Microsoft Flight Simulator

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX shows a clear pattern. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 103.4 FPS, which is fully playable. Moving to 2560x1440, Ultra drops to 86.4 FPS, still smooth for a flight simulator where frame pacing matters more than raw speed. At 3840x2160, Ultra falls to 64.5 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold but leaves little headroom for complex scenery or weather.

The data suggests that High settings offer the best balance across all resolutions. At 4K, High produces 67.3 FPS, only 2.8 FPS behind Ultra at 1440p. This indicates that the visual fidelity gap between High and Ultra is smaller than the performance cost. At 1440p, High reaches 91.6 FPS, and at 1080p it hits 112.6 FPS. The Medium preset provides a middle ground, with 86.4 FPS at 4K, but the jump from Medium to High at 1440p is only 26.2 FPS (from 117.8 to 91.6), suggesting diminishing returns at lower resolutions.

For users with 4K displays, the Low preset at 110.5 FPS is unnecessary unless chasing maximum refresh rates. The optimal experience is High at 3840x2160, as it stays above 60 FPS while preserving most of the game's visual detail. At 1440p, High is the recommended preset, offering 91.6 FPS. At 1080p, Ultra at 103.4 FPS is viable, but High at 112.6 FPS provides a smoother experience with negligible visual difference.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 3000 series, built on TSMC's 7 nm process with Zen 2 architecture. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, boosting to 4.40 GHz. The chip's L3 cache is 32 MB, and it supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU has a 65 W TDP and uses the AMD Socket AM4 platform with PCIe Gen 4.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU handles flight dynamics, weather simulation, and terrain streaming. The benchmark results for this processor show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19087 and a single-core score of 2694. Its PassMark multi-thread score is 22458, with a physics score of 1181. These numbers indicate a capable processor for the simulation's CPU-intensive tasks.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12600, has an average benchmark score of 28654, which is only 0.1% higher. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT scores 28591, 0.1% lower. This places the Ryzen 7 3700X in a tight cluster where performance differences are negligible. The CPU's percentile rank is 85, meaning it outperforms 85% of all CPUs in the database.

At 1080p, the CPU becomes more influential. The measured FPS at Low settings is 138.5, while at Ultra it drops to 103.4. This 35.1 FPS difference across settings at the same resolution reflects the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls. At 4K, the same settings span from 110.5 FPS (Low) to 64.5 FPS (Ultra), a 46 FPS gap that shows the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a RDNA 3.0 architecture GPU on the Navi 31 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process with 57,700 million transistors. It has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1929 MHz, with a boost clock of 2498 MHz and a game clock of 2365 MHz. Its 6144 shading units and 192 ROPs provide substantial rasterization power.

The GPU's memory bandwidth is crucial for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams high-resolution satellite imagery and terrain data. The 24 GB VRAM ensures that even at 4K Ultra settings, the GPU does not run out of memory. The GPU's PassMark G3D score is 31238, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6841. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 192597 indicates strong API performance.

The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, has an average benchmark score of 44900, which is 2% higher. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 44195, 0.4% lower. The RX 7900 XTX's percentile rank is 85, placing it in the top 15% of all GPUs.

In this game, the GPU's role becomes apparent in the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 35.1 FPS (from 138.5 to 103.4). At 1440p, the spread widens to 44.3 FPS (from 130.7 to 86.4). At 4K, the spread is 46 FPS (from 110.5 to 64.5). This increasing spread with resolution indicates that the GPU is the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions, while the CPU maintains a more consistent baseline.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 341 out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the combo in the top 19% of all tested hardware pairs. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU's mid-range compute capability and the GPU's high-end rendering power.

The CPU's 85th percentile rank and the GPU's 85th percentile rank suggest a well-matched pair for this game. However, the CPU's average benchmark score of 28631 is close to its nearest rivals, with the Intel Core i5-12600H scoring 28666 (0.1% higher) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT scoring 28591 (0.1% lower). This indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor in most scenarios.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 44019 is competitive, with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile scoring 43667 (0.8% lower). The combination's rank of 341 suggests that while the GPU is powerful, the CPU's older Zen 2 architecture may prevent the combo from reaching the very top of the rankings. In CPU-bound scenarios at 1080p, the 3700X's single-core performance becomes more relevant, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2694.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves at 4K?

A: The highest measured average FPS at 3840x2160 is 110.5 FPS, achieved with the Low preset.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X has an average benchmark score of 28631, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i5-12600's 28654 and 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT's 28591.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 130.7 FPS while Ultra delivers 86.4 FPS, a difference of 44.3 FPS.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The GPU has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is sufficient for Microsoft Flight Simulator's high-resolution textures and terrain streaming.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 341 out of 1795 total tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Q: Which preset provides the best experience at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 112.6 FPS, which is above the Ultra preset's 103.4 FPS and provides a smoother experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows:

• Low: 138.5 FPS
• Medium: 128 FPS
• High: 112.6 FPS
• Ultra: 103.4 FPS

The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent decline, with the largest drop occurring between Medium and High (15.4 FPS). The gap between High and Ultra is 9.2 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional visual effects come at a measurable cost.

At 2560x1440, the measured average FPS values are:

• Low: 130.7 FPS
• Medium: 117.8 FPS
• High: 91.6 FPS
• Ultra: 86.4 FPS

The drop from Medium to High is substantial at 26.2 FPS, while the High to Ultra gap narrows to 5.2 FPS. This pattern indicates that the High preset captures most of the visual quality at 1440p without the performance penalty of Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the measured average FPS values are:

• Low: 110.5 FPS
• Medium: 86.4 FPS
• High: 67.3 FPS
• Ultra: 64.5 FPS

The 4K data shows a steep decline from Low to Medium (24.1 FPS), followed by a more gradual drop to High (19.1 FPS) and a minimal change to Ultra (2.8 FPS). The Ultra preset at 4K is only 2.8 FPS slower than High, making High the more efficient choice for 4K users.

Comparing resolutions at the same settings, the Low preset shows a 27.8 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K (138.5 to 110.5). The Ultra preset shows a 38.9 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K (103.4 to 64.5). This scaling behavior confirms that the GPU is the primary performance driver at Ultra settings, while the CPU maintains a more consistent floor across resolutions.