Microsoft Flight Simulator

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 lands at rank 1575 out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places this configuration in the 42nd percentile of all tested systems—a decidedly middle-of-the-pack result for a flight simulator that tends to punish both CPU and GPU heavily. The ranking suggests that while this combo is far from the top tier, it sits comfortably above the bottom half of tested hardware, offering a playable experience across most settings.

What makes this rank particularly interesting is the CPU's standing in the broader benchmark landscape. The Ryzen 5 5600GT holds a percentile rank of 74 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20733. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing include the Intel Core i5-12490F at 20802 (a mere 0.3% difference), the Intel Xeon 6325P at 20821 (0.4% off), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U at 20826 (also 0.4% off). The CPU is essentially in a dead heat with these processors, which suggests that the 5600GT is not the limiting factor in this combo's modest rank—the GPU's percentile of 61 and average score of 17208 likely drag the overall position down more substantially.

The GPU's nearest rivals tell a similar story of tight competition. The RTX 3070 sits just 0.7% below the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT in average score, and 1% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690. These are not transformative gaps. The data indicates that this combo's rank is the product of a very competent CPU paired with a GPU that, while capable, does not dominate its price-adjacent competition in this particular simulation workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's base clock is 1500 MHz, boosting to 1725 MHz. These specifications matter in Microsoft Flight Simulator because the game streams vast amounts of terrain and scenery data, and the memory subsystem's bandwidth directly impacts how quickly new textures can be loaded as the camera moves across the world.

With 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operations pipelines, the RTX 3070 is architecturally well-suited for the geometric complexity of flight simulation. The 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores are present but less relevant here, as Microsoft Flight Simulator primarily relies on traditional rasterization for its visual fidelity. The GPU's 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is a solid figure, but the data shows that even this throughput is challenged at higher resolutions.

The measured FPS results reveal how the GPU's capabilities scale with settings. At 1080p Ultra, the combo delivers 75 FPS average, while dropping to Low settings pushes that to 135 FPS—a 60 FPS swing that shows the GPU has headroom when the visual load is reduced. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 45 FPS, which is right at the edge of playability for a flight simulator where smooth camera panning is critical. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is worth noting here; at 4K with Ultra textures, the game can approach that limit, potentially causing stutters that the average FPS numbers do not fully capture.

The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 22214 and DirectX 12 score of 85 provide additional context. The DirectX 12 result is notably low compared to the G3D score, which may indicate that the RTX 3070 does not extract maximum efficiency from DX12's low-level API in this title, or that the game's specific rendering paths do not fully utilize what the architecture offers.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K?

A: At 4K with High settings, the combo averages 47 FPS, and at Ultra it drops to 45 FPS. These are playable but not smooth by competitive standards. The Medium preset at 4K yields 63 FPS with a minimum of 53 and maximum of 72, which is a more comfortable experience.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600GT compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 20733 is within 0.5% of the Intel Core i5-12490F, Intel Xeon 6325P, Intel Core Ultra 5 125U, and AMD EPYC 7J13. The differences are negligible, ranging from -0.3% to -0.5%.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in this game?

A: The data shows 1080p Medium delivers 105 FPS average with a minimum of 89 FPS, while 1440p Medium yields 85 FPS average with a minimum of 72 FPS. Both are strong options, with 1440p offering a better balance of visual quality and performance.

Q: Does the GPU's 8 GB VRAM become a limitation?

A: The measured data does not explicitly show VRAM-related stuttering, but the significant FPS drops at 4K Ultra (45 FPS average) compared to 4K Low (80 FPS average) suggest that the GPU's memory and compute resources are being heavily taxed at the highest settings.

Q: How does this combo's rank compare to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1575 out of 3714 tested configurations, placing it in the 42.4 percentile. This is a mid-tier result, not exceptional but far from the bottom of the field.

Q: What settings provide the most consistent frame times?

A: The Medium preset at any resolution shows the tightest min-max range. At 1080p, the range is 89 to 121 FPS; at 1440p, it is 72 to 98 FPS; and at 4K, it is 53 to 72 FPS. These narrower ranges indicate more predictable performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of how this combo performs across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1080p, the lowest settings produce an average of 135 FPS, which drops to 105 FPS at Medium, 79 FPS at High, and 75 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 89 FPS and a maximum of 121 FPS, indicating that even in heavy scenes, the frame rate stays well above 60 FPS.

Moving to 1440p, the averages are 109 FPS at Low, 85 FPS at Medium, 64 FPS at High, and 61 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset again shows the narrowest range with 72 FPS minimum and 98 FPS maximum. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 20-25% across all settings, which is consistent with the increased pixel count requiring more GPU work.

At 4K, the numbers become more demanding. Low settings average 80 FPS, Medium averages 63 FPS with a range of 53 to 72, High averages 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 35 FPS, which is smaller than at lower resolutions—this indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck at 4K, and additional visual fidelity settings yield diminishing returns.

The minimum FPS figures are only provided for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p, the minimum is 89 FPS; at 1440p, it is 72 FPS; and at 4K, it is 53 FPS. These numbers suggest that the combo maintains playable frame rates even in the most demanding moments, provided the user selects Medium settings. The lack of min/max data for other presets means we cannot fully assess frame time consistency at High or Ultra, but the averages hint that Ultra at 4K may experience noticeable dips below 45 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 3.60 GHz with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, and its 65 W TDP makes it an efficient choice for a desktop system. The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and 512 KB of L2 cache per core provide quick access to frequently used data, which is important for a flight simulator that often loads large scenery and aircraft models.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5600GT shows strong single-thread performance with a 3DMark single-thread score of 913 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2438. Multi-threaded results are equally respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17272 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 7986. These numbers indicate that the CPU can handle the physics and AI calculations that Microsoft Flight Simulator offloads to the processor, while also leaving headroom for background tasks.

The CPU's percentile rank of 74 among all CPUs is notably higher than the GPU's percentile of 61. This disparity suggests that the processor is not the limiting component in this combo. The measured FPS data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 135 FPS, which is well above what a CPU-bound scenario would produce. The CPU's 3DMark max-thread score of 5554 versus the 2-thread score of 1794 demonstrates that the processor scales well with additional threads, a trait that benefits the multi-threaded nature of modern flight simulation.

The Ryzen 5 5600GT's nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks are all within 0.5% of its average score, meaning the choice between these processors would have virtually no impact on in-game performance. The CPU's integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics are present but irrelevant for this analysis since the RTX 3070 handles all rendering duties.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers clear guidance on which preset provides the best experience for this combo. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 105 FPS average with a minimum of 89 FPS and maximum of 121 FPS. This is a sweet spot: it offers a 30 FPS improvement over High and a 40 FPS improvement over Ultra, while maintaining a minimum frame rate that stays comfortably above 60 FPS. The Low preset at 135 FPS is smoother but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a flight simulator where terrain and cloud detail enhance the experience.

At 1440p, Medium again stands out with an 85 FPS average and a minimum of 72 FPS. This is a playable experience that does not require dropping to Low, and it provides a 21 FPS improvement over High and a 24 FPS improvement over Ultra. The 72 FPS minimum ensures that even in dense urban areas or during weather effects, the frame rate does not dip below a smooth threshold.

At 4K, the choice becomes more constrained. Medium offers an average of 63 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS and maximum of 72 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS, and its minimum is still playable. High and Ultra at 47 and 45 FPS respectively are marginal for a game where smooth camera movements are essential to the experience. For users with 4K displays, the Medium preset is the recommended choice; it provides a visual upgrade over Low (which averages 80 FPS but sacrifices too much detail) while keeping performance consistent.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently shows the narrowest FPS range, indicating the most predictable performance. This consistency is valuable in a flight simulator where frame time spikes can disrupt the sense of immersion.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 135 at 1080p to 109 at 1440p (a 19.3% decrease) and then to 80 at 4K (a further 26.6% decrease). At Medium settings, the drop is from 105 at 1080p to 85 at 1440p (19.0%) and then to 63 at 4K (25.9%). At High, the progression is 79 to 64 (19.0%) and then to 47 (26.6%). At Ultra, it goes from 75 to 61 (18.7%) and then to 45 (26.2%).

The consistent pattern of roughly 19% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and then 26% from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling bottleneck. The jump from 1440p to 4K represents a 2.25x increase in pixel count, but the FPS drop is less than proportional—this suggests that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound and that other factors, such as memory bandwidth and fill rate, are also at play.

The RTX 3070's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 165.6 GPixel/s pixel rate provide theoretical limits that align with the measured data. At 4K, the GPU's utilization is nearly saturated, as shown by the small gap between High (47 FPS) and Ultra (45 FPS) settings—only 2 FPS difference. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that additional visual features have minimal impact on performance because the hardware is already working at its limit.

Conversely, at 1080p, the gap between High (79 FPS) and Ultra (75 FPS) is also small (4 FPS), but the absolute numbers are higher. This suggests that at 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance, which is strong relative to its peers, is able to feed the GPU adequately, allowing the graphics card to operate closer to its potential. The 135 FPS at 1080p Low demonstrates that when the GPU load is light, the CPU can drive frame rates well above what most displays can show, indicating that the processor is not a limiting factor in this configuration.

The scaling behavior points to the RTX 3070 as the component that determines this combo's ceiling. Users seeking higher frame rates at 4K would need a more powerful GPU, while those sticking to 1080p or 1440p will find this pairing well-balanced, with the CPU providing ample headroom for the GPU to operate effectively.