The Technomancer

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 produces a combination that ranks near the bottom of the database for The Technomancer, sitting at position 1613 out of 1656 tested combos. This places the pairing in the 3rd percentile of all tested configurations, indicating that while the CPU is exceptionally powerful, the GPU becomes the overwhelming bottleneck in this Action RPG. The benchmark results show a system that can handle the game's engine at lower resolutions and settings, but struggles significantly at higher graphical presets and 4K resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 1613 out of 1656 combos places this pairing in the bottom 2.6% of all tested systems for The Technomancer. This is a particularly poor showing given the strength of the individual components. The Intel Core i7-13700K itself ranks in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 47282, placing it just 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700KF and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i9-12900F. In contrast, the AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks in the 74th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158, sitting within 0.2% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and 0.8% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile.

The disparity between the component rankings and the final combo ranking is stark. The data indicates that the RX 570, despite its 74th percentile GPU ranking, cannot deliver playable frame rates in The Technomancer at higher settings. The measured FPS data shows the system falling below 30 FPS in several configurations, which is generally considered the minimum threshold for smooth gameplay in an action RPG. The combination's low rank relative to its components suggests that the game's engine is particularly demanding on the GPU, and the RX 570's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the game's texture and shading requirements at higher presets.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 67.2, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration where the system exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K resolution in The Technomancer?

A: At 3840x2160, the best average FPS is 22 with Low settings, and Ultra settings drop to 15.2 FPS. These results indicate 4K is not a viable option for this combination.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 1613 out of 1656 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 2.6% of all configurations tested for The Technomancer.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, High settings produce an average of 43.3 FPS, while Ultra settings reduce the average to 34.9 FPS, a difference of 8.4 FPS between the two presets.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K holding back the system?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 93rd percentile among all processors, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000. The bottleneck is entirely with the GPU, as evidenced by the dramatic FPS drops when increasing resolution.

Q: What is the most consistent performance setting at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 43.4 FPS, which is 13.5 FPS higher than High settings at 29.9 FPS and 21.4 FPS higher than Ultra at 22 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a thermal design power of 125 W. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000 and a single-core score of 5505, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 17731 and a single-core score of 2850.

In the context of The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. Given the game's 2016 release date, its engine is likely more dependent on single-threaded performance, where the i7-13700K excels with a PassMark single-thread score of 4333. However, the measured FPS data reveals that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. The frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution and graphics settings, which are GPU-bound workloads. For example, at 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 67.2 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 34.9 FPS — a 32.3 FPS reduction that cannot be attributed to CPU performance. The i7-13700K's 3DMark scores, including 12412 in the max threads test and 10717 in the 16-thread test, indicate it has ample headroom for this game's CPU demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combination's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best results: Low settings produce an average of 67.2 FPS, Medium settings achieve 52.6 FPS, High settings reach 43.3 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 34.9 FPS. This resolution is the only one where the system approaches playable frame rates across all settings, though Ultra remains below the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degrades significantly. Low settings produce 43.4 FPS, Medium settings drop to 32.4 FPS, High settings fall to 29.9 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 22 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 21.4 FPS, showing that the GPU's limited memory bandwidth and shading power are increasingly taxed as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates in any configuration. Low settings yield 22 FPS, Medium settings produce 21.9 FPS, High settings drop to 16.6 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 15.2 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is negligible at just 0.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU has reached its absolute limit. The data shows a clear pattern: the RX 570's 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 159.2 GTexel/s texture rate are insufficient for the game's demands at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals the limiting component clearly. From 1080p Low to 1440p Low, the average FPS drops from 67.2 to 43.4, a 35.4% reduction. From 1440p Low to 4K Low, the FPS drops from 43.4 to 22, a 49.3% reduction. This steep scaling curve is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload increases quadratically with resolution.

The same pattern holds across other settings. At High settings, the FPS drops from 43.3 at 1080p to 29.9 at 1440p, then to 16.6 at 4K. At Ultra settings, the progression is 34.9 at 1080p, 22 at 1440p, and 15.2 at 4K. The consistent scaling across all presets confirms that the CPU is not introducing any bottleneck; if it were, the FPS would remain relatively flat regardless of resolution. The i7-13700K's PassMark multi-thread score of 45887 and Cinebench R15 multi-core score of 3931 indicate it can handle the game's logic without issue, leaving the RX 570 as the sole constraint. The GPU's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 4 GB GDDR5 capacity are likely the primary limiting factors, as higher resolutions require more texture data to be streamed and processed.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combination is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, which delivers 52.6 FPS. This configuration offers a balance between visual quality and performance, staying above the 30 FPS playability threshold while providing a reasonable level of graphical fidelity. Low settings at 1080p provide the highest frame rate at 67.2 FPS, which is ideal for players prioritizing smoothness over visuals, but the jump from Low to Medium only costs 14.6 FPS while likely providing a substantial visual improvement.

At 2560x1440, the only viable option is Low settings at 43.4 FPS, as Medium drops to 32.4 FPS and High falls below 30 FPS. Players using a 1440p display should expect to run the game at minimal settings to maintain acceptable performance. For 4K resolution, the data shows no playable configuration, with the highest average FPS being 22 at Low settings. Users should avoid 4K entirely with this GPU.

Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution, as the FPS drops below 35 at 1080p and below 23 at 1440p. The performance cost of Ultra over High is 8.4 FPS at 1080p, 7.9 FPS at 1440p, and 1.4 FPS at 4K, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects provide diminishing returns relative to the frame rate penalty. For the best overall experience, the data supports 1080p Medium as the sweet spot, with 1440p Low as a secondary option for users with higher-resolution displays.