NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 super is one of the most popular choices in a mid-range budget PC build. Therefore, in this article, we will see five of the best budget CPUs for GTX 1660 Super.
GTX 1660 Super is an amazing video card for 1080p gaming in high to ultra settings. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super shows a remarkable performance upgrade from its predecessor GTX 1660.
It finds a perfect balance between 1660 and 1660 Ti and offers an immense price to performance ratio compared with other competing GPUs.
All in all, I think it is best to go for GeForce GTX 1660 Super when you want to stay on budget and get high-quality benchmarks.
Since I have warmed you up a little, a capable CPU to form a good alliance with the GPU is equally important.
Hence, we should look at some of the good mid-high range CPUs to pair with GeForce 1660 Super.
Related: Top 5 Best CPUs for GTX 1650 Super – A Definitive Guide!
In this Article, we'll see:
Best CPUs for GTX 1660 Super
Here’s a quick sneek peak of what we are covering in this article.
These are the best CPUs for GTX 1660 Super that will give you least amount of bottlenecking.
| Best CPUs for 1660 Super | Cores/Threads | Clock Speeds | Overclocking | iGPU | TDP | |
| AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | 6/12 | 3.6 – 4.2 GHz | Yes | No | 65 W | |
| Intel Core i5 10600K | 6/12 | 4.1 – 4.8 GHz | Yes | Yes | 125 W | |
| AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | 8/16 | 3.6 – 4.4 GHz | Yes | No | 65 W | |
| Intel Core i7 9700K | 8/8 | 3.6 – 4.9 GHz | Yes | Yes | 95 W | |
| AMD Ryzen 5 2600 | 6/12 | 3.4 – 3.9 GHz | Yes | No | 65 W |
Let’s dive deeper!
1) AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / 5600X – Depending upon Price
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Features
- cores/threads – 6/12
- Cache – 32 MB
- Base clock speed – 3.6 GHz
- Turbo clock speed – 4.2 GHz
- Overclockable – Yes
- iGPU – No
- TDP – 65 W
check the price of AMD Ryzen 5 3600 on amazon
check the price of AMD Ryzen 5 5600X on amazon
A Deeper AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / 5600X Review
The Ryzen 5 3600, without a doubt, is one of the best selling gaming CPUs for a budget PC build. Plus, with six cores and twelve threads, it guarantees a high gaming experience and multitasking capabilities
It has been a worldwide choice of many gamers looking for a CPU upgrade or diving into making their PC while not spending too much on CPU. The Ryzen 5 3600 performs highly in multi-core benchmarks against Intel’s similar priced 9th Gen processors.
Also check: Best gaming CPUs under $400
However, this budget gaming processor lacks an integrated graphics card, and that is where it becomes a good contender to pair with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660.
Pairing Ryzen 5 3600 with GTX 1660 super can be one of the best decisions to make a budget PC. At the same time, the pair is extremely great for gaming in 1080p high settings. It also performs like a beast in ultra settings.
In 1080p Ultra settings, this pair of Ryzen 5 3600 & 1660 super locks an FPS range of 70-100 in some pretty hefty games. These results were tested in some of the heavy games like:
- Battlefield V
- Rainbow Six Seige
- GTA V
- Forza Horizon 4
- AC: Odyssey high settings
- Apex legends
- Escape from Tarkov
Not to forget, for daily tasks or multitasking, the pair offers pretty good performance.
Related: Best CPUs for AMD Radeon RX 570!
PROS
- Better Performance and price than Intel Core i5(9th gen),
- Great for gaming and multi-tasking while staying in budget,
- Low power usage and high thermal efficiency.
CONS
- No iGPU,
- Overclocking is riskier compared to Intel.
2) Intel Core i5 10600K
Intel Core i5 10600K Features
- cores/threads – 6/12
- Cache – 12 MB
- Base clock speed – 4.1 GHz
- Turbo clock speed – 4.8 GHz
- Overclockable – Yes
- iGPU – Yes
- TDP – 125 W
check the price of Intel Core i5 10600K on amazon
A Deeper Intel Core i5 10600K Review
The Intel Core i5 10600K is one of the best i5 processors for gaming and CPU heavy tasks. Looking at its current pricing lower than Ryzen 5 3600, you are going to get an immense value out of this budget desktop CPU.
Intel has had hard knocks from Ryzen series CPUs has got them thinking about their audience. Now, Intel wants to gain back the audience it once had. And or that we see some incredible price alterations.
The Intel 10600K comes equipped with six cores and twelve threads and is pretty similar to 3600. It may lack behind in few benchmarks against Ryzen’s budget CPU but dominates quite well in single-core performance.
Furthermore, the i5 10600K edges ahead of 3600 in terms of:
- Clock Speed,
- cost to performance ratio,
- Overclocking scores,
- 1080p gaming.
Also check: Best gaming CPUs under $200 high in character and performance
The integrated graphics in Intel i5 10600K are not enough to support an enjoyable gaming experience. Therefore, one GPU you can consider to pair with 10600K is GeForce GTX 1660 Super.
This pair makes a high-performance machine whether you use it for gaming or video streaming, or multitasking. You can easily enjoy most of your games on 1080p to ultra settings getting an average FPS of 70-100. And on quite a few games, 1440p gaming can turn out awesome as well.
The general rule of thumb here is for a good gaming experience having good single-core performance matters more than single-core performance. And that is where Intel i5 10600K hits hard on Ryzen 5 3600.
PROS
- Lower price than Ryzen 5 3600,
- Competes very closely with AMD Ryzen CPUs.
CONS
- High power consumption,
- Integrated Graphics are not suitable for gaming.
3) AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Features
- cores/threads – 8/16
- Cache – 32 MB
- Base clock speed – 3.6 GHz
- Turbo clock speed – 4.4 GHz
- Overclockable – Yes
- iGPU – No
- TDP – 65 W
check the price of AMD Ryzen 7 3700X on amazon
A Deeper AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Review
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is a super processor for most of the tasks you’ll ever do on a PC. Whether gaming in ultra 1440p settings or handling multiple video edits, or a high-quality gaming video stream
The Ryzen 7 3700X has eight cores and sixteen threads. It also possesses a base clock speed of 3.6 GHz, which goes up to 4.4 GHz. In addition, the CPU has a cache memory of 32 MB, which can be efficient for reliable gaming.
I believe that if you can maybe stretch on your CPU budget a bit more, you will have a future proof PC to play video games in stunning quality, produce good music and do CPU extensive video edits or multi-tasking.
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is one of the best CPUs for GTX 1660 Super because of less than 10% very low bottlenecking.
Moreover, this combo of 3700X and 1660 super guarantees you gaming at ultra settings for almost all the games.
You can play the games mentioned below on Ultra settings and 1080p resolution getting an average FPS of more than 85.
- GTA V,
- Battlefield V,
- Rainbow Six Seige,
- Last of us 2,
- Other major AAA titles.
PROS
- Better cost to performance ratio than 10700,
- High cache memory available to increase performance boost.
CONS
- No iGPU,
- Lower single core performance.
4) Intel Core i7 9700K
Intel Core i7 9700K Features
- cores/threads – 8/8
- Cache – 12 MB
- Base clock speed – 3.6 GHz
- Turbo clock speed – 4.9 GHz
- Overclockable – Yes
- iGPU – Yes
- TDP – 95 W
check the price of Intel Core i7 9700K on amazon
A Deeper Intel Core i7 9700K Review
The Intel Core i7 9700K is an eight-core and eight-thread processor, a direct competitor to AMD Ryzen 7 3700X. It incorporates a base clock speed of 3.6 GHz and a turbo speed of 4.9 GHz with 12 MB of total cache size.
The lack of multi-threading in 9700K is what makes people sceptical about this desktop processor from Intel.
From a technical point of view, Intel’s superb single-core performance and high turbo speeds in 9700K make up for no multi-threading. In the gaming scenario, the single-core workload distribution is so good that 9700K takes the lead on 3700X on averaging out the FPS for some games.
As I mentioned above, gaming threads do not matter as much as single-core speeds and workload management.
Therefore, it makes 9700K another excellent choice for GeForce GTX 1660 Super. Gaming at 1080p ultra settings, most games feel very smooth, locking the FPS to anywhere close to 70.
If you are heavily invested in gaming and high quality 4K content creation or video editing, I would say get the Ryzen 7 3700X.
PROS
- Reasonable pricing,
- great performance when bundled with 1660 super.
CONS
- You will have to buy a separate cooling fan,
- Multi-threading is not possible,
- iGPU is not great for gaming.
5) AMD Ryzen 5 2600
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Features
- cores/threads – 6/12
- Cache – 16 MB
- Base clock speed – 3.4 GHz
- Turbo clock speed – 3.9 GHz
- Overclockable – Yes
- iGPU – No
- TDP – 65 W
check the price of AMD Ryzen 5 2600 on amazon
A Deeper AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Review
When making your low to mid-range CPUs, one cannot forget about the Ryzen 5 2600, one of the previous-gen superstars of budget gaming PC
The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a six-core and twelve thread desktop processor with pretty standard clock speeds. It is overclockable and is exhibits good power efficiency.
Furthermore, when paired with 1660 Super, the CPU is good at handling low to medium video editing and 1080p gaming at high settings averaging an FPS of 85 on pretty heavy games like Battlefield V.
All in all, the Ryzen 5 2600 still makes an excellent choice for a budget processor. However, one place where it lacks is heavy multitasking and burdensome graphical jobs.
On an ending note, I will say keep your expectations fair from this pair. It is exciting but not when you want a high-performance beast.
The Ryzen 5 2600 is the least you should get for a GTX 1600 super for minimal bottleneck issues. The bottleneck you will see on a Ryzen 5 2600 and GTXX 1660 super combo is less than 15%.
PROS
- Great option for low end pc,
- Stays in budget while performing reasonably good.
CONS
- No iGPU,
- Low cache size,
- Lower single core performance.
Conclusion
We discussed some of the best CPUs for GTX 1660 Super. These budget gaming processors provide a great cost to performance ratio and stay right within budget.
A great thing about this list is that it mentions some of the best gaming CPUs that perform very closely in benchmark tests. So, you can be assured that the processor going into your PC is as great as any other budget CPU.
In addition, all the combos mentioned above have been picked over and over by gamers across the world.
After choosing one between AMD Vs Intel processors, it is finally time to unleash the gamer in you. However, you can also stream live video games with the configurations mentioned above.
But don’t involve Ryzen 5 2600 in live streams.
You may begin to smell something weird.
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