The Technomancer

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + AMD Radeon RX 570 pairing in The Technomancer yields measured frame rates that are firmly GPU-bound at every resolution except the very lowest settings. The data runs from a playable 1080p Low outcome up to a nearly unplayable 4K Ultra result, while the 6-core CPU has far more headroom than the 2017-era Polaris GPU can use. A quick look at the measured FPS — 1080p Low 68, 1080p High 45, 1080p Medium 53, 1080p Ultra 35, 1440p Low 45, 1440p High 29, 1440p Medium 34, 4K Low 25, 4K High 16, 4K Medium 19, 4K Ultra 13 — shows that the combination lands at the lower edge of the restbench database: it is ranked 3523rd of 3696 tested combos. The GPU is an end-of-life Polaris 20 part, the CPU a current Zen 5 design, and the results reflect that split.

Resolution Scaling

Scaling from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about the bottleneck. At the Low preset the game runs at an average of 68 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 45 FPS at 1440p and 25 FPS at 4K. That is a severe halving of frame rate as the pixel count doubles, which is the classic signature of a GPU-limited scenario — the CPU has enough power to keep up with the geometry and draft draw calls, but the RX 570’s fixed function units at 4k cost, while the 14 nm 5.7 million-transistor die simply cannot fill the extra pixels.

At the High preset the pattern is similar: 45 FPS at 1080p, 29 at 1440p, and just 16 at 4K. The Medium preset shows the same wedge — 53 FPS at 1080p drops to 34 and 19. When you go from 1440p to 4K at any one preset, the FPS is roughly halved; for example High falls from 29 to 16, and Medium from 34 to 19. That consistent ~50% loss despite only a doubling in pixel count suggests that something other than raw shading power is capping result, but the lack of a 6-scan should not be considered a benefit — the data points are at the four available presets.

The most telling number is 4K Ultra at 13 FPS. At 4K the game needs to raster four times the pixels of 1080p, and the RX 570 is already at its limit. Even the optimistic Low preset at 4K only reaches 25 FPS, still below the minimum for a smooth 30 FPS package. In contrast, the gap between 1080p High (45) and 1080p Low (68) is a 23-FPS jump, the entire budget being spent on draw distance and post-effects, not on resolution. So the component limit here is unambiguous: the RX 570 is the barrier that keeps 4K out of the reach for this pair, while the Ryzen 5 9600X never shows its own ceiling in this title at 4K.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), fabricated on a 4 nm process with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost to 5.40 GHz. With 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory at 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, it is a structurally strong gaming head. Its percentile vs all CPUs is 82nd, meaning it sits comfortably above the majority of the silicone in the restbench database.

In The Technomancer, an Action RPG from June 2016, the game’s engine is largely of that era, using thread affinity to a limited degree; the 8-thread 3DMark score of 6,726 dominates the 4-thread score of 4,649, but the 16-thread score of 7,585 is only slightly above the 8-thread figure, indicating that the workload does not scale drastically past 8 threads. Still, the 12-thread capacity is more than adequate. Single-thread performance on the 9600X is outstanding — Cinebench R23 single-core 2183.5, 3DMark single thread 1253, and Geekbench single-core 2923 — and in a title that processes AI, physics, and animation on the CPU, this is exactly what keeps the minimum frame near its average. For example, the Medium preset’s minimum FPS at 1080p is 45, mirroring the High preset’s average — the strong single-thread ceiling prevents sudden stalls.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 9600X is only 0.2% above AMD’s Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, -0.5% below the Ryzen 7 7840H, -0.6% below the Ryzen 7 5800XT, and -0.8% below the Ryzen 7 8845HS in their average benchmark scores. Those margins are small, so the CPU is exchangeable with any of them as far as The Technomancer is concerned. When the game is pinned at 13 FPS at 4K Ultra, the CPU is benchmarked at 17528.5 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 14438 in Geekbench multicore — both far beyond what this game demands. The bottleneck is not here; the 9600X never enters a state where its multi-thread capacity would make a difference to the frame rate, because the GPU-bound to the point of being the frame limiter.

GPU Role

The RX 570 is the heart of the problem at the upper resolution ends. This is a GCN 4.0 parts from 2017, built on a 14 nm process with 5,700 million transistors, 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs and 32 ROPs. Its base clock is 1168 MHz, boost 1244 MHz, and it has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 224 GB/s bandwidth. The measured results show a GPU that is fully saturated – the 4K results are single-digit averages per setting when the game is set to Ultra: 13 FPS, and 4K High 16 FPS. That is far from the 60 FPS target, and even a 30 FPS floor is not reached until you drop to 1440p Medium (34) or 1080p High (45).

The GPU’s average benchmark score is 28766, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs — a large part, though not the top tier. Its nearest rivals in benchmark terms are the Radeon RX 470 (0.8% lower), Radeon R9 M295X (0.7% higher), Radeon RX 6800M (0.4% lower) and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (1.2% lower). A twentieth-century 1080p card living in the middle of the GPU population, it is the most likely constraint for this pair. It has no dedicated RT or Tensor cores (fields null), only standard forward raster, and it lacks the compute output for high dynamic range. The 0.609 FP32 TFLOPS (5.095) is roughly a tenth of what a modern mid-range part would output, but that 5.095 TFLOPS is the entire draw-call fill budget.

Multiple results corroborate that the RX 570 is the binding constraint. In this game, when we step up from a high resolution to a higher one, the frame drops in a way that says the GPU’s fill-rate is the headwall. The pixel rate is only 39.81 GPixel/s, and texture rate 159.2 GTexel/s; these are capacities that a 4K panel heavily stresses. TACTICALLY, 4 GB of memory is probably a secondary issue — the Medium preset at 4K runs at 19 FPS, and even normalizing to Low 25 FPS, there is no preset that leaves room for a playable 4K experience.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured FPS, the best performance per quality preset occurs at 1080p. At 1080p Low, the pair averages 68 FPS, the only settings where it crosses the 60 FPS threshold. At 1080p Medium, average 53 FPS, with a 45 FPS low and 60 high — that is the sweet spot if you prefer quality to raw frame rate. The 1080p High preset yields 45 FPS average, still smooth enough for a 2019-style RPG, but the step to Medium is only 8 FPS of cost at the same resolution, so Medium is more balanced.

At 1440p, life gets shakier. Low gives 45 FPS, which is playable, and Medium gives 34 FPS, with a 29 FPS low and 40 high — that feels close to a 60 Hz screen but will show drops. High at 1440p drops to 29, and Ultra is 23. For a 1440p monitor, you would most likely set to Low – the high preset’s visual uplift is not enough to justify losing roughly a third of the FPS trade-off.

4K is out of its league. The best case is 25 FPS at Low; even at the peak, the fps is below 24 at Ultra. Ultimately: select 1080p Medium if the monitor accepts to prefer stability, or 1080p Low if you demand 60+. On a 1440p screen, lock to low 1440p (45 FPS) and accept the compromises. No 4K settings are beyond 25 fps, so playing at 4K with this fast CPU is futile — the rendering engine asks for more than the 570 can give, such as Medium’s 19 FPS average and Higho 16. The Ultra row only reinforces the trend: Ultra at any resolution never outperforms Low at the next lower in terms of custody, so High is a penalty not a performance save.

How This Combo Ranks

This particular CPU+GPU combination is the number 3523 out of 3696 tested combos for The Technomancer. That places it in the bottom ~4.7% percentile of the test pool — the exact position is 3523rd overall, meaning only 173 combos rank lower in terms of measured performance; the majority of configurations, whether stronger GPU, stronger CPU, or more modern both, outrun it. The data is measured, not estat, so it is a true indication of what users of that exact pair might see.

The picture naturally follows from the hardware: a top‑90 processor bundled with the bottom half of GPUs, resulting in a game experience that is constrained entirely down to the GPU. In rank terms, 3523/3696 is not significantly worse than the 1% worst combos — the RX 570 is that far behind modern cards. A single CPU swap cannot salvage the chance of reaching, say, 60 FPS at 1440p. Only a GPU upgrade would shift this combination up the ladder. Notice that the RP counterpart, the high percentile of the CPU (82nd) conflicts with the lowly combined result; that asymmetry supports the claim the ranking is lowered by the graphics processor, not the compute.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for 60 FPS in The Technomancer with this combo?**

A: Only 1080p Low shows an average of 68 FPS among the measured rows. 1080p Medium averages 53 FPS and does not reach the 60 FPS `avg` mark in the given data (min 45, max 60).

Q: Is 4K playable on this combination?

A: No. Measured 4K results are 25 FPS Low, 19 FPS Medium, 16 FPS High, and 13 FPS Ultra. All are far below the usual 60FPS standard; even the best case (Low 25) is unplayable for a responsive dictionary.

Q: Does the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X hold back the RX 570 in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limit. The CPU’s single-core result is high (Cinebench R23 single 2183.5, 3DMark single 1253) and the FPS scaling with resolution follows the GPU design. When the resolution drops from 4K to 1080p, FPS more than doubles — this is characteristic of the graphics card limiting performance.

Q: How strong is the 9600X compared to its nearest processor rivals?

A: It is 0.2% above the Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, and 0.5%/0.6%/0.8% below the Ryzen 7 7840H, Ryzen 7 5800XT, and Ryzen 7 8845HS respectively, with the average rates of those rivals. It effectively replaces any of them in this match.

Q: Can the RX 570 muster 60 FPS on a 1440p monitor?

A: No. The best 1440p value in the measured set is 45 FPS at 1440p Low, and it falls further to 34 (Medium) then 29 (High) and 23 (Ultra). There is no 1440p row that passes the 30/60 mark.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of these two parts?

A: The CPU carries a launch MSRP of $279, and the GPU has a launch MSRP of 169 USD. That former value contextualizes the PC’s position in the list of 3696 tested combos where it has a late 3523 rank.