Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: What is the measured performance of this combo at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the Ryzen 9 5950X and RTX 4070 SUPER produce an average of 103.9 FPS. This is nearly identical to the 104.5 FPS at High settings, indicating a performance plateau at this resolution.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X has an average benchmark score of 49062, placing it 0.2% behind the Intel Core i5-14600K (49166) and 0.6% behind the Intel Core i5-14600KF (49367). It is 0.7% ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, has a nearly identical average score (42653 vs 42576), a 0.2% difference.

Q: Which settings preset at 1440p gives the highest frame rate?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields the highest average at 143.4 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 114.2 FPS, then High at 87.1 FPS, and Ultra at 83.3 FPS.

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

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 295th out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the top 16.4% of all combinations tested.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 107.4 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 57.2 FPS. This represents a substantial 46.8% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the Zen 3 Vermeer architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 7nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a 105W TDP. The chip features 64 MB of L3 cache, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 64 KB of L1 per core. This high core count is significant for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which can leverage multiple threads for terrain generation, physics simulation, and AI traffic.

Benchmark results show the CPU's scaling from 2 to 16 threads. The 3DMark scores progress from 1856 at 2 threads, to 3595 at 4 threads, 6598 at 8 threads, and 11597 at max threads. This demonstrates strong multi-threading potential, though the game's performance at high settings appears more GPU-bound. The single-thread score of 944 in 3DMark and 5450 in Cinebench R23 single-core indicate solid per-core performance, critical for the game's main simulation loop.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 93rd among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49062, places it in the top tier of processors. Notably, the data shows a peculiar pattern in its nearest rivals: the Xeon Gold 5318H (48698) and EPYC 4345P (49595) are server-class chips, while the i5-14600K and i5-14600KF are mainstream desktop parts. The 5950X's performance is within 1.1% of the EPYC 4345P, showing that its multi-threaded capability matches even server-grade silicon.

In the game's measured results, the CPU's influence is most visible at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 185.2 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 103.9 FPS. The 1080p High result of 104.5 FPS nearly matches Ultra, indicating that beyond a certain point, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The Ryzen 9 5950X's 32 threads ensure that even the most demanding flight scenarios with heavy AI traffic and complex scenery do not starve the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience. At 1080p, the difference between High (104.5 FPS) and Ultra (103.9 FPS) is negligible—just 0.6 FPS. This suggests that Ultra settings at 1080p come with no meaningful performance cost, making it the clear choice for users at this resolution.

At 1440p, the situation changes. High settings deliver 87.1 FPS, while Ultra drops to 83.3 FPS—a 4.4% reduction. Medium produces 114.2 FPS, which is 31.1% higher than Ultra. For users prioritizing smoothness, Medium at 1440p offers a significant FPS buffer. However, the 83.3 FPS at Ultra remains playable and provides the most visual fidelity.

At 4K, the trade-offs become more pronounced. Ultra yields 57.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold often considered ideal for flight simulation. High settings at 60.8 FPS just crosses that line, making it the recommended preset for 4K. Medium at 82.4 FPS provides a substantial margin for complex scenes, while Low at 107.4 FPS offers maximum smoothness.

The optimal preset depends on resolution: Ultra at 1080p, Medium or High at 1440p, and High at 4K. The data indicates that the game scales predictably with settings, with the largest relative drops occurring when moving from High to Ultra at 4K (a 5.9% reduction from 60.8 to 57.2 FPS). Across all resolutions, the Low preset shows the highest frame rates, but the visual compromise is substantial in a game where terrain detail and cockpit readability matter.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 295th out of 1795 tested combinations in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This places it in the 83.6th percentile of all combos, meaning it outperforms roughly 84% of tested systems. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU's strong multi-threading and the GPU's capable performance.

The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking among all processors suggests that the 5950X is not the bottleneck in this config. The GPU, ranking in the 84th percentile, is more likely to be the limiting factor. This is consistent with the measured FPS data: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 185.2 FPS, which drops to 103.9 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 43.9% reduction, indicating the GPU is increasingly stressed at higher quality settings.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the CPU's performance delta is minimal. The 0.2% difference from the i5-14600K and 0.6% from the i5-14600KF mean that in real-world gaming, users would be unlikely to perceive any difference. The rank of 295 out of 1795 suggests that this combo is well above average but not at the extreme top end, which would be occupied by newer CPUs and higher-tier GPUs.

The data reveals an interesting pattern: the combo performs disproportionately well at 4K, where the 57.2 FPS at Ultra is only 5.9% below the 60 FPS target. This indicates that the GPU's 12 GB of VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's high-resolution textures, and the CPU's 32 threads handle the simulation overhead effectively.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, using the AD104 chip manufactured on TSMC's 5nm process. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz and boosts to 2475 MHz, with 7168 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. Its 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores support the game's DirectX 12 Ultimate features.

The GPU's benchmark results show strong compute performance, with a Passmark G3D score of 29995 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 192684. Its 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it above the median, and its average benchmark score of 42576 is within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (42723). The 1.4% lead over the AMD Radeon Pro 580X and 1.6% over the NVIDIA Tesla M40 indicates that this GPU sits in a competitive mid-to-high tier.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU's role becomes evident when examining FPS scaling across resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 103.9 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 57.2 FPS. This 44.9% reduction demonstrates that the GPU is heavily taxed by the game's high-resolution rendering. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for 4K textures, as evidenced by the playable frame rates at that resolution.

The memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s is crucial for streaming terrain data and high-resolution textures. The game's measured results show that the GPU can handle the workload at 4K High (60.8 FPS) and 4K Medium (82.4 FPS), but struggles at 4K Ultra (57.2 FPS). This suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects or texture quality levels that exceed the GPU's comfortable performance envelope.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 35.48 TFLOPS and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s indicate substantial raw compute power. However, the game's measured data shows that the RTX 4070 SUPER, when paired with the 5950X, delivers a balanced experience where neither component consistently dominates as the bottleneck across all settings and resolutions.