The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting stress profile for modern hardware. When paired with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and a flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, benchmark results reveal a configuration that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s robust single-thread performance ensures high frame rates are never left on the table at lower settings. The data shows a system capable of delivering playable to exceptionally smooth performance across the board, with the specific bottleneck shifting predictably as resolution and graphical fidelity change.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data illustrates a classic resolution scaling curve. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the system averages 170.5 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Ultra preset, the average drops to 113.1 FPS, a significant reduction of 57.4 FPS. The scaling continues to 3840x2160, where the Ultra preset yields an average of 59.5 FPS. This progression indicates that the RTX 4090’s immense compute resources are being taxed heavily by the pixel count, with the 4K Ultra setting placing the most strain on the GPU.

The gap between settings narrows as resolution increases, which is a key indicator of the limiting component. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 70.4 FPS (240.9 vs. 170.5). At 1440p, this gap compresses to 95.2 FPS (208.3 vs. 113.1). By 4K, the spread is even more pronounced in absolute terms, but the relative performance ceiling is lower. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to reach very high frame rates, but the GPU still has headroom. At 4K, the GPU becomes the definitive limiting factor, as the workload on the rasterizer and pixel shaders increases exponentially with resolution, making the CPU’s role less critical to the final frame rate.

Specifically, the 4K Low setting average of 117.2 FPS is significantly lower than the 1080p Low average of 240.9 FPS. This 123.7 FPS drop at the same settings is almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s fillrate and memory bandwidth demands at 3840x2160. The RTX 4090, with its 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth, is still challenged by this resolution, but the data confirms it is not a memory bandwidth bottleneck, as the card is able to maintain over 59 FPS even at the highest settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed performance driver in this configuration. With a 24 GB GDDR6X memory pool and a 384-bit memory bus, the card possesses the resources to handle the demands of The Technomancer at any resolution. The benchmark results show that the GPU’s capabilities are best utilized at 1440p, where the average FPS across all settings remains above 113.1, providing a smooth experience for high-refresh-rate displays.

The GPU’s clock speeds, with a base of 2235 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz, are instrumental in achieving these results. The high boost clock allows the card to sustain high throughput in compute-heavy scenes. However, the data reveals that the card is not fully utilized at 1080p. The average FPS at 1080p Ultra (170.5) is lower than at 1080p Low (240.9), indicating that the GPU is being pushed harder by the Ultra preset, but the CPU is still able to keep up. The fact that the 1080p Low average nearly reaches 241 FPS suggests a plateau is being approached, likely dictated by the CPU’s frame generation rate.

The GPU’s performance percentile is strong, placing it in the 91st percentile of all GPUs in the benchmark database. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, show average scores that are within 1.3% of the RTX 4090’s average, but these are professional workstation cards, not gaming-focused hardware. In gaming, the RTX 4090’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is what allows it to maintain 59.5 FPS at 4K Ultra, a demanding workload that would cripple lesser cards. The data confirms that the GPU is the primary component determining frame rates at 4K, and it does so with authority.

FAQ

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

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 59.5 FPS, making it the most demanding preset in the test suite.

Q: How much faster is the 1080p Low preset compared to 4K Ultra?

A: The 1080p Low preset averages 240.9 FPS, which is 181.4 FPS higher than the 4K Ultra average of 59.5 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 able to maintain a 60 FPS lock at 1440p?

A: Yes, the benchmark data shows that at 2560x1440, even the Ultra preset achieves an average of 113.1 FPS, well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the performance delta between the RTX 4090 and its closest rival in the database?

A: The nearest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla T4, which has an average benchmark score that is 0.4% lower than the RTX 4090’s average score.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at 1080p High settings?

A: The data suggests a potential CPU limit, as the 1080p High average is 209.7 FPS, while the GPU’s power is more evident at higher resolutions where frame rates drop significantly.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 163.8 FPS, while the High preset averages 140.3 FPS, a difference of 23.5 FPS in favor of Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance scaling across three resolutions and four quality presets. Here is the exact breakdown:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 240.9 FPS. The Medium preset averages 218.1 FPS, while High averages 209.7 FPS. The Ultra preset brings the average down to 170.5 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 70.4 FPS, showing that the visual fidelity settings have a substantial impact on the final frame rate.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 208.3 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 163.8 FPS, and the High preset averages 140.3 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 113.1 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 95.2 FPS, indicating that the GPU is working harder to fill the additional pixels, causing the settings to have a more pronounced effect on performance.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 117.2 FPS. The Medium preset averages 90.9 FPS, and the High preset averages 76.8 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 59.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 57.7 FPS. This data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, as even the Low preset cannot reach the frame rates seen at 1080p Ultra. The progression from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent drop in average FPS for every preset, confirming the expected scaling behavior.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X plays a supporting role in this configuration, but its performance characteristics are well-suited for the task. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPU has sufficient multi-threading capabilities for modern games, but its single-thread performance is its standout feature. The benchmark data shows a 3dmark_single_thread score of 917, and a passmark_single_thread score of 3364, indicating strong per-core performance that is crucial for game logic and draw call submissions.

The CPU’s boost clock of 4.60 GHz is a key factor in its ability to keep up with the RTX 4090. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 240.9 FPS, a figure that suggests the CPU is nearing its frame generation limit. The 3dmark_2_threads score of 1793 and 3dmark_4_threads score of 3363 highlight the CPU’s strength in lightly-threaded workloads, which are typical for game engines. The Ryzen 5 5600X is placed in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20680.

Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT and Intel Core i7-10700, have average scores within 0.5% of the 5600X’s average, showing that it is a competitive mid-range processor. In the context of The Technomancer, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with data. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (59.5) is far below the 1080p Low (240.9), which indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, while the CPU is more relevant at lower resolutions. The data confirms that the Ryzen 5 5600X is not a bottleneck for this GPU at 1440p and above, but at 1080p, its performance ceiling is the primary constraint on achieving even higher frame rates.