Microsoft Flight Simulator

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

The measured FPS data for Microsoft Flight Simulator shows a clear pattern of resolution scaling that reveals the balance between the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 192.6 FPS, which drops to 152.4 FPS at 2560x1440 (a reduction of 40.2 FPS) and further to 110.8 FPS at 3840x2160 (a reduction of 41.6 FPS from 1440p). The step from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 20.9% of the frame rate, while the step from 1440p to 4K costs roughly 27.3% of the frame rate. This nonlinear scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is playing a significant role in limiting performance, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant constraint.

Looking at the High preset, the scaling is more moderate: 109.8 FPS at 1080p, 87 FPS at 1440p, and 64.1 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 20.8% and 26.3% respectively, which closely mirrors the Low preset behavior. This consistency across presets indicates that the resolution scaling pattern is stable regardless of graphical load. The Ultra preset shows a similar trend: 109.1 FPS at 1080p, 86.6 FPS at 1440p, and 60.4 FPS at 4K. Here the 4K drop is more pronounced at 30.3% relative to 1440p, suggesting that Ultra settings place additional stress on the GPU that becomes more visible at higher resolutions.

The fact that 1080p to 1440p transitions consistently cost about 20% of performance across all presets, while 1440p to 4K transitions cost between 26% and 30%, indicates that the RX 7900 XTX has sufficient headroom at lower resolutions but becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases. The CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz appear capable of feeding the GPU adequately at 1080p, where the GPU is not fully saturated. At 4K, the GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6 memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are being pushed harder, and the frame rate drops correspondingly.

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

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX brings substantial resources to Microsoft Flight Simulator. Its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for a flight simulator that loads large terrain and scenery data. The GPU's boost clock of 2498 MHz and game clock of 2365 MHz, with a base of 1929 MHz, give it the raw processing headroom to handle the game's complex rendering. The 6144 shading units and 192 ROPs contribute to a pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s, which are directly relevant to how quickly the GPU can fill frames at high resolutions.

The benchmark data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance differences between presets at the same resolution. At 4K, the spread from Low (110.8 FPS) to Ultra (60.4 FPS) is 50.4 FPS, a massive 45.5% reduction. At 1440p, the spread from Low (152.4 FPS) to Ultra (86.6 FPS) is 65.8 FPS, a 43.2% reduction. At 1080p, the spread from Low (192.6 FPS) to Ultra (109.1 FPS) is 83.5 FPS, a 43.4% reduction. These consistent percentage reductions across resolutions indicate that the GPU's capabilities are being scaled proportionally with graphical settings, and the RX 7900 XTX's architecture handles the increased load uniformly.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 85 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44019, places it in the upper tier. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 at -0.4% delta, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile at +0.8%, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at -2%. These relative positions suggest that the RX 7900 XTX is competitive with high-end mobile and desktop options, though the specific performance in Flight Simulator depends on how the game utilizes the GPU's features. The GPU's support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 means it can take advantage of modern rendering paths in the simulator.

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

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) built on a 4 nm process. Its base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide strong single-thread and multi-thread performance, which is relevant for a flight simulator that often has a single main simulation thread alongside multiple helper threads. The CPU's 64 MB of shared L3 cache (with 1 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core) helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, which can reduce latency in simulation calculations.

The CPU's benchmark scores reflect its strong performance: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 and single-core score of 6555, a Geekbench multicore of 19827 and single-core of 3341, and a 3DMark max-threads score of 13929. The CPU's percentile ranking of 94 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450, places it well above most processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D at -0.4% delta, the Intel Core i7-14700F at +0.7%, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K at -1.5%, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF at -1.8%. These deltas are all within 2%, indicating that the 9900X is tightly clustered with its direct competitors in raw processing power.

In the context of Flight Simulator, the CPU's role is evident in the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 192.6 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate across all configurations. The fact that 1080p Ultra (109.1 FPS) is nearly identical to 1080p High (109.8 FPS) suggests that at these settings, the CPU may be limiting performance, as the GPU has less work to do at lower resolutions. The CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads ensure that background simulation tasks, AI traffic, and physics calculations have dedicated resources, reducing the likelihood of frame hitches. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s (dual-channel DDR5) is sufficient for feeding the GPU with draw calls and geometry data.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 192.6 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 2560x1440 Low, it drops to 152.4 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it is 110.8 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS is 60.4, while at 1920x1080 Ultra, it is 109.1. This represents a 44.6% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra.

Q: Which component is more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU may be more limiting at 1080p, since the difference between 1080p High (109.8 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (109.1 FPS) is minimal, indicating the GPU can handle both presets similarly, while the CPU sets an upper bound.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks in the 85th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44019.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all CPUs?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450.

Q: How does the 1440p Medium setting perform?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo achieves an average FPS of 117.7, which is 20.4% higher than High at the same resolution (87 FPS) and 26.4% higher than Ultra (86.6 FPS).

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 appears to be the sweet spot in the measured data. It delivers 117.7 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS and leaves headroom for dips in complex scenery. Compared to High at the same resolution (87 FPS), Medium offers a 35.3% frame rate advantage while still maintaining a reasonable level of graphical fidelity. The 4K Medium setting (85.3 FPS) is also viable for users with high-resolution displays, as it exceeds 60 FPS, but the 1440p Medium result is more robust.

At 1080p, the High preset (109.8 FPS) is nearly identical to Ultra (109.1 FPS), differing by only 0.6%, so users can enable Ultra without sacrificing performance at this resolution. The 1080p Medium (147.5 FPS) provides an even smoother experience if frame rate is prioritized over maximum detail. For 4K users, the Low preset (110.8 FPS) offers the highest frame rate, but the Medium preset (85.3 FPS) is a better choice for visual quality, as the difference from Low is a 23% reduction in FPS but a significant improvement in graphics. The Ultra preset at 4K (60.4 FPS) is playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes, while the High preset at 4K (64.1 FPS) is nearly the same, differing by only 6.1%.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 192.6 FPS average
• Medium: 147.5 FPS average
• High: 109.8 FPS average
• Ultra: 109.1 FPS average

The 1080p data shows a clear stepwise progression from Low to Medium (a 23.4% drop) and from Medium to High (a 25.6% drop), but High and Ultra are nearly identical, differing by only 0.7 FPS. This suggests diminishing returns beyond the High preset at this resolution.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 152.4 FPS average
• Medium: 117.7 FPS average
• High: 87 FPS average
• Ultra: 86.6 FPS average

At 1440p, the pattern is similar to 1080p: Low to Medium drops 22.8%, Medium to High drops 26.1%, and High to Ultra is virtually unchanged (0.4 FPS difference). The absolute values are lower than 1080p, as expected from the increased pixel count.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 110.8 FPS average
• Medium: 85.3 FPS average
• High: 64.1 FPS average
• Ultra: 60.4 FPS average

At 4K, the settings spread is more compressed in percentage terms: Low to Medium drops 23.0%, Medium to High drops 24.9%, and High to Ultra drops 5.8%. The High-to-Ultra gap is smaller than at lower resolutions, indicating that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at 4K and the extra settings in Ultra have less impact on frame rate.

The combo ranks 245th out of 1795 combinations in this game, placing it in the top 13.7% of tested configurations. This ranking, combined with the measured data, positions the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX as a high-performing pairing for Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the strongest results at 1080p and 1440p, and playable frame rates at 4K across all presets.