Microsoft Flight Simulator

The measured performance of Microsoft Flight Simulator on the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination spans a wide range, from 47.9 FPS at 4K Ultra to 143 FPS at 1080p Low. The data shows a system that is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with the GPU becoming the primary constraint at 4K. Across all four presets, the FPS scales predictably with resolution, and the gap between settings narrows as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is consistent across every preset, but the magnitude varies. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 143 at 1920x1080 to 114.9 at 2560x1440, then to 84 at 3840x2160. That is a reduction of 59 FPS from 1080p to 4K. At Medium, the drop is from 114.1 to 89.2 to 62.4, a total loss of 51.7 FPS. High settings go from 83.4 to 64.9 to 49.8, losing 33.6 FPS. Ultra starts at 76.6, drops to 62.7 at 1440p, and ends at 47.9 at 4K, a 28.7 FPS reduction.

The pattern is clear: the higher the preset, the smaller the absolute FPS loss when moving to 4K. This suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is already heavily loaded at 1080p, so the additional pixel count has less headroom to consume. Conversely, at Low, the system has ample performance at 1080p, and the 4K resolution exposes the GPU's limits. The 4K Ultra result of 47.9 FPS is only 1.9 FPS below the 4K High result of 49.8, indicating that the Ultra preset is not significantly more demanding than High at this resolution. The limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU, as the FPS scales almost linearly with resolution while the CPU workload remains relatively constant.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 693rd out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in the upper-middle portion of the field, but not near the top. The CPU alone sits at the 78th percentile among all tested CPUs, and the GPU at the 74th percentile, yet the combo rank is lower than either individual percentile. This suggests that the game's demands on both components are high, and the pairing does not boost either part to its full potential.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 20740 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-10700, which scores 20746 with a deltaPct of 0. It is also within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, which scores 20680. The GPU's average benchmark score of 30849 is 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, which scores 30755, and 0.8% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6700, which scores 31112. These close margins indicate that the combo's performance is typical for its component tier, but the game's specific workload prevents it from punching above its weight.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s. Its base clock is 1575 MHz, boosting to 1770 MHz, and the memory runs at 1188 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's 6144 shading units, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s. These specifications are well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a potential constraint at 4K, especially with higher presets.

The measured FPS data supports this. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 47.9, which is below the 60 FPS threshold often considered smooth for flight simulation. The 4K High result of 49.8 is only slightly better, and even 4K Medium reaches just 62.4 FPS. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s is ample for the game's data streaming, but the 8 GB capacity may force texture swapping at 4K with Ultra settings. The close results between High and Ultra at 4K (49.8 vs 47.9) suggest that the GPU is hitting a performance ceiling rather than a memory limit, as the difference is minimal.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full set of measured FPS values is as follows:

• 1920x1080: Low 143, Medium 114.1, High 83.4, Ultra 76.6
• 2560x1440: Low 114.9, Medium 89.2, High 64.9, Ultra 62.7
• 3840x2160: Low 84, Medium 62.4, High 49.8, Ultra 47.9

At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 143 FPS, which is more than double the Ultra result of 76.6. The Medium preset at 114.1 FPS is still well above 60, and High at 83.4 FPS is playable. At 1440p, Low remains high at 114.9 FPS, but Medium drops to 89.2, High to 64.9, and Ultra to 62.7. The 1440p Ultra result is just above the 60 FPS mark, making it a viable option for users with 1440p displays. At 4K, only Low (84 FPS) and Medium (62.4 FPS) exceed 60 FPS; High and Ultra fall below, at 49.8 and 47.9 respectively.

The data shows a clear hierarchy: each preset step reduces FPS by a consistent margin at a given resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Medium is 28.9 FPS, between Medium and High is 30.7 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 6.8 FPS. At 1440p, the gaps are 25.7, 24.3, and 2.2 FPS. At 4K, the gaps are 21.6, 12.6, and 1.9 FPS. The shrinking gap between High and Ultra as resolution increases indicates that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck, and the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns at higher pixel counts.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p users, the High preset at 83.4 FPS provides a good balance of visual quality and smoothness, while Ultra at 76.6 FPS is still playable. The Medium preset at 114.1 FPS is a strong choice for those prioritizing frame rate, and Low at 143 FPS is ideal for competitive or high-refresh-rate play. At 1440p, Medium at 89.2 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it stays well above 60 FPS while offering better visuals than Low. High at 64.9 FPS is acceptable, but Ultra at 62.7 FPS is borderline; users with 144Hz displays may prefer Medium.

For 4K, the situation is more constrained. Low at 84 FPS is the only preset that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Medium at 62.4 FPS is just above the threshold. High and Ultra, at 49.8 and 47.9 FPS, are not recommended for smooth gameplay, though they may be acceptable for slower, scenic flights. The data suggests that Medium is the highest preset that maintains a playable frame rate at 4K, and users seeking higher visual fidelity should consider lowering resolution or accepting sub-60 FPS performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. It has 16 MB of L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong for its class: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 17272, and single-core reaches 2438. Geekbench multicore is 7986, and single-core is 2035. These results place the CPU at the 78th percentile among all tested CPUs.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is significant at lower resolutions, where the GPU is not fully saturated. At 1080p Low, the 143 FPS result indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU effectively, but the drop to 76.6 FPS at Ultra suggests that the game's simulation and physics load increases with settings. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core at 2438, is likely the key factor, as flight simulators often rely on a few heavily loaded threads. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration provides enough parallelism for the game's background tasks, but the single-thread score is what drives the frame rate in CPU-bound scenarios.

At 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The FPS differences between presets at 4K are smaller than at 1080p, indicating that the CPU is no longer the bottleneck. The CPU's average benchmark score of 20740 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-10700, and within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, confirming that it performs as expected for its tier. The data shows that the Ryzen 5 5600GT is a capable partner for the RTX 3070 Ti, providing enough processing power to avoid holding back the GPU at 1080p and 1440p, while at 4K the GPU takes over as the primary constraint.