The Technomancer

The Technomancer, an Action RPG from 2016, presents a demanding workload that varies significantly with resolution and quality settings. This analysis examines the measured performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. The data shows a system that is capable at lower resolutions but becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution scales, with the GTX 1070 often acting as the primary limiter. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, provides a strong foundation, but the Pascal-generation graphics card ultimately dictates the gaming experience in this title. All figures below are taken directly from the measured FPS data.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 77 at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is a playable frame rate for most users and represents the performance sweet spot at this resolution.

Q: How does the frame rate at Ultra settings compare to Medium at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 39 FPS, while the Medium preset delivers an average of 59 FPS. This 20 FPS difference represents a significant drop in performance when moving from Medium to Ultra.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS recorded at 3840x2160 with Medium settings is 27 FPS. The average at this setting is 32 FPS, with a maximum of 37 FPS, indicating the game can dip to less smooth levels at 4K.

Q: Does the GTX 1070 maintain 60 FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the average FPS is exactly 60 at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This shows the GPU can just manage a 60 FPS average at the highest settings at the lowest tested resolution.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with Low settings?

A: The average FPS is 76 at 2560x1440 with Low settings. This is nearly the same as the 1080p High result, which suggests the game is not purely resolution-bound at these lower graphics settings.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination shows the most significant performance drop?

A: The most significant drop is seen at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which yields only 21 FPS. Compared to the 1080p Ultra result of 60 FPS, this is a 39 FPS reduction, highlighting the very heavy demands of 4K Ultra in this game.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate across the tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 117 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire set. For players with high refresh rate monitors, this setting provides the smoothest experience, though it sacrifices visual quality. The Medium preset at 1080p still delivers a strong 90 FPS average, with a minimum of 76 and a maximum of 103 FPS, making it a good balance for most users seeking both smoothness and improved visuals over Low. The High preset at 1080p reduces the average to 77 FPS, which is still very playable and likely represents a better visual experience than Medium for those who can accept the lower frame rate. The Ultra preset at 1080p achieves exactly 60 FPS average, which is the threshold for smooth gameplay on standard 60 Hz monitors, but it leaves no headroom for demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. The Low preset at this resolution still yields a very good 76 FPS average, which is identical to the High preset at 1080p. This suggests that the CPU and GPU combination can handle the lower settings at a higher resolution with ease. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 59 FPS average, with a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 67 FPS. This is a smooth enough experience for most, but the minimum of 50 could be noticeable in action-heavy moments. The High preset at 1440p drops to 50 FPS average, which is borderline for smooth gameplay on a 60 Hz display. The Ultra preset at 1440p, with an average of 39 FPS, is not recommended for a responsive experience. For 1440p, the Medium preset appears to be the optimal balance, offering a respectable frame rate while maintaining a decent level of visual detail.

At 4K resolution, the picture changes drastically. The Low preset at 3840x2160 provides an average of 42 FPS. While this is a playable frame rate for many single-player titles, it is not ideal for fast-paced action. The Medium preset at 4K averages 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 and a maximum of 37 FPS. This is a significant drop from 1440p Medium (59 FPS) and is likely to feel less fluid. The High preset at 4K yields only 27 FPS, and the Ultra preset is at a 21 FPS average. These lower settings are the only reasonable options at 4K, with Low providing the best playability. Overall, the data suggests that for the best experience on this hardware, players should target 1080p High or 1440p Medium for a good balance of visuals and performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how frame rate scales as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. With the Low settings, the average FPS drops from 117 at 1080p to 76 at 1440p, a reduction of 41 FPS, and then further to 42 at 4K. This represents a drop of 64% from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, and the drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe in absolute terms (34 FPS) than from 1080p to 1440p (41 FPS), indicating the increasing load on the GPU at higher resolutions. The same pattern is seen with the High preset: 77 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. This is a significant decrease, with the 4K performance being only about 35% of the 1080p performance. The Ultra preset shows the most drastic scaling, falling from 60 FPS at 1080p to 39 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 21 FPS at 4K.

The data also shows how the limiting component changes across resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU might still matter, but the GPU's pixel throughput and texture rate quickly become the bottleneck as resolution increases. The GTX 1070's pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s are finite resources that must be divided across more pixels at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops of 41 FPS from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings, and the even larger drop of 34 FPS from 1440p to 4K, are strong evidence that the GTX 1070 is the main limiting component in this configuration. The CPU, with its high single-threaded score of 1049 in the 3DMark single-thread test, is less likely to be the bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU load is more demanding. The data indicates that the GTX 1070 is the primary constraint, as the frame rates are directly tied to the resolution-dependent GPU workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at performance across all three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 117 FPS, which is the highest measured average in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p follows with an average of 90 FPS, and it also has recorded minimum and maximum values of 76 and 103 FPS, respectively. The High preset at 1080p drops to an average of 77 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p is the only setting at this resolution that falls to a 60 FPS average, which is precisely the 60 FPS mark.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers an average of 76 FPS. This is the same average as the High preset at 1080p, which shows that the combination of lower graphics settings and a higher resolution can produce similar frame rates. The Medium preset at 1440p provides an average of 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS. The High preset at 1440p averages 50 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 39 FPS. None of the 1440p settings achieve the 60 FPS average that is possible at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset average is 42 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K averages 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. The High preset at 4K averages 27 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages only 21 FPS. The 4K results show a significant drop from the 1440p scores for the same settings, underlining the heavy demand of 4K rendering. The maximum FPS values recorded are only for the Medium preset at each resolution: 107 FPS at 1080p, 67 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS values are only available for the Medium preset as well, with 76 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the primary graphics processor in this benchmark, and its specifications explain the observed performance. It is built on the Pascal architecture and uses the GP104 chip, manufactured on a 16 nm process. The GPU has a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz, with 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. The memory configuration is an 8 GB GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s.

The GPU's clock speeds and memory bandwidth are key factors in its gaming performance. The boost clock of 1683 MHz is relatively high for a GPU of its era, and the 8 GB of VRAM is a generous amount for 2016-era games. In The Technomancer, the GPU's role is clear: at 1080p, it can handle the load well, but as resolution increases, the demands on the GPU's shading and memory bandwidth become more critical. The average FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K, with the Ultra preset falling from 60 FPS to 21 FPS. This is a direct consequence of the increased number of pixels the GPU has to process.

The GTX 1070's score in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test is 1082, and its Passmark G3D score is 13498. These benchmarks indicate that the GPU is a capable mid-to-high-end card. However, its percentile vs. all GPUs is 47, meaning it sits just below the 50th percentile. The nearest rival data shows the GTX 1070 with an average benchmark score of 9780, which is very close to the AMD FirePro W5000 (9803), the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (9832), and the NVIDIA Tesla M10 (9724). This indicates that in a general benchmark, the GTX 1070 is positioned among these cards, but in the context of The Technomancer, the measured FPS data shows its strengths and limitations.

The GPU's VRAM of 8 GB is not a limiting factor in this game, as the texture load at these settings is not high enough to exceed that capacity. The measured FPS data shows that the game is not memory-limited, as the performance scales more closely with the GPU's processing power rather than memory allocation. The GTX 1070's performance in The Technomancer is characterized by the strong results at 1080p and the significant drop at 4K. The card is capable of handling the game at 1080p with all settings, but 1440p and 4K require a reduction in settings to maintain playable frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, code-named Raphael. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The CPU has a 32 MB shared L3 cache, and it uses a 5nm process. The CPU's benchmark scores show strong performance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18760 and a single-core score of 1930. In 3DMark, the single-thread score is 1049, and the max threads score is 8479.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data and handle the game's logic. The game's measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is not the main bottleneck for most settings and resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the FPS is 117, which is a high frame rate that could still benefit from a faster CPU, but the GPU is likely the limiting factor at this point. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are more than enough for the game's multi-threaded workload, and the CPU's performance is not an issue in this title.

The CPU's performance relative to other CPUs is high. Its average benchmark score is 40081, and it ranks in the 87th percentile. The nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (40048), Intel Core 5 221E (40144), AMD Ryzen 9 270 (40246), and Intel Core i9-13905H (40313). The delta percentages are minimal, at 0.1%, -0.2%, -0.4%, and -0.6%, respectively. This shows that the Ryzen 7 7700 has a performance level very close to these CPUs, with the i9-13905H having the highest average score of the group. However, in The Technomancer, it is the GPU that is more important, as the CPU is not the main factor in the frame rate.

The CPU's TDP is 65 W, and it is a desktop processor with a socket. It has a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. These specifications are more than adequate for gaming. The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting component in this benchmark. The frame rates are almost entirely dependent on the resolution and the GPU's ability to render, as seen with the dramatic drop from 1080p to 4K. The CPU's role is stable, providing a solid foundation that allows the GPU to perform to its full potential, but the GPU's performance is what dictates the final frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 in The Technomancer is ranked 3057 out of 3696 tested combos. This places the combo in the lower portion of the ranking, at roughly the 82.7th percentile (calculated as 1 - (3057/3696) = 0.173, or 17.3% of the combos are worse, or 82.7% are better). This rank reflects the overall performance capabilities of this specific hardware in this game. The rank is more indicative of the GPU's performance, as the CPU is high-end, but the GPU is a previous-generation card that is now end-of-life. The GTX 1070's percentile vs. all GPUs is 47, which is below average, and this is a significant factor in the combo's rank.

The combo's rank in the game is low, but that does not mean the experience is unplayable. The measured FPS data shows that the game can be played well at 1080p, and even at 1440p with lower. The low rank is due to the large number of combos that have been tested, many of which likely contain newer, more powerful GPUs. The GTX 1070 is an older card, and the rank reflects the performance of this GPU in a modern title. The data from the measured FPS shows that the GPU is the bottleneck, and the combo's rank is a direct result of that.

The CPU's high ranking in the general benchmarks, the 87th percentile, is not enough to overcome the GPU's limitations. The combo rank in The Technomancer is a more accurate indicator of this hardware's capability for this specific game. The rank of 3057 out of 3696 means that only 639 combos perform worse than this one in the game. This shows that while the combo is not top-tier, it is also not the bottom of the list. The measured FPS data provides a more detailed picture than the rank, showing that the game is playable at 1080p and 1440p with the right settings. The rank is useful for an at-a-glance comparison, but the FPS data is the true measure of the experience.

The combo's placement in the ranking is a result of the GPU's age and its performance. The GTX 1070 is a card from the Pascal generation, and its performance is now below the norm for modern gaming. The CPU is a current part, but the GPU is the weak link. The overall rank is a sign that this hardware is not the best choice for The Technomancer, but the FPS data shows that it can still meet the needs of most players at lower resolutions and settings. The combo is a clear case of a strong CPU being held back by a mid-range GPU, and this is reflected in its rank of 3057 out of 3696 combos.