Microsoft Flight Simulator

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 sits at rank 578 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the combination in the 68th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning roughly a third of all recorded combos deliver higher frame rates in this specific title. The ranking reflects a pairing of a mid-generation Zen 3 processor with a current-generation RDNA 4.0 graphics card, and the data shows the GPU is doing most of the heavy lifting in this flight simulator.

The CPU itself, the Ryzen 5 5600X, holds a percentile of 78 against all CPUs in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score of 20680 places it in close contention with several rivals: the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT scores 20740 (a 0.3% difference), the Intel Core i7-10700 scores 20746 (also 0.3% higher), and the Intel Core i5-12490F scores 20794 (0.5% higher). The Intel Xeon 6325P trails slightly at 20538, which is 0.7% lower than the 5600X. These sub-1% deltas indicate that the 5600X is essentially performance-equivalent to its closest competitors in synthetic workloads, and none of these alternatives would meaningfully shift the combo ranking in this game.

On the graphics side, the RX 9070 achieves a percentile of 79 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34780. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA A2 at 34866 (0.2% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 at 34677 (0.3% lower), the AMD Radeon HD 7970 at 34541 (0.7% lower), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 at 34511 (0.8% lower). The RX 9070 sits in a tight cluster where the spread between these five GPUs is under one percentage point, indicating that synthetic benchmarks place this card in a well-populated performance tier. For Microsoft Flight Simulator specifically, the combination's middle-third ranking suggests that while the hardware is capable, it does not reach the top echelons of performance that other, more powerful combinations achieve in this simulation-heavy title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. This large frame buffer is directly relevant to Microsoft Flight Simulator, a title that streams vast amounts of terrain and scenery data. The memory clock runs at 2518 MHz, which translates to 20.1 Gbps effective, and the card's base clock is 1330 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a game clock of 2070 MHz. These clock speeds are the operating envelope within which the GPU delivers its measured frame rates.

The GPU's compute resources include 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 raster operation processors. The pixel rate is 322.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 564.5 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 36.13 TFLOPS. For a flight simulator that renders dense cockpit instrumentation, detailed terrain mesh, and dynamic weather, these figures indicate a card that can handle high geometric complexity without becoming the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. The 56 ray tracing cores are present, though Microsoft Flight Simulator's use of ray-traced effects is limited compared to more visually aggressive titles.

The 220 W TDP and dual-slot cooler design place the RX 9070 as a mainstream-to-performance segment card. Its PCIe 5.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for the 16 GB frame buffer, and the 2x 8-pin power connectors supply the necessary current. The benchmark data shows that in synthetic DirectX tests, the card scores 281 in Passmark DirectX 11 and 74 in Passmark DirectX 12, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290. These figures, combined with the 79th percentile GPU ranking, suggest that the RX 9070 is a balanced performer that scales appropriately with the simulation's demands.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal a clear pattern of GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions and CPU-bound behavior at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra settings spans from 154.7 FPS down to 83.7 FPS, a difference of 71 FPS. At 1440p, the range tightens to 125.2 FPS down to 68.8 FPS, a spread of 56.4 FPS. At 4K, the range narrows further to 90 FPS down to 52.2 FPS, a difference of 37.8 FPS. This progressive narrowing indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the limiting factor and the CPU's influence on frame rate diminishes.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a drop from 92.3 FPS to 52.3 FPS, a reduction of 43.3%. At Low settings, the drop is from 154.7 FPS to 90 FPS, a reduction of 41.8%. At Medium settings, the drop is from 122 FPS to 67.5 FPS, a reduction of 44.7%. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 83.7 FPS to 52.2 FPS, a reduction of 37.6%. These percentages indicate that the frame rate penalty for moving from 1080p to 4K is relatively consistent across settings, hovering around 40-45%, with Ultra showing the smallest relative drop.

This pattern suggests that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600X's six cores and twelve threads are capable of feeding the GPU adequately, but the frame rates still scale with settings, indicating that the GPU is not fully saturated. At 4K, the GPU's rendering load increases substantially, and the frame rates compress into a tighter band regardless of settings. The largest absolute difference between Low and Ultra at any resolution is at 1080p (71 FPS), while the smallest is at 4K (37.8 FPS), confirming that the simulation becomes increasingly GPU-limited as pixel count rises.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 154.7 FPS, Medium settings yield 122 FPS, High settings achieve 92.3 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 83.7 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 32.7 FPS, from Medium to High costs 29.7 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 8.6 FPS. The diminishing returns at the top end indicate that Ultra settings impose a modest additional load over High for this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decline across the board. Low settings average 125.2 FPS, Medium settings reach 99.4 FPS, High settings hit 72.3 FPS, and Ultra settings settle at 68.8 FPS. Compared to 1080p, the drops are 29.5 FPS for Low, 22.6 FPS for Medium, 20 FPS for High, and 14.9 FPS for Ultra. The absolute reduction is largest at Low settings, but the relative reduction at High and Ultra represents a more significant percentage loss for users seeking higher visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are the lowest of the three resolutions. Low settings average 90 FPS, Medium settings reach 67.5 FPS, High settings achieve 52.3 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 52.2 FPS. The near-identical results between High and Ultra at 4K (a 0.1 FPS difference) suggest that the GPU has reached a performance ceiling where the additional visual features of Ultra settings do not meaningfully impact the rendering workload at this resolution. The transition from 1440p to 4K costs 35.2 FPS at Low, 31.9 FPS at Medium, 20 FPS at High, and 16.6 FPS at Ultra. The data indicates that 4K Ultra is just barely playable at an average of 52.2 FPS, while 4K Low offers comfortable headroom at 90 FPS.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 578th out of 1795 tested combos, placing it in the 68th percentile of all configurations.

Q: What is the best frame rate this combination achieves at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combination achieves an average of 154.7 FPS. The highest visual quality setting, Ultra, still delivers an average of 83.7 FPS at this resolution.

Q: How does the RX 9070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 9070 scores 34780 on average, which is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA A2 (34866), 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (34677), 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (34541), and 0.8% higher than the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 (34511).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the frame rate difference between High (52.3 FPS) and Ultra (52.2 FPS) settings is negligible, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution regardless of settings.

Q: What memory configuration does the RX 9070 use?

A: The RX 9070 features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a memory clock of 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective) and a memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s.

Q: How close are the Ryzen 5 5600X's rivals in CPU performance?

A: The 5600X has an average benchmark score of 20680. Its nearest rivals are the Ryzen 5 5600GT at 20740 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core i7-10700 at 20746 (0.3% higher), the Intel Core i5-12490F at 20794 (0.5% higher), and the Intel Xeon 6325P at 20538 (0.7% lower).