Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a playable but not exceptional experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, landing in the 58th percentile of all tested combinations. The pairing ranks 2138 out of 3714 combos, indicating a mid-pack position where the GPU is the primary constraint. This analysis breaks down the measured performance data to show where the combo excels, where it struggles, and which settings provide the optimal balance for this demanding flight simulator.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a system heavily limited by the GPU at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 111 FPS at 1920x1080 to 89 FPS at 2560x1440, a 20% reduction, and then further to 66 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 41% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases, with the GPU becoming the clear bottleneck.

The Ultra settings curve tells a similar story but with lower absolute numbers. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 62 FPS, dropping to 50 FPS at 1440p and 37 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling—at just 37 FPS, the experience falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most flight sim enthusiasts consider smooth. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 29 FPS (66 vs 37), which is substantial but narrower than the 49 FPS gap seen at 1080p (111 vs 62). This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU has headroom that cannot be utilized when the graphics card is fully occupied.

The Medium settings row provides the only complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the average is 86 FPS with a minimum of 73 and maximum of 99 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 70 FPS with a 59-80 FPS range. At 4K Medium, the average is 51 FPS with a 44-59 FPS range. The minimum frame rates show that even at Medium settings, the 4K experience can dip below 45 FPS, which is noticeable in a game where smooth panning over terrain is critical. The 1080p Medium minimum of 73 FPS demonstrates that this resolution is where the combo maintains consistent performance, while 1440p Medium remains viable with its 59 FPS floor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured results. With 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, the Turing-based TU104 chip provides solid raw compute for a 2019-era card. The boost clock of 1770 MHz and base clock of 1605 MHz are modest by modern standards, but the 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is sufficient to drive the game at playable frame rates in most scenarios.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which becomes the critical constraint at 4K resolution. Microsoft Flight Simulator’s streaming-based world rendering places heavy demands on memory bandwidth, and the data shows this clearly. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 37 suggests that the card is running out of memory bandwidth or capacity, causing stalls that prevent higher frame rates. The 4K High result of 39 FPS, only 2 FPS above Ultra, indicates that the GPU is already near its ceiling regardless of minor setting adjustments.

The card’s 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but largely unused in this title, as Microsoft Flight Simulator’s rendering pipeline does not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS-based features in the measured configurations. The 12 nm process node and 215 W TDP place the card in a power class that requires a 550 W suggested PSU, and the dual-slot design with dual power connectors reflects its performance tier. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651 and PassMark G3D score of 18169 place the GPU in the 65th percentile of all graphics cards, which aligns with the mid-pack gaming performance observed in the flight simulator.

Settings Recommendations

The data clearly indicates that Medium settings provide the best balance of visual quality and playable frame rates across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 86 FPS average with a 73 FPS minimum, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS target for smooth flight simulation. The 1440p Medium result of 70 FPS average with a 59 FPS minimum is the most playable option at that resolution, offering a good compromise between detail and performance.

Ultra settings are only recommended for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate and are willing to accept sub-60 FPS performance. At 1080p Ultra, the 62 FPS average is technically playable but leaves little headroom for complex scenes with dense clouds or detailed airports. At 1440p Ultra, the 50 FPS average is borderline, and at 4K Ultra the 37 FPS result is too choppy for a satisfying experience.

Low settings are not recommended for this pairing, as even at 4K the 66 FPS average does not justify the significant visual downgrade. The 1080p Low result of 111 FPS is impressive but unnecessary, as the Medium preset at 1080p delivers 86 FPS with much better visual quality. For users with 1440p monitors, the Medium preset is the clear choice, while 4K users should stick with Medium or consider lowering resolution to 1440p for a more consistent experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance across all settings. Low settings produce 111 FPS average, Medium produces 86 FPS with a 73-99 FPS range, High produces 65 FPS, and Ultra produces 62 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium costs 25 FPS but provides a substantial visual improvement, while the step from Medium to High costs 21 FPS with less noticeable gains. The gap between High and Ultra is just 3 FPS, suggesting that the High preset is nearly as demanding as Ultra but with fewer visual benefits.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably but remains playable at most settings. Low settings yield 89 FPS, Medium yields 70 FPS with a 59-80 FPS range, High yields 52 FPS, and Ultra yields 50 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the sweet spot, offering a 59 FPS minimum that stays above the 60 FPS threshold in most scenes. High and Ultra are nearly identical at 52 and 50 FPS respectively, indicating that the GPU is hitting a hard performance wall at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings produce 66 FPS, Medium produces 51 FPS with a 44-59 FPS range, High produces 39 FPS, and Ultra produces 37 FPS. The 4K Medium results show a 44 FPS minimum, which will be noticeable during fast maneuvers or when flying over dense urban areas. The 4K Low preset at 66 FPS is the only configuration that keeps the experience smooth, but it sacrifices significant visual detail. The 4K High and Ultra results are nearly indistinguishable at 39 and 37 FPS, confirming that the GPU has reached its absolute limit at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 2138 out of 3714 tested combinations places it in the 58th percentile of all systems tested in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This mid-pack positioning means that while the Ryzen 5 7500F and RTX 2070 SUPER are competent components, they are not optimized for this specific game’s demanding requirements. The rank reflects the GPU’s 65th percentile standing among all graphics cards, suggesting that the pairing is slightly below the median performance for this title.

The CPU’s percentile of 77 across all processors is significantly higher than the GPU’s 65th percentile, indicating that the processor is the stronger component in this pairing. The Ryzen 5 7500F’s average benchmark score of 24964 places it slightly above its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13620H, which scores 24911 with a 0.2% delta. The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is marginally faster at 25005 with a -0.2% delta, while the Intel Core i7-11850H trails at 24935 with a 0.1% delta. These rival comparisons show that the CPU is competitive with current mid-range options, but the GPU holds the pairing back.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 20282 places it slightly below the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M at 20480 with a -1% delta, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534 with a -1.2% delta. The Intel Arc B570 at 20556 and Intel Arc A750 at 20582 are both marginally faster in synthetic benchmarks, representing a -1.3% and -1.5% delta respectively. These close margins indicate that the RTX 2070 SUPER is at the bottom of its performance class, and the flight simulator results reflect this positioning.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F provides 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture, manufactured on TSMC’s 5 nm process. With a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz, the processor delivers strong single-threaded performance that is essential for Microsoft Flight Simulator’s simulation logic. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, while the 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth over DDR5 dual-channel support ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without bottlenecking.

The CPU’s benchmark results show excellent multi-threaded capabilities, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22799 and a single-core score of 3218. The Geekbench multi-core score of 12362 and single-core score of 2374 further confirm the processor’s strength. The 3DMark max threads score of 6379 and 16-thread score of 6376 indicate that the CPU scales well across all available threads, which is important for the flight simulator’s complex physics and AI calculations.

In the measured game results, the CPU’s role is evident in the frame rate consistency across different resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 111 FPS average shows the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU is not the limiting factor. However, at 4K Ultra, the 37 FPS result is entirely GPU-bound, as the CPU has ample headroom that cannot be utilized. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all processors suggests that it is not a bottleneck in this pairing, and the performance ceiling is determined by the RTX 2070 SUPER’s capabilities. Users considering this combo should focus on GPU upgrades to improve flight simulator performance, as the Ryzen 5 7500F provides sufficient processing power for the foreseeable future.