Microsoft Flight Simulator

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 in Microsoft Flight Simulator produces a dataset that clearly illustrates a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions. The measured frames per second (FPS) across twelve distinct configurations reveal that the processor’s substantial cache and high single-thread performance are frequently left waiting on the graphics card’s 6 GB of VRAM and Turing-architecture compute throughput. This analysis walks through the benchmark results, contextualizes the scores against known rivals, and provides actionable settings guidance based solely on the measured data.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Low settings for this combo?

A: The measured average frame rate at 1920x1080 with the Low preset is 91.9 FPS, which is the highest score recorded across all tested resolutions and settings in the dataset.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D has an average benchmark score of 37780, which places it 0.1% behind the Intel Xeon 6353P (score 37811) and 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (score 37831). It trails the Intel Core i9-13900HK by 0.6% and the Intel Core i5-13600KF by 0.7%.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory configuration and bandwidth?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The memory clock is listed as 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective.

Q: What is the performance delta between the RTX 2060 and the AMD Radeon RX 7600S?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074, which is 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600S (score 15996). It also outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 by 1.8%.

Q: At which resolution does the combo achieve its lowest average FPS?

A: The lowest average FPS is 28.7, recorded at 3840x2160 (4K) with the High preset. This is the only measured configuration that falls below the 30 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded performance in Cinebench R23?

A: The CPU scores 34004 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4800 points in single-core. The multi-core score is approximately 7.1 times higher than the single-core score, reflecting the 8-core/16-thread design.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 operates as the primary bottleneck in this system for Microsoft Flight Simulator, particularly as resolution increases. The GPU’s specifications from the fact pack include a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, with a 6 GB GDDR6 frame buffer. The 192-bit memory bus yields a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s, a figure that becomes critical when rendering dense terrain and detailed aircraft cockpits. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 91.9 FPS, but this drops to 50.5 FPS at 4K Low, a reduction of 41.4 FPS solely from the increase in pixel count. This pattern indicates that the GPU’s shading units (1920) and texture mapping units (120) are being saturated by the higher resolution workloads.

The VRAM capacity is a limiting factor at higher settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls to 31.3, which is only 2.6 FPS above the High preset’s 28.7. The proximity of these two scores suggests that beyond a certain point, additional graphical fidelity does not meaningfully increase GPU load because the 6 GB buffer is likely full, forcing the system to manage memory more conservatively. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 58 against all GPUs places it in the lower half of the performance distribution, reinforcing the notion that this is a mid-range part struggling with a demanding simulator. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, scores 0.5% lower in average benchmarks, indicating that the RTX 2060 is competitive with its immediate peers but lacks the headroom of modern cards.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how the system scales from 1080p to 4K. At the Low preset, performance drops from 91.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 70.8 FPS at 2560x1440, a 21.1 FPS reduction (23.0% lower). Moving from 1440p to 4K (3840x2160) yields 50.5 FPS, another 20.3 FPS drop (28.7% lower). This linear decline in performance with pixel count is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the CPU’s high cache capacity and 16 threads are not the limiting factors. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s 96 MB shared L3 cache and boost clock of 5.20 GHz are sufficient to feed frames quickly, but the RTX 2060’s pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s cap the output.

For the Ultra preset, the scaling is steeper in absolute terms. At 1080p, the system averages 53.2 FPS; at 1440p, it drops to 41.5 FPS (11.7 FPS lower); and at 4K, it reaches 31.3 FPS (10.2 FPS lower). The relative drop between 1080p and 4K is 41.2%, which is less than the 45.0% drop seen on the Low preset. This suggests that at higher settings, the workload becomes more complex per pixel, but the GPU’s memory bandwidth becomes a shared constraint that prevents the frame rate from dropping proportionally to pixel count. The data indicates that the limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU’s benchmark scores (90th percentile among all CPUs) far exceed what is necessary for these frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured FPS is as follows:

• 1920x1080: Low 91.9, Medium 73.8, High 56.8, Ultra 53.2.
• 2560x1440: Low 70.8, Medium 59.2, High 43.3, Ultra 41.5.
• 3840x2160: Low 50.5, Medium 40.9, High 28.7, Ultra 31.3.

At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 38.7 FPS, with the largest single step occurring between Low and Medium (18.1 FPS). The step from Medium to High is 17.0 FPS, while High to Ultra is only 3.6 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher presets indicates diminishing returns from the GPU’s compute resources. At 1440p, the pattern repeats: Low to Medium drops 11.6 FPS, Medium to High drops 15.9 FPS, and High to Ultra drops 1.8 FPS. The near-identical scores for High (43.3) and Ultra (41.5) at this resolution suggest that the Ultra preset’s additional effects (likely shadows and reflections) do not scale well with the 6 GB VRAM.

At 4K, the data shows an anomaly: the High preset (28.7 FPS) scores lower than the Ultra preset (31.3 FPS). This 2.6 FPS difference is within a margin that could be attributed to scene complexity variance, but the fact pack lists no minimum or maximum FPS values to assess stability. The Medium preset at 4K achieves 40.9 FPS, which is 12.2 FPS higher than High. This suggests that the Medium preset’s reduced texture and shadow quality alleviates memory pressure, allowing the GPU to maintain a more consistent frame output. The Ultra preset’s higher score than High is counterintuitive but indicates that the specific settings in Ultra may optimize certain rendering paths for this simulator.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 2060 ranks 1464 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 18.4% of all configurations. This rank reflects the GPU’s limitations despite the CPU’s strength. The CPU alone sits in the 90th percentile of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 37780, putting it just 0.1% behind the Intel Xeon 6353P and 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-13600KF. The GPU, however, is in the 58th percentile with a score of 16074, which is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S but 1.7% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700.

This disparity explains the combo’s low rank. The CPU’s 3DMark scores (10081 for 16 threads, 1212 for single thread) and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 34004 are exceptional, but the GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 14111 and DirectX 12 score of 53 indicate a mid-tier graphics processor. In a flight simulator that relies heavily on continuous geometry streaming and complex shader work, the GPU’s 6.451 TFLOPS FP32 performance is the ceiling. The rank suggests that users with this CPU would benefit significantly from a faster GPU, as the processor is likely underutilized in most of these measured scenarios. The nearest CPU rival, the Intel Xeon 6353P, scores nearly identically, but the GPU’s position relative to its rivals (all within 1.8% delta) shows that swapping to a similar GPU would not change the outcome.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal balance of visual quality and playable frame rate occurs at 1920x1080 with the Medium preset, which delivers 73.8 FPS. This is 17.0 FPS higher than High (56.8) and 20.6 FPS higher than Ultra (53.2), while still providing a significant visual upgrade over Low (91.9 FPS). The Medium preset at 1080p maintains a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth simulation, and the step from Medium to High costs 17.0 FPS, which is too steep for the marginal fidelity gain. For users with 1440p monitors, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 (59.2 FPS) is the recommended choice, as it stays close to 60 FPS while the High preset (43.3) and Ultra (41.5) fall below comfortable playability.

At 4K, no preset achieves a consistently smooth experience. The Medium preset (40.9 FPS) is the only configuration above 40 FPS, but even this is below the typical target for flight simulators. The High preset’s 28.7 FPS and Ultra’s 31.3 FPS are both sub-30 or barely above, making them unsuitable for anything other than static screenshots. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo is not viable beyond Low settings (50.5 FPS), and even then, the visual compromise is substantial. The recommendation is to prioritize 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium, as these settings provide the best balance of frame rate and visual detail without overburdening the 6 GB VRAM. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely, as it offers at most a 3.6 FPS improvement over High at 1080p but costs 20.6 FPS compared to Medium.