Microsoft Flight Simulator

The benchmark data for Microsoft Flight Simulator on the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination reveals a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution, with the CPU providing a robust foundation. The measured frames per second across twelve configurations show a clear hierarchy where the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck as resolution and visual fidelity increase. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, component roles, and overall standing of this combo among the 1,795 tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a classic GPU-bound scenario, particularly at higher settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 182.3 FPS, which drops to 146.1 FPS at 1440p and 107.7 FPS at 4K. This represents a 40.9% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical load, the resolution increase places significant stress on the rendering pipeline. The drop is more pronounced at Medium settings, where 1080p yields 142.9 FPS, 1440p yields 112.1 FPS, and 4K yields 83.6 FPS — a 41.5% decrease from the lowest to highest resolution.

The High preset shows a slightly different pattern. At 1080p, the system produces 108.4 FPS, which falls to 88.2 FPS at 1440p and 59.5 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure is notably close to the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that this resolution is the practical ceiling for smooth gameplay at High settings. The Ultra preset reinforces this trend: 104.3 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 57.2 FPS at 4K. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 2.3 FPS (59.5 vs 57.2), while the difference at 1080p is 4.1 FPS (108.4 vs 104.3). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming saturated, and additional graphical complexity has diminishing returns on frame rate.

The data shows that the limiting component shifts depending on the configuration. At 1080p Low, the CPU likely has more headroom, allowing the GPU to push high frame rates. However, as resolution climbs to 4K, the pixel throughput demand overwhelms the GPU, making it the definitive bottleneck. The fact that 4K Ultra (57.2 FPS) is only 3.8% slower than 4K High (59.5 FPS) suggests that the GPU is already at its limit, and the extra load from Ultra settings cannot be fully rendered. Conversely, the jump from 1080p Low (182.3 FPS) to 1080p Medium (142.9 FPS) is a 21.6% drop, showing that the GPU is still responsive to settings changes at lower resolutions, where the CPU can feed it more frames.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 88.2 at 2560x1440 with High settings, placing it well above the 60 FPS playability threshold and indicating a smooth experience for most flight scenarios.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 57.2 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it reaches 104.3 FPS. This is a 45.1% reduction in frame rate, highlighting the massive pixel workload increase at 4K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: At 1080p Low, the system achieves 182.3 FPS, the highest recorded in this dataset. This high frame rate suggests the GPU is not fully saturated, and the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the graphics card without becoming the primary limiting factor.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset averages 112.1 FPS, while High averages 88.2 FPS at 1440p. The 23.9 FPS difference shows that the High preset introduces a substantial rendering load, likely from increased draw distances and texture detail.

Q: Does the combo rank high among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 297th out of 1,795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 16.5% of all configurations. This indicates strong overall performance for Microsoft Flight Simulator, though not at the absolute top tier.

Q: How does the GPU's memory bandwidth affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. The 4K results, ranging from 57.2 to 107.7 FPS, show that the memory subsystem is adequate for high-resolution textures, but the core GPU processing limits frame rates at Ultra settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary driver of frame rate variability in this dataset. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the high-resolution textures in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The GPU's 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores are present, but the benchmark results do not isolate their specific impact on this title. The base clock of 1980 MHz and boost clock of 2475 MHz are the operational frequencies, and the measured FPS data reflects the sustained performance under load.

The GPU's role becomes more critical as resolution increases. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 104.3 (Ultra) to 182.3 (Low), showing that the GPU can handle the pixel count with ease. However, at 4K, the same settings yield 57.2 to 107.7 FPS. The 4K Low result of 107.7 FPS is telling: it shows that the GPU can still produce high frame rates at 4K if the graphical complexity is reduced. This indicates that the GPU's raw shading power (35.48 TFLOPS FP32) is not the sole bottleneck; rather, the combination of resolution and settings determines the load. The 4K Ultra score of 57.2 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, suggesting that the GPU is at its limit for this configuration.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 42576 places it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA RTX A6000 at a -0.2% delta. This positioning suggests that the RTX 4070 SUPER is a high-performing part, but there are faster options. In this game, the GPU's performance is consistent with its general benchmark standing, as the combo's rank is not exceptionally high or low. The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, particularly at High and Ultra settings, where the frame rates cluster around 57-59 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 297th out of 1,795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 16.5% of all configurations, indicating a strong, but not elite, standing. The rank is a composite measure of the system's ability to handle the game's demands across all tested resolutions and settings. Given that the GPU is in the 84th percentile and the CPU is in the 86th percentile, the combo's rank is slightly below what the individual components' percentiles might suggest, implying that the game's specific workload does not fully utilize both components' strengths.

The nearest rival combos would likely include systems with similar CPU-GPU pairings, but the data does not provide specific rival combo names. The combo's rank of 297 suggests that there are 296 configurations that perform better, likely featuring higher-tier GPUs or CPUs with more cores or faster clocks. The gap to the top is not quantified, but the percentile placements of the components (86th for CPU, 84th for GPU) indicate that this is a high-midrange to upper-midrange setup. The rank is consistent with the measured FPS results, which show solid performance at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K Ultra dips below 60 FPS, preventing the combo from reaching a higher rank.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT provides the computational backbone for this system, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz are respectable for a 5000-series part, and the 32 MB of L3 cache helps with data-heavy workloads like flight simulation. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23794 and a single-core score of 3359. These numbers indicate that the CPU can handle both multi-threaded tasks (like physics and AI) and single-threaded tasks (like game logic) effectively.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is to manage the simulation's complex world data, including terrain, weather, and aircraft systems. The 16 threads are beneficial for parallel processing, but the game's engine may not scale perfectly with all threads. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (182.3 FPS) shows that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at high rates, but the 4K results (e.g., 57.2 FPS at Ultra) suggest that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions. The CPU's percentile ranking of 86th places it above average, with its nearest rivals like the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (avg score 29856, delta -0.3%) being very close in performance.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 29774 is nearly identical to its rivals, with deltas of only ±0.3%. This indicates that the 5800XT is competitive with newer mobile and desktop parts, but it does not offer a significant advantage. In this game, the CPU's performance is sufficient to avoid being the primary limiting factor at any resolution, as the FPS scaling is more closely tied to GPU load. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the CPU can drive high frame rates, but as resolution increases, the GPU's workload takes precedence, and the CPU's role diminishes in terms of frame rate impact.