The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 action RPG, stresses hardware in a way that is distinctly tied to its era of game engine development. The measured data for the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT reveals a configuration that is capable of high refresh rates at 1080p but begins to show the strain of the engine's rendering budget as resolution climbs. The benchmark results indicate that the GPU is the primary scaling factor across settings, while the six-core processor provides a stable foundation without appearing to bottleneck the graphics card in most tested scenarios. The complete dataset provides a full picture of how this 2018 CPU and 2022 GPU interact with a game released between them, offering a unique look at generational overlap.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured FPS rows, the most balanced experience appears to be at 2560x1440 with the High preset. Here the average frame rate sits at 77 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay while still presenting a substantial visual upgrade over the lower presets. The step from High to Ultra at this resolution costs a significant drop to 60 FPS, a 22% reduction, making High the more sensible option for maintaining headroom. At 1920x1080, the High setting also provides an excellent 117 FPS average, which is near the top of what the CPU is likely to feed, and this makes High the best overall experience for players who prioritize a fluid frame pace without needing the absolute maximum visual fidelity.

For maximum smoothness at 1080p, the Low preset yields 174 FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium at 138 FPS is a 36 FPS improvement in visual quality for only a 36 FPS loss in speed. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot because it provides 117 FPS, a 21 FPS drop from Medium, while delivering a substantial increase in graphical effects. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 90 FPS offers a very playable frame rate for a moderate visual compromise, but High's 77 FPS is still a strong experience. The 4K Ultra preset (33 FPS) is the only measurement that falls below the 60 FPS threshold and is not recommended for any kind of competitive or action-oriented play; even High at 4K (42 FPS) is marginal. The data shows that Ultra presets are best avoided at 1440p and above, as the measured average of 60 FPS at 1440p Ultra is a hard floor, while 4K Ultra (33 FPS) is bordering on unplayable. A player targeting 60 FPS should use High at 1440p or High at 1080p, where the extra performance headroom allows for a stable experience. The Low settings at 4K (64 FPS) are the only way to achieve a playable frame rate at that resolution, suggesting that the engine's high-resolution rendering is extremely demanding.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is the primary driver of the measured frame rates, and its 12 GB GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are the key architectural features. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units provide the raw compute necessary for the heavy lifting in The Technomancer's rendering. The boost clock of 2600 MHz and game clock of 2495 MHz are high for the RDNA 2.0 architecture, and the data confirms that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. At 4K, the average frame rate for High settings is 42 FPS, which is a 55% drop from the 1440p High result of 77 FPS, demonstrating a classic GPU-bound scaling. The VRAM usage is never explicitly capped in the measured data, but the 12 GB frame buffer is more than sufficient for the game's 4K textures, as the GPU still produces a playable Low setting at 64 FPS. The benchmarking results also show the GPU's strong compute performance, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2548 and a PassMark G3D score of 20700, which places it in the 71st percentile of all GPUs. The GPU's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon R9 M395X (0.5% slower), the AMD FirePro W7100 (0.6% slower), and the AMD FirePro D700 (0.7% slower), which are all significantly older cards, indicating that the RX 6750 XT is a modern, high-performance part. The GPU's 40 ray accelerators are irrelevant for this game, but the 13.31 TFLOPS FP32 compute is the raw throughput that drives the shader-heavy effects. The 4K performance suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at that resolution, as the frame rates drop below 60 FPS across all presets except Low. At 1080p, the GPU load is likely lower, allowing the CPU to be a larger factor, but the data still shows a GPU-driven scaling.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Technomancer with this combo?

A: The 1920x1080 High setting delivers 117 FPS average, which is the most fluid experience. The 2560x1440 High setting provides 77 FPS, which is also a very good balance. 4K Ultra is the lowest at 33 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from High to Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset yields 117 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields 92 FPS, a 21% reduction. At 1440p, High (77 FPS) to Ultra (60 FPS) is a 22% drop. At 4K, High (42 FPS) to Ultra (33 FPS) is a 21% drop. In all cases, Ultra costs about one-fifth of the frame rate.

Q: Is the RX 6750 XT capable of 4K gaming in this title?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160 with Low settings the average is 64 FPS, Medium is 49 FPS, High is 42 FPS, and Ultra is 33 FPS. The only way to achieve 60 FPS at 4K is the Low preset (64 FPS). The 12 GB VRAM is not the issue since performance scales with the graphics load of the preset.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RX 6750 XT?

A: At 1080p, the High preset records 117 FPS, while the 1440p High preset records 77 FPS. The 1080p result is far below the GPU's theoretical maximum, and the 6-core CPU is likely the limiting factor for such high frame rates. However, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck at 4K, where performance drops to 42-64 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 6750 XT compare to its measured nearest rivals?

A: The RX 6750 XT's average score of 26011 is 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon R9 M395X, 0.6% higher than the AMD FirePro W7100, and 0.7% higher than the AMD FirePro D700. It is 1.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile.

Q: What causes the frame rate to drop by 55% from 1440p to 4K?

A: The 4K resolution increases the pixel count by 2.25 times compared to 1440p. The measured FPS at 1440p High is 77, while at 4K High it is 42, a 55% drop. This is a typical GPU-bound scaling, where the Radeon's raw throughput and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of 3696 tested combos, the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combination achieves a rank of 1805. This puts it in the 49th percentile of all tested combos, which is a mid-pack finish. The rank is likely pulled down by the combination's 4K performance, which is mediocre, while the 1080p performance is far more competitive. The data shows that this combo is not a top-tier performer, but it is also not a low-end system. The RX 6750 XT alone has a 71st percentile rank among all GPUs, and the i5-9400 sits at the 47th percentile among CPUs. When paired, the system's overall rank is lower than the GPU's percentile, highlighting that the CPU is holding back the overall performance. In the 4K Ultra test, the frame rate of 33 FPS is below the 60 FPS benchmark that many users target, but the 1440p High result of 77 FPS is above that threshold. The rank of 1805 out of 3696 is a good indicator that this is a balanced system for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it is not a 4K powerhouse. The individual component scores show that the GPU is a high performer (71st percentile) while the CPU is average (47th percentile), and the in-game rank reflects that the combo is better than the CPU alone but worse than the GPU alone. The efficiency of the 6-core/6-thread CPU is a limiting factor in the most CPU-demanding scenes. The combo's rank is 1805, which is near the median of the 3696 combos tested, indicating that it offers a typical performance level for the hardware generation.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as the resolution increases. At 1080p, the High setting provides 117 FPS, at 1440p the same setting provides 77 FPS, and at 4K it provides 42 FPS. This is a 55% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 35% drop from 1440p to 4K. The Low preset shows a similar trend: 174 FPS at 1080p, 117 FPS at 1440p, and 64 FPS at 4K. This pattern indicates a GPU-bound scenario. The frame rate is inversely proportional to the number of pixels rendered, which is a classic sign that the GPU is the limiting component. For High, the performance at 4K is 42 FPS, which is 36% of the 1080p result. At Low settings, 4K is 64 FPS, which is 37% of the 1080p result. The GPU's 432.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely the reason why 4K performance is so heavily impacted. The data shows that the scaling is nearly linear with the pixel count, confirming that the GPU is the primary limitation. The CPU's role is less significant in these tests, as the CPU is handling a relatively stable workload, while the GPU's rendering load increases quadratically with resolution. The 4K Ultra at 33 FPS is the worst case, while 1080p Low at 174 FPS is the best. The resolution scaling clearly shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K being a stretch that is only playable at Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 174 FPS on Low, 138 FPS on Medium, 117 FPS on High, and 92 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting has a measured minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 158 FPS. At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 117 FPS on Low, 90 FPS on Medium, 77 FPS on High, and 60 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting at 1440p has a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS. At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 64 FPS on Low, 49 FPS on Medium, 42 FPS on High, and 33 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting at 4K has a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 57 FPS. The data shows a clear trend: the average frame rate is heavily dependent on the preset. The difference between Low and Ultra is dramatic across all resolutions, with the frame rate being more than halved at 1080p (174 vs 92 FPS) and at 4K (64 vs 33 FPS). The 1440p Medium setting's minimum frame rate of 76 FPS is just above the 60 FPS target, while the 4K Medium's minimum of 42 FPS is below the playable threshold. The 1080p Medium's minimum of 117 FPS is excellent, and the 1440p Medium's maximum of 103 FPS shows that the GPU can still deliver high frame rates when the workload is moderate. The 4K Medium's maximum of 57 FPS is still below 60 FPS, indicating that the GPU is at its limit there. The frame time variance (difference between min and max) is largest at 1440p Medium (27 FPS), suggesting a more varied workload, while at 1080p Medium it is 41 FPS, which is a larger variance. The average results are consistent with the GPU being a strong mid-range card that can handle 1080p and 1440p easily but struggles at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost of 4.10 GHz. With a TDP of 69 watts, it is an energy-efficient part. The CPU's L3 cache is 9 MB shared, which is moderate for a 6-core chip. In the benchmark data, the CPU yields a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, placing it at the 47th percentile of all CPUs. This is an average score. The CPU's nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2% faster), Intel Core i7-10710U (0.3% slower), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (0.4% slower), and Intel Core i3-10305 (0.4% slower). The CPU's performance is the bottleneck in this system. The 1080p High preset yields 117 FPS, which is a frame rate that is likely at the CPU's maximum processing limit. The 1440p High preset yields 77 FPS, which is lower than the 1080p result, and the 4K High preset yields 42 FPS, which is much lower. This pattern shows that the CPU is not the main bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the GPU is the one that determines the frame rate. The CPU's 6-thread capacity is enough for the game's core processing, but it is not a high-end CPU that can push frame rates to the absolute maximum. The single-core performance of 935 in Cinebench R23 is a moderate score, and the multi-core score of 6629 is also moderate. The CPU's 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth is the data path to the GPU, and the 6 MB of L3 cache is the shared resource. The CPU is not the limiting factor in this game, as the measured frame rates are high enough to show that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The 1080p Ultra setting at 92 FPS is a good example of this, where the CPU is still able to feed the GPU enough data to keep it busy. The CPU's role is to prepare the frames and handle the game logic, and the performance is adequate for this task. The 6-core/6-thread setup is a common configuration for a mid-range processor, and it works well with the RX 6750 XT to deliver playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.