The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a distinctive performance profile when paired with the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher settings but exhibits surprising CPU limitations at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, the components' roles, and the optimal configuration for this specific combination.

Resolution Scaling

The performance curve from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the shifting balance between CPU and GPU workload. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 248.5 FPS, which drops to 192.7 FPS at 1440p and further to 106.8 FPS at 4K. This represents a 57% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint as pixel count rises. However, the relatively modest drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (248.5 to 192.7 FPS, a 22% decrease) suggests that the CPU still has headroom to feed the GPU at these lower resolutions.

At High settings, the scaling is more pronounced. The system delivers 196.7 FPS at 1080p, 128.2 FPS at 1440p, and 68.7 FPS at 4K. The transition from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a 46% performance loss, which is a steeper drop than the 22% observed between 1080p and 1440p. This non-linear scaling indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER's rendering workload at 4K High is substantially heavier, and the GPU's compute resources become the definitive limiting factor. The 1080p High result of 196.7 FPS, while high, is still below the 228.5 FPS achieved at 1080p Medium, showing that even at 1080p, the quality preset has a significant impact on the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates.

The Ultra preset reveals the most interesting scaling pattern. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 150.7 FPS, which drops to 97.2 FPS at 1440p and 56.5 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop at Ultra is 35%, which is less severe than the 46% drop seen at High settings for the same resolution transition. This suggests that at Ultra settings, the game's effects and shading complexity are so demanding that the GPU is already near its limits even at 1080p, making the incremental resolution increase less impactful relative to the overall load. The 4K Ultra result of 56.5 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this combo struggles to maintain smooth gameplay at maximum fidelity in 4K.

The data suggests that the i5-12400F is not the bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rates scale consistently with GPU load across all presets. However, the 1080p Low result of 248.5 FPS compared to the 1440p Low result of 192.7 FPS implies that the CPU is capable of driving much higher frame rates than the GPU can sustain at higher resolutions. The 6-core, 12-thread processor with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz provides sufficient single-thread performance for this game, but the GPU's rendering pipeline becomes the limiting factor once resolution and quality settings increase.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its characteristics directly shape the measured results. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the card offers 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for The Technomancer's texture-heavy environments even at 4K. The memory clock runs at 1438 MHz with 23 Gbps effective speed, and the GPU's base clock of 2295 MHz with a boost of 2550 MHz provides substantial compute throughput. The card's 10240 shading units and 112 ROPs are responsible for the pixel fill rates that drive the high FPS numbers at 1080p and 1440p.

The GPU's role is most evident when comparing the Low and Ultra presets at the same resolution. At 4K, Low settings yield 106.8 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 56.5 FPS — a 47% reduction. This performance gap is directly attributable to the increased shader and texture work required by the Ultra preset, which leverages the GPU's 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The RTX 4080 SUPER's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, has an average benchmark score of 53489, which is only 0.2% lower than the RTX 4080 SUPER's 53610 average. This near-parity in synthetic benchmarks suggests that the measured FPS differences in The Technomancer are more dependent on the game's specific engine optimizations than on raw GPU compute power.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is a notable advantage for this title, as The Technomancer's open-world environments can consume significant memory at high resolutions. The data shows that the GPU maintains consistent performance across presets without any signs of memory-related stuttering, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from Low to Medium to High at each resolution. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 151.3 FPS, which is 18% higher than High at 128.2 FPS, suggesting that the Medium preset reduces shader complexity without bottlenecking the memory subsystem.

The GPU's power envelope of 320 W and triple-slot design indicate that this is a high-end card, and the measured performance in The Technomancer reflects that positioning. The card's percentile ranking of 88 among all GPUs places it in the upper tier, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 confirms its DirectX 12 capabilities, which are relevant for a game from 2016 that may not fully utilize modern rendering features. The RTX 4080 SUPER's performance in this title is consistently strong, with even the most demanding 4K Ultra preset achieving playable frame rates, albeit marginally.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo, and at what settings?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 248.5, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration that breaks the 240 FPS barrier, and it indicates that the CPU has significant headroom at 1080p when the GPU load is minimized.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4080 SUPER in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a significant bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 4K, the frame rate scales consistently with GPU load across presets (106.8 FPS Low, 83.9 FPS Medium, 68.7 FPS High, 56.5 FPS Ultra), which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. However, the 1080p Low result of 248.5 FPS versus the 1440p Low result of 192.7 FPS shows that the CPU can drive frame rates that exceed what the GPU can maintain at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT's score of 53489. It is also 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (53414) and 2.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700S (52505). These small deltas in synthetic tests do not necessarily translate to proportional differences in The Technomancer's real-world FPS.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K with maximum settings?

A: No, the measured 4K Ultra average FPS is 56.5, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold. To achieve 60 FPS at 4K, the user would need to reduce settings to High, which delivers 68.7 FPS, or Medium, which delivers 83.9 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 151.3 FPS, while the High preset delivers 128.2 FPS. This represents an 18% performance advantage for Medium, suggesting that the High preset introduces additional GPU load that reduces frame rates without a proportional visual benefit.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in The Technomancer?

A: The combo ranks 115th out of 1656 tested combinations, placing it in the top 7% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong performance of the RTX 4080 SUPER GPU, which has a percentile ranking of 88 among all GPUs, paired with the i5-12400F, which has a percentile ranking of 77 among all CPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a rank of 115 out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the configuration in the top 7% of all systems tested, which is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The CPU's percentile ranking of 77 among all CPUs indicates that it is above average in overall processing power, with an average benchmark score of 19221. This score is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, which has an average score of 19210, a delta of just 0.1%. The AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS is 0.7% faster with a score of 19364, while the AMD EPYC 7773X is 1.3% slower with a score of 18979.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 88 among all GPUs is notably higher than the CPU's, reflecting the RTX 4080 SUPER's position as a premium graphics card. Its average benchmark score of 53610 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT's 53489, making these two cards nearly equivalent in synthetic performance. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which is 2.9% slower with a score of 52086, represents the closest lower-performing rival. The combination of a top-12% GPU with a top-23% CPU results in a system that ranks in the top 7% of all combos, indicating that the GPU's strength compensates for the CPU's relatively modest positioning.

This ranking suggests that the i5-12400F does not significantly detract from the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance in The Technomancer. The measured FPS at 1440p and 4K are consistently high, and the combo's rank of 115 out of 1656 confirms that the system is well-balanced for this particular game. The 6-core, 12-thread CPU with 18 MB of L3 cache provides adequate processing power for the game's logic and AI, while the GPU handles the bulk of the rendering workload. The data shows that the combo outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations, making it a strong choice for this title.

Settings Recommendations

For the best overall experience, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers the most compelling balance of visual quality and performance. The measured 151.3 FPS at this configuration is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a 18% performance improvement over High settings (128.2 FPS) at the same resolution. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p yields a 23 FPS reduction, which is a significant cost for what is likely a marginal visual improvement. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 228.5 FPS, which is 32 FPS lower than Low (248.5 FPS) but still provides an exceptionally smooth experience with better visual fidelity.

For users with 4K displays, the High preset at 3840x2160 is the recommended choice, as it delivers 68.7 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 56.5 FPS, which may result in noticeable stuttering on standard 60 Hz displays. The Medium preset at 4K offers 83.9 FPS, but the visual downgrade from High may be more noticeable at this resolution. The data indicates that High at 4K is the sweet spot, providing the best visual quality while maintaining playable frame rates.

For competitive or high-refresh-rate gaming, the Low preset at 1920x1080 with 248.5 FPS is the top performer, but this comes at the cost of reduced visual detail. The Medium preset at 1080p (228.5 FPS) is a better compromise for users with 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitors, as it maintains frame rates well above the refresh rate while offering improved graphics. The Ultra preset should be avoided at all resolutions unless visual fidelity is the absolute priority, as it consistently produces the lowest frame rates: 150.7 FPS at 1080p, 97.2 FPS at 1440p, and 56.5 FPS at 4K. The measured data shows that the Medium preset provides the best frame rate per visual quality trade-off across all tested resolutions.