The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting test for the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination. The data shows this pairing is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the CPU begins to assert itself at 1080p. Benchmark results indicate that this combo ranks in the 71st percentile of all tested configurations, placing it at position 1067 out of 3696 total combos. The RTX 4070, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, proves capable of delivering high frame rates, but the Ryzen 5 3600's single-thread performance becomes a noticeable factor in less demanding settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience, delivering an average of 64 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 74 FPS. The High preset is playable at 55 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 43 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for smooth action gameplay.

Q: How much faster is this combo at 1080p compared to 4K?

A: The performance scaling is substantial. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average FPS is 153, which is nearly three times the 55 FPS average seen at 3840x2160 with the same High preset. This indicates a strong resolution dependency.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in The Technomancer?

A: The limiting factor shifts depending on resolution. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as frame rates drop significantly from 84 FPS on Low to 43 FPS on Ultra. However, at 1080p, the scaling between Low (184 FPS) and High (153 FPS) is narrower, suggesting the CPU's capabilities are starting to cap performance.

Q: What is the lowest frame rate recorded for this combo in the tested rows?

A: The lowest average FPS recorded is 43 at 4K Ultra settings. The only minimum FPS values provided in the data are for the Medium preset at each resolution, with the lowest being 55 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4070's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37648, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37628) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507). It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile by 1.3% (38135).

Q: What are the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities in synthetic tests?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15045 and a Passmark multithread score of 17700. Its 3DMark max threads score is 4603, which is nearly identical to its 16-thread score of 4605, indicating good scaling with its 12 threads.

Settings Recommendations

For the best overall experience, the Medium preset emerges as the clear winner across all resolutions. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that guarantees a minimum FPS above 60, with a recorded minimum of 55 FPS and an average of 64 FPS. This makes it the only viable option for 4K gaming if fluid motion is a priority. High and Ultra at 4K, with averages of 55 and 43 FPS respectively, are playable but risk noticeable stutter in action-heavy scenes.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again offers the best balance, delivering an average of 117 FPS with a minimum of 99 FPS. This ensures a consistently smooth experience on high refresh rate monitors. The High preset at 1440p is also excellent, with a 100 FPS average, and is preferable if visual fidelity is more important than pushing beyond 100 FPS. Ultra at 1440p falls to 78 FPS, which is still smooth but represents a significant 33% performance hit over Medium for marginal visual gains.

At 1080p, the choice becomes more nuanced. The Low preset achieves the highest average FPS at 184, but the Medium preset provides an average of 167 FPS with a minimum of 142 FPS. Given the high frame rates, the Medium preset is recommended as it offers a substantial visual upgrade over Low while maintaining an average well above the refresh rate of most monitors. The High preset at 153 FPS is also excellent, and Ultra at 119 FPS remains highly playable. The data suggests the Medium preset is the sweet spot for maximizing visual quality without sacrificing the high frame rate advantage this combo has at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals the game's rendering demands. With the High preset, performance goes from 153 FPS at 1920x1080 to 100 FPS at 2560x1440, a 35% decrease. Moving to 3840x2160, the average FPS plummets to 55, which is a further 45% drop from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that pixel count is the dominant factor, and the RTX 4070's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 158.4 GPixel/s pixel rate are being heavily taxed.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings, but the magnitude varies. For the Low preset, the drop from 1080p (184 FPS) to 1440p (152 FPS) is a 17% reduction, while the drop to 4K (84 FPS) is a 45% reduction from 1440p. This shows that even at Low settings, the 4K resolution demands a massive increase in GPU work. The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling, with a 34% drop from 1080p (119 FPS) to 1440p (78 FPS) and another 45% drop to 4K (43 FPS).

The fact that the 4K to 1440p scaling is consistently around 45% across all presets strongly suggests the GPU is the primary limiting component at those resolutions. The RTX 4070 is simply running out of throughput when tasked with rendering over 8 million pixels. However, the narrower gap between Low and High settings at 1080p (184 vs 153 FPS) compared to 4K (84 vs 55 FPS) hints that the Ryzen 5 3600 is beginning to impose a ceiling at 1080p. The CPU's single-thread score of 696 in 3DMark and 2124 in Cinebench R23 suggests it can feed the GPU frames up to a certain point, beyond which the GPU's speed becomes irrelevant. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU's frame pacing limits the maximum achievable FPS, while at 4K, the GPU's raw fill rate is the definitive bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for The Technomancer, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 holds a rank of 1067 out of 3696 total combos. This places it in the top 29% of all tested systems, a strong result, but not a top-tier one. The percentile ranking of 71 confirms that the majority of tested combos perform worse, but a significant minority of higher-end configurations outperform it.

The ranking is likely held back by the CPU's position in the market. The Ryzen 5 3600 has a percentile rank of 71 against all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 17035 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. It sits just 0.2% above the Intel Core i7-1260P (17007) and 0.2% below the Intel Core i5-11400 (17067). This indicates the CPU is a mid-range performer, and in a game like The Technomancer, which appears to have high single-thread demands, it may not be releasing the full potential of the RTX 4070.

The GPU, in contrast, is a high-end part. The RTX 4070 has a percentile rank of 81 against all GPUs, and its average score of 37648 is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile. This suggests that the graphics card is capable of much more than the CPU allows in CPU-bound scenarios. The combo rank of 1067 reflects a system where a top-20% GPU is paired with a top-30% CPU, resulting in a balanced but not exceptional overall performance. If the CPU were a stronger model, the combo rank would likely be significantly higher in less demanding resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the clear workhorse for this combo in The Technomancer, and its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is a key asset. The game's demands at 4K Ultra are severe, and the card's 504.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth is crucial for streaming high-resolution textures. The data shows that the GPU's performance scales predictably with settings, indicating it is the primary component handling the rendering workload.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1920 MHz and a boost of 2475 MHz, allow it to achieve a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s. These figures are what enable the card to push an average of 84 FPS at 4K Low settings. The card's FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS is substantial, but the game's engine appears to be more limited by memory bandwidth and pixel throughput than raw compute, given the steep performance drops with higher settings.

The RTX 4070's benchmark scores support its high position in the GPU hierarchy. Its Passmark G3D score of 26927 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 3854 are indicative of a powerful graphics processor. In the context of The Technomancer, the GPU's role is to process the complex lighting and geometry of the action RPG. The 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units are all utilized to their limit at 4K, as evidenced by the 43 FPS average at Ultra settings. The GPU is the decisive factor in determining whether this combo can achieve playable frame rates at higher resolutions, and its 12 GB VRAM ensures there are no memory capacity limitations at these settings, even at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of this combo's performance across nine distinct scenarios. At 1920x1080, the system is exceptionally fast. The Low preset yields an average of 184 FPS, while Medium delivers 167 FPS with a minimum of 142 FPS and a maximum of 193 FPS. The High preset produces 153 FPS, and Ultra is still very smooth at 119 FPS. This resolution demonstrates the combo's ability to handle high refresh rate gaming with ease, though the gap between Low and Ultra is only 65 FPS, suggesting the CPU is beginning to limit the upper bound.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the GPU working harder. The Low preset averages 152 FPS, a 17% drop from 1080p. Medium is the standout, averaging 117 FPS with a tight range of 99 FPS minimum and 134 FPS maximum. The High preset maintains a 100 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 78 FPS. The scaling here shows a clear GPU dependency, with the difference between Low and Ultra being 74 FPS, a larger margin than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is fully saturated. The Low preset averages 84 FPS, which is still playable. The Medium preset is the only one to maintain a minimum FPS above 55, with an average of 64 FPS and a minimum of 55 FPS. The High preset falls to 55 FPS average, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with an average of just 43 FPS, making it a challenging experience for action sequences. The data shows a clear pattern: at 4K, only the Medium preset offers a playable minimum frame rate, while at lower resolutions, even Ultra settings provide excellent performance. The specific minimum FPS values for Low, High, and Ultra presets are not provided in the data, but the averages alone tell a story of a combo that excels at 1080p and 1440p, but requires careful settings management for 4K.