Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 delivers a playable but constrained experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with performance heavily dictated by the graphics card’s 6 GB VRAM and the game’s demanding rendering load. The measured frame rates across the three resolutions and four settings presets reveal a processor capable of feeding the GPU adequately, yet the combination ranks in the lower half of all tested configurations, reflecting the RTX 2060’s position as a mid-range part from an older generation.

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth experience, the data points to the Low preset as the only reliable option at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves an average of 91 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 70.7 FPS, still viable for most displays, but the jump to High reduces the average to 56.5 FPS. At 1440p, the Low preset maintains 70.3 FPS, while Medium falls to 56.4 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces 38.8 FPS, which is borderline for a flight simulator where smooth camera panning is important.

The critical threshold appears at 4K, where the High preset yields only 28.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 30.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is actually slightly faster than High, which is anomalous and suggests a VRAM bottleneck causing inconsistent asset streaming. The Medium preset at 4K achieves 45 FPS, and Low reaches 52.5 FPS. Given the data, the best experience per the measured rows is the Low preset at 1080p for maximum fluidity, or the Medium preset at 1440p for a balance between visual fidelity and acceptable frame rates. The High preset is only usable at 1080p, where it barely exceeds 56 FPS, but its 4K performance is too low for practical use.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the primary limiting factor in this configuration, as evidenced by the steep performance penalties when raising resolution. The GPU features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest by modern standards. Its boost clock is 1680 MHz, and the card is built on the 12 nm Turing architecture with 1920 shading units. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score is 14111, placing it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 7600S at a 0.5% higher average score.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the 6 GB VRAM capacity is likely the cause of the anomalous result where Ultra at 4K (30.5 FPS) outperforms High (28.4 FPS). This suggests that at Ultra settings, the engine may reduce texture detail or streaming distance to fit within memory constraints, inadvertently improving frame rates. The GPU’s FP32 compute of 6.451 TFLOPS is sufficient for the game’s geometry and lighting, but the memory bandwidth becomes a bottleneck at 4K, where the frame rate drops to roughly half of the 1080p Low result. The RTX 2060’s performance ceiling is clear: it cannot sustain 60 FPS at 1440p on any preset above Low, and at 4K, only the Low preset approaches playable territory.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a pronounced GPU-bound pattern. At Low settings, the 1080p average of 91 FPS drops to 70.3 FPS at 1440p, a 22.7% reduction, and then to 52.5 FPS at 4K, a further 25.3% reduction. This linear scaling is typical for a GPU-limited scenario, where pixel count directly impacts throughput. At Medium settings, the progression is 70.7 FPS at 1080p, 56.4 FPS at 1440p, and 45 FPS at 4K, showing a similar steady decline.

The High preset reveals the most severe scaling: from 56.5 FPS at 1080p to 44.5 FPS at 1440p, and then a steep fall to 28.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is disproportionately low compared to the Medium preset’s 45 FPS, indicating that the additional visual effects at High overwhelm the GPU’s resources. The Ultra preset follows a different path: 52.2 FPS at 1080p, 38.8 FPS at 1440p, and 30.5 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K for Ultra is 21.7 FPS, while for High it is 28.1 FPS, reinforcing the notion that High preset is poorly optimized for this GPU’s memory configuration. The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution, as the frame rate consistently scales downward with increasing pixel count, a hallmark of GPU limitation.

How This Combo Ranks

This particular combination of the Ryzen 7 9700X and RTX 2060 ranks 1484 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 17% of all configurations. This rank is surprisingly low given the CPU’s strength, which suggests the GPU drags the overall performance down significantly. The CPU alone sits in the 89th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 36029, while the GPU is only in the 58th percentile. The mismatch between the two components is stark: a top-tier CPU paired with a mid-range GPU from 2019.

The combo rank indicates that most other tested systems, even those with weaker processors, achieve higher frame rates because they pair them with more capable graphics cards. The data implies that for this specific game, the GPU is the sole determinant of the experience, and the CPU’s high single-thread and multi-thread scores cannot compensate for the RTX 2060’s limitations. The 1484th position out of 1795 combos means that approximately 311 builds perform worse, but the vast majority of the database outperforms this pairing. This rank is a direct reflection of the GPU’s age and memory constraints, not a fault of the processor.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X provides substantial computational headroom that is underutilized in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The processor has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its architecture is Zen 5 on a 4 nm process, manufactured by TSMC, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 31588 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4459 in single-core, with an average benchmark score of 36029. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14500HX, scores 35940, a delta of 0.2%, placing the 9700X in a tight competitive band.

In this game, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and simulation data, which it does without bottlenecking. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (91 FPS) show that the CPU can push well beyond the GPU’s limit, as the GPU is the constraining factor. The processor’s 16 threads are more than sufficient for the game’s threading model, which typically scales well with modern CPUs. The fact that frame rates drop uniformly with resolution increases confirms that the CPU is not the limiting component. The Ryzen 7 9700X’s 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs further underscores that this processor is not the reason for the combo’s low rank; rather, it is the GPU that holds the system back.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 91 FPS, followed by Medium at 70.7 FPS, High at 56.5 FPS, and Ultra at 52.2 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 38.8 FPS, a 42.6% drop, which is substantial but expected given the visual complexity of Ultra settings. The 1080p results are the only ones where any preset approaches the 60 FPS threshold, with High and Ultra falling below it.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 70.3 FPS, Medium 56.4 FPS, High 44.5 FPS, and Ultra 38.8 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra narrows to 31.5 FPS, and all presets except Low are below 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the highest setting that maintains a playable frame rate, though it is close to the 60 FPS mark.

At 3840x2160, the results are markedly lower: Low averages 52.5 FPS, Medium 45 FPS, Ultra 30.5 FPS, and High 28.4 FPS. The inverted relationship between Ultra and High at this resolution is notable, as Ultra outperforms High by 2.1 FPS. This anomaly likely stems from the GPU’s memory management, where the Ultra preset’s aggressive asset streaming may actually reduce the effective load on the 6 GB VRAM. The 4K data shows that only the Low preset is remotely playable, while Medium is borderline, and High/Ultra are not suitable for a smooth experience. Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently provides the best frame rates, with a 91 FPS peak at 1080p and a 52.5 FPS minimum at 4K.