The Technomancer

The Technomancer, an Action RPG from 2016, presents a demanding workload that scales significantly with resolution and settings. This analysis examines the performance of the Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, based on measured FPS data. The combination shows clear strengths at lower resolutions but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher ones. The data indicates a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck in most scenarios, with the CPU showing ample headroom throughout the tested settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the top average frame rate this combo achieves at 1920x1080?

A: The highest average FPS at 1920x1080 is 110, which is achieved with the Low settings preset. The GPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution and quality level, allowing the system to deliver very high performance.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K (3840x2160) with High settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the system produces an average of 26 FPS. This is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating that the GPU is heavily overburdened at this resolution and quality level.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the system first dip below 60 FPS?

A: The system first dips below 60 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, where it averages 47 FPS. At 1920x1080, every preset from Low to High maintains an average above 56 FPS, with High at 72 FPS.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 72 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 37 FPS. This is a significant difference, showing that the Ultra preset nearly halves the frame rate compared to Low.

Q: How does the system rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combination ranks 3157 out of 3696 tested combos for The Technomancer. This is a low percentile ranking, placing it in the lower portion of all tested systems.

Q: Does the CPU represent a significant bottleneck in this configuration?**

A: The benchmark results suggest the CPU is not a bottleneck at most settings. The GPU is the primary limiting factor, especially at higher resolutions. The CPU's high performance is not fully utilized, as the frame rates are capped by the GPU's ability to render frames.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1530 MHz and it boosts to 1785 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The GPU has 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. It is fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC and contains 6,600 million transistors. The GPU's performance is reflected in its Passmark G3D score of 12699 and its DirectX 11 score of 104.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's role is the primary determinant of frame rate. At 1920x1080, the GPU is capable of delivering high frame rates, with the Low preset achieving 110 FPS and the High preset achieving 72 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is not the limiting factor at 1080p, as the CPU can keep up. However, at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 47 FPS, a drop of 25 FPS from 1080p. At 3840x2160, the High preset drops to 26 FPS, a 46 FPS decrease from 1080p. This frame rate pattern indicates that the GPU's rendering capabilities are being overwhelmed by the increased pixel count.

The GPU's VRAM of 6 GB may also be a factor at high resolutions, though the measured data does not specify whether memory capacity is a limiting factor. The consistent frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K support the idea that the GPU's compute and fill-rate capabilities are the main limitation. The GPU's performance, as indicated by a percentile rank of 53, is average, which is consistent with its performance in this game. The GPU's nearest rivals include the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile and the RX 580, which have average scores of 12940 and 12928 respectively, showing that the GTX 1660 SUPER is in a competitive performance class, but this class is not suited for high-resolution gaming in demanding titles.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It has a 25 MB L3 cache and a TDP of 125 W. The CPU's benchmarks show a strong performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 and a single-core score of 1850.5. Its 3DMark 16-thread score is 9276, and its single-thread score is 1043. It ranks in the 84th percentile for all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35287.

In this setup, the CPU is not the dominant bottleneck. The frame rate data shows that at 1920x1080, the system can achieve 110 FPS at Low settings, which suggests that the CPU is capable of driving high frame rates. The game is not likely to be CPU-bound at this resolution, as the GPU is still able to produce high frame rates. The CPU's high core count and strong single-thread performance are sufficient for the game's demands.

The i7-12700K's performance is near its nearest rivals, the Core i5-13600T, the Core i7-12700KF, the Core i7-13700T, and the Core 5 213PE, which have average scores of 35305, 35365, 35403, and 35428, respectively. These are within 0.4% of the i7-12700K's score of 35287, showing that the CPU is in a strong performance tier. However, the game's measured FPS is limited by the GPU, so the CPU's performance is not fully utilized. At 2560x1440 and 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly, which is a hallmark of GPU limitations. The CPU's role in this system is to not be the performance ceiling, and the data suggests that at the tested settings, the CPU is never the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data is presented across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 110 FPS on Low settings, 84 FPS on Medium, 72 FPS on High, and 56 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS, indicating a stable frame rate with a 25 FPS variance. The High and Ultra presets do not have min/max data, but their averages are 72 and 56, respectively.

At 2560x1440, the system produces an average of 72 FPS on Low, 55 FPS on Medium, 47 FPS on High, and 37 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS, showing a 16 FPS variance. The performance drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant, with the Low preset dropping from 110 to 72 FPS, a decrease of 34.5%. At High settings, the drop is from 72 to 47 FPS, a 34.7% decrease.

At 3840x2160, the system averages 39 FPS on Low, 30 FPS on Medium, 26 FPS on High, and 20 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset has min and max values of 26 and 35 FPS, respectively. The frame rate at 4K is very low, with even the Low preset producing only 39 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial: Low drops from 110 to 39, Medium from 84 to 30, High from 72 to 26, and Ultra from 56 to 20. These are drops of 64.5%, 64.3%, 63.9%, and 64.3%, respectively, showing a consistent scaling pattern.

The data reveals a clear pattern: the system is capable of achieving high frame rates at 1080p, but the performance degrades significantly as resolution increases. The largest average FPS in the entire set is 110 at 1080p Low, and the lowest is 20 at 4K Ultra. The frame rate drops are consistent across settings, suggesting that the GPU is the main limiting factor. The system's overall rank of 3157 out of 3696 combos places it in the 85th percentile of performance, meaning it is in the bottom 14.6% of all tested configurations for this game, which is consistent with the GPU's mid-range performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is ranked 3157 out of 3696 tested combinations for The Technomancer. This is a low rank, putting the system in the bottom 14.5% of all tested combos. The ranking is primarily that the GTX 1660 SUPER is a mid-range GPU from the previous generation, and the game is demanding enough to require a more powerful GPU for high-performance at higher resolutions.

The GPU's performance in relation to its peers is consistent with this ranking. With an average benchmark score of 12986, the GTX 1660 SUPER is in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, which is average. Its nearest rivals, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile and the RX 580, have scores of 12940 and 12928, placing them within 0.4% of the GTX 1660 SUPER's performance. This shows that the GPU is not a top-performing part, and the ranking is a result of the GPU's limitations. The CPU, on the other hand, is a high-end processor, with an average score of 35287 and a percentile rank of 84. However, the CPU's performance is not the primary cause of the low combo rank; the GPU is the limiting factor.

The combo rank for this game is significantly influenced by the GPU. The system's performance at 1080p Low is high, but the game's requirement to maintain high frame rates at higher resolutions is not met. For example, the 1080p High average of 72 FPS is playable, but the 1440p High average of 47 FPS is below 60 FPS, and the 4K High average of 26 FPS is not smooth. This indicates that the combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, and its rank reflects that it is not a high-performance combination for The Technomancer.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that the optimal settings for this combination depend on the user's target resolution and frame rate. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 72 FPS, which is above 60 FPS and provides a good balance between visual quality and performance. For a more demanding experience, the Ultra preset averages 56 FPS, which is still playable but with a 16 FPS deficit compared to High. The Low preset is not necessary at 1080p, as the High preset already achieves a strong frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 72 FPS, which is above 60 FPS and playable. The Medium preset averages 55 FPS, which is below 60 FPS, but still acceptable for some users. For a 60 FPS target, the Low preset is the recommended choice. The High preset at 1440p averages 47 FPS, which is a noticeable drop from 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 37 FPS, which is not ideal for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 39 FPS, which is below 60 FPS. The Medium preset averages 30 FPS, and the High preset averages 26 FPS. None of the settings at 4K achieve 60 FPS, so the user would need to accept a lower frame rate or reduce the resolution to achieve a better experience. The best settings for 4K are Low, as it offers the highest average FPS of 39, but it is still not a smooth 60 FPS experience.

The data suggests that the system is best used at 1080p, where the High or Medium presets provide a good balance. At 1440p, the Low preset is the only setting that achieves 60 FPS. At 4K, the system is not capable of delivering a smooth experience, and the user should lower the resolution to 1440p or 1080p for playable frame rates. The setting that gives the best experience per the measured rows is the High preset at 1080p, with an average of 72 FPS, because it offers a high frame rate without sacrificing too much visual quality.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 shows a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At 1920x1080, the High preset averages 72 FPS. At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 47 FPS, a drop of 25 FPS or 34.7%. At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 26 FPS, a drop of 46 FPS from 1080p, a 63.9% reduction. This pattern is consistent across all settings presets.

For the Low preset, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is from 110 FPS to 72 FPS, a 34.5% decrease, and from 1080p to 4K is from 110 to 39, a 64.5% decrease. The Medium preset drops from 84 FPS at 1080p to 55 FPS at 1440p (a 34.5% decrease) and to 30 FPS at 4K (a 64.3% decrease). The Ultra preset drops from 56 FPS at 1080p to 37 FPS at 1440p (a 33.9% decrease) and to 20 FPS at 4K (a 64.3% decrease). The consistency of these percentages, around 34.5% for 1440p and 64.3% for 4K, indicates that the performance scaling is proportional to the pixel count.

The pixel count at 3840x2160 is 4 times that of 1920x1080, and the drop is roughly 64%, which is less than the 75% expected if the GPU were fully limited by pixel fill rate. This suggests that there are other factors, such as texture complexity or compute shaders, that also scale with resolution. The fact that the drop is proportionally less than the pixel count indicates that the GPU has some capacity to handle the increased workload, but the overall trend is a severe bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The data shows that the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU's performance is high, as evidenced by its benchmark scores, but the frame rates are not able to scale above what the GPU can deliver. At 1080p, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the frame rates are high. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU is the bottleneck, as the frame rates drop significantly. The system's performance is therefore limited by the GTX 1660 SUPER, and the i7-12700K is not the factor. The results indicate that for this game, the GPU is the component that dictates the playable resolutions and settings, and the CPU provides a solid foundation but is not the limiting factor.