The Technomancer

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 substantial 64 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support provide a strong foundation for feeding a high-end GPU. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU holds a 94th percentile ranking against all tested processors. Its average benchmark score of 54450 places it within a tight cluster of rivals: it trails the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D by 0.4%, leads the Intel Core i7-14700F by 0.7%, and sits 1.5% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and 1.8% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF. These margins are negligible, meaning the 9900X delivers top-tier compute performance that will not bottleneck a modern graphics card in most scenarios.

For a game like The Technomancer, released in 2016, the CPU's high single-thread performance is particularly relevant. The game's engine, like many action RPGs of that era, tends to rely heavily on a few primary threads for game logic and draw calls. The 9900X’s single-core score of 1286 in 3DMark and 6555 in Cinebench R23 indicates exceptional per-thread capability, ensuring that even older, less scalable engines receive prompt instruction streams. While the game may not utilize all 24 threads, the sheer speed of the available cores prevents the CPU from becoming a limiting factor, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU workload dominates. The data suggests that the processor’s role here is to provide a massive, uncompromising headroom, ensuring frame pacing is consistent regardless of the settings or resolution chosen.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. It operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. The card is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This configuration positions it as a strong 1440p and capable 4K performer. The GPU holds an 84th percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 42576. Its nearest rivals are extremely close: it sits 0.2% behind the NVIDIA RTX A6000, 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, while leading the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 1.4% and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 1.6%. This suggests the RTX 4070 SUPER is a well-balanced mid-to-high-end card with performance that is competitive across a range of workloads.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's role is clearly the dominant factor in determining frame rates, as evidenced by the scaling of FPS with resolution and settings. The card’s 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this title, even at 4K Ultra, as the game's textures and geometry are from 2016 and do not demand excessive memory capacity. The boost clock of 2475 MHz ensures that the card can push high fill rates, which is critical for a game with dense environments and particle effects. The benchmark results show that the RTX 4070 SUPER is not the bottleneck at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 170 FPS on high settings, but it becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases, with 4K Ultra dropping the average FPS to 49.9. This behavior is typical for a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering resolution directly scales the workload on the graphics processor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how the RTX 4070 SUPER handles different presets in The Technomancer. Across all three resolutions, the "Medium" preset offers a significant jump in performance over "High" and "Ultra" while still maintaining a playable experience. At 4K, the "High" preset averages 63.1 FPS, which is smooth, but "Medium" improves this to 71.1 FPS, a notable gain of 8 FPS with likely minimal visual degradation in a game of this age. The "Ultra" preset at 4K averages 49.9 FPS, which dips below the 60 FPS threshold for ideal smoothness. Therefore, for a 4K display, the "Medium" preset appears to be the sweet spot, offering a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

At 1440p, the story is more forgiving. The "High" preset averages 111.3 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. "Medium" pushes this to 129 FPS, and "Low" reaches 171.3 FPS. The "Ultra" preset at 1440p averages 85.4 FPS, which is still perfectly playable and arguably the best choice for visual fidelity at this resolution, as it stays well above 60 FPS. For 1080p, the GPU is so overpowered that even "Ultra" achieves an average of 131 FPS. In this case, the recommendation is to use the "Ultra" preset to maximize visual quality, as the performance cost is trivial. The data indicates that the "Ultra" preset is only problematic at 4K, where the computational load becomes too heavy for the card to maintain high frame rates. The "Low" preset at 1080p yields 259.3 FPS, which is useful for competitive play, but it represents a massive reduction in visual quality for a game that is not competitive in nature.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 271st out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places it in the top 16.4% of all configurations tested. While a rank of 271 is strong, it is not at the very top, which is unsurprising given that the RTX 4070 SUPER is a mid-to-high-end card, not a flagship. The ranking implies that there are 270 other combinations that achieve higher average frame rates, likely featuring more powerful GPUs such as the RTX 4080 or RTX 4090. However, this combo still outperforms the vast majority of tested systems.

The ranking also suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. If it were, we would expect to see this combo rank much lower, as a weak CPU would bottleneck the GPU across all settings. Instead, the 271st rank is consistent with a system that is primarily limited by the GPU's raw rendering power, particularly at higher resolutions. The data shows that this combo can deliver a highly playable experience at 1080p and 1440p with max settings, and even at 4K with a slight settings adjustment. The position within the top 20% of all combos underscores that this is a well-matched, high-performance pairing suitable for a demanding game, even one with older engine limitations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear trend of performance degradation as resolution increases, which points directly to the GPU as the primary limiting component. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on "High" settings, the average FPS drops from 170.9 to 111.3, a reduction of 34.9%. Moving from 1440p to 4K (3840x2160) on the same "High" preset, the average FPS falls from 111.3 to 63.1, a 43.3% reduction. This accelerating rate of decline is a classic indicator of GPU-bound performance, where the number of pixels to render increases quadratically with resolution, placing an ever-increasing load on the graphics card.

The pattern persists across all settings presets. For "Ultra", the drop from 1080p to 1440p is from 131 FPS to 85.4 FPS, and then to 49.9 FPS at 4K. This shows that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is completely saturated, and the frame rate falls below the 60 FPS target. In contrast, if the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates across resolutions, as the CPU workload would not change significantly with resolution. The fact that the FPS drops so dramatically with each resolution increase confirms that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting factor in this system. The 12-core CPU has ample headroom to handle the game's logic at any resolution, but the GPU simply runs out of pixel-pushing capability at 4K with high presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4070 SUPER delivers exceptional performance across all settings. The "Low" preset achieves an average of 259.3 FPS, while "Medium" reaches 200.3 FPS. The "High" preset averages 170.9 FPS, and "Ultra" still maintains a very high 131 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-limited, as the frame rates are so high that the GPU has spare capacity, and the CPU's instruction throughput becomes the ceiling. This is an ideal scenario for a high-refresh-rate 1080p monitor, where even the most demanding preset will easily exceed 120 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's workload. "Low" averages 171.3 FPS, "Medium" averages 129 FPS, and "High" averages 111.3 FPS. The "Ultra" preset at 1440p averages 85.4 FPS, which is still very playable. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, with a roughly 35-40% drop in FPS across all presets, which is expected as the pixel count increases by 78%. This resolution is the sweet spot for this card, offering a great balance between visual fidelity and high frame rates. At 3840x2160, the GPU is pushed to its limits. "Low" averages 91.9 FPS, "Medium" averages 71.1 FPS, and "High" averages 63.1 FPS. The "Ultra" preset drops to 49.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The data shows that for 4K gaming, users should stick to "High" or "Medium" presets to maintain a smooth experience, as "Ultra" is too demanding for this GPU in this title.