The Technomancer

The Technomancer, an action RPG released in 2016, shows a clear performance ceiling when paired with the Intel Core i7-14700K and AMD Radeon RX 580. Measured FPS reveals that this combination delivers its strongest results at 1080p with lower presets, while 4K is largely unplayable. The i7-14700K is a high-end desktop CPU, but the RX 580—with its 8 GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus—proves to be the limiting factor in this older title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS at each resolution and preset, the data suggests prioritizing 1080p for a playable experience. At 1080p, the Low preset reaches an average of 76 FPS, which is the only configuration that exceeds the common 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 1080p delivers 58 FPS, still acceptable for smooth gameplay, while High drops to 50 FPS and Ultra to 39 FPS. For a more demanding resolution, 1440p Low averages 50 FPS, matching the 1080p High result; 1440p Medium is 38 FPS, and High at 33 FPS. At 4K, no preset reaches 30 FPS—Low peaks at 27 FPS, Medium at 21 FPS, High at 18 FPS, and Ultra at 14 FPS.

The data indicates that the RX 580 cannot handle The Technomancer at its highest settings even at 1080p. Ultra at 1080p yields 39 FPS, which is below 40, and lower presets are required to keep the frame rate stable. The minimum FPS recorded (for Medium) are 50 at 1080p, 32 at 1440p, and 18 at 4K, showing that even Medium can dip below playable thresholds. Given these numbers, the most practical settings for a consistent 50+ FPS experience is 1080p Low or 1080p Medium. For users who prefer higher visual fidelity, 1440p Low offers a decent compromise at 50 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 39 (no min/max recorded).

Q: How does the game perform at 4K with High settings?

A: At 4K High, the average FPS is 18. The Low preset reaches 27, Medium 21, and Ultra 14.

Q: Which preset provides the most stable frame rate at 1080p?

A: Medium at 1080p has recorded min/max of 50/67 FPS (average 58), giving a reasonably stable range. Low and High have no min/max data, but their averages are 76 and 50 respectively.

Q: Is the RX 580 enough to play The Technomancer at 1440p?

A: The data shows that only Low reaches an acceptable average of 50 FPS at 1440p. Medium is 38 FPS, High 33, and Ultra 25.

Q: At what resolution and settings does the combination achieve the highest average FPS?

A: The highest measured FPS is at 1080p Low with 76 FPS. Medium and High at 1080p offer 58 and 50 FPS, respectively.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling pattern is clear: as resolution increases, average FPS declines sharply, which points to the GPU being the limiting component. The CPU's potential is widely sufficient; the i7-14700K has 20 cores and 28 threads with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, yet the same CPU in combination with the RX 580 yields these results. For the same preset, moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by roughly half in many cases. For example, Low setting at 1080p produces 76 FPS, while at 1440p it falls to 50 FPS; at 4K it drops further to 27 FPS. Similarly, Medium at 1080p is 58 FPS, 1440p is 38 FPS, and 4K is 21 FPS. High presets follow a similar pattern: 50, 33, and 18 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is memory-bus and fill-rate limited at higher pixel counts. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for The Technomancer, but the 256-bit bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot keep pace at higher resolutions, saturating sooner than the CPU at any resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summarizes all measured average FPS (and min/max where available) for the indicated settings:

| Resolution | Setting | avgFPS | min | max |

|------------|---------|--------|-----|-----|

| 3840x2160 | High | 18 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 27 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 21 | 18 | 24 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 14 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 33 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 50 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 38 | 32 | 44 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 25 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 50 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 76 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 58 | 50 | 67 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 39 | - | - |

The min/max values for Medium reveal variability: at 1080p Medium, FPS ranges from 50 to 67; at 1440p, it drops to 32-44; at 4K, 18-24. The absence of min/max for other settings suggests only Medium was tested with frame time recording. The overall picture is that 1080p Low is the only preset that clears 60 FPS by a margin of over 10 FPS, while Medium at 1080p gives a playable but not perfectly stable frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database for The Technomancer, the combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and the AMD Radeon RX 580 is rated 3373rd out of 3696 tested combinations. This places the combo in the lower tail—only about 323 combinations perform worse. The ranking reflects the GPU's relative weakness compared to the CPU. The GPU's overall percentile is 53 (averaging all benchmark scores), while the CPU is in the 94th percentile. The massive gap between these two components means the system is heavily GPU-bound. The comboRankInGame of 3373 indicates that the RX 580, even with a top-tier CPU like the i7-14700K, cannot compete with most paired configurations in this title. The pairwise comparator data shows the RX 580 is close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (deltaPct of -0.1), and the GTX 1660 SUPER (-0.4), but none of these are strong performers in modern games. The CPU's nearest rivals (AMD EPYC 9115, Ryzen 9 7950X, etc.) are all within 1% of its average benchmark score, but that does not help the gaming experience when the GPU hits its limits.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, running at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost up to 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. It has a large 33 MB L3 cache. Its average benchmark score is does not appear – actually the pack shows avgBenchmarkScore 69355. The CPU is in the 94th percentile of all CPs. In this game, the CPU is far from being a bottleneck: at 4K Low, the same CPU with the same GPU sees a drop from 76 FPS at 1080p to 27 FPS at 4K, which is more than a 2x reduction. This scaling is typical of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU's high single-thread and multi-thread performance (Cinebench R23 multi 33440.5, single 2160) and Geekbench single-core 2569) ensures that even at low resolutions where CPU load is higher, it does not present a constraint. The measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 76, which is likely still below the CPU's frame ceiling; upgrading the GPU would yield a proportional increase. For an older ARPG like The Technologist, CPU threads are adequate—the i7-14700K's 28 threads are overkill for the game's typical usage, but no CPU-related performance data suggests otherwise. All frame rate differences are explained by resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is built on the Polaris 20 chip, using GCN 4.0, fabricated on a 14 nm process. It features 2304 shading units, 144 texture units, and 32 ROPs, with a base clock of 1257 MHz and boost clock of 1340 MHz. Its memory consists of 8 GB GDDR5 connected via a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's percentile is 53rd among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score is 12928. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, GTX 1660 SUPER, and some integrated solutions; all are within 0.6% of the RX 580 in average score. In The Technomancer, the GPU is the dominant factor: performance drops sharply as resolutions rise, a hallmark of a fill-rate / bandwidth limited card. The 1080p Low result (76 FPS) shows that lower pixel count works well, but the pixel rate at 4K becomes unsustainable (max 27 FPS). The GPU's VRAM (8 GB) is never exceeded, but the memory subsystem's throughput and the GCN compute performance are not enough for higher resolutions. The 256 GB/s bandwidth is a bottleneck when the pixel resolution quadruples from 1080p to 4K, explaining the nearly 3.5x drop in FPS at Medium settings (58 to 21). This indicates a GPU-limited scenario rather than a CPU limitation. The RX 580's TDP is 185W, suggesting it needs a solid power supply, but that is not a factor in the measured FPS. In summary, the i7-14700K is not the problem; the RX 580 is what keeps this configuration in the bottom percentile for The Technomancer.