Microsoft Flight Simulator

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and AMD Radeon RX 580 reveal a clear hierarchy of playable presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 53.2 FPS average, which is the only setting at any resolution that approaches a smooth 60 FPS target. Medium at 1080p drops to 42.5 FPS, High to 34.2 FPS, and Ultra to 30.6 FPS. The data indicates that for users prioritizing fluid interaction with the flight model and camera controls, the Low preset at 1080p is the only defensible choice.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. Low yields 43.5 FPS, Medium 33.6 FPS, High 27.3 FPS, and Ultra 22.3 FPS. None of these reach the 60 FPS threshold, but Low at 1440p remains playable for less twitchy flight phases. At 3840x2160, the results are stark: Low produces 32.6 FPS, Medium 22.9 FPS, High 17 FPS, and Ultra 18.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is actually slightly ahead of High at 4K (18.8 vs 17.0 FPS), which suggests a non-linear scaling of certain ultra effects that may not be uniformly costly.

The best experience per the measured rows is clearly the Low preset at 1920x1080. It offers a 24% improvement over Medium at the same resolution (53.2 vs 42.5 FPS) and a 55% improvement over Ultra (53.2 vs 30.6 FPS). For users who cannot tolerate the visual compromises of Low, Medium at 1080p at 42.5 FPS is the next viable step, though the margin to High (34.2 FPS) is substantial. The data implies that this GPU-CPU combination is severely limited at higher resolutions, and no preset at 1440p or above delivers a comfortable frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is built on the GCN 4.0 architecture with the Polaris 20 chip, fabricated on a 14 nm process. Its memory configuration is 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 2000 MHz with 8 Gbps effective speed. Base clock is 1257 MHz, boosting to 1340 MHz. The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units, delivering a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 6.175 TFLOPS.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role is disproportionately heavy at higher resolutions. The measured FPS collapse from 1080p to 4K mirrors the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth constraints. At 1080p Low, the RX 580 achieves 53.2 FPS, but at 4K Low it falls to 32.6 FPS. The GPU's 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs (percentileVsAllGpus) places it in the middle of the pack, but the game's demands at 4K exceed what the 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 6.175 TFLOPS can sustain. The fact that Ultra at 4K (18.8 FPS) slightly exceeds High at 4K (17.0 FPS) is curious; it may indicate that certain Ultra settings shift load away from the most bandwidth-intensive paths, but the data does not specify which settings those are.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (0% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (0.1% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (1.1% delta), and the NVIDIA P106-090 (-1.1% delta). These comparisons reinforce that the RX 580 sits in a performance tier that is not designed for 4K gaming in a simulation title of this complexity.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 53.2 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: Is the RX 580 capable of 4K gaming in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only reaches 32.6 FPS, while High, Medium, and Ultra all fall below 23 FPS (17.0, 22.9, and 18.8 FPS respectively).

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500F has an average benchmark score of 24993, which is 0.1% above the Intel Core i7-11850H (24974), 0.4% above the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (24897), and 0.3% below both the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (25057) and the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (25064).

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low?

A: The average FPS drops from 53.2 at 1080p Low to 43.5 at 1440p Low, a reduction of approximately 18%.

Q: Does the GPU's benchmark percentile predict its in-game performance?

A: The GPU sits at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13559. The in-game data shows that it cannot maintain 60 FPS at any resolution, suggesting the game is more demanding than the GPU's percentile ranking implies.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1657 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low 53.2, Medium 42.5, High 34.2, and Ultra 30.6. The progression from Low to Medium is a 20% drop, from Medium to High a 20% drop, and from High to Ultra a 11% drop. The diminishing penalty from High to Ultra suggests that Ultra settings add less marginal load than the step from Medium to High.

At 2560x1440, the values are: Low 43.5, Medium 33.6, High 27.3, and Ultra 22.3. The Low to Medium drop is 23%, Medium to High is 19%, and High to Ultra is 18%. The penalty structure is more uniform at 1440p, with each preset tier costing roughly a fifth of the previous frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the values are: Low 32.6, Medium 22.9, High 17.0, and Ultra 18.8. The Low to Medium drop is 30%, Medium to High is 26%, and High to Ultra is actually an increase of 11%. This inversion is the most notable anomaly in the dataset, as it breaks the monotonic decreasing pattern seen at lower resolutions.

Comparing across resolutions at the same setting, Low goes from 53.2 at 1080p to 43.5 at 1440p to 32.6 at 4K. Medium goes from 42.5 to 33.6 to 22.9. High goes from 34.2 to 27.3 to 17.0. Ultra goes from 30.6 to 22.3 to 18.8. The Ultra setting at 4K is the only case where the 4K value does not represent the largest drop from the 1440p value.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1657 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations. This is a remarkably low position for a CPU that ranks at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs (percentileVsAllCpus). The disconnect between the CPU's strong benchmark standing and the combo's poor in-game rank highlights the GPU as the primary bottleneck.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 24993, with a 3dmark_max_threads score of 6379 and a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 22799. These are respectable numbers, yet the combo still lands near the bottom of the heap. The GPU's average benchmark score of 13559 and its 53rd percentile ranking are more aligned with the combo's poor in-game position.

The rank of 1657 out of 1795 suggests that most other tested combos, even those with weaker CPUs, outperform this pairing in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is consistent with the game's reputation for heavy GPU load at high resolutions, but the data shows that even at 1080p Low, the combo cannot reach 60 FPS, indicating a fundamental performance ceiling.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on the Zen 4 architecture with the Raphael codename. It uses a 5 nm process from TSMC, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and 83.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The CPU's TDP is 65 W.

In benchmark tests, the CPU scores 974 in 3dmark_single_thread, 6376 in 3dmark_16_threads, and 22799 in cinebench_r23_multicore. Its geekbench_singlecore score is 2759 and geekbench_multicore is 12686. These scores place it at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24993.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The combo rank of 1657 out of 1795 is far below what the CPU's percentile would suggest. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (53.2 FPS) is the highest achieved, but this is still below 60 FPS. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar FPS across different resolutions at the same settings, but the data shows significant drops from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (974 in 3dmark_single_thread) is not enough to overcome the GPU's limitations in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the limiting component clearly. At Low settings, FPS drops from 53.2 at 1080p to 43.5 at 1440p (an 18% decrease) and then to 32.6 at 4K (a 25% decrease from 1440p). At Medium settings, the drop is from 42.5 to 33.6 (21%) and then to 22.9 (32%). At High settings, from 34.2 to 27.3 (20%) and then to 17.0 (38%). At Ultra settings, from 30.6 to 22.3 (27%) and then to 18.8 (16%).

The pattern shows that the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K increases with higher settings for Low, Medium, and High, but decreases for Ultra. This is counterintuitive: one would expect the most demanding preset to suffer the largest drop at 4K. The Ultra inversion (High to Ultra at 4K is an increase) suggests that the Ultra preset may disable or simplify certain effects that are disproportionately costly at high resolutions, or that the GPU's memory bandwidth becomes the binding constraint in a way that favors Ultra's specific settings.

The overall scaling indicates a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions. The measured FPS halving from 1080p Low to 4K Low (53.2 to 32.6) and the near-halving from 1080p High to 4K High (34.2 to 17.0) are classic signs of a GPU that cannot fill the pixel pipeline at higher resolutions. The RX 580's 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 42.88 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient for 4K in this simulation. The CPU's 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is not the constraint, as the CPU-centric benchmarks show it performing well above average.