The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents an interesting case study for modern high-end hardware. When pairing the Intel Core i9-14900K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, the benchmark data reveals a combination that is powerful but not without its bottlenecks and scaling quirks. This analysis examines the measured FPS across three resolutions and four settings presets, interpreting the data to understand how each component contributes to the final experience.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested hardware combinations for The Technomancer, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER holds a rank of 250 out of 3696 tested combos. This places it in the top 7% of all configurations tested, indicating that the system is exceptionally capable of running this title at high frame rates. The data shows that this is a high-performing combination, though not the absolute top tier, suggesting that other configurations with more powerful GPUs or CPUs may yield slightly higher average frame rates.

The percentile ranking of the CPU (95th percentile vs all CPUs) and GPU (86th percentile vs all GPUs) corroborates this position. The i9-14900K is a top-tier processor, while the RTX 4080 SUPER is a very high-end graphics card. The combination of these two components results in a system that is clearly in the upper echelon of performance for this game. However, the gap between the CPU's percentile and the GPU's percentile hints that the processor has more headroom than the graphics card, which becomes relevant when analyzing performance at lower resolutions. The combo rank of 250, while excellent, is not number one, implying that there are combinations that can push The Technomancer even further, likely by pairing the top CPUs with the most powerful GPUs available.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a substantial 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth. For a game like The Technomancer, this capacity and bandwidth are more than sufficient to handle the texture data and geometry at any resolution, ensuring that the GPU is not starved for data. The card's architecture, Ada Lovelace, is built on a 5 nm process from TSMC and includes 10240 shading units. Its boost clock is rated at 2550 MHz, while the base clock is 2295 MHz.

The GPU's role is to render the game's scenes, and its performance is most apparent at higher resolutions. The measured data shows that at 4K (3840x2160) with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 54 FPS. This is the most demanding scenario, and the GPU is clearly the primary driver of performance here. When we move to 1440p (2560x1440) with the same settings, the average jumps to 99 FPS, and at 1080p (1920x1080) with Ultra settings, it reaches 152 FPS. This scaling indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a powerful card, but the game's engine and the CPU's capability start to play a more significant role as the resolution decreases. The Geekbench scores for the GPU, 219065 for OpenCL and 260075 for Vulkan, further underscore its raw compute capability, which translates to strong performance in demanding gaming workloads.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Technomancer with this hardware for a balanced experience?

A: The data shows that at 2560x1440 with High settings, the average frame rate is 127 FPS. This is a sweet spot, offering a significant improvement in visual fidelity over 1080p while maintaining a frame rate that is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

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

A: Yes, it can. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average frame rate is 70 FPS. Even with the most demanding Ultra preset, the system manages an average of 54 FPS, which is playable. However, for a consistently smoother experience at 4K, the High preset is recommended.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there from 1440p to 4K?

A: The data indicates a significant drop. At High settings, the average FPS decreases from 127 at 2560x1440 to 70 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 57 FPS. This demonstrates the substantial increase in rendering load that 4K resolution places on the GPU.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p with High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system achieves an average of 194 FPS. Given the CPU's high percentile rank, it is likely that the CPU is becoming a limiting factor at this resolution, as the GPU has more than enough power to render frames at a much higher rate than the processor can feed it.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS recorded at Medium settings in 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the benchmark recorded a minimum FPS of 69 and a maximum FPS of 94, with an average of 82 FPS. This shows that the frame rate can vary, but the overall experience is consistent and smooth.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its direct predecessor in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, which is only 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080's score of 54247. This indicates that they are virtually identical in overall benchmark performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a clear picture of performance scaling across different settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional frame rates across all presets. With Low settings, the average FPS is an extremely high 296. Moving to Medium, the average is 227 FPS, with a minimum of 193 and a maximum of 262. High settings yield an average of 194 FPS, while the Ultra preset, the most demanding, still achieves a very playable average of 152 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains very high. The Low preset delivers an average of 194 FPS. The Medium preset shows an average of 149 FPS (min 126, max 171), and High settings produce an average of 127 FPS. The Ultra preset brings the average down to 99 FPS, which is still excellent for a high-resolution, high-detail gaming experience. This resolution offers a great balance between visual quality and performance, with even the most demanding preset staying well above 60 FPS.

Moving up to 3840x2160, the rendering load on the GPU becomes much more significant. The Low preset averages 106 FPS, which is still smooth. The Medium preset averages 82 FPS, with a minimum of 69 and a maximum of 94. High settings yield an average of 70 FPS, which is right at the cusp of the high-refresh-rate comfort zone. The Ultra preset, however, drops to an average of 54 FPS. This is the only configuration in the dataset that dips below the 60 FPS mark, highlighting the immense demand of 4K Ultra settings on even a powerful GPU like the RTX 4080 SUPER.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.20 GHz and can boost up to 6.00 GHz. This high boost clock is critical for gaming performance, as it ensures strong single-threaded performance, which many games, including The Technomancer, rely on heavily. Its synthetic benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39399.5 and a single-core score of 2262.5.

The CPU's role in The Technomancer becomes more apparent when analyzing the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves extremely high frame rates, such as 296 FPS on Low and 194 FPS on High. The fact that these numbers are so high, and the gap between them is relatively smaller than at 4K, suggests that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution. The GPU is capable of rendering frames much faster, but it is waiting on the CPU to process the game's logic and draw calls. Its high Geekbench single-core score of 2655 supports this, as it is a measure of the processor's ability to handle a single thread of instructions, which is the typical workload for a game's main thread. The CPU's performance is a major factor in achieving these high, stable frame rates, and its 95th percentile ranking confirms its place among the best gaming processors available.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user's display and performance priorities. For those with a 1920x1080 display, the High preset is an excellent choice, delivering an average of 194 FPS. This provides a very smooth experience with high visual fidelity. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, even the Ultra preset, at 152 FPS, will likely exceed the display's refresh rate, so it is the best choice for maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is again a strong recommendation, providing an average of 127 FPS. This offers a great balance, ensuring high frame rates with significant visual improvements over 1080p. The Ultra preset is also viable, as it maintains an average of 99 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS standard. For 4K displays, the High preset is the recommended choice, as it delivers an average of 70 FPS, which is a solid experience. While the Ultra preset is playable at 54 FPS, the performance dip is noticeable, and the High preset offers a better balance of visual quality and frame rate stability for this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The data clearly shows how performance scales with resolution. When moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS at High settings drops from 194 to 127, a decrease of 67 FPS or about 35%. This is a significant drop, but the resulting 127 FPS is still very high. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is even more drastic. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 127 to 70, a reduction of 57 FPS or about 45%. This demonstrates the exponential increase in pixel count that the GPU must process.

This scaling pattern is indicative of a system that becomes progressively more GPU-bound as the resolution increases. At 1080p, the high frame rates suggest that the CPU is the primary limiting factor, as the GPU has ample headroom. As the resolution increases, the GPU's workload becomes more demanding, and its performance becomes the dominant factor in determining the final frame rate. The steep drop from 1440p to 4K, especially at the Ultra preset where the FPS falls from 99 to 54, shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER is powerful but is still challenged by the sheer number of pixels at 4K resolution. The performance deltas between resolutions highlight the importance of matching the resolution to the hardware's capabilities for the desired frame rate target.