The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, places heavy demands on the AMD Radeon RX 570 paired with the Intel Core i5-12400F. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is decisively bound by the graphics card at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides a stable foundation at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the performance data across resolutions, settings, and the underlying hardware characteristics.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is severe, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting component in this configuration. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 47.1 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, this falls to 28.4 FPS, a reduction of approximately 40%. At 4K, the frame rate collapses to 18.7 FPS, a 60% decline from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is typical of a graphics card that is overwhelmed by pixel throughput demands.

The data shows that the RX 570’s 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 256-bit bus are insufficient for 4K workloads in this title. The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (67.6 FPS) and Ultra (34.6 FPS) is 33 FPS. At 4K, the spread between Low (26.6 FPS) and Ultra (11.8 FPS) narrows to just 14.8 FPS, because even the lowest settings place an insurmountable load on the GPU’s 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs.

Notably, the Medium preset at 4K (18.6 FPS) performs nearly identically to High (18.7 FPS), suggesting a rendering bottleneck that is independent of many quality toggles. The GPU is saturated at this resolution, making settings adjustments largely irrelevant for improving playability. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing: at Medium settings, the drop from 31.5 FPS to 18.6 FPS represents a 41% loss, confirming that the Polaris 20 chip is not designed for 4K output in modern titles.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of hardware ranks 1593rd out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the bottom 4% of all configurations. The data indicates that this is a decidedly low-tier pairing for this specific game, despite the individual components holding respectable positions in their own right. The CPU alone sits at the 77th percentile of all processors, and the GPU at the 74th percentile of all graphics cards, yet their combined performance in this title is poor.

The bottleneck is clearly the GPU. The RX 570’s average benchmark score of 30158 places it in the company of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, a 0.2% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, a 0.2% delta), yet those modern cards would handle The Technomancer’s demands far more effectively. The i5-12400F, with a benchmark score of 19221, is virtually identical to the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210, a 0.1% delta), indicating ample CPU headroom that is completely wasted by the graphics card’s limitations.

The rank of 1593 out of 1656 is striking because it suggests that even older, less capable CPUs paired with better GPUs would outperform this setup. The measured FPS data confirms this: the 4K Ultra result of 11.8 FPS is barely playable, and even 1440p High at 28.4 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. This combo is effectively limited to 1080p gaming, and even then, only at lower quality presets.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience is achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 67.6 FPS. This is the only configuration that approaches a consistently smooth frame rate for action gameplay. The Medium preset at 1080p (52.9 FPS) is also viable, offering a 22% improvement in visual fidelity over Low while losing 14.7 FPS. However, High at 1080p (47.1 FPS) is borderline, and Ultra at 34.6 FPS is too choppy for a combat-heavy RPG.

At 2560x1440, the data suggests that only Low settings (44 FPS) are acceptable, and even then, the experience is marginal. Medium (31.5 FPS), High (28.4 FPS), and Ultra (24.3 FPS) all fall below the playable threshold. The 4K resolution should be avoided entirely; the highest average recorded there is 26.6 FPS at Low, which is still unplayable for this genre.

The recommendation is clear: prioritize 1080p with Low or Medium settings. The difference between Low and Medium in the measured data is 14.7 FPS at 1080p, which is a significant gameplay improvement. Users with a preference for visual quality over frame rate may tolerate High at 47.1 FPS, but the data does not support this choice for competitive or fast-paced play. The Ultra preset is only recommended for static screenshots or exploration, not for combat scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings shows a clear hierarchy. Low delivers 67.6 FPS average, which is the best result across all resolutions and presets. Medium follows at 52.9 FPS, offering a 14.7 FPS penalty for the quality increase. High drops further to 47.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 34.6 FPS. This represents a 33 FPS spread between the lowest and highest settings.

Stepping up to 2560x1440 reveals the GPU’s struggle. Low settings produce 44 FPS, which is a 23.6 FPS drop from the equivalent 1080p setting. Medium comes in at 31.5 FPS, High at 28.4 FPS, and Ultra at 24.3 FPS. The scaling is more linear here than at 4K, with each preset increment costing roughly 3-4 FPS, except for the jump from Low to Medium which costs 12.5 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapses entirely. Low settings yield 26.6 FPS, but Medium (18.6 FPS) and High (18.7 FPS) are statistically identical, indicating a hard bottleneck. Ultra drops to 11.8 FPS. The 4K results show that the GPU’s 32 ROPs and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient, as even the settings that reduce shader workload cannot overcome the pixel fill rate limit. The data shows that the RX 570 is operating at its absolute ceiling at 4K, with no setting combination providing a playable frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the decisive factor in these results. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s, becomes a critical constraint at higher resolutions. The GPU’s base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz are relatively modest, and the 2048 shading units are simply outmatched by The Technomancer’s rendering demands at 1440p and above.

The GPU’s 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance places it in a specific performance tier, but the benchmark data shows it is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (a 0.2% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (a 0.2% delta) in synthetic tests. However, those comparisons are misleading for this game. The RX 570’s 14 nm process node and GCN 4.0 architecture lack the modern features that would help with this title’s specific shader complexity, and its 150 W TDP is a fraction of what newer cards consume.

The pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are the physical limits that manifest in the 4K results. The 32 ROPs are the primary bottleneck at 3840x2160, explaining why High and Medium settings produce nearly identical frame rates—the pixel fill rate is saturated regardless of shader load. The GPU’s 74th percentile ranking is respectable for general workloads, but The Technomancer exposes its weaknesses. The card is a capable 1080p performer, as evidenced by the 67.6 FPS at Low, but it has no headroom for higher resolutions or demanding presets.