The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload for the Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the Intel Arc B390. The measured data reveals a configuration that is severely constrained by its graphics component, with performance collapsing at higher resolutions and settings. This analysis breaks down the scaling behavior, component roles, and practical settings for this specific hardware combination.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a steep and consistent decline as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, a pattern that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 79 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that figure to 52 FPS, a 34% reduction, and at 4K it falls further to 28 FPS, representing a 65% loss compared to the 1080p baseline. This scaling curve is characteristic of a system where the graphics processor is overwhelmed by pixel throughput demands.

The trend holds across all quality presets. With High settings, the average frame rate falls from 52 FPS at 1080p to 34 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 19 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 61 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 22 FPS at 4K. Even the Ultra preset, which starts at a low 40 FPS at 1080p, drops to 26 FPS at 1440p and bottoms out at 15 FPS at 4K. The consistent halving of frame rates between 1080p and 4K across all settings strongly suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as a CPU-bound scenario would show less dramatic scaling with resolution changes.

The data also reveals that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (79 FPS) and Ultra (40 FPS) is 39 FPS. At 1440p, that difference shrinks to 26 FPS (52 vs. 26), and at 4K it narrows further to 13 FPS (28 vs. 15). This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions is another classic sign of GPU limitation—when the GPU is saturated, reducing graphical fidelity has diminishing returns because the bottleneck remains. The 4K Medium result, with an average of 22 FPS and a minimum of 19 FPS, indicates that even moderate settings cannot rescue playability at this resolution, as the minimum frame rate drops below the average for 1080p Low by a significant margin.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on a 3 nm process. Its specifications are modest for a gaming workload: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. The boost clock is listed at 2500 MHz, with a base clock of 300 MHz, and the memory configuration is entirely system-shared, meaning its bandwidth and capacity are dependent on the host system's RAM. This design inherently limits its performance in a memory-intensive game like The Technomancer.

The GPU's benchmark standing is poor, with a percentile rank of 9 among all GPUs. Its average 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it in the company of very old, low-end discrete parts. The nearest rivals in the data are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (score 1463, 1.3% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (score 1460, 1.5% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (score 1446, 2.5% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (score 1443, 2.7% slower). This places the Arc B390 at the very bottom of the performance hierarchy, which is consistent with its measured frame rates in this game.

The GPU's theoretical peak performance figures, such as 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 and a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s, do not translate into playable frame rates at 4K in The Technomancer. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is just 15, and even at 4K Low, it only reaches 28 FPS. The system-shared memory is a critical weakness here; with no dedicated VRAM, the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth, which is a severe handicap in a game that likely has large texture assets. The 4K Medium result, with an average of 22 FPS and a minimum of 19 FPS, illustrates the hard ceiling imposed by the GPU's limited memory interface and compute resources. There are no settings combinations in the measured data that yield a smooth 60 FPS experience at any resolution above 1080p Low.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a high-end desktop processor from the Alder Lake architecture, featuring 12 cores and 20 threads. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This is a powerful CPU, and its benchmark results confirm its strength. It scores 19,784 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,850.5 in single-core, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 15,790 and a single-core score of 2,308. It ranks in the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,287.

The CPU's nearest rivals are all very close in average score, with deltas of less than 1%. The Intel Core i5-13600T (score 35,305) is 0.1% faster, the Intel Core i7-12700KF (score 35,365) is 0.2% faster, and the Intel Core i7-13700T (score 35,403) is 0.3% faster. This indicates that the i7-12700K is performing exactly as expected for its class, with no throttling or other issues. In The Technomancer, the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor. The frame rate scaling with resolution, which shows a dramatic drop from 1080p to 4K, is not indicative of a CPU bottleneck.

A CPU-limited scenario would typically show similar frame rates regardless of resolution, as the CPU's workload does not increase significantly with pixel count. Here, the data shows a massive drop, which means the CPU is likely sitting idle waiting for the GPU to finish rendering frames. The CPU's high multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a Passmark multi-thread score of 34,404 and a 3DMark max-thread score of 9,979, is sufficient to feed even a much more powerful GPU. The bottleneck is unequivocally the Arc B390. The game is from 2016, and while it may be multi-threaded, the i7-12700K's 12 cores and 20 threads are more than adequate to handle the game's logical threads, even at the highest settings where the GPU is struggling to maintain 15 FPS at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and the Intel Arc B390 ranks 2500 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places it in the bottom 11.5% of all tested systems, a ranking that is heavily dragged down by the GPU's poor performance. The CPU is a top-tier part, but the integrated GPU is at the bottom of the barrel, and the combined score reflects this massive imbalance.

This rank is entirely consistent with the individual component percentiles. The CPU is in the 84th percentile, while the GPU is in the 9th percentile. A system is only as strong as its weakest link, and in this case, the Arc B390 is an extreme outlier on the low end. The measured frame rates confirm this: the combo cannot achieve a consistent 60 FPS at 1080p with High settings (52 FPS average), and it falls below 30 FPS at 4K with any settings. The 4K Medium average of 22 FPS is below the 1080p Low average of 79 FPS by a factor of over 3.5.

The data shows that this pairing is not a balanced gaming platform. The i7-12700K's potential is entirely wasted in this configuration, as the GPU cannot translate the CPU's processing power into higher frame rates. The rank of 2500 out of 2825 is a direct consequence of this bottleneck. For any other game, the expectation would be similar, given the GPU's low percentile rank. The combo's position in the rankings is a clear indicator that the Arc B390 is a severe performance limiter, and the system is not suitable for modern gaming at high resolutions or with demanding graphical presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo can achieve in The Technomancer?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 79 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-12700K or the Intel Arc B390 the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The frame rate drops by 65% from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating a pixel-throughput bottleneck that is characteristic of GPU limitation, not CPU limitation.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest rivals in the benchmark data?

A: The Arc B390's average 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M, 2.5% higher than the GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% higher than the GeForce GT 710.

Q: Can this system play The Technomancer at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: No. The best 4K result is 28 FPS on Low settings. The 4K Ultra setting yields only 15 FPS, which is well below playable thresholds.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 52 FPS at 1080p to 34 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of 18 FPS.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among all tested systems in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2500 out of 2825 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 11.5% of all systems.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the only settings that provide a remotely smooth experience are at 1080p. The Low preset at 1920x1080 yields an average of 79 FPS, which is the only configuration approaching a high-refresh experience. Medium at 1080p drops to 61 FPS, which is still acceptable for many players, but the minimum frame rate for that preset is 52 FPS, which is consistent with the High preset's average. For a more visually pleasing experience at 1080p, the High preset's 52 FPS average is a reasonable trade-off, though it is below the 60 FPS mark.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more difficult. The Low preset averages 52 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. Medium at 1440p drops to 40 FPS, and High falls to 34 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p is not viable at 26 FPS. At 4K, all settings are effectively unplayable, with the best result being 28 FPS on Low and the worst being 15 FPS on Ultra. The data suggests that users should prioritize resolution over quality. For a stable experience, 1080p Low is the best choice, offering a significant margin over the 60 FPS threshold. If visual fidelity is more important than frame rate, 1080p Medium provides an average above 60 FPS, but the minimum dips to 52 FPS. The 1440p Low setting is the only option at that resolution that stays above 50 FPS, but it still requires a compromise in graphical detail. The 4K resolution should be avoided entirely, as even the lowest settings cannot achieve a consistent 30 FPS. The massive frame rate penalty for moving from Low to Ultra at any resolution confirms that the Arc B390 lacks the headroom for high-detail gaming in The Technomancer.