Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

This combination of AMD's 8-core Ryzen 7 5700X3D and NVIDIA's RTX 2070 SUPER produces a playable but demanding experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with frame rates that swing dramatically based on resolution and preset. The measured data reveals a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions but surprisingly capable at 1080p, where the CPU's large cache helps maintain respectable averages. The combo ranks 1110th out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which reflects the RTX 2070 SUPER's age rather than any CPU deficiency.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, pointing squarely at the GPU as the limiting component at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 110.8 at 1920x1080 to 66.3 at 3840x2160 — a reduction of 44.5 FPS, or roughly 40%. At High settings, the drop is from 62.9 to 36.6, a 26.3 FPS decline that represents a 42% loss. This proportional scaling suggests the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

The pattern is even more telling when examining the step from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, 2560x1440 delivers 71 FPS while 3840x2160 drops to 47.8 — a 23.2 FPS gap. At Ultra, the difference is smaller in absolute terms (47.3 vs 37.8, a 9.5 FPS gap) but proportionally similar. This indicates that the GPU's raw throughput, measured at 9.062 TFLOPS FP32, becomes the bottleneck well before 4K, with the 160 TMUs and 64 ROPs struggling to fill the larger frame buffer. The data implies that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo if the user wants to stay above 60 FPS on anything but Low settings.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results indicate that Medium at 1440p offers the best balance, delivering 71 FPS — comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth flight simulation. At 1080p, Medium produces 85.6 FPS, which is excellent for this genre, and even High at 1080p hits 62.9 FPS, making it a viable choice for users prioritizing visual fidelity. The Ultra preset, however, appears to be a poor trade-off at every resolution: at 1080p it yields only 59.5 FPS, barely below High's 62.9, while at 1440p it falls to 47.3 FPS and at 4K to 37.8 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra over High is disproportionately large relative to the settings' visual gains, based on the measured rows alone.

For 4K users, the situation is stark. Low at 3840x2160 achieves 66.3 FPS, but Medium drops to 47.8 and High to 36.6. Given that flight simulators benefit from steady frame times for cockpit readability, the data suggests that 4K should be paired with Low settings if playability is the priority, or the user should target 1440p Medium as the sweet spot. The 2560x1440 High result of 54.3 FPS is close to but below 60, so Medium at 71 FPS is the safer recommendation for consistent performance.

GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER's specifications directly explain the measured results. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card delivers 448.0 GB/s bandwidth — sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but strained at 4K, where the frame buffer demands more. The GPU's boost clock of 1770 MHz and base clock of 1605 MHz are modest by modern standards, and the 2560 shading units operating at 9.062 TFLOPS FP32 show their age when compared to the data's nearest rivals. The card's percentile ranking of 65th among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22206, places it just 0.5% behind the NVIDIA RTX A400 and 0.9% ahead of the GTX TITAN Z — rivals that are similarly positioned in performance.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU dominating performance at 4K, where even Low settings drop to 66.3 FPS from 110.8 at 1080p. This 44.5 FPS penalty is far larger than the CPU's contribution, confirming that the RTX 2070 SUPER's memory subsystem and compute units are the primary constraint. The Tensor cores (320) and RT cores (40) present in the Turing architecture do not appear to provide measurable benefit in this flight simulator, as the FPS scaling follows a purely resolution-driven pattern. The card's 12 nm process node and 13,600 million transistors also suggest it operates with higher power draw relative to newer GPUs, but the data does not include power measurements to confirm this.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 110.8 FPS average, Medium hits 85.6 FPS, High reaches 62.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 59.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 51.3 FPS, showing that the GPU can handle 1080p even at high presets, though Ultra barely misses the 60 FPS mark.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop across the board. Low yields 86.3 FPS, Medium 71 FPS, High 54.3 FPS, and Ultra 47.3 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 15.3 FPS, while High adds another 16.7 FPS penalty. This resolution shows a clear inflection point: Medium stays above 60 FPS, but High and Ultra fall below, making 1440p a compromise zone.

At 3840x2160, the results are dramatically lower. Low averages 66.3 FPS, Medium 47.8 FPS, High 36.6 FPS, and Ultra 37.8 FPS. Interestingly, Ultra is slightly higher than High at 4K (37.8 vs 36.6), which may indicate measurement variance or that certain Ultra settings have diminishing returns at this resolution. The overall spread from Low to Ultra is 28.5 FPS, far narrower than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is so saturated that preset changes have less impact.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which produce 71 FPS average. High and Ultra fall below 60 FPS, at 54.3 and 47.3 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best 4K preset for this combination?

A: Low settings at 3840x2160 yield 66.3 FPS, which is the only 4K preset above 60 FPS. Medium drops to 47.8 FPS, and High/Ultra fall to 36.6 and 37.8 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The card's average benchmark score of 22206 is 0.5% behind the NVIDIA RTX A400 (22307) and 0.9% ahead of the GTX TITAN Z (22006). It also trails the RTX 4060 Mobile by 2.3% but leads the AMD Radeon RX 5700 by 2.5%.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, where FPS drops proportionally with resolution. At 1080p Low, the 110.8 FPS average indicates the CPU can push higher frame rates, but the GPU's capacity is reached at higher presets.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The gap is 51.3 FPS, with Low at 110.8 FPS and Ultra at 59.5 FPS. This shows a significant performance cost for the highest preset.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1110th out of 1795 combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the benchmark database.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 Vermeer architecture, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz. Its standout feature is the 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is likely why the 3D V-Cache variant excels in simulation games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, where terrain and scenery data are frequently reused. The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce its strength: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22366 and single-core of 3157, with a Geekbench multicore of 10108 and single-core of 1922.

The data shows the CPU is not the bottleneck in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 110.8 FPS, which is high enough to expose GPU limits at higher presets. The CPU's 3DMark max-thread score of 6755 and single-thread score of 804 indicate strong multi-threaded performance that scales well with the game's flight model and physics calculations. Its percentile rank of 82nd among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24673, places it nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-1360P (0.2% ahead) and AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D (0.3% ahead). This suggests the 5700X3D is a well-balanced processor that complements the RTX 2070 SUPER without holding it back.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1110th out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 62nd percentile of all configurations. This rank is notably lower than the CPU's individual percentile (82nd) and the GPU's percentile (65th), indicating that the pairing underperforms relative to what each component might suggest. The gap suggests that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the weaker link, dragging down the overall position despite the CPU's strong showing.

The measured FPS data supports this interpretation. At 1080p, the combo delivers 62.9 FPS on High and 59.5 on Ultra — playable but not exceptional. The 1440p results (54.3 High, 47.3 Ultra) and 4K results (36.6 High, 37.8 Ultra) show a system that struggles at higher resolutions, consistent with a GPU that was released in 2019 and is now end-of-life. The CPU's 96 MB L3 cache may be helping maintain frame consistency in complex scenes, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's 8 GB memory and 9.062 TFLOPS compute limit. Overall, this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p Medium gaming, where it delivers smooth performance without requiring the user to sacrifice too much visual quality.