Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator with AMD Ryzen 5 7500F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

This combination of the six-core AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a consistently fluid Microsoft Flight Simulator experience across all tested resolutions, with average frame rates ranging from 70 FPS at 4K Ultra to 202 FPS at 1080p Low. The benchmark data indicates this pairing sits in the 93rd percentile of all 3,714 tested combos for this game, ranking 262nd overall, which places it firmly in the upper tier of systems capable of handling the simulator's demanding rendering workload.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates suggest that the Ultra preset is the most demanding configuration tested, yielding 117 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K. These figures remain playable, but the 4K Ultra result dips into a range where some users might prefer higher headroom. The High preset offers a more balanced experience: 123 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K. The performance delta between High and Ultra is remarkably small — only 6 FPS at 1080p, 4 FPS at 1440p, and 3 FPS at 4K — which suggests that the Ultra preset's additional visual effects are not particularly costly for this hardware combination.

Given the marginal difference between High and Ultra, the data supports using Ultra for most users, as the frame rate penalty is minimal while the visual fidelity gains are typically noticeable in a flight simulator's cockpit and terrain rendering. However, for 4K displays, the High preset provides nearly identical average performance (73 vs 70 FPS) and may be preferable for maintaining a more consistent experience. The Medium preset sits between the extremes: 164 FPS at 1080p, 132 FPS at 1440p, and 97 FPS at 4K. This configuration offers a substantial performance boost over High and Ultra — roughly 33% faster at 4K compared to High — making it an excellent choice for users who prioritize frame rate stability over maximum graphical detail.

The Low preset delivers exceptional performance at all resolutions: 202 FPS at 1080p, 170 FPS at 1440p, and 125 FPS at 4K. These numbers indicate that even at 4K, the combination can exceed 120 FPS when settings are reduced, which is relevant for high-refresh-rate displays. For the best overall experience, the data suggests Ultra at 1080p or 1440p for visual quality, Medium at 4K for a balance of quality and speed, and High as a safe middle-ground choice that loses only a few frames compared to Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with Ultra settings is 95 FPS, which is slightly below the 99 FPS achieved at High settings but still well above the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth for flight simulation.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score is 54,247, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER's 54,209 score. The nearest rival by delta percentage is the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X at 54,828, which outperforms the RTX 4080 by 1.1%.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all tested processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F ranks in the 77th percentile of all CPUs based on its average benchmark score of 24,964. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i7-11850H, scores 24,935 — a 0.1% difference.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 support DirectX 12 Ultimate?

A: Yes, the GPU's API support includes DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), along with OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. This ensures compatibility with modern rendering features used in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Q: What is the difference between 1080p and 4K performance at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 164 at 1920x1080 to 97 at 3840x2160, representing a 67 FPS reduction (approximately 41% lower performance). This indicates a significant resolution scaling cost.

Q: How many frames per second does the system achieve at 4K Low?

A: At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average FPS is 125, which demonstrates that even at 4K resolution, the combination can maintain high frame rates when graphical fidelity is reduced.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals how frame rates scale with resolution across all four settings presets. At Low settings, the progression from 1080p to 1440p to 4K yields 202, 170, and 125 FPS respectively. This represents a 32 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p (a 15.8% reduction) and a 45 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K (a 26.5% reduction). The scaling pattern suggests that the GPU remains the limiting factor even at Low settings, as frame rates continue to decline with increasing pixel counts.

At Medium settings, the numbers shift to 164 FPS at 1080p, 132 FPS at 1440p, and 97 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 32 FPS (19.5%), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 35 FPS (26.5%). The proportionally similar reductions across settings indicate that the rendering workload scales consistently with resolution, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. The min/max data for Medium settings shows a tighter range at 1080p (139-188 FPS) compared to 1440p (112-152 FPS) and 4K (83-112 FPS), suggesting that frame time consistency improves as resolution decreases.

High settings show 123 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 24 FPS (19.5%), and the 1440p to 4K drop is 26 FPS (26.3%). Ultra settings follow a similar pattern: 117 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K, with drops of 22 FPS (18.8%) and 25 FPS (26.3%) respectively. The consistency of these percentage reductions across all settings strongly indicates that the RTX 4080's rendering throughput, rather than the CPU, is the primary determinant of performance at all tested resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 262nd out of 3,714 tested configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the top 7% of all tested combos. This high percentile position — the 93rd percentile — reflects the strength of both components working together. The RTX 4080's synthetic benchmark percentile is 86, meaning it outperforms 86% of all GPUs in the database, while the Ryzen 5 7500F sits at the 77th percentile. When paired, these components achieve a game-specific ranking that exceeds what either component's individual percentile might suggest, indicating that Microsoft Flight Simulator's workload is well-suited to this combination.

The rank of 262 out of 3,714 means there are 261 tested combos that perform better in this specific game. Given that the RTX 4080's nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster, the ranking difference between these two GPUs in actual gameplay is likely minimal. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, which scores 1.1% higher in synthetic tests, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, which scores 2.6% higher, are the other nearby competitors, though their real-world game performance may vary from these synthetic results.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F provides six cores and twelve threads, built on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture using a 5 nm process from 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 alongside 1 MB of L2 cache per core and 64 KB of L1 cache per core. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score is 974, and its multi-thread score peaks at 6,379, which indicates solid single-thread performance that is often critical for flight simulators that rely heavily on simulation logic.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores are 3,218 for single-core and 22,799 for multi-core, demonstrating strong per-core capabilities. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the benchmark data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at any tested resolution. Evidence for this comes from the fact that frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution changes — from 202 FPS at 1080p Low to 125 FPS at 4K Low — which is the expected behavior when the GPU is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the constraint, the frame rates would plateau at higher resolutions rather than continuing to decline.

The Ryzen 5 7500F's single-thread performance, reflected in its 3DMark single-thread score of 974 and Geekbench single-core score of 2,374, is sufficient to feed the RTX 4080 even at 1080p Low where the GPU is producing 202 FPS. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11850H (0.1% higher average score), the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (0.2% lower), and the Intel Core i7-13620H (0.2% higher), all of which are within a fraction of a percent in synthetic performance. This indicates that the 7500F is competitive with a range of mid-range and higher-end processors, and its six cores with twelve threads provide adequate parallelism for the game's multithreaded rendering and physics tasks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: 202 at Low, 164 at Medium (with a range of 139-188), 123 at High, and 117 at Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 42% reduction in average FPS, but even at the most demanding settings, the system maintains 117 FPS, which is well above typical display refresh rates. The Medium preset's min/max range of 139-188 FPS indicates that frame times are reasonably consistent, with the 49 FPS spread representing the natural variability in flight simulation scenes.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: 170 at Low, 132 at Medium (with a range of 112-152), 99 at High, and 95 at Ultra. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p ranges from 15.8% at Low to 18.8% at Ultra, showing that the resolution increase costs roughly 16-19% performance across all settings. The Medium preset's min/max range narrows to 40 FPS, suggesting slightly more frame time consistency at this resolution compared to 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: 125 at Low, 97 at Medium (with a range of 83-112), 73 at High, and 70 at Ultra. The jump from 1440p to 4K costs between 26.3% and 26.5% performance, which is a larger proportional drop than the 1080p to 1440p transition. The 4K Medium range of 83-112 FPS shows a 29 FPS spread, which is tighter in absolute terms but similar proportionally to other resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the 70 FPS average remains playable, though it approaches the lower bound of what many users consider smooth for a simulator.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm TSMC process. It features 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, along with 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2,205 MHz with a boost clock of 2,505 MHz, and its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 22.4 Gbps effective, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth over a 256-bit bus. The synthetic benchmark scores show a Passmark G3D score of 34,457 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 214,739, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's role in Microsoft Flight Simulator is clearly dominant based on the resolution scaling data. The consistent 26% performance drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings presets indicates that the RTX 4080's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the determining factors. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is likely sufficient for the Ultra preset at 4K, as the frame rates remain stable at 70 FPS without indications of memory-related stuttering. The GPU's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 761.5 GTexel/s texture rate provide ample raw processing power for the simulator's terrain and aircraft rendering.

The RTX 4080's nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster, which is within measurement noise. This close margin means the two cards would perform nearly identically in actual gameplay. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (1.1% faster) and AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (2.6% faster) score higher in synthetic tests, but those differences are small enough that game-specific optimizations could easily reverse the ordering. The GPU's 320 W TDP and triple-slot cooler design indicate it is a high-end component with substantial thermal headroom, though the benchmark data does not include temperature or power consumption measurements.