Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: This combination ranks 510th out of 3,714 tested combos in the benchmark database for this game, placing it in the top 14% of all tested configurations.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest recorded average is 182 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest average is 64 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the GPU's VRAM capacity relate to this game's performance?

A: The Radeon RX 7900 XTX features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. This large memory pool ensures that Microsoft Flight Simulator's extensive texture streaming and large scenery data do not hit VRAM capacity limits, as evidenced by the consistent performance across all tested settings.

Q: What are the CPU's core and thread counts, and how do they affect the game?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800X has 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This configuration provides strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for the simulation's main thread, while the additional threads handle background tasks like scenery loading and AI traffic.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 114 on Low to 64 on Ultra, a 50 FPS reduction. This indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution when settings are maxed out.

Q: Does the combo perform better at 1080p or 4K relative to other tested systems?

A: The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 182 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 64 FPS. The rank of 510 out of 3,714 suggests that while the system is strong at higher resolutions, its relative advantage shrinks at lower resolutions where CPU limitations become more prominent.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX achieves a combo rank of 510 out of 3,714 tested configurations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the system comfortably in the upper echelon of tested hardware, outperforming approximately 86% of all recorded combos. The rank reflects a balance between the CPU's strong single-threaded capabilities and the GPU's massive memory bandwidth and compute resources.

Breaking down the rank, the CPU sits at the 81st percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 29,123. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H (0.1% faster), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (0.6% slower), and the Intel Core i5-13500HX (0.5% slower). This indicates the 5800X is a mid-to-high-tier performer in synthetic tests, but its real-world gaming performance depends heavily on the workload.

The GPU ranks at the 64th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 19,410. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (0.4% slower), the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (1% faster), and the AMD FirePro D300 (1.2% faster). This percentile is notably lower than the CPU's, suggesting that the GPU, while powerful, is not as dominant in synthetic benchmarks as its specs might imply.

In the context of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the combo's rank of 510 is driven by the game's unique demands. The simulation is notoriously CPU-bound at lower resolutions, where the 5800X's 8 cores and 16 threads must handle the complex flight model and scenery generation. At higher resolutions and settings, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor, and the 7900 XTX's 24 GB of VRAM and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth allow it to maintain solid frame rates without stuttering from memory pressure.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 6,144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 render output units, along with 96 ray tracing cores. The GPU's clocks are set at a base of 1,929 MHz, a game clock of 2,365 MHz, and a boost clock of 2,498 MHz, with memory running at 2,500 MHz (20 Gbps effective).

Memory is a standout feature: 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus delivers 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams high-resolution terrain and aircraft models continuously. The game's Ultra settings at 4K demand large texture uploads, and the 7900 XTX's memory subsystem handles this without stutter, as indicated by the 64 FPS average at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial: 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 122.8 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio). Pixel rate is 479.6 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 959.2 GTexel/s. These figures translate to strong fill rates that keep the game's complex cockpit and landscape rendering smooth. The GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with the simulator's modern rendering pipeline.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 7900 XTX scores 31,238 in Passmark G3D, 6,841 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, and 85,612 in Geekbench Vulkan. These scores place it at the 64th percentile of all GPUs, which is lower than expected given its specifications. This suggests that the card's performance in synthetic tests is not fully indicative of its gaming potential, especially in a title like Microsoft Flight Simulator that stresses both raw compute and memory bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator are as follows, with all data points captured as average FPS unless otherwise noted:

At 1920x1080:

• Low settings: 182 FPS average
• Medium settings: 149 FPS average (min 127, max 172)
• High settings: 112 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 107 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low settings: 155 FPS average
• Medium settings: 120 FPS average (min 102, max 138)
• High settings: 91 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 86 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low settings: 114 FPS average
• Medium settings: 89 FPS average (min 76, max 102)
• High settings: 67 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 64 FPS average

The data reveals a clear pattern: at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 75 FPS (182 vs. 107), while at 4K, the difference narrows to 50 FPS (114 vs. 64). This indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough frames, but the GPU's performance scales with settings. At 4K, the GPU becomes more of a bottleneck, but the gap between settings shrinks because the GPU is already working near its limit.

The Medium settings at each resolution provide the only min/max data points. At 1080p Medium, the frame rate ranges from 127 to 172 FPS, a 45 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range is 102 to 138 FPS (36 FPS spread), and at 4K Medium, the range is 76 to 102 FPS (26 FPS spread). The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that frame time consistency improves as the GPU becomes more uniformly loaded, reducing spikes that cause variance.

Resolution Scaling

Analyzing the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system scales with resolution. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 182 at 1080p to 114 at 4K, a 37% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 149 to 89, a 40% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 112 to 67, a 40% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 107 to 64, a 40% reduction.

The consistency of this 37-40% drop across all settings is telling. It indicates that the GPU's rendering load scales nearly linearly with pixel count, while the CPU's contribution remains relatively constant. The fact that the drop percentage does not increase from 1080p to 4K suggests that the CPU is not becoming a more significant bottleneck at higher resolutions; rather, the GPU is the primary limiter throughout.

However, the absolute FPS numbers tell a different story. At 1080p Low, the 182 FPS average is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most monitors, meaning the CPU is likely the limiting factor at this resolution. At 4K Ultra, the 64 FPS average is below 60 FPS only marginally, but the system is clearly GPU-bound. The transition point appears to be around 1440p, where the system balances CPU and GPU loads more evenly.

The scaling behavior suggests that for this combo, the 7900 XTX has enough headroom at 1080p to push frame rates high, but the 5800X's single-threaded performance (a 3DMark single-thread score of 943 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,574.5) becomes the ceiling. At 4K, the GPU's 24 GB of VRAM and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth prevent memory-limited stutters, but the sheer pixel count reduces performance to playable levels.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is a Zen 3 architecture part, codenamed Vermeer, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it features a 32 MB L3 cache, 512 KB L2 per core, and 64 KB L1 per core.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5800X scores 15,476 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,574.5 in single-core. Its 3DMark scores are 7,586 for 16 threads, 6,035 for 8 threads, 3,543 for 4 threads, and 943 for single-thread. Passmark scores include 27,732 for multi-thread and 3,445 for single-thread. These numbers place the CPU at the 81st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29,123.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's single-threaded performance is paramount. The game's core simulation loop runs on a single thread, and the 5800X's boost clock of 4.70 GHz provides the necessary speed to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions. The 3DMark single-thread score of 943 is competitive, and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,574.5 shows strong IPC improvements over earlier Zen architectures.

The multi-threaded performance is also relevant, as the simulator offloads tasks like scenery loading, AI traffic, and weather to additional threads. The 16 threads of the 5800X handle these background processes without impacting the main thread's performance. The Passmark multi-thread score of 27,732 and the 3DMark max-thread score of 7,578 indicate that the CPU can sustain high throughput under load.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H (0.1% faster), the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 (0.4% slower), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (0.6% slower). These close margins suggest that the 5800X is well-positioned in its performance tier, but not class-leading. In the context of this game, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU efficiently, and the data shows that it does so effectively up to 1440p, after which the GPU becomes the limiting factor.