The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, shows distinctly different performance behavior with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER depending on resolution. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 259.8 FPS average, while Ultra settings at the same resolution drop that to 135.5 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the range narrows: Low produces 168.4 FPS, High produces 109.2 FPS, and Ultra falls to 88 FPS. At 4K, the ceiling comes down further, with Low hitting 93.4 FPS and Ultra dropping to 49.6 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings — from 171.9 FPS down to 61.9 FPS — represents a 64% reduction in frame rate, which is a substantial burden placed on the rendering pipeline. This pattern indicates that at 1080p, the system has ample headroom, but as pixel count rises, the GPU becomes the limiting factor more decisively.

The 1080p to 1440p transition at High settings shows a drop from 171.9 FPS to 109.2 FPS, a 36% decrease. The 1440p to 4K transition at the same settings shows a further drop from 109.2 FPS to 61.9 FPS, a 43% decrease. These diminishing returns at higher resolutions point to a system where the CPU can feed frames quickly at lower resolutions, but the GPU’s workload scales faster than its ability to process. At 4K Ultra, the 49.6 FPS average sits just below the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting that the most demanding settings will strain the combo. The data shows that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p to the GPU at 4K, with the crossover occurring somewhere in the 1440p range where the frame rates become more moderate.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS across resolutions reveals how the balance between CPU and GPU shifts as pixel count increases. At 1080p Low, the 259.8 FPS average is so high that it suggests the CPU is the primary constraint, as the GPU has relatively little work to do per frame. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, provides enough compute headroom to push frame rates far beyond typical display refresh rates. At 4K Low, the same settings yield 93.4 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 64% drop from the 1080p figure. This drop is primarily due to the GPU having to fill four times the pixel area, and the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth become more relevant.

The scaling from Medium to Ultra settings at each resolution shows a consistent pattern. At 1080p, Medium produces 200 FPS, High produces 171.9 FPS, and Ultra produces 135.5 FPS. At 1440p, the same progression yields 128.8 FPS, 109.2 FPS, and 88 FPS. At 4K, it yields 72.4 FPS, 61.9 FPS, and 49.6 FPS. The gap between Medium and Ultra widens at higher resolutions — at 1080p the difference is 64.5 FPS, at 1440p it is 40.8 FPS, and at 4K it is 22.8 FPS. This narrowing suggests that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes saturated, and the relative cost of higher settings diminishes in absolute terms but remains significant in percentage terms.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 1313 MHz, yielding an effective data rate of 21 Gbps and a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s across a 192-bit bus. These specifications directly influence the 4K results, where the 49.6 FPS average at Ultra settings suggests that memory bandwidth and shading throughput are the constraining factors. The GPU’s 7168 shading units and 80 ROPs handle pixel processing, but the 4K Ultra workload appears to exceed what the card can sustain at 60 FPS.

The GPU’s benchmark scores contextualize its position. In Passmark G3D, it scores 29995, and in Passmark GPU Compute, it scores 17108. Its average benchmark score is 42576, placing it at the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, has an average score of 42653, which is 0.2% higher, indicating that the RTX 4070 SUPER is essentially on par with that workstation card in synthetic tests. In actual game performance, the 4K High result of 61.9 FPS shows that the card can handle 4K, but only at reduced settings. The 4K Low result of 93.4 FPS suggests that lowering settings provides a significant boost, likely because the GPU’s fixed memory bandwidth is less of a bottleneck when texture quality and shading complexity are reduced.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. Its base clock is 4.30 GHz with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, and it features 128 MB of shared L3 cache. This large cache is particularly beneficial for gaming workloads, where data reuse is common. In multi-threaded benchmarks, the CPU scores 59712 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 25079 in R20 multicore, while single-core scores are 8430 and 3540 respectively. These numbers place it at the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 71660.

The CPU’s nearest rivals highlight its performance tier. The Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 has an average score of 71056, which is 0.9% lower, while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420, which is 1.8% lower. The Intel Xeon 6517P scores 73050, which is 1.9% higher, and the Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70104, which is 2.2% lower. This data shows that the 9950X3D is competitive with high-end workstation and desktop parts, but the differences are small, within 2.2%. In the context of The Technomancer, the CPU’s high single-thread performance — evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 3401 — ensures that at 1080p Low, where the GPU is underutilized, the CPU can maintain 259.8 FPS without becoming a bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 109.2 FPS, which provides a smooth experience for most displays.

Q: Is 4K Ultra settings playable with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 49.6, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Lowering to High settings at 4K brings the average to 61.9 FPS, which is playable.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has an average benchmark score of 71660, which is 1.8% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and 0.9% higher than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270. It trails the Intel Xeon 6517P by 1.9%.

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER is at the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42576, placing it close to the NVIDIA RTX A6000, which scores 42653.

Q: Does lowering settings from Ultra to Low at 1080p provide a large boost?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080, Ultra settings yield 135.5 FPS, while Low settings yield 259.8 FPS, an increase of 124.3 FPS or roughly 92%.

Q: Which component is the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data shows that at 4K, the GPU is the limiting factor, as frame rates drop significantly from 1080p levels, and the CPU has ample headroom to handle the lower per-frame workload.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 264th out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places it in the top 16% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing for a system built around a high-end CPU and a mid-to-high-end GPU. The rank reflects that while the GPU is not the absolute fastest, the CPU’s performance helps boost the overall result. Given that the CPU is at the 96th percentile and the GPU is at the 84th percentile, the combo’s rank of 264 suggests that the game benefits more from CPU performance than GPU performance in some scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU is more active.

The ranking also implies that there are 263 other combos that perform better, likely featuring faster GPUs or more balanced configurations. However, the fact that this combo outperforms 1392 other combinations indicates that it is well-suited for this game, especially considering that The Technomancer is an older title from 2016 that may not fully utilize the latest hardware. The measured data confirms that the combo delivers playable frame rates at all tested settings except 4K Ultra, which is a demanding scenario for any hardware.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the data suggests using High settings at 1440p, which yields 109.2 FPS average. This provides a substantial improvement over Ultra settings at the same resolution, which drops to 88 FPS, while maintaining a high level of visual fidelity. At 1080p, High settings produce 171.9 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays, and even Ultra at 1080p delivers 135.5 FPS, making it a viable option for those who prioritize image quality over raw frame rate.

For 4K gaming, the recommendation is to use High settings, which produces 61.9 FPS average. This is just above the 60 FPS target, providing a smooth experience without the performance hit of Ultra settings, which drop to 49.6 FPS. Medium settings at 4K yield 72.4 FPS, offering a more comfortable margin above 60 FPS if the user prefers to avoid any dips. Low settings at any resolution provide the highest frame rates — 259.8 FPS at 1080p, 168.4 FPS at 1440p, and 93.4 FPS at 4K — but these come at the cost of reduced visual quality. The data indicates that High settings at 1440p is the sweet spot, as it provides frame rates well above 60 FPS while retaining enough detail to appreciate the game’s art style.