The Technomancer

# The Technomancer with Intel Core i5-12400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The data shows a pairing where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is clearly the dominant component in The Technomancer, with the Intel Core i5-12400F providing sufficient headroom across all tested resolutions. This combination ranks 74th out of 2,825 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 3% of all configurations. The measured frame rates reveal a title that scales predictably with resolution and settings, but the relationship between CPU and GPU workload shifts dramatically as pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate curve from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the bottleneck sits in this configuration. At 1080p with Low settings, the system delivers 251 FPS, but this drops to 218 FPS at 1440p and further to 129 FPS at 4K. That represents a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which is substantial but not proportional to the 4x pixel count increase. The relatively modest drop suggests that even at 1080p Low, the RTX 5090 D is not fully saturated, and the CPU is beginning to influence the ceiling.

Moving to High settings, the scaling pattern shifts noticeably. The 1080p High result of 216 FPS falls to 154 FPS at 1440p (a 29% drop) and then to 85 FPS at 4K (a 45% drop from 1440p). The 1440p to 4K transition shows the GPU becoming the primary limiter, as the pixel throughput demands begin to outweigh the CPU's frame generation capacity. At 4K High, the system produces 85 FPS, which is still highly playable, but the trend line indicates that the RTX 5090 D is working much harder relative to the CPU.

Ultra settings amplify this behavior. The 1080p Ultra result of 184 FPS drops to 120 FPS at 1440p and then to 66 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure is the lowest measured in the entire dataset, and the gap between 1440p and 4K at Ultra (54 FPS) is the largest single-resolution jump across all settings tiers. This indicates that at Ultra, the game's rendering features — likely including shadows, reflections, and post-processing effects — are heavily GPU-bound, and the RTX 5090 D's architecture is being pushed to its limits.

The Medium settings tier provides the most complete data with min and max frame times recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 228 FPS with a min of 194 and max of 262. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 180 FPS with a min of 153 and max of 207. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 99 FPS with a min of 84 and max of 114. The consistency of the min-to-max range across resolutions — roughly 68-70 FPS spread — suggests that frame pacing remains stable regardless of resolution, which points to the GPU handling the workload without introducing stutter or hitches.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads to this pairing, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The CPU's benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance: a single-thread score of 909 in 3dmark and 1,680 in Cinebench R23, alongside a multi-thread score of 12,380 in Cinebench R23. These numbers place the i5-12400F at the 73rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,039.

The nearest rival data shows the i5-12400F trading blows with the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (deltaPct of 0), the Intel Core 3 201E (deltaPct of -0.1), and the Intel Core i5-1335U (deltaPct of 0.3). This tight clustering indicates that the i5-12400F's gaming performance is squarely in the mid-range desktop segment, and its 18 MB of shared L3 cache helps maintain consistent frame delivery in The Technomancer's open-world environments.

In this game, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. The difference between 1080p Low (251 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (184 FPS) is 67 FPS, which is a 27% reduction driven entirely by settings. Meanwhile, the jump from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 122 FPS, a 49% reduction. This asymmetric scaling suggests that the i5-12400F can generate frames faster than the game's CPU-bound logic allows at 1080p, but the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution climbs. The 3dmark 16-thread score of 5,895 and max-thread score of 5,912 indicate that the CPU has sufficient multi-threaded headroom for the game's background simulation tasks, while the single-thread score of 909 ensures that the primary game thread is not starved.

The 2-thread score of 1,699 in 3dmark is particularly relevant for older titles like The Technomancer, which was released in 2016 and may not utilize more than a few threads effectively. The game's age means that the i5-12400F's 12 threads are likely underutilized, but the high single-thread performance compensates by keeping the main game loop responsive. The passmark single-thread score of 3,481 reinforces this, showing that the CPU can handle the per-frame calculations without becoming a bottleneck at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in The Technomancer?

A: The data shows that 1440p High provides the best balance, with 154 FPS average. This is 69 FPS higher than 4K High and only 62 FPS lower than 1080p High, making it the sweet spot where the RTX 5090 D's capabilities are well-matched to the i5-12400F's frame generation.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). It also sits 2.1% below the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396) and 2.4% below the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605).

Q: Is the i5-12400F a bottleneck at 1080p in this game?

A: The evidence suggests partial bottlenecking at 1080p. The 1080p Low result of 251 FPS is the highest in the dataset, but the 4K Low result of 129 FPS is 49% lower, indicating that the CPU is generating frames faster than the GPU can render at lower resolutions. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Low (33 FPS) versus 1440p to 4K at Low (89 FPS) shows the CPU ceiling is near 250 FPS.

Q: What settings tier offers the most consistent frame times?

A: Medium settings provide the only complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the range is 194-262 FPS (68 FPS spread); at 1440p Medium, the range is 153-207 FPS (54 FPS spread); at 4K Medium, the range is 84-114 FPS (30 FPS spread). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates more consistent frame pacing.

Q: How does the game scale with GPU settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the frame rate drops from 218 FPS at Low to 180 FPS at Medium, then to 154 FPS at High, and finally to 120 FPS at Ultra. This represents a 45% reduction from Low to Ultra, with the largest single-step drop (26 FPS) occurring between Medium and High.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 74 out of 2,825 indicate?

A: The rank places this configuration in the top 2.6% of all tested processor-GPU combos for The Technomancer. The RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and the i5-12400F's 73rd percentile among all CPUs together produce a system that outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 251 FPS average, which is the peak measured anywhere in the dataset. Medium settings yield 228 FPS with a minimum of 194 and maximum of 262, showing that the game remains fluid even during demanding scenes. High settings reduce the average to 216 FPS, while Ultra settings bring it down to 184 FPS. The 67 FPS spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p demonstrates that the settings menu has a significant impact on performance, but even the lowest result remains far above the refresh rate of most displays.

At 1440p, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's workload increasing. Low settings produce 218 FPS, which is only 33 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 180 FPS with a minimum of 153 and maximum of 207. High settings drop to 154 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 120 FPS. The 98 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is larger than the 67 FPS gap at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's rendering tasks are becoming more demanding relative to the CPU's frame generation.

At 4K, the frame rates drop significantly but remain playable. Low settings produce 129 FPS, which is still above 120 FPS and suitable for high-refresh displays. Medium settings average 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 and maximum of 114. High settings fall to 85 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 66 FPS. The 63 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest across all resolutions, suggesting that at this pixel count, the GPU is the primary limiter regardless of settings. The 4K Medium result of 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 indicates that even in the most demanding scenes, the system stays above 60 FPS.

The scaling between resolutions at each settings tier reveals the GPU's workload curve. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 251 FPS at 1080p to 218 FPS at 1440p (13% reduction) and then to 129 FPS at 4K (41% reduction from 1440p). At High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 29%, and from 1440p to 4K is 45%. At Ultra settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 35%, and from 1440p to 4K is 45%. The consistent 45% reduction from 1440p to 4K across High and Ultra settings indicates that the RTX 5090 D's rendering pipeline scales predictably with pixel count, while the 1080p to 1440p reduction varies more based on settings tier.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the clear performance driver in this configuration, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for The Technomancer's 2016-era textures and geometry, and it ensures that memory bandwidth is never a limiting factor at any resolution or settings tier.

The GPU's clock speeds — a base of 2017 MHz and boost of 2407 MHz — are high for a modern graphics card, and the 21,760 shading units provide massive compute throughput. The 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate allow the card to handle the game's rendering features with ease. The 680 TMUs and 176 ROPs work together to maintain texture fill rates and pixel output, which is reflected in the consistent frame times measured at Medium settings across all resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 77,712. The 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,915 indicate strong modern API performance, while the Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and G2D score of 1,487 show solid legacy performance for older titles like The Technomancer. The GPU's nearest rivals — the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (79,396 and 79,605) — all score within 2.4% of the RTX 5090 D, suggesting that in this game's specific workload, the card performs in line with its benchmark positioning.

The GPU's role in The Technomancer is most evident at 4K Ultra, where the 66 FPS average represents the system's lowest measured performance. At this settings tier, the game's rendering features likely include high-resolution shadows, ambient occlusion, and post-processing effects that stress the GPU's shading units and ROPs. The 176 ROPs and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient to maintain 66 FPS at 4K Ultra, but the data shows that the GPU is nearing its limits at this configuration. The fact that 4K Low produces 129 FPS — nearly double the Ultra result — indicates that the settings menu can halve the GPU's workload, making it the primary lever for performance tuning.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data supports Ultra settings at 1080p as the best experience for users with high-refresh-rate displays. The 184 FPS average at 1080p Ultra exceeds the refresh rate of most gaming monitors, and the 67 FPS gap between Ultra and Low at this resolution is the smallest across all settings tiers. This suggests that at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to enable all visual features without compromising the high frame rates that competitive players might seek.

At 1440p, High settings provide the recommended balance. The 154 FPS average is 34 FPS higher than Ultra (120 FPS) and only 26 FPS lower than Medium (180 FPS). The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs 34 FPS, which is the largest single-step reduction in the dataset for this resolution. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that are disproportionately expensive at 1440p, making High the more sensible choice for maintaining a high refresh rate.

At 4K, Medium settings are the optimal recommendation. The 99 FPS average with a minimum of 84 FPS keeps the system comfortably above 60 FPS even during demanding scenes. High settings drop to 85 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for frame time spikes. The jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 14 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs 19 FPS. Medium settings at 4K also provide the most consistent frame pacing, as evidenced by the 30 FPS spread between minimum and maximum (84-114 FPS), which is the tightest range in the entire dataset.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity over frame rate, 4K Ultra at 66 FPS is viable, but the data shows diminishing returns. The 4K Medium result of 99 FPS is 50% higher than Ultra, and the visual difference between Medium and Ultra in a 2016 title is unlikely to justify the 33 FPS loss. Similarly, at 1440p, the 120 FPS Ultra result is adequate for most displays, but the 154 FPS High result offers a more comfortable margin above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many monitors support. The 1080p Ultra result of 184 FPS is the recommended configuration for users with 144 Hz or 165 Hz displays, as it provides a substantial frame rate buffer above the refresh rate while enabling the game's highest visual features.