The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting case study for the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination. The benchmark data shows a pairing where the GPU is often the decisive factor, but the CPU’s capabilities ensure the system never becomes the bottleneck at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions, settings, and relative to other tested combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, which strongly indicates the primary limiting component shifts from the CPU to the GPU. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 266 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 215 FPS, a reduction of 51 FPS, and then to 118 FPS at 4K Low, a further drop of 97 FPS. This steep decline from 1440p to 4K highlights that the rendering load on the GPU is becoming the dominant constraint.

The scaling pattern changes significantly when looking at higher settings, which are more graphically intensive. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 216 at 1080p, to 141 at 1440p, and finally to 77 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 75 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 64 FPS. This more linear decline suggests that while the GPU is still the primary limiter, the workload at 1440p is already substantial.

Analyzing the Ultra preset provides the clearest picture of the GPU bottleneck. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 169 FPS. This drops to 110 FPS at 1440p Ultra, a 59 FPS decrease. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate falls to 61 FPS, another 49 FPS decrease. The fact that the frame rate at 4K Ultra is less than a quarter of the 1080p Low figure shows the massive performance cost of combining high resolution with maximum graphical fidelity. The GPU is unequivocally the limiting factor in this scenario.

The data suggests that at 1080p, particularly with lower settings, the CPU is capable of feeding the RTX 4090 enough data to reach very high frame rates. However, as the resolution and settings increase, the GPU’s rendering workload becomes so immense that the CPU’s potential is no longer the primary factor. The performance ceiling at 4K is determined almost entirely by the RTX 4090’s processing power. The scaling behavior confirms that this is a GPU-bound system at 4K, a mix of CPU and GPU at 1440p, and potentially a CPU-bound system at 1080p with low settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a dominant force in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the high frame rates observed. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for The Technomancer, a game from 2016, ensuring that texture loading and memory allocation are never a limiting factor at any resolution tested.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also a key component of its performance. With a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, the RTX 4090 operates at very high frequencies. This, combined with its 16,384 shading units, allows it to process the complex geometry and pixel work demanded by The Technomancer’s environments. The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is a staggering figure that explains the ability to maintain playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra.

The GPU’s role becomes more prominent as the settings and resolution climb. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 61, which is a 64% reduction from the 169 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. This demonstrates that the RTX 4090 is being pushed to its limits by the combination of high resolution and maximum settings. The data shows a clear correlation between the increasing graphical workload and a direct impact on the GPU’s output, confirming it as the primary performance determinant in these scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 holds a rank of 129 out of 3696 tested combos for The Technomancer. This places it in the top 3.5% of all systems tested for this game, indicating that it is a very high-performing configuration. The percentile ranking reinforces this, with the combination performing better than the vast majority of other tested hardware pairings.

This high ranking is expected given the components involved. The RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product but remains one of the most powerful consumer GPUs ever made. The Ryzen 5 8400F, while not a top-tier enthusiast CPU, is a modern 6-core, 12-thread processor with strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943. The data suggests that this pairing is well-balanced enough to avoid a serious bottleneck, allowing the system to achieve a top-tier ranking in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at the system’s performance across all resolution and settings combinations. The numbers clearly show a performance hierarchy, with 1080p Low being the fastest and 4K Ultra being the slowest.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is 266, which is extremely high. Medium settings see a drop to 241 FPS, with a minimum of 205 and a maximum of 278. High settings reduce the average to 216 FPS. Even at Ultra settings, the average remains a very smooth 169 FPS. This resolution is clearly where the CPU and GPU combination is most comfortable, providing frame rates that far exceed the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 2560x1440, performance remains very strong but begins to show the increased load on the GPU. Low settings average 215 FPS, which is still remarkably high. Medium settings average 165 FPS, with a minimum of 140 and a maximum of 190. High settings bring the average down to 141 FPS. Ultra settings produce an average of 110 FPS, which is still well within the bounds of high-refresh-rate gaming. This resolution offers an excellent balance between visual fidelity and performance.

At 3840x2160, the system is firmly GPU-bound. Low settings yield an average of 118 FPS, which is still playable on a high-refresh-rate 4K display. Medium settings average 91 FPS, with a minimum of 77 and a maximum of 104. High settings reduce the average to 77 FPS. Ultra settings are the most demanding, with an average of 61 FPS. This is the first setting where the frame rate dips below the 60 FPS threshold, but it is still a smooth and playable experience for a game of this type.

FAQ

Q: Is this CPU and GPU combination capable of running The Technomancer at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes. The benchmark data shows an average of 77 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings, which is well above the standard 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution to play this game with this setup for the highest frame rates?

A: At 1920x1080, the system achieves an average of 266 FPS on Low settings. Even at Ultra settings, it maintains an average of 169 FPS, making 1080p the resolution for maximum performance.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K on Ultra settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 169 FPS at 1920x1080 Ultra to 61 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra. This represents a significant 108 FPS reduction, highlighting the substantial load increase on the GPU.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 8400F bottleneck the RTX 4090 in this game?

A: The data suggests no significant bottleneck at higher resolutions. The frame rate scales heavily with resolution and settings, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p Low, the 266 FPS average is high, but the CPU still manages to keep up.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded for this combination?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 61 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only tested configuration that dips below the 60 FPS mark.

Q: How does the performance at 1440p Medium compare to 4K Low?

A: At 2560x1440 Medium, the system averages 165 FPS. At 3840x2160 Low, the average is 118 FPS. The 1440p Medium setting provides significantly higher performance, with a 47 FPS difference.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F plays a crucial, albeit secondary, role in this system’s performance in The Technomancer. Its 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture, provide a solid foundation for gaming. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.70 GHz is a key factor in its ability to handle the game’s logic and draw calls. Its performance in the Cinebench R23 multi-core test, scoring 20851, indicates strong multi-threaded capabilities, while the single-core score of 2943 is more relevant for gaming scenarios.

The CPU’s role is most evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 266 FPS, and at 1080p Medium it reaches 241 FPS. These high frame rates suggest that the CPU is capable of processing the game’s instructions fast enough to keep the GPU well-fed. If the CPU were a significant bottleneck, we would expect to see less of a performance difference between 1080p and 1440p, as the GPU would be waiting on the CPU.

However, as the resolution and settings increase, the CPU’s importance diminishes. The huge performance drops seen at 4K, such as the 61 FPS average at Ultra, are almost entirely due to the GPU’s rendering workload. The CPU has to work less to prepare frames at higher resolutions because the GPU takes longer to render each one. This is confirmed by the CPU’s benchmark scores, which show it performs within 0.4% of the Intel Core i7-13620H and 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, indicating it is a competitive mid-range part that does not hold back the RTX 4090 in this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend on the user’s priority of resolution versus frame rate. For the absolute highest performance, 1080p with Low settings delivers an average of 266 FPS, but this comes at the cost of visual fidelity. For a more balanced experience at 1080p, the Ultra preset is recommended, as it still provides an average of 169 FPS, which is far beyond what most displays can show.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation. It delivers an average of 110 FPS, which is an excellent experience for high-refresh-rate gaming. The visual improvement from High to Ultra is substantial, and the performance cost is a 31 FPS drop, which is acceptable given the high baseline. For those with a 144Hz monitor, the High preset at 141 FPS is also a viable option, but Ultra offers a richer visual experience.

At 4K, the choice is more nuanced. The High preset, with an average of 77 FPS, provides a great balance of visual quality and smoothness, comfortably exceeding 60 FPS. The Ultra preset, at 61 FPS, is still playable but is close to the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset, with an average of 91 FPS, offers the most headroom for a 4K display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Given the data, the High preset at 4K is the most sensible choice, as it offers a significant visual upgrade over Medium with a reasonable 14 FPS performance penalty, while maintaining a solid frame rate.