Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 compare to its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 scores an average benchmark score of 26617, which is 0.2% higher than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D's score of 26574. This puts the two CPUs in a statistical tie, with the 7600 holding a negligible edge in overall synthetic performance.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other graphics cards in its performance class?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074, placing it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, scores 15996, which is 0.5% lower, indicating the RTX 2060 is slightly ahead of that mobile part in general compute and graphics tests.

Q: At which resolution and settings does this combo achieve its highest frame rate?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 91.6 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that breaks the 90 FPS mark, highlighting the significant performance headroom available at lower graphical loads.

Q: How does the CPU's single-threaded performance compare to its multi-threaded performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 shows strong single-thread capability with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3246. Its multi-core score of 22992 in the same test is roughly 7 times higher, which is typical for a 6-core, 12-thread processor and indicates that both single and multi-threaded workloads are handled competently.

Q: What is the performance delta between the RTX 2060 and the AMD Radeon Pro 5700?

A: The RTX 2060's average score of 16074 is 1.7% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro 5700's score of 16351. This makes the Radeon Pro 5700 a slightly faster rival in synthetic benchmarks, though the difference is relatively small in real-world gaming scenarios.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS drops to 31.3. Given that the CPU's performance is comparable to much more powerful chips (e.g., it trails the Intel Core i9-11900K by only 0.3%), the data strongly suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at this demanding resolution and settings combination.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture with 1920 shading units and 30 RT cores. Its memory configuration consists of 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 1365 MHz, with a boost clock of 1680 MHz. In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU achieves a Passmark G3D score of 14111 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 71278.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role is paramount, especially as resolution and settings scale. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the average FPS is 91.6, which suggests the GPU is not heavily taxed. However, when settings are increased to Ultra at the same resolution, the average FPS falls to 53.5, a drop of over 41%. This indicates that the graphical complexity of the flight simulator, which includes detailed terrain and aircraft models, places a significant load on the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth.

At 4K Ultra, the average FPS plummets to 31.3, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The 6 GB VRAM capacity of the RTX 2060 is a key factor here; high-resolution textures and complex scenes can exceed this capacity, causing performance to suffer. The GPU's 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth also becomes a limiting factor at 4K, as the sheer volume of pixel data required to render each frame at 3840x2160 overwhelms the available throughput. The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 2060 can handle lower settings well, but its limitations become apparent at higher resolutions and quality presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. Starting at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 91.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 71.5 FPS, a reduction of about 22%. At 4K Low, the average FPS further declines to 53.7, a 41% drop from the 1080p Low baseline. This scaling shows that even at Low settings, the GPU is the primary bottleneck as resolution increases.

For High settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute numbers: 52 FPS at 1080p, 45.3 FPS at 1440p, and 33.6 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is approximately 35%, which is less steep than the Low settings drop, suggesting that the CPU is also contributing to performance limits at lower resolutions. At Ultra settings, the pattern continues: 53.5 FPS at 1080p, 39.3 FPS at 1440p, and 31.3 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 26%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 20%, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly saturated as resolution rises, diminishing the impact of further resolution increases.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU has a more significant role, as the FPS differences between Low and Ultra (91.6 vs 53.5) are smaller than the resolution scaling would imply if the GPU were the sole bottleneck. However, at 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the FPS differences between settings (53.7 Low vs 31.3 Ultra) are much larger, indicating the GPU is struggling to keep up with the pixel workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with this combo is as follows:

• 1920x1080: Low settings yield an average of 91.6 FPS, Medium 71.5 FPS, High 52 FPS, and Ultra 53.5 FPS. The jump from Medium to High is notable, with a drop of 19.5 FPS, while High to Ultra shows a slight increase of 1.5 FPS, which is within the margin of error and suggests a CPU limit at those settings.
• 2560x1440: Low settings average 71.5 FPS, Medium 57 FPS, High 45.3 FPS, and Ultra 39.3 FPS. The scaling here is more consistent, with each settings tier reducing the average by roughly 6-12 FPS. The 1440p High result of 45.3 FPS is close to the 1080p Ultra result of 53.5 FPS, indicating that the GPU is handling the higher resolution with similar effort.
• 3840x2160: Low settings average 53.7 FPS, Medium 42.7 FPS, High 33.6 FPS, and Ultra 31.3 FPS. At this resolution, the GPU is heavily taxed. The Low setting provides a playable experience, but Medium and above fall below 43 FPS, with Ultra barely reaching 31.3 FPS. This makes 4K gaming impractical for this combo at higher settings.

The data shows that for a smooth 60 FPS experience, 1080p Low is the only reliable option, while 1440p Low is borderline at 71.5 FPS. For 4K, only Low settings approach playability, and even then, the average of 53.7 FPS may not be stable in all scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, this specific configuration of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 1461 out of 1795 total combos. This places it in the lower-mid tier of tested hardware, which is consistent with the RTX 2060 being an older, entry-level GPU from the Turing generation.

The rank of 1461 indicates that a majority of tested combos (about 81%) outperform this setup in this game. This is expected, as the RTX 2060's 58th percentile standing among all GPUs puts it below the median, and Microsoft Flight Simulator is a demanding title that favors newer, more powerful graphics cards. The CPU, however, is not the limiting factor in this ranking; the Ryzen 5 7600's 83rd percentile among all CPUs shows it is a strong processor. The bottleneck is clearly the GPU, as evidenced by the FPS drops at higher resolutions.

When comparing to the GPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (which scores 1.7% higher in synthetic benchmarks) would likely produce higher FPS, but the difference would be small. The ranking of 1461 reflects the GPU's age and memory limitations, not a fundamental flaw in the CPU-GPU pairing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Zen 4 architecture, running on the AM5 socket. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz, with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The CPU has a 32 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 3246 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 22992 in multi-core, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is significant but secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The game's simulation logic, which calculates weather, physics, and AI traffic, is heavily single-threaded. The Ryzen 5 7600's strong single-core score of 3246 is beneficial here, allowing the game to maintain playable FPS even when the GPU is not the primary bottleneck. The data shows that at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is only 38.1 FPS (91.6 to 53.5), suggesting that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to keep frame rates relatively high.

However, at 4K, the CPU's performance is overshadowed by the GPU's limitations. The FPS at 4K Ultra (31.3) is only slightly lower than at 4K High (33.6), indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint, and the CPU has headroom to spare. The Ryzen 5 7600's nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-11900K, scores 0.3% higher in synthetic tests, but in this game, the CPU is not the limiting factor. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration and high boost clock ensure that the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU in most scenarios, except possibly at very low resolutions and settings where the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can process game logic.