The Technomancer

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for The Technomancer with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Arc B390 paint a clear picture of a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics processor at every resolution tested. The data shows a steep and consistent decline in average FPS as resolution increases, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 79 FPS, but moving to 1440p drops that to 52 FPS, and 4K reduces it further to 28 FPS. This represents a 65% performance loss from 1080p to 4K, a substantial drop that indicates the rendering workload is overwhelming the Intel Arc B390 well before the CPU becomes a limiting factor.

The scaling pattern is remarkably linear across the settings tiers. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 61 at 1080p, to 40 at 1440p, to 22 at 4K. At High settings, the figures are 52, 34, and 19 respectively. Ultra settings show the most severe degradation, with 40 FPS at 1080p falling to 26 at 1440p and bottoming out at 15 FPS in 4K. The consistency of this ~35-40% reduction per resolution step suggests the system is not hitting any memory bandwidth walls or CPU bottlenecks; it is purely the GPU's pixel throughput that is being exhausted. The fact that the Ryzen 5 5600F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is capable of far higher frame rates in less demanding scenarios is well documented in the PassMark scores, but here it is effectively idle waiting on the integrated graphics.

Looking at the 4K results specifically, the highest average FPS achievable is 28 on Low settings, which is a clear indicator that this resolution is simply not viable for smooth gameplay with this hardware configuration. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 13 FPS, which is proportionally larger than the gap at 1080p, where Low and Ultra differ by 39 FPS. This widening relative gap at higher resolutions reinforces the conclusion that the GPU is the sole arbiter of performance here. The Ryzen 5 5600F's Zen 3 architecture and 32 MB of shared L3 cache provide ample headroom for the game's logic and draw calls, but the Arc B390's 1536 shading units and 24 ROPs are insufficient to handle the increased fragment processing required at 4K.

The 1440p results offer a middle ground that is more forgiving but still far from ideal. The best 1440p average is 52 FPS on Low, which drops to 34 on High and 26 on Ultra. These numbers suggest that 1440p is only playable at the lowest settings, and even then, the frame rate is borderline. The 1080p data is where this combo shows its only real strength: Low settings yield 79 FPS, which is smooth, and Medium settings at 61 FPS are also acceptable. However, the jump to High at 52 FPS and Ultra at 40 FPS shows how quickly the GPU's limitations surface once pixel shader complexity increases. The measured minimum FPS values, where available, confirm this fragility: at 1080p Medium the minimum is 52 FPS, but at 1440p Medium it drops to 34 FPS, and at 4K Medium it plunges to 19 FPS.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration, and the benchmark data leaves no room for alternative interpretations. This GPU sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs based on its average benchmark score of 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which places it in the company of NVIDIA's ancient GeForce GT 710 and GT 625 OEM parts. The nearest rivals, the GT 520MX and GeForce 800M, are within 1.5% of its score, which is a damning comparison for a chip built on Intel's 3nm process and Xe3-LPG architecture. The Arc B390's boost clock of 2500 MHz and 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate are technically respectable on paper, but the 24 ROPs and 48 TMUs are simply too few to feed modern games at playable frame rates.

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly problematic for The Technomancer. With "System Shared" memory and "System Dependent" bandwidth, the Arc B390 relies on the system's DDR4 memory, which the Ryzen 5 5600F supports at 51.2 GB/s dual-channel bandwidth. This shared memory arrangement means the GPU and CPU are competing for the same memory bandwidth, which likely exacerbates the frame rate drops at higher resolutions where texture and geometry data demands increase. The 4K Medium result shows a minimum FPS of 19 and a maximum of 25, indicating significant frame time variance that could be attributed to memory contention spikes. The fact that the GPU has no dedicated VRAM and uses system memory means the Ryzen 5 5600F's dual-channel configuration is the only memory pipeline available, and it is clearly insufficient for 4K rendering.

The GPU's architecture, Xe3-LPG, is designed for integrated graphics in mobile and low-power parts, as evidenced by its 80W TDP and lack of any power connectors. The 3nm process from Intel is modern, but the transistor density and die size are not disclosed, and the low core count — 1536 shading units — limits raw throughput to 7.680 TFLOPS FP32. This is a modest figure for a GPU released in 2026, and it shows in the benchmark results. The 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 is a synthetic test, but the in-game results corroborate its story: this is a GPU that struggles to maintain 30 FPS at 1080p in demanding titles, let alone at higher resolutions.

The API support is comprehensive — DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 — which means The Technomancer's rendering path is not limited by feature support. The issue is purely computational throughput. The 12 RT cores are present but largely irrelevant for this 2016 title, which likely does not use ray tracing. The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s sounds adequate on paper, but when combined with the low ROP count, it translates to poor fill rate performance in practice. The data shows that the GPU's performance ceiling is around 79 FPS at 1080p Low, and anything above that is unattainable regardless of CPU headroom.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Technomancer at 4K?

A: No, not at playable frame rates. The highest 4K average FPS is 28 on Low settings, with Ultra dropping to 15 FPS. Even Medium settings at 4K produce only 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

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

A: 1080p is the only resolution where the combo achieves consistently playable results. Low settings produce 79 FPS, Medium yields 61 FPS, and even High manages 52 FPS. At 1440p, the best result is 52 FPS on Low, which is borderline, and 4K is not viable.

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

A: The Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482, which 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). These are all legacy parts, and the performance delta is minimal.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F the limiting factor in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the CPU is not the bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 5600F scores 19236 in PassMark multithread and 2872 in single-thread, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with GPU limitations, not CPU stalls.

Q: What settings preset should be avoided at all costs?

A: Ultra settings are the worst choice. At 1080p, Ultra averages 40 FPS, which is a 35% drop from High at 52 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra averages 26 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 15 FPS. The visual quality gain from High to Ultra is not worth the substantial performance penalty.

Q: Does the Arc B390's shared memory architecture impact performance?

A: Yes, the GPU uses System Shared memory with System Dependent bandwidth, meaning it draws from the same DDR4 pool as the CPU. The Ryzen 5 5600F's 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth must serve both, which likely contributes to the frame rate instability seen at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Arc B390 combination ranks 2500th out of 2825 tested combos for The Technomancer, placing it in the bottom 12% of all configurations. This is a poor showing that reflects the GPU's severe limitations rather than any fault of the CPU. The Ryzen 5 5600F is a solid mid-range processor — its average benchmark score of 36945 puts it within 0.5% of the Intel Core i9-12900T and 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, and it actually edges out the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 by a negligible margin. But the GPU drags the entire combo down to near the bottom of the rankings.

The rank of 2500 is particularly telling when compared to the GPU's standalone percentile of 9th. A combo ranking in the 12th percentile despite having a CPU in the 85th percentile underscores how heavily the GPU dominates the overall performance profile. In a game like The Technomancer, which is not known for being CPU-intensive, the GPU's 1482 Steel Nomad score is the primary determinant of the combo's position. The nearest GPU rivals — GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, GT 710 — are all parts from a bygone era, and the Arc B390's 1.3% to 2.7% advantage over them is negligible in real-world gaming.

The data suggests that pairing a high-performing CPU like the Ryzen 5 5600F with an integrated-class GPU is a fundamentally imbalanced configuration for gaming. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads, boosted by a 4.00 GHz clock and 32 MB of L3 cache, are more than adequate for The Technomancer's requirements. However, the GPU's 24 ROPs and shared memory system cannot translate that CPU headroom into frame rate. The combo's ranking would likely improve significantly with a discrete GPU, but as measured, it sits in the bottom tier of all tested configurations for this game.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings preset for this hardware in The Technomancer is Low at 1080p, which delivers an average of 79 FPS. This is the only configuration in the entire measurement set that approaches what could be called a high-refresh experience, and it is 18 FPS ahead of Medium settings at the same resolution. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 18 FPS (79 to 61), while the jump from Medium to High costs another 9 FPS (61 to 52), and High to Ultra costs 12 FPS (52 to 40). This diminishing returns curve suggests that Low is the sweet spot for maintaining smoothness, as the visual improvements from higher presets are not worth the substantial frame rate sacrifices.

If a player prioritizes visual fidelity over frame rate, Medium at 1080p is the highest viable option, with an average of 61 FPS and a measured minimum of 52 FPS. This preset maintains a playable frame rate while offering better texture filtering and shadow quality than Low. High settings at 1080p are borderline at 52 FPS, and Ultra should be avoided entirely as it dips below the 40 FPS threshold that many players find unacceptable. At 1440p, only Low settings are recommended, with a 52 FPS average, but the risk of drops below 40 FPS in demanding scenes is high. At 4K, no settings preset is recommended, as even Low only achieves 28 FPS.

The measured data for Medium settings provides the only minimum and maximum FPS values in the entire dataset, which allows for a more nuanced recommendation. At 1080p Medium, the range is 52-70 FPS, indicating reasonable frame pacing. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 34-46 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it compresses to 19-25 FPS. The tightening range at higher resolutions suggests the GPU is operating at its absolute limit, with no headroom for frame time spikes. For the best balance of playability and visual quality, the data unequivocally points to 1080p Low as the primary choice, with 1080p Medium as a secondary option for those who accept lower frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table presents the exact measured average FPS values across all tested resolutions and settings presets:

At 1080p, the full range of settings was tested. Low settings produced an average of 79 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. Medium settings averaged 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. High settings averaged 52 FPS, and Ultra settings averaged 40 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 39 FPS drop, representing a 49% performance penalty for the highest preset.

At 1440p, the results show a significant step down. Low settings averaged 52 FPS, which is exactly equal to the 1080p High result. Medium settings averaged 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. High settings averaged 34 FPS, and Ultra settings averaged 26 FPS. The 1440p Low to Ultra spread is 26 FPS, which is a 50% drop, mirroring the 1080p proportional penalty.

At 4K, the performance collapses to unplayable levels. Low settings averaged 28 FPS, Medium settings averaged 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS and a maximum of 25 FPS, High settings averaged 19 FPS, and Ultra settings averaged 15 FPS. The 4K Low to Ultra spread is only 13 FPS, which indicates that even the lowest settings cannot escape the GPU's fundamental throughput limitations. The delta between 1080p Low (79 FPS) and 4K Low (28 FPS) is 51 FPS, a 65% reduction. The delta between 1080p Ultra (40 FPS) and 4K Ultra (15 FPS) is 25 FPS, a 63% reduction. These consistent percentages across all settings presets confirm that the Intel Arc B390's performance scales almost purely with pixel count, with no evidence of CPU or memory bottlenecks altering the pattern.