The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload that scales significantly with resolution and settings. This analysis examines the performance of the Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions, using only measured data from the provided benchmark database. The results illustrate a clear progression from CPU-bound to GPU-bound scenarios, with the combination ranking 28th out of 3,696 tested combos in this specific title. The data indicates that this pairing provides exceptional performance, though settings and resolution choices substantially alter the experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combination reveals a clear trend: as resolution increases, average frame rates decrease, though the rate of decline varies significantly by settings preset. At the "Low" preset, the 1080p average is 307 FPS, which drops to 235 FPS at 1440p and further to 129 FPS at 4K. This represents a 23% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 45% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The "High" preset shows a similar pattern, with 236 FPS at 1080p, 154 FPS at 1440p, and 85 FPS at 4K, which is a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 45% drop from 1440p to 4K.

The "Ultra" and "Medium" presets also follow this scaling. With "Ultra" settings, the average FPS drops from 184 at 1080p to 120 at 1440p and 66 at 4K. This is a 35% and 45% reduction respectively. The "Medium" preset shows a smaller relative drop, going from 276 FPS at 1080p to 180 FPS at 1440p (a 35% decline) and then to 99 FPS at 4K (a 45% decline from 1440p). The consistent 45% decline between 1440p and 4K across all presets indicates that the RTX 5090 D's capabilities are the primary limiting factor at the higher resolution. The pixel throughput and memory bandwidth of the GPU are heavily taxed, resulting in a significant performance penalty.

The 1080p to 1440p transition shows a smaller performance hit, which suggests that the CPU is still able to feed the GPU effectively. The very high frame rates at 1080p, particularly at the "Low" preset with 307 FPS, indicate that the i5-14600KF has sufficient single-core and multi-core performance to keep the GPU busy at lower resolutions. The data shows that the game is not heavily reliant on any single component at 1080p. However, at 4K, the GPU's processing of 8.3 million pixels becomes the dominant factor. The 45% performance drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting component at 4K, while at 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary bottleneck, particularly when trying to achieve frame rates above 200 FPS.

FAQ

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D's performance compare to its nearest rivals in the database?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712. It is 1.1% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB by 2.1% and the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 2.4%, which both have higher average scores.

Q: What is the difference in multi-core performance between the i5-14600KF and the Ryzen 9 7900?

A: The i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49394, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900. This indicates a near-identical level of multi-core performance in the database's aggregate metrics.

Q: Is the i5-14600KF a good match for the RTX 5090 D in this game?

A: Yes, the data shows a well-balanced pairing. At 1080p with "Low" settings, the combo reaches 307 FPS, which is a high level of performance. At 4K, the FPS drops to 129 FPS, which indicates a shift to GPU-bound scenarios. The i5-14600KF's 14 cores and clock speeds are sufficient to support the RTX 5090 D at 4K, as the GPU is the main limiting factor at that resolution.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in the game?

A: The highest average FPS is 307 FPS, which is achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the "Low" preset.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest average FPS is 66 FPS at 3840x2100 with the "Ultra" preset. This is still a playable frame rate, but it is significantly lower than the 1080p results.

Q: How does the i5-14600KF's single-thread performance compare to its multi-core?

A: The i5-14600KF has a high single-thread score of 4273 in the Passmark and a high multi-thread score of 38697 in the same test. Its boost clock is 5.30 GHz, which helps deliver high single-thread performance, which is often important for games. The CPU's overall percentile vs. all CPUs is 90.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core processor with 20 threads, built on a 10nm process. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The processor includes 24 MB of L3 cache. Its benchmark scores show a good balance: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and a single-core score of 4594. The Geekbench scores are also strong, with a multi-core score of 17085 and a single-core score of 2445. These results indicate a processor with high multi-threaded performance for its class, but also a powerful single-core, which is often a bottleneck in older games like The Technomancer.

The game's performance at 1080p, particularly at the "Low" preset, shows that the CPU is a significant factor. The 307 FPS at 1080p is a high number, but the RTX 5090 D is a powerful GPU. The 45% FPS drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets indicates that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K. However, the consistent performance at 1080p across different presets suggests that the CPU is capable of keeping up with the GPU's frame generation. The CPU's high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4594, is likely sufficient to prevent a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

The CPU's 90th percentile vs. all CPUs indicates it is a top-tier chip. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, which has a similar average score, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245. The i5-14600KF's 14 cores and 20 threads provide high multi-threaded performance, and its high boost clock of 5.30 GHz ensures that single-threaded workloads are handled well. The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this combo for the majority of the tested configurations, except possibly at 1080p "Low" where the frame rate is 307 FPS, which is a high level that may be limited by the game's engine or other components.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database for this game, the Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 28th out of 3696 tested combos. This is a top-1% performance level. The ranking reflects the combination's strong performance across the tested resolutions and settings. With an average FPS of 85 FPS at 4K "High" and 154 FPS at 1440p "High," the combo is clearly well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming, even at higher resolutions. The combo's rank of 28 out of 3696 demonstrates that it is one of the best-performing pairs in this game, likely due to the high-end nature of both the CPU and GPU. The data shows that the i5-14600KF's strong single-core performance and the RTX 5090 D's raw power are a formidable team, pushing the game to its limits. The rank confirms the balance of the pairing, as the CPU can feed the top-tier GPU effectively at 1440p and 4K, and the GPU is not unduly held back by the CPU at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a high-end graphics card with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus. It has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. Its memory bandwidth is 1.79 TB/s, and it has a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s. The card's raw compute power is significant, with an FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS. In the database, it has a percentile rank of 92, meaning it is faster than 92% of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 77712.

The performance in The Technomancer is heavily influenced by the GPU. At 4K, the "Ultra" preset yields an average of 66 FPS, while the "Low" preset yields 129 FPS. This shows a performance scaling of about half, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The 45% drop from 1440p to 4K across all presets is also consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at 4K. The 32 GB of VRAM is more than enough for this game, even at 4K, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The RTX 5090 D's large memory bandwidth is likely a key asset in handling the high-resolution textures and the data requirements of the game.

The RTX 5090 D's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (with a 1.6% higher average score) and the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (with a 1.1% lower score). These are not direct competitors in terms of hardware, but they show the benchmark's aggregate score is a measure of overall compute performance. In this game, the RTX 5090 D's raw power is evident, as it achieves high frame rates at 4K, but the game is clearly a GPU-intensive title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data is broken down by resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the results are:

• Low: average 307 FPS
• High: average 236 FPS
• Medium: average 276 FPS (minimum 235 FPS, maximum 317 FPS)
• Ultra: average 184 FPS

At 2560x1440:

• Low: average 235 FPS
• High: average 154 FPS
• Medium: average 180 FPS (minimum 153 FPS, maximum 207 FPS)
• Ultra: average 120 FPS

At 3840x2160:

• Low: average 129 FPS
• High: average 85 FPS
• Medium: average 99 FPS (minimum 84 FPS, maximum 114 FPS)
• Ultra: average 66 FPS

These numbers show a clear pattern. The "Low" preset is the fastest, followed by "Medium," "High," and "Ultra" is the slowest. The difference between "Low" and "Ultra" is substantial: at 1080p, there is a 123 FPS gap (307 vs 184 FPS), and at 4K, a 63 FPS gap (129 vs 66 FPS). The "Medium" preset at 1080p has a minimum FPS of 235, which is higher than the "High" preset's average of 236 FPS. This indicates that "Medium" at 1080p is a very smooth experience with a slight minimum FPS drop. At 1440p, the "Medium" preset's minimum of 153 FPS is still high, and at 4K, the "Medium" preset's minimum of 84 FPS is just 1 FPS below the "High" preset's average of 85 FPS. The data suggests that the "Medium" preset offers a good balance of performance and quality, with a consistent frame rate across all resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that the "Medium" preset provides a strong performance-to-quality balance. At 1080p, it achieves an average of 276 FPS with a minimum of 235 FPS, which is an excellent experience. At 1440p, the "Medium" preset delivers 180 FPS with a minimum of 153 FPS, which is also extremely smooth. At 4K, the "Medium" preset still provides an average of 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS, which is well above the standard 60 FPS target. The "High" preset is also viable, with 85 FPS average at 4K, but its minimum FPS is not recorded. The "Ultra" preset at 4K, at 66 FPS average, might be playable, but the "Medium" preset offers a more comfortable margin, especially for a game with potentially demanding scenes.

For the best experience, the data suggests that users should select the "Medium" preset for a stable and high frame rate at any resolution. If the user prefers visual quality, the "High" preset at 1440p (154 FPS) or 4K (85 FPS) is a good choice. The "Ultra" preset at 4K is the most demanding, but at 66 FPS, it may be acceptable for a slower-paced game. However, for a competitive or fast-paced experience, the "Low" preset at 1080p (307 FPS) offers the highest frame rate, which is ideal for high refresh rate monitors. The data indicates that the RTX 5090 D is powerful enough to handle the game at "High" settings with no major issues, but the "Medium" preset is the sweet spot for a smooth experience across all resolutions.