Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination in Microsoft Flight Simulator produces a clear hierarchy of playability across its presets. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 159 FPS average, which is far beyond what the flight simulator’s camera movements and terrain streaming require for smoothness. However, the most balanced experience at this resolution is the High preset at 101 FPS, which provides the visual fidelity necessary for reading cockpit instruments and distant terrain while maintaining a frame rate well above display refresh rates. The Medium preset at 126 FPS is a viable middle ground, but the data suggests that High offers the best compromise between image quality and performance headroom. At 1440p, the High preset at 66 FPS remains the sweet spot, offering a fluid experience for most flight scenarios without the steep cost of Ultra, which drops to 51 FPS. For 4K, the situation changes; High produces 37 FPS, which is borderline for a simulation genre where frame pacing matters, but Low at 58 FPS is the only preset that clears the 60 FPS threshold. Given the measured rows, the recommended preset is High at 1080p for the best overall experience, with Low at 4K as the fallback for users prioritizing frame rate over visual detail.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 SUPER’s role in this pairing is defined by its 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s boost clock of 1650 MHz and base clock of 1470 MHz sit on the Turing architecture, with 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the data shows that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 159 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it falls to 28 FPS—a drop that indicates the graphics card is struggling with the sheer pixel count and the simulator’s terrain rendering demands. The GPU’s 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is modest by modern standards, and its percentile rank of 62 versus all GPUs places it in the mid-range tier. The nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (deltaPct -0.4) and AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (deltaPct -0.5), show performance within 1% of the RTX 2060 SUPER, confirming that this card is operating at the edge of its class. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p High settings, but the 4K results—where High drops to 37 FPS—suggest that memory capacity and bandwidth are limiting factors at higher resolutions. The GPU’s pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s are not enough to maintain fluid frame rates in the most demanding configurations, as evidenced by the 28 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable scaling pattern across the three tested resolutions. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by roughly 35% across all settings: High falls from 101 to 66 FPS, Low from 159 to 105 FPS, Medium from 126 to 83 FPS, and Ultra from 78 to 51 FPS. This consistent percentage indicates that the workload is scaling proportionally with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario at these resolutions. However, the transition from 1440p to 4K shows a steeper decline. High drops from 66 to 37 FPS (a 44% reduction), Low from 105 to 58 FPS (a 45% reduction), Medium from 83 to 46 FPS (a 45% reduction), and Ultra from 51 to 28 FPS (a 45% reduction). This steeper drop at 4K suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard wall—likely related to the 8 GB VRAM capacity and the memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The 4K results also show that the CPU is no longer the limiting factor; the Ryzen 7 7700X has ample headroom, as evidenced by the 1080p Low result of 159 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s single-thread limit for this simulator. The scaling data indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the dominant constraint at 4K, where even Low settings (58 FPS) cannot sustain 60 FPS consistently. At 1080p and 1440p, the GPU retains enough performance to keep the CPU from becoming a bottleneck, but the simulator’s reliance on draw calls and terrain tessellation means the CPU’s 8 cores and 16 threads are still relevant for maintaining minimum frame rates in dense scenery.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use with this combo at 1080p?

A: The High preset at 1920x1080 yields 101 FPS average, which provides a strong balance of visual quality and performance. Ultra drops to 78 FPS, which is still playable, but High avoids the steep performance cost without sacrificing much visual fidelity in flight simulation contexts.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: Yes, but with compromises. At 4K, the Low preset achieves 58 FPS average, which is close to 60 FPS, while Medium produces 46 FPS and High drops to 37 FPS. Ultra is not recommended at 4K, as it falls to 28 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals in this game?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 18093. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, scores 18159 with a deltaPct of -0.4, meaning the RTX 2060 SUPER is effectively tied with it. The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18189, deltaPct -0.5) and AMD Radeon RX 460 (18373, deltaPct -1.5) are also within 1.5% performance.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo produces an average of 83 FPS with a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS. This indicates a stable frame pacing, with the minimum staying well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 7700X a bottleneck for the RTX 2060 SUPER?

A: The data suggests no. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 159 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s single-thread limit for this simulator, but at 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU’s 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the 101 FPS at 1080p High.

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

A: This combination ranks 1632 out of 3714 tested combos, placing it in the 44th percentile of all configurations. This is a mid-pack ranking, reflecting the GPU’s mid-range standing rather than the CPU’s high percentile rank of 85 versus all CPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1632 out of 3714 tested configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field. This ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU’s performance tier, as the RTX 2060 SUPER has a percentile rank of 62 versus all GPUs, while the CPU is much stronger with a percentile rank of 85 versus all CPUs. The disparity between the CPU’s high standing and the GPU’s mid-range position means this combo is likely CPU-limited at lower resolutions but GPU-limited at higher ones. The data supports this: at 1080p, the system achieves 101 FPS on High, which is respectable, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 28 FPS, confirming the GPU is the weak link. When compared to other combos in the database, the 44th percentile ranking suggests that many configurations with newer or higher-tier GPUs will outperform this setup in this particular title. However, the Ryzen 7 7700X’s strong multi-core performance—evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19088 and 3DMark 16-thread score of 8859—ensures that the CPU will not hold back the GPU in most scenarios. The ranking also reflects the simulator’s unique demands; Microsoft Flight Simulator is known for its heavy CPU usage in physics and terrain calculations, but the measured FPS data indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER’s 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the primary constraints at 4K, pulling the overall rank down.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 7700X is a Zen 4 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, clocked at 4.50 GHz base and 5.40 GHz boost. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth provide strong single-thread and multi-thread performance, as shown by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1987 and multi-core score of 19088. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU’s role is to handle the simulation’s complex physics, AI traffic, and terrain streaming. The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at 1080p, where the system reaches 159 FPS on Low—a result that is likely limited by the GPU’s fill rate or the CPU’s single-thread performance. The CPU’s single-thread score of 1090 in 3DMark is respectable, but the simulator’s engine is known to scale with core count, and the 16 threads help maintain minimum frame rates in busy airspace. At 4K, the CPU’s influence diminishes, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor; however, the CPU’s 85th percentile ranking versus all CPUs means it is well above average for this workload. The nearest CPU rivals—AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (deltaPct 0.3), Intel Core 7 250H (deltaPct 0.5), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (deltaPct 0.5), and Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (deltaPct 0.7)—are all within 1% of the 7700X’s average benchmark score of 35909, indicating that this processor is at the top of its performance class. For this game, the 7700X provides enough headroom to ensure that frame rate drops at higher resolutions are attributable to the GPU, not the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS across settings is as follows: Low yields 159 FPS, Medium yields 126 FPS with a minimum of 107 FPS and a maximum of 145 FPS, High yields 101 FPS, and Ultra yields 78 FPS. The Medium setting shows a 38 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, indicating some variability in complex scenes, but the overall averages are high enough for smooth gameplay. At 2560x1440, the data shows: Low at 105 FPS, Medium at 83 FPS (minimum 70, maximum 95), High at 66 FPS, and Ultra at 51 FPS. The 1440p Medium result maintains a minimum of 70 FPS, which is comfortable, while Ultra dips below 60 FPS, suggesting a threshold where the GPU begins to struggle. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 58 FPS, Medium at 46 FPS (minimum 39, maximum 53), High at 37 FPS, and Ultra at 28 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 39 FPS indicates significant frame drops in demanding moments, and the 4K High and Ultra results are below the 40 FPS mark, making them unsuitable for most users. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is non-linear, with the 4K Low result being 36% of the 1080p Low result (58 vs 159 FPS), while the 4K Ultra result is 36% of the 1080p Ultra result (28 vs 78 FPS). This consistent ratio across settings confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, as the CPU’s performance does not change with resolution. The measured data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra narrows at higher resolutions: at 1080p, Ultra is 51% of Low (78 vs 159 FPS), while at 4K, Ultra is 48% of Low (28 vs 58 FPS). This suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth becomes more critical as pixel count increases, compressing the performance difference between settings.