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The Nvidia RTX 2070 Super is an excellent card. It’s one of the best choices for 1440p gaming at the moment, and there are many excellent RTX 2070 Super models on the market right now. But which CPU is the best pair for the RTX 2070 Super? Well, while the card’s quite powerful most modern CPUs won’t bottleneck it.
The first CPU from the current AMD and Intel lineup that could bottleneck the RTX 2070 Super is the Ryzen 3 3100. Its bigger cousin, the 3300X, plays great when paired with the 2070 Super. In fact, the current budget gaming king is powerful enough for every GPU sans the RTX 2080 Ti, where we see some bottlenecking taking place. So, with that behind us, let’s check the best CPUs for RTX 2070 Super.
Before we start, let’s share a couple of articles readers might find interesting. First of all, our list of the best RTX 2070 Super graphics cards will help you find the best RTX 2070 Super variant for your budget. Next, our list of the best IPS monitors has multiple options that would pair great with this GPU. Finally, check our guide for the best airflow PC cases to find a chassis that can provide an adequate cooling setup for the RTX 2070 Super.
1. Intel Core i9-10900K: Best overall gaming CPU for RTX 2070 Super
Well, this was a surprise, wasn’t it? The 10900K is one of the fastest gaming CPUs at the moment and the logical choice for the RTX 2070. It can keep up with this card and is powerful enough to be an excellent CPU to pair with a card you’ll someday replace your RTX 2070 Super with.
The performance is amazing, but the price’s also high. The 10900K costs as much as the RTX 2070 Super, so while this GPU is one of the best GPUs on the market, it isn’t the best pairing for the 10900K. Something like the 2080 Super or (if you have the cash) 2080 Ti is a much better pairing for the 10900K.
But if you still want to pair the 2070 Super with the 10900K, we won’t mind. In fact, the 10900K with its 10 cores and 20 threads will work great with next-gen games. We reckon it will be a capable gaming CPU in years to come, so as a cornerstone of a gaming PC that should last for half a decade, it’s a great choice.
Once the RTX 2070 Super becomes too rusty for modern games, you’ll be able to replace it with any next-gen GPU you want since the 10900K is powerful enough for us to be sure it won’t bottleneck even the fastest next-gen GPUs from Nvidia and AMD. Now, there is the issue with the 10th gen Intel CPUs and Z490 boards not supporting PCIe 4.0 interface.
As you probably know, both the B550 and X570 chipsets for Ryzen CPUs have full PCIe 4.0 support while current Intel CPUs lack it. Will this impact gaming performance with RTX 30 series from Nvidia and RDNA 2 cards from AMD, both of which will have PCIe 4.0 support?
Well, you could get some gaming performance penalty, but only if using the flagship RTX 30 and RDNA 2 cards. At the moment, only some games show an advantage when using PCIe 4.0 and only in 4K resolution. In other words, lack of PCIe 4.0 support could slightly affect gaming performance but not on a scale that will have any noticeable impact.
2. AMD Ryzen 9 3900X: Best overall RTX 2070 Super CPU for mixed use
If you use your PC for gaming and work and want the best CPU for both use cases, get the 3900X. Twelve cores and twenty-four threads are more than enough for any current game. Further, this CPU blows Intel’s lineup out of the water when it comes to productivity performance.
It’s the overall best choice for mixed-use unless you are ready to shell out for the 3950X, which doesn’t come with a noticeable gaming performance advantage but provides enough boost in productivity tasks to justify its high price.
The 3900X will work like a charm when paired with the 2070 Super. Just make sure to get any decent aftermarket cooler because the CPU gets rather hot when paired with the box cooler. When it comes to future-proofing your rig, the 3900X is a top-tier choice.
It works excellent with any current card, and it will work great with any next-gen GPU. Lots of cores, high clock speeds, and PCIe 4.0 support make the 3900X maybe even a better choice for a future-proof gaming rig than the 10900K. And when it comes to productivity, this is, along with the 3950X, the best choice at the moment.
3. Intel Core i5-10600K: Best bang for the buck gaming CPU for RTX 2070 Super
While the Core i9-10900K is the best overall choice for gaming, that CPU is rather expensive. It also demands a capable cooling solution if you want to OC it. Luckily, another 10th gen Intel CPU is the best choice for gamers who want to get the most for their money. Yes, we’re talking about the Core i5-10600K. This is an excellent CPU to pair with the RTX 2070 Super.
This CPU is half the price of the 10900K while achieving almost the same gaming performance once overclocked. Luckily, the 10600K is very easy to overclock. All you need is a relatively capable cooling system and a quality board that doesn’t have to be expensive. And once you overclock it, its six cores and twelve threads will push the RTX 2070 Super to its limits and won’t bottleneck it in any way.
You’ll get 10900K-like performance for half the money. And the 10600K should also work great with upcoming next-gen games. Lots of cores, hyperthreading, and very high clocks make this CPU a superb choice for those who are building their gaming PC right now. This CPU should also work great with the RTX 2070 Super successor. On the flip side, the next-gen flagship GPUs might see some performance penalties due to the lack of PCIe 4.0 support on the current Intel CPU lineup.
4. AMD Ryzen 7 3700X: Best bang for the buck mixed-use CPU for RTX 2070 Super
For users who both game and work on their PCs, the Ryzen 7 3700X is the best CPU for RTX 2070 Super. This CPU costs a bit extra over the 10600K, but it doesn’t require an aftermarket cooler (although you can use a budget one and get noticeably lower thermals). Further, the 3700X can work on B450 and B550 motherboards, and it can reach its full potential even on budget boards, thanks to its 65W TDP.
When it comes to performance, the 3700X is much better than the 10600K in productivity workloads. Games are where the 10600K takes the crown but not by much. The 3700X is more than a solid gaming CPU even though the 10600K beats it. Further, the 3700X will also work great with next-gen games thanks to its eight-core and sixteen-thread design and PCIe 4.0 support.
That also means that this CPU won’t be a bottleneck even for the most powerful next-gen GPUs. In other words, this is another great candidate for building a long-term gaming and productivity rig. Pair it with the RTX 2070 Super, and you’ve got yourself an excellent gaming and work build for the next couple of years.
5. AMD Ryzen 3 3300X: Best budget gaming CPU for RTX 2070 Super
The Ryzen 3 3300X is the best budget CPU for gaming at the moment and the best budget CPU to pair with the RTX 2070 Super. It reaches 7700K-like performance but for much, much less money. Combine these two, add 16GB of fast memory, a quality PSU, and a fast SSD, and you’ve got yourself a superb budget gaming PC that will work great for at least a couple of years.
But this is where the first issue shows its ugly face. You see, at the moment, four cores and eight-thread design of the 3300X is perfect for current titles. They don’t need more cores and work great with four core CPUs. But what about next-gen titles?
Both next-gen consoles feature fast eight cores and sixteen tread CPUs based on the latest Ryzen lineup. That means next-gen games will probably be designed to max out seven cores (one CPU core on both consoles is reserved for the system), seven fast Ryzen cores. This doesn’t bode well for the 3300X, and while this is an excellent budget gaming CPU at the moment, it probably won’t be in a couple of years.
Also, the 3300X can be a bottleneck for any card more powerful than the 2070 Super, so it won’t work great with next-gen GPUs despite its support for PCIe 4.0. It will probably be able to max out something like the RTX 3060 (Super) or the equivalent of the RX 5700. But anything more powerful will hit the CPU performance wall.
This is why we can recommend this CPU to pair with the RTX 2070 Super if you need a gaming CPU capable of running current titles. But if you want to pair the 2070 Super with a CPU that will be capable of hosting high-end next-gen GPUs without playing the bottleneck role, check out our last recommendation.
6. AMD Ryzen 5 3600: Best budget mixed use CPU for RTX 2070 Super
The Ryzen 5 3600 has been the best bang for the buck CPU on the market for quite some time. It wore this title ever since it first saw the light of day. It has pretty good productivity performance, while its gaming performance is solid but not amazing. But for the price, this is the best budget mixed-use CPU for the RTX 2070 Super.
Six cores and twelve threads make it the same as the 10600K, but the 3600 is a bit better in productivity workloads and slower in games. Nevertheless, this CPU won’t bottleneck any current-gen GPU, making it an excellent choice to pair with the 2070 Super.
By pairing the two, you’ll get an excellent gaming PC that isn’t a slouch when it comes to productivity tasks. Also, the 3600 can max its performance on a budget board, and its box cooler is good enough to skip getting an aftermarket solution.
And it will work great with current and cross-gen games. Once the time comes to replace the RTX 2070 Super, the Ryzen 5 3600 should work great with almost any next-gen GPU. It’ll probably induce a bottleneck when paired with flagship models, but anything lower than that will most likely work just fine.
So, once your current 2070 Super becomes too slow, replace it with something like the RTX 3070, and you should be good to go for the next-gen gaming.
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