What CPU do I need for the Radeon RX 7900 XT?

At 1440p, the Core i7-10700K is the slowest processor that keeps the Radeon RX 7900 XT fully fed. At 1080p the card can run faster, so you need more: the Ryzen 5 7400F or better.

Is the Radeon RX 7900 XT good for 1440p?

Yes. It averages around 122 FPS at 1440p on high settings in our model, enough for a high-refresh monitor in most games.

Is 20GB of VRAM enough on the Radeon RX 7900 XT?

Yes. 20GB covers high textures at 4K in current games and leaves headroom for the next few years.

Is the Radeon RX 7900 XT faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super?

They are effectively tied, within 2% at 1440p in our model. Price, memory (20GB against 16GB) and features should decide it.

Radeon RX 7900 XT CPU pairing and bottleneck

Model frame rate limits of 153, 122 and 77 FPS at 1080p, 1440p and 4K, assuming the processor never gets in the way.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT is one of the fastest graphics card in our database and a genuine 4K card that also has headroom for very high refresh rates at 1440p.

Its 20GB of memory leaves room for high textures at any resolution for years.

Its closest NVIDIA rival is the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, which lands within a few percent of it at 1440p.

Estimated FPS in Popular Games

Game (settings)	1080p	1440p	4K
Cyberpunk 2077 (High, no ray tracing)	~120	~100	~60
Fortnite (High, DirectX 12)	~200	~160	~100
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (High)	~175	~140	~90
Counter-Strike 2 (High)	~365	~295	~185

Modelled estimates with a processor fast enough not to hold the card back, rounded to the nearest 5 FPS. Counter-Strike 2 is usually limited by the processor well before these figures. See the methodology for how they are produced.

The slowest CPU that will not hold it back

Resolution	Minimum processor	Estimated FPS
1080p	Ryzen 5 7400F	146
1440p	Core i7-10700K	116
4K	Ryzen 5 2600	77

Notice how the requirement drops as resolution rises. At 4K this card is working so much harder per frame that a far slower processor keeps up without trouble. The search starts at four cores and eight threads: below that a game stutters whatever the average frame rate says.

The processors it lands closest to

The 24 processors whose frame rate limit sits nearest this card's, fastest first. The tag after each number says which part hits its limit first. For any other combination, use the calculator.

Processor	1080p	1440p	4K
Core i3-14100	135 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Core i3-14100F	135 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Core i9-11900K	134 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Core i5-12400	132 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Core i5-12400F	132 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Ryzen 7 5800X	131 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Core i3-13100	129 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Core i3-13100F	129 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Ryzen 7 5700X	129 cpu	122 gpu	77 gpu
Core i7-11700K	126 cpu	122 even	77 gpu
Ryzen 5 5600	126 cpu	122 even	77 gpu
Ryzen 5 5600G	126 cpu	122 even	77 gpu
Ryzen 5 5600X	126 cpu	122 even	77 gpu
Ryzen 5 5600X3D	126 cpu	122 even	77 gpu
Core i3-12100	123 cpu	122 even	77 gpu
Core i3-12100F	123 cpu	122 even	77 gpu
Core i5-11600K	121 cpu	121 even	77 gpu
Core i9-10900K	121 cpu	121 even	77 gpu
Ryzen 7 5700G	121 cpu	121 even	77 gpu
Core i7-10700K	116 cpu	116 even	77 gpu
Core i9-9900K	114 cpu	114 cpu	77 gpu
Ryzen 9 3950X	113 cpu	113 cpu	77 gpu
Core i7-9700K	111 cpu	111 cpu	77 gpu
Ryzen 9 3900X	110 cpu	110 cpu	77 gpu

Radeon RX 7900 XT Compared

RTX 4070 Ti Super vs RX 7900 XT — The RTX 4070 Ti Super and RX 7900 XT are effectively tied: within 2% of each other at every resolution.

Specifications

Manufacturer	AMD
Series	AMD RX 7000 Series (RDNA 3)
Video memory	20 GB
3DMark Time Spy (graphics)	24,694
PCI Express	4.0 ×16
Released	2022

Radeon RX 7900 XT