The Technomancer

# The Technomancer with AMD Ryzen 5 5600F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting benchmark case for the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The measured data shows this combination performs exceptionally well, with the average FPS at 4K Ultra reaching 54 frames per second, while the same settings at 1080p more than double to 152 FPS. This combination ranks in the 86th percentile among all CPUs and 86th among all GPUs individually, yet in-game it ranks 389th out of 2825 tested combinations, suggesting that The Technomancer's engine has particular characteristics that reward this specific pairing in ways that general benchmarks do not fully capture.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but reveals a pattern typical of a game that is not overly demanding by modern standards. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 173 at 1920x1080 to 127 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 46 FPS, and then further down to 70 at 3840x2160. This represents a 59.5% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings, which is a significant scaling factor. The RTX 4080 SUPER, with its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, is clearly being tasked harder as pixel count increases, but the game itself appears to have a ceiling somewhere around the 4K resolution.

What is more revealing is the behavior at Ultra settings. The 1080p Ultra average is 152 FPS, which drops to 99 FPS at 1440p, and then to 54 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra is 45.5%, which is steeper than the 44.9% drop seen at High settings across the same resolution gap. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately impact higher resolutions, likely related to memory bandwidth or fill-rate demands. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 112 ROPs and 285.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are substantial, but The Technomancer's Ultra settings appear to push even this hardware to its limits at 4K.

The Low settings tell a different story. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 202, which is only 14.9% higher than the 175 FPS at 1440p Low. The jump to 106 FPS at 4K Low represents a 39.4% drop from 1440p, which is actually less severe than the drop seen at High settings. This indicates that at Low settings, the limiting factor shifts from the GPU's shading capabilities to other bottlenecks, possibly the CPU or memory subsystem. The Ryzen 5 5600F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads on the Zen 3 architecture, shows its strength here, as the game's lower graphical demands allow the CPU to keep pace more effectively. The data implies that The Technomancer is not purely GPU-bound; the CPU plays a meaningful role even at lower resolutions, which is worth investigating for players seeking maximum frame rates.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 SUPER is a formidable piece of silicon, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. It houses 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. The memory configuration is 16 GB of GDDR6X running at 1438 MHz, effectively 23 Gbps, across a 256-bit bus. This yields a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for a game from 2016. The measured FPS data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the game averages 54 FPS, indicating that the GPU is not being completely overwhelmed; rather, the game's engine seems to have optimization quirks that limit performance scaling.

The VRAM usage is not explicitly measured in the data, but the 16 GB capacity is far beyond what The Technomancer would require, even at 4K with Ultra textures. The game's release date of 2016-06-27 predates the era of massive texture packs, so the RTX 4080 SUPER's memory is likely never a bottleneck. Instead, the GPU's raw compute power, measured at 52.22 TFLOPS FP32, appears to be the primary driver of performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 and the Passmark G3D score of 34245 place this GPU in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, but the in-game results suggest that The Technomancer's engine does not fully utilize this power at all settings.

The clock behavior is interesting. With a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2550 MHz, the RTX 4080 SUPER maintains high frequencies under load. The data shows that the gap between Medium and High settings is relatively small at each resolution—at 1080p, Medium averages 183 FPS versus 173 for High, a difference of only 5.5%. This suggests that the High preset adds features that are not particularly demanding on the GPU's shader units, but the jump from High to Ultra at 4K—from 70 to 54 FPS, a 22.9% drop—indicates that Ultra introduces effects that stress the ROPs or memory bandwidth more significantly. The RTX 4080 SUPER's texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s is high, but the game's Ultra settings may rely on techniques that are not optimized for newer architectures, explaining the disproportionate performance cost.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, all settings deliver playable frame rates, with Ultra averaging 152 FPS and Low reaching 202 FPS. For players with a 144 Hz monitor, the High preset at 173 FPS is the sweet spot, as it provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium (183 FPS) for only a 5.5% performance cost. Ultra at 1080p is also viable, but the 152 FPS average is close to the 144 Hz threshold, so frame time consistency could be an issue on demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 183 FPS offers the highest margin above refresh rate without the visual compromises of Low.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 127 FPS is the recommended choice for a 120 Hz display, as it clears the threshold with a small buffer. Ultra at 99 FPS is acceptable for 100 Hz panels, but the data shows that the jump from High to Ultra costs 22.0% performance, which is a steep price for the visual improvements. Medium at 149 FPS is the best option for 144 Hz monitors at this resolution, providing a 5.4% improvement over High while maintaining a comfortable margin. Low at 175 FPS is unnecessary unless the player is targeting 165 Hz or higher, but the visual downgrade is substantial.

At 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. Ultra at 54 FPS is barely playable, and the data shows it is the only preset that dips below the 60 FPS threshold in the measured average. High at 70 FPS is the recommended choice for a 60 Hz display, as it provides a stable margin above the refresh rate. Medium at 82 FPS is the best option for players with a 75 Hz monitor, offering a 17.1% improvement over High. Low at 106 FPS is viable for 100 Hz displays, but the visual quality reduction is severe. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, the High preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, as the step to Ultra costs 22.9% of the frame rate for what is likely marginal visual gains in a 2016 title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combination is as follows. At 1920x1080, Low averages 202 FPS, Medium averages 183 FPS with a minimum of 156 and maximum of 211, High averages 173 FPS, and Ultra averages 152 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 50 FPS, or 24.8% of the Low value. At 2560x1440, Low averages 175 FPS, Medium averages 149 FPS with a minimum of 126 and maximum of 171, High averages 127 FPS, and Ultra averages 99 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 76 FPS, representing a 43.4% drop from Low. At 3840x2160, Low averages 106 FPS, Medium averages 82 FPS with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 94, High averages 70 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 52 FPS, or 49.1% of the Low value.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values across all resolutions. At 1080p, the minimum of 156 and maximum of 211 show a range of 55 FPS, indicating some frame time variance. At 1440p, the range is 45 FPS (126 to 171), and at 4K, the range is 25 FPS (69 to 94). This pattern suggests that as resolution increases, the frame time variance decreases, which is counterintuitive but may indicate that the GPU becomes the consistent bottleneck at higher resolutions, whereas at lower resolutions, CPU or memory hiccups cause more variability.

The scaling between resolutions is consistent across settings. For Low, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 13.4%, and from 1440p to 4K is 39.4%. For Medium, the drops are 18.6% and 45.0%, respectively. For High, the drops are 26.6% and 44.9%. For Ultra, the drops are 34.9% and 45.5%. The increasing percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p as settings increase (from 13.4% at Low to 34.9% at Ultra) indicates that higher settings amplify the resolution scaling, placing more load on the GPU's shading and texture units. However, the 1440p to 4K drop is relatively stable around 45% across Medium, High, and Ultra, suggesting a memory bandwidth or ROP limitation that manifests consistently at 4K regardless of settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combinations for The Technomancer, this pairing ranks 389th out of 2825, placing it in the top 13.8% of all combinations. This is a strong showing, but not exceptional given the individual component rankings—the CPU is in the 85th percentile and the GPU in the 86th percentile. The rank of 389 suggests that there are many combinations that perform better in this specific game, likely due to the game's engine favoring certain CPU architectures or memory configurations. The Ryzen 5 5600F, while a capable Zen 3 part, may not be the ideal pairing for the RTX 4080 SUPER in this title, as the game's release date of 2016 predates the CPU's architecture by several years.

The GPU's nearest rivals in general benchmarks provide context. The RTX 4080 SUPER averages a score of 54209 across all benchmarks, with the RTX 4080 scoring 54247 (0.1% higher), the Radeon Pro W5700X scoring 54828 (1.1% higher), the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scoring 55698 (2.7% higher), and the Radeon 8060S scoring 55757 (2.8% higher). These deltas are small, indicating that the RTX 4080 SUPER is well within the performance cluster of high-end GPUs. However, the in-game rank of 389 suggests that The Technomancer may not fully utilize the GPU's capabilities, or that the CPU is holding back the combination in certain scenarios.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a similar clustering. The Ryzen 5 5600F averages 36945, with the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 at 36938 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D at 37018 (0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 at 37093 (0.4% higher), and the Intel Core i9-12900T at 37112 (0.5% higher). These are all within 0.5% of each other, meaning the 5600F is not leaving performance on the table relative to its immediate competitors. The fact that the combo ranks 389th out of 2825, while the individual components rank in the 85-86th percentile, suggests that The Technomancer's performance profile is influenced by factors beyond raw CPU and GPU scores, possibly memory latency or driver-level optimizations.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it is unlocked for overclocking. In Passmark benchmarks, it scores 2872 in single-thread tests, 19236 in multithread tests, and 1043 in physics tests, with an average benchmark score of 36945.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role appears to be significant at lower resolutions and settings. The 1080p Low average of 202 FPS is the highest measured across all configurations, and it is likely that the CPU is the limiting factor at this point, as the GPU has ample headroom. The single-thread score of 2872 indicates strong per-core performance, which is important for older games like The Technomancer that may not scale well across many cores. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is more than sufficient for a 2016 title, and the 32 MB L3 cache helps with game logic and draw calls.

However, the data shows that the CPU may become a bottleneck at 1080p Ultra, where the average FPS is 152. This is a 24.8% drop from Low, but the GPU is not the only factor. The 4K Ultra average of 54 FPS suggests that the GPU is the primary limiter at high resolutions, but the 1080p results indicate that the CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, while adequate, may not feed the GPU fast enough at lower resolutions. The boost clock of 4.00 GHz is modest by modern standards, and the game's engine may have single-threaded sections that limit performance. The Passmark find prime numbers score of 120 is low, but this is not indicative of gaming performance; rather, the integer math score of 59339 and floating point score of 34548 are more relevant to game physics and logic. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is a strong performer, but in The Technomancer, the combination's rank of 389 out of 2825 indicates that other CPUs may offer better gaming performance in this specific title, possibly due to higher boost clocks or more cache.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 54. This is the lowest average across all tested configurations, indicating that 4K Ultra is demanding but playable on this hardware.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in general benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 scores 54247, a difference of 0.1%. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (1.1% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (2.7% higher).

Q: What is the best preset for a 144 Hz monitor at 2560x1440?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 averages 149 FPS, which is the highest setting that comfortably exceeds 144 Hz. The High preset averages 127 FPS, which may cause frame drops on a 144 Hz display, while Low at 175 FPS offers a larger margin but with reduced visual quality.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 5600F bottleneck the RTX 4080 SUPER at 1080p?

A: The data suggests a potential CPU limitation at 1080p Low, where the average FPS is 202. Given that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution, the CPU's 6 cores and 4.00 GHz boost clock may be the limiting factor, as the 1080p Ultra average of 152 FPS shows a 24.8% drop from Low, which is larger than the drop at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the combo rank for this CPU and GPU in The Technomancer?

A: This combination ranks 389th out of 2825 tested combinations in The Technomancer. This places it in the top 13.8% of all tested pairs, which is strong but not exceptional given the individual component percentiles of 85th for the CPU and 86th for the GPU.

Q: Is there a significant FPS difference between High and Ultra at 4K?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160, the High preset averages 70 FPS, while Ultra averages 54 FPS, a difference of 16 FPS or 22.9%. This is a substantial performance cost for the visual improvements, making High the recommended choice for 4K gaming on a 60 Hz display.