Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers a broad performance envelope in Microsoft Flight Simulator, but the data reveals a system where the CPU frequently dictates the ceiling. The benchmark rows show a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the average frame rate drops, yet the relative gap between settings narrows significantly, indicating a shift in bottleneck from the processor to the graphics card. At 1920x1080, the spread between the Low and Ultra presets is a substantial 44.8 FPS, whereas at 3840x2160, that same spread compresses to 39.8 FPS, underscoring the GPU's growing dominance at higher pixel counts. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is not linear; the RTX 3080 Ti's raw compute power is less taxed at lower resolutions, allowing the Ryzen 7 3700X to become the primary constraint, particularly in CPU-intensive flight simulation workloads.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data demonstrates how the workload transitions from CPU-bound to GPU-bound as resolution climbs. At 1080p with the Ultra preset, the combo achieves 93 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops this to 70.6 FPS, a 24.1% reduction, and then to 4K it falls further to 54.3 FPS, a 23.1% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline at higher settings is typical of a GPU that is finally being pushed to its limits. Conversely, the Low preset tells a different story: 1080p yields 137.8 FPS, 1440p yields 129.8 FPS, and 4K yields 94.1 FPS. The smaller delta between 1080p and 1440p (only 8 FPS) in the Low preset strongly suggests that the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is the limiting factor at these settings, unable to feed frames any faster to the RTX 3080 Ti. The data indicates that a 4K resolution with a High or Ultra preset is where the GPU's 12 GB of VRAM and 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth are most effectively utilized, as the frame rate drops to a range where the processor can keep up with the render workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the 4K performance profile. With 10,240 shading units and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, the card is capable of immense throughput, but the benchmark results show that this power is only fully realized at higher resolutions. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus is a significant asset for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for loading vast textures. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 54.3, which is only 1.0 FPS lower than the 4K High result of 55.3 FPS. This small difference suggests that the memory subsystem and the GPU's compute units are already saturated, and the extra graphical fidelity of the Ultra preset does not incur a massive penalty. However, the jump from Medium to High at 4K (74.2 to 55.3 FPS) is a steep 18.9 FPS drop, indicating a threshold where the render complexity spikes. The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 Tensor cores are present, but the frame rates suggest that standard rasterization is the primary workload here, as the card's FP32 performance of 34.10 TFLOPS is the main driver for these results.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the High preset at 2560x1440 appears to be the optimal balance for this combination, yielding 79.1 FPS. This is a playable frame rate that retains significant visual quality. At 4K, the High preset is the highest playable option, with 55.3 FPS, but users seeking a smoother experience should consider the Medium preset, which delivers 74.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 54.3 FPS, offers only a marginal improvement over High (1.0 FPS) and is not recommended given the performance cost. For 1080p users, the Ultra preset is viable at 93 FPS, but the data shows that the CPU is the bottleneck, as the Low preset only reaches 137.8 FPS. The most significant performance jump is from Low to Medium at 1440p, where the FPS goes from 129.8 to 104.1, a 25.7 FPS difference. The data suggests that the Medium preset is a strong starting point for most users, as it provides a substantial improvement over Low without the steep drop seen when moving to High. The Ultra preset is best reserved for 1080p, where the frame rate remains above 90 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo shows a wide range of performance. The Low preset averages 137.8 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. The Medium preset records 125.9 FPS, while the High preset drops to 97.7 FPS. The Ultra preset is the slowest at 1080p, with 93 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 44.8 FPS, highlighting the CPU's ability to push frames when the GPU is not the limiting factor. Moving to 2560x1440, the scores are more compressed. Low averages 129.8 FPS, Medium 104.1 FPS, High 79.1 FPS, and Ultra 70.6 FPS. The performance drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 59.2 FPS, showing a more balanced workload between CPU and GPU. At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. Low averages 94.1 FPS, Medium 74.2 FPS, High 55.3 FPS, and Ultra 54.3 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is minimal at 1.0 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is a substantial 18.9 FPS. The overall trend is a consistent decline in FPS as both resolution and settings increase, but the magnitude of the decline varies, with 4K showing the most pronounced GPU limitation.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti holds a combo rank of 515 out of 1795 tested configurations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 28.7% of all tested systems, which is a strong result given the age of the CPU. The Ryzen 7 3700X itself has an average benchmark score of 28631, putting it at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i5-12600 (deltaPct -0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (deltaPct 0.1). This indicates the processor is still competitive with newer mainstream parts. The RTX 3080 Ti, with an average benchmark score of 41224, sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, and its closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, which is only 0.5% faster on average. The data shows that while this combo is not at the top of the rankings, it is well above the median, and its performance is constrained more by the CPU than the GPU. In a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which can be heavily CPU-dependent, the 3700X's 8 cores and 16 threads are adequate, but the benchmark results indicate that a newer processor would likely push the RTX 3080 Ti to higher frame rates, especially at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.