Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER demonstrates a distinct performance profile in Microsoft Flight Simulator, a title known for its demanding rendering of vast landscapes and detailed aircraft. The dataset places this specific hardware combination at rank 1067 out of 1795 tested combinations in this game, indicating a solidly mid-pack position. The CPU holds an 84th percentile ranking against all processors, while the GPU sits at the 65th percentile against all graphics cards, suggesting that the pairing leans on the processor to maintain frame rates, especially at lower resolutions. The measured frame rates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions reveal a system that can handle the simulation smoothly at moderate settings but begins to strain as detail levels and pixel counts rise simultaneously.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 112.1 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. This is the only configuration in the measured data that exceeds the 110 FPS mark, highlighting how much headroom exists when graphical load is minimized.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 5800X compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800X posts an average benchmark score of 27606. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, scores 27535, which places the 5800X a marginal 0.3% ahead. In contrast, the Intel Core i5-12600KF scores 27827, putting the 5800X 0.8% behind that part.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields an average of 90.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops that figure to 50.4 FPS. This represents a reduction of 40.2 FPS, or roughly a 44% decrease in average frame rate when moving between the two extreme settings presets.

Q: Does the RTX 2070 SUPER outperform or lag behind the RTX 4060 Mobile in average GPU score?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 22206, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile scores 22729. The desktop card trails the mobile chip by 2.3% in this metric, a relatively small gap that indicates comparable raw compute performance despite generational differences.

Q: Which resolution shows the smallest absolute FPS drop between Medium and High settings?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset averages 49.6 FPS and High averages 39.8 FPS, a gap of 9.8 FPS. This is the smallest absolute difference between those two presets across all resolutions, suggesting that at 4K the GPU is the limiting factor regardless of the incremental setting change.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded performance?

A: In Cinebench R23, the Ryzen 7 5800X scores 23571 in the multicore test and 3327 in the single-core test. The multicore score is roughly 7.1 times higher, demonstrating the scaling efficiency of its 8 cores and 16 threads, which is relevant for a simulator that can utilize multiple threads for physics and scenery loading.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its base clock runs at 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and memory operates at an effective speed of 14 Gbps. The card's raw specifications list an FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s, along with 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. In the context of Microsoft Flight Simulator, these resources handle the rendering of terrain, aircraft models, and dynamic lighting, but the data shows that the GPU is often the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The average benchmark score for the RTX 2070 SUPER is 22206, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Compared to its nearest rivals, it sits 0.9% ahead of the older GTX TITAN Z and 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5700, but trails the RTX 4060 Mobile by 2.3%. Within the measured FPS data, the GPU's influence becomes clear when examining the scaling from Low to Ultra settings. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 112.1 FPS, but the Ultra preset drops to 63.8 FPS, a 48.3 FPS reduction that points to the GPU struggling with the increased shader complexity and texture loads. The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is sufficient for the tested presets, but the card's compute throughput is what limits ultra-high detail at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the High preset, the average FPS drops from 67.3 to 53.6, a reduction of 13.7 FPS. Continuing to 3840x2160 brings the average down further to 39.8 FPS, another 13.8 FPS drop. This linear decline indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary limiting component at these settings, as the pixel count increases directly strain the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth.

However, the scaling behavior changes dramatically when using the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 112.1 FPS, but at 1440p Low it falls to 90.6 FPS, and at 4K Low it reaches 62.1 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is roughly 44.6%, whereas the drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is also significant at 40.9%. This similarity suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU is still the bottleneck at 4K. The data implies that at 1080p Low, the Ryzen 7 5800X has enough headroom to push frame rates above 100, but as resolution climbs, the GPU's workload increases proportionally, reducing the CPU's influence. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 63.8 FPS at 1080p, 50.4 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K, showing that the most demanding settings leave little room for resolution scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest performance across all presets. The Low preset averages 112.1 FPS, which is the only score above 100 in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 89 FPS, offering a significant step up in visual fidelity while still maintaining high fluidity. The High preset records 67.3 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 63.8 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 21.7 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 3.5 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns on the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low averages 90.6 FPS, maintaining a very playable experience. Medium averages 72.2 FPS, which is still smooth for a flight simulator. High averages 53.6 FPS, dipping below the 60 FPS threshold that many users prefer. Ultra averages 50.4 FPS, showing that the GPU is nearing its limits. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 40.2 FPS, a substantial range that gives users clear options for balancing visuals against performance.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more constrained. Low averages 62.1 FPS, just above the 60 FPS mark, while Medium averages 49.6 FPS. High averages 39.8 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. The data indicates that 4K gaming with this combination requires Low or Medium settings to maintain a smooth experience, as High and Ultra both fall below 40 FPS. The delta between Medium and High at 4K is 9.8 FPS, while the delta between High and Ultra is 2.8 FPS, reinforcing that the last step in settings provides minimal gains at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based strictly on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution and the user's tolerance for visual fidelity versus frame rate smoothness. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset stands out as the best balance, offering 89 FPS on average. This is nearly 30 FPS higher than the High preset while still providing a substantial upgrade over Low in terms of visual quality. The Ultra preset at 63.8 FPS is playable but offers only a marginal improvement over High, making it a less efficient choice.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again appears to be the sweet spot, delivering 72.2 FPS. This keeps the experience comfortably above 60 FPS, which is critical for a simulation that requires precise control inputs. The Low preset at 90.6 FPS offers more headroom but sacrifices too much visual detail. High at 53.6 FPS and Ultra at 50.4 FPS are both below the 60 FPS threshold, making them less desirable for a consistent experience, though some users may prefer the higher fidelity at the cost of smoothness.

At 3840x2160, the only preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS is Low, at 62.1 FPS. Medium trails at 49.6 FPS, which is still acceptable for a flight simulator where frame rates can vary during complex scenery loading. High and Ultra at 39.8 and 37 FPS respectively are borderline playable but may introduce noticeable stutter in dense areas. For 4K users, the Medium preset provides the best compromise between visual detail and playable frame rates, while those prioritizing smoothness should select Low. The data shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER is not capable of handling Ultra settings at 4K with this CPU, but the combination performs admirably at lower resolutions with medium-to-high settings.