The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting challenge for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination. The benchmark data reveals a pairing where the modern, high-end CPU is largely untaxed, while the GPU becomes the primary arbiter of performance across different settings and resolutions. The measured FPS figures indicate a system that can deliver smooth gameplay, but the margins between presets and the steep penalties at higher resolutions tell a clear story about where the bottleneck lies in this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results for The Technomancer show that the optimal settings preset is heavily dependent on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread of average FPS across the available presets. The Low preset achieves an average of 169 FPS, while High reaches 111 FPS, and Medium sits at 130 FPS. The Ultra preset, however, drops to an average of 86 FPS. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot, offering a substantial increase over High while maintaining an average well above the 100 FPS threshold. The High preset is also viable, but the data suggests that the visual jump from Medium to High comes at a significant performance cost of 19 FPS on average.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance landscape shifts. The Low preset still leads with an average of 110 FPS, but the High preset drops to 72 FPS. Medium provides a more balanced 85 FPS average. The Ultra preset, at 56 FPS average, begins to feel less fluid for fast-paced action. The recommendation here leans towards the Medium preset, which provides a smooth experience that is likely to be indistinguishable from High for most users in this older title, while the gap in FPS is considerable. The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates, likely sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a game that is not competitive in nature.

At 3840x2160, the data indicates that the RTX 4060 is under significant strain. The Low preset is the only one that manages to break the 60 FPS barrier, with an average of 61 FPS. The Medium preset falls to 47 FPS, High to 40 FPS, and Ultra to a playable but less smooth 31 FPS average. For a 4K experience, the Low preset is the only configuration that consistently provides a fluid frame rate above 60 FPS. The Medium preset could be considered if the user is willing to accept a lower frame rate, but the data strongly suggests that High and Ultra are not ideal for 4K gameplay in this title. The performance drop from Low to Medium at this resolution is 14 FPS, a significant penalty that does not appear to be worth the visual upgrade based on the measured data.

How This Combo Ranks

The overall ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in The Technomancer is recorded as rank 1497 out of 2825 tested combos. This places the system in the middle of the pack, which is a somewhat surprising result given the pedigree of the components. The data suggests that while the CPU is a top-tier performer in synthetic benchmarks, the GPU is the limiting factor in this game, preventing the combo from achieving a higher percentile ranking. The ranking implies that a significant number of other tested combinations, likely with more powerful GPUs, deliver higher average frame rates in this specific title.

The CPU itself holds a 91st percentile ranking when compared to all CPUs, indicating its immense processing power. However, this strength is not fully utilized in The Technomancer, as the game's performance metrics are largely dictated by the GPU. The GPU, in contrast, holds a 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs, which is more reflective of its mid-range positioning. The disconnect between the CPU's high percentile and the combo's middling rank highlights a classic bottleneck scenario where the graphics card cannot keep pace with the processor's capabilities. The data implies that pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would yield a significantly higher combo rank, but with the RTX 4060, the system is firmly placed in the middle of the performance hierarchy for this title.

The nearest rivals for the CPU, such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF with a deltaPct of -0.6%, show that the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is performing as expected in general benchmarks. This further reinforces the idea that the CPU is not the source of any performance deficit in The Technomancer. The bottleneck is clearly on the GPU side, as evidenced by the measured FPS data and the combo's overall rank.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. In The Technomancer, a title from 2016, the memory capacity is likely sufficient for the game's textures and assets at most settings. However, the 128-bit memory interface may contribute to performance limitations at higher resolutions, where the demand for memory bandwidth increases. The GPU's boost clock is rated at 2460 MHz, and its performance in the game aligns with its mid-range position in the market.

The data shows that the GPU is the primary determinant of performance in The Technomancer. At 1920x1080, the GPU is able to push average frame rates from 86 FPS on Ultra to 169 FPS on Low. This wide range indicates that the GPU is being fully utilized and is the main factor in the frame rate differences between presets. The RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 17639 places it near the AMD Radeon HD 7790, which has a deltaPct of -0.2%. This suggests that while the RTX 4060 is a modern card, its raw performance in this game is comparable to much older hardware, which confirms the game's age and its lower graphics demands.

The GPU's role becomes even more apparent at 3840x2160. The average FPS drops to 61 on Low settings and to 31 on Ultra. This significant performance degradation is a direct result of the GPU's limited memory bandwidth and processing power when handling the increased pixel count. The RTX 4060 is simply not designed for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming, and the data for The Technomancer confirms this, showing that it can only manage a playable frame rate at the lowest settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at the RTX 4060's performance in The Technomancer. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 169 FPS, which is exceptionally high and indicates that the GPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution and setting. The Medium preset averages 130 FPS, with a minimum of 110 FPS and a maximum of 149 FPS, showing good frame time consistency. The High preset averages 111 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 86 FPS. These numbers show a clear and consistent scaling of performance as graphical settings are increased.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease as expected. The Low preset averages 110 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 85 FPS, with a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. The High preset delivers an average of 72 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 56 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, with the Low preset losing 59 FPS on average and the Ultra preset losing 30 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is beginning to struggle with the increased resolution, but the frame rates remain playable at most settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overburdened. The Low preset manages an average of 61 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset drops to 47 FPS, the High preset to 40 FPS, and the Ultra preset to 31 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum FPS of 40 and a maximum of 53, showing some variation in frame times. These numbers indicate that the RTX 4060 is not a suitable card for 4K gaming in this title, as only the lowest settings can provide a consistently smooth experience.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is steep and reveals the GPU-bound nature of this system in The Technomancer. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 111 at 1080p to 72 at 1440p and finally to 40 at 4K. This represents a 64% decrease in performance from 1080p to 4K. Similarly, at the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 169 at 1080p to 110 at 1440p and then to 61 at 4K, a 64% decrease as well. This consistent scaling pattern across different presets strongly indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, as its workload increases exponentially with the number of pixels rendered.

The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rates would remain relatively constant as resolution increases, because the CPU's workload is primarily related to game logic and draw calls, which do not change with resolution. The fact that the frame rates halve from 1080p to 4K is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. The RTX 4060's memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s appears to be a limiting factor at higher resolutions, where the demand for texture data and pixel fill rate increases significantly.

The implication of this scaling is that users with this combo should prioritize lowering resolution to achieve higher frame rates, rather than relying on the powerful CPU to compensate. The data suggests that the RTX 4060 is the component that must be upgraded to improve performance at 1440p and 4K in this game. The CPU, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is more than capable of handling the game's processing requirements, but it cannot overcome the GPU's limitations.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D 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 5.50 GHz. It features a large 128 MB L3 cache, which is beneficial for gaming. However, in The Technomancer, the CPU's role appears to be minimal. The benchmark results show that the CPU is not a limiting factor, as the frame rates are consistently high at 1080p and scale down with resolution in a manner consistent with a GPU bottleneck.

The CPU's synthetic benchmarks are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 47737 and a single-core score of 6739. Its average benchmark score is 54762, which places it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. Despite this massive processing power, the game's performance is not tied to the CPU. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system can achieve 169 FPS, which is near the theoretical limit of what the GPU can output. This suggests that even at lower settings, the GPU is still the primary driver of performance.

The data indicates that the CPU is effectively "waiting" for the GPU at all times. The high core count and clock speeds are not being fully utilized, as The Technomancer likely does not have the multi-threading optimization to take advantage of 24 threads. The game, being from 2016, is likely more dependent on single-core performance, but even that is not a concern for the 9900X3D, which excels in single-threaded tasks. In this specific case, the CPU's vast capabilities are irrelevant to the game's performance, and it serves only to ensure that there is no CPU-induced frame rate cap.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1920x1080 on this system?

A: The Medium preset appears to offer the best balance, with an average FPS of 130. This is significantly higher than the High preset's 111 FPS, while still providing a better visual experience than the Low preset's 169 FPS.

Q: Can this system run The Technomancer at 4K smoothly?

A: The data shows that only the Low preset at 3840x2160 achieves an average FPS above 60, with a score of 61. The Medium, High, and Ultra presets all fall below this threshold, with averages of 47, 40, and 31 FPS respectively.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear limiting factor. This is evidenced by the steep performance drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, where average FPS at the High preset falls from 111 to 40. The CPU's strong synthetic benchmark scores indicate it is not the bottleneck.

Q: How does the average FPS change from the Low to Ultra preset at 2560x1440?

A: The average FPS decreases from 110 on Low to 56 on Ultra at 2560x1440. This represents a significant 54 FPS drop across the settings presets, highlighting the GPU's workload.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among other tested systems?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is ranked 1497 out of 2825 tested combos for this game, placing it in the middle of the performance range.

Q: Does the RTX 4060's 8 GB of VRAM appear to be a problem in this game?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, there is no direct evidence of VRAM limitations. The performance scaling is consistent with a GPU compute or bandwidth bottleneck, rather than a memory capacity issue, as frame rates drop uniformly across all settings when resolution increases.