Microsoft Flight Simulator

FAQ

Q: What is the combo rank of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

A: This combination ranks 5th out of 1795 tested combos in the game, placing it in the top tier of all measured systems.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X scores 54,450 on average, which is 0.4% below the Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54,681), 0.7% above the Intel Core i7-14700F (54,097), 1.5% below the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (55,304), and 1.8% below the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (55,421).

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

A: The RTX 5090 sits at the 94th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306. Its closest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84,241 (0.1% lower), while the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 scores 83,209 (1.3% lower).

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 4K with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the combo delivers 81 FPS on High, 106.8 FPS on Medium, 141.6 FPS on Low, and 75.7 FPS on Ultra settings.

Q: Does the CPU have integrated graphics, and what is its boost clock?

A: Yes, it includes Radeon Graphics integrated. The CPU boosts up to 5.60 GHz with a base clock of 4.40 GHz, featuring 12 cores and 24 threads.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the CPU support?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, and it also supports ECC memory.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this pairing at rank 5 out of 1,795 tested combos in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That top-five position reflects the combined strength of a 94th-percentile CPU and a 94th-percentile GPU. The CPU's average benchmark score of 54,450 places it in a tight cluster with immediate rivals: the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is only 0.4% higher, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K is 1.5% higher, and the Intel Core i7-14700F is 0.7% lower. This near-parity among top CPUs suggests the game's performance ceiling is heavily influenced by GPU capabilities, yet the 5th-place rank shows the CPU is not a bottleneck.

The GPU side reinforces this. The RTX 5090's average score of 84,306 puts it just ahead of the RTX 5090 D (0.1% lower) and well ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (1.3% lower). With the GPU at the 94th percentile and the CPU at the same percentile, the combo avoids the common pitfall of pairing a weak processor with a flagship card. In flight simulation, where draw calls and physics calculations can stress the CPU, having a 12-core, 24-thread processor with a 5.60 GHz boost clock ensures the RTX 5090 receives a steady stream of frames to render.

Measured FPS data confirms the rank's validity. At 4K Ultra, the combo still produces 75.7 FPS, which is playable for most users. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is smooth: at 1080p Ultra, it hits 133.4 FPS, while at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 108.3 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it reaches 75.7 FPS. This pattern suggests the combo is well-balanced, with the GPU becoming the primary limiter only at the highest resolution and settings. The 5th-place rank out of 1,795 combos is not just a number; it reflects consistently high performance across all tested configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Microsoft Flight Simulator's vast scenery streaming. The GPU's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with 21,760 shading units, allow it to handle the game's complex lighting and texture work. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores further enhance visual fidelity through ray-traced shadows and AI-accelerated upscaling.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's scaling behavior. At 4K Low, the combo produces 141.6 FPS, but moving to Medium drops it to 106.8 FPS, High to 81 FPS, and Ultra to 75.7 FPS. This 46.6% reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K highlights the GPU's workload. At 1440p, the spread is similar: Low hits 192.9 FPS, Medium 148.1 FPS, High 112.3 FPS, and Ultra 108.3 FPS. The 1080p numbers are higher across the board, with Low reaching 239.5 FPS and Ultra still managing 133.4 FPS.

The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate are reflected in these results. The 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate ensures the 4K Ultra 75.7 FPS result does not suffer from fill-rate bottlenecks. The GPU's 94th percentile rank among all GPUs aligns with its position as one of the fastest cards available. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores nearly identically, confirming that this GPU is at the top of its class. In this game, the RTX 5090's memory bandwidth appears to be a key asset, as flight simulators often load large terrain textures that can exceed smaller VRAM pools.

Settings Recommendations

For a balanced experience, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. At 4K, it delivers 106.8 FPS, which is smooth and leaves headroom for occasional scenery complexity. The jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 25.8 FPS (from 106.8 to 81), while the jump from Low to Medium gains 34.8 FPS (from 141.6 to 106.8). This suggests Medium offers the best trade-off between visual quality and performance.

At 1440p, Medium produces 148.1 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. High at 1440p still yields 112.3 FPS, making it a viable option for users with 144Hz panels. Ultra at 1440p drops to 108.3 FPS, which is acceptable but leaves less margin for demanding scenarios like dense city flyovers.

At 1080p, even Ultra delivers 133.4 FPS, so users on 1080p displays can confidently select Ultra without worrying about frame drops. The data shows that Low at 1080p (239.5 FPS) is overkill for most displays, so the recommendation is to prioritize higher settings at this resolution.

The measured rows indicate that the combo is never below 75.7 FPS in any configuration tested. This means users can choose settings based on their display's refresh rate and personal preference. For 4K users with 60Hz displays, Ultra is viable. For 1440p users with 144Hz displays, Medium or High is recommended. For 1080p users, Ultra is the clear choice. The absence of min/max FPS data means these averages should be treated as representative of typical performance, with potential variance in complex scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the combo produces a progressive decline from Low to Ultra: 141.6 FPS on Low, 106.8 FPS on Medium, 81 FPS on High, and 75.7 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 25.8 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 5.3 FPS. This suggests diminishing returns at the top end, where the GPU is nearing its limit.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are higher: 192.9 FPS on Low, 148.1 FPS on Medium, 112.3 FPS on High, and 108.3 FPS on Ultra. The difference between High and Ultra here is just 4 FPS, indicating that Ultra at 1440p is nearly as fast as High. The jump from Low to Medium is 44.8 FPS, showing that Medium is a significant improvement over Low.

At 1920x1080, the combo reaches its peak: 239.5 FPS on Low, 185.9 FPS on Medium, 141.9 FPS on High, and 133.4 FPS on Ultra. The margin between High and Ultra is 8.5 FPS, the smallest across all resolutions. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU may begin to play a larger role, as the GPU has enough headroom to handle higher settings.

Comparing resolutions, the scaling is consistent. At Ultra, 1080p delivers 133.4 FPS, 1440p delivers 108.3 FPS (a 19% drop), and 4K delivers 75.7 FPS (a 43% drop from 1080p). This scaling is typical for a GPU-heavy workload, confirming that the RTX 5090 is the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions. At Low, the scaling is steeper: 239.5 FPS at 1080p, 192.9 FPS at 1440p, and 141.6 FPS at 4K. This larger drop suggests that at Low settings, the CPU becomes more involved, and the Ryzen 9 9900X's 12 cores are sufficient to maintain high frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X provides 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) on a 4 nm process delivers strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1,286 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6,555. In Microsoft Flight Simulator, single-thread performance is crucial for the game's main simulation loop, which handles flight physics and AI.

The CPU's 64 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for the game's streaming of terrain data. The dual-channel DDR5 support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without stalling. The CPU's passmark multithread score of 54,643 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46,438 indicate it can handle the game's background threads, such as weather simulation and traffic.

The CPU's percentile rank of 94 against all CPUs is mirrored by its nearest rivals' scores. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D is only 0.4% faster on average, despite its additional 3D V-Cache. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K is 1.5% faster, and the Intel Core i7-14700F is 0.7% slower. This tight clustering suggests that in this game, the CPU is not the limiting factor; even a slightly slower CPU would likely produce similar FPS results.

The measured FPS breakdown supports this. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 239.5 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation rate. The 3DMark max-threads score of 13,929 and passmark physics score of 3,381 indicate the CPU can sustain high thread counts without throttling. The 120W TDP is modest for a 12-core processor, and the 5.60 GHz boost clock ensures it can spike to higher frequencies when the game demands single-thread speed.

In summary, the CPU's role is to provide a solid foundation for the RTX 5090. With 24 threads and high single-core performance, it prevents bottlenecks at lower resolutions and settings, allowing the GPU to reach its full potential. At higher resolutions, the GPU takes over, and the CPU's influence diminishes, as shown by the smaller FPS differences between High and Ultra at 4K.