What CPU do I need for the Radeon RX 9070?

At 1440p, the Core i5-10600K is the slowest processor that keeps the Radeon RX 9070 fully fed. At 1080p the card can run faster, so you need more: the Ryzen 9 5950X or better.

Is the Radeon RX 9070 good for 1440p?

Yes. It averages around 112 FPS at 1440p on high settings in our model, enough for a high-refresh monitor in most games.

Is 16GB of VRAM enough on the Radeon RX 9070?

Yes. 16GB covers high textures at 4K in current games and leaves headroom for the next few years.

Is the Radeon RX 9070 faster than the GeForce RTX 5070?

Yes. The Radeon RX 9070 is about 6% faster at 1440p in our model (112 vs 106 FPS).

Radeon RX 9070 CPU pairing and bottleneck

Model frame rate limits of 143, 112 and 70 FPS at 1080p, 1440p and 4K, assuming the processor never gets in the way.

The Radeon RX 9070 is a high-end graphics card in our database and a high-refresh 1440p card that can handle 4K at tuned settings or with upscaling.

Its 16GB of memory leaves room for high textures at any resolution for years.

Its closest NVIDIA rival is the GeForce RTX 5070, which is 6% slower at 1440p.

Estimated FPS in Popular Games

Game (settings)	1080p	1440p	4K
Cyberpunk 2077 (High, no ray tracing)	~115	~90	~55
Fortnite (High, DirectX 12)	~185	~145	~90
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (High)	~165	~130	~80
Counter-Strike 2 (High)	~345	~270	~170

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 9 5950X	138
1440p	Core i5-10600K	107
4K	Ryzen 5 1600	70

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 i7-11700K	126 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Ryzen 5 5600	126 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Ryzen 5 5600G	126 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Ryzen 5 5600X	126 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Core i3-12100	123 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Core i3-12100F	123 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Core i5-11600K	121 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Core i9-10900K	121 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Ryzen 7 5700G	121 cpu	112 gpu	70 gpu
Core i7-10700K	116 cpu	112 even	70 gpu
Core i9-9900K	114 cpu	112 even	70 gpu
Ryzen 9 3950X	113 cpu	112 even	70 gpu
Core i7-9700K	111 cpu	111 even	70 gpu
Ryzen 9 3900X	110 cpu	110 even	70 gpu
Core i5-11400	109 cpu	109 even	70 gpu
Core i5-11400F	109 cpu	109 even	70 gpu
Core i7-10700F	109 cpu	109 even	70 gpu
Ryzen 5 5500	108 cpu	108 even	70 gpu
Core i5-10600K	107 cpu	107 even	70 gpu
Ryzen 7 3800X	107 cpu	107 even	70 gpu
Core i7-8700K	105 cpu	105 cpu	70 gpu
Ryzen 7 3700X	105 cpu	105 cpu	70 gpu
Ryzen 5 3600X	103 cpu	103 cpu	70 gpu
Core i5-9600K	100 cpu	100 cpu	70 gpu

Radeon RX 9070 Compared

RX 9070 vs RTX 5070 — The RX 9070 is about 8% faster than the RTX 5070 at 4K and 6% faster at 1440p.
RX 9070 XT vs RX 9070 — The RX 9070 XT is about 13% faster than the RX 9070 at 4K and 12% faster at 1440p.

Specifications

Manufacturer	AMD
Series	AMD RX 9000 Series (RDNA 4)
Video memory	16 GB
3DMark Time Spy (graphics)	22,146
PCI Express	5.0 ×16
Released	2025

Radeon RX 9070