The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting challenge for modern hardware. The data for the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination reveals a title that is highly sensitive to both resolution and preset selection, offering a clear picture of where the system’s bottlenecks lie. This analysis examines the measured performance across three resolutions and four quality presets to determine the optimal configuration and the role each component plays.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data indicates that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 152.7 FPS, which is a substantial 35.7 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 117.1 FPS. This gap widens at higher resolutions, where the performance cost of Ultra becomes prohibitive. At 2560x1440, High maintains a smooth 99.8 FPS, while Ultra drops to 77 FPS. The trend continues at 3840x2160, where High achieves 56.3 FPS, making it the only preset above the 50 FPS threshold at 4K.

The Medium preset is the only other viable option for 4K gameplay, posting 63.6 FPS, but it does so by sacrificing visual fidelity. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 24.3 FPS (from 177 to 152.7), which is a 13.7% performance decrease for a likely modest visual gain. At 1440p, the difference is 17.6 FPS (from 117.4 to 99.8). The Ultra preset is consistently the least efficient, with the data showing a significant performance cliff. At 4K, Ultra falls to 43.8 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable playability on many displays.

The Low preset, while offering the highest frame rates (231.9 FPS at 1080p), represents a substantial downgrade in visual quality. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot, as it provides the best balance between visual fidelity and performance. For users with 144Hz or 165Hz displays at 1080p, the High preset’s 152.7 FPS is sufficient to take advantage of the refresh rate, while at 1440p, it remains fluid at 99.8 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this specific CPU-GPU pairing at rank 456 out of 1656 tested combos for The Technomancer. This places the combination in the top 27.5% of all systems tested, which is a respectable position for a game from this era. The rank suggests that while this hardware is far from the top of the charts, it is significantly more capable than the majority of systems running this title. The percentile position of the individual components supports this: the CPU sits in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU is in the 81st percentile among all GPUs.

The ranking is likely influenced by the game’s age and its reliance on single-threaded performance. The i7-13700K’s strong single-core capabilities, evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1136 and a passmark_single_thread score of 4333, are crucial. The RTX 4070’s modern architecture is less of a factor, as the game’s rendering pipeline may not fully utilize its features. The combo’s position in the middle of the pack suggests that the GPU, while powerful, is not the primary differentiator here; rather, it is the CPU’s ability to feed the frame pipeline that matters most.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 brings substantial modern hardware to a game from 2016. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for this title’s textures. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz is high, and its 5888 shading units are capable of immense throughput. However, the benchmark data suggests that the GPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high (231.9 FPS at Low), which indicates the GPU is being held back by the CPU. The GPU’s percentile rank of 81 and its average benchmark score of 37283 place it well ahead of the game’s requirements. The data implies that the RTX 4070 is only fully utilized at 4K, where the pixel count increases dramatically. At 4K Ultra, the GPU’s workload is heavy enough to drop performance to 43.8 FPS, showing that even this modern card can be challenged by high-resolution rendering. The GPU’s passmark_g3d score of 26927 and its DirectX 11 score of 244 indicate strong legacy API performance, which is relevant for a 2016 title.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Technomancer at 4K?

A: Yes, but only with settings adjustments. The data shows that at 3840x2160, the High preset achieves an average of 56.3 FPS, while the Medium preset hits 63.6 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 43.8 FPS, which is below the smoothness threshold.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 yields 99.8 FPS, which is the best balance of quality and speed. The Ultra preset offers 77 FPS, while the Medium preset provides 117.4 FPS, but with lower visual quality.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: At 1080p, the CPU appears to be the limiting factor, as frame rates are very high. At 4K, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, with performance dropping significantly between presets. The data indicates a shift in the limiting component as resolution increases.

Q: How does the i7-13700K compare to its closest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 47282. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13700KF, scores 47334, which is 0.1% higher. The AMD EPYC 4364P scores 47131, which is 0.3% lower.

Q: What is the CPU’s multi-threaded performance like?

A: The CPU has 16 cores and 24 threads. In Cinebench R23, it scores 39000 in the multicore test, and in Geekbench, it scores 17731 in the multicore test. This indicates robust parallel processing capability.

Q: Does the GPU support modern APIs like DirectX 12?

A: Yes, the RTX 4070 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Its 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score is 3854, showing compatibility with modern rendering paths.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at the High preset results in a frame rate drop from 152.7 FPS to 99.8 FPS, a decrease of 34.6%. At the Ultra preset, the drop is from 117.1 FPS to 77 FPS, a 34.2% reduction. This consistent drop of roughly one-third indicates a linear relationship between pixel count and rendering load, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

However, the scaling from 1440p to 4K is more dramatic. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 99.8 FPS to 56.3 FPS, a 43.6% decrease. At Ultra, the drop is from 77 FPS to 43.8 FPS, a 43.1% reduction. This steeper decline at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor. The 4K resolution has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, and the frame rate scaling reflects this increased workload. The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is the main constraint, as the GPU has ample headroom. As resolution increases, the GPU’s workload grows, and it eventually becomes the bottleneck, which is why the frame rate drops more sharply between 1440p and 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz, and it can boost up to 5.40 GHz. This combination of high core count and high clock speed is well-suited for a game like The Technomancer. The CPU’s benchmarks show exceptional single-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5505 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2850. This is critical for a game from 2016, which may not be optimized for many cores.

The benchmark results in this game suggest that the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 231.9 FPS, which is a very high number. This indicates that the GPU is capable of rendering frames much faster, but the CPU is unable to issue draw calls and process game logic quickly enough. The CPU’s passmark_multithread score of 45887 shows it has massive parallel power, but the game may not be able to utilize all 16 cores effectively. The data suggests that the CPU’s high single-thread performance, as indicated by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1136, is what keeps frame rates high in this scenario. Its percentile rank of 93 among all CPUs confirms that it is a top-tier processor, but the game’s engine appears to cap its potential at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summarizes the exact average FPS measurements for all tested configurations:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | ------: |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 231.9 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 177.0 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 152.7 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 117.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 151.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 117.4 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 99.8 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 77.0 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 81.4 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 63.6 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 56.3 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 43.8 |

At 1080p, the performance is exceptionally high across all presets. The difference between Low and Ultra is 114.8 FPS, showing the significant impact of settings on frame rate. At 1440p, all presets remain playable, with even the Ultra preset maintaining 77 FPS. The 4K results show a steeper decline. The Low preset is the only one to exceed 80 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls below 45 FPS. The data clearly shows that the High preset is the optimal choice for maintaining a balance between visual quality and playable frame rates across all resolutions. The relationship between presets is consistent: Low is the fastest, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra, in that order.