The Technomancer

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for The Technomancer with the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti show a predictable but steep decline as resolution climbs. At 1080p with High settings, the combo delivers 95.6 FPS average. Moving to 1440p drops that to 63.5 FPS, a reduction of roughly one-third. At 4K, the average falls to 31.3 FPS, which is just under half of the 1440p figure and slightly below one-third of the 1080p number. This scaling pattern suggests the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor as pixel count rises, which is typical for a mid-range graphics card paired with a modern quad-core processor.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 143.6 FPS, which drops to 91 FPS at 1440p and 49.9 FPS at 4K. The percentage losses are consistent across presets, indicating that the rendering load scales uniformly with resolution regardless of quality level. The Ultra preset, however, shows the most severe drop at 4K, falling to 28.6 FPS — a figure that is only marginally above the threshold for playable frame rates. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 21.3 FPS, while at 1080p that same gap expands to 68.1 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU has more headroom to absorb quality increases at lower resolutions.

The data reveals that the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results show the card struggling to maintain fluid motion. The transition from 1440p to 4K on High settings costs 32.2 FPS, which is a larger absolute drop than the 32.1 FPS reduction from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that the 4K texture and shading workloads push the GPU's 16.20 TFLOPS FP32 throughput to its practical limit. The pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 253.1 GTexel/s are likely the constraining factors at 4K, as the card must fill more than twice the pixels of 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, as evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. The 12 MB shared L3 cache helps maintain responsiveness in gaming workloads that favor lower latency. The CPU's percentile ranking of 72 compared to all CPUs indicates it sits above the median, though its average benchmark score of 13516 places it in competitive territory with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which scores 13534 (a 0.1% difference), and the Intel Core i7-1250U at 13462 (0.4% difference).

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but it becomes more relevant at 1080p. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 143.6 FPS, which is close to the practical ceiling for many display refresh rates. The 4-core design with 8 threads is sufficient to feed the RTX 3060 Ti at this resolution, as the frame rate scales well when quality settings are lowered. The 3DMark 4-thread score of 2859 and 8-thread score of 4026 show that the CPU scales reasonably with additional threads, though the max-thread score of 4023 indicates diminishing returns beyond 8 threads. This aligns with the game's 2016 release date, which predates the widespread adoption of high-core-count CPUs in gaming.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 and Geekbench multicore score of 7413 demonstrate that it can handle multithreaded workloads, but the game's engine likely relies more on single-thread performance. The Cinebench R15 single-core score of 169 and R20 single-core score of 706 are modest figures, yet they prove adequate for maintaining frame rates above 60 FPS at 1440p High. The benchmark data shows no significant CPU bottleneck at any resolution, as the frame rate differences between presets follow the GPU's expected performance curve rather than showing CPU-induced plateaus.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in The Technomancer?

A: The highest measured average is 143.6 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The High preset at the same resolution delivers 95.6 FPS, while Medium reaches 112 FPS and Ultra drops to 75.5 FPS.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: Yes, the measured average at 2560x1440 High is 63.5 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. However, the Ultra preset at the same resolution falls to 47.8 FPS, indicating that High is the highest quality setting that sustains fluid gameplay at 1440p.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 25120. The AMD Radeon RX 6700M scores 25180 (0.2% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6600 scores 25235 (0.5% higher), and the AMD Radeon 890M scores 25246 (0.5% higher). The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP scores 25287, which is 0.7% higher, making it the closest competitor in the dataset.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F better or worse than the Intel Core i7-7700K in average CPU score?

A: The i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13516, which is 1.8% higher than the i7-7700K's score of 13280. The i3 also outperforms the Intel Core i3-10105, which scores 13430 (0.6% lower), and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which scores 13534 (0.1% lower).

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest measured average is 28.6 FPS at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset. The High preset at 4K delivers 31.3 FPS, Medium reaches 37.8 FPS, and Low achieves 49.9 FPS, showing that even the lowest settings cannot reach 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 1170 out of 1656 total tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This ranking reflects the balance between the CPU's 72nd percentile standing and the GPU's 69th percentile among their respective categories.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data suggests that the High preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combination. At 2560x1440 High, the system averages 63.5 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at the same resolution delivers 70.8 FPS, but the visual quality reduction may not justify the 7.3 FPS gain. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 47.8 FPS, making it unsuitable for fast-paced action sequences where frame consistency matters.

For users with 1080p displays, the High preset is the recommended choice, delivering 95.6 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p reaches 112 FPS, which could benefit high-refresh-rate monitors, but the High preset's visual improvements are substantial relative to the 16.4 FPS difference. The Ultra preset at 1080p holds 75.5 FPS, which remains playable but introduces a 20.1 FPS penalty over High. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 143.6 FPS, but this setting is best reserved for competitive scenarios where frame rate takes precedence over visual fidelity.

At 4K, none of the presets achieve 60 FPS. The Low preset comes closest at 49.9 FPS, followed by Medium at 37.8 FPS, High at 31.3 FPS, and Ultra at 28.6 FPS. Given the action RPG genre, which benefits from stable frame pacing, the Medium preset at 4K provides a more consistent experience than High or Ultra, though users prioritizing visual detail may accept the 31.3 FPS of High. The data clearly indicates that 4K gaming with this hardware requires compromising on quality settings, and even then, the frame rates hover near the lower boundary of playability.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination ranks 1170 out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the 29th percentile of the database. This ranking reflects the system's overall performance profile, which is characterized by strong 1080p and 1440p capabilities but limited 4K headroom. The CPU's 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs is offset by the GPU's 69th percentile, resulting in a combination that performs slightly below the median of all tested systems for this particular game.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its contribution. The i3-12100F's average score of 13516 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX at 13534, despite the massive difference in core count and market positioning. This suggests that The Technomancer's engine does not heavily utilize the Threadripper's many cores, and the i3's 4.30 GHz boost clock allows it to compete effectively. The Intel Core i7-1250U at 13462 and Intel Core i3-10105 at 13430 are also close, indicating that the i3-12100F's performance is well-rounded for this workload.

The GPU's competitive position is similarly tight. The RTX 3060 Ti's average score of 25120 is within 0.7% of all four nearest rivals, with the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP at 25287 being the closest. This clustering suggests that the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus width provide a balanced feature set, but the game's rendering demands do not heavily favor one architecture over another. The combo's overall rank of 1170 indicates that while the individual components are competent, their combined performance in The Technomancer places them in the lower half of the testing pool, primarily due to the game's demanding 4K requirements and the system's inability to maintain high frame rates at that resolution.