Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination lands at rank 1253 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field. This pairing of an 8-core, 16-thread Zen 3 processor with a 16.20 TFLOPS Ampere GPU produces playable frame rates at most settings, though 4K Ultra pushes the system to its limits. The data indicates a balanced setup where the CPU’s 96 MB shared L3 cache helps maintain consistency, but the GPU’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: Benchmark results show 1920x1080 delivers the most consistent experience, with average FPS ranging from 103.5 at Low settings to 58.4 at Ultra. At 2560x1440, averages drop to between 77.4 (Low) and 44.5 (High). The 3840x2160 results fall below 60 FPS across all settings, with the best average being 57.5 at Low.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 5800X3D compare to its closest rivals in CPU benchmarks?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score of 26574 places it within 0.2% of the AMD EPYC 8024P (26555) and Intel Core i9-11900K (26546), and it trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 (26617) by 0.2% and the Intel Core i9-12900HK (26672) by 0.4%. The 5800X3D outperforms the EPYC 8024P by 0.1% in average score.

Q: What is the GPU’s standing relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti’s average benchmark score of 25120 is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180) and 0.5% behind both the Radeon RX 6600 (25235) and Radeon 890M (25246). It sits 0.7% behind the Radeon RX 580 2048SP (25287) in aggregate GPU benchmarks.

Q: Is the RTX 3060 Ti sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The data shows 3840x2160 averages of 34.2 FPS at High, 36.0 at Ultra, 45.6 at Medium, and 57.5 at Low. Only the Low preset approaches playable territory, while High and Ultra fall below 40 FPS, suggesting the 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for smooth 4K operation.

Q: How does the CPU’s cache configuration impact gaming performance?

A: The 5800X3D features 96 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 64 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core. This large cache helps mitigate memory latency, which is particularly beneficial in simulation titles that stream data. The CPU’s 3.40 GHz base and 4.50 GHz boost clocks provide adequate single-thread performance, with a 3dmark single-thread score of 884.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking in this game?

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 1253 out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 30th percentile of tested combos, indicating that while it handles 1080p well, it falls behind more powerful pairings at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti operates with a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, built on the GA104 chip with 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s 38 ray tracing cores and 152 tensor cores support DirectX 12 Ultimate, though Microsoft Flight Simulator’s measured results suggest the card is more dependent on raw rasterization throughput.

At 1080p, the GPU delivers 103.5 FPS at Low settings, indicating headroom. Moving to Medium drops the average to 77.2 FPS, and High yields 60.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 26.3 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 16.9 FPS — a pattern that suggests the GPU’s shading units (4864) are sufficient for lower presets but the memory subsystem becomes strained as texture detail increases. At Ultra, the average falls to 58.4 FPS, a 45.1 FPS decline from Low.

The 16.20 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 253.1 GTexel/s texture rate provide adequate compute for the game’s terrain and weather systems. However, the 133.2 GPixel/s pixel rate becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1440p, the GPU averages 77.4 FPS at Low but only 44.5 FPS at High — a 42.5% reduction. At 4K, even Low settings produce just 57.5 FPS, and Ultra dips to 36.0 FPS. These results point to the 8 GB VRAM capacity being the primary bottleneck; the game’s high-resolution textures likely exceed this allocation, forcing the GPU to rely on slower memory paging.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU-GPU combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, this pairing sits at rank 1253 out of 1795 — meaning roughly 542 combos perform worse, while 1252 perform better. This places the setup in the lower 30% of the field, which is notable given the CPU’s strong benchmark position (83rd percentile among all CPUs) and the GPU’s mid-range standing (69th percentile among all GPUs).

The discrepancy between component percentiles and combo ranking suggests the pairing is not optimally balanced for this particular title. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s average benchmark score of 26574 is competitive with the Intel Core i9-11900K (26546) and AMD Ryzen 5 7600 (26617), yet the RTX 3060 Ti’s 25120 average score trails the Radeon RX 6600 (25235). In a flight simulator that is known to stress both CPU and GPU, the GPU’s performance ceiling limits the overall combo despite the CPU’s capability.

Benchmark results show the CPU’s multi-threaded performance is strong: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 24063, and 3dmark max-thread score is 7285. The GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 20349 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2626 reflect its mid-range positioning. When paired, these components produce frame rates that are playable at 1080p but struggle to maintain 60 FPS at 1440p High or any 4K preset except Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low settings produce 103.5 FPS, Medium yields 77.2 FPS, High achieves 60.3 FPS, and Ultra delivers 58.4 FPS. The step from Low to Medium represents a 25.4% performance drop, while Medium to High costs another 21.9%. The High-to-Ultra transition is minimal at just 3.1%, suggesting the game’s Ultra preset adds little GPU load beyond High at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, all settings see significant reductions. Low averages 77.4 FPS, Medium drops to 62.3 FPS, High falls to 44.5 FPS, and Ultra manages 47.9 FPS. Notably, Ultra outperforms High by 3.4 FPS at this resolution, which may indicate variability in the game’s rendering pipeline rather than a true performance inversion. The Low-to-Medium gap narrows to 15.1 FPS (19.5%), while Medium-to-High costs 17.8 FPS (28.6%).

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 57.5 FPS, Medium at 45.6 FPS, High at 34.2 FPS, and Ultra at 36.0 FPS. Here, Ultra again edges out High by 1.8 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 11.9 FPS (20.7%), and Medium-to-High is 11.4 FPS (25.0%). Only the Low preset breaks 50 FPS at 4K, and no preset reaches 60 FPS. These numbers indicate the RTX 3060 Ti’s 8 GB memory capacity is overwhelmed by 4K resolution demands, regardless of settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals how the system scales across resolutions. At Low settings, the progression is 103.5 FPS at 1080p, 77.4 FPS at 1440p, and 57.5 FPS at 4K. This represents a 25.2% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 25.7% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 44.4%, which is less severe than what pure GPU-bound scaling would predict — a sign that the CPU is still contributing to frame rate at lower settings.

At High settings, the scaling is steeper: 60.3 FPS at 1080p, 44.5 FPS at 1440p, and 34.2 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 26.2%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 23.1%. Total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 43.3%. This pattern suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, with the CPU’s 8 cores and 4.50 GHz boost clock providing sufficient headroom.

The scaling behavior indicates a balanced bottleneck. At 1080p, the CPU’s 96 MB L3 cache helps maintain high frame rates, but the GPU’s pixel rate and memory bandwidth cap performance at higher resolutions. The 4K results, particularly the 34.2 FPS at High, demonstrate that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The GPU’s 448.0 GB/s bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM are the clear constraints, as the CPU’s benchmark scores (Cinebench R23 multicore 24063, single-core 3397) indicate it can handle the game’s simulation logic even at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer codename), built on TSMC’s 7 nm process with 8,850 million transistors on a 74 mm² die. It operates at a 3.40 GHz base clock and 4.50 GHz boost clock, with a 105 W TDP. The CPU’s defining feature is its 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is significantly larger than typical desktop processors and helps reduce memory latency in data-intensive workloads.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5800X3D scores 24063 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3397 in single-core. Its 3dmark scores show scaling: 1746 for 2 threads, 3392 for 4 threads, 5906 for 8 threads, 7299 for 16 threads, and 7285 for max threads. The near-identical 16-thread and max-thread scores indicate the CPU is fully utilized at 16 threads, which aligns with its 8-core/16-thread design. Geekbench results of 11061 multicore and 2116 single-core further confirm its strong performance.

For Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU’s role is to handle the simulation’s physics, weather, and AI systems. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (103.5 FPS) suggests the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU is not constrained. However, the combo ranking of 1253 out of 1795 indicates that this CPU’s capabilities are not fully utilized in most scenarios, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher settings and resolutions. The CPU’s 83rd percentile rank among all CPUs, versus the GPU’s 69th percentile, highlights this imbalance. The 5800X3D’s nearest CPU rivals — the EPYC 8024P and Core i9-11900K — show nearly identical average scores (26555 and 26546 respectively), confirming that this processor is competitive with high-end options from other platforms. Yet the RTX 3060 Ti’s 0.2-0.7% deficit against its own rivals means the overall combo cannot escape the GPU’s mid-range ceiling in this game.