The Technomancer

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for The Technomancer across the three tested resolutions reveal a classic scaling pattern, but with some notable characteristics. At 1080p with High settings, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination delivers 216.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that figure to 144.2 FPS, a reduction of roughly 33.5%. The jump to 4K brings the average down to 79.2 FPS, which represents a further 45.1% decline from the 1440p result.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a total reduction of approximately 63.5% (from 216.9 to 79.2 FPS). This is a substantial drop that indicates the game becomes heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, which is expected given the pixel throughput requirements. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth are being pushed hard at 4K, yet the card still maintains playable frame rates.

Comparing the settings presets at each resolution provides insight into where the bottleneck shifts. At 1080p, the spread between Low (247.3 FPS) and Ultra (170.7 FPS) is 76.6 FPS, or about 31% of the Low figure. At 1440p, that spread grows to 108.7 FPS (217.1 down to 108.4), representing 50.1% of the Low score. At 4K, the spread is 57 FPS (115.8 down to 58.8), which is 49.2% of the Low result. The proportionally larger gap at 1440p suggests the GPU is beginning to saturate, while at 4K even the Low preset is constrained by the sheer pixel count.

The fact that 4K Low (115.8 FPS) still exceeds 1080p Ultra (170.7 FPS) by a significant margin tells us the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. The Ryzen 9 5900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, appears to keep pace even at 247.3 FPS on 1080p Low. The data suggests this combo is well-balanced for high-refresh gaming at 1440p, where the 144.2 FPS High result aligns with common 144Hz display capabilities.

At 4K, the Ultra preset falls to 58.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. This indicates that even the most powerful consumer GPU on the market cannot fully brute-force this 2016 title at maximum settings and 4K resolution. The game's engine, released in 2016-06-27, appears to have rendering paths that are not optimally efficient by modern standards, placing heavy demands on the GPU's raw throughput.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across the four presets. At 1080p, all presets deliver well above 170 FPS, with Ultra achieving 170.7 FPS and Low reaching 247.3 FPS. The gap between Medium (225.3 FPS) and High (216.9 FPS) is relatively small at 8.4 FPS, suggesting that High offers a strong balance of visual quality and performance at this resolution.

For 1440p, the recommendation shifts. High at 144.2 FPS is an excellent result for high-refresh monitors. Ultra drops to 108.4 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 24.8% reduction from High. Medium (164.3 FPS) and Low (217.1 FPS) both exceed the High preset, but the visual trade-off may not be worth the additional frame rate for most users. The data shows High as the sweet spot at 1440p, providing a comfortable margin above 120 FPS while maintaining reasonable quality settings.

At 4K, the situation becomes more nuanced. High produces 79.2 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS baseline. Medium (90.4 FPS) offers a 14.1% improvement over High, while Low (115.8 FPS) provides a 46.2% gain. Ultra at 58.8 FPS falls just short of 60 FPS, making it a poor choice for consistent smoothness. For 4K gaming, Medium appears to be the optimal preset, balancing the 90.4 FPS result against the visual quality degradation from High to Medium. Users prioritizing frame rate over fidelity could consider Low, but the jump from Low to Medium (from 115.8 to 90.4 FPS) is a 21.9% decrease that may not justify the visual improvements.

The overall pattern suggests that this combination of components is best suited for 1440p High or 4K Medium. The 1080p results, while impressive, exceed the refresh rate capabilities of most displays, making them somewhat academic for practical use. The 4K Ultra preset should be avoided given its sub-60 FPS average, unless the user has a variable refresh rate display and is willing to tolerate occasional dips.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 plays the dominant role in these benchmark results, as evidenced by the resolution scaling patterns. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for feeding the 176 ROPs and 512 TMUs at 4K resolutions. The memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) ensures that texture-heavy scenes in this Action RPG do not stall on memory throughput.

The GPU's clock behavior, with a base of 2235 MHz and boost up to 2520 MHz, contributes to its raw compute capability. The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is delivered through 16384 shading units, and this massive parallel throughput is what allows the card to maintain 79.2 FPS at 4K High. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in this 2016 title, which predates widespread ray tracing adoption.

The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is far beyond what The Technomancer requires, even at 4K Ultra. The game, released in 2016-06-27, likely uses no more than a few gigabytes at any resolution. This means the RTX 4090's memory subsystem is not a limiting factor in these tests. Instead, the GPU's compute and fillrate capabilities are what determine the frame rates.

The GPU's passmark G3D score of 38194 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 9223 position it well above most competitors. Its percentileVsAllGpus of 91 indicates it outperforms 91% of tested GPUs in synthetic benchmarks. In the context of The Technomancer, the GPU's massive shading throughput is the primary driver of the 4K results, while at 1080p the CPU's single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 941) becomes more relevant.

The RTX 4090's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (deltaPct -0.4%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (deltaPct -0.9%), and NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (deltaPct -1.3%). These comparisons show that the RTX 4090 is closely matched in aggregate benchmark scores with professional-grade cards, though its gaming-specific architecture gives it an advantage in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination ranks 58th out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places it in the top 3.5% of all configurations in the database for this specific game. The rank reflects the measured performance across all tested resolutions and settings, weighted by the data collection methodology.

This high ranking is notable given that the CPU and GPU are from different generations. The Ryzen 9 5900X, released in 2020-11-04, is based on the Zen 3 architecture with a 7 nm process. Its 12 cores and 24 threads provide strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33150. The GPU, released in 2022-09-19, is based on Ada Lovelace with a 5 nm process, representing NVIDIA's current generation at the time of testing.

The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 90 and the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 91 are closely aligned, suggesting this pairing does not create a significant bottleneck in either direction. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 4245P (deltaPct 0.2%), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS (deltaPct -0.7%), and Intel Core i7-13700F (deltaPct 0.9%). These small deltas indicate the Ryzen 9 5900X is competitively positioned among modern processors.

The combo rank of 58 out of 1656 means that 1598 other combinations performed worse, while 57 performed better. Given the RTX 4090's status as an end-of-life product (production status), this rank likely represents near-peak performance for this title. Configurations ranking higher would presumably pair the RTX 4090 with newer CPUs like the Ryzen 7000 series or Intel 14th gen parts, though the data does not specify which combos occupy the higher ranks.

The measured FPS data shows that this combo achieves 247.3 FPS at 1080p Low, which is the highest recorded value across all tested settings and resolutions. This suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high frame rates, and the 58th rank is not due to CPU limitation but rather the inherent performance ceiling of the RTX 4090 in this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in The Technomancer?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 247.3, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, the 4K Ultra preset produces an average of 58.8 FPS, which falls just short of the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1440p High to 4K High?

A: The average FPS drops from 144.2 at 1440p High to 79.2 at 4K High, representing a 45.1% reduction.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 58th out of 1656 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3.5% of all configurations.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality?

A: The data suggests 1440p High at 144.2 FPS is the optimal balance, as it exceeds 120 FPS while maintaining high visual settings. At 4K, Medium at 90.4 FPS is the recommended choice.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1080p Low with 247.3 FPS, the CPU's single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 941) becomes the likely limiting factor, as the GPU's massive 82.58 TFLOPS compute is not fully utilized at such high frame rates.