The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a varied performance landscape for the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination. The measured data indicates that this pairing offers a range of experiences from highly playable to demanding, depending on the resolution and settings selected. The benchmark results show a clear hierarchy where the GPU's capabilities are the primary driver of frame rates, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a bottleneck in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting a smooth 60 FPS experience, the data suggests that the High preset is the optimal choice for 1440p and 4K resolutions. At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers an average of 87.3 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a significant visual upgrade over lower settings. At 3840x2160, the High preset yields an average of 47.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but still playable for a slower-paced Action RPG, making it the best balance of visual fidelity and performance at that resolution. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs only 11.4 FPS (from 98.7 to 87.3), but the visual improvements are typically substantial, making High the recommended setting.

For 1080p users, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation. The measured average of 103.3 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings provides a high-refresh-rate experience that fully utilizes the hardware. The performance headroom is ample, as the step down to High only yields a 30.2 FPS increase (to 133.5 FPS), which is less critical than the visual gains from Ultra. Choosing Ultra at 1080p ensures the game looks its best while maintaining frame rates that are well above the standard 60 FPS target, making it the ideal preset for this resolution.

At 4K, the Medium preset is the most pragmatic choice for those seeking a balance between quality and fluidity. With an average of 55 FPS, Medium at 3840x2160 is the only preset that comes close to the 60 FPS target without the significant visual compromises of Low (73.6 FPS). The step from Medium to High at 4K results in a 7.8 FPS drop (to 47.2 FPS), which may be too steep for some, but the visual enhancement is often worth it if the player can tolerate the lower frame rate. The Ultra preset at 4K, with an average of 35.1 FPS, falls below the threshold for comfortable play and should be avoided for action sequences.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its characteristics directly shape the game's performance. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for The Technomancer at all tested settings, as the data shows no evidence of a memory capacity limit even at 4K Ultra. The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1575 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, are the primary drivers of the frame rates seen in the measured results.

The GPU's compute capabilities, with 6144 shading units and a FP32 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS, are well-suited for the game's rendering demands. The measured FPS data shows a consistent pattern where the GPU is the limiting factor, particularly at higher resolutions. For example, at 1080p Ultra, the game achieves 103.3 FPS, but at 1440p Ultra, this drops to 69.7 FPS, a 33.6 FPS reduction that aligns with the increased pixel count. The RTX 3070 Ti's performance percentile of 74 versus all GPUs indicates it is a high-end part, and the data confirms this, as it delivers playable frame rates even at 4K with adjusted settings.

The GPU's memory bandwidth also plays a role in the scaling between settings. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 61.5 FPS (131.2 to 69.7), which is a larger absolute gap than what would be expected if the CPU were the limiting factor. This indicates that the GPU's shading and texture units are being pushed harder as settings increase, with the 8 GB VRAM not presenting a barrier.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks at 689 out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the pairing in the top 42% of all configurations, which is a solid result given the game's age and the hardware's profile. The rank is more indicative of the GPU's strength than the CPU's, as the data shows the frame rates are primarily GPU-bound.

The CPU, with a percentile of 73 versus all CPUs, is a mid-range part that is paired with a high-end GPU. In this specific game, the CPU does not hold the GPU back, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% higher average score) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% lower), but these differences are negligible in real-world gaming. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (0.8% lower score) and the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (0.3% higher score), are similarly close in synthetic benchmarks, but the measured game data shows the RTX 3070 Ti provides a robust experience.

The combo rank of 689 suggests that while there are faster configurations, this pairing is well above the median. The data indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is the primary reason for this rank, as the CPU's performance is adequate but not exceptional. For a game like The Technomancer, which is not heavily multithreaded, the i5-10400F's six cores and twelve threads are more than sufficient.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at the performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 183.7 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combination. The Medium preset drops to 153.5 FPS, a 30.2 FPS reduction, while High yields 133.5 FPS, another 20 FPS decrease. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with an average of 103.3 FPS. This scaling shows a clear 80.4 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's workload increases significantly with each preset level.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably. Low settings produce an average of 131.2 FPS, which is 52.5 FPS lower than the same settings at 1080p. Medium settings yield 98.7 FPS, a 54.8 FPS drop from 1080p Medium. High settings average 87.3 FPS, which is 46.2 FPS lower than 1080p High. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 69.7 FPS, a 33.6 FPS reduction from 1080p Ultra. The relative gaps between settings at 1440p are similar to those at 1080p, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low settings average 73.6 FPS, which is 57.6 FPS lower than 1440p Low. Medium settings average 55 FPS, a 43.7 FPS drop from 1440p Medium. High settings yield 47.2 FPS, a 40.1 FPS reduction from 1440p High. The Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding, with an average of 35.1 FPS, which is 34.6 FPS lower than 1440p Ultra. The data shows that 4K is the only resolution where the Ultra preset falls below the 40 FPS threshold, making it the least desirable combination.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a steep performance curve that underscores the GPU-bound nature of this pairing. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 183.7 at 1080p to 131.2 at 1440p, a 28.6% reduction, and then to 73.6 at 4K, a further 43.9% reduction from 1440p. This represents a total drop of 110.1 FPS from 1080p to 4K, or a 59.9% decrease. The scaling is not linear, with the jump from 1440p to 4K being more punishing than from 1080p to 1440p, which is expected due to the quadrupling of pixel count from 1440p to 4K.

At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 153.5 at 1080p to 98.7 at 1440p (a 35.7% reduction) and then to 55 at 4K (a 44.3% reduction from 1440p). The total decrease from 1080p to 4K is 98.5 FPS, or 64.2%. This pattern shows that the GPU is being saturated at 4K, with the 8 GB of VRAM and the memory bandwidth becoming more critical. The High settings follow a similar trend, with a drop from 133.5 FPS at 1080p to 87.3 FPS at 1440p (34.6% reduction) and then to 47.2 FPS at 4K (45.9% reduction from 1440p).

The Ultra settings show the most significant scaling. The FPS drops from 103.3 at 1080p to 69.7 at 1440p (a 32.5% reduction) and then to 35.1 at 4K (a 49.6% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 68.2 FPS, or 66.0%. This data indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is the limiting component across all settings, as the CPU's performance is consistent and does not show signs of bottlenecking. The scaling percentages are remarkably consistent across settings, which is a hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario, where the frame rate is directly proportional to the pixel processing workload.