The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, places specific demands on hardware that are clearly illustrated by the measured performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT. This combination, ranked 1781 out of 2825 tested combos, shows a system where the graphics card is the primary determinant of frame rates. The data reveals a consistent pattern of performance scaling across resolutions and settings, providing a clear picture of what this pairing can deliver in this particular title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combination shows a significant drop in performance as resolution increases, which is the expected behavior for a GPU-bound scenario. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 149 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Low settings, the average falls to 98 FPS, a reduction of approximately 34%. At 3840x2160, the average further drops to 54 FPS, which is roughly 45% lower than the 1440p result and 64% lower than the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern strongly indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is the limiting component, as the workload scales directly with pixel count.

The trend continues across all settings presets. With High settings, the average frame rate goes from 98 FPS at 1080p, down to 64 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 35 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is a 34.7% decrease, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is a 45.3% decrease. For Medium settings, the averages are 115 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K. The most demanding preset, Ultra, yields 77 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and just 27 FPS at 4K. These numbers demonstrate that the gap between 1440p and 4K is consistently larger than the gap between 1080p and 1440p, which is typical for a GPU that has to render four times the pixels at 4K compared to 1080p.

The data suggests that for smooth gameplay at 4K, users would need to rely on the Low or Medium presets, where the average FPS is 54 and 41 respectively. The High and Ultra presets at 4K, with averages of 35 and 27 FPS, fall below the threshold for comfortable playable frame rates. In contrast, 1080p and 1440p offer much more headroom, with even Ultra settings delivering 77 FPS and 50 FPS respectively. This indicates that the sweet spot for this combo in The Technomancer is at 1080p or 1440p, where the GPU can maintain higher frame rates without being overly stressed by the pixel count.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 provides the highest frame rates, with averages ranging from 77 FPS on Ultra to 149 FPS on Low. 2560x1440 is also viable, offering averages between 50 FPS on Ultra and 98 FPS on Low. 4K at 3840x2160 is more demanding, with averages between 27 FPS on Ultra and 54 FPS on Low.

Q: How does the Ultra preset performance compare to the Low preset at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 50 FPS, while the Low preset delivers an average of 98 FPS. This represents a 48 FPS difference, or roughly a 96% increase in average frame rate when moving from Ultra to Low settings.

Q: Is the frame rate stable at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: Yes, the data shows a minimum FPS of 64 and a maximum FPS of 86 at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with an average of 75 FPS. The spread between min and max is 22 FPS, indicating a reasonably stable frame delivery.

Q: What kind of performance can be expected at 4K with the High preset?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combination produces an average of 35 FPS. This is a demanding scenario for the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, and the result suggests that 4K High is not ideal for smooth, high-refresh-rate gameplay.

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

A: The performance advantage of 1080p over 4K is substantial. For example, on the Low preset, 1080p yields 149 FPS compared to 54 FPS at 4K, which is about 2.76 times higher. On the Ultra preset, 1080p delivers 77 FPS versus 27 FPS at 4K, a factor of approximately 2.85 times.

Q: Does the combo rank in-game suggest it is a top-tier performer?

A: No, the combo rank is 1781 out of 2825 tested combos. This places it in the lower half of all tested configurations, indicating that while it can run the game, many other combos provide better performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is the central component for determining frame rates in The Technomancer, as the measured data shows a clear GPU bottleneck. The graphics card features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for the game's assets at the tested resolutions. The GPU has a base clock of 1980 MHz, a game clock of 2470 MHz, and a boost clock of 2755 MHz, which are the frequencies that drive the rendering performance.

The GPU's architecture, RDNA 3.0, includes 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. These specifications contribute to its pixel rate of 176.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 352.6 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 22.57 TFLOPS, which is the raw compute throughput available for shading calculations. In the context of The Technomancer, these specifications result in the frame rates seen in the measured data.

The benchmark results for the RX 7600 XT show it holds a percentile of 60 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17083. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 with a deltaPct of 0.3, the AMD Radeon HD 7970M with a deltaPct of 0.4, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with a deltaPct of -0.7. These rival comparisons show that the RX 7600 XT is within a narrow performance band of its contemporaries. The RTX 3070 is slightly faster by 0.7%, while the GTX 690 and HD 7970M are slightly slower by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively.

The 16 GB VRAM is a notable asset, as it ensures that memory capacity is not a limiting factor at any of the tested settings. The performance scaling from Low to Ultra settings is primarily driven by the GPU's compute and memory throughput, rather than capacity constraints. For instance, at 1080p, the average FPS drops from 149 on Low to 77 on Ultra, a 48.3% reduction. This shows that the increased graphical workload of the Ultra preset has a direct impact on the GPU's ability to render frames.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed view of performance across all resolution and settings combinations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields the highest average at 149 FPS. The Medium preset produces an average of 115 FPS, with a minimum of 98 FPS and a maximum of 132 FPS. High settings bring the average down to 98 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding at 1080p, with an average of 77 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers an average of 98 FPS. The Medium preset has an average of 75 FPS, with a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 86 FPS. The High preset averages 64 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to an average of 50 FPS. This resolution shows a similar scaling pattern, with the Ultra preset being roughly half the performance of the Low preset.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset gives an average of 54 FPS. The Medium preset produces an average of 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS. The High preset averages 35 FPS, and the Ultra preset has the lowest average of all, at 27 FPS. The 4K resolution clearly stresses the GPU, with even the Low preset not reaching 60 FPS on average.

Looking at the difference between settings at each resolution, the gap between Low and Ultra is consistent. At 1080p, the difference is 72 FPS (149 to 77). At 1440p, the difference is 48 FPS (98 to 50). At 4K, the difference is 27 FPS (54 to 27). This shows that the absolute performance cost of Ultra settings decreases as resolution increases, because the GPU is already heavily loaded by the pixel count. The Medium preset data, which includes min and max FPS, shows tighter ranges at lower resolutions, indicating more consistent frame pacing.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT combination is ranked 1781 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places it in the 63rd percentile of all tested configurations. The rank indicates that this particular pairing does not deliver top-tier performance in this game, as more than half of the tested combos achieve higher frame rates.

The ranking is a relative measure that encompasses all tested CPUs and GPUs. A rank of 1781 suggests that while the system is capable of running the game, it is not among the high-performing configurations. The data shows that the RX 7600 XT, with its 60th percentile ranking among all GPUs, is a mid-range performer. Combined with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which has a 92nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, the overall combo is held back by the GPU's performance level.

The combo rank of 1781 out of 2825 means that 1044 other combinations were ranked lower. This indicates that there is a substantial number of less capable systems. However, it also means that 1780 combos ranked higher, showing that many other CPU and GPU pairings can provide better results in The Technomancer. The rank is a holistic measure that reflects the final average FPS achieved across the tested scenarios.

Given the GPU's benchmark scores, with an average of 17083 and a percentile of 60, it is not surprising that the combo lands in the lower half of the rankings. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, is 0.7% faster according to the deltaPct, which could be enough to push that combo higher in the rankings. The data reinforces that the RX 7600 XT is a solid mid-range option, but not a high-end performer for this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D plays a supporting role in The Technomancer, as the data indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU features 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It has a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The large 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a defining feature of the X3D series, designed to improve gaming performance by reducing memory latency.

In CPU benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D achieves strong scores. It has a percentile of 92 against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 58386. In Cinebench R23, it scores 22807 in multi-core and 2228 in single-core tests. The Passmark multi-thread score is 41318, and the single-thread score is 4704. These results show that the CPU has ample processing power for gaming workloads.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M with a deltaPct of 0.1, the Intel Xeon w5-2545 with a deltaPct of -0.2, the Intel Core i9-14900 with a deltaPct of 0.5, and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 with a deltaPct of -0.7. These deltas are all within 1% of the Ryzen 7 9850X3D's average score, indicating that the CPU's performance is competitive with these processors.

However, in The Technomancer, the CPU's influence on the measured FPS is minimal because the GPU is the limiting factor. The evidence for this is the resolution scaling pattern. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates at different resolutions. Instead, we see a significant drop in FPS as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation. For example, at Low settings, the average FPS goes from 149 at 1080p to 54 at 4K. This would not happen if the CPU were limiting performance.

The CPU's high clock speeds and large cache ensure that it can feed the GPU with enough data to avoid introducing a CPU-side bottleneck. The boost clock of 5.60 GHz is particularly useful for single-threaded tasks, which are common in game logic. The 120W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support provide sufficient bandwidth for the CPU to operate efficiently. While the CPU is more than capable, the measured FPS data confirms that the RX 7600 XT determines the final frame rates in this game, making the CPU role one of enabling rather than limiting.