentile and GPU's 81st percentile rankings individually suggest both components are above average. However, the combo rank of 690 out of 2,996 indicates that many other combinations achieve better performance in this title. The gap between the component-level percentiles and the combo rank suggests that Microsoft Flight Simulator's performance is not solely determined by raw hardware capability — the game's optimization for specific architectures and its demanding simulation workload can shift the ranking.

The nearest rival data for the CPU shows it is nearly identical to the Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Core Ultra 5 225, with a 0.2% difference. For the GPU, the closest rivals are the Tesla P4 (0.1% ahead) and RX Vega 56 (0.4% ahead). These small deltas indicate that swapping either component for a closely matched alternative would not meaningfully change the combo's rank in most scenarios.

The rank of 690 also implies that roughly 2,306 other combinations outperform this setup in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Given that the GPU is in the 81st percentile, many of those higher-ranked combos likely feature stronger CPUs, suggesting the 5500X3D may be the limiting factor in this pairing. The CPU's modest single-thread score of 2,941 could constrain performance in the game's main thread, even though the 6-core configuration handles the multithreaded load adequately.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are 155 FPS (Low), 128 FPS (Medium), 96 FPS (High), and 92 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset includes a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 147 FPS. This gives a spread of 38 FPS between the minimum and maximum, indicating some variation but generally stable performance. The Low to Medium delta is 27 FPS, Medium to High is 32 FPS, and High to Ultra is just 4 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 133 FPS (Low), 103 FPS (Medium), 78 FPS (High), and 74 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset shows a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 119 FPS, a spread of 31 FPS. The Low to Medium delta is 30 FPS, Medium to High is 25 FPS, and High to Ultra is 4 FPS. The 1440p results show a more even distribution of frame rate drops between presets compared to 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 98 FPS (Low), 76 FPS (Medium), 57 FPS (High), and 55 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset has a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 88 FPS, a spread of 23 FPS. The Low to Medium delta is 22 FPS, Medium to High is 19 FPS, and High to Ultra is just 2 FPS. At 4K, the High and Ultra presets nearly converge in performance, suggesting the GPU becomes the limiting factor at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the High to Ultra transition is consistently small: 4 FPS at 1080p, 4 FPS at 1440p, and 2 FPS at 4K. This indicates that the Ultra preset's additional quality settings have minimal impact on frame rate for this combo, making High a more efficient choice when frame rate is prioritized.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the averages drop from 155 FPS at 1080p to 133 FPS at 1440p to 98 FPS at 4K. This represents a 14.2% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 36.8% drop from 1080p to 4K. The relatively moderate scaling at Low settings indicates the CPU is handling a significant portion of the workload, as the GPU is not heavily taxed.

At Medium settings, the averages are 128 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K. The drops are 19.5% (1080p to 1440p) and 40.6% (1080p to 4K). The larger percentage drops compared to Low settings suggest the GPU's role increases as quality improves, but the CPU still contributes meaningfully to the frame rate ceiling.

At High settings, the averages are 96 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 57 FPS at 4K. The drops are 18.8% and 40.6%. At Ultra settings, the averages are 92 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K, with drops of 19.6% and 40.2%. The High and Ultra presets show similar scaling behavior, with the 4K result dropping by roughly 40% relative to 1080p.

The consistent 40% drop from 1080p to 4K across Medium, High, and Ultra presets points to the GPU as the primary limiter at higher resolutions. The resolution quadruples the pixel count from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate only drops by about 40% — not the 75% that a purely pixel-bound scenario would predict. This indicates that other factors, such as CPU simulation overhead, are also constraining performance even at 4K.

The Low preset shows a smaller drop of 36.8% from 1080p to 4K, suggesting that at Low settings, the CPU is more dominant in limiting performance. The fact that 4K Low (98 FPS) is higher than 1080p Ultra (92 FPS) reinforces this interpretation — the CPU can push more frames when the GPU has less work, regardless of resolution. This dual-limitation behavior is typical of simulation games where the CPU handles complex logic independent of visual complexity.