The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting test for a modern flagship pairing. The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a wide spread of performance across resolutions and presets, with the data revealing a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher settings but shows signs of CPU limitation at lower resolutions. This analysis examines the measured FPS rows to understand how this specific configuration handles the game's engine.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and setting for the highest playable frame rate?

A: For the absolute highest average FPS, the 1920x1080 Low preset delivers 281 FPS. However, if you prioritize a balance between visual quality and high refresh rates, the 2560x1440 High preset, with an average of 144 FPS, provides a significantly better visual experience while still maintaining a frame rate suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from the Low to the Ultra preset at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rate drops from 121 FPS on Low to 62 FPS on Ultra. This represents a performance decrease of approximately 48.8%, indicating a substantial load increase on the GPU as the preset level rises.

Q: Is the system more limited by the CPU or the GPU at 1080p?

A: The data suggests a CPU limitation at 1080p. The difference in average FPS between the Low and Ultra presets is 108 FPS (281 vs. 173), whereas at 4K the difference is 59 FPS (121 vs. 62). The relatively smaller scaling at 1080p, especially when comparing Low to Medium, indicates the CPU is hitting a performance ceiling before the GPU can be fully utilized.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS recorded is 62 at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset. This is the only configuration in the dataset that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the most demanding test for this hardware combination.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's performance in this game compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 79,842, which is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT and 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB. It trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4%, showing that its raw compute performance is in a tight competitive cluster with these specific data center and mobile parts.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the 1440p Medium preset?

A: The 2560x1440 Medium preset has a recorded minimum FPS of 144. This is notable as it matches the average FPS of the 1440p High preset, suggesting that the Medium preset provides a more consistent frame time experience at that resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear picture of how each preset impacts performance. For players with high refresh rate monitors (144Hz or above), the 1920x1080 Medium preset is the optimal choice, as it delivers an average of 256 FPS with a minimum of 217 FPS, ensuring the frame rate rarely dips below the 144Hz threshold. While the Low preset at 1080p offers a higher average of 281 FPS, the Medium preset provides a substantial visual upgrade for only a 25 FPS average loss, making it the superior experience.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is the sweet spot for 144Hz displays. It achieves an average of 144 FPS, which matches the refresh rate target exactly. The Medium preset at this resolution offers a higher average of 169 FPS, providing a buffer for more demanding scenes, but the visual jump to High is often considered worthwhile for the image quality improvements. The Ultra preset at 1440p, with an average of 113 FPS, is better suited for 120Hz displays, as it provides a high-fidelity image without the risk of the frame rate dropping below 100 FPS in many scenarios.

For 4K gaming, the data indicates a trade-off. The High preset is the most balanced option, maintaining an average of 79 FPS, which is playable on displays with a 60Hz refresh rate and leaves headroom for VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) monitors. The Medium preset at 4K, with an average of 93 FPS, is preferable for players who want a smoother experience and are willing to compromise on some visual effects. The Ultra preset at 4K is not recommended for consistent 60 FPS gameplay, as its average of 62 FPS leaves very little margin for frame rate drops in complex scenes.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling across resolutions is a key indicator of where the bottleneck lies in this system. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the High preset results in a frame rate drop from 221 FPS to 144 FPS, a reduction of 34.8%. This significant decrease demonstrates that the GPU is being utilized more heavily as resolution increases. However, the scaling is not entirely linear, suggesting other factors are at play.

The most telling evidence comes from the Low preset. The average FPS drops from 281 at 1080p to 220 at 1440p, a decrease of 21.7%. This is a smaller relative drop than the High preset, which suggests that at 1080p Low, the system is partially limited by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls. If the GPU were the sole limiting factor, the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p would be more consistent across all presets.

This pattern is even more pronounced when scaling to 4K. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 121, which is a 45% drop from the 1440p Low figure. In contrast, the 4K High preset's 79 FPS is a 45.1% drop from 1440p High. The convergence of these percentage drops at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck at 4K, as the CPU has enough headroom to process the game logic and render commands at these lower frame rates. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting component, while the GPU becomes the primary constraint from 1440p upwards.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 for The Technomancer holds a combo rank of 94 out of 3696 tested combinations. This places the system in the top 2.5% of all tested hardware configurations for this title, indicating that it is a very high-performing pairing.

This high ranking is consistent with the hardware's individual capabilities. The CPU's average benchmark score of 26,324 places it in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, and it is within 0.5% of its nearest rivals, which include the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS and the Intel Core i9-11900KF. The GPU's average benchmark score of 79,842 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. The combination of a top-quartile CPU and a near-top-decile GPU results in a system that is exceptionally well-suited to handling the demands of this game, even at high resolutions and settings.

The rank of 94 out of 3696 is not surprising given the raw power of the components. It suggests that in the vast majority of other tested combinations, either the CPU or GPU is not powerful enough to match the performance of this pairing. The data confirms that this is a top-tier configuration for The Technomancer, capable of delivering high frame rates at all but the most demanding settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its role is most clearly defined at higher resolutions. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, the GPU has a massive memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This is a significant asset for The Technomancer, likely preventing any memory-related stutters or texture pop-in that could occur with lesser cards at high resolutions. The sheer memory capacity ensures the game's assets are fully loaded and accessible.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz, contribute to its raw compute power. Its FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS is a strong indicator of its ability to process the complex shaders and effects that are common in Action RPGs. The benchmark results show a direct correlation between the GPU's workload and the preset level, with the average FPS decreasing as visual fidelity increases.

The GPU's percentile rank of 92 and its tight grouping with its nearest rivals in benchmark scores underscore its position as a high-end part. The fact that it is only 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X in synthetic benchmarks suggests that its performance in this game is not an outlier but rather a reflection of its overall compute capability. The data clearly indicates that the RTX 5090 is the primary driver of frame rate at 4K, where its massive bandwidth and compute power are fully utilized.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance. At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 281 FPS on Low, 256 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 217 and maximum of 294), 221 FPS on High, and 173 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at this resolution is not linear, with the most significant drop occurring between the High and Ultra presets.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 220 FPS on Low, 169 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 144 and maximum of 195), 144 FPS on High, and 113 FPS on Ultra. The frame rate at the Medium preset's minimum of 144 FPS is a notable data point, showing that even at this lower bound, the system maintains a high level of performance.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 121 FPS on Low, 93 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 107), 79 FPS on High, and 62 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra preset is the only configuration to drop below 60 FPS, with an average of 62 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: as resolution and preset increase, the average frame rate decreases, and the relative performance gap between presets becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, plays a crucial role in ensuring the GPU is fed with data. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, which is often critical for game logic and draw call submission. The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores of 1,852 (single-core) and 12,735 (multi-core) reflect a balanced processor capable of handling both the primary game thread and background tasks.

The CPU's role becomes most apparent at 1080p with lower presets. The fact that the average FPS on Low at 1080p (281) is not significantly higher than the Medium preset (256) suggests that the CPU is reaching its limit. If the GPU were fully in control, the difference between these two presets would likely be larger, as the GPU would be able to render the simpler Low preset much faster. The 3DMark single-thread score of 999 and the Passmark single-thread score of 3,910 indicate strong per-core performance, but the 6-core/12-thread configuration may still become a bottleneck when trying to push frame rates beyond 250 FPS.

The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps to reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for gaming. The 78th percentile ranking and its close competition with the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (0.2% ahead) and Intel Core i9-11900KF (0.4% ahead) show that the Ryzen 5 7600 is a highly capable gaming processor. However, the measured FPS data indicates that for this specific title, its performance ceiling is reached at high frame rates, yielding the role of primary performance driver to the RTX 5090 at resolutions of 1440p and above.