Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: Microsoft Flight Simulator scales heavily with resolution, and the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT becomes the dominant limiting factor as pixel count rises. At 1080p, the combo delivers 147.4 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 119.8 FPS at 1440p and 88.1 FPS at 4K. That represents a 40.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K on Low settings. The scaling is even more pronounced on Ultra: 84.8 FPS at 1080p falls to 63.5 FPS at 1440p and 48.2 FPS at 4K, a 43.2% decline.

The frame rate deltas between resolutions indicate that at 1080p, the CPU still has headroom to push higher frames, but the GPU begins to saturate as resolution increases. The gap between 1080p and 1440p on High settings is 19.6 FPS (86.8 to 67.2), while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 17.7 FPS (67.2 to 49.5). These are similar absolute drops, suggesting a consistent GPU-bound trend rather than a sudden cliff. However, the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K on High is 26.3%, which is larger than the 22.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p, indicating that 4K is where the RX 7800 XT's 16 GB memory and 256-bit bus start to feel the pressure of Flight Simulator's dense scenery rendering.

At 1080p Low, the 147.4 FPS result shows the combo is far from GPU-limited; the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. The data suggests that users targeting 4K should expect playable but not high-refresh results, while 1440p offers a more balanced experience where the GPU and CPU share the workload more evenly.

FAQ

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

A: The measured average FPS for 1440p High is 67.2. This is 19.6 FPS lower than the 1080p High result of 86.8, showing a moderate resolution penalty that keeps the experience smooth for most flight simulation scenarios.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with this combo?

A: The data shows 48.2 FPS average at 4K Ultra. This is below the 60 FPS threshold often preferred for fluid simulation, but it is still a playable result for a game of this genre. The 4K High setting improves this to 49.5 FPS, which is only a marginal gain.

Q: How does the Low preset compare to Medium at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low delivers 147.4 FPS while Medium delivers 113 FPS. The difference is 34.4 FPS, a 23.3% reduction. This suggests that Medium adds significant visual detail without a crippling performance hit, making it a strong option for high-refresh displays.

Q: What is the biggest frame rate jump between settings at any resolution?

A: The largest jump is from Ultra to Low at 1080p, where the average FPS goes from 84.8 to 147.4, a 62.6 FPS improvement. This indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a heavy load on the GPU, while Low allows the CPU to drive much higher frame rates.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU become the bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K. The 88.1 FPS result on Low at 4K is 59.3 FPS lower than the 147.4 FPS at 1080p Low, showing that even with minimal settings, the resolution increase cuts performance dramatically. The CPU has ample headroom at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the 4K Medium setting a good middle ground?

A: The 4K Medium result is 69.1 FPS, which is higher than both 4K High (49.5 FPS) and 4K Ultra (48.2 FPS). It offers a significant 19.6 FPS advantage over High, making it the most sensible choice for 4K users who want better visuals than Low without the steep cost of High or Ultra.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. The GPU's boost clock is 2430 MHz, with a game clock of 2124 MHz. These specifications are directly reflected in the measured results. The 16 GB frame buffer is critical for Flight Simulator, which loads large texture sets for terrain and aircraft; the data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the combo maintains 48.2 FPS, indicating that memory capacity is not causing a hard stutter or crash, but rather a gradual performance degradation as settings rise.

The GPU's RDNA 3.0 architecture and 60 ray accelerators are not heavily utilized in this flight simulator, which is more rasterization-bound. The passmark G3D score of 24176 places the GPU in the 76th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the AMD FirePro S9300 X2, scores 32540 with a delta of 0.2% — essentially a tie. This confirms that the RX 7800 XT is a solid mid-to-high-end performer, but not a top-tier card.

The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows the GPU's workload curve. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Ultra costs 62.6 FPS (147.4 to 84.8). At 1440p, the same jump costs 56.3 FPS (119.8 to 63.5). At 4K, it costs 39.9 FPS (88.1 to 48.2). The diminishing absolute cost at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is already near its limit at 4K, so additional settings have less headroom to lose. The 263 W TDP and 600 W suggested PSU indicate the card is power-hungry, but the performance data shows it delivers consistent frame rates without thermal throttling in this benchmark run.

Settings Recommendations

The data strongly supports Medium settings as the best balance for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 113 FPS, which is 34.4 FPS higher than High (86.8) and only 29.1 FPS lower than Low (147.4). The visual uplift from Low to Medium is substantial in a scenery-heavy game like Flight Simulator, making the 34.4 FPS trade-off worthwhile for most users. At 1440p, Medium produces 89.7 FPS, which is 22.5 FPS higher than High (67.2) and a full 26.2 FPS higher than Ultra (63.5). This is the sweet spot for 1440p users with 60-144 Hz monitors.

For 4K, Medium is the only sensible choice if you want to stay above 60 FPS. The 69.1 FPS result at 4K Medium is 19.6 FPS higher than High (49.5) and 20.9 FPS higher than Ultra (48.2). Low at 4K gives 88.1 FPS, but the visual sacrifice in a flight simulator — where cockpit instruments and ground details matter — is likely too severe. High and Ultra at 4K both fall below 50 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter during fast descents or dense urban flyovers. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: use Medium for a fluid experience, or drop to Low only if you prioritize frame rate above all else at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 147.4 FPS average
• Medium: 113 FPS average
• High: 86.8 FPS average
• Ultra: 84.8 FPS average

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 119.8 FPS average
• Medium: 89.7 FPS average
• High: 67.2 FPS average
• Ultra: 63.5 FPS average

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 88.1 FPS average
• Medium: 69.1 FPS average
• High: 49.5 FPS average
• Ultra: 48.2 FPS average

The 1080p results show a narrow gap between High and Ultra (only 2 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset at this resolution is not efficiently using the GPU's resources — the extra visual detail costs almost nothing in performance, but also yields minimal gains. At 1440p, the gap between High and Ultra is 3.7 FPS, still small. At 4K, the gap narrows to 1.3 FPS, meaning the GPU is so saturated that the difference between High and Ultra is negligible. The most interesting data point is the 4K Medium result of 69.1 FPS, which outperforms 1440p High (67.2 FPS) by 1.9 FPS — a rare case where a higher resolution at a lower setting beats a lower resolution at a higher setting, due to how the settings scale differently with resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. It has 16 MB of L3 cache and a 65 W TDP. The 3DMark single-thread score is 901, and the 16-thread score is 6628, placing the CPU in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-9900K, scores 27043 with a delta of 0.7%, showing the Ryzen 7 5700 is essentially on par with that older flagship.

In Flight Simulator, the CPU handles the simulation loop, which includes flight physics, weather, and AI traffic. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the CPU is able to push 147.4 FPS, which is a strong indicator that the 8 cores and 16 threads are not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. The passmark multithread score of 24303 and the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20655 confirm strong multi-threaded performance, which is relevant for the game's background terrain streaming.

However, the CPU's single-thread performance is more critical for the main game thread. The 3DMark single-thread score of 901 and the passmark single-thread score of 3296 suggest that the Ryzen 7 5700 has sufficient single-core strength to avoid major stutters. The data shows that as resolution increases, the FPS drops consistently regardless of CPU performance, which confirms the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. At 1080p, the CPU's headroom is evident: the difference between Low and Ultra is 62.6 FPS, meaning the CPU can handle the extra GPU load without becoming a constraint. The 16 MB L3 cache is also beneficial for keeping frequently accessed game data close to the cores, reducing latency in the simulation loop.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combo ranks 657 out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 63.4th percentile of all combos, meaning it outperforms the majority of systems but is not in the top tier. The rank reflects a balanced pairing: the CPU's 84th percentile performance and the GPU's 76th percentile performance combine to produce a system that handles the game well at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles at 4K Ultra.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Intel Core i9-9900K, Intel Core i7-12700H, Intel Core i7-1370P, and AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 — all of which score within 1.2% of the Ryzen 7 5700 in average benchmark scores — the combo's in-game rank is dependent on the GPU pairing. The RX 7800 XT's nearest rivals in GPU benchmarks are the AMD FirePro S9300 X2, NVIDIA P104-100, NVIDIA T600 Mobile, and AMD FirePro S10000, all within 0.7% delta. This means the combo's rank is not due to a weak component, but rather the inherent demands of Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy CPU and GPU loads.

The 657th rank out of 1795 combos suggests that this system is in the upper-middle tier. For comparison, a combo ranking in the top 100 would likely feature a higher-end GPU with more raw throughput, while a combo in the bottom 500 would struggle to maintain playable frame rates. The measured data confirms that this combo is a solid choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K being possible only at Medium settings or below. The rank also indicates that the combo is well-balanced — neither component is drastically weaker than the other, which is reflected in the consistent frame rate scaling across resolutions.