The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting stress profile for modern hardware. The measured data for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination reveals a system that is heavily influenced by graphical settings and resolution, with a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as the workload changes. This analysis walks through the measured FPS data, the CPU and GPU roles, and how this specific pairing ranks among the tested combinations in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a predictable yet significant performance drop as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that drop varies by preset. At Low settings, the frame rate scales from 258.6 FPS at 1920x1080 down to 92.2 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a substantial 64.4% reduction in performance, indicating that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is being taxed heavily by the pixel count at 4K.

The scaling becomes more pronounced at higher presets. At Ultra settings, the 1080p score of 131.7 FPS falls to 45.6 FPS at 4K, a 65.4% decrease. This consistent drop across presets suggests that the GPU is the dominant limiting component at every resolution tested. The data does not show a point where the CPU begins to cap performance; the frame rate scales almost linearly with the pixel throughput demands. The difference between 1440p and 4K is particularly stark; at High settings, the 108.4 FPS at 2560x1440 drops to 63.1 FPS at 3840x2160, a 41.8% reduction. This indicates that 4K resolution is a heavy load for this GPU, pushing it below the 60 FPS threshold at the most demanding preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on the target resolution and refresh rate. For a standard 60 FPS experience at 4K, the High preset is the only viable option, delivering an average of 63.1 FPS. The Ultra preset falls short at 45.6 FPS, while the Medium preset provides 70.6 FPS, which is a more comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The data suggests that at 4K, dropping from Ultra to High yields a 17.5 FPS improvement, a 38.4% increase in performance with presumably minimal visual fidelity loss.

At 2560x1440, the system offers more flexibility. The High preset achieves 108.4 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset maintains 84.2 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold and suitable for a smooth experience. For 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset delivers 131.7 FPS, meaning the user can max out settings without concern. The most balanced experience appears to be the High preset at 1440p, which offers a 108.4 FPS average, combining high visual quality with performance that exceeds most display refresh rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a Zen 5 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, capable of boosting up to 5.50 GHz. Its benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 31588 and a single-core score of 4459, indicate a high level of processing power. In the context of The Technomancer, the CPU does not appear to be a bottleneck. The FPS scaling between Low and Ultra presets at the same resolution is primarily a GPU-side change, but the absolute frame rates at 1080p Low (258.6 FPS) suggest the CPU is not limiting the frame output in a significant way.

The CPU’s performance relative to its peers is notable. Its average benchmark score of 36029 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, which scores 36165, a 0.4% difference. This indicates that the 9700X is a top-tier processor for gaming workloads, providing ample headroom for the GPU in this pairing. The high boost clock and substantial L3 cache of 32 MB contribute to its ability to feed the GPU with data, but the data here suggests that at 1080p, the GPU's rendering limits are usually the primary factor, not the CPU's processing speed.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 277th out of 1656 tested combos for this game. This places it in the top 16.7% of all tested systems, a strong showing. The rank reflects not just the individual component performance but how well they work together in this specific game. Given that the CPU is in the 89th percentile and the GPU is in the 84th percentile, the combined rank is slightly lower than either individual component’s percentile, suggesting that the game's engine might not fully utilize the capabilities of both components.

The RTX 4070 SUPER’s average benchmark score of 42576 puts it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 42653, a marginal 0.2% difference, indicating that the 4070 SUPER is performing at the upper edge of its class. The combo rank of 277 suggests that while each component is powerful, there are 276 other combinations in the database that achieve higher frame rates in this specific title, likely due to the use of even more powerful GPUs that can push higher frame rates at 4K or maintain higher minimums.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the clear performance driver in this combination. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, it has a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its boost clock of 2475 MHz and 7168 shading units contribute to its impressive benchmark results. The data shows that the GPU is the definitive limiting factor at all resolutions and settings. The difference between Low and Ultra presets at 1920x1080 is 126.9 FPS, a 49.1% reduction, which is a direct result of the increased shader and texture work required by higher presets.

The GPU’s performance scaling is consistent with its specifications. Its FP32 compute power of 35.48 TFLOPS translates directly into high frame rates, but the game's demands at 4K Ultra prove to be too much, resulting in a 45.6 FPS average. The GPU’s memory size and bandwidth are sufficient for this title, as the frame rate drops are more attributable to compute limitations than memory constraints. The 4070 SUPER’s performance relative to its rivals, such as being just 1.6% faster than the NVIDIA Tesla M40, confirms its position as a high-end solution that is nonetheless challenged by the most demanding settings in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average FPS data is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the system achieves 131.7 FPS on Ultra, 169.3 FPS on High, 202.9 FPS on Medium, and 258.6 FPS on Low. The spread from Low to Ultra is 126.9 FPS, showing a significant performance cost for the highest settings.

At 2560x1440, the scores are 84.2 FPS on Ultra, 108.4 FPS on High, 127.8 FPS on Medium, and 172.2 FPS on Low. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra settings is 47.5 FPS, a 36.1% decrease.

At 3840x2160, the system produces 45.6 FPS on Ultra, 63.1 FPS on High, 70.6 FPS on Medium, and 92.2 FPS on Low. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is 17.5 FPS, which is the smallest absolute gap between those two presets at any resolution, but it represents a 38.4% reduction.

The data indicates that the jump from Medium to High is generally small, while the jump from High to Ultra is substantial. For example, at 1440p, the difference between Medium and High is 19.4 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 24.2 FPS. This pattern holds across all resolutions, suggesting that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that are disproportionately demanding on the RTX 4070 SUPER, making High the most efficient preset for maximizing frame rate while maintaining a high level of visual quality.