A few days ago Nvidia released their budget-friendly graphics card, i.e. the RTX 2060 which comes with a nice price tag and also offers a huge performance boost over the previous generation card i.e. 1060. So before heading to grab one, you must be thinking about which will be the best setup to get the optimum performance from the RTX 2060, especially the processor.
Therefore we will be going to discuss the processors that will be the best choice if you are going to grab the RTX 2060. Let us first get some overview of this new card. The RTX series was first introduced by the 2080 and the 2080ti which back at that time got criticized by many enthusiasts due to its huge pricing. Also at that time, there were very few games that were using the RTX technology.
However, in the case of the RTX 2060, Nvidia did a good job in terms of both performance and price ratio. This new card perfectly fills the gap for budget gamers. The most important part about this card is that it is good for those who are looking for a card that will be able to deliver a nice performance in the 1440p segment. Therefore processors will be best suited for this card and they will be the mid-level processors which we are going to discuss further in this topic.
Intel Core i5 9400F
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Intel Core i5 9400F is one of the newest releases from Intel and is the cheapest 6-core processor from Intel that costs only $150. This processor is the best match for the RTX 2060 if the value to price is considered because it has a very fast single-core performance and comes with turbo boost technology. Unlike the other locked older gen Intel Core processors, the i5 9400F comes with Turbo Boost that takes its base clock of 2.9GHz up to 4.1GHz which increases the performance in Gaming significantly.
Although this chip is not unlocked, you can still benefit from it just like an unlocked chip. The best part of choosing this processor is that you don’t have to buy a Z390 chipset motherboard which will let you save more money on your build. Just buy an H310 or B360 chipset motherboard and you will be good to go.
As far as its performance goes, in Gaming, it beats the Ryzen 5 2nd gen processors without having any kind of hyperthreading but in multitasking and other intensive applications, the Ryzen processors are faster. So, in case you just want the “Gaming” performance and want Fraps to display the maximum fps on your screen, then this one is the Best choice for $150 for RTX 2060.
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
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AMD has been very successful since their Ryzen CPUs launch in 2017 and after the release of the 2nd generation, they have forced gamers to re-think twice while buying a new processor. Now AMD and Intel are in a head-to-head battle to compete for the position for the best.
Ryzen 5 2600X features 6 cores and 12 threads as compared to the non-hyperthreaded Intel Core i5 9600K. This makes Ryzen 5 2600X a better choice for overall performance whether it is gaming or productivity. If combined with 2060 it can provide a punch of performance and moreover, it also costs much lower when compared with its counterpart i.e. Intel processors. When these two are combined then it can deliver really good performance.
Ryzen 2600X is especially a deal-breaker as it features a high clock speed of 3.6Ghz and a boost clock of 4.2Ghz on all cores without increasing the power consumption above 95watts.
Intel Core i5 9600K
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Many gamers would say why didn’t I give Intel Core i5 9600k my first priority and the answer is nothing more than that of performance versus value for money. Intel Core i5 9600k is also able to provide a similar performance to that of Ryzen 5 2600X. However, the price of this processor is higher than that of Ryzen 5.
Intel Core i5 9600K is a 6-core processor with 6 “real” cores and is the latest-gen CPU that features the highest core clock/boost clock ever observed in a Core i5. Although the pricing is more than the i5 8600K. It features a core clock of 3.7Ghz and boosts up to 4.6Ghz which is quite impressive on 6-core CPUs and comes with 9MB of cache memory and 95 Watts. Combined with the RTX 2060, it will give you a huge performance.
When you combine the i5 9600K with almost any mid-high-end GPU, then you can expect better performance than most of the Ryzen processors. It’s due to the faster single-core performance of Intel processors and their ability to boost the clock speeds automatically.
Final Words
As I said earlier that the RTX 2060 is best suited for 1440 so according to me the above-mentioned processors will be enough for this card. So if you have a Ryzen 7 or a Core i7 of the previous generation along with GTX 1060 or some older generation GPUs then the RTX 2060 can also be considered as a good option for an upgrade and the pricing made the 2060 more lucrative deal. However, when it comes to 4k, the RTX 2060 won’t be a good choice.
The card is aimed at mid-high-end gaming and for that purpose, Core i5 9400F, Ryzen 5 2600X, and Core i5 9600k are enough for handling it.
