The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, shows a wide performance spread across resolutions and settings when paired with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The measured data indicates that this combination is capable of delivering smooth gameplay at most settings, but the demands of 4K resolution push the system to its limits. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS to show where the bottlenecks lie and how to configure the game for the best experience.

Resolution Scaling

The most telling data comes from comparing the average FPS at High settings across the three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system produces 131.4 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 88.7 FPS, a significant reduction of roughly 32.5%. At 3840x2160, the average falls further to 44.4 FPS, which is about 66.2% lower than the 1080p result. This steep decline as resolution increases clearly points to the GPU as the primary limiting factor.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the drop from 198.7 FPS at 1080p to 132.6 FPS at 1440p and then to 74.9 FPS at 4K shows the same trend. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is substantial, but the jump to 4K is the most punishing, halving the frame rate in most cases. This is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 256-bit bus are being saturated by the sheer pixel count.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU has more headroom to feed the GPU, as the 131.4 FPS at High is a strong result. However, at 4K, the GPU's workload becomes so immense that even the powerful Ryzen 9 9900X cannot compensate for the lack of raw graphics processing power. The 38.7 FPS at 4K Ultra is the lowest result in the entire dataset, confirming that the resolution is the single most demanding variable. The frame rate scaling is not linear, which is expected, but the severity of the drop from 1440p to 4K highlights that this game is extremely resolution-sensitive.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance for each preset. For a 60 FPS target, the data shows that 1080p and 1440p are the sweet spots. At 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset delivers 100.6 FPS, comfortably exceeding the target. The Medium preset at 1080p provides a large margin with 158 FPS, and Low pushes it to 198.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 88.7 FPS, which is above 60, and Medium is even better at 102.6 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p, however, drops to 65.9 FPS, which is just barely above the target and could be prone to dips.

For 4K, the situation is more constrained. The data shows that 3840x2160 at High settings yields only 44.4 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset at 4K is better at 52.6 FPS but still falls short. The Low preset is the only 4K option that breaks the 60 FPS barrier, achieving 74.9 FPS. Given these numbers, the best experience for a high-refresh-rate monitor at 1080p would be the Ultra preset, as it provides a high frame rate with presumably the best visual quality. For 1440p, the High preset offers the best balance, as it maintains a strong frame rate without the significant performance cost of Ultra. For 4K, the recommendation is to play at Low settings to ensure a playable frame rate, or to accept a lower frame rate at Medium for better visuals, as the 38.7 FPS at Ultra is not a smooth experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 and a single-core score of 6555. In the context of this game, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, except at lower resolutions.

At 1080p, the high frame rates of 198.7 FPS at Low and 158 FPS at Medium indicate that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU effectively. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 12552 and the max-thread score of 13929 suggest that the processor has ample multi-threaded performance for modern game engines. The CPU's percentile ranking of 94 among all CPUs reinforces its top-tier status. Compared to its nearest rivals, it is nearly identical in average score to the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, with a delta of -0.4%, and slightly ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700F by 0.7%.

However, the data suggests that The Technomancer does not heavily utilize the CPU's full potential. The fact that frame rates drop so dramatically when moving from 1080p to 4K indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck long before the CPU runs out of processing power. The 12 cores and 24 threads are likely more than sufficient for this 2016 title, which was designed for a generation of hardware with fewer cores. The CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by the 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6555, is likely the more relevant factor for game logic and draw calls, and it performs admirably.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play at for a consistent 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings delivers 88.7 FPS, and 1920x1080 at Ultra delivers 100.6 FPS. Both are well above 60 FPS. At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves above 60 FPS with 74.9 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti perform at 4K in this game?

A: The GPU is the main bottleneck at 4K. The highest preset, Ultra, averages only 38.7 FPS, while High and Medium average 44.4 FPS and 52.6 FPS, respectively. Only the Low preset, at 74.9 FPS, provides a smooth frame rate.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X a limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. At 1080p, frame rates are very high (198.7 FPS at Low), suggesting the CPU can handle the workload. The significant FPS drops at higher resolutions point to the GPU being the limiting component.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X compare to its closest rival, the 9900X3D?

A: The 9900X has an average benchmark score of 54450, which is 0.4% lower than the 9900X3D's score of 54681. This difference is negligible in real-world gaming performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: The Low preset averages 132.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 65.9 FPS. This represents a 50.3% decrease in performance when moving from Low to Ultra, a significant cost for higher visual fidelity.

Q: Does the GPU's VRAM capacity appear to be an issue in this game?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti has 8 GB of GDDR6X memory. While the data does not explicitly show VRAM usage, the steep performance drop at 4K Ultra is consistent with a GPU that is both compute-bound and potentially memory-limited by its 8 GB capacity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the clear performance driver in this pairing, and its characteristics define the gaming experience. With a boost clock of 1770 MHz and 6144 shading units, it has a theoretical FP32 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 23356, place it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's performance is heavily influenced by both resolution and settings. At 1080p, the GPU is able to deliver high frame rates, with the Ultra preset hitting 100.6 FPS. This shows that the card has enough raw power for 1080p gaming. However, the data also shows its limitations. At 1440p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 65.9 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 38.7 FPS. This indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is not a 4K-class card for this title, as it cannot maintain playable frame rates at high or ultra settings.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, which has a score 0.3% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 6700, which is 0.8% lower. This shows that while the RTX 3070 Ti is a solid performer, it is in a competitive performance tier. The 8 GB VRAM is a point of concern for 4K, as the game's texture and geometry demands at that resolution likely exceed what the memory can efficiently handle, contributing to the low frame rates. For a smooth experience, the data suggests that this GPU is best utilized at 1440p or below, where it can deliver high frame rates. The combination of the 1770 MHz boost clock and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth allows it to excel at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results are underwhelming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured average FPS is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 198.7 FPS
• Medium: 158 FPS
• High: 131.4 FPS
• Ultra: 100.6 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 132.6 FPS
• Medium: 102.6 FPS
• High: 88.7 FPS
• Ultra: 65.9 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 74.9 FPS
• Medium: 52.6 FPS
• High: 44.4 FPS
• Ultra: 38.7 FPS

The data reveals a consistent pattern: at each resolution, the frame rate decreases as the settings increase. The difference between Low and Ultra is substantial. At 1080p, the gap is 98.1 FPS, at 1440p it is 66.7 FPS, and at 4K it is 36.2 FPS. This shows that the performance cost of the Ultra preset is significant at all resolutions. The 4K results are particularly telling, as even the High preset cannot reach 45 FPS, making the game difficult to play smoothly at that resolution. The best measured performance is at 1080p Low with 198.7 FPS, while the worst is at 4K Ultra with 38.7 FPS. This range of results gives a clear picture of the system's capabilities and limitations. The combo rank in the database is 674 out of 1656 combinations, which places this setup in the top 40.7% of tested configurations for this game.