Microsoft Flight Simulator

# Microsoft Flight Simulator: AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT

This combo places in the 70th percentile of all tested configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, ranking 882nd out of 2,996 combos. The pairing of AMD's Zen 5-based Ryzen 7 9700F with the RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a consistently playable experience across most settings, though the data reveals clear performance ceilings that vary significantly by resolution and preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The 882nd position out of 2,996 tested combos places this system comfortably in the upper tier of configurations for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This rank reflects a hardware pairing where neither component is dramatically outmatched by the other in this specific title. The Ryzen 7 9700F sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs in the broader benchmark database, while the RX 6800 XT holds the 85th percentile among GPUs; the resulting combo rank of 882/2996 (approximately the 71st percentile of combos) shows that the sum of these two strong components yields a system that handles this demanding flight simulator well above the median tested configuration.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores are instructive. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 0.2% higher, while the Intel Core i7-14700KF trails by 0.2%. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X leads by 0.7%, and the Intel Core i7-14700K is 0.9% ahead. These are extremely tight margins—all four rivals fall within a 1.1% band of the 9700F's average score of 69,996. This suggests that for Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU's position among its closest peers is unlikely to be the deciding factor in frame rates; instead, the GPU and its memory subsystem will dominate the performance narrative.

On the GPU side, the RX 6800 XT's average benchmark score of 48,477 places it in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals. The NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile is 1.5% higher, while the Intel Arc A550M is 2.5% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti trails by 3%, and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 is also 3% behind. These margins are slightly wider than the CPU's rival gaps, but still modest. The RX 6800 XT's position here—neither clearly dominating nor being dominated by its immediate competitors—aligns with the combo's solid but not spectacular overall ranking.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 6800 XT brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s. For Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams vast terrain and scenery data, this memory capacity is ample, and the bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GPU's 4,608 shading units without obvious starvation. The GPU's core clocks are substantial: a base of 1825 MHz, a game clock of 2015 MHz, and a boost of 2250 MHz. These clocks, combined with the memory running at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), produce a pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s.

The FP32 throughput of 20.74 TFLOPS indicates strong raw compute capability, which matters for the simulation's physics and weather calculations that run on the GPU. The 72 ray accelerators are present but less relevant given that Microsoft Flight Simulator does not emphasize ray-traced effects in the measured settings. The GPU's 128 ROPs handle pixel output efficiently; at 4K Ultra, the combo still delivers 51 FPS average, which reflects the ROP count and memory bandwidth working in concert.

The RX 6800 XT's performance percentile of 85 among all GPUs means it outranks roughly 85% of tested graphics cards in the database. In this game, the GPU is clearly the primary driver of frame rate differences across settings. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 153 FPS average; at 1080p Ultra, it falls to 85 FPS. That spread of 68 FPS across four presets at the same resolution shows how heavily the GPU is loaded as visual fidelity increases. The 16 GB frame buffer is never a constraint at any measured resolution or setting, so the performance deltas come purely from shading, texture, and post-processing workload.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combo delivers 153 FPS on Low, 119 FPS on Medium, 90 FPS on High, and 85 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 1440p, those numbers become 123, 96, 72, and 69 FPS respectively. At 4K, the figures drop to 91, 71, 53, and 51 FPS.

The percentage drops from 1080p to 4K are revealing. For Low settings, the drop is from 153 to 91 FPS—a reduction of approximately 40.5%. For Medium, 119 to 71 FPS is a 40.3% reduction. High settings fall from 90 to 53 FPS, a 41.1% drop. Ultra goes from 85 to 51 FPS, a 40.0% reduction. The consistency of these percentage drops—all clustered tightly between 40% and 41%—indicates that the performance scaling is resolution-bound rather than setting-bound. In other words, the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions regardless of the preset chosen.

This uniform scaling pattern has an important implication: the CPU is not becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions. If the Ryzen 7 9700F were limiting performance at 1080p, we would expect to see smaller percentage drops when moving to 1440p or 4K (because the CPU's contribution would remain constant). Instead, the near-identical percentage reductions across all four presets suggest that the GPU is the consistent limiting factor from 1080p all the way to 4K. The 8-core, 16-thread CPU with a 5.50 GHz boost clock provides enough headroom that it never becomes the primary constraint in this title, even at the lowest resolution and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data reveals a system that maintains playable frame rates at every tested resolution, though the margin of comfort varies considerably.

At 1920x1080, the combo spans a wide range. Low settings produce an average of 153 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth for a flight simulator. Medium settings yield 119 FPS average, with a minimum of 101 FPS and maximum of 137 FPS. High settings drop to 90 FPS average, and Ultra settles at 85 FPS. The minimum FPS figures for Medium (101) and the lack of reported minimums for other presets suggest that frame pacing is consistent enough that the lowest recorded frames are not dramatically below the averages.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong. Low settings deliver 123 FPS average. Medium produces 96 FPS average, with a minimum of 82 FPS and maximum of 110 FPS. High settings achieve 72 FPS, and Ultra brings 69 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p (24 FPS) is larger than the gap between High and Ultra (3 FPS), indicating that the High preset imposes a significant workload increase over Medium, while Ultra adds relatively little additional cost over High.

At 3840x2160, the system begins to show its limits. Low settings still reach 91 FPS average, which is respectable for 4K. Medium drops to 71 FPS average, with a minimum of 60 FPS and maximum of 81 FPS. High settings fall to 53 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 51 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure of 51 FPS is just above the 50 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for a fluid experience, while 4K High at 53 FPS offers slightly more headroom but still sits in the same performance neighborhood.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, which is critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator's main simulation thread. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4,691 and multi-thread score of 36,470 place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, confirming that it has ample computational headroom for this title.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. For a flight simulator that frequently accesses terrain data and aircraft systems logic, the 32 MB L3 cache is beneficial, though the game's data sets are far larger than any on-chip cache can hold. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support provides 89.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is sufficient to keep both the CPU and GPU fed without causing memory-related stalls.

The nearest rival comparisons for the CPU show that the 9700F is essentially tied with several other high-end processors in aggregate benchmark scores. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 0.2% higher, the Intel Core i7-14700KF is 0.2% lower, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.7% higher, and the Intel Core i7-14700K is 0.9% higher. In the context of Microsoft Flight Simulator, these sub-1% differences are unlikely to produce meaningful frame rate variations. The CPU's job here is to feed the GPU with draw calls and simulation updates quickly enough to avoid stalls, and the data suggests it does so effectively: the consistent resolution scaling pattern indicates no CPU-induced bottleneck even at 1080p Low, where the GPU workload is lightest.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 119 FPS average with a minimum of 101 FPS, which is smooth and well above any playability threshold. At 1440p, Medium produces 96 FPS average with a minimum of 82 FPS—still excellent. Even at 4K, Medium achieves 71 FPS average with a minimum of 60 FPS, which is perfectly playable and smooth.

The High preset is viable at 1080p and 1440p, with averages of 90 FPS and 72 FPS respectively. However, at 4K, High drops to 53 FPS average, which is playable but noticeably less fluid than Medium. The Ultra preset at 4K yields 51 FPS average, which is borderline for a game where smooth panning across scenery matters. At 1440p, Ultra delivers 69 FPS, which is acceptable, and at 1080p it reaches 85 FPS, which is comfortable.

For users prioritizing visual fidelity at 4K, the choice between Medium (71 FPS) and High (53 FPS) represents an 18 FPS difference, which is substantial. The Low preset at 4K (91 FPS) is smooth but sacrifices too much visual quality for a game where terrain detail and cockpit readability are central to the experience. The recommended settings are: Medium for 4K, High for 1440p, and Ultra for 1080p if maximum quality is desired, though Medium at 1080p provides a high frame rate of 119 FPS with no visual compromise concerns.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Microsoft Flight Simulator at 4K?

A: Yes, the combo achieves 71 FPS average on Medium settings at 3840x2160, with a minimum of 60 FPS. At 4K High, it drops to 53 FPS average, and at 4K Ultra, it reaches 51 FPS average. These are all playable, though Medium provides the most comfortable margin.

Q: Which resolution provides the best frame rate headroom?

A: At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 153 FPS on Low, 119 FPS on Medium, 90 FPS on High, and 85 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p Medium setting (119 FPS average, 101 FPS minimum) offers the best combination of smoothness and visual quality, with substantial headroom above typical display refresh rates.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score of 69,996 is within 0.9% of all four nearest rivals. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.2% higher, the Intel Core i7-14700KF is 0.2% lower, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.7% higher, and the Intel Core i7-14700K is 0.9% higher.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor. The percentage FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical across all four settings (approximately 40%), which would not occur if the CPU were constraining performance at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The only minimum FPS values reported are for Medium settings: 101 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and 60 FPS at 4K. Other presets do not have reported minimums, but the averages for 4K Ultra (51 FPS) and 4K High (53 FPS) suggest these presets operate close to the 50 FPS threshold.

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

A: This combo ranks 882nd out of 2,996 tested combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 71st percentile of all tested systems. The CPU holds the 94th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU holds the 85th percentile among all GPUs in their respective benchmark databases.