The Technomancer

The Technomancer, an Action RPG from 2016, presents a unique challenge for modern hardware. The data set for the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination offers a compelling look at how a current high-end CPU and GPU handle an older, CPU-intensive title. With measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality settings, the results reveal a system that is overwhelmingly powerful, yet the performance scaling indicates a specific bottleneck that is not the graphics card.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) on a 4 nm process, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock is 4.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.20 GHz, and it houses a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. In this 2016 Action RPG, the CPU's role is paramount, as it dictates the engine's ability to manage game logic, AI, and physics. The benchmark results underscore this: at 1080p, the average frame rates are extraordinarily high, which suggests a CPU capable of feeding the GPU with an immense number of frames. The processor's 3DMark 16-thread score of 10081 and max-thread score of 10067 indicate that its many-core performance is robust, but its single-thread performance, with a 3DMark score of 1212 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4430, is particularly relevant for a game from this era that often relies on one or two primary threads.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 8-core, 16-thread configuration with a 96 MB L3 cache is a boon for this title, which likely benefits from the large cache to keep game data close to the cores. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23230 and a single-core score of 2080, show a processor that is a leader in both cache-heavy and single-threaded tasks. The fact that the system achieves a 309 FPS average at 1080p Low settings, a 202 FPS average at 1080p High, and a 202 FPS average at 1440p Low, suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at these lower resolutions. Instead, the data implies a CPU that still has headroom, because the frame rate ceilings are high enough to saturate even a 240Hz display. The launch MSRP is $479.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the average frame rate at 4K resolution with the Ultra preset?

A: At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the average frame rate is 57 FPS.

Q: How does the average frame rate at 1080p High compare to the 1440p High setting?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the average is 202 FPS, while at 2560x1440 High, it is 132 FPS, a drop of 70 FPS (from 202 to 132 FPS).

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded in the data set, and at what settings?

A: The highest average frame rate is 309 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: At which resolution and preset is the minimum FPS the lowest, indicating a potential stutter point?

A: The only recorded minimum FPS values are 72 FPS at 4K Medium, 132 FPS at 1440p Medium, and 201 FPS at 1080p Medium. The lowest minimum is 72 FPS at 4K Medium.

Q: Does the CPU's performance percentile support the idea it's a top-tier processor for this game?

A: The processor's percentile versus all CPUs is 87, and its average benchmark score is 39768, with its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS, trailing by a mere 0.4% in average score, confirming a high-end CPU.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p Ultra, and is it above the standard 60 FPS threshold?

A: At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average FPS is 103, well above the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring a very smooth experience.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The data reveals a clear trend: as resolution increases, the average frame rate decreases, which is expected, but the magnitude of the drop and the differences between settings tell a story about the bottleneck. At 1080p, the frame rates are staggeringly high, with Low at 309 FPS, Medium at 237 FPS, High at 202 FPS, and Ultra at 158 FPS. At 1440p, the frame rates drop significantly: Low to 202 FPS, Medium to 155 FPS, High to 132 FPS, and Ultra to 103 FPS. The most dramatic scaling appears when moving from 1440p to 4K. At 4K, the average frame rates are 111 FPS (Low), 85 FPS (Medium), 73 FPS (High), and 57 FPS (Ultra).

The performance scaling suggests the game is heavily CPU-bound at 1080p. For example, the difference between 1080p Low (309 FPS) and 1440p Low (202 FPS) is a 107 FPS drop, which is a 34.6% decrease. In contrast, the drop from 1440p Low to 4K Low is from 202 to 111 FPS, a 91 FPS difference (45%). This indicates that while the CPU still holds strong, the GPU's rendering load becomes more significant at higher resolutions. However, the fact that 1440p Ultra (103 FPS) is still higher than 4K Medium (85 FPS) and 4K High (73 FPS) shows that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at 4K, especially with higher settings. The 4K Ultra result of 57 FPS is a clear indicator of GPU strain, dropping below the 60 FPS target. The frame rate deltas show a classic pattern: at 1080p, the CPU is the ceiling, but at 1440p and 4K, the GPU's workload becomes the dominant constraint, with the RTX 5080's 16 GB of memory and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth being fully utilized.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear performance hierarchy: Low setting averages 309 FPS, Medium averages 237 FPS (with a minimum of 201 FPS and a maximum of 273 FPS), High averages 202 FPS, and Ultra averages 158 FPS. These numbers indicate a massive headroom for high refresh-rate monitors. The 1080p Medium setting is the only one with recorded min/max values, showing a narrow band of 201-273 FPS, suggesting a stable frame delivery.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low yields 202 FPS, Medium averages 155 FPS (min 132, max 178), High averages 132 FPS, and Ultra averages 103 FPS. The 1440p Medium settings provides a smooth experience, and the High and Ultra settings still deliver well above 100 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant across all settings (e.g., from 202 to 132 FPS on High), highlighting the GPU's increased load.

At 3840x2160, the results are more demanding. Low averages 111 FPS, Medium averages 85 FPS (min 72, max 98), High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra averages 57 FPS. This resolution is the only one where Ultra dips below the 60 FPS threshold, but the High setting still maintains 73 FPS. The min FPS at 4K Medium is 72, which still holds above 60 FPS. The data shows that even at 4K, the system is capable of high frame rates, but the Ultra preset is the only one that fails to reach a stable 60 FPS average.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 achieves a rank of 166 out of 3696 tested combos in this game. This ranks it in the top 4.5% of all tested systems, which is an excellent result. The CPU's average benchmark score is 39768, and it sits in the 87th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS (0.4% higher average score), the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.7% lower), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 (0.7% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 (0.8% lower). These rivalries are extremely tight, but the 9800X3D's real-world advantage is its massive L3 cache and high single-thread clock speeds, which are not fully reflected in average scores but are crucial for gaming. The GPU's average benchmark score is 56083, and it's 87th percentile among all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon 8060S (0.6% higher), AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (0.7% higher), AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (2.3% higher), and AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (2.2% lower).

The 166th place out of 3696 combos is a strong showing, particularly because this is a game that can be heavily CPU-bound. The 9800X3D's performance is likely the key to this high ranking, as the 3D V-Cache and high clock speeds allow it to avoid the frame rate dips that can plague other processors in this title. The data suggests that only a handful of systems, likely with even more specialized hardware or higher overclocks, can outperform this pairing.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides a clear guideline for the best experience at each resolution. At 1080p, the High preset (202 FPS) offers a perfect balance between visual fidelity and performance, as the Ultra preset (158 FPS) is a 22% reduction in frame rate for likely a marginal visual gain. The Medium preset (237 FPS) is also a strong choice for maximizing refresh rate, but High is the sweet spot.

At 1440p, the High preset (132 FPS) is the best choice; it offers a high refresh experience with a significant boost over the Low (202 FPS) but higher frame rates. The Ultra preset (103 FPS) is also viable, but the 30 FPS difference between High and Ultra suggests that High is the more efficient choice. The Medium preset (155 FPS) is also an excellent option.

At 4K, the High preset (73 FPS) is the only one that consistently stays above 60 FPS. The Medium preset (85 FPS) is also above 60 FPS and is a good choice. The Ultra preset (57 FPS) is below 60 FPS, which is a critical threshold, so the High preset is the recommended choice for a stable 4K experience. The Low preset (111 FPS) is less ideal because it sacrifices too much visual quality, but it's the only way to get a high refresh rate at 4K. Overall, the data indicates that the High preset at 1440p (132 FPS) and the High preset at 4K (73 FPS) are the best compromises, with the 1440p High and 4K High delivering the best balance of performance and quality.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU on a 5 nm process, with a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2617 MHz. It has 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's 10752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs give it a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s. Its FP32 performance is 56.28 TFLOPS.

In this game, the GPU's role is primarily a 4K resolution and higher settings. The data shows that at 1080p, the GPU is never a bottleneck; the frame rates are so high that the CPU is the limiting factor. At 1440p, the GPU's workload increases, and the frame rate drops from 202 FPS (Low) to 103 FPS (Ultra), showing the GPU's scaling with settings. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the dominant component, with frame rates dropping from 111 FPS (Low) to 57 FPS (Ultra). The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, even at 4K Ultra, which uses a large amount of memory, but the capacity is not the limiting factor.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 56083, placing it in the 87th percentile, and its nearest rivals are very close in synthetic tests. However, the real-world performance, as shown by the 4K Ultra 57 FPS result, is more telling. The 5080's ability to maintain 73 FPS at 4K High is a strong result, and the fact that it can hit 103 FPS at 1440p Ultra shows that it's a high-end card. The 5080's 16 GB of VRAM and 960 GB/s bandwidth are crucial for the 4K textures and high-resolution assets that The Technomancer likely uses, but the benchmark results suggest that the GPU's raw computational power, rather than memory capacity, is the primary factor in its 4K performance. The GPU's TDP is 360 W, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, all of which are irrelevant for this game, which is a 2016 title, but the hardware is ready for modern titles.