Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X pairing with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a balanced profile for Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the CPU’s six cores and twelve threads operating at a 3.70 GHz base clock and a 4.60 GHz boost clock. This Zen 3 architecture processor, built on a 7 nm process, is positioned in the 78th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20680. This places it narrowly behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT and Intel Core i7-10700 by 0.3% in average score, while edging out the Intel Xeon 6325P by 0.7%. The GPU, meanwhile, sits in the 84th percentile against all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 42576, trailing the NVIDIA RTX A6000 by 0.2% and the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE by 0.3%, while leading the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4%. The core relationship here is that the 5600X provides solid single-thread performance—critical for flight simulator physics and scenery loading—while the RTX 4070 SUPER handles the substantial rasterization load, with its 7168 shading units and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Ryzen 5 5600X contributes to this combo’s performance through its six physical cores and twelve threads, a configuration that allows for simultaneous processing of flight dynamics, weather simulation, and background system tasks. The CPU’s single-thread capability is reflected in benchmark scores such as 917 in 3dmark_single_thread and 2622 in cinebench_r23_singlecore, which are essential for the game’s primary game-thread logic. The boost clock of 4.60 GHz ensures that this single-threaded workload can be executed at high frequency, reducing the likelihood of CPU-side bottlenecks in scenarios with dense terrain or complex aircraft systems. The CPU’s 32 MB of L3 cache provides a substantial buffer for frequently accessed game assets, mitigating latency when the simulation streams in new geographic data.

In contrast, the multi-threaded scores, such as 18578 in cinebench_r23_multicore and 21858 in passmark_multithread, demonstrate that the processor can handle auxiliary threads for AI traffic, sound propagation, and physics calculations without starving the main simulation loop. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 5582 and 3dmark_max_threads score of 5588 are nearly identical, suggesting that the twelve-thread configuration is efficiently utilized, with diminishing returns beyond that point. For Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known to scale with both single-core speed and additional cores for background tasks, this CPU provides a sufficient foundation, but the measured frame rates indicate that the GPU often becomes the primary performance arbiter at higher resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Ryzen 5 5600X and RTX 4070 SUPER achieves a rank of 294 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 16.4% of all configurations examined. This ranking reflects the aggregate performance across the measured FPS data, which includes settings from Low to Ultra and resolutions from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. The position within the top 300 of nearly 1800 combos suggests that this pairing is well above the median, but it is not among the absolute elite configurations, which would likely feature higher-core-count CPUs or more powerful GPUs.

The rank relative to the CPU’s overall percentile (78th) and GPU’s percentile (84th) indicates a synergistic pairing where both components contribute to the final score without one severely bottlenecking the other. If the CPU were a stronger limiting factor, the combo rank would likely be lower relative to the GPU’s high percentile. Conversely, if the GPU were the clear constraint, the rank might be higher given the CPU’s mid-tier standing. The data suggests a balanced system, with the combo rank improving upon the CPU’s individual percentile, implying that the RTX 4070 SUPER boosts the overall experience beyond what the processor alone would suggest.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frame rates reveal a pronounced scaling pattern across resolutions, which clarifies the balance between CPU and GPU load. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 180.8 FPS, which drops to 144.8 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 106.6 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 41.0% decrease in FPS from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical load, the GPU is still being stressed by the increased pixel count. In contrast, at Ultra settings, the frame rate falls from 100.1 FPS at 1080p to 83.2 FPS at 1440p and finally to 58.7 FPS at 4K, a 41.4% drop across the same resolution range.

The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and Ultra settings suggests that the GPU is the primary scaling factor as resolution increases. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively flat when increasing resolution, as the CPU’s workload is largely resolution-independent. The fact that FPS decreases proportionally with pixel count indicates that the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are being fully utilized, while the Ryzen 5 5600X’s thread scheduling is sufficient to keep feeding the GPU at lower resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the 58.7 FPS result shows that the GPU is nearing its limit, but the CPU is not falling behind, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from 1080p to 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a wide performance envelope: Low settings produce 180.8 FPS, Medium settings yield 145 FPS, High settings achieve 106.9 FPS, and Ultra settings reach 100.1 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 35.8 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 38.1 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is only 6.8 FPS. This pattern suggests that the High to Ultra transition imposes a relatively small additional cost, possibly due to the game’s rendering pipeline becoming more compute-bound rather than memory-bound at these settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates are: Low at 144.8 FPS, Medium at 113.3 FPS, High at 84.7 FPS, and Ultra at 83.2 FPS. The relative scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 19.9% reduction at Low, a 21.9% reduction at Medium, a 20.8% reduction at High, and a 16.9% reduction at Ultra. The Ultra setting exhibits the smallest percentage drop, indicating that the additional resolution is less punishing when the GPU is already heavily loaded by the highest graphical effects. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 106.6 FPS, Medium at 85.4 FPS, High at 62.9 FPS, and Ultra at 58.7 FPS. The transition from High to Ultra at 4K results in only a 4.2 FPS difference, which is negligible and suggests that the GPU’s shading units are saturated at this point, with the 80 ROPs handling the final output without further degradation. The 21 Gbps effective memory speed on the 12 GB GDDR6X buffer appears sufficient to prevent stuttering, as the minimum FPS data is not provided, but the average figures remain playable across all settings at 4K, with even Ultra staying above 58 FPS.

FAQ

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600X compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The 5600X has an average benchmark score of 20680, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT’s 20740 and 0.3% lower than the Intel Core i7-10700’s 20746. It is also 0.5% lower than the Intel Core i5-12490F’s 20794, but 0.7% higher than the Intel Xeon 6325P’s 20538.

Q: What is the best frame rate this combo can achieve in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 180.8 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 2560x1440 Low, it drops to 144.8 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it is 106.6 FPS, showing a clear resolution-dependent trend.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER’s performance closer to which rival GPU?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER’s average benchmark score is 42576, which is 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000’s 42653 and 0.3% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE’s 42723. It is 1.4% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580X’s 41991 and 1.6% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla M40’s 41897.

Q: At which resolution does the combo see the most significant FPS drop?

A: The largest absolute drop occurs when moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings, where FPS decreases by 36.0 FPS (from 180.8 to 144.8). The largest percentage drop is also at Low settings, with a 41.0% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: How does the CPU’s single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance in the context of this game?

A: The CPU scores 2622 in cinebench_r23_singlecore and 18578 in cinebench_r23_multicore, indicating a strong single-thread capability that is crucial for the game’s main loop. The multi-thread score is 7.1 times higher, showing ample headroom for background tasks, but the measured FPS scaling with resolution points to the GPU as the primary limiter in most scenarios.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations, and what does that imply?

A: This combo ranks 294 out of 1795 tested combos, placing it in the top 16.4% of all configurations. This suggests it is a high-performing pairing, though not top-tier, with the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 84th percentile GPU score likely doing more heavy lifting than the 78th percentile CPU.