Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with this AMD Ryzen 5 5600G + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination reveals a clear pattern of resolution-dependent scaling. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 140.8 FPS, but dropping to 1440p reduces that to 113.7 FPS, a 19.2% decline. Moving further to 4K at Low settings yields 84.6 FPS, which is 39.9% below the 1080p result. This scaling behavior indicates that at lower resolutions the CPU and GPU are both engaged, but the frame rate drop accelerates as pixel count increases.

Examining the High preset across resolutions shows a similar trend. The 1080p High result of 84.8 FPS falls to 66.9 FPS at 1440p, a 21.1% reduction, and then to 47.2 FPS at 4K, which is 44.3% below the 1080p figure. The Ultra preset follows this pattern as well: 81.1 FPS at 1080p, 62 FPS at 1440p, and 46.3 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K for Ultra is 42.9%.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep across all settings. For Medium, the 1440p result of 87.8 FPS drops to 66.8 FPS at 4K, a 23.9% decline. For High, that same resolution step costs 29.4%. For Low, the drop is 25.6%. These figures suggest that the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 256-bit bus are being pushed hard at 4K, where the game's texture and rendering demands grow substantially.

Interestingly, the difference between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the difference between 1440p and 4K for every settings tier. At Low, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 19.2%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 25.6%. At High, those figures are 21.1% and 29.4% respectively. This indicates that the limiting component shifts more decisively toward the GPU as resolution climbs, with the Ryzen 5 5600G's six Zen 3 cores proving sufficient to feed the graphics card at lower pixel counts.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the primary driver of these frame rates, and its specifications align with the observed scaling behavior. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Memory clocks run at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed. The base clock of 1575 MHz boosts to 1770 MHz, and the card's 6144 shading units handle the heavy shading workload that Microsoft Flight Simulator presents.

The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are relevant for a flight simulator that leverages DirectX 12 Ultimate features. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. At 4K Ultra, the system produces 46.3 FPS, which is just below the 47.2 FPS seen at 4K High. This narrow gap of 0.9 FPS between High and Ultra at 4K suggests the GPU is nearing its practical limit in this scenario.

The RTX 3070 Ti's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 23356 and a PassMark GPU Compute score of 11601. Its average benchmark score of 30849 places it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals in the data include the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME with a delta of 0.3%, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 at -0.8%, the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 at -0.9%, and the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q at -1.2%. These deltas indicate the RTX 3070 Ti sits in a tight performance cluster, though the flight simulator results will depend heavily on the specific workload characteristics.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a notable consideration. At 4K with Ultra settings, the game is likely consuming significant memory for textures and terrain data. The fact that 4K Ultra (46.3 FPS) performs nearly identically to 4K High (47.2 FPS) could indicate memory pressure, though the data does not provide direct VRAM usage figures.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 699th out of 1795 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 61st percentile of all tested configurations, meaning roughly 61% of tested combos perform below this pairing. The rank reflects the balanced nature of this setup: the CPU and GPU are well-matched for this title, though neither is top-tier on its own.

The Ryzen 5 5600G's benchmark data shows an average score of 19983, placing it in the 78th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11600H at 0.2% delta, the Intel Core i7-11800H at -0.2%, the AMD EPYC 7713P at -0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX at 0.3%. This tight clustering means the CPU is not a distinguishing factor in this combo's rank; the GPU and its interaction with the game engine matter more.

The RTX 3070 Ti's 74th percentile standing among GPUs, combined with the CPU's 78th percentile, produces a system that handles Microsoft Flight Simulator respectably but not exceptionally. The rank of 699 out of 1795 is solidly mid-pack, suggesting that many combinations with more powerful GPUs or CPUs will outperform it, but it also outranks a substantial number of alternatives.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 84.8 FPS, which is smooth for a flight simulator. Dropping to Medium yields 109.8 FPS, a 29.5% improvement, while Low provides 140.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p produces 81.1 FPS, only 4.4% lower than High, making Ultra the best choice for 1080p users who want maximum visual quality without a significant frame rate penalty.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 66.9 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-moving scenes. Medium provides 87.8 FPS, a 31.2% improvement over High. Low produces 113.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 62 FPS, which is 7.3% below High. For 1440p, Medium appears to be the sweet spot, offering a substantial frame rate boost over High while retaining reasonable visual fidelity.

At 4K, the situation changes. High produces 47.2 FPS, Medium delivers 66.8 FPS, and Low reaches 84.6 FPS. Ultra drops to 46.3 FPS, nearly identical to High. The 41.5% gap between Medium and High at 4K suggests that Medium is the practical choice for 4K play, as it keeps frame rates above 60 FPS while the higher presets fall below that threshold. The near-identical performance of High and Ultra at 4K indicates that the Ultra preset's additional visual features come at negligible cost here, but neither reaches smooth territory.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces 140.8 FPS on Low, 109.8 FPS on Medium, 84.8 FPS on High, and 81.1 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 42.4% total reduction in frame rate, with the largest single step being the drop from Medium to High at 22.8%.

At 2560x1440, the results are 113.7 FPS on Low, 87.8 FPS on Medium, 66.9 FPS on High, and 62 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra reduction is 45.5%, with the step from Medium to High representing a 23.8% decline. The step from High to Ultra is only 7.3%, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end.

At 3840x2160, the measured values are 84.6 FPS on Low, 66.8 FPS on Medium, 47.2 FPS on High, and 46.3 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra reduction is 45.3%. The step from Medium to High is 29.3%, which is the steepest single-settings drop across all resolutions. The High-to-Ultra step is just 1.9%, the smallest such gap in the entire dataset.

Comparing across resolutions for the same settings, the 1080p-to-4K drops are as follows: Low goes from 140.8 to 84.6 FPS (39.9% reduction), Medium from 109.8 to 66.8 FPS (39.2%), High from 84.8 to 47.2 FPS (44.3%), and Ultra from 81.1 to 46.3 FPS (42.9%). The High preset suffers the largest relative penalty from resolution scaling, which may reflect its balance of shading and texture workloads.

FAQ

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

A: At 1080p, all presets exceed 80 FPS, with High at 84.8 and Ultra at 81.1 FPS. At 1440p, Medium achieves 87.8 FPS, while High falls to 66.9 FPS. At 4K, only Low (84.6) and Medium (66.8) stay above 60 FPS. The 1440p Medium setting offers the best balance of visual quality and smoothness.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 4.4% slower than High (81.1 vs 84.8 FPS). At 1440p, the gap is 7.3% (62 vs 66.9 FPS). At 4K, the difference narrows to 1.9% (46.3 vs 47.2 FPS), making Ultra nearly free in performance terms at that resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600G has a 78th percentile CPU ranking and produces a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16758. The RTX 3070 Ti ranks in the 74th GPU percentile. The modest frame rate difference between High (84.8) and Ultra (81.1) at 1080p suggests the GPU is still the primary constraint, though the CPU is capable enough to avoid severe bottlenecks.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 66.8 FPS at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. This is the only 4K preset that exceeds 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K displays.

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

A: It ranks 699th out of 1795 total combos, placing it in approximately the 61st percentile. The CPU sits in the 78th CPU percentile, and the GPU in the 74th GPU percentile, so the combination performs slightly below what individual component rankings might suggest.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between consecutive settings?

A: The largest single-step drop is the Medium-to-High transition at 4K, falling from 66.8 to 47.2 FPS, a 29.3% reduction. The smallest is High-to-Ultra at 4K, with only a 1.9% drop from 47.2 to 46.3 FPS.