The monstrous RTX 3090 is here and it has shown the place of every graphics card from the previous generation including the RTX 2000 series. RTX 3090 is the flagship card in the 3000 series and provides unbelievably high-performance, thanks to the technology improvements and the new Ampere architecture.
RTX 3090 features more than 10,000 Cuda Cores and a 24GB GDDR6X VRAM. So, you can guess how much horsepower does it posses. Simply put, the RTX 3090 should not be run on any budget CPU like i3 10100 or Ryzen 3300X even though they feature 4 cores with hyperthreading that are enough for most of the games. They simply don’t deserve to be put with this GPU and to get the most out of it, you must use something that has absolutely no chance of bottlenecking it.
Consider the following list of CPUs that will help you get way over 100fps on 4K resolution even with all the settings bumped to the max. RTX 3090 is definitely a GPU that fulfills the promise of playing on 144Hz 4K monitor which we all thought to be impossible for a couple of years.
From AMD
Minimum- Ryzen 7 3700X– Check Amazon Price
While Ryzen 7 3700X is considered as a high-end gaming CPU, in front of RTX 3090, it is the least I can recommend. Ryzen 7 3700X has shown in various tests that it doesn’t bottleneck even the best of graphics cards and due to its 8 cores and 16 threads, it is sufficient for any game to be played at 4K resolution.
RTX 3090 is simply much more powerful than any of the RTX 20 series GPU and needs a processor that can help it reach its potential at a higher resolution. While you can also get the Ryzen 5 3600 for it and game properly on any resolution, just think about the ratio of your expenditure on your GPU vs CPU. $200 vs $1500! That’s a really really weird combination to be honest although Ryzen 3600 is capable of handling RTX 2080 Ti.
Ryzen 7 3700X is also not that expensive but for purely gaming purposes as well as content creation at the least amount of money, there is no better option to be found in 2020 and we are still waiting for the Ryzen 4000 series CPUs which are going to replace the 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs, till then, you can have the required amount of force from the 3700X.
Recommended- Ryzen 9 3900X– Check Amazon Price
It is true that AMD owns Intel when it comes to providing more cores and better overall specs for the same amount of money. Ryzen 9 3900X is currently the best option for any super high-end gaming build that has the power to do all the CPU-intensive tasks like 3D rendering and fast video processing as well.
The Ryzen 9 processors have delivered what the Threadripper processors could not even though the latter consist more cores and threads, thanks to the Ryzen Gen 2 and support for higher overclocked memories. It features 12 cores and 24 threads with base/boost clock speed of 3.8GHz/4.6GHz that is more than what 3700X features even though the former has 4 more cores.
There is no game today that can utilize 12 cores and 3900X is very capable for handling multiple tasks opened in the background while letting the user game properly except if the tasks behind are not using too much of the GPU.
From Intel
Recommended- Intel Core i9 10900K– Check Amazon Price
I don’t think that going with Intel Core i7 10700K is worth the money because, for $30 more, you can get the 3900X from AMD which has 4 more cores and 8 more threads. Yes, the i7 10700K does beat the 3900X in gaming by 5-7% but the overall picture is different. Ryzen 3900X is very capable of handling multiple CPU-intensive tasks and gets them done in far less time.
So, Intel Core i9 10900K is what I would recommend if you want the highest possible fps in any available game. Let’s face it, Intel processors still to date beat every AMD CPU even though they consist fewer cores. i9 10900K is now up by 2 cores and 4 threads over the 9900K of the last generation and now with a higher L3 cache of 20MB versus 16MB of 9900K.
The core clock speeds have been increased from 3.60GHz to 3.70GHz as the base clock and from 5.0GHz to 5.30GHz as boost clock. The higher specs of 10900K also resulted in increased TDP of the processor which is now 30W more than that of 9900K but that’s something we all can compromise with. Make sure you buy a powerful dual tower Air cooler or an AIO cooler for this CPU otherwise you will be reaching thermal throttling if your case’s airflow isn’t good.
Related:- Best power supplies for RTX 3090 graphics cards
Conclusion
The other possible best CPUs you can get for RTX 3090 are Ryzen 7 3800X, Ryzen 3950X, and Threadripper 3970X/3960X. I simply listed out the best 3 for money but if you have a need for a higher core count, then you can go with the 3950X or Threadripper 3970X but even the best of enthusiasts will have no need for more than 12 cores which Ryzen 3900X possess.
