The Technomancer

The Technomancer pairs a 6-core Intel Core i5-11400F with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, a combination that lands at rank 1318 out of 3696 tested combos for this game. The data set covers four quality presets across three resolutions, offering a clear picture of how this hardware handles a 2016 Action RPG at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The results show a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU keeps pace comfortably at 1080p, and the measured frames reveal a predictable scaling curve that favors lower presets for high refresh rate displays.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep drop as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which is typical for a game with heavy rendering demands. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 201 FPS at 1080p to 131 FPS at 1440p, then to 72 FPS at 4K. That represents a 35% reduction going from 1080p to 1440p, and another 45% reduction moving from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is consistent across all presets, but the absolute deltas shrink at higher quality settings because the baseline frame rate is lower to begin with.

Looking at High settings, the average goes from 132 FPS at 1080p to 86 FPS at 1440p and finally to 47 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure sits below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth play, which suggests the RTX 3070 Ti is the limiting component at that resolution. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 46 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 39 FPS, so the scaling is roughly linear in absolute terms, but the percentage loss is steeper at the higher end because the starting point is lower.

Ultra settings tell a similar story, with 103 FPS at 1080p, 67 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured value in the entire data set, and it is only about half of the 1440p result, indicating that the GPU is fully saturated at that point. Medium settings follow the same trajectory, with 154 FPS at 1080p, 101 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K, with the 4K Medium average being the only sub-60 result outside of Ultra.

The scaling behavior points to a clear bottleneck shift. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU’s single-thread performance could become relevant, but the measured numbers show no signs of a CPU wall. The RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth are ample for this game’s textures, and the pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s suggests the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. The fact that 1080p Low produces 201 FPS while 4K Low produces only 72 FPS reinforces that the resolution scaling is driven entirely by the GPU’s fill rate and shading capacity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip manufactured on Samsung’s 8 nm process, containing 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die. Its base clock is 1575 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and the memory runs at 1188 MHz, which translates to 19 Gbps effective on GDDR6X. The 8 GB frame buffer is paired with a 256-bit bus, yielding 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. For a game like The Technomancer, released in 2016, this is more than enough memory capacity, and the data confirms that VRAM is not a limiting factor in any of the measured scenarios.

The GPU’s compute specifications include 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, with 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores. The FP32 throughput is rated at 21.75 TFLOPS, which is substantial for a card in this class. The measured FPS at 4K Medium, which averages 55 FPS with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 64 FPS, suggests that the GPU is working near its limits when pixel count increases. The 4K High average of 47 FPS and 4K Ultra average of 37 FPS further indicate that the card’s raw shading power determines the ceiling at this resolution.

At 1440p, the card shows more headroom, with High settings hitting 86 FPS and Low reaching 131 FPS. The gap between Low and High at 1440p is 45 FPS, which is smaller than the 69 FPS gap at 1080p between the same presets. This narrowing suggests that the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution rises, and the CPU’s role diminishes. The RTX 3070 Ti’s texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s are key metrics here, as The Technomancer’s rendering load scales with these units.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 75th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29945. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile, which scores 29928 with a deltaPct of 0.1, and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 at 30095 with a deltaPct of -0.5. The RTX 2080 Ti comes in at 29783 with a deltaPct of 0.5, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 leads slightly at 30433 with a deltaPct of -1.6. These comparisons show that the 3070 Ti is positioned within a tight performance band, but the gaming results here are what matter, and they reveal a card that can handle 1440p High with ease but struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K on higher presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti holds rank 1318 out of 3696 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the upper half of all configurations. That rank reflects the balance between CPU and GPU, where the 6-core processor does not bottleneck the graphics card at most settings. The CPU’s 71st percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17177, is complemented by the GPU’s 75th percentile ranking, creating a pairing that is well matched for this game.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7H12, which scores 17120 with a deltaPct of 0.3, and the Intel Core i5-12450H at 17239 with a deltaPct of -0.4. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G scores 17278 with a deltaPct of -0.6, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U scores 17074 with a deltaPct of 0.6. These differences are within 1%, meaning the i5-11400F is statistically comparable to these processors, but the gaming data shows that the GPU is the dominant factor in this title.

The combo rank of 1318 out of 3696 means that roughly 64% of tested combinations perform better, while 36% perform worse. This is not a top-tier ranking, but it is respectable for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU from the previous generation. The measured FPS data indicates that the combo is capable of excellent 1080p performance, with all presets exceeding 100 FPS, and strong 1440p performance at Low and Medium settings. The 4K results are the weak point, with only Low settings clearing 60 FPS, which aligns with the rank’s middling position.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data suggests that 1080p Ultra is the highest preset that maintains that threshold, averaging 103 FPS. At 1440p, High settings deliver 86 FPS, which is smooth, while Ultra drops to 67 FPS, still playable but with less headroom. At 4K, the only preset that reaches 60 FPS is Low, at 72 FPS, while Medium falls to 55 FPS, which is below the ideal but still playable for many.

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the display’s native resolution. For 1080p users, Ultra is the clear choice, as it offers the highest visual quality while maintaining an average above 100 FPS. The gap between High at 132 FPS and Ultra at 103 FPS is 29 FPS, so if a player has a 144 Hz monitor, High might be preferable to push closer to the refresh rate ceiling. Medium at 154 FPS and Low at 201 FPS are options for competitive play, but the visual trade-offs are unnecessary for most scenarios.

At 1440p, High at 86 FPS is the sweet spot, providing a good balance of fidelity and smoothness. Medium at 101 FPS is also viable, and the difference between High and Medium is 15 FPS, which is noticeable but not dramatic. Ultra at 67 FPS is acceptable for slower-paced exploration, but the 19 FPS drop from High could cause occasional stutter in action sequences. Low at 131 FPS is overkill for most displays, but it does ensure maximum frame pacing.

For 4K, the recommendation is Low at 72 FPS, as it is the only preset that clears 60 FPS. Medium at 55 FPS is a compromise, with a minimum of 47 FPS that might cause visible dips during heavy scenes. High at 47 FPS and Ultra at 37 FPS are not recommended for smooth gameplay, as they fall well below the 60 FPS target. Players with 4K panels should either accept Low settings or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p for a better experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a full range of performance across presets. Low settings produce an average of 201 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire data set. Medium settings average 154 FPS, with a minimum of 131 FPS and a maximum of 178 FPS, indicating a consistent frame delivery. High settings average 132 FPS, while Ultra averages 103 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 98 FPS, meaning that players can nearly double their frame rate by dropping from Ultra to Low, but the visual cost is significant.

At 2560x1440, the averages are lower but still robust. Low settings hit 131 FPS, which is identical to the 1080p Medium minimum, showing that resolution scaling has a strong effect. Medium averages 101 FPS, with a minimum of 86 FPS and a maximum of 116 FPS. High averages 86 FPS, and Ultra averages 67 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 64 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p, confirming that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops sharply. Low settings average 72 FPS, which is the only 4K preset above 60 FPS. Medium averages 55 FPS, with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 64 FPS, showing that even the frame range is tighter at this resolution. High averages 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 35 FPS, which is the smallest spread across all resolutions, indicating that the GPU’s raw throughput is nearly exhausted regardless of the preset chosen.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max values recorded for all three resolutions, providing a useful comparison. At 1080p, the minimum is 131 FPS and the maximum is 178 FPS, a range of 47 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 86 FPS and the maximum is 116 FPS, a range of 30 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 47 FPS and the maximum is 64 FPS, a range of 17 FPS. This narrowing range with higher resolution suggests that the GPU is consistently saturated, reducing frame time variability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm process with a die size of 276 mm². It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The memory support is DDR4 in dual-channel configuration, providing 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU’s TDP is 65 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1200, with PCIe Gen 4 support offering 20 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-11400F scores 14340 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2024 in single-core, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 7737 and single-core score of 1777. The PassMark multithread score is 16908, and the single-thread score is 2981. These numbers place the CPU in the 71st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17177. The nearest rivals are all within 1% of this score, showing that the CPU is competitive with a range of other processors.

For The Technomancer, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, but its 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 3070 Ti at 1080p. The highest measured frame rate is 201 FPS at 1080p Low, which suggests that the CPU can handle high draw calls and game logic without bottlenecking. The fact that 1080p Low produces more than double the 4K Low result of 72 FPS indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s single-thread performance of 2024 in Cinebench R23 is adequate for this title’s demands.

The CPU’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz is important for games that rely on single-thread performance, and the data shows no signs of CPU limitation even at the highest frame rates. The L3 cache of 12 MB is modest by modern standards, but it does not appear to hinder performance in this game, as the measured FPS scaling follows GPU expectations closely. The 65 W TDP means the CPU runs cool, which is beneficial for sustained gameplay, and the 14 nm process, while older, delivers consistent performance.

The combo rank of 1318 out of 3696 suggests that the CPU-GPU pairing is not the limiting factor in most scenarios, but it also indicates that there are many faster combinations available. The i5-11400F’s 6 cores are enough for this game, but titles that are more CPU-intensive could see different results. For The Technomancer specifically, the data shows that the RTX 3070 Ti is the component that dictates performance, particularly at 1440p and 4K, while the CPU provides a stable foundation that never holds back the GPU.