The Technomancer

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 lands at rank 1351 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the middle of the pack. This is a balanced pairing where neither component is dramatically holding the other back, though the data reveals distinct bottlenecks depending on resolution and settings. The combo sits just below the 50th percentile, which is respectable for a six-core processor from the Coffee Lake era paired with a current-generation RDNA 3.0 graphics card, but it is not a top-tier setup for this Action RPG.

How This Combo Ranks

At position 1351 of 2825 total combinations, this pairing is squarely in the upper-middle range of the database. The rank is heavily influenced by the CPU's modest standing; the Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254 and sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, 0.2% faster), the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, 0.4% faster), the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, 0.3% slower), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, 0.4% slower). This cluster of results shows that the i5-9400 is essentially neck-and-neck with several other mid-range parts from its generation, meaning any ranking differences in games come primarily from the GPU.

The GPU, however, is a different story. The RX 7700 achieves an average benchmark score of 15852 and ranks at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, which is notably higher than the CPU's 47th percentile. Its direct competitors in the database include the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862, 0.1% faster), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014, 1% faster), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679, 1.1% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129, 1.7% faster). This tells a clear story: the GPU is capable of more than the CPU can consistently feed it, especially at lower resolutions where the processor becomes the limiting factor. The combo's overall rank reflects this tension, as it cannot reach the heights of pairings with stronger CPUs, but it avoids the bottom tiers because the GPU carries the workload well at higher settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the star of this pairing, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It packs 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2438 MHz, which translates to 19.5 Gbps effective, and the base clock is 1900 MHz with a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz. With 2560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, the card is designed for high-throughput rendering, and the data confirms this in The Technomancer.

In this game, the GPU's influence is most visible when moving from Low to Ultra settings at a fixed resolution. At 1080p, the average FPS climbs from 117 on High to 174 on Low, a jump of 57 FPS that shows the GPU has headroom when the CPU is not the constraint. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this 2016 title, even at 4K Ultra, where the card still manages 33 FPS. The GPU's pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s are high enough to handle the game's environments, but the data shows that at 4K Ultra the card is being pushed to its limits, as the average FPS drops below the 42 FPS seen at 4K High. The card's DirectX 12 Ultimate support with a 12_2 feature level aligns with the game's era, and its performance in synthetic tests like 3DMark Steel Nomad (2865) and Passmark G3D (20974) suggests it is a solid all-rounder, not a specialist.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts between the CPU and GPU. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 174 FPS, which is an excellent result, but this is where the CPU starts to limit the frame rate. The i5-9400's six cores and six threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost of 4.10 GHz, can only push so many frames, and the data shows that dropping from Low to High at 1080p only reduces the average from 174 to 117 FPS. This is a relatively small drop compared to what the GPU is capable of, indicating that the CPU is the primary constraint at this resolution.

Moving to 1440p, the picture changes. At Low settings, the average FPS drops to 117, and at High it falls to 77. The gap between Low and High is now 40 FPS, which is larger than the 57 FPS gap at 1080p, but the absolute numbers are lower because the GPU is working harder. At 4K, the GPU takes over as the clear bottleneck. The average FPS at 4K Low is 64, and at 4K High it drops to 42. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a drop from 77 to 42 FPS, a 45% reduction, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance. The 4K Ultra result of 33 FPS confirms that this card cannot maintain smooth frame rates at the highest settings in this resolution, while the 1080p Ultra result of 92 FPS shows that the card is more than capable at lower pixel counts.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming in The Technomancer?

A: The data shows strong performance at both resolutions. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 117, and at 1440p High it drops to 77. Both are playable, but the 1080p results are smoother, with the combo hitting 174 FPS at Low settings and 92 FPS at Ultra.

Q: Can this setup handle 4K gaming in The Technomancer?

A: Yes, but with compromises. At 4K Low, the average FPS is 64, and at 4K Medium it is 49. However, at 4K High the average drops to 42 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 33 FPS, which may be too low for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 7700 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 3060 Ti?

A: The RX 7700 has an average benchmark score of 15852, while the RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129, which is 1.7% faster. In practical terms, the difference is minimal, and the RX 7700's 16 GB VRAM gives it an edge in memory capacity for future titles.

Q: Is the Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RX 7700 in this game?

A: The evidence suggests yes, particularly at 1080p. The CPU's average benchmark score of 2254 is below the GPU's score of 15852 on a relative scale. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 174 FPS, but the CPU's six threads limit how much higher it can go, as seen in the smaller FPS gains when lowering settings further.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a balanced experience at 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 1440p provide an average of 90 FPS with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS. This is a solid balance between visual quality and frame rate, as High drops to 77 FPS and Ultra falls to 60 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested combinations?

A: It ranks 1351 out of 2825 combos, placing it in the upper half of the database. The GPU's 58th percentile ranking boosts the combo, but the CPU's 47th percentile holds it back from higher positions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. On Low settings, the average FPS is 174, with no minimum or maximum reported. Medium settings yield an average of 137 FPS, with a minimum of 117 and a maximum of 158. High settings produce an average of 117 FPS, again without min/max values. Ultra settings bring the average down to 92 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at the highest settings, the game is playable, but the relatively small gap between Low (174 FPS) and Ultra (92 FPS) suggests the CPU is limiting the upper ceiling.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS scales down as expected. Low settings average 117 FPS, Medium averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 103, High averages 77 FPS, and Ultra averages 60 FPS. The Medium preset is the sweet spot here, as it stays above 76 FPS even in dips, while High and Ultra remain playable but with less headroom.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the limiting factor. Low settings average 64 FPS, Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 42 and maximum of 57, High averages 42 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the only one with full min/max data, and the 42 FPS minimum is borderline for smooth gameplay. The drop from 4K Low to 4K Ultra is a 31 FPS reduction, which is a clear sign of GPU-bound performance at this resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake refresh generation, built on Intel's 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 256 KB of L2 per core, and 9 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes. The processor has an integrated UHD 630 GPU, but in this pairing, the discrete RX 7700 handles all rendering.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates are highest. The i5-9400's single-core performance, as measured by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1389, is adequate for this game, but the lack of hyper-threading means only six threads are available. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 174 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra it only drops to 92 FPS. This relatively small drop suggests that the CPU is not the only factor, but its six-thread limit prevents the GPU from reaching even higher frame rates at lower settings. The multi-core scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 5141, are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for this game's engine, which was released in 2016 and does not heavily utilize many cores.

The CPU's 47th percentile ranking and its benchmark scores, which are within 0.4% of rivals like the Core i7-1068NG7 and Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, indicate that it is a mid-range part. In this combo, it does not hold the GPU back to a severe degree, but the data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates plateau around 174 FPS, which is likely a CPU limit. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes over as the primary bottleneck, and the CPU's limitations become less relevant. For a game like The Technomancer, this pairing works best at 1080p with High or Ultra settings, or at 1440p with Medium settings, where the balance between CPU and GPU is most favorable.