The monstrous Nvidia RTX 3090 Graphic card is here and it showed the place of all graphics cards of the previous generation, including the RTX 2000 series. The RTX 3090 is the flagship card of the 3000 series and delivers incredible performance thanks to technological improvements and to the new Ampère architecture.
The RTX 3090 features over 10,000 Cuda cores and 24GB GDDR6X VRAM. So you can guess how powerful it is. To put it simply, the RTX 3090 shouldn’t work with a low budget processor like the i3 10100 or the Ryzen 3300X, even though they have 4 cores with hyperthreading which are sufficient for most games.
Here is a list of processors that will allow you to get well over 100 frames per second in 4K resolution, even if all parameters are set to maximum. The RTX 3090 is without a doubt a graphics card that fulfills the promise of playing on a 4K monitor at 144Hz, which we all thought was impossible for a few years.
Knowing your workload and computing needs is important, but if you’re not sure which processor to buy for a workstation, the 3900X is one of the most powerful processors for a content creation platform. high-end that you can have without breaking the bank. Its platform is feature rich and the support around it is excellent; it just might be your next processor.
The Best CPU For RTX 3090
Here are our top recommendations for the best cpu for RTX 3090 in 2021. Buy best processor for nvidia rtx 3090 graphic card.
- Intel Core i9 10900K – Best gaming processor for the RTX 3090
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X – The best value for money with the RTX 3090
- AMD Ryzen 9 3950X – Complete processor for gaming / work
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X – Heavy Duty Processor
- AMD Ryzen 9 3900X – Good performance / price ratio for RTX 3090
1. Intel Core i9 10900K – Best gaming processor for the RTX 3090
The 10900K is the best gaming processor around and the best choice for those who want to build an ultimate gaming machine .
Pair that with a powerful cooler and a high-end Z490 motherboard, then overclock it all and you might be able to give the RTX 3090 a worthy partner.
Fortunately, most (if not all) RTX 3090 owners will use the card to play at 4K and at this resolution the 10900K should be enough for the RTX 3090 to stretch its legs. As the 10900K is selling for an unreasonably high price at the moment, the best alternative would be the 10700K . It’s basically a 9900K with higher boost clocks, which translates into enough power to not clog the RTX 3090 at 4K.
If you can wait a month or two, you should definitely consider getting a high-end Ryzen 4000 processor when it comes out . AMD will unveil the next generation of Ryzen processors on October 8, and the processors will likely launch before the end of October 2020.
The high-end Ryzen 9 should then compete with the 10900K. And if we get a performance improvement from generation to generation, that would make the top model Ryzen 4000 the best gaming processor on the market. Something worth the wait for a few months.
Pros
- The fastest gaming performance
- The potential for overclocking
Cons
- Graphics card has a much bigger impact on fps
- High level performance requires a lot of energy
2. AMD Ryzen 7 3700X – The best value for money with the RTX 3090
If we consider only the performance of games, we can see that AMD has caught up with Intel with the introduction of Zen 2 processors.
At higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K, the gaming performance gap is almost nonexistent; if you’re not using the best graphics card on the market , parity with Intel’s gaming performance was already achieved last year.
Without this new generation of Ampere graphics cards you probably wouldn’t need such a powerful processor like the 10900K or 3700X and you could probably get away with an Intel Core i5 processor like the 10600K or the Ryzen 5 3600X , which are both unlocked 6-core processors with 12 threads.
This is not the case with the RTX 3090, as we can already predict 100% usage in many titles, especially at high refresh rates, with 6-core processors.
With the Ryzen 7 3700X you get multi-core performance equivalent to that of Intel’s 8-core processors, the Intel Core i9 9900K and the new Intel Core i7 10700K and gaming performance lags about 5 to 8% at 1080p (when you wouldn’t even use the RTX 3090).
The 3700X’s 8- core 16 threads have enough hardware to handle such a powerful graphics card without losing performance at 1440p or 4K, the resolutions intended for the card. This is why the Ryzen 7 3700X is such an attractive “budget” couple for the new RTX card for enthusiasts ; you get much better power consumption, a much better platform that is very flexible with upgrades and PCIe 4.0 speeds and features – which cannot be said about the platform yet Intel.
If you want an RTX 3090 in your system and your budget is somewhat limited after that big purchase, go for the 3700X instead of the 10900K from the previous class.
Pros
- Efficiency and speed
- PCIe Gen4 and 7nm
- Relatively affordable
Cons
- Slightly slower in games
- Limited overclocking potential
3. AMD Ryzen 9 3950X – Complete processor for gaming / work
The Ryzen 9 3950X is the first processor that brings 16 cores and 32 threads to a consumer- centric platform. The days when people had to choose between a workstation and a gaming computer are long gone. This processor has the raw hardware power to do both at the same time without shedding sweat.
We’ve already been surprised by the introduction of 12 cores into the mainstream with the mid-2019 launch of the Ryzen 9 3900X, but this processor outperforms and uses carefully selected and stored silicon in order to perform well and have manageable energy consumption.
In fact, in some peak load tests we saw that the 3950X consumes less power than the 3900X, even though there is a considerable 4-core / 8-thread difference between the two.
Now, no matter what you want to do with your gaming PC, the 3950X handles everything you send it better and more efficiently than ever.
High definition work? Most applications will take full advantage of the 32 threads. Render? It’s the same thing ; Most rendering applications are optimized for multi-core performance and will perform extremely well under any workload.
If you are looking to build or upgrade your own business environment, there is nothing better in the mainstream market right now. 3D rendering, rasterization, ray tracing and manipulation of meshes, textures, collisions, physics; the list can be long. There’s no area this processor can disappoint in a workstation-centric PC.
Pros
- The fastest processor on the market for prosumers
- Excellent price / performance ratio
- Modest TDP for what it is
Cons
- Overkill for gaming alone
- The performance of a single core is still a little slower than that of the less expensive Intel processors
4. AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X – Heavy Duty Processor
If you’re going to get an RTX 3090 because you need it for your CUDA / ML / training workloads and have the budget to spend more than the price of the most powerful processor in the mainstream market, there are definitely options for you.
AMD’s HEDT line, called Threadripper , is an answer for any hobbyist or business that depends on processor performance. When AMD launched the Threadripper brand in the market, they introduced it as a processor capable of handling any high-speed parallel task.
The 3970X is part of the third generation Threadripper range and is proving to be quite a refined product at the present time; we get the AVX2, a big leap forward in IPC and a more unified and mature memory solution. This is in addition to the sTRX4’s plentiful supply of PCIe lanes – 64 total, faster DRAM speeds, and default PCIe 4.0 support on the platform.
The 32-core / 64-thread Ryzen Threadripper 3970X launched alongside the 3960X and 3990X which consist of 24 cores / 48 threads and 64 cores / 128 threads, respectively.
The reason we don’t use the 3990X as a recommendation for the RTX 3090 is simply that it’s twice as expensive as the 3970X and while many apps can leverage 32 cores, some will struggle to go beyond that. , making scaling to 64 cores rather unsatisfactory.
Make no mistake, if you know that the applications you are going to work with are going to scale up to 64 cores and 128 threads very well, then the 3990X might be an even better fit for you.
For example, encoding and rendering are some of the tasks that will benefit almost linearly from 64 cores. For now, we’re going to recommend the Threadripper 3970X which, with 32 cores, is still just as fast in all parallel workloads.
The reason why we do not consider Intel processors in this HEDT segment is that such processors do not exist or are quite rare. AMD has taken this segment by storm, and Intel can’t really afford to make such high-core processors while still competing in price and performance.
Pros
- Unmatched performance in multithreaded testing, with 32 cores and 64 addressable threads
- Top-notch gaming results
- Support for ECC memory with some gaming motherboards
Cons
- New TRX40 motherboard platform involves high entry cost
- Low overclock cap
5. AMD Ryzen 9 3900X – Good performance / price ratio for RTX 3090
High performance processors don’t have to be very expensive; there is also great value in this market.
One of the best examples is the first 12-core processor introduced to the mainstream market, the Ryzen 9 3900X . If we consider desktop workloads with compression software, content creation, transcoding, or whatever, AMD is killing every consumer CPU that Intel has in its lineup right now, including the Core i9 10900K which is over a year newer than the 3900X.
You’ll also find that PCIe Gen4 is a game-changer for you, especially with the RTX 3090 which should perform slightly better on a PCIe 4.0 platform with twice the throughput.
Even though the 3900X isn’t the 3950X, the difference between 4 cores and 8 threads isn’t that huge, especially when it comes to value. With a 3950X, you get around 25% more performance compared to the 3900X (thanks to multi-core scaling), but you pay over 60% more for that performance.
That’s why the 12-core processor is such a good choice; it sits well above 8-core processors which is more in line with their value, it can still handle very heavy workloads without shedding a drop of sweat, and it pairs well with the most popular graphics card. powerful today, the RTX 3090.
Pros
- 50% more hearts
- A fast and efficient architecture
- PCIe Gen4 and 7nm
Cons
- Most apps don’t need 12 cores
- Technically a little slower in games
Conclusion
We’re probably as excited as you are about the launch of NVIDIA’s premium lineup. It’s already clear that the company has gone all out with these GPUs and is looking to bring a big jump in performance between generations.
This fall is proving to be a great time to plan a new setup and we have selected five amazing processors for your RTX 3090, depending on your general PC usage. The gaming processors we recommended are the Intel Core i9 10900K , which is currently the best performing gaming processor, and the Ryzen 7 3700X , which is still able to handle the RTX 3090 without making many compromises, at least in regarding games.
As for high performance and working systems, we have three categories and the same number of processors. At the ultra high end level, enthusiasts will find an incredible performer on the Threadripper platform , in the form of the 32 cores / 64 threads TR 3970X.
The Ryzen 9 3950X, a 16-core / 32-thread processor intended to bring stellar single and multi-threaded performance to an affordable mainstream platform, sits at the top of the high-performance market. The price may still deter some buyers, but no one will be able to dispute the performance.
Its next closest partner in the Ryzen lineup is the 12-core Ryzen 9 variant, the 3900X , with which it shares a similar story: high-performance parallel computing for any encoding / rendering / ML / training / workload. content creation. The Ryzen 9 3900X may be 4 cores less, but for those interested, it’s an easier buy than the 3950X thanks to its higher value and privileged position in the market.
Best CPUs for RTX 3090 Black Friday Deals 2021
We have created a list of the most discounted cheap and best CPU for RTX 3090 Black Friday deals and CPUs for 3090 Cyber Monday deals for this year’s holiday season 2021.
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Just got a rtx 3090 fe and installed it in my alienware area 51 R4 with a i7 9800x. Does this combo work or will it bottleneck. Not sure should I just kept my 2080 ti. I run a lg 38gl950g-b.