Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 reveal a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 132.7 FPS, which drops to 107 FPS at 1440p and further to 79.1 FPS at 4K. That represents a 19.4% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 40.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K. These are substantial drops, indicating that the RTX 3070 is the primary limiter at higher resolutions.

The scaling pattern becomes more telling when examining the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the system renders 74.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p Ultra yields 61.1 FPS, and 4K Ultra drops to 41.4 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings is 32.9 FPS, or 44.3% lower. This is a steeper decline than what would be expected if the CPU were the bottleneck, since the Ryzen 5 7500F's strong single-thread performance—evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 974—should keep pace with the GPU's demands at lower resolutions.

The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 132.7 FPS, which is close to the practical ceiling for this CPU-GPU pairing in this title. The fact that 4K Low still delivers 79.1 FPS, which is higher than 1080p Ultra's 74.3 FPS, shows that the GPU's workload scales dramatically with settings quality. The RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for Low settings even at 4K, but the Ultra preset at 4K likely taxes the memory subsystem and compute resources heavily.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and it has 32 MB of shared L3 cache plus 1 MB of L2 cache per core. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for its complex physics and world-streaming calculations, the CPU's single-thread performance often matters more than raw core counts.

Benchmark results show the Ryzen 5 7500F achieves a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218 and a multi-core score of 22799. Its 3DMark single-thread score is 974, while the 16-thread score is 6376. These figures indicate a processor that excels in lightly threaded workloads, which aligns well with Flight Simulator's engine. The CPU's percentile ranking of 82 among all processors places it above the median, and its average benchmark score of 24993 puts it in a tight cluster with the Intel Core i7-11850H (deltaPct 0.1), AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct -0.3), and AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (deltaPct -0.3).

The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system hits 132.7 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower settings. However, the 6-core/12-thread configuration might explain why the scaling from 1080p to 4K isn't perfectly linear: if the CPU were the bottleneck, we'd expect similar FPS across resolutions at the same settings. Instead, the FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K at every preset, confirming the GPU is the limiting factor. For instance, at Medium settings, 1080p yields 103.5 FPS, 1440p yields 85.9 FPS, and 4K yields 59.1 FPS—a consistent decline that tracks with pixel count.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 77.4 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 41.4, while at 1080p Ultra it is 74.3. This represents a 44.3% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the highest preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. FPS drops consistently from 1080p to 4K across all settings, with the gap widening at Ultra preset (from 74.3 to 41.4 FPS). The Ryzen 5 7500F's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218) suggests it can keep up with the RTX 3070.

Q: What is the highest measured FPS in the dataset?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 132.7, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the 1440p Medium preset perform?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 85.9. This is 17.6 FPS lower than the 1080p Medium result of 103.5 FPS.

Q: What is the lowest measured FPS across all settings?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 41.4, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination ranks 834 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 53.5th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms slightly more than half of the combos in the database. Given that the RTX 3070 holds a 72nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and the Ryzen 5 7500F holds an 82nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, the combo's mid-pack ranking in this specific game suggests that Flight Simulator's demands are particularly stringent.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (deltaPct 0.9), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (deltaPct 1), AMD FirePro S7150 (deltaPct -0.6), and AMD Radeon R9 M295X (deltaPct -1.1). These small deltaPct values indicate the RTX 3070 sits in a tightly contested performance band. The CPU's nearest rivals—Intel Core i7-11850H (deltaPct 0.1), AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct -0.3), AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (deltaPct -0.3), and AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (deltaPct 0.4)—similarly show minimal separation.

The rank of 834 out of 1795 suggests that while this combo is capable of playable frame rates at most settings, it doesn't crack the upper echelon for this title. The 4K Ultra result of 41.4 FPS is below the generally accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, which likely drags the ranking down. However, the 1080p High result of 77.4 FPS and 1440p High result of 60.6 FPS show the combo handles mainstream resolutions well.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings yields the following average FPS: Low at 132.7, Medium at 103.5, High at 77.4, and Ultra at 74.3. The jump from Low to Medium costs 29.2 FPS (22% reduction), while High to Ultra only costs 3.1 FPS (4% reduction). This suggests that the High preset is close to the performance ceiling for this resolution, with diminishing returns beyond it.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 107, Medium at 85.9, High at 60.6, and Ultra at 61.1. Interestingly, the Ultra preset scores slightly higher than High (61.1 vs 60.6), which is within measurement variance but shows that the GPU is not the sole factor—the CPU's consistent performance keeps the gap minimal. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 25.7 FPS, while at Ultra the drop is 13.2 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 79.1, Medium at 59.1, High at 47.6, and Ultra at 41.4. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steep: Low drops by 27.9 FPS, Medium by 26.8 FPS, High by 13 FPS, and Ultra by 19.7 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 41.4 FPS is the only sub-60 FPS reading in the entire dataset across all non-Ultra presets, though 4K High at 47.6 FPS also falls below 60.

The data reveals that the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth handle 4K Low (79.1 FPS) comfortably but struggle with higher presets at that resolution. The 4K Medium result of 59.1 FPS is borderline playable, while High and Ultra dip below 50 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

For a balanced experience, the High preset at 1440p (60.6 FPS) or 1080p (77.4 FPS) offers the best combination of visual quality and smoothness. The 1080p High result is 3.1 FPS higher than 1080p Ultra, and the visual difference between High and Ultra is often subtle in Flight Simulator, which relies heavily on streaming terrain and aircraft models. The 1440p High result at 60.6 FPS is right at the 60 FPS target, making it a viable option for players with 1440p displays.

If prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1440p delivers 107 FPS, which is 29.2 FPS higher than the Medium preset at the same resolution. Even at 4K, Low settings produce 79.1 FPS, which is respectable but sacrifices too much visual detail for most users. The Medium preset at 1080p (103.5 FPS) is a strong middle ground, offering 26.1 FPS more than High at the same resolution while retaining moderate visual enhancements.

The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p, where it achieves 74.3 FPS—still above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Ultra (61.1 FPS) and 4K Ultra (41.4 FPS), the frame rate becomes marginal or suboptimal. For 4K users, the Medium preset (59.1 FPS) is the highest playable option, while High (47.6 FPS) and Ultra (41.4 FPS) should be avoided for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that this combo is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p with Medium or High settings, where it consistently stays above 60 FPS, with 1080p Medium (103.5 FPS) being the most fluid experience outside of Low presets.