The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload for modern hardware, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X CPU with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GPU produces a distinctive performance profile that varies significantly across resolution and quality presets. The benchmark data reveals a system capable of high frame rates at mainstream resolutions but one that requires careful settings management to maintain smooth gameplay at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates across the four available presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—show a clear hierarchy of performance costs. At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional headroom regardless of settings, with the Ultra preset achieving 139 frames per second (FPS) and the Low preset reaching 275.9 FPS. The Medium preset at 211.6 FPS and High at 182.2 FPS both provide excellent fluidity for fast-paced action, making the choice at this resolution primarily about visual fidelity rather than playability. The data suggests that the High preset is the optimal balance for 1080p, offering a substantial visual upgrade over Medium while still maintaining a frame rate that is 43.2 FPS above the Ultra preset’s output.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scaling remains favorable. The Ultra preset drops to 91.1 FPS, which is still comfortably playable, while the High preset delivers 116.9 FPS. The Low preset produces 180.5 FPS, and Medium sits at 139.3 FPS. For a 1440p display, the High preset appears to be the sweet spot, as it provides a 25.8 FPS advantage over Ultra while presumably offering similar visual quality. The Medium preset, while faster at 139.3 FPS, sacrifices more graphical detail for a performance gain that is not strictly necessary given the High preset’s strong showing.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The Ultra preset falls to 48 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth, responsive gameplay in an action RPG. The High preset, at 64.6 FPS, is marginally playable but still leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset offers 76.2 FPS, providing a more stable experience. The Low preset, at 97.5 FPS, is the only option that ensures a consistently high frame rate at 4K. Given the significant performance drop from High to Ultra (a 16.6 FPS reduction) and the relatively small visual benefit, the Medium preset is the recommended choice for 4K gaming with this hardware. It delivers a playable frame rate that is 12.2 FPS higher than High and 28.2 FPS higher than Ultra.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the primary driver of frame rate in The Technomancer, as evidenced by the large performance swings when changing quality settings. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s. This substantial memory capacity is more than sufficient for the game’s textures at all tested settings, even at 4K resolution. The GPU’s boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2340 MHz, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 8448 shading units, provide the raw compute power needed to handle the game’s rendering load.

The data shows a clear correlation between GPU workload and frame rate. At 1080p, the GPU is likely not the bottleneck, as even the Ultra preset achieves 139 FPS. However, as resolution increases to 1440p and then 4K, the GPU’s workload scales significantly. The difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K is 49.5 FPS (from 97.5 down to 48), which is a much larger absolute gap than at 1080p (a 136.9 FPS difference, from 275.9 down to 139). This suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the settings chosen directly dictate whether the experience is playable. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 16 GB frame buffer is a key asset here, allowing the High and Ultra presets to run without memory-related stutters, which can be a common issue in games with large texture packs.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is heavily influenced by the quality preset. At the High preset, the system delivers 182.2 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 116.9 FPS at 1440p (a 65.3 FPS reduction) and then to 64.6 FPS at 4K (a further 52.3 FPS reduction). This represents a total performance loss of 117.6 FPS when moving from 1080p to 4K, meaning the 4K frame rate is only 35.5% of the 1080p frame rate.

The scaling is even more pronounced at the Low preset. At 1080p, the system achieves 275.9 FPS, but this falls to 180.5 FPS at 1440p and then to 97.5 FPS at 4K. The total drop of 178.4 FPS indicates that the system is heavily CPU-bound at 1080p with lower settings, as the GPU is not being fully utilized. Conversely, at the Ultra preset, the frame rates are 139 FPS (1080p), 91.1 FPS (1440p), and 48 FPS (4K). The drop from 1080p to 4K is 91 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms but represents a larger relative reduction, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions and settings.

These results indicate that the limiting component shifts depending on the resolution. At 1080p, the CPU’s capability allows the GPU to run at very high frame rates, particularly at lower settings. At 4K, the GPU’s rendering workload becomes the dominant factor, and the CPU has ample headroom to keep up. The 1440p resolution represents a middle ground where both components are more balanced, though the frame rate at the High preset (116.9 FPS) suggests the GPU is still the primary limiter.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested configurations, this specific combination of the Ryzen 7 9700X and RTX 4070 Ti SUPER ranks 170th out of 1656 total combinations for The Technomancer. This places the combo in the top 10.3% of all tested systems, indicating that it is a high-performance pairing for this title. The ranking reflects the strong synergy between the CPU and GPU, where neither component is significantly holding back the other in the context of this game’s engine.

The rank suggests that while this is not the absolute fastest configuration possible, it outperforms the vast majority of systems. The 1656 total combos include a wide range of older and lower-end components, and this pairing’s position at 170 indicates that it offers near-top-tier performance. The data shows that the system is capable of delivering a high-refresh-rate experience at 1440p and a solid 4K experience at medium settings, which aligns with its high ranking. The combination’s strength lies in its balance; the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance (evidenced by a 3dmark single-thread score of 1280) ensures it does not bottleneck the GPU, even at high frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, plays a supporting role in The Technomancer’s performance. The CPU has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, which are key for maintaining high frame rates, especially when the GPU is not the limiting factor. The benchmark data shows that the CPU’s performance is more than adequate for this game, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K closely follows the expected GPU workload curve.

In general CPU benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 9700X achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 31588 and a single-core score of 4459, highlighting its strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14500HX, has an average benchmark score that is 0.2% higher, placing the two processors in a statistical tie. This performance level is more than sufficient for an Action RPG like The Technomancer, which likely does not utilize more than a few cores effectively. The CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core help to reduce memory latency, which can be beneficial for game logic and physics calculations.

At 1080p with the Low preset, the system achieves 275.9 FPS, a frame rate so high that it suggests the CPU is approaching its limit in terms of game logic and draw call processing. However, at 4K, the CPU is clearly not the bottleneck, as the frame rate is constrained by the GPU’s rendering throughput. The data indicates that the Ryzen 7 9700X provides a stable platform that allows the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER to perform to its full potential, without introducing any significant CPU-related frame rate dips or stutters. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and efficient 4 nm process also contribute to a thermally consistent performance, ensuring that boost clocks are sustained during extended gaming sessions.