The RTX 3070 brings 2080Ti-like performance for more than half the price. The card sits just under the flagship 3080 model. In other words, with its reduced memory buffer (8GB) compared to the RTX 2080Ti (11GB) and RTX 3080 (10GB), the RTX 3070 is a perfect card for high refresh rate 1440p gaming. This kind of performance demands a capable CPU but the reality is that you don’t have to get a flagship gaming CPU to get the most out of the RTX 3070.
When it comes to the best CPU to go with the RTX 3070, the favorites are pretty clear. The new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs excel both at gaming and productivity, making them the obvious choice for the RTX 3070. Then we have older Ryzen and Intel CPUs, which still pack a lot of gaming (Intel) and productivity (Ryzen) punch. The gist is that you don’t have to spend a fortune on a CPU for the RTX 3070 to get amazing gaming performance. For the best productivity performance, you’ll have to pay a bit extra. Now, let’s check the best CPUs for the RTX 3070.
Best CPUs For RTX 3070 Builds – Our Picks
| Award | Model | |
|---|---|---|
| Best Bang For The Buck Gaming CPU For RTX 3070 | Intel Core i5-10600KF |  |
| Best Overall Mixed Use CPU For RTX 3070 | AMD Ryzen 9 5900X |  |
| Best Bang For The Buck Mixed Use CPU For RTX 3070 | Intel Core i7-10700KF |  |
| Best Budget Gaming And Mixed Use CPU For RTX 3070 | Intel Core i5-10400F |  |
Best Bang For The Buck Gaming CPU For RTX 3070
Intel Core i5-10600KF
| Cores | 6 |
| Threads | 12 |
| Base Frequency | 4.1 GHz |
| Max Turbo Frequency | 4.8 GHz |
| TDP | 125 W |
The time when Ryzen 3000 CPUs were considered a great bang for the buck gaming CPUs is gone. Nowadays the Ryzen 5 3600 isn’t fast enough in games to justify its price. The Core i5-10600KF, on the other hand, is cheaper than the 3600 while having much better gaming performance. And if you overclock the CPU and use fast memory with tight timings, you can come very close to the 5600X gaming performance while paying one-third less for the 10600KF.
Besides, playing at 1440p (which we reckon is the resolution most RTX 3070 owners are gaming on) will make the performance differences between the two melt away. Just look at the relative performance between the two CPUs at 1440p using the RTX 2080 Ti, which has virtually the same performance as the RTX 3070. For individual results, just look at the 8700K scores, which is more or less the same CPU as the 10600KF.
Another plus is that you can pair the 10600KF with an affordable Z490 board and slap a mid-range cooler onto it and be off to the races with great thermals while still paying much less than for the 5600X+B550 combo. If you use your PC for stuff other than games, the 10600KF won’t be competing with the 5600X, but it will be fast enough for occasional video edits or such. Of course, the biggest downside, if you decide to buy the 10600KF, is the lack of PCIe 4.0 support. But, considering that we’re still far, far away from games requiring fast NVMe SSDs you should have zero issues in the considerable future.
When it comes to the alternatives to the 10600KF, there’s the regular 10600K that’s about ten percent pricier. You could also go for the Core i5-10400F and, once prices settle down, you could also snag the Core i5-11400F that has PCIe 4.0 support and that can be paired with a budget B560 board, which do support memory overclocking. 11th gen K-series Intel CPUs are too expensive for what they offer and, as we already said, the 3600 is also too expensive considering its gaming performance.
Best Overall Mixed Use CPU For RTX 3070
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
| Cores | 12 |
| Threads | 27 |
| Base Frequency | 3.7 GHz |
| Max Turbo Frequency | 4.8 GHz |
| TDP | 105 W |
The Ryzen 9 5900X is the best CPU you can get right now for the RTX 3070, considering both performance and total price needed for the upgrade (motherboard plus cooling). The 5900X is one of the fastest gaming CPUs you can get right now. Its 12 Zen 3 cores often come on top of gaming benchmarks, and often beat the 10-core 10900K. A massive gaming performance increase over the 3900X.
Next, the productivity performance is miles ahead of every Intel CPU in the vast majority of applications, with the 5900X being quite close to the last-gen flagship CPU, the 3950X. Another good thing about the 5900X is that it doesn’t demand state of the art motherboard and cooling system to show its power. You can OC it, but while that will give you performance boost in productivity apps, gaming performance will suffer due to the fact that all-core boost runs lower than the single core boost, which is responsible for the blazing-fast gaming performance.
You can get the 5950X instead of the 5900X but the price difference isn’t worth the boost in performance unless you’re doing lots of CPU-heavy work on your PC, such as rendering, where time saved can justify the investment. Also, the 3900X is still an excellent mixed-use CPU and if you’re doing lots of CPU-intensive work and don’t care about top of the line gaming performance it might be wise to look for a used 3900X and save a lot of cash.
Best Bang For The Buck Mixed Use CPU For RTX 3070
Intel Core i7-10700KF
| Cores | 8 |
| Threads | 16 |
| Base Frequency | 3.8 GHz |
| Max Turbo Frequency | 5.1 GHz |
| TDP | 95 W |
RTX 3070 owners who use their PCs both for gaming and serious work and want to get a great processor for not that much cash, should consider getting the Core i7-10700KF. This 10th gen Intel CPU received massive price cuts since it came out and today, it presents an excellent bang for the buck CPU. Eight cores, solid overclocking potential, and the price that’s 50 percent lower than of its direct rival, the Ryzen 7 5800X, are 10700KF’s biggest advantages.
Gaming performance is below the 5800X in most titles at 1080p. On the other hand, when gaming at 1440p you will struggle to notice any difference. There are some outliers, like Civilization 6, but most games perform extremely similarly on the two CPUs. Productivity performance is behind the 5800X, but not that much behind to justify spending 50 percent more cash on the Ryzen processor. The difference between the 10700KF and the 5600X in games is minimal, but the 8-core Intel CPU has better multithreaded performance, which puts the Intel CPU in front of the AMD for users who need that multithreaded performance.
When compared to the 3700X, the 10700K is much faster in games. Their productivity performance is quite close though. If you really want PCIe 4.0 support, or if you want a CPU with a clear upgrade path, then we recommend getting the 3700X over the 10700KF. Another interesting alternative is the Core i7-10700F, which is less than 10 percent slower. If you find it for cheap, get it. Just don’t pair it with a B460 board since the slower memory support will considerably slash gaming performance.
Best Budget Gaming And Mixed Use CPU For RTX 3070
Intel Core i5-10400F
| Cores | 6 |
| Threads | 12 |
| Base Frequency | 2.9 GHz |
| Max Turbo Frequency | 4.3 GHz |
| TDP | 65 W |
We decided to put the Core i5-10400F as the best budget CPU for the RTX 3070 because the 11th gen Core i5-11400F saw a massive price gouging, probably the result of its stupendous value after it came out and sold at or near its MSRP. So, once the 11400F comes down in price and stabilizes at or around its MSRP, get it over the 10400F without thinking. But, until that happens, the 10400F is the budget gaming king.
The 10400F still has very competitive gaming performance compared to the more expensive SKUs, like the Ryzen 5 3600 or the 10600K/10600KF, especially at higher resolutions and/or max visual settings. Just make sure to pair the CPU with a Z490 or a B560 motherboard, since the B560 chipset allows memory overclocking. And you can lose a ton of performance by running slower memory. If you decide to buy a B560 motherboard, get one that can run the CPU at its maximum power/frequency.
What about older CPUs?
If you don’t plan on getting a new CPU don’t worry. The RTX 3070 should work great on a wide range of CPU. Anything from the Core i7-8700K onwards will be more than enough. When it comes to Ryzen CPUs, the Ryzen 5 2600 could bottleneck this card but the Ryzen 7 2700 and more powerful CPUs should work excellent when coupled with the RTX 3070.
How much faster is the RTX 3070 compared to the RTX 2070?
The RTX 3070 is right in line with the RTX 2080Ti’s performance in games, making it about 30-35 percent faster than the RTX 2070 on average. Do note that while you get faster performance in games, the memory buffer stays the same, making the RTX 3070 a less than ideal choice for 4K gaming.
Does the RTX 3070 support PCIe 4.0 and will it work on a PCIe 3.0 motherboard?
Yes, the RTX 3070 supports PCIe 4.0 technology. No worries though because the card will run fine on a PCIe 3.0 motherboard. When it comes to performance differences, there is virtually no difference in gaming performance between PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 when it comes to the RTX 3080. And since the RTX 3080 is more powerful than the 3070, you shouldn’t expect any performance impact if you plan to hook up the card to a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot.
Does the RTX 3070 support HDMI 2.1 and will it work on older HDMI standards?
Yes, the RTX 3070 offers full HDMI 2.1 support. The thing is, no gaming PC monitors are supporting the HDMI 2.1 standard at the moment. The first model with HDMI 2.1 support should come in early 2021. Some TVs support HDMI 2.1 and on these models, you can game at 4K and 120Hz.
The RTX 3070 will work fine on older HDMI standards. But, depending on the standard, your max framerate and resolution may vary. You should see which HDMI port you have on your monitor and then consult this handy guide explaining each version of the HDMI standard and specs it offers.
Which resolutions RTX 3070 is best for?
The RTX 3070 targets 1440p resolution. You will be able to play any game at max settings and about 70-100fps at 1440p. Lowering some visual settings in select AAA titles a bit and you should reach 144Hz at 1440p in almost every current title. When it comes to esports titles this card should run them great at 1440p and 240Hz.
That said, the RTX 3070 is a less than ideal choice for 4K gaming. Its 8GB memory buffer is perfect for 1440p but at 4K 8GB of memory might prove inadequate in future titles. On top of that, the most demanding AAA titles at this moment won’t run at 4K and 60fps with all (or most) settings maxed out. If you game at 4K think about the RTX 3080 or the upcoming AMD RX 6000 GPUs.
41 comments
Hi Goran,
I hope you are well. I wanted to know if it was worth buying the RTX 3070 and use it with an i5-10400 processor (B460 motherboard, 16GB RAM, and a 650w power supply). I would change the CPU first, but it would void my PC’s guarantee.
Thank you
Nicolás
Hello Goran,
At first, thanks for the article. I recenlty bought an EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 XC GPU. My current setup is:
Asus Prime B450-Plus
EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 XC
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C16 2x16GB
CORSAIR RM850x 850W 80+ PSU
First of all, I’m playing at 1080p. I’m having FPS drops in few games (for example, Destiny 2 – Most of the time it’s around 120 FPS but at few zones It can drop to 60, even 55). I think my current CPU is causing a bottleneck but when I test it in games like Witcher 3 (Fully modded with HD rework etc. around 100-110 FPS) with Afterburner, I realized that my GPU usage is around %99 but CPU is around %50-60. I can’t test it in Destiny 2 because Afterburner is not working with that game.
I have two questions about that situation:
Does my RAM speed (3000Mhz) enough for my graphic card, is there a way to have bottleneck because of that ram speed?
Which CPU are you suggesting for my current setup? I’m really excited for Cyberpunk 2077 and I don’t wanna have performance issues in that game. Also I don’t have much money left to spend especially after I bought that GPU I mentioned above, so I would like to stay on Ryzen. At your previous comments I feel like Ryzen 5 5600X is one of the best choices for me right now, but I would like to inform you with my current setup then ask. 🙂
Thank you for your help already!
yeah I feel like ryzen 5 5600x would be fine for your build since it is very cheap considerably and allowing to get better frames at some games than i9-10900K
I have i5 8400 rn should i upgrade?
Hi Kohl,
The 8400 should work fine with most games. Some CPU-bound games (like the AC: Odyssey or the newly released Watch Dogs: Legion) might bottleneck the GPU enough to notice it but in most titles, you’ll be fine.
Hello, I’m planning to get the 3070 with an i5 10060k CPU and I want this build for competitive games well it work fine?
Btw I’m new to the pc world 🙂
Hi Eyad,
Sure, the 10600K will work just fine.
Will Amd Ryzen 7 3700x be ok with RTX 3070 playing at 1080p 70hz?
Hi Arnold,
Of course.
Hi Goran, will a i7-8086k be a bottleneck for the RTX 3070, thanks.
Hi Ryan,
The i7-8086k will work fine with the RTX 3070
Hello,
I was wondering what a R5 2600 would do to a 3070. I know that it would bottleneck but I can’t afford both a new gpu and a new cpu at this time, do you think that I will still be able to run games at 1080p 144hz? That’s all I need right now.
Hi Blake,
eSports titles (CS: GO, Valorant, LOL, Dota, RS: Siege, etc), sure. As for AAA titles, I don’t think so, especially newer, CPU demanding titles such as SoTR, . The 2600 is quite limited at 1080p. You’ll get playable framerates, and most AAA games will get pretty close to 100fps (or more) on average, but 1 percent minimum frames will be much lower. That said, even the lowest 1 percent should stay at 60fps or higher in almost any game (not counting CPU hogs that also suffer from poor optimization, such as the Watch Dogs Legion, for instance).
Hi Goran
Currently running a 7700k @ 4.6ghz – looking at getting a 3070.
Do you think it will be fine to run this combo for the meantime, maybe a year/maximum 2.
Hypothetically if I wanted to upgrade which may come into play, I was looking at either the 10600k or 10700k – in terms of years how much can I get out of either which I am hoping between 3-5 years.
I play 1080p 144hz – possibly looking at 240hz, CSGO/WOW/CYBERPUNK/COD play mostly.
Cheers brate
Hi Zoran (I guess),
Since the 3070 should deliver about the same performance as the 2080 Ti (it’ll probably be a bit slower if we consider the discrepancy between the advertised 3080 performance and what we’ve seen in real world tests) it’ll definitely be bottlenecked by the 7700K at 1080p.
Just look at this video testing GPU scaling for the 3300X (which has about the same gaming performance as the 7700K): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq0OHhRQwA8
The thing is, you should still get great numbers in most games, especially in the games you mentioned. As for Cyberpunk, its recommended requirements are pretty tame CPU-wise so the 7700K should be enough for smooth gameplay. And yeah, the 7700K should remain a solid gaming CPU in the next 12 months.
Regarding the update, both of those CPUs will probably be more than enough for most games in the considerable future but we cannot confirm anything ’till we see some proper next-gen games and how they work with current CPUs. Finally, don’t limit yourself to Intel, Ryzen 5 5600 (rumored to launch early 2021) should be a great alternative to the 10600K.
haha thanks for the information, really appreciate it and yes my name is Zoran 😉
I will be watching the 5600 closely also.
Thank you!
How would a ryzen 3 3 3300x pair with the rtx 3070?
Hi Billy,
At 1080p, the 3300X noticeably bottlenecks the 3070. If you play at 1440p or 4K however, you should get pretty solid results. Yes, the average frames will be lower but not by that much. Expect about 10-15 percent less frames on average (@1440p) than what you would have with a flagship gaming CPU.
Will the R7 3700x work fine with a ROG Strix B450F and a 650w+ PSU?
Hi Samuel,
It should work fine, especially if you have a quality PSU. The RTX 3070 can draw about 220-240W at stock clocks so a 650W PSU will handle it without issues, especially since you’re plan to pair it with the 3700X.
Hey Goran,I am looking to upgrade to RTX3070 will my Intel i7-8700 with msiZ370 motherboard cause much bottleneck?,since its performance is lower than 8700K,what would you suggest?
Hi Jaden,
The 8700K still is an excellent gaming CPU. The 8700 is less than ten percent slower than the stock 8700K at 1080p. You’ll be just fine.
Will the i7-10700k bottleneck the RTX 3070?
Hi Sebastian,
The 10700K is an excellent pairing with the RTX 3070.
Hey Goran, I got a Ryzen 5 3400G CPU, I’m guessing that’s going to bottleneck with the 3070, but I just wanna make sure before I decide to buy a new CPU, help would be appreciated 🙂
Hi Ryan,
Yeah, the 3400G is less than perfect match for the 3070. You can get the 3600 or a 3700X (if you have a motherboard that supports these CPUs) if you want an upgrade now, or wait for early 2021 and get a 5600X (in case you have a B450 or X470 board) or the rumored 5600, which should arrive early next year.
so i have a ryzen 7 2600x and wanna upgrade to the rtx 3070, should I get a different cpu? should I just get a different graphics card? will it work fine with the rtx 3070?
Hi Milan,
That CPU will definitely bottleneck the 3070, but you still should get more than decent performance in most games.
As for the upgrades, AMD will reveal their new GPUs on October 28th, so keep an eye on Big Navi. It could offer similar performance for less money. Regarding the CPU, you can wait for a bit and get the R5 5600 (which is rumored to arrive in early 2021) if you have a compatible board, or you could get something like the R7 3700X, new or used if you can find it for cheap.
So the Ryzen 5 3600X or 3600XT is a good gaming CPU (budget) for the 3070? Meaning it won’t bottleneck it?
Yeah, these are still pretty solid purchases for the 3070, even after the release of the Ryzen 5000 CPUs and especially if you’re plan on gaming on resolutions higher than 1080p. If you can however, wait for the early 2021, we should get cheaper Ryzen 5000 CPUs, such as the rumored Ryzen 5 5600.
I’m planning on buying a 3070 next month, would a ryzen 7 2700x work instead of a ryzen 5 3600?
Hi,
The 2700x can be up to 20 percent slower at 1080p in certain CPU demanding games (SoTR) as well as in newer titles (such as Star Wars Squadrons), but when paired with a 3070, the difference between the two CPUs will be less pronounced since the 3070 isn’t a flagship GPU. It can work but you’ll get about 10 to 12 percent less performance (at 1080p, less at 1440p) than what you’d get with a 3600.
Hello I’m planning on buying a new pc for this black friday: RTX 3070, 16gb ram 3200, and 750W PSU. I was wondering if a i7 9700k could handle it and give me at least 240fps Capped on Fortnite or would I have to buy the i7 10700k?
Hi Raphael,
The 9700K can handle Fortnite at 240Hz, depending on the settings and resolution used. You can get the RTX 3070 and it should work fine. Of course, that’s in case you already have the 9700K. If you plan on buying it, don’t. Get the 10600K or one of the upcoming Ryzen 5000 CPUs, which should land in a month or so.
Hey Goran, cool article, thanks. What do You suggest, will I be able to use the 3070 for video editing in Premiere Pro with my 6th gen i5 (4 core @ 2,6 GHz) ? I can’t upgrade my CPU (as this one runs on a passive sink, as it’s 35W only). But I don’t have any GPU yet and the noise is important, though I won’t get into the water cooling idea either.
Hi Luke,
That i5 will definitely be a bottleneck for the 3070, especially since it runs at only 35W. Now, you could probably get plenty of power out of the 3070 if you use a ton of GPU-accelerated effects. Even then, the weak CPU will probably bottleneck the GPU.
Also, the RTX 3070 should provide 2080 Ti-like performance in Premiere Pro so if you need a card only for video editing think about getting a cheap 2080 Super on the used market since you could probably get it for cheaper than a new RTX 3070, with the card offering about 90 percent of the 2080 Ti performance. And with the stock issues that plagued the RTX 3080 and 3090 launches, we wouldn’t be surprised if the RTX 3070 gets sold-out momentarily after launch. You could end up waiting a long time for the card and there’s a crapload of used RTX 2080 Super cards on eBay right now.
An Intel i5-8600K would cause bottleneck with a 3070RTX?
SSDM2 and 32GB 3200Mhz
Motherboard: MSI Gaming Plus z370
Hi Xarles,
Well, you will definitely have some degree of CPU bottleneck but nothing you should be worried about. The i5 8600K should work fine with the 3070.
What about a ryzen 5 3500 or a 3500x?
Hi Shlok, these are region-specific models so we didn’t include them on the list. Both are fine at the moment but the lack of hyperthreading will hurt them in the future. The R5 3600 is much better choice for gaming.
well a ryzen 5 3600X or a 3300X which are pretty hard to find are perfect I recommend a ryzen 5 3600X or a 3300X if you can find one or higher if you want more performance on your ryzen that you might upgrade try overclocking if you know how if you don’t just go on youtube and put in this link for the tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yMLKcaFirw