The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload that this combination of an Intel Core i7-14700KF and Intel Arc B570 handles with clear performance tiers depending on resolution and settings. The benchmark data indicates that this pairing is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it delivers playable frame rates, while 4K remains a challenge that requires significant settings compromises. The measured results show a system that is firmly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, with the CPU's substantial processing power providing ample headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700KF and Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2256 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the pairing in the lower half of the performance distribution, at roughly the 20th percentile of all tested system configurations. The rank reflects that while the CPU is a high-end part with strong synthetic benchmarks, the GPU holds this combo back in this specific game title. The data shows a system that is capable of running the game, but it does not deliver the top-tier performance that the CPU alone might suggest.

The CPU itself is a strong performer in general benchmarks, sitting in the 94th percentile versus all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 70163 places it slightly above the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, which scores 69515, and it is 0.9% faster than that rival. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is 1% ahead of the i7-14700KF with a score of 70879, while the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F trails by just 0.2% with a score of 69996. These margins are minimal, indicating the i7-14700KF is firmly in the top tier of processors. The GPU, however, only reaches the 65th percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556. This puts it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (scoring 20534) and 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (scoring 20480). The Intel Arc A750 is 0.1% faster, scoring 20582, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% faster, scoring 20662.

The disparity between the CPU's high percentile ranking and the GPU's mid-range standing explains the combo's overall rank. In The Technomancer, the GPU is the limiting factor, and the system's performance is capped by what the Arc B570 can deliver. The CPU's power is largely untapped in this scenario. The combo rank of 2256 out of 2825 is therefore a reflection of the GPU's capabilities rather than the CPU's, and the data suggests that pairing this processor with a stronger graphics card would yield a significantly higher rank. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings confirm this bottleneck, as the CPU's massive thread count and high clock speeds are not the constraint.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the decisive component in this system's The Technomancer performance. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. It operates at a base clock of 2500 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The card has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units. Its compute capabilities are rated at 11.52 TFLOPS for FP32 and 23.04 TFLOPS for FP16 (2:1). The GPU's pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for The Technomancer at the tested settings and resolutions. The data does not indicate any VRAM-related performance cliffs at 4K, where the game uses more memory. The bottleneck appears to be raw compute throughput rather than memory capacity. The Arc B570’s benchmark scores show it is a mid-range part. Its PassMark G3D score is 14195, and its PassMark DirectX 11 score is 118. These scores, combined with its 65th percentile ranking, suggest it is suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in older titles like The Technomancer.

The GPU’s performance scaling in the measured data shows a clear pattern. At 1080p Low, it achieves 121 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 22 FPS. This represents a performance reduction of approximately 82% from the lowest settings at 1080p to the highest settings at 4K. The card’s architecture, based on Xe2-HPG on a 5 nm process, is designed for efficiency, but its 150 W TDP and 19.6 billion transistors on a 272 mm² die show it is not a flagship part. The GPU's role in this combo is to provide playable frame rates at mainstream resolutions, and the data shows it does this adequately, but it cannot handle 4K at high settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings in The Technomancer. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 121 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset achieves 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS, offering a good balance between visual quality and performance. The High preset runs at 80 FPS, which is still very playable. The Ultra preset drops to 62 FPS, which is acceptable but begins to show the GPU's limits. For the best experience at 1080p, the Medium preset is recommended because it maintains a high average frame rate with a minimum FPS that stays above 75, ensuring consistent smoothness without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. The High preset is also viable, but the lower minimum FPS on Medium provides a safer margin.

At 2560x1440, the performance profile shifts. The Low preset runs at 79 FPS, which is good. The Medium preset delivers 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS, which is playable but with occasional dips. The High preset drops to 52 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 41 FPS. For 1440p, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. It provides an average frame rate that is just above 60 FPS, and the minimum of 52 FPS is acceptable for a title like The Technomancer. Choosing Low would increase the average to 79 FPS but would reduce visual quality significantly. The High preset at 52 FPS is borderline, and the Ultra preset at 41 FPS is too low for a consistently smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, all presets struggle. The Low preset achieves 44 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The Medium preset runs at 33 FPS with a minimum of 28 FPS, which is below the smooth threshold. The High preset drops to 29 FPS, and the Ultra preset is unplayable at 22 FPS. For 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, and even then, the frame rate is marginal. The data suggests that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming in The Technomancer, as the GPU simply lacks the compute power to maintain high frame rates at this resolution. Users with 4K displays should either lower the resolution or accept the Low preset's performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 provides the best balance, with an average of 93 FPS and a minimum of 79 FPS. The High preset runs at 80 FPS, while Ultra drops to 62 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K resolution in The Technomancer?

A: The data shows that 4K performance is limited. The Low preset achieves 44 FPS, Medium runs at 33 FPS, High at 29 FPS, and Ultra at 22 FPS. Only the Low preset is playable, and it is still below the ideal smooth frame rate.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A750?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, which is 0.1% lower than the Arc A750's score of 20582. In The Technomancer, the B570's measured performance shows it is a capable mid-range card.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo for The Technomancer?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The i7-14700KF ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the Arc B570 ranks in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. The frame rates scale with resolution, indicating a GPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the minimum FPS on the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440 with the Medium preset, the minimum FPS is 52, the average is 61, and the maximum is 70. This shows occasional dips but generally playable performance.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combos in The Technomancer?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700KF and Intel Arc B570 combo ranks 2256 out of 2825 tested combinations, placing it in the lower half of the performance distribution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and significant performance drop as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, which is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound system. At the Medium preset, the average frame rate at 1920x1080 is 93 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 61 FPS, a reduction of approximately 34%. At 3840x2160, the average falls to 33 FPS, which is a 65% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is consistent across all presets. For instance, at the High preset, 1080p yields 80 FPS, 1440p yields 52 FPS (a 35% drop), and 4K yields 29 FPS (a 64% drop from 1080p). The Low preset shows a similar trend: 121 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop), and 44 FPS at 4K (a 64% drop from 1080p).

The consistent percentage drops across presets indicate that the GPU's rendering throughput is the primary constraint. The number of pixels at 4K is four times that of 1080p, and the observed performance drop is roughly in line with the increased pixel count, though not perfectly proportional due to other factors like memory bandwidth and fill rate. The Arc B570's 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K in this game. The CPU, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, does not show any signs of becoming a bottleneck as resolution increases. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions, but the data shows they scale inversely with pixel count.

The resolution scaling analysis confirms that users should target 1080p or 1440p for the best experience. At 1080p, the system can push high frame rates, and at 1440p, it can maintain playable averages with the appropriate settings. The 4K results are marginal at best, with even the Low preset only achieving 44 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is the clear limiting component for 4K, and the CPU's power is not being fully utilized at that resolution. The data supports a conclusion that this combo is a 1080p and 1440p solution, not a 4K one.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a high-end desktop processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture on a 10 nm process. It features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The CPU has an 80 KB L1 cache per core, a 2 MB L2 cache per core, and a 33 MB shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and has a TDP of 125 W. The processor's benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44167 and a single-core score of 6235. Its Geekbench multi-core score is 21462, and its single-core score is 2578.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data and handle game logic, but the measured frame rates indicate that the CPU is not a bottleneck. The game's performance scales heavily with resolution and settings, which is a GPU-bound characteristic. The CPU’s high single-thread performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6235 and PassMark single-thread score of 4480, ensures that it can handle the game's main thread without issues. The multi-threaded capabilities, with a PassMark multithread score of 52425, also provide ample headroom for any background tasks or game engine threads that scale across cores.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking versus all CPUs means it outperforms the vast majority of processors on the market. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, have similar average benchmark scores, with deltas of 0.9% and -1% respectively. This places the i7-14700KF at the top of the performance hierarchy. However, this CPU strength does not translate into higher frame rates in The Technomancer because the GPU is the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 121 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limit or the GPU's maximum output, not a CPU constraint. At higher resolutions, the frame rates drop, further confirming that the CPU is not the bottleneck.

The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would yield substantially higher frame rates in The Technomancer. The i7-14700KF has the raw processing power to support much higher performance levels than the Arc B570 can deliver. The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads, combined with its 5.60 GHz boost clock, provide a robust platform for gaming, but in this specific configuration, its potential is untapped. The measured FPS across all settings and resolutions are limited by the GPU, and the CPU's role is to provide a stable, high-performance foundation without introducing any frame rate limitations.