The Technomancer

The Technomancer, an Action RPG released in 2016, presents a demanding workload for the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination. The benchmark data, measured directly, shows a pairing that scales predictably across resolutions and settings, with the GPU taking the lead role at higher resolutions and the CPU providing a solid foundation at lower ones. The combination ranks 2400 out of 3696 tested combos in this game, indicating it sits in the lower-middle portion of the performance spectrum.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling in The Technomancer reveals a consistently GPU-bound behavior for this combo, with frame rates dropping sharply as pixel count increases. At 1080p with High settings, the average frame rate is 97 FPS. Moving to 1440p, that average falls to 63 FPS, a reduction of approximately 35%. At 4K, the average drops to 35 FPS, which is about 36% lower than the 1440p figure and 64% below the 1080p result. The pattern is consistent across all settings, with the most demanding preset showing the largest absolute decline.

At Low settings, the scaling is steeper in relative terms: 1080p delivers 148 FPS, 1440p drops to 97 FPS (a 34% decrease), and 4K falls to 53 FPS (a 45% drop from 1440p). The Medium preset shows a similar trend, with averages of 114 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K. For Ultra settings, the numbers are 76 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured point, at 27 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution.

The data indicates that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is consistently around 35% for all settings, while the gap between 1440p and 4K widens to 40-45% for most presets, except for High where it is 44% and Low where it is 45%. This widening gap at 4K suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading rate become increasingly strained as resolution rises. The RX 6650 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but marginal for 4K in this title. The GPU's base clock of 2055 MHz and boost clock of 2635 MHz are relatively high, but the 4K results indicate that raw clock speed cannot compensate for the memory pressure.

At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough to suggest that the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution, as the average FPS exceeds 100 for Low and Medium presets. However, the Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 76 FPS, which is lower than the 97 FPS of High, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional graphical effects are more GPU-bound. The 4K results, where the "Low" preset still only reaches 53 FPS, confirm that the GPU is the dominant constraint at this resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the "Zen" architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. It has a 16 MB shared L3 cache, and its memory support is DDR4 with a dual-channel bus and a bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s. The CPU's benchmarks show a multi-core score of 1248 in Cinebench R15, and a single-core score of 157.3. In Geekbench, it scores 5648 in multi-core and 1154 in single-core. Its Passmark multi-thread score is 13160, with a single-thread score of 2239.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game's Action RPG nature likely involves many on-screen entities and effects, which can stress the CPU. The Ryzen 5 2600's 6 cores and 12 threads provide throughput, but its single-core performance, as shown by the Geekbench single-core score of "1154", is not particularly high. This could limit performance in scenes with heavy single-threaded workloads.

The CPU's "nearestRivals" list provides context: the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V has an average score of 21440, which is 0.2% higher than the Ryzen's 21484. The Intel Core i9-11900H is 0.5% higher, and the AMD EPYC 9454 is 1.2% higher. The Intel Xeon D-1746TER is 0.7% lower. These differences are small, indicating that the Ryzen 5 2600's overall performance is competitive with a range of other processors, though it is not a top-tier part.

The CPU's "percentileVsAllCpus" is 75, meaning it outperforms 75% of all CPUs in the database. This suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck for most games at 1080p, but its performance in The Technomancer may be limited by its single-core capabilities. The data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU is not a major factor, but at 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the CPU would likely be able to feed the GPU more data if the GPU could handle it.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is a GPU based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, with a 7 nm process node and 11,060 million transistors. It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. The GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, with a pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is 10.79 TFLOPS.

The GPU's benchmarks include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1859, a Geekbench Vulkan score of 81306, and a Passmark G3D score of 17166. The GPU's "percentileVsAllGpus" is 65, meaning it performs better than 65% of all GPUs.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's performance is the primary determinant of the frame rates. The benchmark data shows that at 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as even the Low preset only achieves 53 FPS. The GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the larger textures and higher resolutions may push the VRAM usage, potentially causing performance drops. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results suggest that the GPU is struggling to fill the pixels.

The GPU's nearestRivals in the database are the NVIDIA Tesla K40m, with a score of 19885 and a delta of -0.6%, and the AMD FirePro D300, with a score of 19637 and a delta of 0.7%. These comparisons indicate that the RX 6650 XT's overall performance is similar to these pro-sumer cards, but the delta values are small, meaning the differences are minimal.

The GPU's clock speeds of 2055 MHz base and 2635 MHz boost are relatively high, but the 4K performance shows that the GPU is not enough to maintain high frame rates at this resolution. The GPU's TDP is 176 W, which is reasonable for its performance class.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is ranked 2400th out of 3696 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the 65th percentile of all tested combos. This rank indicates that the combo is in the lower-middle range of performance for this game. The CPU's individual percentile of 75 among all CPUs and the GPU's percentile of 65 among all GPUs suggest that the combination is not optimally balanced, with the GPU being the weaker component.

The combo's rank is influenced by the GPU's performance, as the game is heavily GPU-bound. The CPU's strong multi-core performance does not help as much as the GPU's limits. The combo's rank of 2400 means it is faster than about 35% of all tested combos, but slower than the majority. This is consistent with the GPU's lower percentile relative to the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data is as follows:

• 4K (3840x2160):
• High: avg 35 FPS, min 35 FPS, max 47 FPS (note: min and max are for Medium, not High; High has no min/max)
• Low: avg 53 FPS, no min/max
• Medium: avg 41 FPS, min 35 FPS, max 47 FPS
• Ultra: avg 27 FPS, no min/max

• 1440p (2560x1440):
• High: avg 63 FPS, no min/max
• Low: avg 97 FPS, no min/max
• Medium: avg 74 FPS, min 63 FPS, max 85 FPS
• Ultra: avg 50 FPS, no min/max

• 1080p (1920x1080):
• High: avg 97 FPS, no min/max
• Low: avg 148 FPS, no min/max
• Medium: avg 114 FPS, min 97 FPS, max 131 FPS
• Ultra: avg 76 FPS, no min/max

The Medium preset is the only one with min and max FPS values, showing a range of 35-47 FPS at 4K, 63-85 FPS at 1440p, and 97-131 FPS at 1080p. The High preset at 4K has an average of 35 FPS, which is the same as the Medium's minimum, indicating that the High preset's average is at the lower end of the Medium's range. The Ultra preset at 4K is the lowest average at 27 FPS.

The data shows that the Low preset at 1080p achieves 148 FPS, which is more than double the 4K High average of 35 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is significant, with a large drop in performance.

Settings to Use

Based on the measured data, the best experience for this combo is at 1080p with the High preset, which delivers an average of 97 FPS. This is the highest average FPS that still provides a visually rich experience. The Medium preset at 1080p gives a higher average of 114 FPS, but the High preset offers better visual quality with only a 17 FPS difference. The Low preset at 1080p delivers 148 FPS, but the visual quality is lower.

At 1440p, the High preset averages 63 FPS, which is playable but not as smooth as 1080p. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 74 FPS, which is a better balance. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 50 FPS, which is on the lower side for a smooth experience.

At 4K, all presets are below 60 FPS, with the High preset averaging 35 FPS, which is not smooth. The Low preset at 4K averages 53 FPS, which is the highest at this resolution, but it is still not ideal for a fast-paced action game.

Based on the data, the recommended settings for a balanced experience are 1080p with High or Medium, or 1440p with Medium for a higher resolution. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it provides lower frame rates without a significant visual advantage over High.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 148, achieved at 1080p with the Low preset.

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming?

A: At 4K, the average FPS ranges from 27 (Ultra) to 53 (Low), which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What settings provide the best balance between visual quality and performance?

A: At 1080p, the High preset (97 FPS) or Medium (114 FPS) offer a good balance. At 1440p, the Medium preset (74 FPS) is the most balanced.

Q: How does the RX 6650 XT compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 6650 XT's average benchmark score is 19765, with the NVIDIA Tesla K40m at 19885 (0.6% higher) and the AMD FirePro D300 at 19637 (0.7% lower). These differences are minimal.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 2600 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average score of 21484. The Intel Core Ultra 5 228V is 0.2% higher, the Intel Core i9-11900H is 0.5% higher, and the Xeon D-1746TER is 0.7% lower. The differences are all less than 1.2%.

Q: What is the minimum FPS in the Medium preset at 1440p?

A:** The minimum FPS in the Medium preset at 1440p is 63 FPS, with an average of 74 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS.