Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a demanding title that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER produces a well-balanced platform. The data reveals a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, with the 12 GB of VRAM on the graphics card playing a critical role at higher resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured performance of this specific combo, interpreting how the components interact and what the numbers mean for a user looking to build or upgrade.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and steady decline as resolution increases, which is typical for a simulation title with a heavy graphical load. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers 107 FPS. Moving up to 2560x1440 High, the average drops to 86 FPS, and at 4K (3840x2160) High, it falls to 64 FPS. This represents a 40% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 25% reduction from 1440p to 4K, showing that the GPU is the primary scaling bottleneck as pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern is even more pronounced at lower settings, which is informative. At Low settings, the combo achieves 174 FPS at 1080p, 148 FPS at 1440p, and 109 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 37%, which is less steep than the drop at High settings (40%). This indicates that at Low settings, the load is increasingly shifting to the CPU, which is still able to maintain high frame rates. The 1440p Medium result of 115 FPS, with a minimum of 98 FPS, shows a more compressed range than the 1080p Medium (143 FPS avg, 121-164 FPS range), underscoring that the GPU is becoming a tighter bottleneck as resolution climbs.

The fact that the 4K Ultra average is 61 FPS, nearly identical to the 4K High result of 64 FPS, is particularly telling. This close result indicates that between High and Ultra settings at 4K, the performance headroom is almost entirely consumed. The user is likely hitting a VRAM or raw compute limit where the RTX 4070 SUPER is being pushed to its maximum. The 4K Medium result of 85 FPS is a significant improvement over High and Ultra, showing that a modest settings reduction yields a substantial frame rate gain, which will be useful for those aiming for higher refresh rates on 4K displays.

The data indicates a system that is well-suited for high-refresh 1440p gaming, with 4K being playable but requiring settings adjustment. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant factor, while the Ryzen 7 5700 provides ample headroom to avoid becoming a major constraint until the very low settings at 1080p where the CPU is more engaged.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark data places this specific hardware combination at rank 620 out of 3,714 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This puts it in the top 17% of all tested system configurations, a strong position for a mainstream desktop pairing. The rank reflects the aggregate performance of the CPU and GPU working together, and it shows that this setup is not a top-tier enthusiast rig but rather a high-performing, sensible pairing for this flight simulator.

The combo's rank is made more understandable by looking at the individual component performance percentiles. The Ryzen 7 5700 CPU sits at the 78th percentile among all tested CPUs, while the RTX 4070 SUPER GPU sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. Having both components in the upper 20% of their respective categories means the combo is not heavily imbalanced; neither part is dragging the other down. The data shows a well-matched system where the CPU and GPU are both capable of supporting the game's demands, though the GPU's slightly higher percentile suggests it is the more capable side of the pairing.

The performance of the CPU and GPU can also be inferred from their nearest rivals. The Ryzen 7 5700's average benchmark score is 25,517, which is almost identical to the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (25,530, a delta of -0.1%) and the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H (25,550, -0.1%). This means that in general computing tasks, the CPU is on par with these parts, showing that the 8-core/16-thread Zen 3 design is competitive with a slightly higher-clocked 6-core mobile chip. The GPU's average score of 43,223 is similarly close to the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262, -0.1%) and the GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667, -1%), showing that the RTX 4070 SUPER's raw compute is on par with a last-gen pro card and a top-tier laptop part.

GPU Role: VRAM and Clocks

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, featuring a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. This high boost clock is a significant factor in the GPU's performance, allowing it to maintain high frame rates across all resolutions. The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. In a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for loading large textures of terrain and aircraft, the 12 GB capacity and the high 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are key to avoid stutter and maintain smooth performance, particularly at 4K where the 61 FPS average at Ultra suggests the memory is being stressed.

The GPU's raw compute is impressive for the 40-series mid-range: it produces 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and has 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores. While Flight Simulator does not heavily rely on ray tracing (RT), the 56 RT cores provide a benefit if the game's DX12 Ultimate features are used. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s is a crucial spec; the game streams a lot of data, and the 192-bit bus width is a limiting factor compared to higher-tier cards. The measured 4K High result of 64 FPS versus the 4K Medium result of 85 FPS shows that the memory bandwidth is a key factor, as the higher texture loads at High settings are likely saturating what the GPU can feed.

The 12 GB of VRAM is also a point of consideration. At 4K with Ultra settings, the game is likely using a significant portion of that capacity. The 4K Ultra result of 61 FPS, while a solid average, indicates that the GPU is not fully bound by the memory capacity, but the performance headroom is limited. The GPU's average benchmark score of 43,223 and its 83rd percentile ranking place it just a touch behind the RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667) and the Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,301) in general compute. This suggests that for a desktop part, it is slightly behind a top-tier mobile GPU in raw score, but its desktop form factor allows for sustained performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark results provide a clear breakdown of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1080p, the combo delivers a strong experience: 174 FPS at Low, 143 FPS at Medium, 107 FPS at High, and 102 FPS at Ultra. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal (107 vs 102), showing that the GPU is already near its limits at 1080p with High settings. The Medium result of 143 FPS with a min of 121 FPS shows a very smooth experience, especially for a flight sim.

At 1440p, the performance decreases as expected. The Low setting yields 148 FPS, which is a significant drop from 174 at 1080p. Medium produces 115 FPS (min 98 FPS), High gives 86 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82 FPS. The delta between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 4 FPS (86 to 82), which is again a sign of GPU saturation. The 148 FPS at Low and the 115 FPS at Medium show that even at 1440p, the combo has enough power to exceed 60 FPS with most settings, but the High and Ultra presets bottleneck the GPU.

At 4K, the performance is the most demanding. The Low preset still delivers a usable 109 FPS, which is quite impressive for this resolution. The Medium preset averages 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 98 FPS, showing a playable and fairly smooth experience. High drops to 64 FPS, and Ultra to 61 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 61 FPS is just below the 60 FPS mark, meaning that users will have to compromise on some settings to maintain a locked 60 FPS. The 4K Medium result of 85 FPS is the sweet spot for this combo, offering a 39% boost over 4K Ultra and a 33% boost over 4K High, making it the recommended mode for a smooth 4K flight.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is based on the Zen 3 architecture, fabricated on a 7 nm process with 8 cores and 16 threads. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, and the data shows it is a capable partner for the RTX 4070 SUPER. In the context of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU handles game logic, physics, and AI traffic, all of which are heavily single-threaded but can also use multiple cores for background tasks. The CPU's single-thread performance, measured at 901 in 3DMark, is strong for a mid-range part in its generation, and the 16 threads ensure that the system does not become a bottleneck when the GPU is pushed to 4K.

The CPU's performance is also shown in its Cinebench scores, with a multi-core score of 20,655 and a single-core score of 2,916 in R23. These numbers indicate a well-rounded processor that can handle the game's simulation workloads. The 8 cores and 16 threads are particularly useful for a flight simulator, which often runs background processes like photogrammetry and AI traffic. The 16 MB of L3 cache is also a benefit, providing a decent amount of fast storage for the game's data. The 65 W TDP, while not directly a performance metric, indicates that the CPU will not be a power or thermal burden in a system with the 220 W TDP GPU, making it a practical pairing.

The CPU's performance at 1080p Low settings, where the GPU is often not the bottleneck, shows the CPU's capabilities. At 1080p Low, the system hits 174 FPS. This is a high frame rate that indicates the CPU is capable of processing the game's instructions quickly. However, the fact that the CPU's percentile (78th) is lower than the GPU's (83rd) means that if the user were to lower the resolution significantly, the CPU would likely become the limiting factor. In this game, the CPU is not the bottleneck at the tested resolutions, but it is the component that will be the constraint if the user aims for extreme frame rates beyond what the GPU can deliver.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings to use for this combo?

A: The data shows that 4K with Medium settings is the sweet spot, delivering an average of 85 FPS with a minimum of 72 FPS. This is a significant improvement over the 61 FPS at 4K Ultra and the 64 FPS at 4K High, making 4K Medium the best balance of visual quality and smoothness.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER's VRAM capacity affect performance?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 504.2 GB/s bandwidth. The 4K Medium result of 85 FPS versus the 4K High of 64 FPS suggests that the memory on a 192-bit bus is a limiting factor at higher settings, as the game's texture loads at Ultra settings are likely stressing the 12 GB capacity, but at Medium the GPU has enough room to work efficiently.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700 a bottleneck for the RTX 4070 SUPER?

A: The data indicates no. The combo ranks at 620 out of 3714, placing it in the top 17% of systems. At 1440p, the combo hits 86 FPS at High and 82 FPS at Ultra, which is a strong result. The CPU's 78th percentile is lower than the GPU's 83rd, but it still provides enough performance to keep the GPU fed at 60-100 FPS range. The only area where the CPU might be more of a factor is at 1080p Low, where the FPS is 174, but at those rates the GPU is still not maxed out.

Q: How does this combo rank against other systems in this game?

A: The combo ranks 620th out of 3,714 tested combinations, which is the top 16.7% of all tested systems. This indicates a very solid configuration for Microsoft Flight Simulator, with both components performing well above average.

Q: What kind of frame rates can be expected at 1080p with ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the combo averages 102 FPS. The 107 FPS at 1080p High is only 5 FPS higher, meaning the Ultra preset is very demanding and the GPU is near its limit, but the 102 FPS result is still a very smooth experience.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER a good GPU for this game?

A: The GPU's percentile rank is 83rd out of all tested GPUs. Its 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K Medium and 1440p Ultra. The 64 FPS at 4K High and 61 FPS at 4K Ultra show that it is capable of 4K play, but the settings need to be tuned. The GPU is a solid choice for this title, providing a good balance of performance and capacity.