Microsoft Flight Simulator

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination places 1109th out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This puts it in the lower-middle portion of the field, at roughly the 38th percentile of all recorded system pairings. The rank reflects a pairing where neither component dominates the other in this specific title, but where the overall experience is constrained by the GPU at higher settings.

The CPU itself sits at the 79th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 21765. Its nearest rivals in aggregate performance are the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21635, 0.6% behind), the AMD EPYC 9554P (21899, 0.6% ahead), the AMD EPYC 9534 (21900, 0.6% ahead), and the Intel Core i7-11700F (21957, 0.9% ahead). The Ryzen 5 5600 essentially trades blows with these parts in synthetic workloads, but in Microsoft Flight Simulator's specific rendering pipeline, the measured frame rates tell a more nuanced story than the raw CPU average suggests.

The GPU, meanwhile, holds the 65th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 22206. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A400 (22307, 0.5% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (22006, 0.9% behind), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729, 2.3% ahead), and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21670, 2.5% behind). The RTX 2070 SUPER is competitive with these parts in general compute, but Flight Simulator's heavy draw calls and streaming workloads expose different bottlenecks depending on resolution and preset.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective transfer. The GPU core operates at a base of 1605 MHz and boosts to 1770 MHz, with 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. It also includes 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, though Flight Simulator's standard rendering path does not heavily leverage ray tracing at these settings.

The 8 GB frame buffer is the defining constraint at 4K. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves 37.6 FPS, while High settings yield 36.8 FPS — nearly identical. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is saturated regardless of whether the preset is High or Ultra, and the difference between these two presets in terms of visual complexity does not translate into meaningful frame rate changes. The card's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput and 113.3 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient to push 4K beyond the mid-30s in this simulator.

At 1440p, the GPU still dominates the performance profile. The spread between Low (88.7 FPS) and Ultra (46.3 FPS) is large, showing that the RTX 2070 SUPER has headroom at lower settings but quickly becomes the limiting factor as the preset climbs. The card's texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s is heavily taxed by Flight Simulator's terrain and photogrammetry data streams.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear and consistent FPS degradation as resolution increases, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 108.5 FPS. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 88.7 FPS, a 18.3% decline, and at 4K Low it falls further to 65.8 FPS, a 39.4% drop from 1080p. These proportional losses align with the pixel count increase, confirming the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary throughput bottleneck.

The scaling pattern holds across all presets. At High settings, the 1080p result is 63.9 FPS, 1440p drops to 52.9 FPS, and 4K falls to 36.8 FPS. The percentage declines from 1080p to 1440p (17.2%) and from 1440p to 4K (30.5%) are slightly less severe than the Low preset scaling, suggesting that at higher quality settings, the CPU begins to contribute more to the frame time, slightly cushioning the GPU load per pixel.

The Ultra preset shows the tightest clustering: 60.8 FPS at 1080p, 46.3 FPS at 1440p, and 37.6 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop here is 38.2%, which is smaller than the Low preset's 39.4% drop. This indicates that at Ultra, the Ryzen 5 5600's six cores and twelve threads are being pushed harder per frame, and the CPU-side simulation work (weather, AI traffic, flight model) starts to overlap with GPU rendering, creating a more balanced but still GPU-limited system.

The data suggests that for this combo, 1080p is the only resolution where the CPU's capabilities are fully exercised. At 1440p and above, the GPU's 8 GB frame buffer and raw throughput become the dominant factors, and the Ryzen 5 5600's strong single-thread performance — evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 882 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2584 — is not the limiting factor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of playable configurations. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 108.5 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth simulator operation. Medium produces 85.5 FPS, High reaches 63.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 60.8 FPS. All four presets at 1080p remain above 60 FPS, meaning the RTX 2070 SUPER can handle this resolution across the entire quality spectrum without dipping below the commonly cited smoothness target.

At 1440p, only Low (88.7 FPS) and Medium (68.2 FPS) stay comfortably above 60 FPS. High falls to 52.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 46.3 FPS. For users prioritizing frame rate stability in a flight simulator, where sudden drops can disrupt the experience, the Medium preset at 1440p represents the best balance between visual fidelity and performance. The jump from Medium to High at this resolution costs 15.3 FPS, a 22.4% reduction, which is significant for marginal visual gains.

At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS. Low achieves 65.8 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration that clears the 60 FPS mark. Medium drops to 51.5 FPS, High to 36.8 FPS, and Ultra to 37.6 FPS. Interestingly, Ultra slightly outperforms High at 4K (37.6 vs 36.8 FPS), which is within measurement noise but suggests that the High preset may trigger different asset streaming behavior that marginally hurts performance. For 4K users, Low is the only viable preset for smooth operation, with Medium acceptable for users willing to tolerate sub-60 FPS.

The overall recommendation based on the data is to run at 1440p Medium for the best combination of visual quality and frame rate headroom, or 1080p Ultra if maximum detail is preferred, since the 60.8 FPS result at that configuration remains playable. Users with 4K displays should accept Low settings or consider the GPU the limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The data shows 1080p is the only resolution where all four presets (Low 108.5 FPS, Medium 85.5 FPS, High 63.9 FPS, Ultra 60.8 FPS) remain above 60 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium exceed 60 FPS, and at 4K, only Low reaches 65.8 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER or the Ryzen 5 5600 the bottleneck in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary constraint. From 1080p to 4K at Low settings, FPS drops 39.4% (from 108.5 to 65.8), closely matching the pixel count increase. The CPU's strong single-thread score (882 in 3dmark_single_thread) does not prevent this scaling pattern.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its closest rivals in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average score of 22206 places it 0.5% behind the NVIDIA RTX A400 (22307), 0.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (22006), 2.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729), and 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (21670).

Q: What FPS can be expected at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 37.6 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra. This is nearly identical to the 36.8 FPS at 4K High, suggesting the GPU is fully saturated at this resolution regardless of the quality preset.

Q: Does the combo rank improve at lower resolutions?

A: The comboRankInGame of 1109 out of 1795 is a fixed metric for the game overall. However, the measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the combo outperforms its overall rank would suggest, with all presets exceeding 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to the Intel Core i7-11700F?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600 has an average benchmark score of 21765, which is 0.9% behind the Intel Core i7-11700F's 21957. This places them in the same performance tier, with the difference being negligible for gaming workloads.