The Technomancer

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 lands at rank 1275 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. That places this configuration in the 55th percentile overall—a solidly mid-pack result, but with a distinct split between the CPU and GPU sides of the equation.

The processor is the heavy lifter here. The Core i7-14700K sits in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing are the AMD EPYC 9115 (0.1% ahead), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.2% behind), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.7% behind), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (0.9% behind). In practical terms, this CPU is trading blows with flagship-class parts from the competition—the deltaPct values are all within a single percentage point.

The GPU tells a different story. The Radeon RX 7700 sits in the 58th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15852. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon R9 370X (0.1% behind), AMD Radeon RX 9060 (1% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (1.1% behind), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (1.7% ahead). This is a middle-of-the-road graphics card by current standards, not a performance leader.

The combination ranking reflects that asymmetry. The CPU is overkill for what the GPU can deliver in this game, but the measured FPS data shows the pairing still produces playable results across most settings. The rank of 1275 out of 2825 is not embarrassing, but it is clearly GPU-limited in most scenarios. Builders should understand that upgrading the graphics card would move this combo up the ladder far more than any CPU change.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo better at 1080p or 1440p?

A: The data shows strong performance at both. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average FPS is 117. At 2560x1440 with High settings, it drops to 77 FPS. For 60 FPS gaming, 1440p High is viable, while 1080p Ultra still holds 92 FPS average.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, Ultra settings produce only 33 FPS average, which is not smooth. High settings at 4K reach 42 FPS average, and Low settings hit 64 FPS. Medium at 4K gives 49 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS. Acceptable 4K requires dropping to Low or Medium settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Core i7-14700K averages 69355 in benchmark scores. The AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69288 (0.1% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69515 (0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 69875 (0.7% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996 (0.9% higher). All are within 1% of each other.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Radeon RX 7700 averages 15852 in benchmark scores. The AMD Radeon R9 370X scores 15862 (0.1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 9060 scores 16014 (1% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 scores 15679 (1.1% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti scores 16129 (1.7% higher).

Q: What is the best preset for smooth 60 FPS gameplay at 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 deliver 90 FPS average with a minimum of 76 FPS and maximum of 103 FPS. High settings drop to 77 FPS average. Ultra holds exactly 60 FPS average, but with no min/max data to confirm stability.

Q: Is the CPU bottlenecking the GPU in this game?

A: The data suggests no. The CPU ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 58th percentile. The GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU has 20 cores and 28 threads, which is far more than The Technomancer requires.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It packs 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, with a transistor density of 81.2M per mm². The card features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, along with 40 ray tracing cores.

Memory configuration is generous: 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 2438 MHz, which translates to 19.5 Gbps effective. The base clock is 1900 MHz, boost clock reaches 2459 MHz, and the game clock sits at 2041 MHz. Pixel rate is 236.1 GPixel/s, texture rate is 393.4 GTexel/s, and FP32 compute hits 25.18 TFLOPS.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient—this is a 2016-era title that won't stress modern memory capacities. The bottleneck is raw throughput, not capacity. At 4K Ultra, the card can only manage 33 FPS average, which indicates it's hitting compute limits rather than memory limits. The 256-bit bus and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth are respectable, but the 25.18 TFLOPS FP32 figure is what ultimately caps performance at high resolutions.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores reinforce this picture. Its Passmark G3D score is 20974, with DirectX 11 scoring 186 and DirectX 12 scoring 96. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 2865. These numbers place it in the 58th percentile among all GPUs, meaning roughly 42% of tested graphics cards outperform it. The nearest rival, the Radeon RX 9060, beats it by 1% in average benchmark score.

For The Technomancer specifically, the measured FPS data reveals that the GPU holds up well at 1080p and 1440p but struggles at 4K. The card's 200 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this performance class. It requires a 550 W suggested PSU and uses 2x 8-pin power connectors. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is not a limiting factor in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers excellent results across all settings. Low settings produce 179 FPS average, Medium hits 137 FPS average with a minimum of 117 FPS and maximum of 158 FPS, High reaches 117 FPS average, and Ultra still manages 92 FPS average. Every preset at 1080p exceeds 90 FPS, making this resolution trivial for the hardware.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but the scaling is evident. Low settings yield 117 FPS average—identical to 1080p High, which shows the CPU headroom. Medium delivers 90 FPS average with a minimum of 76 FPS and maximum of 103 FPS. High settings produce 77 FPS average, and Ultra holds exactly 60 FPS average. The jump from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 35% of the frame rate at each preset level.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings give 64 FPS average, which is playable. Medium drops to 49 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 57 FPS. High settings fall to 42 FPS average, and Ultra bottoms out at 33 FPS average. The 4K results show a steep cliff between Low and Ultra—a 31 FPS difference that represents nearly half the frame rate.

The scaling pattern across resolutions is consistent. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 87 FPS (179 to 92). At 1440p, that gap narrows to 57 FPS (117 to 60). At 4K, it shrinks further to 31 FPS (64 to 33). This indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU workload dominates and settings matter less in absolute terms.

The min/max data available for Medium settings shows reasonable frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the range is 117 to 158 FPS against a 137 FPS average—about 15% variance. At 1440p Medium, the range is 76 to 103 FPS against a 90 FPS average—about 15% variance as well. At 4K Medium, the range is 42 to 57 FPS against a 49 FPS average—about 15% variance again. This consistency suggests stable frame pacing across all tested resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with the Raptor Lake-R codename. It uses a 10 nm process from Intel and features a 257 mm² die size. The base clock is 3.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The TDP is 125 W, and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus. The L3 cache is 33 MB shared, with 2 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core.

Synthetic benchmark results are impressive. Cinebench R23 multicore scores 33440.5, with single-core at 2160. Cinebench R20 multicore hits 18544 and single-core 2617. Cinebench R15 multicore reaches 5035 and single-core 313.5. Geekbench multicore scores 20767 with single-core at 2569. Passmark multithread scores 52392 and single-thread 4472. The CPU's percentile rank of 94 means it outperforms 94% of all tested CPUs.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck. The game launched in 2016, and its threading demands are modest by modern standards. With 20 cores and 28 threads, the i7-14700K has far more parallel processing capability than this title can utilize. The high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance, which matters more for older game engines.

The nearest rival comparisons show how competitive this CPU is. The AMD EPYC 9115 is only 0.1% ahead in average benchmark score. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.2% ahead. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.7% ahead. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is 0.9% ahead. All four rivals are within a single percentage point, making them functionally equivalent for gaming workloads.

The evidence that the CPU is not the limiting factor appears in the FPS data. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 179 FPS average. At 1440p Low, it drops to 117 FPS. At 4K Low, it falls to 64 FPS. This scaling pattern is purely GPU-driven—if the CPU were limiting, we would see similar FPS across resolutions at the same settings. Instead, each resolution step costs roughly 45% of the previous frame rate, which is classic GPU-bound behavior.

The CPU's integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU configuration. The processor supports PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes, which provides ample bandwidth for the Radeon RX 7700's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The launch MSRP for the CPU is $409, and it has an unlocked multiplier for overclocking, though the boost clock already reaches 5.60 GHz out of the box.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in The Technomancer, the choice of settings depends entirely on target resolution and frame rate preference. The measured data provides clear guidance for each scenario.

At 1920x1080, the highest recommended preset is Ultra. The combo delivers 92 FPS average at Ultra, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. There is no reason to drop below High at 1080p, since even High produces 117 FPS average. For players with 144 Hz or higher refresh monitors, Low settings at 179 FPS average or Medium at 137 FPS average would be the choice, but the visual quality loss from Low is substantial for only a 52% frame rate gain over Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the best balance is Medium settings. The data shows 90 FPS average with a minimum of 76 FPS, which maintains smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. High settings at 77 FPS average are acceptable but leave less headroom for frame drops. Ultra at exactly 60 FPS average is borderline—it meets the 60 FPS target but has no margin for error, and the min/max data is not available to confirm stability. Medium is the sweet spot for 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the recommendation is Low settings. The 64 FPS average at Low is the only preset that clears the 60 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 49 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS, which will produce noticeable stutter in action sequences. High at 42 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are not recommended for anything other than screenshots. If visual quality is paramount at 4K, Medium at 49 FPS average is the highest playable option, but expect occasional dips below 45 FPS.

Comparing settings across resolutions, the data shows diminishing returns from higher presets. At 1080p, the jump from Medium to Ultra costs 45 FPS (137 to 92) for improved visuals. At 1440p, that same jump costs 30 FPS (90 to 60). At 4K, it costs 16 FPS (49 to 33). The absolute frame rate loss from higher settings shrinks as resolution increases, but the percentage loss grows—at 4K, Ultra delivers only 67% of Medium's frame rate.

For the overall best experience, 1440p Medium is the recommended configuration. It provides 90 FPS average, which is smooth on standard 60 Hz displays and usable on 100 Hz monitors. The minimum of 76 FPS ensures no major hitches. If a higher refresh rate monitor is in use, 1080p Ultra at 92 FPS average is the better choice. At 4K, only Low settings are truly playable, and even then, the 64 FPS average is the floor for acceptable performance.