Best CPUs to Buy for the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB

Suggested Article: Best Cases to Buy for the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB

Our Recommendations

1. Intel Core i5 13400F

👑 The best budget CPU for the RTX 4060 Ti.

Specs wise, the 13400F is equipped with 10 cores and 16 threads, which is decent considering how cheap this CPU is. Clock speed sits around 4.6GHz while boosting which is also pretty great too. Although the 13400F won’t exactly be a great option for a workstation system the lower price point makes this CPU ideal for a mid-range PC build, which is where I imagine the vast majority of consumers will be leaning towards.

Key Specs

Key Specs	Intel Core i5 13400F
Total Cores	10
Total Threads	16
Max Boost Clock Speed	4.6GHz
Cache	29.5MB
Max Turbo Power	148W
Socket	LGA1700

Things We Like

Solid 1080p/1440p performance: Intel’s Core i5 13400F offers great 1080p and 1440p performance. When paired up with the right graphics card, this CPU is a solid option for those wanting to play their favourite titles at high refresh rates with minimal frame drops

Very competitive pricing: The 13400F comes in just below the $200 mark, making it one of the cheapest options on the market. If you’re on a more restrictive budget, and looking for a solid mid-range option, the 13400F is a great choice.

Things We Don’t Like

Not great for workstation applications: Although I feel the vast majority of consumers won’t be worrying about productivity applications as much with the RTX 4060 Ti, it is worth mentioning that you’ll want to pick up a better CPU if you plan on pushing more intense all-core workloads.

May need an upgrade over time: Games are becoming much more intense to run over time with modern GPUs and CPUs not being able to cope. You may need to pick up a better option a few years down the line to ensure you can achieve solid framerates in your favourite titles.

Summary

Where to Buy

Buy the Intel Core i5 13400F on:

2. AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

👑 The best budget AMD CPU for the 4060 Ti.

With the falling cost of DDR5 RAM and the new AM5 motherboards, this CPU is becoming a solid value proposition in the PC gaming space. The 7600X itself comes in around the $250 mark from various vendors, which is pretty competitive versus Intel’s Core i5 13400F. Performance wise, the 7600X has very strong single core metrics, which makes it perfect for gaming, and an excellent boost clock speed, surpassing the 5GHz mark with no issues.

Key Specs

Key Specs	AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
Total Cores	6
Total Threads	12
Max Boost Clock Speed	5.3GHz
Cache	38MB
Default TDP	105W
Socket	AM5

Things We Like

Awesome single core metrics: The Ryzen 5 7600X offers excellent single core performance both in productivity benchmarks and games. The high boost clock speed makes this CPU perfect for 1080p and 1440p gaming with somewhat decent legs in 4K too.

Offers upgradeability options: Although we’ve only seen one generation of Ryzen CPUs on the AM5 platform, AMD tends to support their CPUs for a few years, which means consumers should be able to easily upgrade to future releases with the same motherboard.

Things We Don’t Like

Build cost can be expensive: Although motherboard and RAM prices have fallen, overall build cost can be rather expensive. A Ryzen 7000 is likely to cost you more contrasting to an Intel build, which isn’t ideal if you’re on a budget.

Runs quite hot: On an all-core workload, the 7600X runs very hot. If you plan on pushing this CPU with some productivity applications, ensure you pick up a solid cooler to keep thermals at a reasonable level.

Summary

Where to Buy

Buy the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X on:

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3. Intel Core i5 13600K

👑 The best value CPU for the RTX 4060 Ti.

We’ve found that the Core i5 13600K, covers the entire resolution spectrum, from 1080p, all the way up to 4K. Although we don’t imagine you’ll be playing games at 4K with the 4060 Ti, this opens up some options if you decide to upgrade in the future. The biggest win for Intel with the 13600K is the exceptional price point, this CPU can be picked up for less than $300, which is a very tantalising offer, considering how powerful this processor is compared to the rest of the market.

Key Specs

Key Specs	Intel Core i5 13600K
Total Cores	14
Total Threads	20
Max Boost Clock Speed	5.1GHz
Cache	44MB
Max Turbo Power	181W
Socket	LGA1700

Things We Like

Excellent high-end performance: The Core i5 13600K is one of the best CPUs on the market right now when it comes to gaming and workstations. If you’re looking for a multifaceted CPU, the 13600K is a great option.

Competitive pricing: The 13600K is also one of the best priced options on the market, sitting just below the $300 mark. Prices are likely to get even better over time as more CPUs release in the future.

Things We Don’t Like

Platform will be deprecated: The biggest caveat to picking up a 13th-Gen CPU is that this platform is likely to be deprecated within the next year or so. This means upgrading will require you to purchase a new motherboard and RAM, which can be quite pricey.

Overkill for 1080p: If you’re the kind of consumer looking to find the best components for the least amount of money, the 13600K might not be the best options. Whilst this CPU is an excellent processor for more intense workloads, it will be slightly overkill for a more budget-oriented 1080p gaming system.

Summary

Where to Buy

Buy the Intel Core i5 13600K on:

4. AMD Ryzen 7 7700X

👑 The best mid-range AMD CPU for the 4060 Ti.

Performance wise, the 7700X offers single core metrics that align quite closely with Intel’s Core i9 12900K, which means this CPU will be a great option in modern games. Multicore benchmarks are pretty strong too, but this CPU is generally weaker when compared to much of the other options on the market. Pricing wise, the 7700X sits in a similar bracket to the 13600K, teetering around the $300 mark at the maximum.

Key Specs

Key Specs	AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Total Cores	8
Total Threads	16
Max Boost Clock Speed	5.4GHz
Cache	40MB
Default TDP	105W
Socket	AM5

Things We Like

Excellent 1440p performance: The Ryzen 7 7700X is geared towards consumers putting together a powerful mid-range system. This CPU can handle 1440p and 1080p without any issues, allowing users to enjoy high refresh rates.

Upgrading longevity: The biggest benefit of picking up a Ryzen 7000 CPU is that they’re likely to be supported for quite a few years to come. This allows consumers to easily upgrade to new CPU iterations when they release without having to change your motherboard.

Things We Don’t Like

Runs very hot: Much like the 7600X, this CPU also has a tendency to run quite hot. If you plan on pushing your PC with some all-core workloads, you’ll need to pair it up with a cooler than can keep your thermals nice and low.

Build cost is pricey: Motherboards and RAM have dropped in price this is true, but they’re still expensive regardless. This means that your build cost can rack up quite significantly, especially if you’re looking for fancier features too.

Summary

Where to Buy

Buy the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X on:

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Is the RTX 4060 Ti Any Good?

Whilst this graphics card can handle 1440p, consumers will need to expect some frame drops at this resolution, due to the lack of VRAM and weaker hardware contrasting to other RTX 4000 SKUs. Whilst this is somewhat saddening to see, we weren’t expecting this card to be able to push high framerates and refresh rates at 1440p, so this isn’t so as much of a deal-breaker. Overall performance is very strong in modern titles, 8GB of VRAM could be limiting later down the line, but for the time being at 1080p, this will be fine.

If we start to look at pricing, this is where things become more complicated. Based on performance alone the 4060 Ti is pretty solid, but the $400 price tag is a little bit difficult to swallow. We were hoping this card would sit closer to the $300 mark, especially as it is geared towards the budget or lower mid-range side of the market, so $400 is a bit of a kick in the teeth. This is still better than what we’ve seen with previous NVIDIA releases, but the price is still a little bit too high for our liking, especially with rumours of a sub-$300 card from AMD.

We’ve also provided some graphs below to provide more context on exactly how the RTX 4060 Ti. All of the benchmarks that we’ve provided are compiled from the latest triple A and Esports title. We’ve benchmarked a number of games at both 1080p and 1440p, to get a more well-rounded idea of how the 4060 Ti performs at varying resolutions.

Apex Legends

First off, in Apex Legends at 1440p, we saw pretty strong performance from the RTX 4060 Ti. Although this card definitely takes a hit at a higher resolution, it pushed through, offering up an average framerate of around 165FPS. This is more than enough for a smooth gameplay experience, but there are also plenty of frames here to enjoy a high refresh rate too. Obviously not all games will see the same kind of framerates at 1440p, which is a testament to how optimised Apex Legends is as a game. However, this is still a solid start from the 4060 Ti, and we were pretty impressed.

Hogwarts Legacy

In Hogwarts Legacy, the RTX 4060 Ti was one of the best performing cards at 1080p. We saw an average framerate of around 100FPS with some very minor drops here and there. Hogwarts Legacy can be a very graphically intense game at times, so 100FPS is excellent for consumers to enjoy super smooth gameplay. Ultimately we’d love to see the 4060 Ti reach a suitable level to push out a high refresh rate too, but I’d argue that this won’t change much in this particular title other than overall smoothness. High refresh rate only tends to matter in high intensity titles where many objects are moving on the screen, and Hogwarts Legacy tends to be much slower in gameplay.

Spiderman Miles Morales

For our final gameplay benchmark, we tested out Spiderman Miles Morales at 1440p with DLSS turned on and off. When DLSS was turned off we saw a solid average framerate of around 114FPS, which is very strong. For raw performance we were taken aback a bit by this, as we were expecting frames to dip a fair amount without the support of DLSS. When DLSS was turned on however, we didn’t actually see performance improve that much. We were able to get around 13 more frames from DLSS, but this wouldn’t really be noticeable to the vast majority of consumers.

How Important Is My CPU for Gaming?

In short, very important! But also not at the same time. Because your CPU is effectively the brain of your PC, all of your other components are entirely dependent on your CPU to tell them what to do in an efficient and timely fashion. For gaming this becomes all the more important, but only at lower resolutions. At 1080p your graphics card and CPU work in synergy to relay information to your screen quickly so that you can play your favourite games at high speeds. However, at this resolution, all of the power and dependency is on the CPU.

The reason being is because of the amount of pixels. Because there are less pixels within a 1080p resolution, the graphics card isn’t having to put as much work in, whereas, the CPU is fighting for it’s life to process all of the data quickly. If we up the resolution to 1440p, this is more of a middle ground, where both the GPU and CPU are putting a fair amount of work in each so you can enjoy your games at decent speeds. If we push the resolution further up to 4K, the situation changes entirely, where your GPU is the big determiner for how fast your game will run.

Looping back to the question I’ve asked above, your CPU can be important for gaming, but it entirely depends on your use-case. At lower resolutions, if you have a weak CPU you’ll see bottlenecking issues, which will result in weaker performance and lower framerates. However at higher resolutions your CPU (provided it is modern) will be able to handle 4K games without many issues as the performance reliance is on your GPU instead of your processor.

Why You Can Trust Us

After jumping into our recommendations, you’re probably wondering why you should trust our input on this particular subject, allow us to elaborate further. Our team of PC enthusiasts are constantly testing all of the all of the new components and products that come into the GeekaWhat office. We put them all through a plethora of different tests and benchmarks, including gaming and productivity applications too. We then take all of our benchmarking data and use it to forge a general overview of each product which we then relay to you through various articles. More detail can be found out about our editorial team on the About Us page.

How We Tested the Best CPUs for the RTX 4060 Ti

In order to test and evaluate the best CPUs for the 4060 Ti there are a number of factors that we take into account, these are:

• Performance
• Compatibility
• Thermals
• Value for Money

Conclusion

Frequently Asked Questions