The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, shows distinct performance scaling on the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti platform. The benchmark data reveals a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and Ampere architecture playing a central role in determining frame rates. This analysis uses only the measured FPS data and hardware specifications provided.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 103 at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is the most demanding 1080p preset measured, and it still provides a smooth, high-refresh experience on the RTX 3070 Ti.

Q: How does the game perform at 4K with the lowest settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average FPS is 72. This shows that even at 4K, the GPU can maintain a playable frame rate when visual demands are reduced.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p Low and 4K Ultra?

A: The average FPS at 1080p Low is 201, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 37. This represents a significant performance gap of 164 FPS, or a reduction of over 80%, as the resolution and settings scale up.

Q: Which resolution and setting provides the highest measured average FPS?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 201, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This indicates the system has substantial headroom for very high refresh rate monitors at lower settings.

Q: Does the benchmark data include minimum FPS for all settings?

A: No, minimum FPS (minFps) data is only provided for the Medium settings at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the min FPS is 131; at 1440p Medium, it is 86; and at 4K Medium, it is 47.

Q: Is the RTX 3070 Ti more likely to be the bottleneck at 4K?

A: Yes, the data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The average FPS drops from 47 at High to 37 at Ultra, indicating the GPU is heavily utilized, and the CPU’s high single-thread performance is less of a factor at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the centerpiece of this configuration, and its performance characteristics are clearly visible in The Technomancer. The graphics card has 8 GB of GDDR6X memory, a 256-bit memory bus, and 608.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth. In a game like The Technomancer, which is an action RPG from 2016, these specifications are more than sufficient to handle texture loading and geometry at high settings.

The GPU's 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs are the primary drivers of its rasterization performance. The base clock of 1575 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with 48 RT cores and 192 Tensor cores, position this card well for both traditional rendering and potential ray tracing features, if the game were to use them. However, the benchmark results indicate that the GPU's raw compute, with an FP32 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS, is what determines the frame rate at higher resolutions.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3478 and a Passmark G3D score of 23356 show that the GPU performs well in synthetic tests. When comparing to its nearest rivals, the RTX 3070 Ti's average benchmark score is 29945, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29928) and 0.5% higher than the RTX 2080 Ti (29783), but 0.5% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (30095). This indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is a strong GPU, but it is closely matched by others in its segment.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is likely the reason for the performance differences between settings. The game's assets, when loaded at Ultra, may be pushing the limits of memory, leading to a more significant drop in FPS compared to lower settings. For instance, the average FPS at 4K Ultra is 37, which is lower than the 1080p Ultra's 103.7, highlighting the GPU's struggle with the higher resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for the RTX 3070 Ti is the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 154.6 FPS, which is a 24% improvement over High's 132.4 FPS, while still offering a more detailed visual experience than Low's 201.9 FPS. The difference between Medium and Ultra at 1080p is notable, with Ultra producing 103.7 FPS, which is a 33% drop from Medium. This significant decrease indicates that the Ultra preset is too demanding for the GPU at standard resolution, causing a clear performance hit.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again appears as the sweet spot. It provides 101.4 FPS, which is 18% higher than High's 86.2 FPS and 34% higher than Ultra's 67.4 FPS. The 1440p Medium setting also has a minimum FPS of 86, which is higher than the average FPS of the High preset, suggesting a more stable experience.

For 4K, the choice is more nuanced. The Medium preset yields 55.4 FPS, which is smooth for most users, but the High preset at 47.6 FPS is still acceptable. However, the Ultra preset at 37.0 FPS is likely to be too low for a good experience. Given the data, the Medium preset at 4K is recommended for a balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, as it offers a 24% increase over High and a 33% increase over Ultra.

In summary, the Medium preset is the optimal choice for all three resolutions in this game. It offers the best frame rates when the performance drop from Ultra is too high, and it provides a more visually rich experience than the Low preset without sacrificing smoothness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a clear hierarchy of settings. The Low preset achieves an average FPS of 201.0, which is the highest in the entire dataset. The Medium preset follows with 154.6 FPS, a 23% decrease. High produces 132.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 103.7 FPS. The minimum FPS for the Medium preset is 131, with a maximum of 178, indicating a consistent frame time.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down significantly. Low yields 131.2 FPS, while Medium reaches 101.2 FPS. High is 86.2 FPS, and Ultra is 67.4 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum FPS is 86, and its maximum is 116. This shows that the RTX 3070 Ti can maintain a high frame rate at 1440p, but the margin between settings is tighter than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is pushed to its limits. Low produces 72.0 FPS, Medium 55.4, High 47.6, and Ultra 37.0. The Medium preset has a minimum FPS of 47 and a maximum of 64. This demonstrates that even the Low preset at 4K is more demanding than the Ultra preset at 1440p, highlighting the exponential cost of pixel count.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best balance of average FPS and minimum FPS. The data shows that the RTX 3080 Ti is capable of high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K is a challenge, and users must reduce settings to achieve smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling of FPS from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals how the game and hardware interact. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 201.0. When the resolution increases to 1440p Low, the average drops to 131.2, a 35% reduction. Further increasing to 4K Low, the average falls to 72.0, which is a 45% reduction from 1440p. This trend shows that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck as the resolution increases.

For the Medium preset, the average FPS at 1080p is 154.6, at 1440p it is 101.2, and at 4K it is 55.4. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is 35%, and from 1440p to 4K is 45%. This is a clear indication that the GPU is stressed more at higher resolutions.

With High settings, the average FPS goes from 132.4 at 1080p to 86.2 at 1440p, a 35% drop, and then to 47.6 at 4K, a 45% drop. The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern: 103.7 FPS at 1080p, 67.4 FPS at 1440p (35% drop), and 37.0 FPS at 4K (45% drop).

The data reveals that the CPU's clock speed and core count are not the limiting factors in this game. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X has a high single-thread performance, but the GPU is fully utilized at 4K, causing the FPS to drop proportionally with the resolution. The 12-core, 24-thread CPU would only become a bottleneck if the GPU were not pushing enough frames, which is not the case here.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X plays a supporting role in The Technomancer, but its specifications are important to understand its potential. This is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. It has 64 MB of L3 cache and a 7nm process node. Its single-thread performance is demonstrated by its high benchmark scores, such as 941 in 3DMark single-thread and 1527 in Cinebench R23 single-core.

The CPU's multi-thread capability is substantial, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16262 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 14118. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 9075 and max-thread score of 10075 indicate that it can handle heavy workloads. However, the game The Technomancer likely relies more on single-core performance, given its 2016 release date and the nature of action RPGs.

The Ryzen 9 5900X's nearest rivals in benchmarks are the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H with a delta of 0.3% and the Intel Core i7-14650HX with a delta of -0.5%. This shows that the CPU is competitive with modern processors, even though it is from the previous generation. In the context of the game, the CPU is not a bottleneck at any of the measured settings, as the FPS scales with the GPU's load.

The CPU role is to maintain a high frame rate, and the data shows that it does so effectively. The 1080p Low and Medium presets, which are less demanding, achieve FPS above 154, indicating that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU with data. The 5900X's high clock speed and 64 MB of L3 cache help in reducing latency and improving frame times. Overall, the CPU is well-suited for The Technicians, and the performance is consistently GPU-limited.