The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload that clearly separates CPU and GPU responsibilities. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, using only the provided benchmark data to interpret how this combination handles the game across various settings and resolutions.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide substantial on-die resources for game logic and asset streaming. The processor’s benchmark scores indicate strong multi-threaded capability: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 11068 place it well above most desktop CPUs, though its single-thread scores (3191 in Cinebench R23, 1996 in Geekbench) are more modest relative to its multi-core prowess.

In The Technomancer, the data reveals that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at most settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 117 FPS average, which is the highest measured result across all configurations. This high frame rate at the lowest settings suggests the game’s rendering pipeline is GPU-limited even when graphical load is reduced, as the i5-13400F’s 16 threads can easily handle the game’s AI, physics, and world simulation. The processor’s 3DMark 16-thread score of 7314 and max-thread score of 7307 show consistent scaling, meaning the game can leverage multiple cores without significant drop-off.

However, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent when comparing resolution scaling. At 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 21 FPS, which is a 82% reduction from 1080p Low. This steep decline is primarily due to GPU load, but the CPU’s single-thread performance (960 in 3DMark single-thread) could limit minimum frame rates in complex scenes. The absence of min FPS data for most settings makes it difficult to quantify stutter, but the Medium preset at 1080p shows a min of 76 FPS, indicating the CPU can sustain a playable floor. The processor’s PassMark physics score of 1437 further suggests adequate computational power for the game’s physics engine, though not exceptional.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-13400F sits in a tight performance band. The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS has an identical average benchmark score (25284 vs 25292, delta 0%), while the Intel Core 5 120 and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D are both 0.3% slower. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800H is 0.4% faster. This clustering indicates that the i5-13400F’s CPU performance is typical for its class, and any frame rate differences in The Technomancer are more likely attributable to the GPU than the processor.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the Ultra preset achieves 60 FPS average, which meets the standard for smooth gameplay, but the Medium preset delivers 90 FPS average with a min of 76 FPS and a max of 103 FPS. This 50% improvement over Ultra suggests that Medium is the most forgiving preset for maintaining high frame rates without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. The High preset at 77 FPS average is also viable, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 17 FPS, a 22% reduction, which may not justify the graphical gains.

At 1440p, the situation changes. Medium provides 59 FPS average with a min of 50 FPS and a max of 67 FPS, which is borderline playable but may feel inconsistent during intense combat. The High preset drops to 50 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 39 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold for ideal smoothness. Low at 76 FPS is the only preset that maintains a comfortable margin, but it requires significant visual compromises. For 1440p, the data suggests that Medium is the highest preset that remains near playable, though users should be prepared for occasional dips below 60 FPS.

At 4K, no preset achieves a playable frame rate. Ultra averages 21 FPS, High averages 27 FPS, Medium averages 32 FPS with a min of 27 FPS, and Low averages 42 FPS. Even the lowest settings fall short of 60 FPS by a wide margin, indicating that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in The Technomancer. The best experience across all resolutions is clearly at 1080p Medium, which provides 90 FPS average with a min of 76 FPS, offering both smoothness and reasonable visual quality. For users prioritizing maximum fidelity, 1080p Ultra at 60 FPS is acceptable, but the data shows that Medium is the sweet spot for this processor-GPU combination.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling data reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 90 to 59, a 34% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at Medium, the average drops from 59 to 32, a 46% reduction. This accelerating decline as resolution increases is a hallmark of GPU limitation, as the rendering workload scales with pixel count while the CPU’s workload remains relatively constant.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. 1080p Low achieves 117 FPS, 1440p Low drops to 76 FPS (35% reduction), and 4K Low falls to 42 FPS (45% reduction from 1440p). The fact that even at Low settings, 4K cannot reach 60 FPS confirms that the GTX 1070’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the game’s 4K texture and shading requirements. The GPU’s 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 202.0 GTexel/s texture rate are simply not enough to sustain high frame rates at this resolution.

The data also indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 117 FPS, which is likely near the game’s engine cap or the GPU’s maximum output. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see diminishing returns when lowering resolution, but instead, the FPS scales almost linearly with pixel count. This suggests that the i5-13400F has sufficient headroom to feed the GTX 1070 at 1080p, but the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases. The 4K Ultra result of 21 FPS, which is 82% lower than 1080p Low, underscores that the GPU is the dominant limiting component in this pairing.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination ranks 3057 out of 3696 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the 17th percentile of all configurations. This low ranking reflects the GPU’s age and performance class, as the GTX 1070 was released in 2016 and is now end-of-life, with a percentile rank of 47 among all GPUs. The CPU, in contrast, is a modern 13th-generation part with a percentile rank of 77 among all CPUs, indicating that the processor is far more capable than the graphics card.

The combo’s rank suggests that most other tested systems outperform it, likely due to newer or higher-tier GPUs. However, the ranking does not tell the full story, as it aggregates performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers 90 FPS, which is competitive with many mid-range systems, but at 4K, it falls behind most configurations. The large gap between CPU and GPU performance percentiles (77 vs 47) implies that the system is unbalanced, with the GPU holding back the CPU’s potential.

For context, the GPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro W5000 (0.2% slower), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (0.5% slower), NVIDIA Tesla M10 (0.6% faster), and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (0.7% faster). These are all professional or older workstation cards, indicating that the GTX 1070’s performance is roughly equivalent to those products in general benchmarks, though its gaming-specific capabilities may differ. The CPU’s nearest rivals show near-identical average scores, confirming that the processor is not a differentiator in this combo’s ranking.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all presets achieve playable frame rates, with Low at 117 FPS, Medium at 90 FPS, High at 77 FPS, and Ultra at 60 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low (76 FPS) and Medium (59 FPS) are near playable, while 3840x2160 falls below 42 FPS even at Low settings.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 9780, with the AMD FirePro W5000 being 0.2% slower, the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M being 0.5% slower, the NVIDIA Tesla M10 being 0.6% faster, and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 being 0.7% faster. This places the GTX 1070 in a tight performance band around these workstation cards.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the frame rates scale significantly with settings (117 FPS at Low to 60 FPS at Ultra), indicating GPU limitation. The CPU’s high benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604, suggest it has ample headroom, so the GTX 1070 is the limiting component.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only preset with min FPS data is Medium, which shows 27 FPS at 4K, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 1080p. No min FPS values are available for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Q: How does the i5-13400F rank among all CPUs?

A: The processor has a percentile rank of 77 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25292. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (0% delta), Intel Core 5 120 (-0.3%), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (-0.3%), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (0.4%).

Q: Can this combo run the game at 4K Ultra?

A: No. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 21 FPS, which is not playable. Even at 4K Low, the average is only 42 FPS, well below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a detailed view of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 60 FPS, High averages 77 FPS, Medium averages 90 FPS with a min of 76 FPS and a max of 103 FPS, and Low averages 117 FPS. This shows a steady progression where lowering settings from Ultra to Low improves performance by 95%, from 60 to 117 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 39 FPS, High averages 50 FPS, Medium averages 59 FPS with a min of 50 FPS and a max of 67 FPS, and Low averages 76 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Ultra loses 21 FPS (35%), High loses 27 FPS (35%), Medium loses 31 FPS (34%), and Low loses 41 FPS (35%). This uniformity indicates that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the primary constraint.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 21 FPS, High averages 27 FPS, Medium averages 32 FPS with a min of 27 FPS and a max of 37 FPS, and Low averages 42 FPS. From 1440p to 4K, the reductions are: Ultra loses 18 FPS (46%), High loses 23 FPS (46%), Medium loses 27 FPS (46%), and Low loses 34 FPS (45%). The consistent percentage drops across all settings and resolutions confirm that the GTX 1070’s rendering capabilities scale linearly with pixel count, and no setting can overcome the GPU’s fundamental bandwidth and compute limits at 4K.

The Medium preset is the only one where min and max FPS are recorded, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the range is 76 to 103 FPS, a 27 FPS spread; at 1440p, the range is 50 to 67 FPS, a 17 FPS spread; at 4K, the range is 27 to 37 FPS, a 10 FPS spread. This narrowing range as resolution increases suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently saturated at higher pixel counts, reducing frame time variance but also lowering average performance.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is a Pascal architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz, combined with 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, yield a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 6.463 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards but was competitive for its 2016 release.

In The Technomancer, the GPU’s role is clearly dominant. The game’s rendering demands at 4K overwhelm the GTX 1070’s capabilities, as evidenced by the 21 FPS average at Ultra settings. The 8 GB VRAM is likely sufficient for textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the game’s high-resolution assets may exceed the memory capacity at 4K, causing additional performance degradation. The GPU’s 47th percentile rank among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 9780 place it in the mid-range, which aligns with the measured FPS data showing playable performance only at 1080p.

The GPU’s DirectX 12 support (12_1) is important for The Technomancer, as the game likely uses modern rendering features. However, the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 48 is low compared to DirectX 11 (100) and DirectX 10 (82), suggesting that the GTX 1070’s DX12 implementation may not be optimal for this game. The GPU’s Vulkan score of 22121 and OpenCL score of 44700 indicate better compute performance, but the game’s engine may favor DX11, where the GPU scores higher. The GTX 1070’s 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU are reasonable for a dual-slot card, and its 1x 8-pin power connector provides adequate power delivery. The GPU’s end-of-life production status means it lacks modern features like ray tracing and DLSS, which could improve performance in newer games, but for The Technomancer, the measured data shows that the GPU is the definitive bottleneck at resolutions above 1080p.