The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting challenge for the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination. The benchmark data reveals a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution, with the CPU providing a strong foundation but the GPU and its memory configuration ultimately dictating performance ceilings at higher loads. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the board show a clear hierarchy that can be dissected to provide a complete picture of this pairing's capabilities.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant and clearly demonstrates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 becomes the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 117 at 1920x1080 to 73.9 at 2560x1440, a substantial decline of roughly 37%. The trend continues to 4K, where the average FPS at 3840x2160 drops to 40.1, representing a further 46% reduction from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern is typical of a system where the GPU's rendering capability, not the CPU, is the bottleneck.

The data suggests that the transition from 1080p to 1440p is the most punishing, with a loss of over 40 FPS at High settings. Moving from 1440p to 4K incurs a similar relative loss, but the absolute numbers become more critical as they approach playability thresholds. At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced in absolute terms, with the average FPS dropping from 180.1 at 1080p to 113.6 at 1440p, and finally to 62.3 at 4K. The fact that the 4K Low setting still manages to outperform the 4K High setting by a significant margin—62.3 versus 40.1—indicates that the GPU's raw pixel throughput is the deciding factor, not the CPU's ability to feed it data.

This pattern is a clear indicator that for this game, the Intel Core i5-14600K is not the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see the FPS at 1080p and 1440p to be much closer together, as the CPU's workload would be similar even if the GPU's workload increased. Instead, the consistent and large FPS drops at every settings tier as resolution scales up point directly to the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth being the constraining resource.

Settings Recommendations

For players using a 1920x1080 display, the benchmark results indicate that the Ultra preset is a viable option, delivering an average of 91.6 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the jump to High settings provides a significant boost to 117 FPS, a 28% improvement, with what is likely a minimal visual fidelity loss. The Medium preset at 137.2 FPS and Low at 180.1 FPS offer even higher headroom for competitive play or for those with high refresh rate monitors, but the visual trade-offs become more noticeable.

At 2560x1440, the choices become more strategic. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 59.1 FPS, which is right at the edge of the 60 FPS target. This could result in occasional dips below the threshold, making it a risky choice for a smooth experience. The High preset, at 73.9 FPS, provides a much more comfortable margin and is the recommended setting for this resolution. It offers a 25% performance increase over Ultra while maintaining high visual quality. The Medium preset at 91.9 FPS is also an excellent option for those prioritizing a very high frame rate.

For 4K gaming, the data shows that the RTX 5060 struggles to provide a consistently smooth experience. The Ultra preset yields an average of just 33.6 FPS, which is not playable for most. The High preset at 40.1 FPS is still below the 60 FPS target. Even the Medium preset at 49.6 FPS falls short. Only the Low preset, with an average of 62.3 FPS, manages to cross the 60 FPS line. Based on the measured data, the most balanced experience across all resolutions is the High preset at 1440p, which provides a strong frame rate without sacrificing too much visual detail.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It features a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications are more than sufficient for a game from 2016 like The Technomancer. The benchmark data supports this, as the FPS drops observed are almost entirely attributable to resolution scaling, not CPU-related stalls.

The processor's multi-threaded performance is robust, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881 and its Passmark multithread score of 38682. Its single-thread performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4270. These scores indicate that the CPU can handle the game's logic, physics, and AI calculations without becoming a limiting factor. The high boost clock of 5.30 GHz is particularly beneficial for a game that may rely on a few heavily loaded threads.

The data shows that the i5-14600K is not the performance ceiling for this combo. At 1080p Low, the system achieves an average of 180.1 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see this number capped at a lower value, regardless of the GPU's capability. The fact that the FPS scales so dramatically with GPU load confirms that the processor is providing ample headroom for the RTX 5060 to operate. The CPU's performance is so far ahead of the game's requirements that its role is simply to keep the GPU fed with data.

How This Combo Ranks

In the broader context of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 holds a rank of 850 out of 1656 combos for The Technomancer. This places it in the middle of the pack, which is a logical position for this hardware. The CPU is a high-end part, but the GPU is more of a mid-range offering, which pulls the overall ranking down.

The GPU's position relative to its peers is a key factor in this ranking. The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 30109, which places it at the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its performance is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which has an average score of 30097 and a deltaPct of 0. This means that in this game, the RTX 5060 is essentially on par with a previous-generation mid-range competitor. It is also very close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile, which is a laptop part, and the NVIDIA Tesla M60.

The CPU, conversely, is in a much stronger position. The Intel Core i5-14600K has an average benchmark score of 49166, placing it at the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. It is slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X by 0.2% and slightly behind the Intel Core i5-14600KF by 0.4%. This high-performing CPU is being paired with a mid-range GPU, and the resulting combo rank reflects the balance of these two components. The system is not a top-tier performer in this game because the GPU's capabilities are the limiting factor, but it is far from being a low-end setup.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and features 3840 shading units. It has a base clock of 2280 MHz and a boost clock of 2497 MHz. The most critical aspect of this GPU for this game appears to be its memory subsystem. It comes with 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, resulting in a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. While this bandwidth is respectable, the 8 GB capacity and the 128-bit bus width are likely the reasons for the performance drop at higher resolutions.

The 4K performance data is particularly telling. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is only 33.6, and even at High, it is just 40.1. This suggests that the GPU is struggling to fill the massive number of pixels required at this resolution. The 128-bit memory interface may be limiting the amount of data the GPU can process each second, and the 8 GB VRAM capacity could be leading to texture swapping or other memory-related hitches in a large, open-world style game. The fact that the 4K Low preset achieves 62.3 FPS shows that when the memory pressure is reduced, the GPU can perform much better.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks also provide context for its gaming performance. Its Passmark G3D score is 20891, which is a solid result for a mid-range card. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 120785 and Vulkan score of 116626 indicate good compute performance. However, these numbers do not translate into top-tier 4K gaming performance. The RTX 5060 is a capable 1080p and 1440p card, but the data shows that it is not designed for high-refresh-rate 4K gaming in this title. The GPU is the clear bottleneck in this system at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the RTX 5060 provides excellent performance. The Low preset averages 180.1 FPS, which drops to 137.2 on Medium and 117 on High. The Ultra preset still manages a very playable 91.6 FPS. These numbers show that the system has ample power for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming, with all settings being viable.

Moving to 1440p, the performance is still strong but requires more consideration. The Low preset averages 113.6 FPS, and the Medium preset averages 91.9 FPS. The High preset, at 73.9 FPS, is a good balance of quality and speed. The Ultra preset falls to 59.1 FPS, which is at the lower boundary of what is considered smooth for many players.

At 4K, the GPU's limitations become apparent. The Low preset is the only one that averages above 60 FPS, at 62.3. The Medium preset drops to 49.6 FPS, High to 40.1 FPS, and Ultra to 33.6 FPS. These figures indicate that 4K gaming with this combo will require significant compromises in visual quality to achieve a playable frame rate. The data clearly shows a system that excels at 1080p and is very good at 1440p, but is not suited for 4K gaming at high settings.