The Technomancer

The Technomancer pairs an eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 5700 with a 6 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, a combination that lands at rank 3157 out of 3696 tested combos in this title. This places the pairing in the lower half of the database, and the measured frame rates confirm that the GPU is the primary constraint across most resolutions and settings. The data shows a system that can handle 1080p gaming comfortably, struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 1440p on higher presets, and is not viable at 4K except on the lowest settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is steep and consistent across all four settings presets, which strongly indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 110 at 1080p to 72 at 1440p, a reduction of 38 FPS, and then further down to 39 at 4K. That represents a 65% performance loss from 1080p to 4K on Low. The pattern is similar at Medium settings: 84 FPS at 1080p, 55 at 1440p, and 30 at 4K. The High preset shows 72 FPS at 1080p, 47 at 1440p, and 26 at 4K. Even at Ultra, where the absolute numbers are lowest, the scaling holds — 56 FPS at 1080p drops to 37 at 1440p and bottoms out at 20 at 4K.

The shape of these curves tells a clear story. At 1080p, the Ryzen 7 5700 has enough headroom that the GTX 1660 SUPER is almost certainly the bottleneck on every preset, given that even the heaviest Ultra preset still produces 56 FPS. Moving to 1440p increases the pixel count by 78% compared to 1080p, and the average FPS drops by roughly 34-38% across all presets — a scaling pattern that tracks closely with the GPU’s fillrate and memory bandwidth limits rather than any CPU constraint. At 4K, the pixel count quadruples relative to 1080p, and the measured average FPS falls to roughly one-third of the 1080p value on Low (39 vs 110), about 36% on Medium (30 vs 84), 36% on High (26 vs 72), and 36% on Ultra (20 vs 56). This near-uniform proportional drop across settings is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU’s job — feeding draw calls, physics, and game logic — is not changing with resolution, yet the FPS drops dramatically, so the graphics card is clearly the wall.

Another useful observation is the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, Low produces 110 FPS while Ultra produces 56 FPS, a 54 FPS spread. At 1440p, the same spread is 35 FPS (72 vs 37). At 4K, the spread narrows to 19 FPS (39 vs 20). The shrinking delta as resolution increases is typical of a GPU that becomes progressively more pixel-bound; at 4K, even the difference between Low and Ultra settings cannot overcome the raw pixel throughput limit. For a builder considering this combo, the data suggests that 1080p is the only resolution where the CPU’s 8 cores and 16 threads can meaningfully contribute to higher frame rates. At 4K, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 336.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are simply not enough to maintain fluid motion.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for this combo. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset is the sweet spot: it delivers 84 FPS average, with a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. That minimum is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay in an Action RPG like The Technomancer, and the gap to High (72 FPS average) is only 12 FPS, while the jump to Ultra (56 FPS average) drops below 60. The data indicates that Medium offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate headroom at 1080p. If a user prioritizes frame rate above all else, Low at 110 FPS average is available, but the visual compromise is substantial for only a 26 FPS gain over Medium.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. Medium produces 55 FPS average, with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS. That minimum is below 60, and even the average is not consistently smooth for fast-paced combat. Low at 72 FPS average is the only preset that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS at 1440p. High drops to 47 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 37 FPS average. For this resolution, Low is the practical choice if the user insists on 1440p, though the experience will be visually pared back. The alternative is to step down to 1080p and run Medium or High, which the data shows yields better frame rates with likely similar or better visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets deliver a playable experience. Low averages 39 FPS, Medium 30 FPS, High 26 FPS, and Ultra 20 FPS. Even the best case — Low at 39 FPS — is below the 60 FPS standard and will feel stuttery in action sequences. The minimum FPS for Medium is 26, and the maximum is 35, indicating severe inconsistency. The data suggests that 4K is not a viable target for this GPU in The Technomancer, regardless of settings. A user with a 4K display should run the game at 1080p or 1440p with the appropriate preset rather than accept sub-40 FPS averages. The Ultra preset is never recommended; at every resolution it produces the lowest average FPS, and the visual uplift over High is not quantified in the data, but the performance cost is steep — 16 FPS at 1080p, 10 FPS at 1440p, and 6 FPS at 4K compared to High.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 3157 out of 3696 tested combinations places it in the 15th percentile of all pairings tested in The Technomancer. That is a low position, and it reflects the GPU’s modest standing in the broader benchmark pool. The GTX 1660 SUPER has a percentileVsAllGpus of 53, meaning it sits just above the median GPU, but the game’s demands and the CPU’s mid-range positioning push this specific pairing down. The CPU, by contrast, has a percentileVsAllCpus of 78, which is solidly above average. The mismatch between a strong CPU (78th percentile) and a middling GPU (53rd percentile) is exactly what the resolution scaling analysis predicts: the GPU is the limiting factor, and the combo rank suffers accordingly.

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database, the GTX 1660 SUPER’s avgBenchmarkScore of 12986 is nearly identical to several other GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 12940, a deltaPct of 0.4% slower. The AMD Radeon RX 580 scores 12928, also 0.4% slower. The AMD Radeon 740M scores 12870, 0.9% slower. The only rival that beats it is the NVIDIA Tesla M2090 at 13075, which is 0.7% faster. These are all within a 1% band, so the GTX 1660 SUPER is functionally equivalent to those parts in synthetic benchmarks. In The Technomancer’s measured data, this translates to the frame rates listed — no more, no less. The combo rank of 3157 is not an outlier; it is a direct consequence of the GPU’s position in the midrange.

For the CPU side, the Ryzen 7 5700’s avgBenchmarkScore of 25517 places it near the AMD Ryzen 7 5825U (25446, 0.3% slower), the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U (25485, 0.1% slower), the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (25530, 0.1% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H (25550, 0.1% faster). The CPU is not the bottleneck in this game, as evidenced by the fact that its nearest rivals are all mobile or low-power parts with similar scores, yet the frame rates are governed by the GPU. The 78th percentile CPU ranking means the Ryzen 7 5700 is well above the median processor, but the 53rd percentile GPU drags the combo down. If a builder were to pair this CPU with a stronger GPU, the same CPU would likely produce much higher frame rates in this game, but the data provided only covers this specific pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full set of measured frame rates is as follows. At 1920x1080, Low settings yield an average of 110 FPS, Medium yields 84 FPS (minimum 72, maximum 97), High yields 72 FPS, and Ultra yields 56 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low yields 72 FPS, Medium yields 55 FPS (minimum 47, maximum 63), High yields 47 FPS, and Ultra yields 37 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low yields 39 FPS, Medium yields 30 FPS (minimum 26, maximum 35), High yields 26 FPS, and Ultra yields 20 FPS. All values are average FPS unless a minimum and maximum are explicitly listed.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values at each resolution. At 1080p, the minimum of 72 FPS and maximum of 97 FPS indicate a fairly tight frame time distribution, with the average at 84. At 1440p, the minimum drops to 47 FPS and the maximum to 63 FPS, with an average of 55 — the spread of 16 FPS suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable. At 4K, the minimum of 26 and maximum of 35 with an average of 30 show a very narrow band, but it is a band far below playability. The absence of minimum/maximum data for the other presets means only averages are available, but the pattern across resolutions is consistent: each step up in resolution reduces the average by roughly 30-40%, and each step up in settings reduces the average by roughly 20-30% at the same resolution.

Comparing the 1080p numbers across presets, Low is 31% faster than Medium, Medium is 17% faster than High, and High is 29% faster than Ultra. At 1440p, Low is 31% faster than Medium, Medium is 17% faster than High, and High is 27% faster than Ultra. At 4K, Low is 30% faster than Medium, Medium is 15% faster than High, and High is 30% faster than Ultra. These relative differences are remarkably stable across resolutions, which reinforces that the GPU’s shading and memory subsystems are handling the settings changes uniformly regardless of pixel count. The absolute numbers, however, tell the practical story: 1080p Medium is the only configuration that guarantees a minimum above 60 FPS, and 1080p High is the only other preset with an average above 60.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, with memory clocks of 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) and a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. The GPU’s base clock is 1530 MHz, and the boost clock is 1785 MHz. It contains 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. Its pixel rate is 85.68 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 157.1 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 5.027 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 10.05 TFLOPS (2:1). The GPU’s TDP is 125 W, and it requires a single 8-pin power connector with a suggested PSU of 300 W.

In The Technomancer, the GPU’s 6 GB VRAM is sufficient at 1080p and 1440p based on the measured frame rates, but the 4K results suggest that the memory bandwidth or capacity becomes a limiting factor. The 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is modest by current standards, and at 4K the pixel throughput demands exceed what the 85.68 GPixel/s pixel rate can deliver. The drop from 39 FPS at 4K Low to 20 FPS at 4K Ultra is a 19 FPS swing, which is larger in relative terms than the 1080p swing (110 to 56, a 54 FPS swing) but smaller in absolute terms because the GPU is already saturated. The 48 ROPs are likely a constraint at high resolutions, as rasterization throughput scales with pixel count, and the 4K data shows the GPU cannot maintain even 30 FPS on Medium.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 12986. Its nearest rivals are all within 1% of its performance, which means the GTX 1660 SUPER is a known quantity: it sits at the top of the midrange but does not break into high-end territory. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 57102 are consistent with a GPU that can handle 1080p gaming at high settings in most titles but will struggle at higher resolutions. The PassMark G3D score of 12699 and G2D score of 805 further confirm this. The GPU’s DirectX 12 support (12_1) and OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4 APIs mean it is fully compatible with modern game engines, but The Technomancer’s measured results show that compatibility does not translate to high frame rates at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture with the Cezanne codename, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The TDP is 65 W, and it uses the AMD Socket AM4. It has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel memory and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU supports ECC memory, and it has 20 PCIe Gen 3 lanes. The CPU’s release date is April 2022, and its launch MSRP is $179.

In this game, the CPU’s role is to keep the GPU fed with draw calls and game logic. The benchmark results show that the Ryzen 7 5700 is not the bottleneck at any resolution, because the FPS drops consistently as resolution increases, which is a GPU-bound pattern. The CPU’s 3DMark scores are 901 for single-thread, 1762 for 2 threads, 3382 for 4 threads, 5585 for 8 threads, 6628 for 16 threads, and 6617 for max threads. These scores indicate strong multi-threaded performance, which is typical for an 8-core Zen 3 part. The Cinebench R23 scores of 2916 single-core and 20655 multi-core are solid, and the Geekbench scores of 1907 single-core and 9959 multi-core align with the CPU’s 78th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the database are all within 0.3% of its average score, which means the Ryzen 7 5700 is neither a standout nor a laggard in synthetic tests. The PassMark multi-thread score of 24303 and single-thread score of 3296 further demonstrate that this CPU has ample compute headroom for a 2016 Action RPG like The Technomancer. The game’s release date of June 2016 means it was designed for CPUs with far fewer cores, so the 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700 is overkill for this title. The data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the CPU can push the GPU to 110 FPS average, and even at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate of 56 FPS is more likely limited by the GTX 1660 SUPER’s 5.027 TFLOPS than by the CPU’s processing capability.

The CPU’s 16 MB L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are more than adequate for The Technomancer’s demands. The game’s genre — Action RPG — typically involves many on-screen entities and physics calculations, but the Ryzen 7 5700’s 16 threads handle those tasks without breaking a sweat. The 65 W TDP and 7 nm process mean the CPU runs cool and efficiently, but that is irrelevant to the measured FPS. The key takeaway is that if a builder pairs this CPU with a more powerful GPU, the frame rates would likely improve substantially, but with the GTX 1660 SUPER, the CPU is waiting on the GPU at every resolution and settings level. The combo rank of 3157 out of 3696 is a direct reflection of this GPU-bound pairing, not a commentary on the CPU’s capability.