Microsoft Flight Simulator

# FAQ

Q: What is the measured average FPS for this combo at 1080p Ultra in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers an average of 91 FPS. This is the lowest average among the four settings presets at 1080p, with Low reaching 164 FPS, Medium at 127 FPS, and High at 96 FPS.

Q: How does the combo's overall rank in this game compare to all tested combinations?

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 895th out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in the top quartile of all tested configurations, suggesting strong performance relative to the broader database of hardware pairings.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the average is 96 FPS, while at 3840x2160 High, the average drops to 57 FPS. This represents a 40.6% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K, indicating a significant resolution scaling penalty.

Q: Does the RTX 3080 Ti have enough VRAM for this game at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, with bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s. In the measured data, the 4K Ultra preset achieves 54 FPS average, which is playable but the lowest of any 4K setting. The memory capacity appears sufficient for this title, as the game runs without reported issues at this resolution.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance score, and why might that matter for this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X scores 2183.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 1253 in 3DMark single-thread tests. Flight simulators often rely heavily on single-thread performance for physics and AI calculations, and this CPU's strong showing in those benchmarks likely contributes to the high FPS seen at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark average compare to its nearest rival in the database?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41187, with its closest rival being the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 40870, a difference of 0.8%. The data shows the RTX 3080 Ti sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, indicating it outperforms the vast majority of cards in synthetic tests.

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GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti brings substantial memory and bandwidth resources to Microsoft Flight Simulator. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory running at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) across a 384-bit interface, the card provides 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. This wide memory pipeline is critical for a game that streams vast terrain and photogrammetry data, as the GPU must rapidly fetch textures and geometry to render the world.

The clock speeds of 1365 MHz base and 1665 MHz boost, combined with 10240 shading units, yield a FP32 throughput of 34.10 TFLOPS. The measured FPS data shows this GPU is capable of handling this simulator across all resolutions tested. At 4K Ultra, the average is 54 FPS, which climbs to 57 FPS at High, 76 FPS at Medium, and 97 FPS at Low. This scaling pattern suggests that as graphical load decreases, the GPU has more headroom to push higher frame rates.

The 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores present in this Ampere architecture may also play a role, though the measured data does not isolate ray tracing effects. The 112 ROPs and 320 TMUs contribute to pixel throughput of 186.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s, which are relevant for filling the screen with detailed cockpit instruments and ground textures.

Interestingly, the GPU's percentile rank of 83 places it above most cards, yet the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (54) is barely above the 50 FPS threshold many consider the minimum for smooth flight simulation. This suggests that even a top-tier GPU like the RTX 3080 Ti faces challenges at the highest settings in this demanding title. The 12 GB VRAM appears adequate, as no memory-related stuttering is evident in the min FPS data, but the 4K Ultra preset's 54 FPS average indicates the GPU is working near its limits.

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Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 91 FPS, which is smooth enough for most users. However, the jump to High at 96 FPS is marginal, while Medium reaches 127 FPS and Low hits 164 FPS. The diminishing returns between Ultra and High suggest that High is the sweet spot at 1080p, offering near-identical performance with presumably better visual fidelity than Medium.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset produces 74 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a simulator where smoothness matters. High at 77 FPS is nearly identical, while Medium at 103 FPS provides a substantial improvement. The data shows that at 1440p, Medium offers the best balance, as it exceeds 100 FPS while maintaining a reasonable visual quality level. The min FPS of 87 at Medium (with max of 118) indicates acceptable frame pacing.

For 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. Ultra averages 54 FPS, which may be tolerable for slower flight phases but could feel choppy during complex maneuvers. High at 57 FPS is only marginally better, while Medium at 76 FPS (min 64, max 87) represents the first preset that consistently stays above 60 FPS. Low at 97 FPS is the only 4K setting that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

The data suggests that for this combo, Medium settings provide the best overall experience at 1440p and 4K, while High is sufficient at 1080p. The 4K Medium result of 76 FPS with a 64 FPS minimum is particularly notable, as it demonstrates that dropping from Ultra to Medium yields a 40.7% performance increase while likely maintaining acceptable visual quality for flight simulation.

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How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti achieves a rank of 895 out of 3714 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 75.9th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms roughly three-quarters of the combinations in the database while trailing the top 24% of setups.

The CPU itself sits in the 81st percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 29713. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE (29656, 0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868, -0.5% lower), the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT (29879, -0.6% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (29955, -0.8% lower). This clustering shows the 9600X is competitive with several higher-tier Ryzen 7 mobile and desktop parts, despite having fewer cores.

The GPU ranks in the 83rd percentile, with an average benchmark score of 41187. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870, 0.8% higher), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (41707, -1.2% lower), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (41897, -1.7% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40377, 2% higher). The 2% gap to the RTX 5070 is noteworthy, suggesting that newer-generation GPUs only slightly outperform this previous-generation card in synthetic tests.

The combo rank of 895 suggests that in this specific game, the pairing performs somewhat below what the individual component percentiles might imply. This could indicate that Microsoft Flight Simulator's engine does not fully utilize the strengths of either component, or that other factors such as memory bandwidth and cache hierarchy play a more significant role than raw compute performance.

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Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at each settings preset produces a consistent performance drop: High falls from 96 to 77 FPS (a 19.8% decrease), Low from 164 to 132 FPS (a 19.5% decrease), Medium from 127 to 103 FPS (an 18.9% decrease), and Ultra from 91 to 74 FPS (an 18.7% decrease). This nearly uniform reduction across all settings suggests that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is primarily resolution-bound rather than settings-bound.

The transition from 1440p to 4K (3840x2160) shows a more pronounced drop. High falls from 77 to 57 FPS (a 26% decrease), Low from 132 to 97 FPS (a 26.5% decrease), Medium from 103 to 76 FPS (a 26.2% decrease), and Ultra from 74 to 54 FPS (a 27% decrease). The larger percentage drops at 4K indicate that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor as pixel count increases, with the RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB VRAM and memory bandwidth being taxed more heavily.

The overall scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a 40.6% reduction in average FPS (96 to 57). This is less than the theoretical 4x pixel count increase would suggest, indicating that the CPU and GPU are sharing the load at 1080p, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The fact that Low settings at 4K (97 FPS) is nearly identical to High at 1080p (96 FPS) further supports this interpretation, as reducing graphical quality at 4K allows the GPU to keep pace with the lower-resolution higher-quality scenario.

The min FPS data at Medium settings provides additional insight: at 1080p, the minimum is 108 FPS (out of 127 average), at 1440p it is 87 FPS (out of 103), and at 4K it is 64 FPS (out of 76). The consistency of these minimums relative to averages (approximately 85% of average in all three cases) suggests that frame pacing remains stable across resolutions, with no sudden spikes or drops indicating thermal or memory issues.

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Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces the following average FPS: Low at 164, Medium at 127 (with min 108 and max 146), High at 96, and Ultra at 91. The gap between Low and Medium is 37 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 31 FPS, and between High and Ultra is only 5 FPS. This pattern indicates diminishing returns as settings increase, with Ultra offering minimal performance benefit over High.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 132, Medium at 103 (min 87, max 118), High at 77, and Ultra at 74. The difference between High and Ultra narrows to just 3 FPS, suggesting that at this resolution, the Ultra preset's additional graphical features have little impact on performance. Medium provides a 26 FPS improvement over High, making it the most distinct performance tier at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 97, Medium at 76 (min 64, max 87), High at 57, and Ultra at 54. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with each step reducing FPS by approximately 20-21 FPS. The 4K Medium result of 76 FPS with a 64 FPS minimum is the first preset at this resolution that maintains a playable experience throughout.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings, the 1080p to 1440p drop is roughly 19-20% for all settings, while the 1440p to 4K drop is roughly 26-27%. This consistent scaling pattern reinforces that the RTX 3080 Ti's memory bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s is being utilized effectively, but the GPU's compute resources become the limiting factor at 4K.

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CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X features 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) fabricated on TSMC's 4 nm process. With a base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz, this processor delivers strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2183.5 and Geekbench single-core score of 2923.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is likely significant at lower resolutions where the GPU is not fully saturated. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 164 FPS, which is substantially higher than the 4K Low result of 97 FPS. This 69% increase suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding frames to the GPU faster than the GPU can render them, but at 4K, the GPU becomes the bottleneck.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 17528.5 and 3DMark max threads score of 7590, indicates strong parallel processing capability. Flight simulators often use multiple threads for terrain loading, AI traffic, and weather simulation, so the 12 threads available here provide adequate headroom. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain data locality, which is crucial for the large datasets this game processes.

The 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth (dual-channel DDR5) ensures that the CPU can feed data to the GPU without becoming a bottleneck, though the 4K results suggest the GPU's 912.4 GB/s bandwidth is the more critical constraint. The CPU's percentile rank of 81 and its proximity to rival Ryzen 7 parts (including the 7840H and 5800XT) in benchmark scores indicate that it holds its own against higher-core-count processors in this game's workload.