What CPU would be best to pair with the 3090 for a 4k gaming setup?

[Duranson]

I'm planning on picking up an RTX 3090, and I'm wondering what the best CPU would be to pair with that card. I'm planning on using my build for 4k gaming, and occasionally 1080p editing of gaming videos.

[Prodigy_Smit]

Just now, Duranson said:

I'm planning on picking up an RTX 3090, and I'm wondering what the best CPU would be to pair with that card. I'm planning on using my build for 4k gaming, and occasionally 1080p editing of gaming videos.

I would go with the Ryzen 7 3700x or the Ryzen 5 3600

[D13H4RD]

Assuming the performance figures, a 3700X is what I would go for.

 

There's also the 10700K/10900K to consider.

 

But wait for Zen 3. It's coming real soon

[JakeSublime]

There are many correct answers.

You need a processor with a high core count, and secondarily a high(er) clock speed. 

You could also go Intel (not to say AMD isnt also a prime choice). Any of the last few years i5 or higher will set you up right. 

If I HAD to recommend a CPU, seeing as how your budget is max + 10%, I would recommend Intel i9-10900k or Ryzen 9 3900XT.

Go over to PCPartPicker.com and browse their CPUs, and then go to UserBenchmark.com to compare the ones you're curious about. 

[D13H4RD]

Just now, JakeSublime said:

..and then go to UserBenchmark.com to compare the ones you're curious about. 

Eh, considering what's happened over the past few, I would really suggest anything other than UserBenchmark.

[JakeSublime]

oh yes, @D13H4RD is right. Zen 3, and also Big Navi GPUs

[badreg]

4k 144, right? Clock speed is king, so either a 3800X (which has the highest sustained clock in the Ryzen 3000 line up), or any 10th gen K CPU (depending on how many cores you want/need).

 

If 4k 60, then it really doesn't matter. A 3090 would also be pretty pointless for 4k 60.

[Letgomyleghoe]

3 minutes ago, badreg said:

 

4k 144, right? Clock speed is king, so either a 3800X (which has the highest sustained clock in the Ryzen 3000 line up), or any 10th gen K CPU (depending on how many cores you want/need).

 

 

Intels superior Clock speed doesn’t make more than a 2-3fps difference in 4K.

[Jumballi]

7 minutes ago, JakeSublime said:

Go over to PCPartPicker.com and browse their CPUs, and then go to UserBenchmark.com to compare the ones you're curious about. 

userbenchmark is a terrible source for benchmarks, please don't recommend them.

I'd recommend a ryzen 3700x or higher. 4k is here but not really here, it's 90% gpu grunt work and any cpu should carry you to 100+ frames, but the 3700x should at least be reliable in editing or multitasking.

[JakeSublime]

Just now, Jumballi said:

userbenchmark is a terrible source for benchmarks, please don't recommend them.

Okay, but why? 

[Chris Pratt]

I guess I'll be the only one to question the 3090. You don't need that for 4K gaming. The major difference between that and the 3080 is the additional VRAM, which you don't need for gaming purposes. If you just want to throw an extra $800 to the wind to say you have the best, go for it, but you'll be just fine with a 3080.

[Jumballi]

1 minute ago, JakeSublime said:

Okay, but why? 

https://www.notebookcheck.net/UserBenchmark-gets-banned-from-major-subreddit-due-to-drama-generation.461875.0.html

https://wccftech.com/userbenchmark-updates-cpu-ranking-by-lowering-multi-core-importance-and-raising-single-core/

 

There's a lot of baggage that's puts them at unreliable at best, and downright liars at worst.

[badreg]

6 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

Intels superior Clock speed doesn’t make more than a 2-3fps difference in 4K.

When did I say anything about AMD vs Intel? I recommended an AMD option along with the Intel options. Are you such a fanboi that your reading comprehension no longer works?

 

And it's not resolution that matters; it's framerate. I already said that CPU choice doesn't matter for 60hz, but if you think that clock speed is irrelevant for 144hz, then keeping drinking the Kool-Aid, I guess.

[SavageNeo]

10 minutes ago, badreg said:

And it's not resolution that matters; it's framerate. I already said that CPU choice doesn't matter for 60hz, but if you think that clock speed is irrelevant for 144hz, then keeping drinking the Kool-Aid, I guess.

if ti is 4k 144hz then cpu is pretty irrelevant

[JakeSublime]

Good info, and thanks for making me aware of this. But, I dont think that makes userbenchmark worthless, with a trained eye its still useful. 

[JakeSublime]

1 minute ago, SavageNeo said:

if ti is 4k 144hz then cpu is pretty irrelevant

If youre pushing more frames, at higher quality, then CPU is MORE important. Your CPU has to work harder too, you cant just slap a pentium with a 3090 and walk away with 8k 200hz. A pentium can handle 1080p 60hz though. 

[SavageNeo]

1 minute ago, JakeSublime said:

If youre pushing more frames, at higher quality, then CPU is MORE important. Your CPU has to work harder too, you cant just slap a pentium with a 3090 and walk away with 8k 200hz. A pentium can handle 1080p 60hz though. 

yes of course you cant use pentium with. higher quality= more gpu load, less cpu load.

[Duranson]

29 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

I guess I'll be the only one to question the 3090. You don't need that for 4K gaming. The major difference between that and the 3080 is the additional VRAM, which you don't need for gaming purposes. If you just want to throw an extra $800 to the wind to say you have the best, go for it, but you'll be just fine with a 3080.

4k144hz.

[badreg]

34 minutes ago, SavageNeo said:

if ti is 4k 144hz then cpu is pretty irrelevant

You're making the assumption that OP will be GPU bound most of the time and will not hit 144fps at 4k. We don't know if OP is prioritizing quality or framerate, so you can't just assume a lower CPU load at 4k. If the priority is maintaining 144fps+ at all times, then the CPU load will be the same regardless of resolution.

 

[Letgomyleghoe]

42 minutes ago, badreg said:

When did I say anything about AMD vs Intel? I recommended an AMD option along with the Intel options. Are you such a fanboi that your reading comprehension no longer works?

 

And it's not resolution that matters; it's framerate. I already said that CPU choice doesn't matter for 60hz, but if you think that clock speed is irrelevant for 144hz, then keeping drinking the Kool-Aid, I guess.

I don’t recall you saying anything about intel or amd, I was saying intels superior clock speed doesn’t make much of a difference at 4k, there’s not much of a reason to pick them. no need to pick a fight and call me a fanboi you blubbering idiot. 
 

And no, resolution does mater, 1080p is mostly cpu heavy, where as 1440p and 4K put strain on your gpu a lot more heavily, making the “intel for gaming” argument irrelevant. 
 

no need to get pissed at me like a karen at the manager when half of what ya said was wrong. 

[badreg]

26 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

I don’t recall you saying anything about intel or amd, I was saying intels superior clock speed doesn’t make much of a difference at 4k, there’s not much of a reason to pick them. no need to pick a fight and call me a fanboi you blubbering idiot

So if I didn't say anything about Intel vs AMD, why did you find it necessary to specifically quote me and bring up something about Intel? I gave the best AMD option and the best Intel option. OP can decide the rest on his own. You're the one who is saying that there's not much of a reason not to pick Intel.

26 minutes ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

And no, resolution does mater, 1080p is mostly cpu heavy, where as 1440p and 4K put strain on your gpu a lot more heavily, making the “intel for gaming” argument irrelevant.

Again, you're the one bringing up Intel. I did not make any argument in favor of Intel. I made an argument in favor of clock speed, which is backed by science and benchmarks, not brand loyalty.

 

You seem to be a very naive understanding of how resolution affects CPU load. We're talking about a 3090 and 144hz here. 4k 144hz is not necessarily a GPU bound load for this card. For workloads that are not GPU bound, 144fps at 1080p produces the same CPU load at 144fps at 4k does. Just because your oversimplification is correct in most cases doesn't mean it is correct in this specific case.

 

I'm not the one who is an idiot here, and I am not the one who is trying to pick a fight on behalf of a certain side.

[JakeSublime]

Theres no need for this to be a warzone. I stand by my original post. 

The more you expect from one component, it is good practice to build a system that supports it. If you want absolute top teir GPU performance (3090 MSRP rumored at $1500), then just get the absolute top teir CPU performance (3900XT or 10900k). 

This is also good because OP wants his rig for video editing and rendering. Threads are king. 

[Duranson]

47 minutes ago, badreg said:

You're making the assumption that OP will be GPU bound most of the time and will not hit 144fps at 4k. We don't know if OP is prioritizing quality or framerate, so you can't just assume a lower CPU load at 4k. If the priority is maintaining 144fps+ at all times, then the CPU load will be the same regardless of resolution.

 

Maybe this can make things more clear. Basically, I will be gaming at 4k 144fps. There are some games, like Overwatch, where I will be prioritizing framerate over graphics quality. But then there are some games, like RDR2, and Cyberpunk 2077, where I will be pursuing graphics over framerates. I want to play Cyberpunk 2077 with RTX on at maxed out graphics, at 4k. And I want to play RDR2 with maxed out settings as well. I want to get 60fps in both of these games, but I'm not going to be pushing for anything above that.

 

As for video editing, I pretty much am only planning on recording gaming videos with Nvidia shadowplay or OBS, in 1080p rather than 4k, and then editing them and posting them. Nothing super intensive.

 

So I'm pretty much wondering what the best CPU would be for all of these tasks, intel or AMD, to pair with the 3090.

 

Thanks

[JakeSublime]

Intel: i5-10500k
AMD: Ryzen 7 3700x

Both CPUs are about the same price, ~$280. Ryzen has more cores, Intel has more clock.

And I would also recommend the 3080 instead of the 3090. 3090 is a titan class card, NOT a 3080 Ti (as far as information shows us).

[badreg]

49 minutes ago, Duranson said:

Maybe this can make things more clear. Basically, I will be gaming at 4k 144fps. There are some games, like Overwatch, where I will be prioritizing framerate over graphics quality. But then there are some games, like RDR2, and Cyberpunk 2077, where I will be pursuing graphics over framerates. I want to play Cyberpunk 2077 with RTX on at maxed out graphics, at 4k. And I want to play RDR2 with maxed out settings as well. I want to get 60fps in both of these games, but I'm not going to be pushing for anything above that.

 

As for video editing, I pretty much am only planning on recording gaming videos with Nvidia shadowplay or OBS, in 1080p rather than 4k, and then editing them and posting them. Nothing super intensive.

 

So I'm pretty much wondering what the best CPU would be for all of these tasks, intel or AMD, to pair with the 3090.

 

Thanks

I stand by my original recommendations of a 3800X or a 10600/10700/10900K. It doesn't sound like video editing is going to be that important of a workload for you, and maximizing frames is going to be priority at least some of the time. Therefore, the highest speed Ryzen would be my choice for an AMD platform. 8 cores will also be more than sufficient for your use case. If I had to pick a single Intel chip for your use case, the 10700K would be the sweet spot.

 

As an aside, according to Nvidia, a 3080 will be able to hit 4k 144 for many titles, and 4k 60 for more demanding titles. If you aren't looking for 4k 144 in all titles, a 3090 is not necessary.