The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting challenge for modern high-end hardware. This analysis examines the measured performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, a mobile flagship configuration. The data shows a system capable of very high frame rates, but the game's age and engine characteristics create specific bottlenecks and scaling patterns that are crucial for optimizing the experience.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings balance visual fidelity with frame rate consistency. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 153 FPS, which is a significant drop from the 234 FPS seen at Low but provides a substantially better visual experience. The jump from Medium to High costs 27 FPS on average (180 to 153), while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 33 FPS (153 to 120). The Ultra preset at 1080p is still playable, but the marginal visual gains over High are not worth the 21.6% performance penalty. Therefore, High is the recommended preset for 1080p, offering a smooth experience well above the 144Hz refresh rate common in gaming displays.

At 2560x1440, the High preset again emerges as the best choice. It achieves an average of 100 FPS, which is a 34 FPS reduction from the 153 FPS at 1080p High. The Medium preset provides 117 FPS, but the High preset’s 100 FPS is still comfortably in high-refresh-rate territory. The Ultra preset drops to 78 FPS, which is a 22% decrease from High. The data suggests that at 1440p, the system remains GPU-bound, and the High preset is the sweet spot for maintaining high frame rates while preserving image quality.

For 4K (3840x2160), the situation changes dramatically. The Medium preset is the only viable option for a consistently playable experience. It delivers an average of 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 74 FPS. The High preset averages 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for many users, and the Ultra preset falls to 43 FPS. While the Medium preset requires a visual compromise, it is the only settings level that keeps the average frame rate above 60 FPS. The Low preset at 4K averages 84 FPS, but the visual quality reduction is typically too severe for a game like this. Thus, the recommendation is to prioritize the Medium preset at 4K to maintain fluidity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use for a 144Hz monitor?

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 with the High preset is the only combination that consistently exceeds 144 FPS, with an average of 153 FPS. At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 100 FPS, which is suitable for a 100Hz monitor but not a 144Hz one.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance?

A: The Ultra preset imposes a significant performance cost. At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 153 (High) to 120 (Ultra), a 21.6% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is from 100 to 78 FPS, a 22% reduction. This consistent penalty suggests the Ultra preset adds a heavy load without a proportional visual benefit in this title.

Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with compromises. The measured data shows that at 4K, only the Medium preset (65 FPS average) and Low preset (84 FPS average) achieve average frame rates above 60 FPS. The High and Ultra presets fall below 60 FPS, making them less suitable for smooth gameplay on a standard 60Hz display.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this configuration?

A: The only measured minimum FPS values are for the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 153 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 100 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 55 FPS. These figures indicate the frame pacing stability at this setting.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark score compare to its closest rivals?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX has an average benchmark score of 76212. This places it 0.1% above the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (76155) and 0.6% above the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (75779). It is 0.4% below the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (76492) and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (76513).

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking among all tested GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 has a percentile ranking of 88, meaning it performs better than 88% of all GPUs in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score is 60347.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 153 at 1920x1080 to 100 at 2560x1440, a 34.6% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops further from 100 to 55, a 45% decrease. This indicates that the rendering load is scaling almost linearly with the pixel count, which is a strong indicator that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The scaling pattern is consistent across other presets. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 234 at 1080p to 153 at 1440p (a 34.6% reduction) and then to 84 at 4K (a 45.1% reduction from 1440p). The Medium preset follows a similar trend, going from 180 to 117 to 65 FPS. This uniform scaling across all settings confirms that the game’s performance is overwhelmingly determined by the GPU’s pixel throughput. The CPU’s role becomes less significant as resolution increases, as the frame time is dominated by the GPU's rendering work.

This data suggests that at 1080p, the system may be slightly less GPU-bound, as the high frame rates could expose CPU limitations in certain scenes. However, the consistent scaling pattern implies that the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is more than capable of feeding the GPU at all resolutions tested, and the frame rate drops are almost entirely attributable to the increased pixel workload on the RTX 4090. The 4K results, in particular, show that the GPU is working at its limits, with the High preset only managing a 55 FPS average.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database for The Technomancer, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is ranked #588 out of 2825 tested combos. This places the system in the top 20.8% of all tested configurations for this game. The ranking is a measure of the combined performance of the CPU and GPU in this specific title.

While the raw benchmark scores for the individual components are very high, the in-game ranking is not in the top 10. This discrepancy suggests that The Technomancer may not be perfectly optimized to leverage the full potential of this hardware. The game, released in 2016, likely has engine-level limitations that prevent the latest hardware from achieving the same relative performance gains seen in more modern titles. The rank of 588 indicates that there are 587 other combinations that achieve higher average FPS in this specific game, which could include systems with different CPU-GPU pairings that are better suited to the game’s engine.

The rank also implies that the performance ceiling for this game is not solely determined by the quality of the components. The results show that while the RTX 4090 is a top-tier GPU, its performance is capped by the game's engine. The ranking is a useful metric for understanding that a top-tier component pairing does not always guarantee the top in-game performance, especially with older software.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. These specifications make it a powerful multi-threaded processor, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713. However, The Technomancer, being an Action RPG from 2016, is unlikely to utilize all 32 threads effectively.

The game’s performance scaling with resolution suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. The consistent FPS drops from 1080p to 4K indicate that the GPU is the limiting factor. However, the CPU’s single-thread performance is also crucial. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6030 and Passmark single-thread score of 3907 are strong, ensuring that the game's main game logic and draw call processing are handled efficiently. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.40 GHz is particularly beneficial for older games that rely on high single-threaded performance.

While the CPU has a TDP of 55W, its actual power draw can be higher under load, but this is not a factor in the measured FPS. The benchmark scores show a processor that is capable of handling the most demanding CPU-bound tasks, but in this game, its role is to provide a stable foundation for the GPU to operate without frame drops due to CPU stalls. The CPU's 64 MB of L3 cache also helps with faster data access for game assets. The data suggests the 8945HX is a far more capable processor than this game requires, which is a good situation for maintaining consistent frame times.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

1920x1080:

• Low: 234 FPS average.
• Medium: 180 FPS average, with a minimum of 153 and a maximum of 207 FPS.
• High: 153 FPS average.
• Ultra: 120 FPS average.

At 1080p, the system delivers extremely high frame rates. The Low preset approaches 240Hz, while the High preset is perfect for 144Hz displays. The Ultra preset still provides a high level of performance, indicating that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution.

2560x1440:

• Low: 153 FPS average.
• Medium: 117 FPS average, with a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 135 FPS.
• High: 100 FPS average.
• Ultra: 78 FPS average.

At 1440p, the performance scales down as expected. The Low preset still hits 153 FPS, but the High preset drops to the 100 FPS range. The Ultra preset is still playable but falls below the high-refresh-rate threshold. The Medium preset shows good frame pacing with a minimum of 100 FPS.

3840x2160:

• Low: 84 FPS average.
• Medium: 65 FPS average, with a minimum of 55 and a maximum of 74 FPS.
• High: 55 FPS average.
• Ultra: 43 FPS average.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. The Ultra preset is not playable at a smooth frame rate. The High preset averages 55 FPS, which is borderline. The Medium preset is the only one that maintains an average above 60 FPS, though its minimum of 55 FPS shows some dips. Even the Low preset, which often provides a large performance boost, only manages 84 FPS average at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a flagship mobile GPU with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its architecture is Ada Lovelace, built on a 5 nm process. The GPU has a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a TDP of 450 W. These specifications make it one of the most powerful mobile GPUs available.

The performance data in The Technomancer clearly shows that this GPU is the dominant factor in determining frame rates, especially at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops from 153 FPS at 1080p High to 55 FPS at 4K High, a 64% reduction. This significant decrease is a direct result of the GPU having to render four times as many pixels at 4K compared to 1080p. The 24 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as it likely does not exceed 8 GB even at 4K Ultra, meaning memory capacity is not a limiting factor.

The GPU’s raw compute power, with an FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS, is not fully utilized due to the game’s age and likely lack of support for modern rendering techniques like ray tracing. The game is a traditional rasterization title, and while the RTX 4090 excels at this, the game’s engine may not be able to feed the GPU enough work to keep it fully saturated. The benchmark scores for the GPU show a Passmark G3D score of 38194, which is very high, but the in-game performance relative to its own capabilities suggests the game is not a best-case scenario for this hardware. The GPU's role is to provide the massive pixel throughput required for high resolutions, and while it does so, the game's engine limits the absolute maximum frame rate achievable.