Best CPU for RTX 4060 Ti in 2024

If money isn’t your main concern, but you still want decent value, pairing the 4060 Ti with AMD’s Ryzen 7900X is a great choice. The 7900 and 7900X CPUs aren’t the flagships of the Ryzen 7000 series, that would be the 7950 and 7950X. However, picking the 7900X gives you a very capable CPU at your system’s core, with headroom to upgrade beyond the 4060 Ti if you ever want to. Not to mention it offers good value and will pair very nicely with that specific card

Why? It provides enough horsepower to keep instructions ticking over nicely, but. AMD’s 7900X has 8 cores, 16 threads, and a 5.6GHz boost clock speed – enough to keep your system ticking along nicely. It’s also a solid choice for gaming and productivity, so it can easily support the 4060 Ti on secondary gaming duties while performing other tasks. For our money, the best CPU for the RTX 4060 Ti.

If you’re looking for a slightly cheaper option than the 7900X, but still want a classic of the current line-up of CPUs from AMD and Intel, the 13600K is one to look at. The mid-range darling of Intel’s Raptor Lake lineup, it’s a gaming and productivity jack-of-all-trade and is usually around $50 less than the Ryzen 9 7900X. Although a mid-range CPU for Intel, this processor outperforms its position compared to AMD’s hierarchy. In a comparable build, it’s not unrealistic to expect frames not far behind a PC with a 7900X – all else being equal where possible.

The 13600K is sure to be a much-loved CPU a few years from now and features on many people’s ‘top CPUs’ list for its cost-effectiveness. Featuring 14 cores and 20 threads, it’s a good fit for anyone keen to game, but also needs a processor that is reliably effective in productivity too. If you want the best CPUs for gaming and prefer Intel, maybe opt for the 13700K. But otherwise, this CPU secures its place on our best CPU for RTX 4060 Ti list.

It’s a coin (or D3 dice) flip for us between the 7600, 7600X, and 5800X3D taking the last two spots on our best CPU for RTX 4060 Ti list. We’ve picked the Ryzen 5 7600X for third place, because it offers good performance per cost, and makes it onto our best CPU for gaming list ahead of the others too. We’re including it here for similar reasons, as for a mid-range option you’d want to pair with a 4060Ti with the strongest performers where possible

This CPU sits behind the 13600K here on this list, as on performance, but at the $300 level this CPU has plenty to offer. A 4.7GHz base clock, which is good for single-core productivity, a 6-core, 12-thread chip that pips the 7600 non-X, and takes a lead over the hugely favored 5800X3D of AMD’s last-gen. For an RTX 4060 Ti build, this is the cheapest option of the current gen from Intel and AMD that we’d go for. This is both because of the potential upgrade paths you could take on socket AM5, and because it has enough power to work well in tandem with the 4060 Ti.

If price is your main concern for a build, and you’re not worried about upgrade paths or future component swapping, the much-loved Ryzen 7 5800X3D is probably for you. That’s particularly true if you want a system that is mid-tier gaming focused. An 8-core, 16-thread AMD AM4 CPU with a useful lump of 3D VD-cache, there’s no denying that this CPU is worth the incredibly affordable price it’s now available at. It makes it to our best CPU for RTX 4060 Ti pretty much based on value and reputation alone, because at around $200 it’s incredible to think it released with an MSRP of $449. However, any system with this CPU will need DDR4 RAM and not DDR5.

One for budget builders without a doubt, just don’t expect to be able to upgrade for improved gaming performance. You’ll need a new system to sit your 4060 Ti in, being that AM4 is last-gen, so this CPU is one for those who know what they’re getting into.