Microsoft Flight Simulator

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 6600 pairing delivers a highly playable experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator, particularly at 1080p and 1440p, with the data indicating the combination’s performance is strongest when settings are dialed to "Medium." At 4K, the RX 6600’s 8 GB frame buffer and 128-bit bus become a hard bottleneck, dropping the Ultra preset below 30 FPS and the High preset to just 26 FPS. The combo ranks 2870th out of 3714 tested combinations, placing it in the lower half of all tested configurations, though the measured FPS numbers show this pairing remains viable for steady flight simulation at lower resolutions and settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo’s rank in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 17 and Radeon RX 6600 combo ranks 2,870th out of 3,714 tested combos in this game. That places it in the bottom quarter of all tested configurations.

Q: What average FPS does the combo achieve at 1080p with Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Low settings, the average FPS is 92 — the highest recorded across all resolutions and settings in the dataset.

Q: Is the RX 6600 VRAM sufficient for 4K Ultra settings?

A: The 8 GB VRAM is a limiting factor at 3840x2160 Ultra: the average FPS drops to just 31. The RX-6600’s memory bus is 128-bit and bandwidth is 224.0 GB/s, and the measured data shows it struggles at 4K beyond Low/Medium.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in the benchmark database?

A: The RX 6600’s average benchmark score is 19,036, nearly identical to the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (difference of 0.1% faster) and the RTX 4050 Mobile (0.1% slower). The NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation is 0.4% behind, and the Tesla K20m is 0.3% faster.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p in this game?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 Medium is the best balance: 58 FPS average with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 66. High drops to 43, Ultra to 41, and Low increases to 74, but Medium provides a smoother experience.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator with this combo strongly indicates that "Medium" is the sweet spot across all three resolutions, balancing frame rate with visual fidelity. At 1080p, Medium delivers 72 FPS average (61 min–82 max), which is a substantial improvement over High’s 54 FPS and Ultra’s 51 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 20 FPS (92 → 72), but the visual gains are worth it for a flight simulator, where terrain detail and cockpit readability matter.

At 1440p, Medium is the clear winner: 58 FPS average with 49 minimum and 66 maximum. This is comfortably above the 30 FPS threshold and leaves headroom for busy airports or heavy cloud coverage. The alternative High preset only yields 43 FPS, and Ultra is just 41 FPS — both are playable but not ideal for smooth flight simulation. Low gives 74 FPS, but it does not provide enough detail for a sim where situational awareness is key.

At 4K, the data reveals a different story. Medium gives 43 FPS average (36 min–49 max), which is the only preset at 4K that crosses the 40 FPS mark. High is 32 FPS and Ultra is 31 FPS — both below the 35 FPS threshold for comfortable flight sim play. Low is 55 FPS, but it would result in a severely degraded visual experience. Therefore, the "Medium" preset is recommended for 4K as a compromise between playability and visual quality, but the best experience is at 1080p or 1440p.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600’s memory subsystem is the primary constraint in Microsoft Flight Simulator at high resolution. With 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the GPU is able to process the game’s texture streaming up to 1440p, but 4K data exceeds this limitation. The measured 4K results show a sharp cliff: High drops to 32 FPS, Ultra to 31 FPS, while 1440p High is 43 FPS. This indicates that VRAM capacity is the limiting factor, not the core compute.

The GPU’s boost clock is 2491 MHz, base clock 1626 MHz, and gaming clock 2044 MHz. The chip has 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The pixel rate is 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate is 279.0 GTexel/s. These specs put the RX 6600 in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 19036.

The RX 6600’s nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (difference 0.0%), the RTX 4050 Mobile (0.1% slower), the Tesla K20m (0.3% slower), and the RTX 2000 Ada Generation (0.4% faster). The launch MSRP of the RX 6600 was 329 USD. The GPU’s TDP is 132 W, with a suggested PSU of 300 W. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8, which may limit transfer speeds in some systems, but this is not the bottleneck in the FPS data.

The measured results show that at 1080p, the GPU is sufficient to the CPU’s output: 1080p Low hits 92 FPS, and Medium 72 FPS. At 1440p, the GPU starts to become the limitation—High is 43 FPS, same as the 1080p High, which suggests that the GPU is the limit. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, with only 31–55 FPS across all presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 92 FPS average.
• Medium: 72 FPS average, with 61 minimum and 82 maximum.
• High: 54 FPS average.
• Ultra: 51 FPS average.

2560x1440:

• Low: 74 FPS average.
• Medium: 58 FPS average (49 min–66 max).
• High: 43 FPS average.
• Ultra: 41 FPS average.

3840x2160:

• Low: 55 FPS average.
• Medium: 43 FPS average (36 min–49 max).
• High: 32 FPS average.
• Ultra: 31 FPS average.

The data shows a clear pattern: each resolution step down (from 1080p to 1440p) costs roughly 20–25% performance at Medium settings (72→58→43). The 4K results are the most variable, with a 55 FPS Low to 31 FPS Ultra spread. The minimum FPS values recorded at Medium in all three resolutions (61, 49, 36) indicate that the game does not have severe drops, but rather a consistent performance level.

For a flight simulator where you need to see distant terrain and read instruments, the "Medium" settings provide the most stable experience. High and Ultra are not recommended at 4K due to the 32/31 FPS averages, which are below the 35 FPS threshold for a playable sim. Low is not recommended at any resolution because it would lose too much visual detail.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Ryzen 9 9900X and RX 6600 ranks 2870th out of 3714 combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator, placing it in the 77th percentile of all tested (i.e., bottom quarter). This ranking is a reflection of the GPU limit—the CPU is in the top 10% of all CPUs, but the GPU is in the 63rd percentile. So the ranking is a GPU-bound.

However, the FPS data shows that the combo is not unplayable; it just requires settings adjustment. At 1080p Medium, it hits 72 FPS, which is a good experience. At 1440p Medium, 58 FPS is good. The ranking is low because many other combos have stronger GPUs, but for the price of the RX 6600 (launch MSRP 329 USD), the performance is acceptable.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are: Cinebench R23 multi-core 32172, single-core 2253; Geekbench multi 22174, single 3010; Passmark multi 54643, single 4672. The CPU has 12 cores, 24 threads, base 4.40 GHz, boost 5.60 GHz, and 64 MB L3 cache. It is in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score 57498.

The CPU is not the bottleneck in this game; the FPS data shows that at 1080p Low the combo achieves 92 FPS, which is a CPU-bound score. But at 4K, even Low hits 55 FPS, indicating the GPU is the limit. Thus, the combo rank is a GPU-limited rank, and a user could improve the rank by pairing the CPU with a more powerful GPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread desktop processor based on the Zen 5 (Granite Ridge) architecture, with base clock 4.40 GHz and boost clock 5.60 GHz. It has 80 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 64 MB L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 dual-channel memory with a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. It has 24 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. The TDP is 120 W and the launch MSRP is $499. It is an unlocked multiplier, released 2024-08-14.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator, the CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are more than sufficient to handle the simulation’s flight physics, AI traffic, and terrain loading. The CPU benchmarks show strong: Cinebench R23 multi 32172, Geekbench multi 22174, Passmark multi 54643. Single-thread performance is also strong: Cinebench R23 single 2253, Passmark single 4672.

The CPU's nearest rivals by average benchmark score are the AMD EPYC 9015 (0.1% slower), AMD EPYC 7313 (0.2% faster), Intel Core i9-14900 (1.1% slower), and Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (1.4% slower). The 9900X sits in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs.

In this game, the CPU can support the RX 6600 up to the GPU’s limit. The FPS at 1080p Low is 92 FPS, which is a CPU-limited at that point; the GPU can’t push further. At 1440p Medium, the combo holds 58 FPS, with the CPU still not a bottleneck. Only at 4K does the CPU become irrelevant, as the GPU is the sole limit.

The CPU's memory support of DDR5-ECC is a plus for stability. The 64 MB L3 cache is also beneficial for game, as it can hold a larger working set. However, the data shows that in this game, the GPU is the deciding factor for FPS, not the CPU. The combo is a good match for 1080p and 1440p Medium/High, but for 4K, you would need a GPU with more VRAM and bandwidth.