The Technomancer

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, paired with a shared 9 MB L3 cache. In the context of The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, this CPU's specifications are adequate for the game's engine demands. Its benchmark results place it at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. Compared to its nearest rivals, the i5-9400 is nearly identical in performance: it is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i3-10305 and the Intel Core i3-1125G4, and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Xeon E-2134. Conversely, it trails the Intel Core i7-8809G by 0.6%. These margins are negligible, meaning the i5-9400 offers a baseline level of compute throughput that is perfectly mainstream for its generation. The processor's six physical cores without hyper-threading mean it relies on raw clock speed rather than high thread counts, which is typically sufficient for a game of this era. The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this pairing, as the frame rates scale more dramatically with GPU-centric changes like resolution and settings.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the dominant component in this configuration. This GPU is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. It is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz. The RTX 5070 is a massive performance leap over the CPU's era, given its release date of 2025-03-03. In terms of raw compute, it delivers 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. Its average benchmark score is 41687, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 5070 is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090; it is 0.5% behind the NVIDIA Tesla M40 and 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580X. The sheer graphical horsepower of the RTX 5070 means that, in The Technomancer, the GPU has substantial headroom to spare, especially at lower resolutions where the CPU might struggle to feed it frames.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear story about how the workload shifts between components as resolution changes. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 147.5 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at High settings drops the frame rate to 106.5 FPS, a reduction of approximately 27.8%. At 3840x2160 (4K) with High settings, the average FPS falls to 61.2, which is a further 42.5% drop from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that the system is heavily GPU-limited at 4K, as the absolute frame rate is halved from 1080p to 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 58.5% reduction in frame rate, confirming that the RTX 5070's rendering load is the primary constraint at higher pixel counts.

However, the scaling is not purely linear, which hints at the CPU's role. At 1080p Low settings, the average is 174.9 FPS. At 1440p Low, it is 150.6 FPS, a drop of only 13.9%. At 4K Low, it drops to 92.2 FPS, a 38.8% reduction from 1440p. The relatively small penalty between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings suggests that the CPU is beginning to cap the maximum frame rate around the 150-175 FPS range. The i5-9400's single-thread performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1125, is sufficient to push high frame rates but not unlimited ones. The data shows that at Low settings, the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, preventing the GPU from reaching even higher numbers. As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU's workload becomes the dominant factor, and the frame rate drops accordingly.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for The Technomancer, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 holds a combo rank of 487 out of 1656 total tested combos. This places the system in the top 29.4% of all configurations tested for this game. This ranking is surprisingly modest given the GPU's high percentile ranking, which is a direct result of the CPU bottleneck. The RTX 5070 alone sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, but when paired with a CPU that sits in the 50th percentile, the overall combo performance is dragged down. The rank of 487 indicates that while the GPU is capable of exceptional performance, the i5-9400 prevents the system from reaching the upper echelons of the leaderboard. Many other combos with newer, faster CPUs and slightly weaker GPUs likely outperform this setup because they achieve a more balanced pipeline. The data suggests that the GPU is being held back in CPU-bound scenarios, particularly at 1080p, which prevents the combo from achieving a rank more consistent with the GPU's standalone capabilities. This is a classic case of a generational mismatch where a modern GPU is paired with an older, budget-oriented CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The detailed FPS measurements for this combo are as follows. At 1920x1080, the lowest settings yield the highest frame rates: Low settings produce an average of 174.9 FPS, Medium settings produce 159.7 FPS, and High settings produce 147.5 FPS. Ultra settings at 1080p produce an average of 129.4 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 45.5 FPS, showing that the GPU has enough headroom to handle the extra graphical load without catastrophic frame drops, but the CPU's limitations are evident in the fact that Low settings do not break the 175 FPS barrier.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are still very playable but show a steeper drop-off. Low settings average 150.6 FPS, Medium settings average 127.8 FPS, and High settings average 106.5 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p drop to 83.3 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 67.3 FPS, indicating that the GPU is now working harder, and the scaling is more pronounced than at 1080p. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings shows a consistent penalty: High settings drop by 41 FPS, while Low settings drop by 24.3 FPS, confirming that the GPU is taking on more of the load.

At 3840x2160, the system begins to show its limits for high-refresh-rate gaming, though it remains playable. Low settings average 92.2 FPS, which is still smooth. Medium settings average 70.5 FPS, and High settings average 61.2 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K are the most demanding, producing an average of 49.2 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra at 4K is 12 FPS, and the total spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 43 FPS. The data indicates that for a 60 FPS target, players can use High settings at 4K, as it hits 61.2 FPS, but Ultra settings will require a reduction to 1440p or a willingness to accept sub-50 FPS averages. The 4K Ultra result of 49.2 FPS is the only scenario where the system dips below the 60 FPS threshold, highlighting that the GPU, while strong, is not invincible at the highest fidelity settings. Overall, the measurements show a system that is excellent for 1080p and 1440p gaming at any settings, and capable of 4K gaming at High settings or lower.