The Technomancer

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X combined with the Intel Arc B390 lands at rank 2500 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the pairing in the 12th percentile of all tested configurations — a bottom-decile result that reflects the GPU's severe performance limitations rather than any CPU shortcoming. The data shows a combo that is functionally playable only at the lowest settings and resolutions, with the measured FPS figures consistently falling below smooth gameplay thresholds at higher presets.

This rank is particularly telling when contextualized against the individual component benchmarks. The Ryzen 7 7700X sits in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35909. The Arc B390, by contrast, rests in the 9th percentile among GPUs, with an average score of 1482. The massive gap between these two percentiles explains the overall combo rank: the CPU is a high-tier part dragging a GPU that benchmarks alongside decade-old integrated graphics solutions. In The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, this imbalance produces a system that is CPU-rich but GPU-starved, and the frame rates reflect exactly that dynamic.

The nearest GPU rivals for the Arc B390 are instructive. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX sits just 1.3% ahead, the GeForce 800M is 1.5% ahead, the GeForce GT 625 OEM is 2.5% ahead, and the GeForce GT 710 is 2.7% ahead. These are entry-level parts from previous generations, yet they edge out the Arc B390 in raw 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 scores. The Arc B390's percentile ranking of 9 means it outperforms only about 9% of all GPUs in the database. This is not a part designed for demanding gaming workloads, and The Technomancer's measured results confirm that reality.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, which means there is no dedicated VRAM; the GPU draws from the same DDR5 pool as the CPU. This shared memory arrangement ties the GPU's effective bandwidth to system memory performance, with the fact pack listing "System Dependent" bandwidth — a critical constraint for a game like The Technomancer that benefits from consistent memory throughput.

The GPU's pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS. With 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, the architecture is capable of raw compute, but the integrated nature and system-shared memory create bottlenecks. The boost clock of 2500 MHz is respectable, yet the measured FPS in The Technomancer tells the real story. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 79 FPS. At 4K with Ultra settings, it drops to 15 FPS. The GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution above 1080p Low, and even at that setting, the frame rate quickly deteriorates as resolution climbs.

The Arc B390 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which means it has the API-level capability to run The Technomancer. However, API support does not translate to performance headroom. The GPU's 80 W TDP and IGP slot width indicate a power-efficient part, but efficiency cannot compensate for the fundamental bandwidth limitations of shared memory. The measured FPS data shows a GPU that scales poorly with resolution: the drop from 1080p to 1440p at High settings is from 52 FPS to 34 FPS, a 34.6% reduction, and the drop from 1440p to 4K at High settings is from 34 FPS to 19 FPS, a further 44.1% reduction.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience in The Technomancer for this combo is at 1080p with Low settings, where the average frame rate is 79 FPS. This is the only configuration that exceeds a 60 FPS target, and it does so with enough headroom to absorb scene complexity without dropping below playable thresholds. At 1080p Medium, the average falls to 61 FPS, which is still technically playable, but the minimums are not reported for most settings, and the Medium row at 1080p shows a min of 52 FPS and max of 70 FPS — suggesting variability that could cause noticeable hitches in combat-heavy scenes.

For users prioritizing visual fidelity over frame rate, 1080p High delivers 52 FPS average, which is acceptable for a slower-paced Action RPG, but the data suggests that Ultra at any resolution is not viable. At 1080p Ultra, the average drops to 40 FPS, and at 1440p Ultra it falls to 26 FPS, with 4K Ultra producing just 15 FPS. The scaling pattern indicates that the GPU cannot sustain the additional shading and texture work required by Ultra presets.

The 1440p resolution tier offers a middle ground. At 1440p Low, the combo achieves 52 FPS average, which is playable but marginal. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 40 FPS, and at 1440p High, 34 FPS. The 4K tier is effectively unusable for this game with this GPU: even at Low settings, the average is only 28 FPS, and High settings produce 19 FPS. The recommendation from the data is clear: run the game at 1080p, choose Low for a smooth experience, or accept Medium if you can tolerate occasional dips below 60 FPS. Higher resolutions and presets are not recommended based on the measured results.

FAQ

Q: Is this combination capable of running The Technomancer at 60 FPS?

A: Only at 1080p with Low settings, where the average FPS is 79. At 1080p Medium, the average is 61 FPS, which is technically at the 60 FPS threshold, but the minimum FPS of 52 indicates that some scenes will fall below it.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 has an average 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463 (1.3% higher), the GeForce 800M scores 1460 (1.5% higher), the GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (2.5% higher), and the GeForce GT 710 scores 1443 (2.7% higher). All four rivals outperform the Arc B390.

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

A: The data indicates 1080p is the only viable resolution. At 1080p Low, the average is 79 FPS; at 1080p Medium, 61 FPS; at 1080p High, 52 FPS; and at 1080p Ultra, 40 FPS. All 1440p and 4K configurations produce averages below 52 FPS.

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

A: The Ryzen 7 7700X has an average benchmark score of 35909. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 scores 35802, which is 0.3% lower. The Intel Core 7 250H scores 35728 (0.5% lower), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 scores 35719 (0.5% lower), and the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H scores 35670 (0.7% lower). The 7700X leads all four rivals.

Q: Is the GPU's shared memory a limiting factor?

A: Yes. The Arc B390 uses system-shared memory with bandwidth listed as "System Dependent" and memory size as "System Shared." This means the GPU competes with the CPU for memory bandwidth, which is a significant constraint for a game like The Technomancer that requires consistent data streaming.

Q: Can this combo run The Technomancer at 4K?

A: Technically, yes, but not at playable frame rates. At 4K Low, the average is 28 FPS; at 4K Medium, 22 FPS; at 4K High, 19 FPS; and at 4K Ultra, 15 FPS. None of these configurations approach a smooth gameplay experience.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of this combo reveals a GPU that is overwhelmingly the bottleneck. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 79 to 52, a 34.2% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low settings, the average drops from 52 to 28, a 46.2% reduction. The loss from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is from 79 to 28 FPS, a 64.6% reduction — a steep decline that indicates the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar. From 1080p to 1440p, the average drops from 61 to 40 FPS (34.4% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K, from 40 to 22 FPS (45.0% reduction). At High settings, the pattern continues: 52 to 34 FPS from 1080p to 1440p (34.6% reduction), and 34 to 19 FPS from 1440p to 4K (44.1% reduction). At Ultra settings, the numbers are 40 to 26 FPS (35.0% reduction) and 26 to 15 FPS (42.3% reduction).

The consistent ~34% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and ~44-46% reduction from 1440p to 4K across all settings presets suggests that the GPU is compute-bound rather than bandwidth-bound; the percentage losses are relatively uniform regardless of the settings preset. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect the percentage drops to widen at lower resolutions where the CPU has to feed more frames per second. Instead, the drops are proportionally similar, confirming that the Arc B390's pixel throughput and shading capacity are the primary constraints. The Ryzen 7 7700X, with its high single-thread and multi-thread scores, is not the constraining component at any resolution tested.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a Zen 4 (Raphael) architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, base clock of 4.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It has a 105 W TDP and supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel access and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 32 MB shared L3. In benchmark tests, it scores 19088 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 1987 in single-core, 12451 in Geekbench multicore and 2289 in single-core, and 8859 in 3DMark 16-thread tests.

For The Technomancer, an Action RPG from 2016, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI, and physics. The 7700X's 8-core/16-thread configuration is more than sufficient for this workload, and the benchmark data confirms it has no difficulty keeping up with the GPU. The measured FPS figures show that the combo's performance is entirely GPU-limited: at 1080p Low, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough frames to reach 79 FPS average, but the GPU cannot sustain higher frame rates at more demanding settings.

The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 0.7% of its average benchmark score, indicating that the 7700X is well-positioned among its peers. However, this CPU performance is irrelevant to the gaming experience in this combo because the GPU is the binding constraint at every resolution and settings preset. The data shows that the 7700X has ample headroom — its 3DMark 2-thread score of 2112 and 4-thread score of 4074 demonstrate strong single-thread and light-thread performance, which matters for older games like The Technomancer that may not utilize many cores. The 8-core configuration ensures that even if the game scales poorly across cores, the CPU will not bottleneck the GPU's output.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its best results. With Low settings, the average FPS is 79. With Medium settings, the average drops to 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 and maximum of 70. At High settings, the average is 52 FPS. At Ultra settings, the average falls to 40 FPS. The 1080p Medium configuration shows the only reported minimum and maximum values in this resolution tier, indicating a 18 FPS range between the lowest and highest frame rates measured.

At 2560x1440, the performance declines significantly. Low settings produce an average of 52 FPS. Medium settings average 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46. High settings average 34 FPS. Ultra settings average 26 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings loses 27 FPS, at Medium loses 21 FPS, at High loses 18 FPS, and at Ultra loses 14 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 28 FPS. Medium settings average 22 FPS, with a minimum of 19 and maximum of 25. High settings average 19 FPS. Ultra settings average 15 FPS. The 4K Medium configuration reports the tightest variance of any measured row, with a 6 FPS range between minimum and maximum, suggesting that the GPU is consistently saturated at this resolution.

The full data set shows a clear pattern: at every resolution, the frame rate drops as settings increase from Low to Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 39 FPS (79 to 40), at 1440p is 26 FPS (52 to 26), and at 4K is 13 FPS (28 to 15). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is increasingly pixel-bound, with settings having less relative impact when the pixel count alone overwhelms the GPU's capability. The 1080p Low configuration is the only one that delivers a clearly smooth experience, and the 4K Ultra configuration is the worst, at 15 FPS average — a number that is effectively unplayable for an action-oriented game.