Microsoft Flight Simulator

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti reveals a clear pattern of scaling across the three tested resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 163.2 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 130.4 FPS, a 20% reduction, while 4K Low yields 96.6 FPS, another 26% drop from 1440p. This scaling curve is steep, indicating that the GPU is becoming progressively more stressed as pixel count rises.

The High settings tier tells a similar story but with a tighter spread. At 1080p High, the average is 97 FPS; at 1440p High, it falls to 76.7 FPS; and at 4K High, it reaches 54.7 FPS. The jump from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 21% performance, while 1440p to 4K costs another 29%. This suggests that at High settings, the rendering load scales nearly linearly with resolution, which is typical for a flight simulator that relies heavily on terrain and object detail.

Medium settings show an interesting anomaly: 1080p Medium delivers 130.8 FPS, which is actually higher than 1080p High by a significant margin. The gap narrows at 1440p, where Medium produces 105.1 FPS versus 76.7 FPS for High, and at 4K, Medium yields 75 FPS versus 54.7 FPS. The Medium preset appears to unlock headroom that High does not, likely by reducing draw distances or shadow complexity.

Ultra settings are the most demanding tier, with 4K Ultra producing just 56 FPS average. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 93.3 FPS, and at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 70.7 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p Ultra is a 24% reduction, and from 1440p to 4K Ultra, another 21% reduction. This indicates that Ultra settings at 4K are pushing the RTX 3080 Ti close to its limits, with the average frame rate hovering just above the 50 FPS threshold.

The data points to the GPU as the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K. At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely more involved, given the high frame rate of 163.2 FPS, but as resolution climbs, the GPU workload dominates. The Ryzen 9 5900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, appears to have sufficient headroom to feed the GPU at these settings, as the FPS drops correlate more strongly with resolution than with any CPU bottleneck signature.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the workhorse in this pairing, and its specifications align well with the measured results. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is crucial for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which streams vast amounts of terrain and scenery data. The benchmark results show that at 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 56 FPS, indicating that the memory bandwidth is sufficient to avoid severe stuttering or texture pop-in that would drag average frame rates lower.

The RTX 3080 Ti's clock speeds are listed as a base of 1365 MHz and a boost of 1665 MHz. With 10,240 shading units and 80 RT cores, the GPU is well-equipped for the DirectX 12 workload that Microsoft Flight Simulator presents. The FP32 throughput of 34.10 TFLOPS helps explain why the GPU can handle the complex shader work required for realistic lighting and weather effects. The GPU's percentile ranking of 83 among all GPUs, based on average benchmark scores, places it in the upper tier of graphics hardware, and the measured FPS results confirm this positioning.

In the context of this game, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher settings. At 4K High, the average FPS of 54.7 is close to the 4K Ultra result of 56 FPS, which is counterintuitive. This suggests that the High and Ultra presets may share similar GPU-bound workloads in certain scenes, or that the settings differences have diminishing returns at this resolution. The GPU's memory capacity of 12 GB is likely a factor, as both presets may be utilizing similar amounts of VRAM, leaving the GPU compute as the differentiator.

The RTX 3080 Ti sits at the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the RTX 3090, which scores 0.5% higher on average, and the RTX 5070, which scores 1.1% higher. The performance delta is small, meaning the 3080 Ti is competitive with newer and higher-tier cards in synthetic benchmarks. In this game, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra of 56 FPS demonstrates that the GPU can handle the highest settings, though not with a large margin of headroom.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play at with this combo for a balance of quality and performance?

A: At 1440p Ultra, the combo delivers 70.7 FPS average, which is a smooth experience. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 56 FPS, which is playable but closer to the edge. The data shows that Medium settings at 4K yield 75 FPS, which may be a better trade-off for higher resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to the RTX 3090 in this context?

A: Based on average benchmark scores, the RTX 3090 is 0.5% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti. In practical terms for Microsoft Flight Simulator, this delta is negligible, so the measured FPS results for the 3080 Ti can be expected to be nearly identical to a 3090.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5900X a bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: The 1080p Low result of 163.2 FPS is the highest measured in the dataset, suggesting that the CPU is capable of driving very high frame rates. The 12-core, 24-thread processor with a boost clock of 4.80 GHz appears sufficient for this scenario.

Q: What settings should be used for a consistent 60 FPS experience at 4K?

A: At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 75, which is above the 60 FPS target. At 4K High, the average drops to 54.7 FPS, below the target. Therefore, Medium settings are the highest tier that maintains a 60+ FPS average at 4K.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 429 out of 1795 tested combinations, placing it in the top 24% of all combos for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Q: Does the GPU's memory bandwidth matter for this game?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial. The high FPS at 4K Medium (75 FPS) indicates that the memory subsystem is not a limiting factor at these settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces a wide range of results depending on settings. Low settings yield 163.2 FPS average, Medium delivers 130.8 FPS, High drops to 97 FPS, and Ultra produces 93.3 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 69.9 FPS, indicating that the settings presets have a significant impact on performance at this resolution. The gap between High and Ultra is just 3.7 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds visual fidelity without a proportional cost.

At 2560x1440, the results are 130.4 FPS for Low, 105.1 FPS for Medium, 76.7 FPS for High, and 70.7 FPS for Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 25.3 FPS, while the drop from High to Ultra is just 6 FPS. This pattern mirrors the 1080p results, where the High to Ultra transition is relatively inexpensive. The 1440p results show that the combo can comfortably handle high refresh rates at Medium settings, with 105.1 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the results compress further. Low settings produce 96.6 FPS, Medium delivers 75 FPS, High drops to 54.7 FPS, and Ultra produces 56 FPS. The anomaly here is that High and Ultra are nearly identical, with Ultra actually being 1.3 FPS faster. This could be due to scene variability, but it suggests that the GPU is saturated at this resolution, and the difference between High and Ultra settings is minimal. The 4K Low result of 96.6 FPS is notable, as it shows the combo can approach 100 FPS at 4K when settings are reduced.

Across all resolutions, the Low setting provides the highest frame rates, and the gap between Low and Medium is consistently larger than the gap between High and Ultra. This indicates that Medium settings introduce significant visual enhancements that are GPU-intensive, while Ultra builds on High with less marginal cost.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ranks 429 out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 24% of all combos, which is a strong showing for a CPU released in November 2020 and a GPU released in May 2021. The ranking reflects the balance between the 12-core CPU and the high-end GPU, which together deliver playable frame rates at 4K and excellent performance at lower resolutions.

The CPU itself ranks in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39453. Its nearest rivals are the AMD EPYC 4245P, which scores 0.2% higher, and the Intel Core i7-13700F, which scores 0.9% lower. This tight grouping suggests that the Ryzen 9 5900X is still competitive with newer processors in synthetic workloads, though its real-world performance in this game is mediated by the GPU.

The GPU ranks in the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41224. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 3090 (0.5% faster), the RTX 5070 (1.1% faster), and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.9% faster). The small deltas indicate that the RTX 3080 Ti is positioned within a narrow performance band, and its 83rd percentile ranking means it outperforms the majority of GPUs in the database.

In the context of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the combo's rank of 429 out of 1795 is influenced by the game's unique demands. Flight simulators often stress the CPU more than other genres, but the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The Ryzen 9 5900X's strong multi-threaded performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33150, ensures that the CPU does not hold back the GPU in most scenarios. The overall rank suggests that while this combo is not at the very top of the leaderboard, it offers a robust experience for this demanding title.