The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload that scales heavily with resolution and settings. This analysis examines the performance of the Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the Intel Arc B570, based on measured data. The combination shows a clear trajectory from a playable 1080p experience to a challenging 4K one, with the data highlighting where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating a GPU-limited scenario at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 80 FPS at 1920x1080 to 52 FPS at 2560x1440, a significant 35% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 29 FPS, which is just 36% of the 1080p performance. This pattern is typical for a game where the pixel countoutpaces the Arc B570's fill rate and memory bandwidth.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 61 at 2560x1440 to 33 at 3840x2160, a 46% decrease. The Ultra preset shows an even more dramatic fall, from 41 FPS at 1440p to just 22 FPS at 4K. This 46% drop at Ultra settings, when compared to the 35% drop at High settings between the same resolutions, suggests that the higher setting's effects are compounding the load on the GPU's shading units and ROPs.

The data suggests that 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset maintains a 62 FPS average, which is generally considered smooth. The jump to 1440p requires a settings compromise, as the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold, while High settings at 52 FPS are borderline. At 4K, the Arc B570 is clearly out of its depth, with even the Low preset only managing a 44 FPS average, which is below the standard for comfortable play.

The scaling pattern indicates that the limiting component is the GPU. The CPU's performance, as measured by its benchmark scores, is sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but as the resolution increases and the GPU's workload grows, the frame rate drops proportionally. This is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck, where the graphics card's compute and memory subsystems are saturated.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570, with its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, provides a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is a critical factor in The Technomancer, as the game's texture streaming and high-resolution assets can quickly saturate a narrower bus. The measured FPS data supports this: at 4K, the average frame rates are consistently low across all settings, suggesting that the memory bandwidth is a limiting factor when pushing high pixel counts.

The GPU's clock speeds are fixed at a base and boost of 2500 MHz, which is a modest clock for a modern GPU. Its 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s. These specifications explain the performance ceiling at 4K. The pixel rate, while not low, is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 3840x2160, where the number of pixels to fill is over 8 million per frame.

The GPU's score in 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12) is 2649, which is a measure of its raw DX12 performance. This score, combined with its Passmark G3D score of 14195, places it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark score include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher) and the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% lower), indicating that the B570 sits in a competitive mid-range tier. However, in this specific game, the data shows it cannot handle 4K Ultra, delivering just 22 FPS, which is a direct result of its hardware limits.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is likely sufficient for this game's textures at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the combination of high resolution and Ultra settings may be causing memory pressure, which contributes to the low average FPS. While no VRAM usage data is provided, the performance cliff at 4K aligns with the GPU running out of headroom in both memory capacity and bandwidth.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 and Intel Arc B570 combination is ranked 2256 out of 2825 tested combos for this game. This places it in the 21st percentile of all tested combinations, meaning that 79% of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver better performance in The Technomancer. This is a low ranking, but it must be interpreted with the context that the database includes many high-end and enthusiast-grade components.

The ranking is likely dragged down by the GPU's performance at higher resolutions. Given that the GPU is the bottleneck in this pairing, the combo's rank is a reflection of the Arc B570's capabilities rather than the CPU's. The CPU's percentile rank is 72nd against all CPUs, showing it is a strong performer, but the GPU's percentile rank is 65th, and its performance in this specific title is clearly weaker than its average benchmark scores suggest.

The delta between the GPU's average benchmark score and its in-game performance is notable. The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, but its measured FPS in this game at 4K is very low, indicating that The Technomancer is a particularly demanding title for this GPU architecture. The combo's rank of 2256 suggests that for this game, users would need to significantly compromise on settings or resolution to achieve a smooth experience, or consider a more powerful GPU to improve the pairing's standing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at performance across all settings and resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the experience is generally fluid. The Low preset achieves an average of 121 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings lower this to 93 FPS, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS, ensuring a consistent experience. High settings drop further to 80 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding an average of 62 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates become more variable. The Low preset still manages a strong 79 FPS. Medium settings average 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS, which can lead to occasional stutters on a 60Hz display. The High preset drops to 52 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Ultra preset falls to 41 FPS, which is noticeably less smooth.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. The Low preset is the only option that approaches playability, with an average of 44 FPS. Medium settings average 33 FPS, with a minimum of 28 FPS and a maximum of 39 FPS, which is a choppy experience. High settings yield only 29 FPS. The Ultra preset is not viable for gameplay, producing an average of just 22 FPS.

The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p is for high-refresh gaming, 1440p is for balanced gaming with settings tuned down from Ultra, and 4K is only for those who can tolerate sub-30 FPS frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080, the High preset achieves an average of 80 FPS, and the Ultra preset achieves 62 FPS. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset (79 FPS) and Medium preset (61 FPS) hit or exceed 60 FPS. To maintain a 60 FPS average, 1080p with High settings is the safest choice, while 1440p requires Low or Medium settings.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Technomancer?

A: No, not at playable frame rates. The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 44 FPS on the Low preset. All other settings produce averages below 35 FPS, with Ultra being a mere 22 FPS. This indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K.

Q: How does the Arc B570's performance here compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Arc B570's aggregate benchmark score is 20556, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Arc A750 and 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile. However, its actual in-game performance at 4K is very poor, suggesting this specific title is not optimized for its architecture.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12400 holding back the GPU?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. Its benchmark scores are strong (e.g., a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15989), and it ranks in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs. The frame rates scale down heavily with resolution, which is a characteristic of a GPU bottleneck, not a CPU one.

Q: What are the minimum FPS numbers for the Medium settings?

A: The measured minimum FPS for Medium settings is 79 FPS at 1920x1080, 52 FPS at 2560x1440, and 28 FPS at 3840x2160. These lows indicate potential stuttering in demanding scenes, particularly at higher resolutions.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations?

A: This specific combo is ranked 2256 out of 2825 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 21% of all pairings for this game. This low rank is primarily due to the GPU's inability to handle high resolutions and settings in The Technomancer.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications provide a solid foundation for gaming.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-12400 shows strong single-threaded performance with a 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257. This is crucial for games like The Technomancer, which often rely on a few primary threads for game logic and physics. The multi-threaded scores are also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15989, but the game's performance scaling with resolution indicates that the CPU's headroom is not being fully utilized at higher settings.

The CPU's performance is near its nearest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7643 (0.1% slower in average score) and the Intel Core i7-1355U (0.3% slower). It is slightly faster than the Intel Core i3-14100F by 0.9%. This shows the i5-12400 is a capable mid-range CPU.

Given that the frame rates drop significantly when moving from 1080p to 4K, it is evident that the CPU is not the primary limiter. At 1080p, the CPU is able to feed the GPU enough frames to reach 121 FPS on Low settings, but at 4K, the GPU's workload is so high that the CPU's frame generation is not the bottleneck. The CPU's role is to ensure the GPU is supplied with data, and in this case, it does its job adequately; the Arc B570 simply cannot handle the rendering load at high resolutions.

The CPU's 12 threads and high boost clock are more than sufficient for a 2016 title. While the game may not utilize all 12 threads efficiently, the strong single-core performance ensures that the main game thread is handled without causing a CPU-side bottleneck. Therefore, users looking to improve performance in this game should focus on the GPU, not the CPU.