The Technomancer

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the Intel Arc B390 presents a specific performance profile in The Technomancer. This combination ranks at 2500 out of 2825 tested configurations, placing it in the lower percentile of systems. The data indicates that this setup is fundamentally constrained by the graphics solution, which behaves more like an integrated-class part than a discrete GPU. The following analysis breaks down how this pairing handles the game across resolutions and settings, using only the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, revealing a system that is heavily burdened by pixel count. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 52 FPS at 1920x1080 to 34 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 18 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 19 FPS, which is a 63% decrease from the 1080p result. This pattern strongly suggests that the Intel Arc B390 is the primary limiting factor, as the scaling penalty aligns with the GPU's fillrate and shading capabilities rather than any CPU bottleneck.

The Low preset shows the same trend but with higher absolute numbers. At 1920x1080, the average is 79 FPS, which drops to 52 FPS at 2560x1440 and then to 28 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K at Low settings is 24 FPS, indicating that even at the lowest graphical load, the GPU cannot maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions. The data suggests that 1080p is the only viable resolution for this combo, with 1440p being marginal at best for less demanding settings.

Ultra settings are the most punishing across the board. The average at 1080p is 40 FPS, which falls to 26 FPS at 1440p and a nearly unplayable 15 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on Ultra shows a 25 FPS loss, which is the largest absolute drop of any preset. This indicates that the GPU's compute resources are saturated quickly when the game's highest visual features are enabled, and the system has no headroom to compensate for the increased pixel workload.

The measured data for Medium settings includes min and max FPS values, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS and a maximum of 25 FPS. These ranges show that the system maintains relatively stable frame pacing at lower resolutions, but the variance becomes more pronounced as resolution increases, with the 4K results hovering near the single-digit territory.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the decisive component in this configuration. Its benchmark score in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is 1482, which places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. This score is remarkably low, and the nearest rivals confirm its position: the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463 (1.3% slower), the GeForce 800M scores 1460 (1.5% slower), the GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (2.5% slower), and the GT 710 scores 1443 (2.7% slower). These are all legacy or entry-level parts from over a decade ago, which contextualizes the Arc B390's performance class.

The GPU's clock speeds are listed as a base of 300 MHz and a boost of 2500 MHz. The wide gap between base and boost suggests that the chip can ramp up significantly under load, but the measured FPS in The Technomancer indicates that even at peak boost, the hardware lacks the raw throughput for demanding scenarios. The memory configuration is listed as "System Shared," which means the GPU relies on the CPU's DDR4 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This is a critical limitation for a game like The Technomancer, which was released in 2016 and likely expects a dedicated memory pool for textures and geometry.

The GPU's specifications include 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 render output units. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s. These numbers are theoretically sufficient for low-resolution gaming, but the measured results show that the system struggles to maintain 60 FPS even at 1080p Low (79 FPS average) and falls well below that at higher settings. The 4K results, where the average never exceeds 28 FPS, suggest that the 24 ROPs are a severe bottleneck for pixel fill.

The GPU's FP32 performance is 7.680 TFLOPS, which is respectable on paper, but the system-shared memory and the lack of dedicated VRAM bandwidth likely undermine real-world performance. The data shows that the Arc B390 behaves like an integrated GPU, which is consistent with its classification as an IGP with a slot width of "IGP" and no power connectors. This is not a discrete card; it is a graphics solution embedded in a processor package, and its performance in this game reflects that.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Technomancer at 4K?

A: The data shows average FPS of 19 at High, 22 at Medium, and 28 at Low for 3840x2160. These results are below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and even the lowest preset fails to reach 30 FPS. 4K is not a practical option for this configuration.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The measured results show 1920x1080 as the only resolution where the average FPS exceeds 40 across all presets. At High, the average is 52 FPS, and at Low it is 79 FPS, making 1080p the clear choice for playable performance.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad score is 1482. The closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463, which is 1.3% slower. The GeForce 800M is 1.5% slower, and the GT 625 OEM is 2.5% slower. These are all older, lower-tier parts.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate the opposite. The GPU's percentile rank is 9, while the CPU's percentile rank is 47. The FPS drops significantly with resolution increases, which is a sign of GPU limitation rather than CPU constraint.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured average is 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. This is playable but not smooth, and it may be acceptable for slower-paced sections of the game.

Q: Is the Arc B390's performance consistent with its specifications?

A: The GPU has a boost clock of 2500 MHz and 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, but the measured FPS in The Technomancer is low across all settings. The system-shared memory and integrated design limit the effective performance, as shown by the 9th percentile rank.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Low settings as the only reliable way to achieve higher frame rates, but the trade-off in visual quality is significant. At 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS is 79, which provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS target. This is the only preset that delivers a consistently smooth experience at 1080p, and it is recommended for players who prioritize frame rate over fidelity.

For those who want a balance between visuals and performance, Medium at 1080p is the next best option, with an average of 61 FPS and a minimum of 52 FPS. This should be acceptable for most users, though the frame rate will dip below 60 FPS at times. At 1440p, Medium drops to an average of 40 FPS, which is borderline for action RPGs, and it is only recommended if the player can tolerate occasional stutter.

High settings are only viable at 1080p, where the average is 52 FPS. This is playable but not ideal, and the experience degrades quickly at higher resolutions. Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution, as the average FPS falls to 40 at 1080p and to 15 at 4K. The visual gains from Ultra do not justify the performance loss on this hardware.

The data suggests that the best experience is achieved by setting the resolution to 1920x1080 and the preset to Low, which yields the highest average FPS and the lowest risk of frame drops. If the game allows for custom settings, it would be prudent to use the Low preset as a baseline and selectively enable features that have minimal performance impact, but the measured rows do not provide granular data beyond the four presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 79 FPS, High averages 52 FPS, Medium averages 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS, and Ultra averages 40 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 39 FPS, showing that the GPU's performance is highly sensitive to graphical load at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 52 FPS, High at 34 FPS, Medium at 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS, and Ultra at 26 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, with Low losing 27 FPS, High losing 18 FPS, Medium losing 21 FPS, and Ultra losing 14 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 28 FPS, High at 19 FPS, Medium at 22 FPS with a minimum of 19 FPS and a maximum of 25 FPS, and Ultra at 15 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly low, and the difference between Low and Ultra is only 13 FPS, indicating that the GPU is so saturated that preset changes have diminishing returns.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the min is 52 and the max is 70, a range of 18 FPS. At 1440p, the min is 34 and the max is 46, a range of 12 FPS. At 4K, the min is 19 and the max is 25, a range of 6 FPS. The narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is consistently hitting its performance ceiling, leaving less variance in frame times.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 6629 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 935 in single-core, which places it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 2254, and its nearest rivals are all within a narrow margin: the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 scores 2259 (0.2% faster), the i7-10710U scores 2248 (0.3% slower), the Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 scores 2246 (0.4% slower), and the i3-10305 scores 2264 (0.4% faster).

The CPU's performance is far above the GPU's percentile rank, which suggests that the processor is not the limiting factor in The Technomancer. The measured FPS scaling with resolution points to the GPU as the bottleneck, as the CPU has enough headroom to feed the graphics solution even at lower resolutions. The CPU's 6 cores and 6 threads are adequate for this 2016 game, which likely does not leverage high thread counts, and the boost clock of 4.10 GHz provides sufficient single-thread performance for game logic and draw calls.

The memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s is a potential concern because the GPU uses system-shared memory. This means the CPU and GPU compete for the same memory bandwidth, which can cause performance degradation in memory-intensive scenes. The data does not isolate this effect, but the overall low FPS figures are consistent with a system where shared memory access hampers both CPU and GPU efficiency. The CPU's L3 cache of 9 MB is modest, but it is unlikely to be a significant factor given the game's age and the GPU's dominance in limiting performance.

In summary, the CPU is adequately matched for this workload, and upgrading it would not yield meaningful FPS improvements in The Technomancer. The bottleneck is squarely on the Intel Arc B390, which lacks the dedicated VRAM and raw throughput needed for higher resolutions and settings. The 6-core, 6-thread configuration of the i5-9400 is sufficient for the game's demands, and its benchmark scores confirm that it performs in line with other mid-range CPUs of its generation.