The Technomancer

# The Technomancer with AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 146th out of 2,825 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the top 5.2% of all configurations. The pairing delivers strong frame rates across all tested resolutions, with the GPU clearly dominating the performance profile. Benchmark results show a system capable of high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming and solid 4K performance, though the CPU's mid-range positioning creates some bottlenecks at lower resolutions that the data reveals through scaling patterns.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 146 out of 2,825 tested configurations places it in the 94.8th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings for The Technomancer. This is a strong overall position, though not at the very top tier, which suggests some performance headroom is left on the table. The ranking reflects the balance between the Ryzen 5 5500's mid-range compute capabilities and the RTX 5090 D's top-tier graphics processing.

Looking at the CPU's standing relative to its closest competitors, the Ryzen 5 5500 scores an average benchmark of 19,593, sitting within 0.7% of the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19,723) and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i7-10700F (19,499). The AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 (19,617) trails by just 0.1%, while the Intel Core i5-12500 (19,668) leads by 0.4%. These negligible margins indicate that the CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all processors is consistent with its direct competition, making it a predictable rather than exceptional contributor.

The RTX 5090 D, by contrast, holds a 92nd percentile position among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904), which trails by 1.1%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940), which leads by 1.6%. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants also appear nearby, with the 12 GB model (79,396) ahead by 2.1% and the 16 GB model (79,605) ahead by 2.4%. This clustering around the 77,000-79,000 score range suggests the RTX 5090 D is competitive within its segment, though not dominant over these particular alternatives in synthetic benchmarks.

The discrepancy between the GPU's 92nd percentile and the CPU's 73rd percentile explains why the combo ranks 146th rather than higher. In games like The Technomancer, the CPU's relatively modest single-thread performance (836 in 3dmark single-thread, 973 in Cinebench R20 single-core) can limit the GPU's potential, particularly at lower resolutions where frame rates climb high enough for CPU overhead to matter.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system achieves an average of 66 FPS. This is playable but represents the most demanding configuration tested, with the frame rate dropping to roughly 77% of the High preset's 85 FPS average at the same resolution.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Technomancer?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the sweet spot. At High settings, it delivers 154 FPS average, which is substantially above the 85 FPS at 4K while still offering better visual fidelity than 1080p. The 1440p Medium preset hits 174 FPS with a minimum of 148 FPS, providing smooth gameplay with headroom above typical 144Hz display refresh rates.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D bottleneck the Ryzen 5 5500 at 1080p?

A: Benchmark results indicate the opposite pattern. At 1920x1080, the frame rates across presets (173-220 FPS) are much higher than at 4K, suggesting the GPU is not the limiting factor. The 1080p Low preset reaches 220 FPS, which is close to the CPU's practical limit for this game, indicating CPU constraint at lower resolutions.

Q: How significant is the performance difference between Medium and Ultra settings?

A: At 4K, the drop from Medium (99 FPS average) to Ultra (66 FPS average) represents a 33% reduction in frame rate. At 1440p, the same comparison shows a 31% drop (174 to 120 FPS), and at 1080p, a 13.5% drop (200 to 173 FPS). The scaling becomes less severe at lower resolutions.

Q: Is this combination suitable for competitive play?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 220 FPS average, which is well above the refresh rate of most high-end gaming monitors. Even at 1440p Low, 191 FPS average provides sufficient headroom for competitive scenarios. However, the lack of minimum frame data for Low presets means consistency cannot be fully verified.

Q: What role does the CPU's 6-core/12-thread configuration play?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500's 6 cores and 12 threads, running at 3.60 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost, provide enough compute for The Technomancer's Action RPG workload. The CPU achieves a 73rd percentile ranking among all processors, with Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16,429 and single-core of 2,319, indicating balanced performance.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound pattern at higher resolutions, with CPU limitations emerging at lower settings. At High settings, the system produces 189 FPS at 1080p, 154 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K. The transition from 1440p to 4K results in a 44.8% frame rate drop, while the drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 18.5%. This steepening decline at higher resolutions confirms the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases.

The Low preset shows the same trend: 220 FPS at 1080p, 191 FPS at 1440p (13.2% drop), and 129 FPS at 4K (32.5% drop from 1440p). The Medium preset follows suit with 200, 174, and 99 FPS respectively, representing drops of 13% and 43.1%. Ultra settings show 173, 120, and 66 FPS, with drops of 30.6% and 45% across the resolution steps.

The scaling behavior suggests that at 1080p, the CPU begins to limit performance, particularly on lower presets where the GPU could otherwise render faster. The 1080p Low result of 220 FPS is notably higher than the 1080p Ultra result of 173 FPS, which is a 27.2% difference driven by the GPU's workload. However, the gap between resolutions narrows at lower settings, indicating that the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability is around 220 FPS in this game. At 4K, all presets show GPU-bound behavior, with the CPU having ample headroom to feed the rendering pipeline.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 220 FPS on Low settings, 200 FPS on Medium with a minimum of 170 and maximum of 230, 189 FPS on High, and 173 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset provides the most complete data with a 30 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, suggesting some scene-to-scene variability. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 21.4% performance reduction, which is modest compared to higher resolutions.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 191 FPS on Low, 174 FPS on Medium with a range of 148 to 200, 154 FPS on High, and 120 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset's 52 FPS spread is the largest of any tested configuration, indicating significant frame time variation at this resolution. The drop from Low to Ultra represents a 37.2% reduction, showing that settings have a more pronounced effect at 1440p than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the system produces 129 FPS on Low, 99 FPS on Medium with a range of 84 to 114, 85 FPS on High, and 66 FPS on Ultra. The 63 FPS difference between Low and Ultra represents a 48.8% reduction, the largest proportional gap across all resolutions. The Medium preset's 30 FPS spread (84-114) at 4K is the tightest of any Medium configuration, suggesting more consistent frame pacing at this resolution.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D's specifications place it as the dominant component in this pairing. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, the card has substantial memory resources that exceed the requirements of The Technomancer, a 2016 title. The GPU's 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs provide theoretical pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute of 104.8 TFLOPS.

The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed, while the GPU boost clock reaches 2407 MHz from a 2017 MHz base. These clock speeds, combined with the massive compute resources, explain why the card achieves a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs. The benchmark results show a Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,915, placing it well above the median GPU.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's role is clearly evidenced by the resolution scaling. At 4K Ultra, the system drops to 66 FPS, which is approximately 38% of the 1080p Low result of 220 FPS. This indicates the GPU is being fully utilized at 4K, particularly on higher presets where the rendering workload increases. The 32 GB VRAM capacity is far beyond what this game requires, but the bandwidth and compute resources determine the actual frame rates.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500 provides 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, built on TSMC's 7 nm process. Running at 3.60 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost clocks, the CPU achieves a 73rd percentile ranking among all processors. Its Cinebench R23 scores of 16,429 multicore and 2,319 single-core, along with a Geekbench multicore score of 7,976 and single-core of 1,730, indicate solid mid-range performance.

The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate data throughput for gaming workloads. The 3dmark multi-thread scores show scaling from 1,645 with 2 threads to 5,411 with maximum threads, demonstrating that the 12-thread configuration is fully utilized in threaded workloads. However, the single-thread score of 836 in 3dmark highlights a limitation for games that rely heavily on single-core performance.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p, where frame rates approach 220 FPS regardless of settings. The 1080p Low preset achieves 220 FPS, but the 1080p Ultra also reaches 173 FPS, suggesting the CPU can sustain high frame delivery but becomes a limiting factor at the very highest frame rates. The lack of a meaningful gap between 1080p and 1440p results on Low settings (220 vs 191 FPS, a 13.2% difference) indicates the CPU is not the primary constraint at 1440p, where the GPU takes over as the bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 3840x2160 delivers 99 FPS average with a minimum of 84 FPS, providing the best balance between visual quality and smoothness. The Ultra preset drops to 66 FPS, which is below the 70 FPS threshold many players consider minimum for comfortable gameplay, while High at 85 FPS is viable but offers less visual fidelity than Medium relative to the performance cost. The data shows Medium as the optimal choice at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 154 FPS offers an excellent experience for high-refresh-rate displays, though users with 144Hz monitors might prefer the Medium preset at 174 FPS for extra headroom. The Ultra preset at 120 FPS remains playable and provides the best visual quality, but the 31% performance drop from Medium makes it less attractive. For competitive play, the Low preset at 191 FPS maximizes frame rate, but the Medium preset's minimum of 148 FPS ensures more consistent frame delivery.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset at 200 FPS with a minimum of 170 FPS is the recommended choice for most users, offering a 13% performance improvement over High (189 FPS) while maintaining strong visual quality. The Ultra preset at 173 FPS is acceptable for those prioritizing visuals, but the Medium preset's higher minimum frame rate (170 vs unknown for Ultra) provides better consistency. The Low preset at 220 FPS is only recommended for competitive scenarios where maximum frame rate is paramount, as all presets at 1080p are well above playable thresholds.