The Technomancer

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination places 80th out of 2,825 tested combos for The Technomancer, putting it in the top 3% of all configurations. That rank is strong, but it is not dominant, suggesting that this 2016 Action RPG is not fully exploiting the raw power of either component. The data implies a game engine ceiling rather than a hardware limitation, as the combo outranks 97% of alternatives yet still leaves performance on the table.

The CPU sits at the 87th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 41,376. Its nearest rivals are remarkably close: the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H trails by just 0.3%, the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H by 0.4%, and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440 by 0.4%, while the Intel Core i7-14650HX leads by 0.5%. This clustering shows the 5900X is right at the edge of a performance plateau, where small architectural differences matter more than core counts. The GPU, meanwhile, sits at the 92nd percentile among all graphics cards, with an average score of 77,712. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, is only 1.1% behind, while the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT leads by 1.6% and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants lead by 2.1% and 2.4%. The RTX 5090 D is powerful, but the data shows it is not head-and-shoulders above its peers in synthetic tests, which hints that The Technomancer's real-world frame rates may hinge more on game-specific optimization than on raw compute.

The measured FPS data supports this. At 1080p, the combo delivers 249 FPS on Low, 227 FPS on Medium, 214 FPS on High, and 184 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is only 65 FPS, or roughly 26%, which is modest for a game that can stress GPUs heavily. At 1440p, the spread widens: 217 FPS on Low, 180 FPS on Medium, 154 FPS on High, and 120 FPS on Ultra. That is a 97 FPS drop from Low to Ultra, indicating the GPU starts to feel the load. At 4K, the pattern continues, with 129 FPS on Low, 99 FPS on Medium, 85 FPS on High, and 66 FPS on Ultra. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to just over a third of the 1080p Low score, which is a significant scaling penalty.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that the High preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combo. It delivers 154 FPS, which is well above the 120 FPS threshold typically needed for smooth high-refresh-rate gameplay, and it is only 26 FPS short of the Medium preset's 180 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs 34 FPS (from 154 to 120), which is a 22% performance hit for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in a game from 2016. If the goal is maximum fluidity, Low at 1440p provides 217 FPS, but that leaves too much visual fidelity unused.

At 4K, the recommendation shifts. High at 85 FPS is playable, but Medium at 99 FPS is the better choice for maintaining a higher refresh rate without sacrificing too much detail. The difference between Medium and High at 4K is 14 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 19 FPS, meaning the scaling is not linear. Ultra at 4K, at 66 FPS, is only viable if the user prioritizes visuals over smoothness, but the data shows it is the least efficient preset. For 1080p, any preset works, as even Ultra hits 184 FPS, but the data implies that High is the sweet spot, as it offers 214 FPS and leaves headroom for future driver updates or background processes.

The measured rows only include average FPS and, for Medium, min/max values. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a min of 193 FPS and a max of 261 FPS, which is a 68 FPS range. At 1440p, Medium shows a min of 153 FPS and a max of 207 FPS, a 54 FPS range. At 4K, Medium shows a min of 84 FPS and a max of 114 FPS, a 30 FPS range. These ranges suggest that the game's frame pacing is more consistent at higher resolutions, where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, and more variable at lower resolutions, where CPU or engine limitations can cause spikes.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings. At Low, the 1080p score of 249 FPS falls to 129 FPS at 4K, a 48% reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 227 FPS to 99 FPS, a 56% reduction. At High, it goes from 214 FPS to 85 FPS, a 60% reduction. At Ultra, it goes from 184 FPS to 66 FPS, a 64% reduction. This pattern reveals that higher settings amplify the resolution penalty, which is typical of a GPU-bound workload. The RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are not the limiting factor here, as even at 4K Ultra the game does not come close to exhausting memory capacity.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is more forgiving. At Low, 249 FPS drops to 217 FPS, a 13% reduction. At Medium, 227 FPS drops to 180 FPS, a 21% reduction. At High, 214 FPS drops to 154 FPS, a 28% reduction. At Ultra, 184 FPS drops to 120 FPS, a 35% reduction. The fact that the percentage loss increases with settings suggests that the game's shader complexity and fill-rate demands scale disproportionately with resolution, which is common for titles that rely on heavy post-processing effects. The data indicates that the CPU, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is not the bottleneck at 1080p, as the frame rates are high across all presets. The GPU, with its 21,760 shading units and 104.8 TFLOPS, is the clear limiter as resolution rises.

The 4K data also shows that the combo can push past 60 FPS on all presets except Ultra, where it hits 66 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 4K is 14 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 19 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that the Ultra preset introduces a significant computational overhead, likely from advanced lighting or shadow effects, that does not proportionally improve visual quality. The data implies that for this game, 4K High is the practical ceiling for a smooth experience, with 4K Medium as a safer choice for those who prioritize frame rate consistency.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank for The Technomancer specifically?

A: It ranks 80th out of 2,825 tested combos, placing it in the top 3% of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain high FPS?

A: At 1080p, all presets exceed 180 FPS, with Low at 249 FPS and Ultra at 184 FPS. At 1440p, High delivers 154 FPS, which is still very high, making it a strong candidate for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D or the Ryzen 9 5900X the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data shows that FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K, with a 64% reduction at Ultra, indicating the GPU is the primary limiter at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the high frame rates across all presets suggest the CPU is sufficient.

Q: What is the FPS range for the Medium preset?

A: At 1080p, Medium ranges from 193 FPS to 261 FPS. At 1440p, it ranges from 153 FPS to 207 FPS. At 4K, it ranges from 84 FPS to 114 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 5900X scores 41,376 on average. The Intel Core Ultra 7 366H is 0.3% lower, the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H is 0.4% lower, and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440 is 0.4% lower, while the Intel Core i7-14650HX is 0.5% higher.

Q: Does the GPU's performance in synthetic tests match its in-game results?

A: The GPU scores 77,712 on average and is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, but 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. In-game, the combo's 4K Ultra score of 66 FPS shows it is capable, but the game's engine seems to cap performance below what the hardware could theoretically deliver.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D brings 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. For The Technomancer, a game from 2016, this memory configuration is overkill, as the game's textures and assets are unlikely to require more than a fraction of that capacity. The GPU's base clock is 2017 MHz and boost clock is 2407 MHz, with a memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These clocks are high, but the data shows that the GPU's in-game performance is not linearly tied to these numbers. The 4K Ultra score of 66 FPS, for instance, is lower than what the raw compute power suggests, indicating that the game's engine does not fully utilize the RTX 5090 D's 21,760 shading units or 680 TMUs.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks show a percentile rank of 92 among all GPUs, with an average score of 77,712. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, is only 1.1% behind, which is surprising given the generational gap between the two cards. This close margin suggests that the RTX 5090 D's architecture, Blackwell 2.0, is not delivering a massive leap in raw compute for this workload. The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is impressive, but The Technomancer likely does not use that compute for modern features like ray tracing or DLSS, which are absent from the measured data. Instead, the game relies on traditional rasterization, where the RTX 5090 D's 176 ROPs and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate should excel, but the 4K Ultra score of 66 FPS shows a clear ceiling.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is more than sufficient for 4K, as evidenced by the fact that the FPS drop from 1440p to 4K at High is 69 FPS (from 154 to 85), which is proportional to the pixel count increase. The data implies that the GPU is not memory-bound, but rather shader-bound, as the game's effects at Ultra settings likely require more ALU work than the GPU can sustain. The RTX 5090 D's 680 tensor cores and 170 RT cores are unlikely to be active in this game, as it predates widespread adoption of those features, meaning the GPU is running on its rasterization strength alone. That strength is considerable, but the game's age means it cannot take full advantage of the card's modern architecture.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 5900X has 12 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. It is built on TSMC's 7 nm process with 8,300 million transistors across two 74 mm² dies, and it has a 64 MB L3 cache. For The Technomancer, which was released in 2016, this CPU is massively overprovisioned in core count and thread count. The game is unlikely to use more than a few cores, as most Action RPGs from that era were optimized for quad-core or six-core CPUs. The CPU's single-thread performance, as shown by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 941 and a cinebench_r23_singlecore score of 1527, is what matters most for this game, and those scores are strong.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 41,376 places it at the 87th percentile, but its nearest rivals are all within 0.5% of its score. This tight grouping means that, for this game, the CPU is not a differentiating factor. The 1440p and 1080p FPS data support this: at 1080p, the combo hits 249 FPS on Low and 184 FPS on Ultra, which is high enough that the CPU is not a bottleneck. The CPU's 24 threads and 64 MB L3 cache are irrelevant for a game that likely uses fewer than 8 threads, so the 3dmark_8_threads score of 6601 is more relevant than the max threads score of 10075.

The CPU's boost clock of 4.80 GHz is high, and the data shows that it can sustain high frame rates at 1080p, where the GPU has more headroom. The fact that the 1080p Low score of 249 FPS is only 32 FPS higher than the 1080p Ultra score of 184 FPS suggests that the CPU is not the primary constraint, as a CPU-bound scenario would show a smaller gap between settings. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4 is adequate for this game, as the GPU's own memory bandwidth is the more critical path. The CPU's 105 W TDP and AMD Socket AM4 platform are standard, but the data shows that the CPU's performance in this game is solid without being spectacular, which is expected given the game's age and engine limitations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers three resolutions and four settings, with average FPS for all and min/max for Medium only. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 249 FPS on Low, 227 FPS on Medium (min 193, max 261), 214 FPS on High, and 184 FPS on Ultra. The gap from Low to Ultra is 65 FPS, which is a 26% reduction. At 2560x1440, it delivers 217 FPS on Low, 180 FPS on Medium (min 153, max 207), 154 FPS on High, and 120 FPS on Ultra. The gap from Low to Ultra is 97 FPS, a 45% reduction. At 3840x2160, it delivers 129 FPS on Low, 99 FPS on Medium (min 84, max 114), 85 FPS on High, and 66 FPS on Ultra. The gap from Low to Ultra is 63 FPS, a 49% reduction.

The Medium preset's min/max data reveals frame pacing. At 1080p, the wide range of 193 to 261 FPS indicates variability, likely from CPU or engine hiccups. At 1440p, the range narrows to 153 to 207 FPS, and at 4K, it narrows further to 84 to 114 FPS. This trend suggests that as the GPU becomes more heavily loaded, the game's frame delivery becomes more consistent, which is a sign that the CPU is causing some micro-stutter at lower resolutions. The 4K Medium min of 84 FPS is still above the 60 FPS threshold, so the experience is smooth, but the 1080p Medium min of 193 FPS is so high that any dip is imperceptible.

The 4K Ultra score of 66 FPS is the lowest measured, and it is the only data point below 70 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset at 4K is the true stress test for this combo. The drop from High to Ultra at 4K is 19 FPS, which is larger than the 14 FPS drop from Medium to High. This non-linear scaling suggests that Ultra introduces a specific effect that is disproportionately expensive. The 1080p Ultra score of 184 FPS is still high, but the 4K Ultra score of 66 FPS shows that the combo is not immune to the game's heaviest settings. The data collectively paints a picture of a combo that is overkill for 1080p and 1440p, but that hits a reasonable ceiling at 4K Ultra, where it still manages to stay above 60 FPS.