The Technomancer

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination delivers a distinctly mid-pack performance profile in The Technomancer. The combo ranks 1246th out of 1656 tested configurations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all hardware pairings for this title. This percentile position suggests the hardware is functional but far from optimal for the game's demands. The ranking indicates that roughly one-quarter of tested combos perform worse, while the majority deliver higher frame rates. This placement is not a verdict on raw component quality, but rather a reflection of how these specific parts interact with the game's engine, which favors more balanced or higher-end configurations. The data positions this setup as a baseline for 1080p playable performance, but it struggles to maintain high refresh rates or handle demanding resolutions with consistent fluidity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1246 out of 1656 tested configurations places it in the 25th percentile of all hardware pairings for The Technomancer. This is a clear signal that the system is underperforming relative to the broader hardware landscape, even if it remains capable of running the game. The benchmark data shows that the system’s position is heavily influenced by the CPU’s modest multi-threaded capacity and the GPU’s mid-range class. For context, the CPU’s average benchmark score is 2305, placing it at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU’s average score is 19774, placing it at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs. The combination of two mid-tier components does not yield a sum greater than its parts; instead, the game’s engine appears to bottleneck on one or both elements, pushing the overall combo rank lower than the individual percentile scores might suggest. The result is a system that is better suited for 1080p gaming than for higher resolutions or maxed-out settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This configuration lacks hyper-threading, which means it has a limited thread count for modern workloads. In The Technomancer, a game from 2016, the CPU’s role is significant, but its performance is constrained by the lack of additional threads. Benchmark results highlight this: the CPU scores 803 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 113 in single-core, while in Cinebench R23 it scores 7969 multi-core and 1125 single-core. These numbers place the processor at the 50th percentile, meaning it is an average performer for its time. The game’s engine likely relies on a few heavily loaded threads, and the i5-9400’s six physical cores can handle that, but the absence of hyper-threading means the CPU cannot efficiently manage background tasks or highly parallel game logic. The result is that the CPU may become a limiting factor in scenes with many AI characters or complex physics, contributing to the combo’s lower overall rank.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. It features 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with a base clock of 1470 MHz and a boost clock of 1650 MHz. The GPU’s raw compute performance is 7.181 TFLOPS, and it scores 16462 in Passmark G3D, placing it at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs. In The Technomancer, this card is generally capable, but the data shows it is not enough to overcome the CPU’s limitations at higher settings. At 1080p High, the system achieves 93.2 FPS, which is solid, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 24.5 FPS. The GPU’s VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game, but the card’s overall throughput appears to be a secondary bottleneck when the CPU cannot feed it enough data. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the RTX 2070, which scores 19680 on average, just 0.5% higher, indicating that the RTX 2060 SUPER is very close in performance to the next tier up, yet the combo rank suffers due to the CPU pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of this CPU and GPU combo in The Technomancer?

A: The combo ranks 1246th out of 1656 tested configurations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all hardware pairings for this game.

Q: How does the CPU’s thread configuration affect gameplay?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has six cores and six threads, lacking hyper-threading. This limits its ability to handle multi-threaded game logic, which can bottleneck performance in CPU-intensive scenes.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth, and how does it relate to performance?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for the game’s textures, but the GPU cannot fully compensate for CPU limitations at higher resolutions.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1080p with High settings?

A: The system achieves an average of 93.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, which is playable but not exceptionally high for a competitive gaming experience.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 24.5 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay and indicates the system is not suited for 4K gaming.

Q: Is the GPU’s performance close to the next tier of graphics cards?

A: Yes, the RTX 2060 SUPER scores 19774 on average, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 scores 19680, a difference of only 0.5%, showing they are nearly equivalent in raw performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions, highlighting the system’s strengths and weaknesses. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 139.3 FPS, which drops to 93.2 FPS at High and 75.7 FPS at Ultra. This represents a 46% reduction from Low to Ultra at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is the primary factor at this resolution, but the CPU is still keeping up. Moving to 1440p, the average FPS at High is 58.3, a 37% drop from 1080p High, while at 4K High, the average is 34.8, a 63% drop from 1080p High. This steep decline suggests that the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck as resolution increases, but the CPU’s limited thread count also contributes to the frame rate drops, especially at Ultra settings. At 4K Ultra, the system only manages 24.5 FPS, which is a 68% reduction from 1080p High. The data shows that the system is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can deliver over 90 FPS at High settings, but it struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, particularly with higher graphical presets. The scaling pattern indicates that while the RTX 2060 SUPER is a capable mid-range GPU, the i5-9400’s lack of hyper-threading prevents the system from fully utilizing the GPU’s potential at lower resolutions, where CPU overhead is more noticeable. The result is a system that is adequate for 1080p and playable at 1440p, but not recommended for 4K gaming.