The Technomancer

The Technomancer presents a demanding workload for the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and Intel Arc B390 combination, with measured results placing this pairing in the lower tier of tested systems. The data indicates a fundamental performance ceiling that becomes increasingly apparent as resolution and graphical fidelity increase, revealing a system that is primarily constrained by its graphics solution across most of the tested spectrum.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data for The Technomancer shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution scales from 1920x1080 up to 3840x2160. At the High settings preset, the average frame rate drops from 52 FPS at 1080p to 34 FPS at 1440p, representing a 34.6% reduction in performance. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the average frame rate falls further to 19 FPS, which is a 44.1% drop from the 1440p figure and a 63.5% decline relative to the 1080p baseline. This steep curve suggests that the graphics processing unit is the dominant limiting factor, as the workload scales heavily with pixel count.

Examining the Low settings preset provides a similar picture. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 79 FPS, which drops to 52 FPS at 1440p (a 34.2% reduction) and then to 28 FPS at 4K (a 46.2% reduction from 1440p). The percentage decreases are remarkably consistent between High and Low settings when moving from 1080p to 1440p, indicating that the resolution transition imposes a fixed overhead on this GPU architecture. However, the drop from 1440p to 4K is slightly steeper on Low settings, suggesting that the Arc B390's memory subsystem and compute resources become saturated more aggressively at the highest pixel counts.

The Medium settings row provides additional insight, as it includes both minimum and maximum frame rate data. At 1080p Medium, the average is 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average falls to 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and maximum of 46 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS and maximum of 25 FPS. The spread between minimum and maximum frames remains proportionally similar across resolutions, which indicates that the frame pacing characteristics are consistent even as the overall performance ceiling lowers. The scaling pattern across all settings presets points to a GPU-bound scenario, as the CPU's role becomes less significant at higher resolutions where the pixel throughput demands outpace the processor's ability to feed the graphics pipeline.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the clear performance bottleneck in this configuration for The Technomancer. This integrated graphics solution, built on the Xe3-LPG architecture with a 3 nm process, operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The memory configuration is listed as "System Shared," meaning the GPU relies on shared system memory rather than dedicated VRAM, which directly impacts its ability to handle high-resolution textures and complex scenes. The bandwidth is described as "System Dependent," which introduces variability based on the host platform's memory configuration.

The GPU's raw compute specifications include 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation pipelines, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate is rated at 60.00 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is listed at 7.680 TFLOPS, which places it in a modest performance tier. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1482 confirms this positioning, with the GPU sitting at the 9th percentile of all tested graphics cards. This percentile ranking is particularly telling, as it places the Arc B390 in the bottom decile of GPU performance.

Comparing the Arc B390 to its nearest rivals from the benchmark data, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463, which is 1.3% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce 800M scores 1460 (1.5% lower), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (2.5% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 scores 1443 (2.7% lower). This clustering of scores within a narrow band around 1450-1480 indicates that the Arc B390 sits at the very bottom of the performance spectrum, just barely edging out several legacy discrete GPUs from over a decade ago. For a game like The Technomancer, which was designed with more capable hardware in mind, this level of GPU performance translates directly into the sub-60 FPS results observed across most resolution and settings combinations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves in The Technomancer?

A: The highest average frame rate measured is 79 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration that approaches the 60 FPS threshold, as all other tested combinations fall below that mark.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% higher than the GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% higher than the GT 710 (1443). This places it in the bottom percentile of GPU performance.

Q: What is the impact of moving from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 61 FPS at 1920x1080 to 40 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 22 FPS at 3840x2160. The minimum frame rate also degrades from 52 FPS at 1080p to 19 FPS at 4K, while the maximum falls from 70 FPS to 25 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 2600's CPU performance factor into these results?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multicore and 157.3 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 5648 and single-core of 1154. Given that the performance scaling is heavily tied to resolution, the GPU is the limiting factor, and the CPU's capabilities are sufficient to avoid becoming the primary bottleneck.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 2500 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of all tested systems for this game.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most stable frame delivery at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 shows an average of 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and maximum of 70 FPS, indicating a consistent frame delivery within a 18 FPS band. The Low preset achieves a higher average of 79 FPS but lacks minimum and maximum data for comparison.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 resolution, the measured data shows a full progression across all four settings presets. The Low preset delivers an average of 79 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combination. The Medium preset averages 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. The High preset drops to 52 FPS average, and the Ultra preset falls to 40 FPS average. This represents a 49.4% reduction from Low to Ultra at 1080p, showing that the settings presets have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440 resolution, the performance scales downward across all presets. The Low preset averages 52 FPS, which is a 34.2% decrease from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and maximum of 46 FPS, representing a 34.4% decrease from 1080p Medium. The High preset averages 34 FPS, a 34.6% decrease from 1080p High. The Ultra preset averages 26 FPS, a 35.0% decrease from 1080p Ultra. The consistency of these percentage drops across all presets reinforces that resolution scaling is the dominant factor, with settings having a secondary effect.

At 3840x2160 resolution, the performance becomes largely unplayable for smooth gameplay. The Low preset averages 28 FPS, which is a 46.2% drop from 1440p Low. The Medium preset averages 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS and maximum of 25 FPS, representing a 45.0% decrease from 1440p Medium. The High preset averages 19 FPS, a 44.1% decrease from 1440p High. The Ultra preset averages 15 FPS, a 42.3% decrease from 1440p Ultra. The slightly smaller percentage drops at the Ultra preset suggest that the GPU is hitting a hard performance floor where additional pixel count has diminishing marginal impact.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2500 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of all systems tested for this game. The ranking reflects the GPU's low performance percentile of 9, which means that 91% of tested graphics cards outperform it. The CPU, in contrast, sits at the 75th percentile of all processors, indicating that the processor is a relatively stronger component in this pairing.

The discrepancy between the CPU's 75th percentile ranking and the GPU's 9th percentile ranking creates a significant imbalance in this system. The Ryzen 5 2600's average benchmark score of 21484 places it within 0.2% of the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21440 score), 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i9-11900H (21367), and 1.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 9454 (21223). The CPU is also 0.7% behind the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21635). This places the processor in a competitive mid-range position, but the GPU's performance drags the overall combo ranking down substantially.

The combination's position at 2500 out of 2825 means that only 325 tested combos perform worse in The Technomancer. This situates the system near the bottom of the performance hierarchy for this game, which is consistent with the GPU's low-end positioning. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings confirm this ranking, as the system fails to maintain 60 FPS at any resolution with High or Ultra settings, and only achieves it at 1080p Low.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 provides the computational foundation for this system, featuring 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen architecture. The processor operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, built on a 12 nm process at GlobalFoundries. The cache hierarchy includes 96 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 2600 scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multicore and 157.3 in single-core. Geekbench results show 5648 multicore and 1154 single-core. Additional PassMark scores include 13160 for multithread, 2239 for single-thread, 22942 for floating point math, 44518 for integer math, and 187062 for data compression. The CPU's percentile ranking of 75 against all CPUs indicates that it performs better than three-quarters of tested processors.

However, the CPU's role in The Technomancer is secondary to the GPU's limitations. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows consistent percentage drops that align with pixel count increases, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the Arc B390 at lower resolutions, but as resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows while the CPU's workload remains relatively constant. This means that the Ryzen 5 2600 is not the limiting factor in this configuration for this game, and upgrading the GPU would yield substantial performance gains.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combination is at 1920x1080 resolution with Medium settings, which delivers an average of 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and maximum of 70 FPS. This configuration provides the best balance between visual quality and playability, as the minimum frame rate stays above 50 FPS, which is generally considered acceptable for an action RPG. The Low preset at 1080p achieves a higher average of 79 FPS, but the Medium preset offers significantly better visual fidelity at the cost of only 18 FPS average.

At 2560x1440 resolution, the Low preset is the only option that approaches playability, with an average of 52 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS, which may be acceptable for players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate stability. The High and Ultra presets at 1440p fall to 34 FPS and 26 FPS respectively, making them less suitable for action-oriented gameplay.

At 3840x2160 resolution, none of the settings presets deliver acceptable performance for smooth gameplay. The Low preset averages 28 FPS, the Medium preset averages 22 FPS, the High preset averages 19 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 15 FPS. Even the lowest settings at 4K fail to reach 30 FPS, making this resolution impractical for this combination in The Technomancer. The data suggests that players should stick to 1080p Medium for the best overall experience, or 1080p Low if higher frame rates are prioritized over visual fidelity.