The Technomancer

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers a distinctive performance profile in The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG that scales heavily with resolution and settings. The data shows a combination that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet reveals a surprising ceiling at 1080p that points to the game's engine limitations rather than the hardware. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, contextualizes the combo's rank among 1,656 tested configurations, and examines the GPU's role in the results.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent with a GPU-bound workload. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 215.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 144.6 FPS at 2560x1440, a 33% reduction, and then to 78.9 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 45% drop. This pattern indicates that the RTX 5090's rendering throughput is the primary constraint as pixel count increases. The 4K Ultra result of 60.8 FPS represents a 65% reduction from the 1080p Ultra figure of 175.5 FPS, showing that the most demanding settings nearly triple the render load.

At 1080p, the scaling between settings reveals a different story. The jump from Low (247.2 FPS) to Ultra (175.5 FPS) is a 29% performance penalty, but the gap between Medium (225.3 FPS) and High (215.6 FPS) is only 4.3%. This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU and the game's engine begin to assert a stronger influence, as the RTX 5090 is capable of far higher frame rates than the engine can feed. The 1440p results reinforce this: Low hits 213.9 FPS, while Ultra drops to 112.4 FPS, a 47% delta that highlights how the GPU becomes more dominant as resolution climbs.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K at each setting is remarkably uniform. Low falls by 43%, Medium by 45%, High by 45%, and Ultra by 46%. This consistency indicates that the limiting component shifts cleanly to the GPU at 4K, with no sudden CPU bottleneck emerging. The 4K Ultra figure of 60.8 FPS is the only result below the 60 FPS threshold, making it the sole scenario where the combination fails to maintain a fluid experience.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 1,656 tested CPU-GPU combinations in The Technomancer, this pairing holds the 44th position. That places it in the top 2.7% of all configurations, a strong showing that reflects the raw power of both components. The CPU itself sits at the 93rd percentile against all processors, while the GPU is at the 94th percentile against all graphics cards, so the hardware is near the top of the stack. The combo rank of 44 is slightly lower than either component's individual percentile might suggest, which indicates that the game's engine does not fully utilize the available hardware headroom.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its contribution. The Ryzen 9 5950X has an average benchmark score of 49,062, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i5-14600K (49,166, a delta of -0.2%) and the Intel Core i5-14600KF (49,367, a delta of -0.6%). The AMD EPYC 4345P (49,595) is 1.1% ahead, while the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698) trails by 0.7%. This clustering shows that the 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads deliver comparable compute performance to newer mid-range parts, though the game likely does not scale beyond a handful of threads.

The GPU's rivals tell a similar story. The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84,306 is within 1.6% of the NVIDIA CMP 40HX (85,637) and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (83,209). The closest match is the RTX 5090 D at 84,241, a mere 0.1% difference. This near-parity with other high-end cards suggests that the RTX 5090's architectural advantages in newer titles do not translate into a decisive edge in The Technomancer, which was released years before the card's Blackwell architecture.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture card built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with a die size of 750 mm² and 92,200 million transistors. It operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus yields a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. These specifications place the card in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 39,650 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,411.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's role shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the card's massive bandwidth and FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS are largely underutilized, as the frame rates top out at 247.2 FPS on Low settings. The 32 GB VRAM is irrelevant at these settings, as the game's textures from 2016 are unlikely to exceed even 8 GB. The GPU's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are more than sufficient for the game's rendering demands, which is why the bottleneck moves to the CPU and engine at lower resolutions.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The 78.9 FPS High result and 60.8 FPS Ultra result show that the card is working near its limits, though the 121.1 FPS Low figure demonstrates that even at 4K, the game's simpler effects allow the GPU to stretch its legs. The 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth is likely a key enabler here, as 4K rendering with high-quality textures requires substantial data throughput. The boost clock of 2407 MHz provides the compute headroom needed to maintain frame rates above 60 FPS in most settings, with Ultra being the lone exception.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data covers three resolutions and four settings, providing a complete picture of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are: Low at 247.2, Medium at 225.3, High at 215.6, and Ultra at 175.5. The spread from Low to Ultra is 71.7 FPS, a 29% penalty for maximum quality. The step from High to Ultra is the largest single drop at 40.1 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings introduce effects that disproportionately burden the render pipeline.

At 2560x1440, the figures are: Low at 213.9, Medium at 172.8, High at 144.6, and Ultra at 112.4. The drop from Low to Medium is 41.1 FPS, which is the largest step in this resolution, suggesting that medium-quality shadows or post-processing have a significant cost. The High to Ultra step is 32.2 FPS, bringing the total penalty from Low to Ultra to 101.5 FPS, or 47%.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 121.1, Medium at 95.4, High at 78.9, and Ultra at 60.8. Every setting step costs between 18.1 and 25.7 FPS, with the Low to Medium drop being the largest at 25.7 FPS. The Ultra result of 60.8 FPS is just above the 60 FPS line, making it the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches the minimum playability threshold. The 4K Low result of 121.1 FPS shows that even at the highest resolution, the card can deliver high frame rates when settings are reduced.

Comparatively, the 1080p High result of 215.6 FPS is 2.7 times the 4K High result of 78.9 FPS, while the 1080p Ultra result of 175.5 FPS is 2.9 times the 4K Ultra figure. This scaling ratio is consistent across settings, confirming that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary determinants of performance at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings configuration for 4K gaming on this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset yields an average of 60.8 FPS, which is borderline playable. Dropping to High improves this to 78.9 FPS, a 30% increase, while Medium reaches 95.4 FPS and Low hits 121.1 FPS. For a consistent 60+ FPS experience, High settings are the safest choice.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested configurations?

A: It ranks 44th out of 1,656 total combos, placing it in the top 2.7%. Both the CPU (93rd percentile) and GPU (94th percentile) are near the top of their respective lists, though the game's engine prevents the combo from reaching the absolute highest ranks.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the CPU and game engine become the primary constraint. The Low preset reaches 247.2 FPS, but the gap between Medium (225.3 FPS) and High (215.6 FPS) is small, indicating that the RTX 5090 is not fully utilized. The 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X has enough compute power, but the game's single-threaded nature limits scaling.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 29% slower than Low (175.5 vs 247.2 FPS). At 1440p, the penalty is 47% (112.4 vs 213.9 FPS). At 4K, Ultra is 50% slower than Low (60.8 vs 121.1 FPS). The increasing penalty at higher resolutions confirms the GPU becomes more dominant as pixel count grows.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: The game was released in 2016, and its texture requirements are modest. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory is far beyond what The Technomancer needs at any resolution or setting. The card's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is more relevant, as it helps maintain frame rates at 4K where the render load is highest.

Q: How close are the nearest CPU rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 9 5950X scores 49,062 on average, which is within 1.1% of the Intel Core i5-14600K (49,166), Intel Core i5-14600KF (49,367), and AMD EPYC 4345P (49,595). The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H trails by 0.7% at 48,698. These differences are negligible in gaming terms.