The Technomancer

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 lands at position 2872 out of 3696 tested combinations in The Technomancer. That places this configuration in the lower 22% of the database, which is a notable result for a CPU that ranks at the 84th percentile among all processors and a GPU that sits at the 63rd percentile among all graphics cards. The gap between component-level percentiles and the combo-level rank indicates that this pairing underperforms relative to what each part suggests on its own, likely because the game's engine does not scale efficiently with the available hardware resources.

The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings confirm this middling placement. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 130 FPS average, which is strong, but at 4K Ultra it falls to 24 FPS average, which is below the threshold for comfortable play. The database shows a 2872 rank out of 3696, meaning roughly 78% of tested combos deliver better overall performance in this title. This is not a catastrophic result, but it clearly positions the i7-12700K plus RX 6600 as a mid-range pairing that struggles when the resolution and quality demands increase.

Benchmark data for the CPU alone shows strong multi-threaded capability, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19784 and a Passmark multithread score of 34404. The GPU, meanwhile, delivers a Passmark G3D score of 15096. When these two components are combined in The Technomancer, the results suggest that the game is not particularly demanding on the CPU side, and the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The ranking reflects this: the combo does not punch above its weight, and it does not even fully utilize the CPU's potential in most scenarios.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 uses the Navi 23 chip on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, built on a 7 nm process from TSMC. It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1626 MHz, the boost clock is 2491 MHz, and the game clock is listed at 2044 MHz. Memory runs at 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective. The GPU has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, with a pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s. Floating point performance is 8.928 TFLOPS for FP32 and 17.86 TFLOPS for FP16 with a 2:1 ratio.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's role becomes clear when examining the FPS deltas between settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 63 FPS (130 down to 67), which is a 49% drop. At 1440p, the same settings comparison shows a drop from 85 to 44 FPS, a 48% reduction. At 4K, Low delivers 47 FPS and Ultra delivers 24 FPS, a 49% decrease. This consistent pattern across resolutions indicates that the GPU is the primary driver of performance scaling with quality settings, and the RX 6600's 8 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's demands at 1080p and 1440p but become stressed at 4K.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce this interpretation. The Passmark DirectX 12 score is 51, which is low compared to the DirectX 11 score of 152 and DirectX 9 score of 197. This suggests that the RX 6600 does not excel in newer API workloads, and The Technomancer, released in 2016, likely relies on older DirectX paths that favor the GPU's raw rasterization throughput rather than its compute features. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 67623 and OpenCL score of 28850 further indicate that the GPU's compute capabilities are modest, which aligns with the observed frame rates in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows clear resolution scaling behavior. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 85 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 56 FPS, a 34% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 31 FPS, a 63% reduction from 1080p and a 45% reduction from 1440p. For Low settings, 1080p yields 130 FPS, 1440p yields 85 FPS (35% lower), and 4K yields 47 FPS (64% lower from 1080p, 45% lower from 1440p). Medium settings follow the same trend: 100 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p (35% lower), and 36 FPS at 4K (64% lower from 1080p, 45% lower from 1440p). Ultra settings show 67 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p (34% lower), and 24 FPS at 4K (64% lower from 1080p, 45% lower from 1440p).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all four settings levels is striking. Every resolution step from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by roughly 34 to 35%, and every step from 1440p to 4K reduces it by roughly 45%. This uniformity indicates that the scaling is purely resolution-driven, with no setting-specific anomalies. The limiting component is the GPU, because the CPU's 12 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, do not show any resolution-dependent bottleneck. If the CPU were the constraint, the FPS would remain relatively flat as resolution increased, but the data shows a steep and consistent decline.

At 4K Ultra, the 24 FPS average is below playable standards, while 4K Medium at 36 FPS is marginal. The RX 6600's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are simply not sufficient for 4K rendering in this title, even at lower quality settings. The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes a limiting factor when the pixel workload quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The recorded data shows that 1080p and 1440p are the viable resolutions for this combo, with 4K reserved for Low settings at best, where 47 FPS is achievable.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in The Technomancer?

A: The highest recorded average is 130 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 100 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 85 FPS at 1080p High and 85 FPS at 1440p Low.

Q: Does the Intel Core i7-12700K bottleneck the AMD Radeon RX 6600 in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the opposite. The CPU has a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19784 and a Geekbench multicore score of 15790, which are strong results, and the FPS scales consistently with resolution changes. If the CPU were the bottleneck, frame rates would not drop by 34 to 45% when moving from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. The GPU is the limiting component.

Q: How does the RX 6600's VRAM affect performance at 4K?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth on a 128-bit bus. At 4K, the average FPS ranges from 47 at Low to 24 at Ultra, and the consistent drop pattern across settings suggests the memory subsystem cannot keep up with the 4K pixel workload, making 4K impractical except at Low settings.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2872 out of 3696 tested combinations in The Technomancer, placing it in the lower 22% of all combos in the database.

Q: Which resolution provides the best balance of visual quality and performance?

A: At 1440p Medium, the combo delivers 65 FPS average with a minimum of 56 and maximum of 75. At 1440p High, it delivers 56 FPS average. Both are playable, but 1440p Medium offers a smoother experience with only a modest quality reduction from High.

Q: How does the GPU's DirectX 12 performance compare to older API scores?

A: The Passmark DirectX 12 score is 51, while DirectX 11 is 152 and DirectX 9 is 197. The much lower DirectX 12 score indicates the RX 6600 performs better in legacy APIs, which is relevant because The Technomancer predates the GPU's release and likely uses older rendering paths.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz and boost clock is 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode, and it has 25 MB of shared L3 cache, with 1.25 MB of L2 per core and 80 KB of L1 per core. The CPU uses the Intel Socket 1700 and has integrated UHD Graphics 770, though the discrete RX 6600 handles all rendering in this test.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The game's frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and quality settings, not with CPU load. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 130 FPS, which would require the CPU to feed the GPU efficiently, and the i7-12700K does so without issue. The 3DMark scores support this: max threads score is 9979, 16 threads is 9276, 8 threads is 7202, 4 threads is 4011, 2 threads is 2065, and single thread is 1043. These scores show strong multi-threaded capability, but The Technomancer does not appear to be a heavily threaded title, so the CPU's 20 threads are largely underutilized.

The CPU's benchmark performance relative to rivals shows it is competitive. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-13600T, has an average score of 35305, which is 0.1% higher than the i7-12700K's 35287. The Core i7-12700KF scores 35365, 0.2% higher, the Core i7-13700T scores 35403, 0.3% higher, and the Core 5 213PE scores 35428, 0.4% higher. These deltas are negligible, meaning the i7-12700K is effectively on par with those CPUs in synthetic benchmarks. In The Technomancer, this parity means the CPU is not a differentiator; the GPU dictates the experience.

The single-thread performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1850.5 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2308. These numbers indicate that the CPU can handle the game's main thread without causing frame drops, and the observed FPS patterns confirm this. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs further supports the conclusion that the processor is more than adequate for this game, and any performance shortfalls come from the RX 6600.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of which settings deliver the best experience for this combo. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers 100 FPS average with a minimum of 85 and maximum of 115. This is the smoothest experience with a reasonable quality level, as High drops to 85 FPS and Ultra drops to 67 FPS. The Low preset at 130 FPS is faster but sacrifices visual fidelity unnecessarily, since Medium already exceeds 100 FPS. For 1080p, Medium is the recommended preset.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 65 FPS average with a minimum of 56 and maximum of 75. This is the only 1440p setting that maintains a consistent frame rate above 60 FPS, as High drops to 56 FPS and Ultra drops to 44 FPS. The Low preset at 85 FPS is playable but reduces visual quality, whereas Medium provides a balanced experience. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset delivers 47 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold but still playable for a slower-paced Action RPG. Medium drops to 36 FPS, High to 31 FPS, and Ultra to 24 FPS, all of which are marginal or unplayable. The data shows that 4K Low is the only viable option, and even that requires accepting a lower frame rate. Given that 4K Medium is only 36 FPS, the quality gain is not worth the performance loss. For 4K, Low is the recommended preset, but users should consider 1440p Medium for a better overall experience.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, except at 4K where Low is the only practical choice. The measured minimum FPS values at Medium are 85 at 1080p, 56 at 1440p, and 31 at 4K, which confirm that Medium avoids the severe drops seen at Ultra. The database's ranking of this combo at 2872 out of 3696 suggests that pushing settings to Ultra is not advisable, as the RX 6600 does not have the headroom for it. Sticking with Medium at 1080p or 1440p maximizes the playable experience.