The Technomancer

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for The Technomancer with the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 reveals a clear pattern of resolution-dependent performance scaling. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 69.2 FPS. Stepping up to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset drops the average to 45.9 FPS, a decline of approximately 34%. Moving further to 3840x2160 at Low settings yields just 23.5 FPS, representing another 49% reduction from the 1440p result.

This scaling behavior strongly indicates that the GeForce GTX 1650 is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The GPU's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 128-bit memory bus, with a bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s, become increasingly stressed at higher pixel counts. The 2560x1440 High preset shows 27.5 FPS, while 3840x2160 High drops to 17.4 FPS — the gap between these resolutions narrows at higher settings, suggesting the GPU is already saturated and cannot compensate for the additional pixel workload.

The most dramatic resolution penalty appears at Ultra settings. The 1920x1080 Ultra average of 36.1 FPS falls to 22.5 FPS at 2560x1440, then collapses to 9.5 FPS at 3840x2160. The 4K Ultra result is essentially unplayable, and even the 1440p Ultra figure sits below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that this combination is only viable at 1080p, and even then, only at lower to medium settings. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at High settings (42.6 to 27.5 FPS) represents a 35% performance loss, while the 1080p to 4K transition at High (42.6 to 17.4 FPS) cuts performance by roughly 59%. These percentages illustrate the GPU-bound nature of the system in this title, with the CPU's substantial resources unable to offset the graphics card's limitations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings selection. The 1920x1080 Low preset delivers 69.2 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset to exceed 60 FPS. Medium at the same resolution produces 55.2 FPS, close to but slightly below the 60 FPS target. High at 1080p yields 42.6 FPS, while Ultra drops to 36.1 FPS. For players prioritizing smooth frame rates, 1080p Low is the recommended setting, with Medium as a viable alternative if visual fidelity is slightly more important.

At 2560x1440, the best option is Low at 45.9 FPS, which remains playable but does not reach the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 1440p produces 36.5 FPS, and High drops to 27.5 FPS. Ultra at 1440p is marginal at 22.5 FPS. The 3840x2160 resolution offers no playable configurations; even Low achieves only 23.5 FPS, and all other settings fall below 20 FPS. The data indicates that the GTX 1650 is not suited for 4K gaming in this title, regardless of settings.

The relative performance differences between settings at each resolution highlight diminishing returns. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 14 FPS (from 69.2 to 55.2), while Medium to High costs another 12.6 FPS (55.2 to 42.6). The step from High to Ultra costs 6.5 FPS (42.6 to 36.1). These incremental losses suggest that Medium provides a reasonable balance, capturing much of the visual improvement over Low without the severe frame rate penalty of High or Ultra. However, for competitive or fast-paced gameplay, Low remains the only setting that ensures consistent performance above 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz provide substantial computational headroom. The CPU's benchmarks reflect its strength: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881 and a single-core score of 4642. Geekbench results show 15846 multi-core and 2803 single-core. PassMark multi-thread score reaches 38682, with a single-thread score of 4270.

In the context of The Technomancer, an Action RPG from 2016, the CPU's capabilities far exceed what the game likely demands. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache offer ample memory hierarchy for game logic and AI computations. The CPU's percentile rank of 93 among all tested processors indicates it outperforms the vast majority of alternatives. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with an average score of 49062 (0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i5-14600KF at 49367 (-0.4% delta), placing the i5-14600K in elite company.

However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this pairing. The dramatic FPS drops across resolutions and settings — from 69.2 at 1080p Low to 9.5 at 4K Ultra — follow the GPU's limitations rather than CPU constraints. The fact that 1080p Low achieves nearly 70 FPS while 4K Ultra struggles to reach 10 FPS points to the GTX 1650 as the limiting component. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads, combined with its high boost clock, ensure that it can feed frames to the GPU without becoming a constraint, even at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work per frame. The data suggests that this processor would support a significantly more powerful graphics card in this game without introducing CPU-bound frame rate ceilings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ranks 1610 out of 1656 tested combinations in The Technomancer. This places it in the bottom 2.8% of all tested systems, which aligns with the GPU's limited performance profile. The rank reflects the measured FPS data, which shows mostly sub-60 FPS results across the tested configurations. Only the 1080p Low setting achieves a playable average of 69.2 FPS, and even that is modest by modern standards.

The low ranking is primarily attributable to the GTX 1650's position in the GPU hierarchy. The card sits at the 43rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 8713. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (8746, -0.4% delta) and the AMD Radeon 550X (8749, -0.4% delta), indicating that the GTX 1650 performs near the bottom of the discrete GPU spectrum. The CPU, by contrast, is exceptional — at the 93rd percentile — but its strength cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations in a graphically demanding title.

The disparity between CPU and GPU capabilities is stark. The i5-14600K's average benchmark score of 49166 places it among the top processors, with rivals like the AMD EPYC 4345P (49595) and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698) within 1% of its performance. Yet in this game, the combo's ranking is heavily dragged down by the GPU. This suggests that users seeking better performance in The Technomancer would benefit more from upgrading the GPU than the CPU, as the processor is clearly not the limiting factor in this pairing. The data indicates that the combo rank would improve substantially with a more capable graphics card, even if the CPU remained unchanged.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is based on the TU117 chip using the Turing architecture, manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, with memory running at 2001 MHz (8 Gbps effective). The 4 GB of GDDR5 memory is accessed via a 128-bit bus, providing 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The card's FP32 performance is rated at 2.984 TFLOPS, with a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s.

In The Technomancer, the GTX 1650's limitations are evident across all resolutions. The GPU's 43rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 8713, places it in the lower half of the performance spectrum. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8671, 0.5% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 (8761, -0.5% delta). The card's DirectX 12 benchmark score of 35 in PassMark is notably low, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 305 reinforces the impression of limited modern API performance.

The measured FPS data directly reflects the GPU's constraints. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 55.2 FPS, which is reasonable, but the card struggles as resolution increases. The GTX 1650's 4 GB VRAM is likely a significant factor at higher resolutions, where texture data exceeds the available memory. The transition from 1080p High (42.6 FPS) to 1440p High (27.5 FPS) shows a 35% drop, while 4K High (17.4 FPS) is barely interactive. The GPU's 75 W TDP and lack of external power connectors indicate a modest power envelope, consistent with its entry-level positioning. The card's 128-bit memory bus and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth become bottlenecks at higher resolutions, where the GPU must access more texture and geometry data per frame.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values span from 36.1 to 69.2 across the four settings. Low delivers 69.2 FPS, Medium achieves 55.2 FPS, High produces 42.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 36.1 FPS. The progression shows a steady decline of roughly 13-14 FPS between Low and Medium, and then again between Medium and High, with a smaller 6.5 FPS drop from High to Ultra. This resolution is the only one where any setting approaches or exceeds 60 FPS, and Low is the sole configuration in the entire dataset to surpass that threshold.

At 2560x1440, the averages are significantly lower. Low achieves 45.9 FPS, Medium delivers 36.5 FPS, High produces 27.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 22.5 FPS. The gaps between settings are more compressed than at 1080p, with roughly 9-10 FPS separating each step from Low to Medium and Medium to High, and 5 FPS between High and Ultra. None of these results reach 60 FPS, and only Low is comfortably above 30 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapses. Low manages 23.5 FPS, Medium achieves 17 FPS, High produces 17.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 9.5 FPS. Interestingly, Medium and High are nearly identical at this resolution (17.0 vs 17.4 FPS), suggesting that the GPU is so constrained that additional settings changes have minimal impact. The 4K results are uniformly unplayable, with even the best setting (Low at 23.5 FPS) falling well below acceptable levels. The data across all resolutions and settings paints a consistent picture: the GTX 1650 is a 1080p-oriented card that can handle Low to Medium settings at playable frame rates, but it cannot sustain acceptable performance at higher resolutions or more demanding presets in The Technomancer.