The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting stress profile for modern hardware. When paired with the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, the measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the CPU's capabilities become the primary limiter at 1080p. The benchmark results show a clear hierarchy of performance scaling that is critical for understanding how to configure the game for the best experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a classic performance curve as resolution increases, with the most dramatic drops occurring between 1080p and 1440p. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 152 FPS at 1920x1080 to 99 FPS at 2560x1440, a drop of 53 FPS or roughly 35%. This indicates that even at 1440p, the GPU is beginning to take on a significant workload, but the transition to 4K is even more punishing. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset average plummets to 54 FPS, which is a 45 FPS reduction from the 1440p result. This steep decline is characteristic of a game that is highly sensitive to pixel count, and it confirms that the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of VRAM and 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth are being heavily utilized at the highest resolution.

The scaling pattern for the High preset tells a similar story, though with higher absolute numbers. The average frame rate moves from 194 FPS at 1080p, to 127 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 70 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is approximately 35%, and from 1440p to 4K, it's approximately 45%. This consistent pattern across presets suggests that the game's rendering engine has a fairly linear relationship with resolution, but the absolute frame rates indicate that 4K is a target that only the most demanding settings can stress.

The Low preset data is particularly revealing for understanding the system's bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 252 FPS, which is an extremely high frame rate. At 1440p Low, it still manages 194 FPS. However, at 4K Low, the average drops to 106 FPS. The fact that the frame rate is so high at lower resolutions suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with more than enough data, but the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution scales. The gap between the 1080p and 1440p Low results (58 FPS) is smaller than the gap between the 1440p and 4K Low results (88 FPS), which points to the GPU becoming the dominant bottleneck as the pixel workload increases. The data suggests that for this game and this combination, the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting component at 4K, while the Ryzen 7 7500X3D is more than sufficient at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with the High preset?

A: The measured average frame rate at 2560x1440 with the High preset is 127 FPS. This is a very playable result that suggests the combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER can handle the game smoothly at this resolution and quality setting.

Q: How does the Ultra preset performance at 4K compare to the High preset at the same resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset achieves an average of 54 FPS, while the High preset achieves an average of 70 FPS. This shows a 16 FPS difference, or roughly a 23% performance penalty for selecting the Ultra preset over High at 4K.

Q: Is the game more CPU or GPU bound at 1080p?

A: The benchmark data indicates that at 1920x1080, the system is likely CPU-bound. The average frame rates are exceptionally high, ranging from 152 FPS at Ultra to 252 FPS at Low. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D's performance in this scenario is the likely limiter, as the RTX 4080 SUPER has significant headroom to render more frames if the CPU could provide them.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded in the entire data set?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 54 FPS, which occurs at the highest stress point: 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra preset. This is the only configuration where the average frame rate drops below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded in the entire data set?

A: The highest average frame rate is 252 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset. This demonstrates the system's capability to deliver very high frame rates when the graphical load is minimized.

Q: How does the Medium preset's minimum frame rate at 1440p compare to its average?

A: At 2560x1440 with the Medium preset, the average frame rate is 149 FPS, and the measured minimum frame rate is 126 FPS. This indicates a relatively stable performance with a 23 FPS difference between the average and minimum, suggesting good frame pacing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear picture of the performance trade-offs for each preset. For users with a 1080p display, the Ultra preset is the clear choice, as the average frame rate of 152 FPS is exceptionally high and likely well beyond the display's refresh rate. The High preset at 1080p is also an excellent option, providing 194 FPS and potentially better frame consistency, but the Ultra preset offers the best visual quality without any significant performance compromise.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more nuanced. The Ultra preset delivers 99 FPS, which is a very playable result for most users. However, the High preset offers 127 FPS, a 28% increase in performance. For users with a high refresh rate monitor (144Hz or higher), the High preset is the recommended choice to maximize smoothness. The Medium preset at 1440p, with an average of 149 FPS, is the best option for competitive play if the visual quality of High is not required.

At 4K, the choice is more critical. The Ultra preset's average of 54 FPS is below the 60 FPS target for many users, and the High preset's 70 FPS is the better option for a consistent experience. The Medium preset at 4K, with an average of 82 FPS and a minimum of 69 FPS, is arguably the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for 4K displays. It provides a smooth and stable frame rate while still maintaining a higher level of detail than the Low preset. The data suggests that for 4K, the High or Medium presets are the most sensible choices, as they provide a more consistent and enjoyable experience than the demanding Ultra preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates offers a granular view of the system's performance.

1920x1080:

• Low: Average 252 FPS
• Medium: Average 227 FPS (minimum 193 FPS, maximum 262 FPS)
• High: Average 194 FPS
• Ultra: Average 152 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: Average 194 FPS
• Medium: Average 149 FPS (minimum 126 FPS, maximum 171 FPS)
• High: Average 127 FPS
• Ultra: Average 99 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: Average 106 FPS
• Medium: Average 82 FPS (minimum 69 FPS, maximum 94 FPS)
• High: Average 70 FPS
• Ultra: Average 54 FPS

The data shows a consistent hierarchy across all resolutions, with Low being the fastest and Ultra being the slowest. The Medium preset is the only one for which minimum and maximum frame rates were recorded, and the data shows that the frame time variance increases with resolution. At 1080p, the spread between the minimum and maximum is 69 FPS (193 to 262). At 1440p, the spread is 45 FPS (126 to 171). At 4K, the spread is only 25 FPS (69 to 94). This indicates that while the average frame rate drops, the frame pacing becomes more consistent at higher resolutions, which is a common characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 205th out of 2825 tested combinations for this game. This places the system in the top 7.3% of all tested configurations, indicating that it is a very high-end setup. The high ranking is a direct result of the RTX 4080 SUPER's strong performance in this title, as well as the CPU's ability to keep up at most resolutions. The data suggests that the system is well-balanced for this game, though the 4K Ultra results show its limitations.

The RTX 4080 SUPER's own benchmark percentile is 86, and its average benchmark score of 54209 is nearly identical to the RTX 4080, which has a deltaPct of -0.1%. This indicates that the SUPER variant offers no meaningful performance improvement in synthetic benchmarks. The nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X and AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, have slightly higher average scores, but the differences are within 1-3%. For this specific game, the 205th rank out of 2825 combos suggests that while the system is powerful, there are a significant number of other configurations that can achieve higher frame rates, likely due to even more powerful GPUs or CPUs.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture. It has a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. Its most defining feature is the large 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is designed to improve gaming performance. In this game, the CPU's role becomes apparent at 1080p, where the frame rates are exceptionally high. The data suggests that the CPU is capable of delivering enough data to the GPU to achieve over 200 FPS at lower settings, but it is the limiting factor when trying to reach even higher frame rates with the Low preset.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a strong single-threaded performance with a Passmark single-thread score of 3494. Its multithreaded score of 25047 and its overall percentile of 89 indicate that it is a high-performing processor. The nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and Intel Core i9-13950HX, have similar average scores, with deltas of 0.2% and 0.5% respectively. This shows that the Ryzen 5 7500X3D is competitive with top-tier mobile and desktop processors. In the context of The Technomancer, the CPU is not a bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, as the frame rate drops are largely due to the GPU's workload. However, at 1080p, the CPU's performance ceiling is the primary reason the frame rates plateau at around 252 FPS on the Low preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the primary driver of performance in this game at higher resolutions. It features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. Its high boost clock of 2550 MHz and 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power are directly responsible for the high frame rates observed at 1440p and 4K. The GPU's base clock is 2295 MHz, and it has a TDP of 320 W.

The RTX 4080 SUPER's role is clearly defined by the resolution scaling data. At 4K, the GPU is the definitive bottleneck, as the frame rates drop significantly from the 1440p results. The Ultra preset at 4K is only able to achieve an average of 54 FPS, which shows the immense demand of this game at that resolution. The GPU's 16 GB of VRAM is likely sufficient for this title, but the raw computational power is what limits the 4K performance. The GPU's benchmark percentile of 86 and its Passmark G3D score of 34245 are high, but its nearest rivals, including the RTX 4080, have essentially identical average scores. This confirms that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a top-tier GPU, but its performance in this game is not unmatched. The data shows that the GPU is the component that determines the playability of The Technomancer at 4K, while the CPU's influence is mostly felt at 1080p.