Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti represent a pairing of a mid-range 2021 processor with an upper-mid-range 2020 graphics card. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the measured data shows this combination delivers a playable but highly variable experience, heavily dependent on resolution and quality presets. The RTX 3060 Ti, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the 5700G offers 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture. The benchmark results reveal a system where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, but the CPU's capabilities still influence performance at lower settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combination achieves in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 103.6 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only preset in the measured data that exceeds the 100 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 25120, placing it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and 0.5% behind both the AMD Radeon RX 6600 and AMD Radeon 890M. It is 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G ranks in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 25626 makes it nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U, which is only 0.3% faster.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra preset playable with this hardware?

A: The data shows 32.3 average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is below the typically desirable 60 FPS target, indicating that the Ultra preset at 4K is not a smooth experience for this pairing.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the RTX 3060 Ti?

A: The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit bus width, delivering a total memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is listed as 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective data rate.

Q: What is the boost clock of the Ryzen 7 5700G?

A: The CPU has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. It features 16 MB of L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the central component for rendering Microsoft Flight Simulator's dense scenery and weather systems. Built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, it contains 4864 shading units and 152 texture mapping units. The GPU's performance in this title is directly tied to its clock speeds and memory subsystem. With a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, the card sustains a texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s. The FP32 throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS indicates the raw compute capacity available for the simulator's physics and rendering calculations.

The 8 GB GDDR6 memory pool is a critical resource for Flight Simulator, which loads vast textures for terrain and aircraft. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth allows for rapid streaming of this data, but the capacity can become a limiting factor at 4K Ultra settings. The measured results show the GPU's performance ceiling: at 3840x2160 High, the average FPS is 36.6, while at 1920x1080 High, it rises to 58.7. This scaling demonstrates that the GPU is heavily loaded at higher resolutions. In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 3060 Ti scores 20349 in Passmark G3D and 109075 in Geekbench OpenCL, ranking it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs. Its average score of 25120 is nearly tied with the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, which is only 0.2% faster, suggesting the two are direct competitors in raw performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G provides the processing foundation for the simulator's complex flight models, AI traffic, and system logic. This 8-core, 16-thread processor operates at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts up to 4.60 GHz. Its Zen 3 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC, includes 16 MB of L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores indicate robust multi-threaded capabilities: it achieves 20755 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 24419 in Passmark multithread. Single-thread performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2930 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3283. This balance is important for Flight Simulator, which uses multiple threads for different subsystems.

The 5700G's performance in the context of this game is best understood through its 83rd percentile ranking and average score of 25626. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U, is a mobile chip that is only 0.3% faster on average. The Intel Xeon D-2752TER is 0.4% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U is 0.6% slower. The data suggests the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most scenarios, as the GPU's workload scales more dramatically with resolution changes. However, the CPU's 16 threads ensure that frame pacing remains consistent across all presets, preventing sudden stutters when the simulator processes new geographic data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the frame rates range from 103.6 at Low settings to 58.9 at Ultra. The Medium preset yields 77.5 FPS, while High produces 58.7 FPS. Notably, the High and Ultra presets at 1080p are nearly identical in performance, differing by only 0.2 FPS. This suggests that the visual improvements from High to Ultra come at no measurable cost at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops across all settings. Low settings still deliver a smooth 78.4 FPS, and Medium maintains 61.6 FPS. High settings fall to 46.6 FPS, and Ultra is at 43.7 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra widens to 2.9 FPS at this resolution, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the strain of higher pixel counts. At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more constrained. Low settings produce 57.7 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 48.9 FPS. High settings yield 36.6 FPS, and Ultra is at 32.3 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only 4K preset that approaches the 60 FPS mark, while the Ultra preset is nearly half of that target.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. Comparing Low settings, the frame rate drops from 103.6 at 1080p to 78.4 at 1440p, a 24.3% reduction, and then to 57.7 at 4K, a further 26.4% reduction from 1440p. This scaling indicates a heavy GPU load, as the CPU has ample headroom at these lower settings. For High settings, the progression goes from 58.7 at 1080p to 46.6 at 1440p (a 20.6% drop) and finally to 36.6 at 4K (a 21.5% drop from 1440p). The relative consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions in this title.

The difference between the 1080p and 4K results is most pronounced at Low settings, where the frame rate falls by 45.9 FPS. At Ultra settings, the same resolution change results in a 26.6 FPS drop. This behavior implies that at Ultra settings, the GPU is already saturated at 1080p, so the additional pixel workload at 4K has a diminishing absolute impact. The RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows that 4K Ultra (32.3 FPS) pushes the memory subsystem and compute units to their limits. The GPU's 69th percentile ranking and its near-tie with the RX 6700M (0.2% faster) confirm that this is a mid-range card that cannot fully drive a flight simulator at maximum settings in 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal preset depends on the user's resolution and performance target. For 1920x1080, the Medium preset at 77.5 FPS offers a strong balance between image quality and smoothness, more than 30 FPS higher than High settings. However, the High preset at 58.7 FPS is nearly identical to Ultra at 58.9 FPS, so users who prefer maximum quality can select Ultra without any performance penalty at this resolution. The Low preset at 103.6 FPS is the only option that fully utilizes a 100 Hz or higher refresh rate monitor.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 61.6 FPS is the recommended choice for a 60 FPS experience, as it stays above the threshold with only a small margin. The Low preset at 78.4 FPS provides a larger buffer for demanding scenes with dense cloud coverage or large airports. High settings at 46.6 FPS and Ultra at 43.7 FPS are below 60 FPS and may feel less fluid, though they are still playable for non-competitive flight simulation. For 3840x2160, the Low preset at 57.7 FPS is the only viable option for near-60 FPS performance. Medium settings at 48.9 FPS are acceptable for users who prioritize visuals over frame rate, but High (36.6 FPS) and Ultra (32.3 FPS) are not recommended for a consistently smooth experience.

The data indicates that this hardware pairing is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB VRAM is adequate for these resolutions, and the 5700G's 16 threads prevent CPU-bound stuttering. Users targeting 4K should stick to Low or Medium presets to maintain playability. The similarity between High and Ultra at 1080p suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects, such as higher shadow quality and draw distances, are handled efficiently by the GPU's 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power.