The Technomancer

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread desktop processor from Intel’s Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process node. Its base clock is 2.10 GHz, boosting up to 5.40 GHz, and it carries 33 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 2 MB L2 per core. This CPU sits in the 94th percentile among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54097. In synthetic tests, it scores 35443 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5003 in single-core, while Geekbench returns 16571 multi-core and 2711 single-core. For this game, the CPU’s role is substantial but not the primary bottleneck; benchmark results indicate the processor provides ample headroom to feed the GPU, especially at lower resolutions where frame rates climb significantly. The CPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X (average score 54450, delta -0.6%), the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681, delta -1.1%), and the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (53469, delta 1.2%). The data shows the i7-14700F is essentially on par with these competitors, trailing by less than 2% in all cases, meaning CPU-side performance is not a differentiating factor in The Technomancer’s frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a Pascal-architecture GPU from the GeForce 10-series, built on a 16 nm process with the GP102 chip. It features 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus, delivering 484.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock is 1481 MHz, with a boost clock of 1582 MHz, and memory running at 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective). It has 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 88 ROPs, which drive a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s. The GPU’s FP32 compute is 11.34 TFLOPS, placing it in the 61st percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 19402. In DirectX 12 benchmarks, it scores 66 in Passmark, while OpenCL and Vulkan scores are 67717 and 83108 respectively in Geekbench. The GTX 1080 Ti’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (average score 19405, delta 0%), the AMD Radeon Pro 560X (19426, delta -0.1%), and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp (19184, delta 1.1%). The data shows the GTX 1080 Ti is virtually identical to the GTX 780 in average score, and within 1.1% of the TITAN Xp, indicating that while the GPU is older, its memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity are sufficient for this game’s demands.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ranks 985th out of 1656 tested combos in The Technomancer. That places it in the lower-middle tier of the database, meaning it outperforms roughly 40% of all tested configurations but is behind the majority. The rank reflects the GPU’s age relative to modern processors; the CPU is a high-end 14th Gen part, but the GTX 1080 Ti is end-of-life, and the data confirms the GPU is the limiting factor. Compared to the CPU’s 94th percentile standing and the GPU’s 61st percentile, the combo’s overall rank is dragged down by the graphics card. Benchmark results indicate that a stronger GPU paired with this CPU would push the combo significantly higher in the rankings, but as configured, it sits below the median. The GPU’s nearest rival, the GTX 780, has a nearly identical average score, which suggests that the GTX 1080 Ti is performing at a level consistent with its historical position, not being held back by the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its highest frame rates. With Low settings, the average FPS is 162.4, which drops to 125 on Medium, 107.2 on High, and 81.9 on Ultra. These numbers show a clear scaling pattern: from Low to Ultra, the frame rate falls by roughly half, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (37.4 FPS). At 2560x1440, the averages are 105.8 (Low), 83.5 (Medium), 68.1 (High), and 53.9 (Ultra). The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 51.9 FPS, a similar absolute decline to 1080p but with a lower starting point. At 3840x2160, the averages are 57.5 (Low), 45.9 (Medium), 35.7 (High), and 28.6 (Ultra). The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 28.9 FPS, which is proportionally larger relative to the starting value. The data shows that at 1080p, the combo is capable of delivering playable frame rates even at Ultra, but at 4K, only Low settings approach 60 FPS. The GTX 1080 Ti’s 11 GB VRAM is not exhausted at any resolution tested, as the game’s settings do not appear to exceed that capacity, but the GPU’s compute throughput limits performance at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the combo scales from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 107.2 at 1920x1080 to 68.1 at 2560x1440, a 36.5% reduction, and then to 35.7 at 3840x2160, a 66.7% reduction from 1080p. This scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the pixel count increases by 2.25x from 1080p to 1440p and 4x from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the drop is even steeper: 162.4 FPS at 1080p falls to 105.8 at 1440p (34.9% lower) and 57.5 at 4K (64.6% lower). The Ultra settings show a similar pattern, with 81.9 FPS at 1080p dropping to 53.9 at 1440p (34.2% lower) and 28.6 at 4K (65.1% lower). The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings indicates that resolution scaling is purely pixel-driven, with no CPU bottleneck emerging at lower resolutions. If the CPU were limiting, the 1080p results would show less variation between settings, but the data shows a full range from 81.9 to 162.4 FPS at 1080p, which is a 98% spread. This suggests the GTX 1080 Ti is the sole limiting component, as the i7-14700F’s 20 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient to sustain even the lowest frame rates measured. The scaling behavior confirms that upgrading the GPU would yield proportional gains across all resolutions, while the CPU has headroom to spare.