The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting test for a modern high-end pairing like the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a title that is far more demanding at higher resolutions and quality presets than its age might suggest, while also showing clear scaling patterns that identify where the performance bottleneck shifts. The data indicates a system that can deliver very high refresh rates at 1080p but requires careful settings management to maintain smooth gameplay at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, clearly demonstrating that this game's GPU load scales aggressively with resolution. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 168 FPS at 1920x1080 to 129 FPS at 2560x1440, a 23% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 76 FPS, which is a 55% reduction from the 1080p result. This steep decline points directly to the GPU becoming the primary limiting component as pixel count increases.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more revealing. The system produces 205 FPS at 1080p, 181 FPS at 1440p, and 131 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is 36% lower than the 1080p figure. This large gap at low settings suggests that even when graphical effects are minimized, the sheer number of pixels at 4K saturates the RTX 4080's capabilities. The scaling between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings is a much smaller 12% drop, indicating that the CPU is still capable of feeding the GPU adequately in that range.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern, with averages of 186 FPS at 1080p, 164 FPS at 1440p, and 100 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result is the first to include a min FPS figure of 85 FPS, which is close to the average, suggesting some frame pacing consistency. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, yields 165 FPS at 1080p, 123 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 56% lower than the 1080p Ultra result, reinforcing that the RTX 4080 is the definitive bottleneck at that resolution.

The data shows that for 4K gaming, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is a 59 FPS swing (from 131 to 72 FPS), which is a significant range. At 1080p, the swing is 40 FPS (from 205 to 165 FPS). This indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU is able to maintain high frame rates regardless of preset, but at 4K, the GPU’s workload is so high that settings have a pronounced impact on the final frame rate. The limiting component is unmistakably the GPU at 4K, while the Ryzen 7 7700X appears sufficient to keep up at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable at 4K with this combo?

A: The highest average at 3840x2160 is 131 FPS, which is achieved with the Low settings preset. The Ultra preset yields a much lower 72 FPS average.

Q: How much faster is 1080p compared to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the 1920x1080 result of 165 FPS is more than double the 4K result of 72 FPS. Specifically, it is 129% higher than the 4K average.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1440p High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 High, the average FPS is 129. Given that the 4K High result is 76 FPS and the 1080p High result is 168 FPS, the 1440p figure sits in a range that indicates the GPU is still the primary factor, but the CPU is not a limiting constraint.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The average frame rate at 2560x1440 with Medium settings is 164 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 123 FPS. This represents a 41 FPS difference, or a 25% drop in performance when moving from Medium to Ultra.

Q: Is the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM a factor in this game's performance?

A: The data shows consistent frame rates across all settings, with no indication of a VRAM capacity issue. The performance drops are directly tied to resolution and preset changes, which is typical of GPU compute limitations rather than memory constraints.

Q: At which resolution and settings does this combo hit a 144 Hz refresh rate?

A: At 1920x1080, all presets from Low to Ultra exceed 144 FPS, with the Ultra preset averaging 165 FPS. At 2560x1440, only the Low and Medium presets (181 and 164 FPS) meet or exceed 144 FPS; the High and Ultra presets fall short.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database for The Technomancer, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 holds a rank of 313 out of 3696 tested combos. This places it in the top 8.5% of all configurations for this game. This high percentile ranking is consistent with the measured frame rates, which show the system is capable of very high performance, especially when compared to the broader pool of hardware.

The ranking suggests that while this is a very potent pairing, there are 312 other combinations that yield higher average frame rates in this specific title. This could be due to other CPUs with higher single-thread performance or GPUs with greater raw throughput. However, the 86th percentile ranking for the GPU and the 85th percentile ranking for the CPU among all their respective parts indicate that both components are near the top of their class globally, making this a strong overall score for the game.

The fact that the combo rank is lower than the individual component percentiles suggests that The Technomancer’s engine may not perfectly utilize the strengths of this hardware generation. The game's age and its engine's characteristics likely mean that it does not scale perfectly with the high core counts and advanced features of the Zen 4 architecture and Ada Lovelace GPU. The data indicates that the system is performing well, but the game's inherent limitations may prevent it from achieving the top ranks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: The average FPS is 205, which is the highest result for this resolution.
• Medium: The average FPS is 186, with a minimum of 158 and a maximum of 213 FPS.
• High: The average FPS is 168.
• Ultra: The average FPS is 165, which is the lowest result at this resolution.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: The average FPS is 181.
• Medium: The average FPS is 164, with a minimum of 139 and a maximum of 188 FPS.
• High: The average FPS is 129.
• Ultra: The average FPS is 123.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: The average FPS is 131.
• Medium: The average FPS is 100, with a minimum of 85 and a maximum of 114 FPS.
• High: The average FPS is 76.
• Ultra: The average FPS is 72.

The data shows a clear and consistent hierarchy: frame rates decrease as resolution and settings increase. The only preset with a recorded minimum and maximum is Medium across all resolutions, which provides a frame time range. At 1080p Medium, the range is 158 to 213 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 139 to 188 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range narrows to 85 to 114 FPS. This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is becoming more consistently saturated, reducing the variance that the CPU can introduce.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the clear driver of performance in The Technomancer, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This is more than sufficient for the game's textures and assets, as there is no evidence of memory-related stuttering or frame drops in the measured data. The 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is heavily utilized when moving from 1440p to 4K, where the average FPS drops by over 40% for most presets.

The GPU's boost clock of 2505 MHz allows for significant throughput, but the data shows that the game's engine is demanding enough to bring the RTX 4080 to its knees at 4K Ultra, where it only manages a 72 FPS average. This is a substantial workload, and the GPU's performance scaling from 1080p to 4K indicates that the pixel fill rate and shading capabilities are the primary constraints. The RTX 4080's 112 ROPs and 304 TMUs are tasked heavily, and the frame rate drops are proportional to the increase in pixel count.

The GPU's performance relative to its rivals is telling. It sits just 0.1% ahead of the RTX 4080 SUPER and is 1.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X in average benchmark scores. This indicates that the RTX 4080 is at the very top of its performance class, and its results in this game are likely near the maximum achievable with this tier of hardware. The 4K High result of 76 FPS and 4K Ultra result of 72 FPS demonstrate that for a smooth 60+ FPS experience at 4K, users will need to use High settings or lower, as Ultra pushes the GPU to its limit.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, plays a supporting but crucial role in this configuration. The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz provides the single-thread speed necessary for gaming, and the data suggests it is not the primary bottleneck until frame rates become extremely high. At 1080p Low, the system hits 205 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it still manages 165 FPS. These high frame rates indicate that the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output at lower resolutions.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also relevant, as the 19088 Cinebench R23 multicore score and 12451 Geekbench multicore score show strong throughput. However, The Technomancer, released in 2016, likely does not utilize all 16 threads effectively. The shift in frame rates from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings (e.g., High: 168 to 129 FPS) shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases, while the CPU has headroom to spare. The 0.3% performance delta to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, and 0.5% delta to the Intel Core 7 250H, confirms the 7700X is a top-tier CPU, but its exact model makes little difference in this game compared to the GPU.

The data shows that the CPU is not a hindrance to achieving high frame rates in The Technomancer. Even at 4K Medium, where the average is 100 FPS, the minimum of 85 FPS is only 15 FPS below the average, suggesting consistent frame delivery without CPU-related hitches. The 3dmark single-thread score of 1090 and passmark single-thread score of 4190 indicate robust per-core performance, which is essential for a game from this era that may rely on a few heavily loaded threads. For this title, the Ryzen 7 7700X provides ample processing power, ensuring that the RTX 4080 is the decisive component in determining final performance.