Do the Core i5-3570K and GeForce RTX 3070 bottleneck each other?

Yes. At 1080p (1920 x 1080) the Core i5-3570K is the limit and holds the GeForce RTX 3070 back by about 7.5%, for roughly 71 fps on High. Moderate. 71 fps is playable, and fixing the limit is the cheapest way to reach a high refresh panel.

How many fps do the Core i5-3570K and GeForce RTX 3070 get at 1080p (1920 x 1080)?

Around 71 fps on the High preset. The Core i5-3570K tops out near 75 fps and the GeForce RTX 3070 near 81 fps, and the lower of the two sets the frame rate.

Core i5-3570K + GeForce RTX 3070 Bottleneck Calculator

Whether the Core i5-3570K and the GeForce RTX 3070 hold each other back, at every resolution, with the frame rate you can expect and the single upgrade that fixes it.

Processor

Graphics card

Screen resolution

Graphics preset

Memory (RAM)

Primary usage

Estimates built from published benchmark data, not a test of your exact PC. How we calculate this.

The platform itself is a limit here: an older socket usually means PCIe 3.0 and slower memory, which costs a few percent on top of the figure above.

The same pair at every resolution

A processor pushes roughly the same number of frames whatever the resolution. A graphics card pushes far fewer as pixels go up. That is why the limit moves as you climb this table, and why a bottleneck figure quoted without a resolution means nothing.

Resolution	Estimated fps	Limited by	Gap
720p (1280 x 720)	73 fps	CPU	32.4%
1080p (1920 x 1080)	71 fps	CPU	7.5%
1440p (2560 x 1440)	57 fps	Balanced	0%
Ultrawide 1440p (3440 x 1440)	38 fps	Balanced	0%
4K (3840 x 2160)	23 fps	GPU	39.3%
8K (7680 x 4320)	9 fps	GPU	76.1%

What to do about it

The Core i5-8400 is the slowest CPU in our database that stops the GeForce RTX 3070 from idling at 1080p (1920 x 1080). A faster chip than that adds nothing at this resolution, so this is the step to buy, not the top of the stack.

See what the Core i5-8400 pairs with

Modelled from published benchmark data, not measured on this exact combination. The indexes behind these figures and the sources they come from are on how we calculate this.