Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The measured FPS table for this combination reveals a compelling story about how Microsoft Flight Simulator balances CPU and GPU load across resolutions and presets. With the Ryzen 7 3700X providing 8 cores and 16 threads, paired against the RTX 5070’s Blackwell architecture and 12 GB of GDDR7 memory, the data shows a system that scales predictably but with important nuances at the extremes. The combo ranks 404th out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the top quarter of all pairings, which signals a generally capable setup for this demanding flight sim.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings, revealing where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 139.1 at 1080p to 105.2 at 4K — a 24.4% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 103.1 at 1080p to 60.0 at 4K, a 41.8% decline. This widening gap suggests that at higher presets, the GPU becomes the limiting factor more aggressively as resolution climbs.

The pattern is even more pronounced when comparing Medium and Ultra presets. Medium goes from 126.4 at 1080p to 83.9 at 4K, a 33.6% drop, while Ultra falls from 97.1 to 60.4, a 37.8% reduction. Interestingly, the Ultra preset at 4K (60.4 FPS) and High at 4K (60.0 FPS) are nearly identical, hinting that the RTX 5070 hits a performance ceiling around 60 FPS at this resolution regardless of whether you push from High to Ultra. The data implies that at 4K, the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth (672.0 GB/s) are being saturated, and additional graphical fidelity costs little extra performance because the renderer is already maxed out.

At 1440p, the scaling is more forgiving. Low settings deliver 130.2 FPS, while Ultra manages 78.0 — a 40.1% reduction. This is a smaller penalty than the 4K Ultra drop, suggesting 1440p is the resolution where the Ryzen 7 3700X and RTX 5070 achieve better balance. The 1080p numbers reinforce this: Low hits 139.1, but Ultra still reaches 97.1, indicating the CPU’s 8-core/16-thread configuration can keep feeding the GPU even at high frame rates. The data suggests that below 4K, the CPU plays a more significant role in maintaining playable framerates, while 4K is firmly GPU-bound.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 3700X is a Zen 2 (Matisse) chip with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost up to 4.40 GHz, running on the AM4 socket. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19087 and single-core score of 2694 place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28631. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Intel Core i5-12600 scores 28654 (a delta of -0.1%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT scores 28591 (a delta of +0.1%). These rivals are essentially tied, meaning the 3700X is not a performance outlier — it sits right in the middle of a competitive pack.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p. The gap between Low (139.1 FPS) and Ultra (97.1 FPS) at 1080p is 42 FPS, which is the largest absolute difference across any resolution. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU can push high frame rates, but the GPU’s workload at Ultra settings still dominates. The 16 threads are likely leveraged for the sim’s complex world-streaming and physics calculations, but the data shows that even at 1080p Ultra, the system doesn’t exceed 100 FPS, indicating a balanced workload rather than a pure CPU bottleneck.

The 3700X’s 32 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but they appear sufficient for this game’s needs. At 1440p, the CPU keeps up well — Low hits 130.2 FPS, and Ultra stays above 78 FPS. The fact that 1080p and 1440p Low both exceed 130 FPS suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor at these settings. However, at 4K, the CPU’s influence diminishes, as the GPU becomes the clear constraint. The data indicates that the 3700X has enough headroom to avoid holding back the RTX 5070 until you reach the highest resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Why does the FPS drop so much from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS falls from 103.1 at 1080p to 60.0 at 4K, a 41.8% reduction. This indicates the RTX 5070’s GPU resources (12 GB VRAM, 672.0 GB/s bandwidth) are saturated at 4K, making the GPU the primary bottleneck at this resolution.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 3700X holding back the RTX 5070 in this game?

A: The data shows the CPU is not a major constraint. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 139.1 FPS, and at 1440p Low it hits 130.2 FPS. These high frame rates suggest the 8-core/16-thread configuration can feed the GPU adequately, even at lower resolutions where CPU load is typically higher.

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The Ultra preset at 4K yields 60.4 FPS, while High gives 60.0 FPS. Since these are nearly identical, the data suggests you gain nothing by dropping from Ultra to High at 4K — the GPU is already maxed out, so you might as well use Ultra for better visuals at the same frame rate.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X has an average benchmark score of 28631. The Intel Core i5-12600 scores 28654 (0.1% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT scores 28591 (0.1% lower). This places the 3700X in a three-way statistical tie with its closest competitors.

Q: Does the RTX 5070’s 12 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K Ultra?

A: The measured data shows 60.4 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is playable. There is no indication of VRAM-related stuttering in the FPS values, suggesting 12 GB of GDDR7 memory is sufficient for this game at these settings.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS for 1440p Medium is 109.3, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold. This preset offers a comfortable balance between visual quality and performance for this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 404 out of 1795 tested combinations places this pairing in the 77.5th percentile of all systems tested in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is a solid result, but it’s worth examining what it implies. The Ryzen 7 3700X is an older CPU (released in 2019) compared to the RTX 5070 (released in 2025), yet the combination still outperforms two-thirds of tested systems. This suggests the GPU is doing the heavy lifting in this pairing, as the CPU’s synthetic benchmark scores are only average for its generation.

The CPU’s percentile rank of 85 (vs. all CPUs) is higher than the combo’s overall rank, which could indicate that the GPU is the more limiting factor in this game. The RTX 5070’s percentile rank of 83 (vs. all GPUs) is slightly lower, but its average benchmark score of 41687 places it close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (score 41441, delta 0.6%) and well ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (score 41610, delta 0.2%). The data suggests that while this combo is strong, it’s not at the very top tier — likely because the 3700X’s Zen 2 architecture, while capable, doesn’t fully unlock the RTX 5070’s potential in every scenario.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. Low settings average 139.1 FPS, Medium 126.4, High 103.1, and Ultra 97.1. The spread from Low to Ultra is 42 FPS, showing a significant but manageable performance cost for higher fidelity. The fact that even Ultra exceeds 90 FPS indicates this resolution is well within the combo’s comfort zone.

Moving to 1440p, the averages are 130.2 (Low), 109.3 (Medium), 85.2 (High), and 78.0 (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is more pronounced at higher presets — High loses 17.9 FPS, while Low only loses 8.9 FPS. This pattern confirms that the GPU begins to feel the resolution increase more as settings rise. The 1440p Ultra result of 78.0 FPS is still well above the 60 FPS target, making this a strong resolution for the combo.

At 4K, the averages are 105.2 (Low), 83.9 (Medium), 60.0 (High), and 60.4 (Ultra). The most striking observation is the near-identical scores for High and Ultra at 60 FPS. This suggests the game is capped or the GPU hits a hard performance wall around this point. Low and Medium remain respectable, but the 4K High and Ultra results indicate that this resolution is the practical limit for this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The data points to 1440p as the sweet spot for this combo. At 1440p Medium, you get 109.3 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. At 1440p Ultra, the 78.0 FPS result is still excellent, and the visual gains from Ultra over Medium are likely worth the 31.3 FPS cost for most users. If you prioritize frame rate, 1440p Low at 130.2 FPS provides a near-competitive experience, but the Medium preset offers a better balance.

For 1080p, the Ultra preset at 97.1 FPS is the clear recommendation — it delivers high fidelity without sacrificing smoothness. The jump from High (103.1) to Ultra (97.1) is only 6 FPS, so the Ultra preset is effectively free performance-wise. At 4K, the recommendation is trickier. Ultra and High are nearly identical (60.4 vs 60.0), so you should choose Ultra for better visuals at no cost. However, if you want headroom above 60 FPS, dropping to Medium (83.9) or Low (105.2) is necessary, but those presets may compromise the visual experience that 4K is meant to provide.

GPU Role

The RTX 5070, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB205 chip, is the clear performance driver in this pairing. Its boost clock of 2512 MHz and 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus deliver 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS and 48 ray-tracing cores suggest substantial compute capability, but the measured FPS data shows this power is only fully utilized at higher resolutions and settings.

At 1080p, the GPU is not the bottleneck — the CPU is able to push frame rates above 130 FPS at Low settings, and the GPU handles Ultra at 97.1 FPS without breaking a sweat. But at 4K, the GPU’s limits become apparent. The fact that High and Ultra both hover at 60 FPS indicates the RTX 5070’s rasterization throughput (80 ROPs, 192 TMUs) is saturated. The 12 GB VRAM is not the issue — the 4K High and Ultra results are nearly identical, suggesting a compute or bandwidth constraint rather than a memory capacity problem.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmarks reinforce this view. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077 and Passmark G3D score of 29137 place it in the 83rd percentile, with the RTX 3090 as a close rival (0.6% delta). The data implies that in Microsoft Flight Simulator, the RTX 5070 behaves as a high-end GPU that excels at 1440p and can handle 4K with compromises, but it doesn’t have the raw power to sustain high frame rates at 4K Ultra. This is a classic case of a capable GPU meeting a demanding sim — the result is playable, but the performance ceiling is clear.