What CPU bottlenecks the RX 580? (2024)

What CPU bottlenecks the RX 580? Let's find out

Updated: Jan 31, 2023 11:03 am

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AMD’s RX 580 GPU was released in 2017, a high-end option in the RX 500 lineup. While the GPU offered excellent performance at its time, it has lost its competitive edge over time.

Now Read: Best CPU for RX 580

Today, the RX 580 is a decent budget option for 1080p, 60FPS gaming at medium to high settings, but that’s about it. You can’t expect it to the game at 1440p, which is twice as taxing on the GPU’s resources as the 1080p resolution.

Those looking to build a budget PC, maybe with second-hand components, will likely find the RX 580 a suitable option. Since price efficiency is the only remaining reason one would purchase this card today, we have to avoid bottlenecks by pairing it up with an appropriate processor.

Today, we’ll find out what CPU bottlenecks the RX 580, and I’ll give you my recommendations for a compatible setup.

RX 580 specifications

But, before anything else, let’s briefly review the RX 580’s specs.

• Stream processors: 2304
• Core base clock: 1257 MHz
• Boost clock: 1340 MHz
• Memory clock: 2000 MHz / 8Gbps
• Memory size: 8 GB
• Memory type: GDDR5
• Power usage: 185W
• Recommended PSU: 500W

If you’re familiar with GPUs, you’ve probably noticed that these specs are somewhat lacking. There’s nothing extraordinary here besides the relatively high power usage for a card of its caliber.

What CPU bottlenecks an RX 580?

If you’re going to build a computer with an RX 580, I recommend pairing it up with a modern entry-level to a mid-range processor. The GPU will run perfectly fine on any gaming CPU released within the last few years.

If you are looking for the cheapest CPU that will run the RX 580 without a bottleneck, you might want to go for an i3 processor.

The intel i3-10100F will serve you well. It has 4 cores and 8 threads, which is far below average, but sufficient for 1080p gaming. It also has decent 4GHz-ish clock speeds.

If you’d prefer an AMD CPU, go with the Ryzen 3 3100. It has specs similar to the above Intel i3-10100F.

Going with a processor that’s weaker than the two of these will result in a bottleneck.

Let’s also talk about the stronger CPUs since it doesn’t make much sense to pair up an RX 580 with a very strong processor either. You would end up with a GPU bottleneck. I recommend pairing the RX 580 with nothing stronger than a Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel i5-10600K.

If you intend to get a stronger processor than the two of these, you’ll end up with a significant bottleneck and might want to get a better GPU than the RX 580 for a better match.

Why is a bottleneck a problem?

In a gaming PC, the CPU and GPU work in conjunction to produce the frames you see on your screen. But the thing is, your computer can only produce frames as fast as the slowest of the two microprocessors allows.

So, for example, if you paired a weak RX 580 with a much stronger i7-13700K, you would only get as many frames as the RX 580 can deliver, even though you have a top-notch CPU. The opposite is true as well.

That’s why it’s best to get components with identical performance. It minimizes the bottleneck and makes your build more efficient.