Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is an exceptionally demanding title, and the benchmark data for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 reveals a system that is profoundly constrained by its graphics card. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are consistently low, indicating a configuration that struggles to maintain playable performance in this flight simulator. The data shows a clear picture: the CPU provides ample processing headroom, but the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck, resulting in a benchmark result that ranks near the bottom of all tested combinations.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a high-end desktop processor built on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It features 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This configuration gives it a significant amount of multi-threaded and single-threaded capability, as reflected in its benchmark scores. For instance, it achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 and a single-core score of 6555. Its overall percentile ranking against all CPUs is 94, indicating it performs better than 94% of processors in the database.

In the context of Microsoft Flight Simulator, a title known for heavy CPU usage during complex flight dynamics and scenery loading, the Ryzen 9 9900X's strengths are evident. The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo’s performance. When comparing the 9900X to its nearest rivals, the average benchmark scores are closely matched. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 54681, a delta of -0.4% relative to the 9900X, while the Intel Core i7-14700F scores 54097, a 0.7% difference. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF are 1.5% and 1.8% slower, respectively. These small deltas show that the 9900X is competitive with these processors, and its performance is more than sufficient to feed a graphics card in this game.

The 12-core, 24-thread configuration provides a robust foundation for the simulation's logic. The high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that the primary game thread, which is often the most critical for frame pacing, can run at maximum speed. The fact that the frame rates drop so dramatically when the resolution or settings are increased points directly to the GPU being the performance ceiling. The CPU’s potential is left untapped; it is waiting for the graphics card to deliver frames. The benchmark data for the CPU, such as a 3DMark max threads score of 13929 and a Passmark multithread score of 54643, confirms its high compute capacity. Even with this capability, the game's FPS results are low because the RX 580 cannot process the graphical workload fast enough to utilize the CPU's available power.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings for this CPU and GPU combo?

A: The benchmark data shows an average FPS of 33.8 at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is a modest result, indicating a less than smooth experience for a flight simulator.

Q: How does this combo perform at 1440p compared to 1080p?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average FPS drops to 27.4. This represents a 6.4 FPS decrease from the 1080p High result, demonstrating the GPU's inability to handle the increased pixel count.

Q: What is the best-case scenario for this hardware configuration?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 54.7, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only measured configuration that approaches a playable frame rate for this simulator.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X compare to the Ryzen 9 9900X3D?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X3D has an average benchmark score of 54681, which is 0.4% higher than the 9900X's score. The performance difference between the two processors is minimal.

Q: Is the Radeon RX 580 a high-performing GPU in this benchmark context?

A: No. The RX 580 has a percentile ranking of 53 against all GPUs, and its average benchmark score is 13559. It is closely matched with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, which has a 0% delta in performance.

Q: At what resolution and settings does the system achieve its lowest frame rate?

A: The lowest average FPS is 15.4, which occurs at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is a very demanding configuration that the GPU cannot handle.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling data provides a clear diagnosis of the system's bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 33.8 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 with the same settings drops the frame rate to 27.4 FPS. At 3840x2160, the average FPS falls further to 17.8. This pattern—a consistent and significant drop in performance as resolution increases—is the classic signature of a GPU-limited scenario.

The frame rate decrease is not linear but steep. The jump from 1440p to 4K at High settings results in a loss of 9.6 FPS, highlighting that the RX 580's pixel throughput is overwhelmed at higher resolutions. This is corroborated by the GPU's specifications, which include a fill rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. These figures are simply insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in a complex title like Microsoft Flight Simulator. The GPU’s compute capability of 6.175 TFLOPS is also a limiting factor.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the source of the slowdown. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the CPU's workload would be the same. Instead, the FPS scales inversely with resolution, proving that the graphics card is the limiting component. For example, at 1080p Low, the system manages 54.7 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 29.6 FPS. This 25.1 FPS reduction is almost entirely due to the GPU's rendering load. The Ryzen 9 9900X has more than enough power to handle the game's simulation logic, but it is starved of work because the RX 580 cannot produce frames quickly enough.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the database of tested hardware combinations for Microsoft Flight Simulator, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1672 out of 1795 combos. This places it in the bottom 7% of all tested systems, a position that reflects its poor real-world gaming performance in this title. The low ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's age and performance class.

The rank is not a reflection of the CPU's capability. The Ryzen 9 9900X is a top-tier processor, but the combo's overall performance is dragged down by the RX 580. This is a stark example of how a powerful CPU cannot compensate for a weak GPU in a graphics-intensive game. The data suggests that the system's potential is heavily mismatched. While the CPU could drive a much faster graphics card, it is paired with a model that was released in 2017 and is now considered end-of-life.

The ranking highlights the importance of balance in a gaming PC. A combination that pairs a 94th percentile CPU with a 53rd percentile GPU results in a system that performs like one of the slowest in the database for this game. The benchmark results show that the frame rate is consistently below 60 FPS in all but the lowest settings at 1080p, and the 4K performance is nearly unplayable. This poor showing in the rankings is a quantitative measure of the GPU bottleneck, confirming that the Radeon RX 580 is the reason for this combo's poor standing.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is a graphics card based on the Polaris 20 chip and the GCN 4.0 architecture. It is built on a 14 nm process and features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1257 MHz, with a boost clock of 1340 MHz. These specifications, while respectable for its 2017 release, are not enough for the demands of Microsoft Flight Simulator in 2024.

The GPU's performance in this game is poor, as evidenced by the measured FPS. The data shows that even at 1080p with Low settings, the card only manages an average of 54.7 FPS. This suggests that the game is heavily taxing the GPU's shading units (2304) and texture mapping units (144). The card's 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for 1080p, but at higher resolutions and settings, it likely becomes a limiting factor, although the primary constraint appears to be raw compute power. The RX 580's compute score in Passmark is 3488, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1005, both of which are low figures.

The GPU’s clock speeds and memory bandwidth are insufficient to keep up with the CPU's output. The game's complex scenery and weather systems require substantial graphics processing, and the RX 580 cannot deliver. Its percentile ranking of 53 against all GPUs places it in the middle of the pack, but its nearest rivals are all older or lower-tier models, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and GTX 950. The delta percentages are all within 1.1% of the RX 580's score, indicating that it is at the bottom of the performance hierarchy. In this game, the GPU is the clear and absolute bottleneck, preventing the powerful Ryzen 9 9900X from achieving anything close to its potential. The result is a benchmark combination that ranks 1672nd out of 1795, a poor showing that is entirely attributable to the graphics card.