The Technomancer

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the Intel Arc B580 ranks 1308 out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the bottom 21% of all system pairings for this title. This is a surprisingly low standing for components that individually hold respectable positions in their respective benchmark pools—the CPU sits in the 90th percentile of all processors, while the GPU ranks in the 66th percentile of all graphics cards. The discrepancy between component-level strength and game-level ranking suggests that The Technomancer is not particularly well-suited to this specific hardware combination, likely due to the game's age and its interaction with the Arc B580's architecture rather than any fundamental weakness in either part.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1308 out of 1656 tested configurations puts it firmly in the lower quartile of results for The Technomancer. This is notable because the individual components are not bottom-tier parts by any stretch—the Ryzen 9 5900X's average benchmark score of 39453 places it just 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4245P and 0.9% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700F, while trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS by 0.7% and the Intel Core i7-13700 by 1%. Similarly, the Arc B580's average benchmark score of 23021 puts it within 0.1% of the AMD Radeon 760M and 0.3% of the NVIDIA P106-100, while sitting 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and 1.3% ahead of the RTX 4060 Mobile.

The data indicates that this pairing underperforms what either component might suggest on its own. When you consider that the CPU is in the 90th percentile of all processors and the GPU is in the 66th percentile of all graphics cards, you would expect a mid-pack result at worst. Instead, the 21st percentile ranking in-game reveals that something about this combination fails to translate component strength into playable performance. The most likely explanation is that The Technomancer, released in 2016, does not leverage the multi-threaded capabilities of the 12-core CPU nor does it play well with the Arc B580's modern architecture in this particular workload.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 brings 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base and boost clocks are both 2670 MHz, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The GPU features 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, along with 20 ray tracing cores. Its compute capabilities include 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 27.34 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio). The card's pixel rate is 213.6 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 427.2 GTexel/s. In synthetic benchmarks, the Arc B580 scores 3068 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 92821 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 109672 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its Passmark G3D score is 15748, with a GPU compute score of 7729.

The data shows that the GPU's memory configuration is substantial for a card in this performance class, and the 12 GB VRAM capacity is generous for a 2016 title like The Technomancer. However, the measured FPS results suggest that raw GPU throughput is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 133.9 FPS, which drops to 92.3 FPS at High settings—a clear indication that the GPU has headroom to spare at this resolution. The GPU's percentile rank of 66 versus the CPU's 90 tells a story of a system where the processor is comparatively stronger than the graphics card, which typically means higher resolutions will expose the GPU's limitations more severely.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 4K gaming in The Technomancer?

A: The measured data clearly favors 1080p. At 1080p Ultra, the combo delivers 72.1 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 26.1 FPS—a 64% performance reduction. Even at 4K Low, the system only manages 50.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Arc B580 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B580's average benchmark score of 23021 is 0.1% above the AMD Radeon 760M and 0.3% above the NVIDIA P106-100. It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 by 0.7% but leads the RTX 4060 Mobile by 1.3%.

Q: What settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings deliver 56.1 FPS, while Medium produces 68.5 FPS and Low reaches 86.8 FPS. Ultra drops to 44.5 FPS. For a smooth experience, Medium or High are the practical choices.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5900X a strong performer relative to other CPUs?

A: The CPU sits in the 90th percentile of all processors with an average benchmark score of 39453. It outperforms the AMD EPYC 4245P by 0.2% and the Intel Core i7-13700F by 0.9%, while being edged out by the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS by 0.7% and the Intel Core i7-13700 by 1%.

Q: Does the GPU's memory bandwidth play a significant role in this game's results?

A: The 456.0 GB/s bandwidth and 12 GB VRAM are more than sufficient for a 2016 title, even at 4K. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are more consistent with compute-bound limitations rather than memory constraints.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its strongest results across all settings. Low settings produce 133.9 FPS, Medium yields 103.5 FPS, High reaches 92.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to 72.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 46% reduction in frame rate, which is a moderate penalty for maxing out settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance declines noticeably. Low settings still provide 86.8 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 68.5 FPS and High to 56.1 FPS. Ultra at 1440p falls to 44.5 FPS, which is below the smooth gameplay threshold for most users. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at each setting tier shows a consistent loss of roughly 35-38% of the frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings yield 50.6 FPS, Medium produces 38.6 FPS, High drops to 30.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 26.1 FPS. None of the 4K configurations reach 60 FPS, and only the Low preset stays above 50 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 4K is steep, with High settings losing 45% of their frame rate and Ultra losing 41%.

Resolution Scaling

The performance degradation from 1080p to 4K is severe and reveals the limiting component clearly. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 133.9 FPS at 1080p to 86.8 FPS at 1440p (35% loss) and then to 50.6 FPS at 4K (62% loss from 1080p). At High settings, the progression is 92.3 FPS at 1080p, 56.1 FPS at 1440p (39% loss), and 30.7 FPS at 4K (67% loss from 1080p).

The pattern across all settings shows that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU's strength—reflected in its 90th percentile ranking—allows the Arc B580 to stretch its legs, but the GPU's 66th percentile standing becomes increasingly exposed at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 26.1 FPS is particularly telling: it is only 36% of the 1080p Ultra score of 72.1 FPS. This is a sharper drop than would be expected from pixel count alone, indicating that the Arc B580's compute resources are overwhelmed at 4K with the most demanding settings.

The resolution scaling data also shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game. If it were, we would see smaller FPS differences between resolutions. Instead, the steep and consistent declines point squarely at the GPU as the constraint once resolution exceeds 1080p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (codenamed Vermeer), built on TSMC's 7 nm process with 8,300 million transistors across a 2x 74 mm² die. It runs at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosts to 4.80 GHz, with a 105 W TDP. The CPU features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel operation at 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The processor uses PCIe Gen 4 and has an unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5900X posts strong results: 33150 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 4680 in single-core, 13923 in Cinebench R20 multicore, and 1965 in single-core. Its 3DMark scores scale from 1852 with 2 threads to 10075 with max threads. Passmark results show 39002 in multithread and 3469 in single thread. The CPU's average benchmark score of 39453 places it in the 90th percentile of all processors.

For The Technomancer, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the system achieves 133.9 FPS at Low settings. This high frame rate suggests the 12-core processor is not holding back the GPU at lower resolutions. The single-thread performance (4680 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is adequate for a 2016 title that likely doesn't scale well across many cores. However, the combo's poor overall ranking indicates that even strong CPU performance cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions or settings in this particular game. The CPU's percentile advantage over the GPU (90 vs 66) means the system is unbalanced for this workload, with the processor capable of more than the graphics card can deliver at 4K.