The Technomancer

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 produces benchmark results that place this combination at rank 1525 out of 1656 tested combos for The Technomancer. This places the combo in the bottom 8% of all tested systems, a position driven almost entirely by the graphics card rather than the processor. The data indicates a substantial imbalance, where the CPU’s high compute potential is heavily constrained by the GPU’s older Polaris architecture. While the processor ranks in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, the GPU sits at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs, a gap that foreshadows the frame rate limitations seen across every resolution and setting tested. The measured frames per second show a system that can handle the game at lower resolutions but struggles to maintain playable performance as resolution increases, particularly at higher graphical presets.

FAQ

Q: Why does this combo rank so low at 1525 out of 1656 if the CPU is a top-tier part?

A: The combo rank reflects the combined performance of both components in this specific game. The AMD Radeon RX 580, which scores in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, becomes the limiting factor. The Intel Core i7-14700KF’s high potential cannot compensate for the GPU’s inability to render frames quickly enough, especially at higher resolutions where the graphics card’s workload increases.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70104. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700K, has an average score of 70074, showing a 0% delta. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420, which is 0.4% higher, while the AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69887, which is 0.3% lower. The Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 scores 71056, putting it 1.3% ahead.

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 78.9 FPS. This is the highest measured frame rate for this system across all tested configurations. For comparison, the High preset at the same resolution yields 53.1 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 38.4 FPS.

Q: Is the system capable of 4K gaming in The Technomancer?

A: No, the data shows it is not. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 25.8 on Low settings down to 17.1 on Ultra settings. Even the highest average at 4K, which is on Low, falls below the generally accepted threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating the GPU is overwhelmed at this resolution.

Q: How does the GPU’s performance compare to its direct competitors?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 13559. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 scores 13564, which is a 0% delta, making them statistically equal. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 scores 13549, a 0.1% difference, and the AMD Radeon Pro 455 scores 13416, which is 1.1% behind. The NVIDIA P106-090 is 1.1% ahead with a score of 13716.

Q: What does the FPS data suggest about the balance between CPU and GPU?

A: The data points to a severe GPU bottleneck. The CPU is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, which is more than capable of feeding frames. However, the RX 580’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot keep up at higher resolutions. The FPS drops from 53.1 at 1080p High to 34.2 at 1440p High, and then to 20.9 at 4K High, showing a clear scaling pattern tied to the GPU’s rendering limits.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a textbook case of GPU-bound performance. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on High settings, the average FPS drops from 53.1 to 34.2, a reduction of 18.9 frames. Scaling further to 3840x2160 on High, the average falls to 20.9, which is a 12.3-frame drop from 1440p. This pattern is consistent across all presets, but the relative impact becomes more severe at higher resolutions.

On Low settings, the 1080p to 1440p transition sees a drop from 78.9 to 52.8 FPS, a 26.1-frame decrease. At 4K Low, the average is 25.8 FPS, which is 27 frames lower than 1440p Low. The percentage loss is steepest at the highest resolution, indicating that the RX 580’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are exhausted. The GPU has a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s, which are simply insufficient for 4K workloads in this game.

The data shows that the CPU’s role in scaling is minimal. The i7-14700KF’s single-core performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6290, is more than adequate to handle the game’s draw calls. The bottleneck is clearly the graphics card, as the FPS drops are proportional to the increase in pixel count. At 4K, the GPU is forced to render over four times the pixels of 1080p, and its 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is not enough to maintain playable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo shows its best performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is 78.9, providing a smooth experience. Medium settings reduce the average to 61.2 FPS, which is still playable. High settings yield 53.1 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 38.4 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 40.5 FPS loss, demonstrating that the GPU struggles with the higher graphical demands even at the lowest resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates take a significant hit. Low settings produce an average of 52.8 FPS, which is a 26.1 FPS drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings average 35.5 FPS, a steep decline from 61.2 FPS at 1080p. High settings average 34.2 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 24.7 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at this resolution is only 1.3 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is already saturated and additional settings changes have diminishing returns.

At 3840x2160, the system is firmly in unplayable territory. Low settings average 25.8 FPS, which is the only preset above 20 FPS at this resolution. High settings average 20.9 FPS, Medium settings average 18.5 FPS, and Ultra settings average 17.1 FPS. The data shows that the RX 580 cannot handle 4K in this game, regardless of the preset. The frame rates are nearly linear, with a 5.4 FPS difference between the highest and lowest settings, indicating the GPU is running at its absolute limit.

The measured values follow a predictable pattern: resolution scaling has a larger impact than settings scaling at lower resolutions, but at 4K, the GPU is so constrained that even reducing settings from High to Low only yields a 4.9 FPS improvement. This is a clear sign that the graphics card is the definitive limiting component in this configuration.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, which delivers an average of 61.2 FPS. This preset provides a balance between visual quality and smoothness, staying comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset at 1080p offers higher frame rates at 78.9 FPS, but the visual fidelity is significantly reduced. For players who prioritize frame rate over visuals, Low is the better choice, as it provides headroom for demanding scenes.

At 2560x1440, the data suggests that only the Low preset is viable, with an average of 52.8 FPS. The Medium preset at 35.5 FPS is borderline, and High at 34.2 FPS is nearly identical, offering no tangible benefit for the increased load. The Ultra preset at 24.7 FPS is not recommended for a smooth experience. The 1440p Low setting is the only configuration that approaches acceptable playability, though it still falls short of the 1080p Medium experience.

For 3840x2160, the data indicates that no preset is recommended. The highest average FPS is 25.8 on Low, which is below the playable threshold. The Ultra preset at 17.1 FPS is not viable for gameplay. The large gap between 1080p Medium and 1440p Low highlights the GPU’s limitations; users should stick to 1080p for the best balance of performance and visual quality. The data shows that the RX 580’s 8 GB of memory and 256-bit bus are not suited for high-resolution rendering in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a high-end processor with 20 cores and 28 threads, based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a 33 MB shared L3 cache. Its synthetic benchmarks are exceptional, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and a single-core score of 6290. In Geekbench, it scores 19287 in multi-core and 2972 in single-core. These numbers place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is one of the strongest processors available.

However, the game’s performance data shows that this CPU power is largely unused in The Technomancer. The FPS at 1080p Low is 78.9, which is a reasonable frame rate, but the CPU is capable of far more. The bottleneck is the RX 580, which has a Passmark G3D score of 8813 and an average benchmark score of 13559, placing it at the 53rd percentile. The GPU’s 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs are insufficient to keep up with the CPU’s frame generation capability.

The CPU’s performance relative to its rivals shows it is not the limiting factor. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700K, has a delta of 0%, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is only 0.4% faster. This indicates that the i7-14700KF is not holding back the system. Instead, the data points to the GPU as the sole constraint. At 4K, the FPS drops to 20.9 on High, which is a 60% reduction from 1080p High, even though the CPU’s workload does not change significantly with resolution. This confirms that the graphics card is the component that dictates performance. The CPU’s high multi-threading capabilities, as shown by a Passmark multithread score of 52425, are irrelevant here because the game is not CPU-limited at any tested setting.