The Technomancer

This combo—the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER—sits near the bottom of the performance hierarchy for The Technomancer. In a database of 1,656 tested CPU/GPU combinations, this pairing ranks 1,465th. That places it in the bottom 12% of all tested combos, meaning the vast majority of systems will deliver higher frame rates. This is not a configuration for chasing high refresh rates or maximum detail; it is a pairing for playable, consistent performance at moderate settings, and the data reflects that positioning clearly.

How This Combo Ranks

The 1,465th rank out of 1,656 combos is a definitive statement. The GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary constraint here. As a GPU, it sits at the 55th percentile among all tested graphics cards, which is a firmly mid-range position. Its average benchmark score of 14,286 is almost identical to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14,314, a -0.2% difference) and the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics (14,315, also -0.2%). This means the GPU is performing exactly in line with its expected tier; it is not a defective or unusually slow unit, but it is not a high-end part either.

The CPU, conversely, is a powerhouse relative to the GPU. The Ryzen 7 7700 ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 40,468 is within 1% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (40,431, a 0.1% difference) and the Intel Core i9-13905H (40,712, a -0.6% difference). In synthetic tests, the CPU shows massive headroom. For example, in Cinebench R23, it scores 29,302 in multi-core and 4,136 in single-core. This is a top-tier processor that is being held back by the graphics card in gaming workloads. The data shows a severe imbalance: a CPU that can handle any modern game paired with a GPU that is several generations old and entry-level by today's standards.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of what settings are viable. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves an average of 108.7 FPS on Low settings. This is the only setting level that breaks the 100 FPS barrier, offering headroom for a high refresh rate monitor. Medium settings drop the average to 83.4 FPS, which is still very smooth and playable. High settings yield 73.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 55.4 FPS.

The data suggests that Medium settings at 1080p is the sweet spot. It provides a 10.3% higher average frame rate than High settings (83.4 vs 73.1) while offering a significant visual improvement over Low. The jump from Low to Medium is a modest 23.3% performance hit (108.7 to 83.4 FPS), but the visual fidelity gain is substantial. While Ultra is playable at 55.4 FPS, the performance cost is steep—a 33.6% drop from Medium—for diminishing visual returns. For a more competitive or smoother experience, Low is the choice, but Medium offers the best balance of frame rate and image quality for this hardware combination.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and highlights the GPU bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 83.4 FPS at 1080p to 57.8 FPS at 1440p—a 30.7% reduction. Moving to 4K at Medium settings, the average plummets to 28.7 FPS, which is a 65.6% reduction from the 1080p score. This is a classic sign of a GPU-limited scenario. The rendering load is scaling with pixel count, and the GTX 1660 SUPER simply does not have the raw throughput to maintain playable frame rates at 4K.

The trend is consistent across all settings. At High settings, 1080p produces 73.1 FPS, which drops to 46.6 FPS at 1440p and 24.3 FPS at 4K. Even at Low settings, which are the least demanding, the average frame rate falls from 108.7 FPS at 1080p to 69.6 FPS at 1440p and 39.9 FPS at 4K. The data shows that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo, regardless of the preset. The system is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can provide a smooth experience, or 1440p with reduced settings for a playable, if not perfectly fluid, experience.

FAQ

*Q: Is this system good enough for 1080p gaming in The Technomancer?*

A: Yes. The data shows average frame rates of 73.1 FPS on High and 83.4 FPS on Medium at 1920x1080, indicating a smooth and playable experience at standard HD resolutions.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K resolution?

A: No. At 4K, the average frame rates range from 39.9 FPS on Low to 22.6 FPS on Ultra. These figures are below the threshold for a consistently playable experience, even on the lowest settings.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its closest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 14,286 is within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14,314), the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics (14,315), and the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (14,389). It is essentially performance-equivalent to these cards.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average frame rate is 108.7 FPS on Low and 55.4 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 49.0% reduction in average FPS when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 7700 a high-performing CPU?

A: Yes. It ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40,468. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 29,302, placing it in the same performance tier as the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and Intel Core i9-13905H.

Q: What is the limiting factor for gaming performance in this combo?

A: The data clearly shows the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU's benchmark scores are far above the GPU's, and the frame rates scale dramatically with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of a graphics-limited system.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the definitive limiting factor in this pairing. It is built on the Turing architecture and features a TU116 chip. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz. Its memory configuration—6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus—provides a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. With 1,408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units, it delivers a peak FP32 performance of 5.027 TFLOPS.

In The Technomancer, this hardware translates to the frame rates observed in the measured data. The GPU's 55th percentile ranking and its average benchmark score of 14,286, which is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (14,389, a -0.7% difference), confirm it is an entry-to-mid-level performer. The data shows that its VRAM and memory bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p gaming, but the core compute power is insufficient for higher resolutions. The consistent frame rate drops at 1440p and 4K are a direct result of the GPU's limited pixel and texture fill rates, making it clear that any upgrade path for this system would start with the graphics card.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides a massive amount of processing headroom that remains largely untapped in this game. This 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 7000 series is built on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael) using a 5 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its substantial cache hierarchy includes a 32 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU's average benchmark score of 40,468 places it in the 91st percentile, and its performance is statistically tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and Intel Core i9-13905H.

The CPU's benchmarks are exceptional. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29,302 and single-core score of 4,136 indicate it can handle any task thrown at it. In the context of The Technomancer, the measured frame rates are not a reflection of CPU limitations. The evidence is in the scaling: when the resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the frame rates drop dramatically, which is a characteristic of a GPU bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 7700 is capable of feeding the GTX 1660 SUPER far more data than the GPU can process. This means that a future GPU upgrade would unlock the full potential of this processor, allowing it to perform as the top-tier part its benchmarks suggest it is. For now, the CPU sits in a supporting role, ensuring the GPU is never starved of data at 1080p and 1440p settings.