Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator presents one of the most demanding real-time rendering workloads in gaming, and this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER produces a dataset that clearly separates the CPU’s simulation logic from the GPU’s rasterization burden. The measured frames per second across three resolutions and four quality presets show a system with substantial headroom at lower settings, but one that also hits a notable ceiling when the simulator’s ultra preset is combined with 4K output. The data indicates a configuration where the GPU is the primary constraint at high resolutions, while the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance keeps frame rates high at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo, and at which settings?

A: The maximum average of 207.2 FPS occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. This is a significant jump from the Medium preset at the same resolution, which averages 163.9 FPS.

Q: How much of a performance drop is seen when moving from 1080p to 4K on the High preset?

A: The average frame rate falls from 119.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 69.3 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a reduction of roughly 42% in average FPS, indicating a heavy scaling cost at higher pixel counts.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor based on the benchmark scores?

A: The CPU’s percentile rank among all CPUs is 91, while the GPU’s percentile rank is 88. Both are high-end parts, but the CPU’s slightly higher relative standing suggests it is less likely to be the bottleneck in most scenarios.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 7700 compare to its closest rival in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700 has an average benchmark score of 40,468, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H. It also outperforms the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T by 1.2%.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between the Ultra and Low presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 94.3 FPS, while the Low preset averages 167.9 FPS. The difference of 73.6 FPS shows a substantial performance cost for the highest visual quality.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER have a higher or lower average benchmark score than the RTX 5070 Ti?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53,610, which is 2.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which scores 52,086.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams vast amounts of terrain and scenery data. The GPU’s 10,240 shading units and 112 ROPs are tasked with rendering the complex geometry and lighting, and the boost clock of 2550 MHz helps maintain throughput. The data shows that at 3840x2160, the GPU is the dominant factor; the average FPS at Ultra is 70.7, which is only marginally higher than the High preset’s 69.3 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the gap between High and Ultra is not about raw pixel pushing but rather about specific effects that have a minimal impact on the average frame rate. The GPU’s performance relative to its rivals is strong, as it leads the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT by 0.2% and the Radeon RX 7700S by 2.1% in average benchmark scores.

Resolution Scaling

The progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a clear scaling pattern that is heavily influenced by the GPU. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 207.2 at 1080p to 122.2 at 4K, a 41% reduction. This is a significant drop, but the frame rate remains highly playable. The Medium preset shows a similar trend, falling from 163.9 FPS to 98 FPS. The High preset exhibits the most pronounced scaling penalty in absolute terms, with the average FPS dropping from 119.7 to 69.3. At the Ultra preset, the 4K average of 70.7 FPS is only 49.1 FPS lower than the 1080p result of 119.8 FPS. This data implies that as resolution increases, the RTX 4080 SUPER’s pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor. The fact that the 4K Ultra result (70.7 FPS) is closer to the 4K High result (69.3 FPS) than to the 1440p High result (98.3 FPS) underscores that the GPU’s compute resources are saturated at 4K, making the settings choice less impactful at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 7 7700 and RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 97th out of 1,795 total combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 5.4% of all tested systems, which is a strong result given the simulator’s notorious demands. The high rank is likely a product of the balance between the CPU’s high single-threaded performance and the GPU’s substantial memory bandwidth. The data shows that the system is not held back by a weak link, as both components are in the 88th to 91st percentile of their respective categories. This rank suggests that for users with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors or 4K displays with adaptive sync, this combo will provide a smooth experience across most settings, with only the most demanding Ultra 4K scenarios requiring some compromises.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. For Microsoft Flight Simulator, the single-threaded performance is particularly important, as the simulation logic for flight dynamics and AI traffic often runs on a limited number of threads. The CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1,049 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,136 suggest strong per-core performance that can handle these simulation tasks. The multi-threaded capability, demonstrated by the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29,302, is also relevant for loading scenery and processing weather data across multiple cores. The CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial when the game accesses the large world data. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 207.2 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s limit for generating draw calls, as the GPU has ample headroom at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread of performance. The Low preset averages 207.2 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 163.9 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are nearly identical, with averages of 119.7 and 119.8 FPS respectively. This suggests that the High and Ultra presets at 1080p are constrained by the same factor, likely the CPU’s ability to process the game’s simulation updates.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 167.9 FPS for Low, 132.8 FPS for Medium, 98.3 FPS for High, and 94.3 FPS for Ultra. The drop from High to Ultra is only 4 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset adds effects that are not heavily taxing at this resolution. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent reduction of roughly 20-25% across all presets, which aligns with the increase in pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the results compress further. The Low preset averages 122.2 FPS, Medium averages 98 FPS, High averages 69.3 FPS, and Ultra averages 70.7 FPS. The inversion where Ultra scores slightly higher than High at 4K is a data point that suggests either measurement variance or that the High preset’s specific settings are less optimized for 4K. The key observation is that the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 51.5 FPS, which is smaller than the 87.4 FPS gap seen at 1080p, confirming the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the most efficient path to a high frame rate is the Medium preset at 1440p, which delivers an average of 132.8 FPS. This provides a significant performance advantage over the High preset’s 98.3 FPS while likely maintaining a visually acceptable level of detail for a flight simulator, where peripheral detail is less critical than cockpit clarity. For users with a 4K display, the Low preset at 122.2 FPS is the only option that consistently stays above the 100 FPS threshold, but the Medium preset at 98 FPS is a more balanced choice if visual fidelity is preferred over a triple-digit frame rate. The High preset at 4K offers 69.3 FPS, which is playable but does not provide a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate panels. The Ultra preset provides minimal benefit over High at both 1440p and 4K, with the average FPS difference being only 4 FPS and 1.4 FPS respectively, so it is not recommended unless the user has significant GPU headroom to spare. The data suggests that the Medium preset at 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo, offering a high average frame rate that is more than double the 4K Ultra result.