AMD launched the Radeon RX 7600 on 25th May right one day after Nvidia launched its RTX 4060 Ti 8GB. However, the RX 7600 is not a direct competitor to the 4060 Ti because it is targeted towards 1080p gaming on a budget.
Even though the RX 7600 is capable of playing at 1440p resolution, it is best suited for 1080p due to the smaller bus width of the 128-bit bus and has proved itself worthy of maxing out games at that resolution.
In this post, we will take a look at the CPU requirements for this GPU followed by the list of best CPUs to use with the RX 7600.
Our Picks
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel® Core™ 12th Gen i3-12100F desktop... | $76.52 | Order On Amazon | |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5500 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked... | $159.00 $79.58 | Order On Amazon | |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked... | $199.00 $117.29 | Order On Amazon | |
| Intel Core i5 Core 12400F Desktop Processor 18M... | $206.25 $111.34 | Order On Amazon | |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked... | $229.00 $199.99 | Order On Amazon |
AMD Radeon RX 7600 Overview
The Radeon RX 7600 is based on the RDNA 3 architecture and uses TSMC’s 6nm process node and a Navi 33 GPU. The card is targeted towards 1080p ultra gaming performance and is priced at $269.
It features 2048 Stream Processors, 32MB of Infiniity cache, and a memory size of 8GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus that results in a total memory bandwidth of 288GB/s.
Being a member of the RX 7000 family, it officially supports AV1 encoding and competes with the Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060. It is roughly 30% faster than its predecessor RX 6600 and needs 165W of reliable power to operate optimally.
Understanding RX 7600’s CPU Requirements
The first and foremost important thing to remember before buying a CPU is to see if it will bottleneck your graphics card. This does not apply to RX 7600 only but applies to every graphics card present in the market.
Being a budget GPU, some might mistake the RX 7600 as being as weak as some of the best budget graphics cards we used to have a few years back but in reality, it is much more capable than those.
It can easily max out most games at 1080p and even some less intensive titles at 1440p resolutions while providing rock solid 60+fps consistently. Therefore, you will need a CPU that can max out its performance without reaching 100% in usage itself.
I recommend going with at least a 4 core CPU with hyperthreading and ideally, a six-core CPU from the latest families of AMD and Intel will do the job perfectly.
Intel Core i3 12100F
- Intel Core i3-12100F Desktop Processor 4 (4P-0E)...
- Item Package Dimension: 10.469L x 10.30W x 6.72H...
- Item Package Weight - 1.49 Pounds
- Item Package Quantity - 1
Core i3s have been the favorite chips for budget gamers and they have come a long way from just 2-core CPUs to 4-core and 8-thread chips.
The first chip that makes sense is the i3 12100F which belongs to the Intel Alder Lake family and has proved several times that it is very much capable of handling any budget or mid-range GPU.
It features hybrid architecture but only features performance cores which will be active all the time giving your games and applications a good boost. They are clocked at 3.3-4.3GHz and have decent L3 cache memory of 12MB.
It easily outperforms most sub $100 CPUs for its price and doesn’t even need an unlocked chipset for overclocking. Therefore, going with the i3 12100F and RX 7600 will cost you the least and will be the best gaming machine for less than $600.
AMD Ryzen 5 5500
- Item Package Dimension: 5.43L x 5.27W x 2.86H...
- Item Package Weight - 0.97 Pounds
- Item Package Quantity - 1
- Product Type - COMPUTER PROCESSOR
AMD lovers can go for the Ryzen 5500 which is as capable as the Core i3 12100F but feature better specs. It features 6 cores and 12 threads clocked at 3.6-4.2GHz.
The advantage of having the Ryzen 5500 over the i3 is that you will be able to overclock this chip for more boost in performance. Even though this boost is not significant, it can still make an impact in several applications.
It comes with a good L3 cache of 16MB and a TDP of only 65W. Compared to the i3 12100F, it is as power efficient as the latter and delivers similar gaming performance while outperforming the i3 in productivity.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600
- Item Package Dimension: 5.40L x 5.27W x 2.90H...
- Item Package Weight - 0.95 Pounds
- Item Package Quantity - 1
- Product Type - COMPUTER PROCESSOR
AMD’s second batch of Zen 3 processors also included the Ryzen 5600 which is a little downgrade over the 5600X but is considerably faster than the Ryzen 5500.
It features 6 cores and 12 threads with higher clock speeds of 3.5-4.4GHz that will help speed up the processes in games and some applications. It also features double the L3 cache compared to Ryzen 5500(32MB versus 16MB) and therefore, has a good advantage in modern titles.
For an extra cost of $40, it is definitely one of the great choices for any budget or mid-range GPU.
Intel Core i5 12400F
- Intel Core i5-12400F Desktop Processor 6 (6P+0E)...
- Item Package Dimension: 4.92L x 4.33W x 3.18H...
- Item Package Weight - 0.99 Pounds
- Item Package Quantity - 1
The Intel Core i5s have been almost undefeated when it comes to high-performance gaming for under $200. The i5 12400F is not an exception and in fact, it is available for under $150 which makes it the best gaming CPU for this price.
It is considerably a big upgrade over the i3 12100F as it features 6 cores and 12 threads. The clock speeds are also decent that start from 2.5GHz all the way to 4.4GHz.
i5 12400F is equivalent to the Ryzen 5600X in gaming performance but costs less and can make a very solid budget or even a mid-range gaming build.
AMD Ryzen 5 7600
- The processor features Socket AM5 socket for...
- Ryzen 5 product line processor for better...
- 5 nm process technology provides dependable...
- Hexa-core (6 Core) processor core helps processor...
Lastly, if you are looking to maximize the gaming potential of the RX 7600, then consider going with the Ryzen 5 7600 which is the little brother of the Ryzen 7600X.
It is based on the latest Zen 4 architecture and uses TSMC’s 5nm process node. It doesn’t have any advantage over the i5 or previous gen Ryzen 5 CPUs in cores and threads but it does bring a big uplift in IPC performance that helps it reach up to 20% higher performance gaming.
This is the result of better architecture, higher clock speeds of 3.8-5.1GHz, and a refreshed die design that helps it get higher performance numbers.
If you are someone who is also looking forward to upgrading in the future without changing your motherboard, then you don’t need to look anywhere. Just go with the 7600 and in a few years, you can still upgrade to a better processor.
Final Words
Radeon RX 7600 is a solid budget GPU which needs a companion to push its capability to its limits. While there are several great processors that could have made to the list, the above-mentioned processors are the best fit when we consider the price to performance ratio.
