The Technomancer

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 163rd out of 3696 tested combos for The Technomancer, placing it in the top 4.4% of all configurations. This is an unusual pairing—a quad-core entry-level CPU from Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake family driving NVIDIA’s flagship Ada Lovelace GPU—and the benchmark data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at every resolution and settings level tested. The result is a combination that delivers playable frame rates at all tested resolutions, including 4K Ultra, with substantial headroom above the 60 FPS playability threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 163 out of 3696 tested combinations places it in the 95.6th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings for this game. This is a strong showing, driven almost entirely by the RTX 4090’s immense rasterization performance. The CPU’s own percentile ranking is 68th among all processors, while the GPU sits in the 88th percentile among all graphics cards. The gap between these two percentile figures hints at the imbalance: the GPU is doing the heavy lifting.

In practical terms, the combo ranks far higher than the CPU’s individual standing would suggest, because The Technomancer is a 2016 Action RPG that does not scale heavily with thread counts. The i3-12100F’s 4 cores and 8 threads are sufficient to keep the RTX 4090 fed, even at 1080p where CPU overhead is typically most pronounced. The data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the combo produces 247 FPS average, which is near the practical ceiling for many displays and indicates the CPU is not creating a meaningful bottleneck. The rank reflects this efficiency—the pairing outperforms many combinations with more expensive or higher-core-count CPUs because the GPU dominates the workload.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Technomancer at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes. The measured average frame rate at 3840x2160 Ultra is 61 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold by a single frame. The verdict data lists Ultra as playable at 4K, with an average FPS of 61.

Q: What is the highest settings preset that stays above 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: Ultra at 2560x1440 averages 110 FPS, making it the most demanding preset that remains well above the threshold. All four tested presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are marked as playable at this resolution.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 4090 compared to its nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60?

A: The average benchmark score for the RTX 4090 is 60347, while the Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326, a delta of 0%. They are statistically identical in aggregate performance, though the RTX 4090’s measured FPS in this game is far higher due to driver and architecture optimizations.

Q: Does the i3-12100F bottleneck the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data shows no significant bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 247 FPS average, and at 1080p Ultra it still manages 169 FPS. The CPU’s single-thread score of 893 in 3dmark_single_thread is modest, but The Technomancer does not require extreme CPU throughput to maintain high frame rates.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the average FPS is 225. At 3840x2160 Medium, it drops to 91 FPS. That is a 134 FPS reduction, or approximately 59% lower performance when moving from 1080p to 4K, indicating strong scaling with resolution.

Q: Is the RTX 4090’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, a viable alternative?

A: The Radeon Pro W6600M has an average benchmark score of 61896, which is 2.5% higher than the RTX 4090’s 60347. However, this is a workstation-oriented card, and the measured FPS data for this game is specific to the RTX 4090, so direct gaming performance comparisons cannot be made from the pack.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the i3-12100F and the RTX 4090 becomes clear when examining FPS scaling across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo produces 247 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 215 FPS, a 13% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 118 FPS, a further 45% reduction from 1440p. This steep decline as resolution increases is classic GPU-bound behavior—the CPU’s workload remains roughly constant, while the GPU’s rendering load grows with pixel count.

The GPU’s dominance is even more apparent at higher presets. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 169 FPS; at 1440p Ultra it is 110 FPS; at 4K Ultra it is 61 FPS. The consistent halving of performance from 1080p to 4K (169 to 61 FPS, a 64% drop) aligns with the fourfold increase in pixel count, confirming that the RTX 4090 is the limiting factor at all resolutions. The CPU’s role is to maintain a minimum frame rate floor, and the data shows it does so effectively: even the lowest average FPS recorded across all tests is 61 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is exactly at the playable threshold.

Settings also affect the balance. From Low to Ultra at a fixed resolution, the FPS drop is substantial but not proportional to the GPU’s theoretical workload. At 1080p, Low averages 247 FPS, while Ultra averages 169 FPS—a 32% reduction. At 4K, Low averages 118 FPS and Ultra averages 61 FPS, a 48% reduction. The larger relative drop at 4K suggests that Ultra settings introduce additional GPU-side effects (such as higher-resolution textures and more complex shading) that scale with resolution, while the CPU remains unperturbed. The i3-12100F never becomes the bottleneck; its 4.30 GHz boost clock and 12 MB of shared L3 cache are sufficient to drive the RTX 4090 to its limits in this title.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Technomancer at all tested resolutions and settings, according to the verdict data. At 3840x2160, the playable settings include Low, Medium, High, and Ultra, with the best settings being Ultra at an average of 61 FPS. At 2560x1440, all four presets are playable, with Ultra averaging 110 FPS. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 169 FPS, and Low reaches 247 FPS. The 60 FPS playable threshold is cleared in every single configuration tested, meaning there is no scenario in the measured data where frame rates fall below playability. The weakest point is 4K Ultra, which sits at 61 FPS average—just one frame above the threshold—but the minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 77 FPS, suggesting that even transient dips in Ultra are unlikely to drop below 60.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings average 247 FPS with no min/max recorded. Medium averages 225 FPS, with a minimum of 191 and a maximum of 259. High averages 213 FPS. Ultra averages 169 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 78 FPS, indicating that the RTX 4090 has ample headroom at this resolution and that the CPU is not constraining performance.

At 2560x1440, the results remain strong. Low averages 215 FPS. Medium averages 165 FPS, with a minimum of 140 and a maximum of 190. High averages 141 FPS. Ultra drops to 110 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 105 FPS, reflecting the increased GPU load at higher pixel counts.

At 3840x2160, the performance scales down as expected. Low averages 118 FPS. Medium averages 91 FPS, with a minimum of 77 and a maximum of 104. High averages 77 FPS. Ultra averages 61 FPS. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 77, which is still 17 frames above the playable threshold, and the Ultra average of 61 FPS indicates that the game remains playable even at the most demanding settings tested.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which averages 61 FPS. This is the highest settings level available in the test data, and it just meets the playable threshold. For users who prefer a safety margin, Medium averages 91 FPS and High averages 77 FPS, but Ultra is technically playable.

At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 110 FPS, comfortably above 60 FPS. This is the recommended preset for this resolution, as it offers the highest visual fidelity while maintaining nearly double the playable threshold.

At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 169 FPS. This is the best settings choice at this resolution, delivering high frame rates that are well suited for high-refresh-rate displays. The data shows no reason to drop below Ultra at 1080p.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The i3-12100F’s nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, are the Intel Core 3 N355 (avg score 13492, 0% delta), the Intel Core i5-9500 (avg score 13452, 0.3% delta), the Intel Core 5 120UL (avg score 13594, -0.7% delta), and the Intel Core i7-1250U (avg score 13351, 1.1% delta). These CPUs have aggregate benchmark scores within roughly 1% of the i3-12100F’s 13494 average, meaning they would likely produce near-identical frame rates in this game when paired with the RTX 4090. The i5-9500 is a 6-core desktop part, while the others are mobile or low-power chips, but their similar average scores suggest The Technomancer does not differentiate strongly between them.

The RTX 4090’s nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 (avg score 60326, 0% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (avg score 60140, 0.3% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (avg score 61896, -2.5% delta), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (avg score 58657, 2.9% delta). The Arc Pro A60 and Radeon Pro Vega 48 have scores within 0.3% of the RTX 4090’s 60347, but these are professional-grade cards with different driver stacks. The Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% faster in aggregate benchmarks, while the Radeon PRO V710 is 2.9% slower. None of these alternatives match the RTX 4090’s specific gaming performance in this title, as the measured FPS data applies only to the RTX 4090, but the benchmark scores indicate they occupy a similar performance tier.