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Quick Answer
The Ryzen 7 7700X is slightly overkill for the RTX 4070, but that is not a bad thing. You get smooth performance with significant CPU headroom for streaming, background tasks, and future GPU upgrades. It performs within 1-2% of the 7800X3D with this GPU.
The Ryzen 7 7700X is an 8-core, 16-thread Zen 4 processor. Paired with the RTX 4070, the GPU is the clear bottleneck at all resolutions, meaning the CPU has power to spare.
At 1440p with the RTX 4070, the Ryzen 7 7700X performs nearly identically to the cheaper Ryzen 5 7600:
The 7700X's 8 cores shine when you are doing more than just gaming. Streaming via CPU encoding, running Discord, having Chrome tabs open, or recording gameplay all benefit from the extra cores. The 7600 can handle these too, but with less headroom.
If you plan to upgrade to an RTX 4080 or RTX 5070 in the future, the 7700X gives you more runway. The Ryzen 5 7600 would pair well with those GPUs too, but the 7700X ensures zero CPU concerns for the next 3-4 years.
If the price gap between the 7600 and 7700X is under $80 AUD, the 7700X is a worthwhile upgrade. If it is more than $100 AUD, save the money and put it toward a better GPU instead.
Our Verdict
The 7700X is mild overkill for the RTX 4070, but it is a smart buy if you multitask while gaming or plan to upgrade your GPU later. If pure value is your goal, the Ryzen 5 7600 delivers nearly identical gaming performance for less money.
The best CPU for the RTX 4070 at 1440p is the Ryzen 5 7600 for value or the Ryzen 7 7800X3D for maximum performance. At 1440p, the GPU is the bottleneck in most games, so even the Ryzen 5 7600 delivers 95%+ of the performance at half the price of flagship CPUs.
No, the i5-13400F does not bottleneck the RTX 4070 at 1440p. At this resolution, the GPU handles the heavy lifting while the 6P+4E core CPU keeps frame delivery smooth. You will see less than 5% performance difference compared to an i7-13700K in most games at 1440p.
No, the i5-13600K does not bottleneck the RTX 4070 at 1080p. Even at this CPU-demanding resolution, the 13600K's 6P+8E cores and 5.1 GHz boost clock deliver excellent frame rates. It matches within 2% of the i7-13700K in gaming workloads.