The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting test for modern hardware. This analysis examines the Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, using measured frame rate data across three resolutions and four quality settings. The dataset shows a combo that performs respectably, ranking 1648th out of 3696 tested combinations for this title, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. The following sections break down how this pairing behaves under load, what the CPU contributes, and which settings deliver the most playable experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 118 FPS, which drops to 77 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 42 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 64% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly the limiting factor as pixel count rises. The RTX 5060, with its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus, shows its bandwidth constraints at higher resolutions, where the 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is stretched thinner across the larger frame buffer requirements.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling curve steepens. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 180 FPS, falling to 118 FPS at 2560x1440 and 65 FPS at 3840x2160. The 4K Low result is 64% lower than the 1080p Low result, a similar drop to the High preset. This consistency across presets suggests that the GPU's raw throughput, rated at 19.18 TFLOPS FP32, is the dominant constraint at 4K regardless of quality settings. At 1080p, however, the CPU begins to matter more; the 180 FPS Low result suggests the i7-12700K’s 12 cores and 20 threads are capable of feeding the GPU without becoming a bottleneck at that resolution.

The Medium preset provides the most complete dataset, including minimum and maximum frame times. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 138 FPS with a minimum of 117 FPS and maximum of 159 FPS, showing a tight frame pacing window. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average drops to 90 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS and maximum of 104 FPS. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average falls to 50 FPS with a minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 57 FPS. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS widens slightly at higher resolutions, from 42 FPS at 1080p to 15 FPS at 4K, indicating more variance in frame delivery as GPU load increases.

Ultra settings push the combo to its limits. At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average is 92 FPS, which is 22% lower than High at the same resolution. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average is exactly 60 FPS, a common target for console-like experiences. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average plummets to 33 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 4K shows a 64% drop from the 1080p Ultra result, reinforcing that the RTX 5060’s 48 ROPs and 120 TMUs are insufficient for the highest quality at 4K in this title.

The data indicates that the 2560x1440 resolution represents the sweet spot for this pairing. At High settings, 77 FPS is smooth, and even Ultra at 60 FPS is playable. The 4K results are marginal at best, with only Low settings achieving above 60 FPS. This suggests that users targeting 4K will need to accept significant quality reductions, while 1440p offers a balanced experience.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, fabricated on Intel’s 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, reflected in benchmark scores like 1850.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 2308 in Geekbench single-core. These scores place the CPU in the 84th percentile of all tested CPUs, indicating solid performance for gaming workloads. The 25 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 give it ample bandwidth for feeding a modern GPU.

In The Technomancer, the CPU’s role becomes evident at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 180 FPS, which is 53% higher than the 4K Low result of 65 FPS. This gap suggests that at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to render frames quickly, and the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls and process game logic becomes more relevant. The i7-12700K’s high boost clock of 5.00 GHz helps maintain high frame rates, as evidenced by the 118 FPS at 1080p High. However, the game is not heavily multithreaded, so the 12 cores and 20 threads are not fully utilized; benchmark results like 3DMark 16-thread score of 9276 versus 2-thread score of 2065 show that scaling is not linear, but the high single-thread performance is more critical.

The CPU’s 3DMark max-thread score of 9979 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 indicate strong overall compute capability, but these are not directly impactful for The Technomancer, which appears to be GPU-bound at most settings. The fact that the 1080p Ultra result of 92 FPS is only 22% lower than 1080p High of 118 FPS suggests that the GPU is still the primary constraint even at lower resolutions when quality settings are high. Conversely, the jump from High to Low at 1080p (118 to 180 FPS) shows that reducing GPU load can unlock higher frame rates, but the CPU does not become a hard bottleneck even at 180 FPS.

The RTX 5060’s PCIe 5.0 x8 interface provides ample bandwidth for the CPU to communicate with the GPU, and the i7-12700K’s PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes is sufficient for this card. There is no indication in the measured data that the CPU limits performance at any resolution or setting. The 4K Ultra result of 33 FPS is clearly GPU-bound, as is the 4K High result of 42 FPS. Even at 1080p Low with 180 FPS, the CPU’s single-thread performance, as shown by the PassMark single-thread score of 4013, appears adequate to sustain that frame rate without causing stutter.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings for this combo?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the RTX 5060 achieves an average of 118 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, with no minimum or maximum frame data recorded for that configuration.

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

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 33, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This is the lowest measured result across all resolutions and presets.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 2560x1440 Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 Medium, the combo averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 77 FPS and maximum of 104 FPS. Given that the 4K Medium result is 50 FPS and the 1080p Medium is 138 FPS, the GPU is the primary limiting factor at this resolution, as the CPU has sufficient headroom at lower pixel counts.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Technomancer?

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 with High settings provides 77 FPS average, which is smooth, while Ultra at the same resolution delivers 60 FPS exactly. Both are playable, making 1440p the recommended resolution for a balance of quality and performance.

Q: How does the RTX 5060’s memory bandwidth affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 5060 has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 65 on Low to 33 on Ultra, indicating that the memory bandwidth is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, especially at higher quality settings.

Q: Does the i7-12700K bottleneck the RTX 5060 in this game?

A: The data shows no evidence of a CPU bottleneck. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 180 FPS, and at 4K High it drops to 42 FPS, which aligns with GPU scaling. The i7-12700K’s 5.00 GHz boost clock and single-thread score of 1850.5 in Cinebench R23 indicate it can feed the GPU adequately across all tested settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-12700K + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combo ranks 1648th out of 3696 tested combinations for The Technomancer, placing it in the 55th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking reflects a mid-tier position, meaning there are 2048 combos that perform better and 1647 that perform worse. The rank is influenced by the GPU’s 72nd percentile standing among all GPUs, while the CPU sits at the 84th percentile, suggesting the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for this specific title.

Comparing to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 26331, which is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon 860M at 26401 (a 0.3% difference) and the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 at 26421 (also 0.3% lower). The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary scores 26553, which is 0.8% higher, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT scores 26011, which is 1.2% lower. These small deltas indicate that the RTX 5060 performs very similarly to these cards in synthetic benchmarks, but the measured FPS in The Technomancer shows the real-world impact of its 8 GB memory and 128-bit bus.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show a similarly tight grouping. The i7-12700K has an average benchmark score of 35287, with the Intel Core i5-13600T at 35305 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core i7-12700KF at 35365 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i7-13700T at 35403 (0.3% higher), and the Intel Core 5 213PE at 35428 (0.4% higher). These differences are negligible, meaning the i7-12700K performs essentially identically to these CPUs in general benchmarks. However, the combo’s in-game rank is what matters, and the 1648th position suggests that while the CPU is strong, the GPU holds the system back from higher rankings.

Given that the combo rank is based on the combined performance of both components, the data shows that upgrading the GPU would likely improve the ranking more than upgrading the CPU. The RTX 5060’s 72nd percentile is below the CPU’s 84th percentile, indicating that the GPU is the more limiting component. This is consistent with the FPS data, which shows GPU-bound behavior at most resolutions and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 180 FPS, followed by Medium at 138 FPS, High at 118 FPS, and Ultra at 92 FPS. The Medium preset also recorded a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 159 FPS, giving a range of 42 FPS. This resolution shows the largest spread between presets, with Ultra being 49% slower than Low.

At 2560x1440, the results are as follows: Low averages 118 FPS, Medium averages 90 FPS with a minimum of 77 and maximum of 104, High averages 77 FPS, and Ultra averages 60 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is 22%, which is smaller than the 28% drop from High to Ultra at 1080p. This suggests diminishing returns from quality settings at higher resolutions, as the GPU becomes more constrained. The Medium preset’s minimum of 77 FPS matches the High average, indicating that Medium settings provide a more consistent experience than High.

At 3840x2160, the performance is markedly lower. Low averages 65 FPS, Medium averages 50 FPS with a minimum of 42 and maximum of 57, High averages 42 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS. The Ultra result is 49% lower than the Low result, which is the same percentage difference as at 1080p. However, the absolute numbers are much lower, making even Low settings only marginally playable at 4K. The Medium preset’s minimum of 42 FPS is the same as the High average, showing that Medium is the only preset at 4K that provides a playable minimum frame rate above 30 FPS.

Comparing presets across resolutions, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly linear at each setting. For High, the drop is from 118 to 77 FPS (35% reduction); for Medium, from 138 to 90 FPS (35% reduction); for Low, from 180 to 118 FPS (34% reduction); and for Ultra, from 92 to 60 FPS (35% reduction). The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper: High drops from 77 to 42 FPS (45% reduction), Medium from 90 to 50 FPS (44% reduction), Low from 118 to 65 FPS (45% reduction), and Ultra from 60 to 33 FPS (45% reduction). This indicates that the 4K resolution places a disproportionate load on the GPU, consistent with the 8 GB memory and 128-bit bus limitations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a 60 FPS experience, the 2560x1440 Ultra preset delivers exactly 60 FPS on average, making it the highest quality setting that meets this target. Alternatively, 2560x1440 High provides 77 FPS, offering a 28% higher frame rate with a modest reduction in visual quality. For users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, 1920x1080 High at 118 FPS or 1920x1080 Medium at 138 FPS are strong choices, both well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 4K, the only preset that achieves above 60 FPS is Low, which averages 65 FPS. This is playable, but the visual quality reduction is significant. Medium at 4K averages 50 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but still playable for many users, especially given the minimum of 42 FPS. High and Ultra at 4K are not recommended, as they fall to 42 and 33 FPS respectively, which can cause noticeable stuttering in an action RPG. The Medium preset’s recorded minimum of 42 FPS suggests that frame pacing is acceptable, but users sensitive to frame drops may prefer Low.

For the best balance of quality and performance, the data points to 2560x1440 High as the recommended configuration. It delivers 77 FPS average, which is smooth for this genre, and the jump to Ultra only adds a 22% performance cost for what is likely a marginal visual improvement. At 1080p, the High preset at 118 FPS is recommended over Ultra, as the 26 FPS difference (92 vs 118) is significant and the visual upgrade from High to Ultra is often subtle in games from this era. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 138 FPS, which is beneficial for high-refresh-rate displays, but the quality reduction from High may not be worth the 20 FPS gain.

Ultimately, the RTX 5060’s 8 GB of GDDR7 memory is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p in The Technomancer, but the 4K results show that this card is not designed for that resolution in demanding titles. Users with 4K displays should stick to Low or Medium settings, while those with 1440p or 1080p monitors can enjoy higher quality presets with smooth frame rates. The i7-12700K provides ample CPU headroom, ensuring that the GPU is the only consideration when adjusting settings.