Do the Core i7-12700K and Radeon RX 9070 XT bottleneck each other?

Yes. At 1080p (1920 x 1080) the Core i7-12700K is the limit and holds the Radeon RX 9070 XT back by about 6.9%, for roughly 131 fps on High. Low. At 131 fps the imbalance costs you headroom rather than playability.

How many fps do the Core i7-12700K and Radeon RX 9070 XT get at 1080p (1920 x 1080)?

Around 131 fps on the High preset. The Core i7-12700K tops out near 149 fps and the Radeon RX 9070 XT near 138 fps, and the lower of the two sets the frame rate.

Core i7-12700K + Radeon RX 9070 XT Bottleneck Calculator

Whether the Core i7-12700K and the Radeon RX 9070 XT 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 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)	142 fps	CPU	21.3%
1080p (1920 x 1080)	131 fps	CPU	6.9%
1440p (2560 x 1440)	98 fps	Balanced	0%
Ultrawide 1440p (3440 x 1440)	81 fps	Balanced	0%
4K (3840 x 2160)	57 fps	GPU	21.8%
8K (7680 x 4320)	20 fps	GPU	72.6%

What to do about it

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D is the slowest CPU in our database that stops the Radeon RX 9070 XT 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.

Run the numbers on the Ryzen 9 9900X3D

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.