The Technomancer

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for The Technomancer with the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT reveals a clear pattern: the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 111 FPS, which drops to 73.6 FPS at 1440p High, and further to 38.6 FPS at 4K High. That represents a 33.7% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p, and a 65.2% loss from 1080p to 4K. This steep decline indicates that the rendering load scales aggressively with pixel count, a hallmark of GPU-bound scenarios.

The Ultra preset tells an even more dramatic story. At 1080p Ultra, the system manages 87.5 FPS, falling to 57.8 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and collapsing to 29 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is below the 30 FPS playability threshold, making that configuration impractical for smooth gameplay. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p Ultra shows a 33.9% reduction, nearly identical to the High preset's drop, confirming that the GPU is consistently the limiting factor across settings.

Low preset results reinforce this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 168.5 FPS, which is 51.8% higher than the High preset at the same resolution. At 1440p Low, it reaches 110.4 FPS, and at 4K Low, 62.8 FPS. The fact that Low settings at 4K (62.8 FPS) outperform Ultra settings at 1080p (87.5 FPS) is notable — actually, the opposite is true: 4K Low at 62.8 FPS is lower than 1080p Ultra at 87.5 FPS. This indicates that resolution has a larger impact on performance than settings quality, further confirming the GPU-bound nature of this workload.

The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 9600X's six cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient to feed the RX 6700 XT at lower resolutions, but the GPU's 12 GB of VRAM and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth become the constraining factors as pixel counts rise. The transition from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing, with High settings losing 47.6% performance, suggesting that memory bandwidth and fill rate limitations are exposed at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, based on the Navi 22 chip with RDNA 2.0 architecture, operates at a base clock of 2321 MHz and a boost clock of 2581 MHz. The game clock of 2424 MHz represents the typical sustained frequency during gaming workloads. These clocks are relatively high for the RX 6000 series, and the 7 nm process node from TSMC helps maintain efficiency while delivering 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

The GPU's memory configuration is critical for The Technomancer's demanding scenes. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the card achieves 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is substantial for a mid-range GPU, and the benchmark results show that it handles 1080p and 1440p resolutions comfortably. At 4K, however, the bandwidth becomes a limiting factor, as evidenced by the 38.6 FPS at High settings versus 73.6 FPS at 1440p High.

The RX 6700 XT's 40 ray tracing cores and 64 ROPs contribute to its rasterization performance, but The Technomancer, being a 2016 title, does not leverage RT features. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures compatibility with modern APIs, but the game's older engine likely uses DX11 paths, where the card's passmark_directx_11 score of 173 and directx_12 score of 77 show relative strengths. The 160 TMUs and 2560 shading units provide ample texture and pixel throughput for the game's environments.

Comparing to rivals, the RX 6700 XT's average benchmark score of 33721 places it 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (33493) — actually, the deltaPct of 0.7 means the 6700 XT is 0.7% ahead. It also leads the NVIDIA RTX A5000 (33294) by 1.3%. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 (34050) and RX 480 (34059) are both 1% ahead, which is surprising given their older architectures, but the data shows these rankings. The 6700 XT sits at the 77th percentile of all GPUs, indicating solid mid-to-high tier positioning.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X brings six cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. The base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, which is crucial for The Technomancer's game logic and physics calculations. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core help reduce memory latency, though the game's demands are modest by modern standards.

The CPU's benchmark results show exceptional multi-threaded capability. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25525 and single-core score of 3603 demonstrate that the 9600X can handle both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads. The Geekbench multicore score of 15182 and single-core of 3363 further confirm this. With a PassMark multithread score of 30027 and single-thread of 4570, the CPU ranks at the 85th percentile of all CPUs, placing it ahead of 85% of tested processors.

In the context of The Technomancer, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 168.5 FPS, which approaches the practical limit for many displays. The CPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at 1080p suggests it is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. However, the 6-core, 12-thread configuration is more than adequate for a game from 2016, which likely uses only a handful of threads efficiently.

The nearest rivals for the 9600X include the Intel Core i5-13490F (28173 avg score, 0.3% behind) and AMD Ryzen 5 230 (28164, 0.3% behind). The AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (28369) is 0.4% ahead, and the Intel Core i5-14500T (28377) is 0.5% ahead. These tiny margins indicate that the 9600X is effectively on par with its closest competitors in synthetic benchmarks, though its real advantage lies in single-threaded performance, as shown by the 3dmark_single_thread score of 1253.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers the following average FPS: Low 168.5, Medium 133.3, High 111, Ultra 87.5. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 48.1% performance drop, with each settings tier costing roughly 20-25% performance. The 1080p High result of 111 FPS is well above the 60 FPS target, providing headroom for higher refresh rate displays.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 110.4, Medium 89.2, High 73.6, Ultra 57.8. The 1440p Ultra result is just below 60 FPS, making it borderline for smooth gameplay. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p (89.2 to 73.6, a 17.5% drop) is smaller than the 1080p gap (133.3 to 111, a 16.7% drop), suggesting diminishing returns at higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 62.8, Medium 45.1, High 38.6, Ultra 29. The 4K Low result is the only 4K configuration that exceeds 60 FPS, while 4K Ultra falls below 30 FPS. The 4K Medium result of 45.1 FPS is playable but not smooth, and 4K High at 38.6 FPS is marginal. The 4K Ultra result of 29 FPS is technically below the 30 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for consistent gameplay.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently delivers nearly double the FPS of Ultra. At 1080p, the difference is 81 FPS (168.5 vs 87.5); at 1440p, it's 52.6 FPS (110.4 vs 57.8); and at 4K, it's 33.8 FPS (62.8 vs 29). This consistent pattern indicates that the game's Ultra settings impose significant rendering costs that scale with resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Technomancer?

A: The data shows 1440p High provides 73.6 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K, only the Low preset (62.8 FPS) achieves playable frame rates, while 4K Medium (45.1 FPS) and High (38.6 FPS) are playable but below 60 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the combo delivers 87.5 FPS, which is playable. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 57.8 FPS, which is marginal for 60 Hz displays. At 4K Ultra, it produces 29 FPS, which is below the playability threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X has an average benchmark score of 28246, placing it 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13490F (28173) and AMD Ryzen 5 230 (28164). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (28369) by 0.4% and the Intel Core i5-14500T (28377) by 0.5%.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile?

A: The RX 6700 XT ranks at the 77th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33721. It is 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (33493) and 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5000 (33294).

Q: Is the 12 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K?

A: The 4K results indicate that VRAM capacity is not the primary constraint. At 4K Low, the system achieves 62.8 FPS, suggesting the 12 GB capacity is adequate, but the GPU's compute and bandwidth limits become apparent at higher settings, with 4K Ultra dropping to 29 FPS.

Q: What settings provide the best balance for 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 89.2 FPS, while High provides 73.6 FPS. Both are above 60 FPS, but High offers better visual quality at a 17.5% performance cost. The Ultra preset at 57.8 FPS is just below 60 FPS, making High the recommended choice.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the High preset at 1440p (73.6 FPS) offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combo. It maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while providing significantly better image quality than Medium (89.2 FPS). At 1080p, the High preset (111 FPS) is also excellent, allowing for high refresh rate displays up to 100+ Hz.

For users prioritizing frame rate over visuals, the Medium preset at 1440p (89.2 FPS) is a strong alternative, especially for 144 Hz monitors. At 1080p, Medium (133.3 FPS) and even Ultra (87.5 FPS) are viable, with Ultra providing the best visual experience at playable frame rates.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset (62.8 FPS) is the only configuration that exceeds 60 FPS, while Medium (45.1 FPS) and High (38.6 FPS) are playable but not smooth. The Ultra preset (29 FPS) should be avoided. For 4K users, Low settings are recommended for consistent performance, or Medium for those willing to accept lower frame rates for better visuals.

The data suggests that the game's Ultra preset incurs a disproportionate performance cost relative to its visual benefits. At every resolution, Ultra is roughly 20-22% slower than High, yet the visual difference in a 2016 Action RPG is likely minimal. The High preset appears to be the sweet spot across all resolutions when frame rates allow.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks 940th out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the 56.8th percentile. This means 56.8% of tested combinations perform better, while 43.2% perform worse. This mid-pack ranking reflects the GPU's position at the 77th percentile and the CPU's 85th percentile, with the game's engine likely not fully utilizing the CPU's capabilities.

The ranking is somewhat lower than the individual component percentiles might suggest. The CPU at the 85th percentile and GPU at the 77th percentile would theoretically place this combo higher, but the game's 2016 release date means it likely does not benefit from modern multi-threading or advanced GPU features. The measured FPS data confirms that the combo is GPU-bound at higher resolutions, which limits the CPU's contribution to overall performance.

In practical terms, a rank of 940 out of 1656 means this setup is in the upper-middle tier for The Technomancer. It can handle 1080p and 1440p at high settings with excellent frame rates, but struggles at 4K Ultra. The combo's performance is consistent with its component specifications, and the data shows no unusual bottlenecks or compatibility issues. For a game from 2016, this hardware is more than adequate, with the main limitation being the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K with demanding settings.