The Technomancer

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for The Technomancer across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a system that scales predictably, but with some revealing nonlinearities. At 1920x1080, the combination of Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers extremely high frame rates across all settings, with the Low preset reaching 286 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440, the same Low preset drops to 194 FPS, a reduction of approximately 32% from the 1080p figure. At 3840x2160, the Low preset further drops to 106 FPS, representing a 45% reduction from the 1440p result and a 63% reduction from the 1080p baseline.

This scaling pattern indicates that the limiting component shifts progressively as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU's role is more prominent, given the 12 cores and 20 threads of the i7-12700KF, but the sheer frame rates suggest neither component is fully saturated. The 286 FPS Low result at 1080p is notably high for a 2016 Action RPG, suggesting the game's engine is not heavily multithreaded but benefits from the CPU's strong single-core performance, as evidenced by the 3dmark_single_thread score of 1043 and the Geekbench single-core score of 2255.

The High preset scaling tells a similar story. From 194 FPS at 1080p to 127 FPS at 1440p, that is a 34.5% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, the High preset drops to 70 FPS, a 44.9% reduction. These percentages are remarkably consistent with the Low preset scaling, which suggests the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions regardless of quality setting. The RTX 4080 SUPER, with its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth, handles the increased pixel count efficiently, but the data shows a clear ceiling forming at 4K.

The Medium preset offers the only complete min/max data in the measured set, providing additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 227 FPS with a minimum of 193 FPS and maximum of 262 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 149 FPS with min/max of 126/171. At 4K Medium, the average is 82 FPS with min/max of 69/94. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS narrows at higher resolutions—from 69 FPS at 1080p to 45 FPS at 1440p to 25 FPS at 4K—indicating that frame time consistency improves when the GPU is more uniformly loaded.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p, Ultra averages 152 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 99 FPS, a 34.9% reduction. At 4K, Ultra averages only 54 FPS, a 45.5% reduction from 1440p and a 64.5% reduction from 1080p. This 54 FPS result at 4K Ultra is the lowest measured figure in the entire dataset, and it suggests that the combination is right at the edge of playability for the most demanding preset. The drop from Medium to Ultra at 4K is from 82 FPS to 54 FPS, a 34.1% penalty for the highest quality settings.

Overall, the resolution scaling data indicates a system that is GPU-limited at 4K across all presets, CPU-influenced at 1080p for high-refresh scenarios, and well-balanced at 1440p. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 52.22 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient to push 1440p High past 120 FPS, but the 4K Ultra target of 60 FPS is narrowly missed.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combination in The Technomancer?

A: The highest measured average is 286 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 227 FPS at 1080p Medium, followed by 194 FPS at both 1080p High and 1440p Low.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 54, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. However, dropping to High settings at 4K yields 70 FPS, and Medium at 4K yields 82 FPS, both of which exceed 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-core performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35365, which places it within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-13700T (35403, -0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i5-13600T (35305, +0.2% delta). It also sits 0.2% above the Intel Core i7-12700K (35287). This effectively puts the CPU in a four-way statistical tie with its nearest competitors.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 193 FPS. At 2560x1440, the minimum is 126 FPS. At 3840x2160, the minimum is 69 FPS. These minimums represent the worst-case frame times measured.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score position it among its rivals?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, which is 0.1% below the RTX 4080 (54247), 1.1% below the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828), 2.7% below the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698), and 2.8% below the AMD Radeon 8060S (55757). This places it near the bottom of its immediate comparison group.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 194 FPS while Ultra averages 99 FPS. This represents a 95 FPS difference, meaning Low delivers approximately 96% more performance than Ultra at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 278th out of 3696 tested combinations in The Technomancer. This places the combo in the top 7.5% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a game that is nearly a decade old. The percentile data supports this: the CPU ranks at the 85th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU ranks at the 86th percentile among all GPUs. Both components are in the upper echelon of their respective categories, which explains the high overall ranking.

The rank of 278 out of 3696 also indicates that there are 277 combinations that perform better in this specific game. Given the hardware involved, those higher-ranked combinations likely include more recent flagship GPUs or CPUs with higher memory bandwidth. The RTX 4080 SUPER's predecessor, the GeForce 30 series, and its successor, the GeForce 50 series, bracket this GPU in the product stack, and either could theoretically outperform it in this title. However, the data does not specify which combinations rank higher, only that 277 do.

Within the context of the measured FPS data, this ranking makes sense. The 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, which likely excludes this combo from the very top tier of rankings. Conversely, the 1440p and 1080p results are strong enough to keep the combo well above the median. The difference between the 85th percentile CPU score and the 86th percentile GPU score is negligible, suggesting a balanced pairing.

The nearest rival comparisons for both components are informative. The CPU sits within 0.2% of its nearest rivals, meaning a swap to the i7-13700T, i5-13600T, or i7-12700K would produce nearly identical results. The GPU sits within 2.8% of its nearest rivals, with the RTX 4080 being the closest at -0.1%. These tight margins underscore that the combo's ranking is not driven by a single component's dominance but by the overall balance of the pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results span a wide range. Low settings produce an average of 286 FPS, which is the highest figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings average 227 FPS with a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 262 FPS. High settings average 194 FPS. Ultra settings average 152 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p is: 286, 227, 194, 152. The step from Low to Medium is a 20.6% reduction, from Medium to High is a 14.5% reduction, and from High to Ultra is a 21.6% reduction.

At 2560x1440, the results show a similar pattern but at lower absolute values. Low settings average 194 FPS, which is identical to the 1080p High result. Medium settings average 149 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS and a maximum of 171 FPS. High settings average 127 FPS. Ultra settings average 99 FPS. The progression is 194, 149, 127, 99. The step from Low to Medium is a 23.2% reduction, from Medium to High is a 14.8% reduction, and from High to Ultra is a 22.0% reduction.

At 3840x2160, the results drop significantly. Low settings average 106 FPS. Medium settings average 82 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS and a maximum of 94 FPS. High settings average 70 FPS. Ultra settings average 54 FPS. The progression is 106, 82, 70, 54. The step from Low to Medium is a 22.6% reduction, from Medium to High is a 14.6% reduction, and from High to Ultra is a 22.9% reduction.

The consistency of the percentage drops between presets across all three resolutions—roughly 20-23% for Low to Medium, 14-15% for Medium to High, and 21-23% for High to Ultra—indicates that the quality settings have a predictable and uniform impact on performance, regardless of resolution. This uniformity suggests the game's rendering pipeline scales linearly with both pixel count and quality level.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data, and the spread between min and max narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the spread is 69 FPS (193 to 262). At 1440p, the spread is 45 FPS (126 to 171). At 4K, the spread is 25 FPS (69 to 94). This narrowing spread indicates that higher resolutions produce more consistent frame times, likely because the GPU's workload becomes more uniform and less susceptible to CPU-driven spikes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. This combination of high boost clock and substantial cache is well-suited for gaming workloads.

The benchmark data for this CPU shows strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 34092. Single-thread performance is equally impressive, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4071 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3984. The 3dmark scores scale smoothly from 2065 at 2 threads to 9983 at max threads, indicating good scaling across the core count.

In The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, the CPU's role is likely secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but at 1080p, the high frame rates place more demand on the processor. The 286 FPS Low result at 1080p suggests the CPU can feed the GPU with enough draw calls to sustain very high frame rates. The 3dmark single-thread score of 1043 and the Geekbench single-core score of 2255 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for games that rely on a primary render thread.

The CPU's percentile ranking at 85th among all CPUs, combined with an average benchmark score of 35365, places it in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals. The i7-13700T, i5-13600T, and i7-12700K are all within 0.2% of the i7-12700KF's score, meaning that in this game, any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical results. The 12 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for The Technomancer, which likely uses fewer threads given its 2016 release date.

The CPU's 25 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support provide ample bandwidth for the game's data needs. While the measured FPS data does not isolate CPU performance directly, the consistency of frame rates across the Medium preset's min/max values suggests the CPU is not introducing significant stutter or frame pacing issues. The minimum FPS of 193 at 1080p Medium is still very high, indicating that even the worst-case frame times are well above playability thresholds.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1920x1080, all presets deliver frame rates well above 144 Hz. Even the Ultra preset at 152 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors, and the High preset at 194 FPS is suitable for high-refresh displays. The Low preset at 286 FPS is excessive for most displays but useful for competitive play where maximum frame rate is prioritized. For 1080p, the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, as the difference between High and Ultra is only 42 FPS, but the visual gains from Ultra may be marginal in a game from 2016.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 127 FPS is the recommended choice for 120 Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 99 FPS is still playable and may be preferred for those who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate. The Medium preset at 149 FPS is a strong option for 144 Hz monitors, providing a 15% performance uplift over High while likely offering only a modest visual reduction. The Low preset at 194 FPS is unnecessary unless the user is targeting 240 Hz or higher.

For 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. The Ultra preset at 54 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it a poor choice for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 70 FPS is the minimum recommended for 60 Hz displays, providing a comfortable margin above the refresh rate. The Medium preset at 82 FPS is the best option for 4K, offering a 17% performance increase over High while the visual difference between Medium and High is often subtle at this resolution. The Low preset at 106 FPS is viable for 100 Hz displays but sacrifices significant visual quality.

The Medium preset stands out as the only one with complete min/max data, and its minimum FPS at 4K is 69, which is still above 60. This makes Medium the safest choice for maintaining consistent frame times at 4K. The data suggests that Medium at 4K (82 FPS average) provides a better experience than Ultra at 4K (54 FPS average) due to the latter's inability to maintain 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, using the AD103 chip manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. It features 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. The GPU has 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, with a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz. Memory is 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial: 52.22 TFLOPS FP32, 52.22 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1), a pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s. These specifications explain why the GPU handles 1440p and 4K resolutions effectively in The Technomancer. The 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for a 2016 game, even at 4K with Ultra settings, as the game's texture memory requirements are unlikely to approach this capacity.

The benchmark data for the GPU shows strong overall performance, with a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 260075. The 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 indicates solid modern API performance. The GPU's percentile ranking at 86th among all GPUs is slightly higher than the CPU's 85th percentile, suggesting the GPU is the slightly stronger component in this pairing.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully utilized at Low settings, as evidenced by the 286 FPS result, which is likely CPU-limited. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, with the Ultra preset dropping to 54 FPS. The GPU's 736.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are critical for maintaining frame rates at 4K, where the pixel count is over four times that of 1080p.

The nearest rival comparisons show the RTX 4080 SUPER is essentially tied with the RTX 4080 (-0.1% delta) but trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (-1.1%), AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (-2.7%), and AMD Radeon 8060S (-2.8%) in average benchmark score. However, these differences are small and may not translate to meaningful FPS differences in this specific game. The GPU's end-of-life production status and its position between the GeForce 30 and GeForce 50 series indicate it represents the tail end of the Ada Lovelace lineup, yet it still delivers strong performance in this title.