Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator — AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

This combination of AMD's 8-core Zen 3 processor and NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell GPU produces a fascinating dataset in Microsoft Flight Simulator, where the measured frame rates reveal a system that scales unusually well across resolutions but shows distinct behavior at each settings tier. The data shows a top-54 finish out of 2,996 tested combos, placing this pairing in the top 2% of all configurations tested, yet the pattern of results across resolutions and presets suggests that this simulator's workload behaves differently from typical first-person shooters or action titles.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a surprisingly gentle scaling curve when moving from 1080p to 4K, which is unusual for a GPU as powerful as the RTX 5090 D. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 149 FPS at 1920x1080 to 120 FPS at 2560x1440, then further to 88 FPS at 3840x2160 — that represents a 41% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is notably less severe than the 75% pixel count increase would suggest. This indicates that the RTX 5090 D has substantial headroom even at 4K, and the bottleneck shifts toward other system components.

The Low settings row tells an even more revealing story: 187 FPS at 1080p, 174 FPS at 1440p, and 151 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is only 36 FPS, or roughly 19%, which is remarkably small given the fourfold pixel difference between those resolutions. This pattern strongly implies that at lower settings, the CPU becomes a limiting factor — the Ryzen 7 5800XT's 8 cores and 16 threads are being taxed by the simulation workload, and reducing resolution does little to improve frame rates because the CPU-side calculations remain constant.

When examining the Medium preset, the scaling shows intermediate behavior: 170 FPS at 1080p, 159 FPS at 1440p, and 118 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K here is 41 FPS, which is actually steeper than the equivalent drop at High settings (32 FPS). This nonlinear behavior suggests that the Medium preset at 4K is hitting a different resource ceiling — possibly memory bandwidth or fill-rate limitations that become more pronounced at higher pixel counts.

The Ultra preset exhibits the tightest scaling of all: 142 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 84 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K reduction is 58 FPS, or about 41%, which mirrors the High preset's scaling percentage. This consistency between High and Ultra at the resolution extremes suggests that once the visual complexity reaches a certain threshold, the GPU's workload scales more predictably with pixel count, whereas the Low and Medium presets are more heavily influenced by other factors.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers clear guidance on which preset delivers the optimal balance of visual quality and performance for this specific hardware combination. At 4K, the Medium preset achieves 118 FPS average with a minimum of 100 FPS and maximum of 135 FPS — this is the only 4K preset with reported minimum and maximum values, indicating a more stable frame delivery profile. The jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 30 FPS (118 to 88), while High to Ultra costs only 4 FPS (88 to 84). This asymmetric scaling suggests that High and Ultra are extracting diminishing returns at 4K, and the Medium preset offers the best playable experience at that resolution.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 159 FPS with a minimum of 135 FPS and maximum of 182 FPS, which represents the strongest combination of smoothness and visual fidelity in the dataset. The High preset at 1440p drops to 120 FPS, and Ultra falls to 114 FPS — both playable, but the Medium preset's 159 FPS average with a 135 FPS floor provides substantially more headroom for demanding flight scenarios with dense scenery or complex weather.

For 1080p, the Low preset achieves the highest measured average at 187 FPS, but the Medium preset at 170 FPS (with 145 minimum and 196 maximum) is arguably the better choice given the modest 17 FPS penalty for significantly improved visuals. The High preset at 1080p delivers 149 FPS, and Ultra achieves 142 FPS — the latter being remarkably close to High, suggesting that at 1080p, the Ultra preset's additional visual features come at a very small performance cost for this GPU.

The data indicates that the Medium preset is the sweet spot across all three resolutions, consistently offering the best frame-time consistency as evidenced by the reported minimum values. At 4K, the 100 FPS minimum ensures the experience remains fluid even during complex scenes, while at 1440p and 1080p, the minimums of 135 and 145 FPS respectively provide substantial buffer above typical display refresh rates.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D brings formidable specifications to this title, and the measured results reflect both its strengths and the game's utilization patterns. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, memory capacity is effectively a non-issue for Microsoft Flight Simulator at any resolution or setting — the game's extensive terrain and aircraft data can be cached without concern for VRAM exhaustion. The GPU's 21760 shading units and 680 texture mapping units provide immense raw compute, with peak FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS.

The clock behavior matters here: the base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz represent a modest 19% boost overhead, and in a simulation title that may not always saturate the GPU, the actual sustained clocks could vary. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (84 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (142 FPS) shows the GPU scaling with resolution, but the relatively small gap between High and Ultra at each resolution (4-8 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not heavily taxing the GPU's resources.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712, places it near the top of the performance hierarchy. Interestingly, its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (deltaPct -1.6) and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants, but the RTX 5090 D's real-world gaming performance in this simulator is what the measured FPS captures. The 176 ROPs and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are relevant for the high-resolution rendering, and the data suggests that at 4K, the GPU is still not the primary bottleneck given the relatively modest FPS drops compared to pixel count increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows: Low 187 FPS, Medium 170 FPS (minimum 145, maximum 196), High 149 FPS, and Ultra 142 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 45 FPS, representing a 24% performance penalty for maximum visual quality. The Medium preset's minimum of 145 FPS is notably higher than the High preset's average of 149 FPS, indicating that frame consistency at Medium is excellent.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results are: Low 174 FPS, Medium 159 FPS (minimum 135, maximum 182), High 120 FPS, and Ultra 114 FPS. The Medium-to-High drop of 39 FPS is the largest single-step reduction in the entire dataset, suggesting that the High preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately impact performance at this resolution. The 1440p Ultra result of 114 FPS is only 4 FPS below High, reinforcing the pattern that High and Ultra are closely grouped.

At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low 151 FPS, Medium 118 FPS (minimum 100, maximum 135), High 88 FPS, and Ultra 84 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop of 33 FPS is substantial, but the Medium-to-High drop of 30 FPS is nearly identical — this consistent step size suggests each preset tier adds a similar computational burden at 4K. The Ultra preset at 84 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, yet it remains comfortably playable.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 54 out of 2,996 tested configurations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places the system in the 98.2nd percentile of all tested combos, which is an exceptional result. The ranking reflects the synergy between the CPU and GPU in this particular game — the Ryzen 7 5800XT's 8-core/16-thread configuration with 32 MB of shared L3 cache provides sufficient processing power to keep the RTX 5090 D fed with simulation data.

Given that the GPU alone ranks in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, the combo's 98th percentile ranking indicates that the processor choice boosts the overall performance beyond what the GPU alone would suggest. The CPU's average benchmark score of 29,879 places it at the 81st percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals in synthetic testing include the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (deltaPct 0) and AMD Ryzen 5 9600X (deltaPct 0.6) — but in this simulator, the combination with the RTX 5090 D produces a top-54 result that few systems can match.

The data indicates that the combo rank benefits from the balanced nature of this pairing: the CPU is not so weak that it bottlenecks the GPU at lower resolutions, nor is the GPU so overpowered that it idles at higher settings. The top-54 finish out of nearly 3,000 combos suggests that very few hardware combinations can deliver the frame rates measured here across all resolution and settings combinations.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT, based on the Zen 3 Vermeer architecture on TSMC's 7 nm process, provides 8 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is particularly relevant for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which processes vast amounts of terrain and aircraft data that benefit from fast cache access. The CPU's 105 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth represent a mature platform that may be a limiting factor in extreme scenarios.

The measured FPS data reveals the CPU's influence most clearly at Low settings: 187 FPS at 1080p, 174 FPS at 1440p, and 151 FPS at 4K. The relatively small variation across resolutions at Low settings — a 36 FPS spread from 1080p to 4K — indicates that the CPU is the primary constraint when the GPU is underutilized. The 8-core/16-thread configuration handles the simulation's multithreaded workload competently, as evidenced by the 3DMark 16-thread score of 7,683 and the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23,794.

The CPU's single-thread performance, measured at 959 in 3DMark single-thread and 3,359 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is critical for the game's main thread, which handles flight physics and input processing. The boost clock of 4.80 GHz provides strong single-core throughput, and the data suggests this is sufficient to avoid severe bottlenecks at higher resolutions. However, the gap between Low and Medium presets at 1080p (187 to 170 FPS, a 17 FPS drop) versus the same comparison at 4K (151 to 118 FPS, a 33 FPS drop) indicates that the CPU becomes less dominant as resolution increases and the GPU workload grows.

The CPU's percentile ranking at 81 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29,879, places it as a solid mid-range performer in synthetic tests. Its nearest rivals include mobile processors like the Ryzen 7 7840H and 8845HS, which have similar average scores but different power envelopes. In this desktop configuration, the 5800XT's sustained performance potential is realized, and the measured game results confirm that it pairs effectively with a flagship GPU.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1440p Medium delivers 159 FPS average with a 135 FPS minimum, offering the best combination of frame rate and visual quality. At 4K, Medium achieves 118 FPS with a 100 FPS minimum, which remains playable but with less headroom.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to Low?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 45 FPS lower than Low (142 vs 187 FPS). At 1440p, the gap is 60 FPS (114 vs 174 FPS). At 4K, Ultra is 67 FPS lower than Low (84 vs 151 FPS). The Ultra penalty grows with resolution.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D bottlenecked by the Ryzen 7 5800XT?

A: At Low settings, the small FPS difference between 1080p and 4K (187 vs 151 FPS) suggests CPU limitation. At Medium and above, the larger resolution-based FPS drops indicate the GPU becomes the primary driver, so the CPU bottleneck is mainly at lower settings.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K with High settings?

A: The measured average is 88 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings. This is 30 FPS below the Medium preset's 118 FPS but only 4 FPS above Ultra's 84 FPS, making High a reasonable choice if visual fidelity is prioritized.

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

A: It ranks 54th out of 2,996 tested combos, placing it in the top 2%. The GPU alone ranks in the 92nd percentile among GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 81st percentile among CPUs.

Q: Which settings preset has the best frame consistency?

A: Medium is the only preset with reported minimum and maximum values at every resolution: 145-196 FPS at 1080p, 135-182 FPS at 1440p, and 100-135 FPS at 4K. This consistency suggests Medium provides the most stable frame delivery.