Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Radeon RX 570 pairing produces a severely constrained experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the benchmark data indicating that the graphics card is the overwhelming bottleneck across nearly every test scenario. The measured frame rates place this configuration in the bottom percentile of all tested combos, struggling to maintain playable performance even at the lowest settings and resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a stark and consistent decline as resolution increases, though the absolute numbers remain low across the board. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo averages 49.5 FPS, which drops to 41.3 FPS at 1440p and further to 25.5 FPS at 4K. This translates to a 48.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is being pushed harder as pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher settings. With Medium settings, the measured average goes from 36 FPS at 1080p to 32.8 FPS at 1440p, then drops sharply to 20.3 FPS at 4K. The High preset shows a similar trajectory: 28.9 FPS at 1080p, 22.4 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K. Interestingly, the gap between 1080p and 1440p is relatively modest at Low and Medium settings, but the jump from 1440p to 4K represents a substantial performance cliff in every preset.

This data suggests that while the GPU is the primary limiting factor, the CPU's strong single-thread performance is not enough to compensate. The Ryzen 9 7900X, with its Zen 4 architecture and boost clock of 5.60 GHz, is clearly capable of feeding the GPU, but the RX 570's 4 GB of VRAM and GCN 4.0 architecture cannot handle the demands of this simulator. The resolution scaling indicates that at 4K, the GPU is overwhelmed, while at 1080p, it is still the dominant constraint. The fact that even at 1080p Low the combo only reaches 49.5 FPS reinforces that this is a GPU-bound scenario from top to bottom.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a 2017-era graphics card built on the 14 nm process with a Polaris 20 chip. Its base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz are modest by modern standards, and the 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is known for heavy texture streaming and complex scenery rendering, this VRAM capacity is likely a critical limitation.

The benchmark data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo averages just 15.2 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it reaches 27.6 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at the same resolution reveals the GPU's scaling limits. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra drops performance from 49.5 FPS to 27.6 FPS, a 44% reduction. At 4K, the same settings change reduces frames from 25.5 to 15.2 FPS. The GPU's 32 ROPs and 2048 shading units are simply insufficient for this workload, and the 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance does not translate into playable frame rates.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 74 against all GPUs is misleading in this context, as its average benchmark score of 30158 places it near cards like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT in synthetic tests. However, the real-world simulator data tells a different story, with the RX 570's age and memory constraints becoming apparent. The 4 GB VRAM is particularly problematic for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which often exceeds this capacity even at 1080p with high-resolution textures. The GPU's DirectX 12 support (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3 compliance do not help overcome this fundamental hardware limitation.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 7900X and RX 570 ranks 1745 out of 1795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the bottom 2.8% of all configurations. This is a remarkably poor showing, especially considering the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 9 7900X alone ranks in the 93rd percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 50556, placing it just 0.1% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and 0.8% behind the Intel Core i9-13980HX.

The disconnect between the CPU's strength and the combo's performance is stark. The 7900X's 12 cores and 24 threads, combined with 64 MB of shared L3 cache, make it a top-tier processor for multi-threaded workloads. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 43695 and single-core score of 6168 demonstrate exceptional processing power. Yet, when paired with the RX 570, the system becomes GPU-bound to the point where the CPU's advantages are entirely negated.

The GPU's own benchmark scores show it is competitive in synthetic tests, with its average score of 30158 being just 0.2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile. However, in this specific game, the combination produces frame rates that are barely playable at best. The rank of 1745 out of 1795 indicates that nearly every other tested pairing outperforms this configuration, even those with less powerful CPUs but more capable graphics cards. This data reinforces that in Microsoft Flight Simulator, the GPU selection is far more critical than CPU choice, and the RX 570's limitations define the entire experience.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the only viable settings for this combo are at 1080p with Low or Medium presets. At 1080p Low, the average of 49.5 FPS is marginally playable, though it remains below the 60 FPS threshold that many sim enthusiasts prefer. Moving to Medium at the same resolution yields 36 FPS, which is still functional but noticeably less smooth. The High and Ultra presets at 1080p produce 28.9 FPS and 27.6 FPS respectively, which are borderline for a flight simulator where smooth camera panning is essential.

At 1440p, the situation worsens significantly. Low settings produce 41.3 FPS, which is acceptable for casual play, but Medium drops to 32.8 FPS and High falls to 22.4 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 20.3 FPS, which is not recommended for any scenario. At 4K, all settings produce unplayable results, with the best case being 25.5 FPS at Low and the worst being 15 FPS at High and 15.2 FPS at Ultra.

The data suggests that players should use 1080p Low for the most consistent experience, as it provides the highest frame rates and leaves some headroom for complex scenery. The 1080p Medium preset is a reasonable compromise for those who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate stability, offering a 36 FPS average. Any setting above Medium at 1080p, or any setting at 1440p or higher, will result in degraded performance that detracts from the simulation experience. Given the GPU's 4 GB VRAM, users should also expect potential texture pop-in and stuttering even at Low settings when flying over dense urban areas.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 49.5 FPS at Low, 36 FPS at Medium, 28.9 FPS at High, and 27.6 FPS at Ultra. The step from Low to Medium represents a 27% drop, while the jump from Medium to High is a 20% reduction. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal at just 4.5%, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds little visual benefit for a measurable performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 41.3 FPS at Low, 32.8 FPS at Medium, 22.4 FPS at High, and 20.3 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 16.6% reduction at Low, a 8.9% reduction at Medium, a 22.5% reduction at High, and a 26.4% reduction at Ultra. Interestingly, the Medium preset shows the smallest resolution penalty, while the higher presets degrade more substantially.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 25.5 FPS at Low, 20.3 FPS at Medium, 15 FPS at High, and 15.2 FPS at Ultra. The drop from 1440p to 4K is severe across all presets: 38.3% at Low, 38.1% at Medium, 33% at High, and 25.1% at Ultra. The fact that High and Ultra produce nearly identical results at 4K (15 vs 15.2 FPS) indicates that the GPU is completely saturated and cannot differentiate between these presets. The measured data shows no min or max FPS values, but the averages alone paint a clear picture of a system that is fundamentally mismatched for this game. The Ryzen 9 7900X's processing power is wasted in this pairing, as the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and aging architecture create an insurmountable bottleneck at every resolution and settings combination tested.