The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload that clearly separates CPU and GPU responsibilities. When paired, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT deliver a playable experience that scales predictably with resolution and settings, but the data reveals specific bottlenecks and optimal configurations for this hardware combination.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a 60 FPS average?

A: The 2560x1440 resolution with Medium settings achieves an average of 69.3 FPS, making it the highest resolution that comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold. The 1920x1080 resolution with High settings reaches 94.5 FPS, but 1440p offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 94.5 at 1920x1080 to 57.8 at 2560x1440, and finally to 31.3 at 3840x2160. This represents a 66.9% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, indicating the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a playable experience at any resolution?

A: At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 70.4 FPS, which is playable. However, at 2560x1440 the average drops to 46.1 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 25 FPS. The data suggests Ultra is only viable at 1080p for this specific hardware combination.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 89 FPS while Ultra averages 46.1 FPS. This is a 42.9 FPS difference, or roughly a 48.2% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 1277 out of 1656 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the performance distribution. This ranking reflects the GPU's 68th percentile score relative to all GPUs and the CPU's 76th percentile relative to all CPUs.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration and how does it affect 4K performance?

A: The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 52.4 FPS, suggesting that memory capacity and bandwidth constraints contribute to the significant performance drop at this resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 rops. Its base clock runs at 1605 MHz with a game clock of 1755 MHz and a boost clock of 1905 MHz, providing a theoretical FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory operates at 1750 MHz with an effective speed of 14 Gbps, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 256-bit bus.

These specifications directly influence the measured FPS results in The Technomancer. At 1920x1080, the GPU has ample headroom to push 142.9 FPS on Low settings, but the Ultra preset at 70.4 FPS shows the rasterization load increasing. The pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s become more critical as resolution scales. At 3840x2160, the GPU's compute resources are saturated, evidenced by the 25 FPS average on Ultra settings. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s appears insufficient to feed the shaders at 4K, as even the Low preset drops to 52.4 FPS, a 63.3% reduction from the 1080p Low result of 142.9 FPS.

The data indicates the GPU is the primary performance driver in this pairing. The card's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24731, places it close to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (deltaPct of -0.1%) and slightly ahead of the Intel Arc A350M (deltaPct of 0.3%). This mid-range positioning explains why 4K Ultra is unplayable while 1080p remains fluid.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of scaling across the three tested resolutions. Starting at 1920x1080, the combo achieves 142.9 FPS on Low, 107.2 FPS on Medium, 94.5 FPS on High, and 70.4 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, these figures drop to 89 FPS, 69.3 FPS, 57.8 FPS, and 46.1 FPS respectively. At 3840x2160, the averages fall further to 52.4 FPS, 40.6 FPS, 31.3 FPS, and 25 FPS.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p results in a 37.7% performance reduction at Low settings (from 142.9 to 89 FPS) and a 34.5% reduction at Ultra (from 70.4 to 46.1 FPS). This relatively consistent drop across settings suggests the GPU is managing the increased pixel count without hitting a hard memory bottleneck. However, the transition from 1440p to 4K shows a more dramatic decline: Low settings fall from 89 to 52.4 FPS (41.1% reduction), while Ultra falls from 46.1 to 25 FPS (45.8% reduction).

This scaling behavior indicates that at 1080p, the CPU's performance is more relevant, allowing the GPU to stretch its legs. At 4K, the GPU's compute resources and memory subsystem become the limiting component. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not exceeded at these settings, but the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth may struggle with the higher fill rate demands. The data shows that 1440p represents the practical ceiling for maintaining 60+ FPS averages, with Medium settings at 69.3 FPS being the sweet spot.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 1277 out of 1656 tested combos for The Technomancer, placing it in the 23rd percentile of tested configurations. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the individual component performances: the CPU sits at the 76th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU at the 68th percentile among all GPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-11400 with a deltaPct of -0.1%, the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with a deltaPct of 0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 with a deltaPct of -0.2%. These deltas are minimal, indicating that the Ryzen 5 3600's average benchmark score of 18129 is nearly identical to its closest competitors. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (deltaPct of -0.1%), Intel Arc A350M (deltaPct of 0.3%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (deltaPct of 0.6%), showing that the RX 5700 XT's average score of 24731 is within 1% of these alternatives.

The combo's low rank relative to its component percentiles suggests that The Technomancer is particularly demanding on the GPU, and the specific optimization of this game does not favor the RX 5700 XT's architecture. The 1656 total combos include many configurations with newer or higher-tier GPUs, which explains the ranking. The data implies that while this combo is capable for general gaming, it falls behind in this specific title's requirements.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset at 70.4 FPS is viable, but the High preset at 94.5 FPS provides a smoother experience. The Low preset at 142.9 FPS is excessive for most displays, and the Medium preset at 107.2 FPS offers a good balance.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 69.3 FPS is the recommended choice, as it maintains a 60+ FPS average while providing better visual quality than Low. The High preset at 57.8 FPS is playable but may experience occasional dips below 60 FPS, while the Ultra preset at 46.1 FPS is not recommended for action-oriented gameplay.

For 3840x2160, no preset achieves a 60 FPS average. The Low preset at 52.4 FPS is the only option that approaches playability, while Medium at 40.6 FPS and High at 31.3 FPS become increasingly choppy. The Ultra preset at 25 FPS is not viable for this game.

The data indicates that the best overall experience is achieved at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, offering a 69.3 FPS average. This configuration uses the GPU's capabilities effectively without overburdening the 8 GB memory or the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured average FPS for this combo is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 142.9 FPS, Medium averages 107.2 FPS, High averages 94.5 FPS, and Ultra averages 70.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 72.5 FPS, showing a 50.7% reduction at the highest settings.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 89 FPS, Medium averages 69.3 FPS, High averages 57.8 FPS, and Ultra averages 46.1 FPS. The spread is 42.9 FPS, representing a 48.2% reduction from Low to Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 52.4 FPS, Medium averages 40.6 FPS, High averages 31.3 FPS, and Ultra averages 25 FPS. The spread is 27.4 FPS, showing a 52.3% reduction from Low to Ultra.

Comparing the same settings across resolutions, the Low preset drops from 142.9 FPS at 1080p to 89 FPS at 1440p and 52.4 FPS at 4K. The High preset drops from 94.5 FPS to 57.8 FPS to 31.3 FPS. The Ultra preset drops from 70.4 FPS to 46.1 FPS to 25 FPS. These figures demonstrate consistent scaling, with the GPU's performance degradation becoming more pronounced at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 features 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It has a 32 MB shared L3 cache, with 64 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth and connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 16 lanes.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The CPU's benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 15045, while single-core achieves 2124. The 3DMark scores scale from 696 for single-thread to 4605 for 16 threads, indicating good scaling across cores.

At 1920x1080, the CPU's performance is more relevant, as evidenced by the 142.9 FPS average on Low settings. This suggests the CPU can handle the game's logic without bottlenecking the GPU at lower resolutions. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU's contribution diminishes. The CPU's 76th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 18129, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-11400 (deltaPct of -0.1%) and AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (deltaPct of -0.2%), indicate it is a competent mid-range processor for this title.

The 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 3.80 billion transistor count on a 74 mm² die provides sufficient compute resources for the game's requirements. The data shows that the CPU does not appear to bottleneck the GPU at any tested resolution, as the FPS scales consistently with resolution changes, pointing to the GPU as the primary performance limiter.