Microsoft Flight Simulator

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER combination lands at rank 1551 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places this pairing in the lower 14% of all tested configurations, a position that reflects the GPU's mid-range standing more than the CPU's capability. The data shows a system that can run the sim, but with meaningful compromises at higher settings and resolutions.

What makes this rank noteworthy is the contrast between the two components. The Ryzen 5 5600 sits at the 79th percentile among all CPUs, a strong showing for a desktop processor. The GTX 1660 SUPER, meanwhile, sits at the 55th percentile among all GPUs. In a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator—which stresses both the CPU for simulation logic and the GPU for terrain rendering—this combination produces a bottleneck pattern that becomes visible in the measured frame rates across resolution and quality tiers.

The rank itself is not a verdict on the hardware's quality; it is a positional statement. Many of the 244 combos ranked lower likely pair weaker CPUs with similar or weaker GPUs. The Ryzen 5 5600's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarking—the Intel Xeon D-1746TER at 0.6% higher average score, the AMD EPYC 9554P at 0.6% lower, and the AMD EPYC 9534 at 0.6% lower—are all server-class parts that would behave differently in this flight sim. The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (0.2% lower), Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics (0.2% lower), and AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (0.7% lower), which gives context for where the 1660 SUPER sits in the broader GPU landscape.

GPU Role

The GTX 1660 SUPER brings 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock runs at 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz. The GPU's 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs produce a pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s. These specifications place it as a capable 1080p-class card, which the benchmark data confirms.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 79.6 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 64.7 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low it falls to 45.3 FPS. The pattern is consistent across all quality tiers: the frame rate degrades steadily with resolution, which indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at higher pixel counts.

The VRAM capacity of 6 GB is a relevant factor. Flight Simulator's terrain streaming can be memory-hungry, and the data shows that Ultra settings at 4K produce only 25.6 FPS average. That is not a playable experience, and it suggests the combination of VRAM capacity and raw compute throughput is insufficient for the sim's highest demands. The GPU's transistor count of 6,600 million on a 12 nm process with a 125 W TDP indicates an older design that lacks the efficiency of newer architectures, but the measured results speak for themselves: at 1080p Medium, the combo holds 58.6 FPS, which is a reasonable baseline for flight simulation.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 3 architecture, built on TSMC's 7 nm process. It runs at a 3.50 GHz base clock with a 4.40 GHz boost clock. The 32 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide solid fundamentals for simulation workloads. Its benchmark results are strong: Cinebench R23 multicore scores 18309, and single-core scores 2584.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's influence is most visible at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 79.6 FPS, and the gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 35.5 FPS (79.6 vs 44.1). That spread suggests the CPU can feed the GPU reasonably well at 1080p, but the GPU becomes the ceiling as settings increase. The CPU's single-thread performance—indicated by 3DMark single-thread score of 882 and PassMark single-thread score of 3256—is important for Flight Simulator's main thread, which handles much of the simulation logic.

The CPU's 79th percentile ranking versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21765, shows it is not the weak link in this pairing. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11700F at 0.9% higher average score, which is a comparable desktop part. The CPU's 65 W TDP and AM4 socket compatibility make it a flexible choice, but in this specific game, the data shows the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best frame rate this combo can achieve in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 79.6 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest is 25.6 at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600's average benchmark score of 21765 is 0.6% higher than the Intel Xeon D-1746TER, 0.6% lower than the AMD EPYC 9554P, and 0.9% lower than the Intel Core i7-11700F.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 SUPER a strong GPU relative to its peers?

A: It sits at the 55th percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 14286 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 and 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon Vega 11, but 0.7% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT.

Q: What resolution and settings combination offers the best balance?

A: At 2560x1440 Medium, the combo delivers 50 FPS average. At 1920x1080 High, it delivers 46.7 FPS. The data suggests 1080p Medium or High—58.6 and 46.7 FPS respectively—are the most playable configurations.

Q: How much does the GPU's VRAM capacity matter for this game?

A: The 6 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p play, but at 3840x2160 Ultra the combo drops to 25.6 FPS, indicating the memory capacity and bandwidth are insufficient for 4K Ultra demands.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The data does not show a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 79.6 FPS, and the CPU's 79th percentile ranking suggests it can handle the sim's simulation load; the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the combo delivers 79.6 FPS at 1920x1080, drops to 64.7 FPS at 2560x1440, and falls to 45.3 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 43.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 44.1 FPS at 1080p, 35.7 FPS at 1440p, and 25.6 FPS at 4K—a 42.0% reduction.

The scaling behavior indicates the GPU is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively flat across resolutions because the simulation workload would stay constant. Instead, the consistent FPS drop as resolution increases points to the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth as the constraints. The GTX 1660 SUPER's 336.0 GB/s bandwidth and 85.68 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K.

Between 1440p and 4K, the drops are steeper. At High settings, the combo goes from 37.8 FPS at 1440p to 27 FPS at 4K—a 28.6% reduction. At Medium settings, it goes from 50 FPS at 1440p to 34.9 FPS at 4K—a 30.2% reduction. These larger drops at higher resolutions reinforce that the GPU is working near its limits. The CPU's contribution is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the 79.6 FPS result shows the Ryzen 5 5600 can push the frame rate when the GPU is less burdened. For users targeting 4K, the data suggests this combo is not viable beyond Low settings, and even then, 45.3 FPS is marginal for a flight simulator.