The Technomancer

The Technomancer with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Intel Arc B390 presents a highly constrained gaming experience, as the benchmark data reveals a system that struggles to maintain smooth frame rates even at lower settings. The measured FPS values across all resolutions and presets indicate that this combination is severely limited by the graphics processor, which ranks in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. The data shows a clear pattern: playable performance is only achievable at 1080p with reduced settings, while higher resolutions and quality presets push the system into unplayable territory.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for The Technomancer indicates that the only viable path to a playable experience is the Low preset at 1920x1080, which delivers an average of 79 FPS. This represents the lone configuration where the system exceeds the 60 FPS threshold, providing a smooth and responsive experience. The Medium preset at the same resolution drops to 61 FPS on average, which remains technically playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The High preset at 1080p falls to 52 FPS, which may still be acceptable for some players but indicates the system is starting to struggle.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 52 FPS, which is borderline playable, while the Medium preset drops to 40 FPS and High falls to 34 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields only 26 FPS, making it unsuitable for any real-time gameplay. At 3840x2160, all settings produce sub-30 FPS results, with Low at 28 FPS, Medium at 22 FPS, High at 19 FPS, and Ultra at 15 FPS, rendering the 4K resolution effectively unplayable regardless of settings.

The data suggests that the optimal experience balances visual fidelity with playability. The Medium preset at 1080p, with its 61 FPS average and minimum of 52 FPS, offers the best compromise between image quality and smoothness. The minimum FPS of 52 indicates that even in demanding moments, the frame rate stays above the 30 FPS floor, though it falls short of the 60 FPS ideal. Players seeking maximum smoothness should select the Low preset at 1080p, while those prioritizing visuals should consider the Medium preset, as the jump to High provides only marginal visual gains for a significant performance cost.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the dominant bottleneck in this configuration, as evidenced by its benchmark scores and the FPS data. The GPU scores 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. This performance level is comparable to entry-level discrete GPUs from over a decade ago, with the nearest rivals being the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% higher score), the GeForce 800M (1.5% higher), the GT 625 OEM (2.5% higher), and the GT 710 (2.7% higher). The data clearly indicates that this is not a gaming-class GPU.

The Arc B390 operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operation units. The GPU features 12 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. However, its memory configuration is "System Shared," meaning it relies on system RAM rather than dedicated VRAM, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This shared memory architecture likely contributes to the performance limitations, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth.

The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s provide theoretical limits that the measured FPS data suggests are rarely approached in practice. The FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS sounds respectable on paper, but the memory constraints and the GPU's low percentile ranking tell a different story. The frame rates at 1080p Low (79 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (40 FPS) show a 49.4% performance drop when moving between these extremes, indicating that the GPU is quickly overwhelmed by increased graphical complexity.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 provides substantial processing capability that far exceeds what the GPU can utilize in this game. The CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It scores 16429 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2319 in single-core, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (0.1% lower score), Intel Core i5-12500 (0.4% lower), Intel Core i7-10700F (0.5% higher), and Intel Core i5-11600KF (0.7% lower), showing that the 5500 performs competitively with much newer and more expensive processors.

The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and 7 nm process node contribute to its strong synthetic benchmark performance. In the PassMark suite, the CPU achieves a multi-thread score of 19330 and a single-thread score of 3058, with particularly strong results in integer math (65001), floating-point math (36815), and data compression (245533). These results indicate a processor that is well-suited for general computing tasks and gaming workloads that benefit from multiple threads.

However, the measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor in The Technomancer. The consistent frame rate drops when increasing resolution or settings point to GPU-bound scenarios. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 79 FPS, but this drops to 52 FPS at 1440p Low and 28 FPS at 4K Low, demonstrating that the GPU cannot maintain performance as pixel count increases. The CPU's 3DMark scores (5386 for 16 threads, 5411 for max threads) indicate sufficient processing power to handle game logic and physics without becoming a bottleneck at these frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for playing The Technomancer with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where playable frame rates are achievable. At 1080p, the Low preset averages 79 FPS and Medium averages 61 FPS, while at 1440p the best result is 52 FPS on Low, and at 4K all settings fall below 30 FPS.

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

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% lower than the GeForce 800M, 2.5% lower than the GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% lower than the GT 710. These are all entry-level GPUs from previous generations.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a capable processor for gaming?

A: The CPU ranks in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 and single-core score of 2319. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores 0.4% higher on average, indicating the 5500 provides competitive processing power for gaming workloads.

Q: Why does performance drop so significantly between 1080p and 4K?

A: The FPS decreases from 79 at 1080p Low to 28 at 4K Low, a 64.6% reduction. This dramatic drop indicates the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU has sufficient processing power to handle the game's logic regardless of resolution.

Q: What settings preset provides the best balance of visuals and performance?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p offers 61 FPS average with a minimum of 52 FPS, providing the best compromise. The Low preset at 1080p offers higher FPS but with reduced visual quality, while High and Ultra at the same resolution drop to 52 FPS and 40 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combination ranks 2500 out of 2825 tested combos for The Technomancer, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of all configurations. This low ranking reflects the GPU's severe performance limitations despite the CPU's solid processing capability.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a steep performance decline as resolution increases, confirming the GPU-bound nature of this configuration. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on Low settings reduces the average FPS from 79 to 52, a 34.2% drop, while moving from 1440p to 4K Low further reduces FPS to 28, another 46.2% decline. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K on Low settings is 64.6%, which aligns with the pixel count increase from approximately 2.1 million to 8.3 million pixels, a 4x increase.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Medium, the FPS drops from 61 at 1080p to 40 at 1440p (34.4% decrease) and then to 22 at 4K (45% decrease). At High, the progression is 52 to 34 (34.6% decrease) to 19 (44.1% decrease). At Ultra, the values are 40 to 26 (35% decrease) to 15 (42.3% decrease). This consistent percentage decline across all presets indicates that the GPU's performance scales predictably with pixel count, and the CPU is not introducing additional bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

The resolution scaling data suggests that the Arc B390's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints. The GPU's pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s should theoretically handle 4K at 60 FPS (which requires approximately 497.7 MPixel/s), but the shared memory architecture and low percentile ranking indicate that real-world performance falls far short of theoretical limits. The consistent percentage drops across settings also suggest that the GPU is not becoming more bottlenecked by any single setting category, but rather by the overall increase in rendering workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best performance across all settings. The Low preset averages 79 FPS, representing the only configuration that comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset averages 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and maximum of 70 FPS, providing playable performance with some headroom for demanding scenes. The High preset drops to 52 FPS on average, which is below the 60 FPS ideal but above the 30 FPS playability threshold. The Ultra preset falls to 40 FPS, which is the minimum for smooth gameplay but leaves little margin for frame rate drops.

At 2560x1440, performance becomes marginal. The Low preset achieves 52 FPS, which is playable but below the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and maximum of 46 FPS, which is borderline playable but with noticeable stutter potential during intense scenes. The High preset drops to 34 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS ideal and approaches the lower limit of smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 26 FPS is effectively unplayable for most players.

At 3840x2160, all settings produce unplayable results. The Low preset averages 28 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS minimum for acceptable gameplay. The Medium preset averages 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS and maximum of 25 FPS, showing severe frame rate instability. The High preset averages 19 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 15 FPS. These frame rates are too low for any real-time gameplay, and the data suggests that 4K resolution is not viable for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2500 out of 2825 tested configurations for The Technomancer, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of all systems tested. This ranking reflects the severe GPU bottleneck that limits the system's gaming performance despite the CPU's solid processing capability. The CPU itself performs well, ranking in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU's 9th percentile ranking drags the overall combo down significantly.

The ranking data suggests that this configuration is better suited for general productivity tasks than gaming. The CPU's strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 and PassMark multi-thread score of 19330, indicates capability for content creation and multitasking workloads. However, the GPU's performance, comparable to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710, means that gaming experiences will be severely limited to older titles or those with modest graphics requirements.

The large gap between CPU and GPU performance creates an imbalanced system where the processor is underutilized in gaming scenarios. The data shows that the CPU is capable of delivering high frame rates in synthetic benchmarks, but the GPU cannot translate this processing power into playable frame rates at higher resolutions or settings. This combination represents a significant mismatch between processing and graphics capabilities, making it suitable only for the most modest gaming workloads at 1080p with reduced settings.