Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frame rates show a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution climbs, but the shape of that curve reveals something important about where this system's bottleneck sits. At 1080p Ultra, the combo delivers 109.9 FPS, which drops to 89.2 FPS at 1440p Ultra — a decline of about 19%. Moving to 4K Ultra, the frame rate falls further to 66.8 FPS, another 25% reduction. This scaling behavior is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where pixel throughput becomes the dominant constraint.

However, the Low preset tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 174.6 FPS, but at 1440p Low it only drops to 162.7 FPS — a mere 6.8% reduction. The 4K Low result of 118.4 FPS represents a more substantial 27% drop from 1440p. This pattern suggests that at lower settings, the CPU has more headroom to push frames, and the GPU becomes the limiting factor primarily when pixel count rises dramatically. The fact that 1440p Low and 1080p Low are so close indicates the Ryzen 7 5700's eight cores are keeping pace with the RTX 5070 Ti's output until the GPU's fill rate becomes the wall.

The gap between Ultra and Low at each resolution is telling. At 1080p, the spread is 64.7 FPS (174.6 vs 109.9). At 1440p, it narrows to 73.5 FPS (162.7 vs 89.2). At 4K, the spread is 51.6 FPS (118.4 vs 66.8). The shrinking absolute gap at 4K suggests that both presets are increasingly constrained by the same GPU limits, whereas at 1080p the Ultra preset's additional shading work creates a wider separation. This implies that for users targeting high refresh rates at 1080p, the CPU is doing more of the heavy lifting, while 4K Ultra is firmly in GPU-bound territory.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The RTX 5070 Ti brings substantial resources to this flight simulator. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for a game that streams vast terrain and photogrammetry data. The measured 4K Ultra average of 66.8 FPS suggests the GPU is not hitting a memory capacity wall — 16 GB is sufficient for this workload, as the frame rates remain playable rather than collapsing due to texture thrashing.

Clock behavior is another factor. The GPU's base clock of 2295 MHz and boost clock of 2452 MHz are relatively close, indicating that sustained loads in Flight Simulator keep the card near its boost ceiling. The 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores are present but not heavily exercised by this title's traditional rasterization workload — the game's visuals rely more on raw shading power than ray tracing effects. The 8960 shading units and 280 TMUs deliver 686.6 GTexel/s of texture rate, which explains why High and Ultra presets scale reasonably well from 1440p to 4K.

The GPU's 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is ample for this game's physics and aerodynamic calculations that run on the GPU. The measured 4K High result of 70.8 FPS versus 4K Ultra's 66.8 FPS shows that the gap between High and Ultra is modest — just 4 FPS — suggesting that Ultra's additional settings (likely shadows, reflections, and volumetric clouds) are not disproportionately taxing the GPU's 96 ROPs at 235.4 GPixel/s. This points to the GPU being well-balanced for this simulator's demands, with no single subsystem becoming a glaring bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The data shows that Medium provides the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium achieves 155.4 FPS — only 19.2 FPS shy of Low's 174.6 but 39.5 FPS ahead of High's 116.5. The jump from Medium to High costs 38.9 FPS at 1080p, which is a steep price for the visual improvements. At 1440p, Medium's 126.6 FPS is a comfortable 33.2 FPS ahead of High's 93.4, while remaining 36.1 FPS behind Low's 162.7. This positions Medium as the sweet spot for high-refresh monitors.

For 4K, the recommendation shifts. Medium's 92.9 FPS is strong, but High's 70.8 FPS and Ultra's 66.8 FPS are both playable. The gap between Medium and High at 4K is 22.1 FPS, which is the largest percentage drop (23.8%) among the 4K transitions. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is working hard enough that preset choices have amplified impact. Users with 4K displays should consider High as the ceiling — Ultra's 4 FPS gain over High is unlikely to be visually significant, while the computational cost is measurable.

The Low preset is only advisable for competitive or latency-sensitive scenarios, which is rare in a flight simulator. At 1080p Low, the 174.6 FPS result indicates the CPU is not limiting — the Ryzen 7 5700's 16 threads can feed the GPU efficiently at lower settings. However, Low sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a genre that values immersion. Medium at 1440p or High at 1080p offer the best balance of fluidity and detail based on the measured rows.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This particular pairing of AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ranks 156th out of 1795 tested combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator. That places it in the top 8.7% of all tested combos, which is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects that the system can push high frame rates, but there are 155 other combinations that achieve better overall performance in this specific title.

The CPU's individual standing helps contextualize this rank. The Ryzen 7 5700 sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27220. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-9900K (0.7% ahead) and Intel Core i7-12700H (0.8% ahead), meaning the CPU is essentially tied with those parts in synthetic tests. This suggests that the CPU is not the primary factor holding the combo back from a higher rank — the GPU's 87th percentile standing (with an average score of 52086) is actually slightly better than the CPU's percentile.

The GPU's nearest rival is the RTX 4080, which scores identically (0% delta), indicating that the 5070 Ti is performing at the expected level for its class. The combo rank of 156 likely reflects that some higher-ranked combinations use CPUs with better single-thread performance, which matters in Flight Simulator's engine. The 5700's single-thread score of 901 in 3dmark and 2916 in Cinebench R23 are respectable but not class-leading, and this simulator's heavy reliance on draw call submission and AI traffic simulation can benefit from faster single-core performance.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K smoothly?

A: Yes, the measured data shows 4K Ultra achieves 66.8 FPS, 4K High reaches 70.8 FPS, and 4K Medium hits 92.9 FPS. All three are above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, with Medium providing the most headroom.

Q: What preset should I use for a 1440p monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate?

A: Medium at 1440p delivers 126.6 FPS, which is below 144Hz but still playable. Low reaches 162.7 FPS and would saturate a 144Hz display. High drops to 93.4 FPS, which is better suited for 60-100Hz panels.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700 bottlenecking the RTX 5070 Ti in this game?

A: The data suggests partial CPU limitation at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 174.6 FPS result is close to what the GPU can produce, but the modest 6.8% drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low (174.6 to 162.7) indicates the CPU is keeping up. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiter.

Q: How does this combo compare to the RTX 4080 pairing?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti scores identically to the RTX 4080 in GPU benchmarks (0% delta in average score). The combo's rank of 156 out of 1795 reflects the CPU's 84th percentile standing, which is slightly below the GPU's 87th percentile.

Q: What is the best preset for maximum visual quality at 1080p?

A: Ultra at 1080p achieves 109.9 FPS, which is still above 100 FPS and provides the best visuals. High reaches 116.5 FPS, but the 6.6 FPS difference between High and Ultra is small enough that Ultra is recommended if you want the full visual experience.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM on the RTX 5070 Ti cause any issues in this game?

A: No, the measured results show no signs of VRAM capacity problems. The 4K Ultra result of 66.8 FPS is stable, and there are no anomalous frame rate collapses that would indicate texture swapping or memory pressure.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates are: Low 174.6 FPS, Medium 155.4 FPS, High 116.5 FPS, and Ultra 109.9 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High — a 38.9 FPS loss. The gap between High and Ultra is only 6.6 FPS, making Ultra a viable choice for users who prioritize visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 162.7 FPS, Medium 126.6 FPS, High 93.4 FPS, and Ultra 89.2 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 36.1 FPS, and from Medium to High is 33.2 FPS. The High to Ultra transition costs just 4.2 FPS, again suggesting that Ultra's extra settings are not heavily taxing at this resolution. The 1440p results show a 33.2 FPS gap between Medium and High, which is the largest relative jump in the resolution's preset ladder.

At 3840x2160, the measurements are: Low 118.4 FPS, Medium 92.9 FPS, High 70.8 FPS, and Ultra 66.8 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 25.5 FPS, Medium to High is 22.1 FPS, and High to Ultra is just 4.0 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that the GPU's fill rate becomes the dominant factor, as even Low (118.4 FPS) is significantly below the 1080p Low figure (174.6 FPS).

Cross-resolution comparisons show that the Low preset scales the most efficiently: 174.6 to 162.7 to 118.4 FPS across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The Ultra preset shows a steeper decline: 109.9 to 89.2 to 66.8 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset's additional shading work amplifies the GPU's workload as pixel count rises, making the GPU more of a limiting factor at high resolutions and high settings simultaneously.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 brings eight cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The 16 MB of L3 cache is split across the eight cores, and the CPU's 65 W TDP suggests it can sustain boost clocks without thermal throttling in most systems. The 3dmark single-thread score of 901 and Cinebench R23 single-core result of 2916 indicate that the CPU's per-core performance is adequate for Flight Simulator's engine, which relies heavily on a single main thread for scene management.

The multi-threaded results — Cinebench R23 multicore of 20655 and 3dmark max threads of 6617 — show that the CPU can handle the game's background tasks, such as AI aircraft simulation, weather system updates, and terrain loading. The 1080p Low result of 174.6 FPS demonstrates that the CPU is not a hard bottleneck at lower settings, as the frame rate comfortably exceeds what most displays can show. However, the fact that 1080p Ultra (109.9 FPS) is 58% lower than 1080p Low (174.6 FPS) implies that the GPU's shading workload, not the CPU, is the primary constraint when settings are raised.

The CPU's 84th percentile ranking and its proximity to the Intel Core i9-9900K (0.7% ahead) suggest that it is a capable but not exceptional processor for this title. The 4K results, where Ultra drops to 66.8 FPS, reinforce that the GPU is the limiting component at high resolutions. The CPU's 16 MB L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient for the game's streaming requirements, and the measured data shows no evidence of stuttering or frame pacing issues that would indicate CPU-side memory bottlenecks.