Microsoft Flight Simulator

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER reveal a clear hierarchy across presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 112.8 FPS average, while Medium produces 87.6 FPS, High yields 65.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 63.5 FPS. The step from High to Ultra costs only 2.4 FPS at 1080p, making Ultra the sensible choice for users who prioritize visual fidelity without sacrificing meaningful performance at this resolution.

At 1440p, the spread narrows: Low hits 90.2 FPS, Medium reaches 67.5 FPS, High settles at 51.7 FPS, and Ultra lands at 50.4 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is a mere 1.3 FPS, which indicates that the Ultra preset's additional graphical load is nearly negligible at this resolution. For a flight simulator where terrain detail and cockpit readability matter, selecting Ultra at 1440p provides the best balance of image quality and smoothness, as the data shows the average FPS remains above the 50 FPS threshold.

At 4K, the picture changes dramatically. Low produces 63.3 FPS, Medium drops to 50.9 FPS, High falls to 40.4 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 38.0 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 2.4 FPS, but both sit in a range where motion smoothness may suffer during dense scenery. Given that Medium retains 50.9 FPS, it represents the most playable preset at 4K for this combination, as it stays above 50 FPS while offering substantially better detail than Low. The data suggests that users targeting 4K should prioritize Medium, while those at 1080p or 1440p can comfortably select Ultra without incurring a notable frame-time penalty.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz effective 14 Gbps and bandwidth rated at 448.0 GB/s. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, built on the Turing architecture with 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. Its 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores suggest hardware readiness for ray-traced effects, though Microsoft Flight Simulator's measured results do not isolate ray tracing performance.

The GPU's role becomes evident when comparing frame rates across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 112.8 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 63.3 FPS — a reduction that shows the pixel throughput demand scaling with resolution. The 8 GB frame buffer appears sufficient for the tested presets, as none of the measured rows exhibit catastrophic dips that would indicate memory capacity throttling. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for texture streaming, which is critical in a flight simulator that loads vast terrain and photogrammetry data.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 65 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22206, places it in the mid-upper tier. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A400, scores 22307 (0.5% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 5700 trails at 21670 (2.5% lower). These relative standings suggest that the RTX 2070 SUPER is competitive at its performance class, and the measured FPS in this game aligns with that positioning — capable of 60+ FPS at 1080p Medium and above, but increasingly challenged as resolution climbs.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals the scaling characteristics of this CPU-GPU pairing. At Low settings, average FPS drops from 112.8 at 1080p to 90.2 at 1440p (a 20.0% reduction) and then to 63.3 at 4K (a 29.8% reduction from 1440p). This pattern indicates that the GPU becomes the primary limiter as pixel count rises, but the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads still provide sufficient headroom at lower resolutions.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 87.6 FPS at 1080p, 67.5 at 1440p, and 50.9 at 4K. The percentage drops are 23.0% from 1080p to 1440p, and 24.6% from 1440p to 4K. High settings follow with 65.9, 51.7, and 40.4 FPS respectively, representing a 21.5% drop and then a 21.9% drop. Ultra settings produce 63.5, 50.4, and 38.0 FPS, with drops of 20.6% and 24.6%.

The consistency of these drops — roughly 20-30% per resolution step — suggests a balanced workload where neither the CPU nor GPU is catastrophically bottlenecked. However, the fact that 4K Ultra yields only 38.0 FPS, while 1080p Ultra maintains 63.5 FPS, indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER's raw throughput (9.062 TFLOPS FP32) cannot sustain high frame rates at 4K with maxed settings. The data shows that resolution scaling is roughly linear, with the GPU's 256-bit memory interface and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth being adequate for 1440p but strained at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: The Medium preset at 4K delivers 50.9 FPS average, which is the only preset above 50 FPS at that resolution. High and Ultra fall to 40.4 and 38.0 FPS respectively, making Medium the recommended choice for maintaining playable smoothness.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to High?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 2.4 FPS slower than High (63.5 vs 65.9). At 1440p, the difference is 1.3 FPS (50.4 vs 51.7). At 4K, it narrows to 2.4 FPS (38.0 vs 40.4). The cost is minimal, so Ultra is preferable when frame rates are acceptable.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600X, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, produces a 3dmark single-thread score of 917 and a cinebench R23 single-core score of 2622. The 1080p Low result of 112.8 FPS suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, but the diminishing returns from High to Ultra (only 2.4 FPS) indicate that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its closest rivals in this game?

A: The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A400, scores 22307 in average benchmark, which is 0.5% higher than the RTX 2070 SUPER's 22206. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 scores 21670, which is 2.5% lower. These differences are small, suggesting similar in-game performance tiers.

Q: Is 8 GB of VRAM sufficient for Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: Based on the measured data, none of the tested presets (Low through Ultra) at any resolution show catastrophic frame drops that would indicate VRAM exhaustion. The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears adequate for the tested configurations.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS for 1440p Ultra is 50.4. This is playable but below the 60 FPS threshold. For smoother performance, the High preset at 1440p yields 51.7 FPS, so the difference is negligible and Ultra is recommended.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture with a 7 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 32 MB of L3 cache. Its memory support includes dual-channel DDR4 with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5600X demonstrates strong single-thread performance with a cinebench R23 single-core score of 2622 and a 3dmark single-thread score of 917. Multi-threaded results are also robust: cinebench R23 multicore reaches 18578, and 3dmark max threads scores 5588. The CPU's percentile ranking of 78 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20680, places it above the median. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT, scores 20740 (0.3% higher), while the Intel Core i7-10700 scores 20746 (0.3% higher), indicating near-identical performance in aggregate benchmarks.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is evident in the scaling behavior. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is less taxed, the system achieves 112.8 FPS — a figure that suggests the CPU can drive high frame rates when pixel workload is low. As resolution increases to 4K, the FPS drops proportionally, which indicates that the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck rather than the CPU's compute capacity. The 5600X's 12 threads provide enough parallelism for the flight simulator's simulation and physics threads, while its single-thread strength (264 in cinebench R15 single-core) ensures that the main game logic thread is not starved.

The measured data shows that the CPU-GPU combination scales predictably: the 5600X does not appear to limit the RTX 2070 SUPER at any tested resolution, as the FPS drops align with GPU workload increases. The CPU's 4.60 GHz boost clock and 32 MB L3 cache contribute to this balance, ensuring that the GPU receives a steady stream of draw calls and terrain data. For users considering this pairing, the data indicates that the 5600X provides sufficient headroom for the RTX 2070 SUPER in this title, with the GPU being the primary determinant of frame rate at higher resolutions and presets.