The Technomancer

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT achieves a rank of 845 out of 2,825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the combination in the top 30% of all tested systems, indicating a solidly above-average configuration for this Action RPG title. The rank reflects the balanced nature of this pairing, where neither component dramatically bottlenecks the other at most settings and resolutions.

Looking at the broader benchmark context, the CPU sits at the 85th percentile among all processors, matching its average score of 36,938 almost exactly with its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which scores 36,945 (a delta of 0%). The GPU also holds the 85th percentile among all graphics cards, though its nearest rivals show more variance: the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile trails by 1.5%, while the Intel Arc A550M leads by 2.5%. This symmetric percentile positioning suggests the combo is well-matched, with no single component dragging the overall result down.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT brings substantial graphics resources to this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for The Technomancer's texture-heavy environments. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1825 MHz, a game clock of 2015 MHz, and a boost clock of 2250 MHz, providing a wide performance envelope across different workload intensities.

The GPU's memory runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed, and its 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs give it strong throughput capabilities. The pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s are particularly relevant for a 2016-era Action RPG that relies on traditional rasterization rather than ray tracing. With 72 ray accelerators and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), the card is future-proofed, but The Technomancer's rendering demands are primarily met through raw fill rate and shader performance.

The GPU's FP32 throughput of 20.74 TFLOPS and FP16 of 41.47 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio) indicate that compute-heavy effects, such as particle systems or physics-based animations common in action RPGs, are handled with considerable headroom. At 4K Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 40, which aligns with the GPU being the primary limiting factor at the highest fidelity levels.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 216 FPS average, which drops to 141 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 78 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 45% reduction from 1440p to 4K at Low settings. The scaling at Low presets indicates that the CPU is increasingly able to feed the GPU as resolution rises, but the GPU still faces significant load increases at 4K.

At High settings, the pattern shifts: 1080p yields 142 FPS, 1440p yields 93 FPS (a 35% drop), and 4K yields 51 FPS (a 45% drop from 1440p). The relative consistency of percentage drops across settings suggests that the limiting component changes predictably with resolution. At 1080p High, the 142 FPS figure is well above typical display refresh rates, indicating the CPU has headroom to spare. By 4K High, the 51 FPS result shows the GPU is now the dominant constraint, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p while the CPU workload remains relatively constant.

The Medium settings provide the most complete data with min/max FPS values. At 4K Medium, the combo averages 60 FPS with a range of 51-69 FPS, showing frame pacing that is stable enough for consistent gameplay. At 1440p Medium, the average rises to 109 FPS with a range of 92-125 FPS, while 1080p Medium reaches 166 FPS average with a range of 141-191 FPS. The widening min-max spread at lower resolutions suggests that CPU-bound scenarios introduce more frame time variance, whereas the GPU-bound 4K scenario maintains tighter consistency.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and Radeon RX 6800 XT combination produces the following average frame rates: Low settings achieve 216 FPS, Medium reaches 166 FPS, High delivers 142 FPS, and Ultra drops to 111 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 141 FPS and a maximum of 191 FPS, indicating a 50 FPS spread between the slowest and fastest frames. The transition from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 49% performance reduction, which is substantial but leaves even the Ultra preset well above 60 FPS for smooth gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the measured averages are: Low at 141 FPS, Medium at 109 FPS, High at 93 FPS, and Ultra at 72 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p records a minimum of 92 FPS and a maximum of 125 FPS, showing a tighter 33 FPS spread compared to 1080p. The step from Medium to High costs 16 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 21 FPS, making Ultra the most demanding jump at this resolution. All 1440p presets remain above 60 FPS, which is notable for a game from 2016 with modern hardware.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 78 FPS, Medium at 60 FPS, High at 51 FPS, and Ultra at 40 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, meaning even the worst-case frames stay above 50 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra at 4K costs 11 FPS, a 22% reduction, which is the steepest single-preset penalty across all resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the 40 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold typically desired for action titles, but remains playable for less twitch-reflex gameplay.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 111, which provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS for smooth gameplay. This is 49% lower than the 216 FPS achieved at Low settings, but still well within playable territory.

Q: What is the best resolution for maintaining 60+ FPS at High settings?

A: The combo achieves over 60 FPS at High settings up to 1440p, with 93 FPS at 2560x1440. At 4K High, the average drops to 51 FPS, so 1440p is the highest resolution that maintains a 60+ FPS average at High preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K Medium?

A: At 3840x2160 Medium, the average FPS is 60 with a min of 51 and max of 69. The relatively tight frame range and the fact that 1080p Medium reaches 166 FPS suggests the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K, as the CPU is capable of much higher frame rates at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 5 225 compare to its nearest rival in CPU benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36,938, which is essentially identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F at 36,945 (0% delta). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D by just 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 by 0.4%.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to its closest competitors?

A: The RX 6800 XT scores 48,477 on average benchmarks, which is 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile at 47,743. However, it is 2.5% lower than the Intel Arc A550M at 49,737 and 3% lower than both the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64.

Q: Does the combo maintain playable frame rates at any 4K preset?

A: Yes, all 4K presets are playable to some degree. Low averages 78 FPS, Medium averages 60 FPS, High averages 51 FPS, and Ultra averages 40 FPS. Medium is the highest preset that maintains a 60 FPS average at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache, which provides ample fast-access storage for game logic and AI computations.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 216 FPS, indicating the CPU can drive frame rates far beyond typical display capabilities. The processor's single-core performance of 4,412 in Passmark single-thread tests and 3,655 in Cinebench R23 single-core suggests strong per-thread performance, which matters for a game that may not fully utilize all 10 cores.

The CPU's 10 threads at 10 cores means no hyper-threading, but the Arrow Lake architecture's efficiency cores handle background tasks while performance cores manage the main game thread. The memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 provides sufficient data throughput to feed the GPU without starvation, as evidenced by the high FPS at 1080p. The processor's 20 MB L3 cache is shared across all cores, reducing latency for frequently accessed game data.

The benchmark data supports the CPU's adequacy for this pairing: Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25,891 and Passmark multithread score of 30,459 place it in the 85th percentile. The CPU's nearest rival, the Ryzen 5 5600F, has a nearly identical average score, confirming that the Ultra 5 225 is a mainstream high-performance part that will not bottleneck the RX 6800 XT in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 emerges as the optimal configuration. It delivers 109 FPS average with a minimum of 92 FPS, ensuring consistent frame delivery above 90 FPS. The 125 FPS maximum shows headroom for scene complexity variations, and the 33 FPS spread between min and max is tight enough to avoid noticeable stutter.

Players prioritizing maximum fidelity should consider 1440p Ultra at 72 FPS average. This preset maintains over 60 FPS while providing the highest visual quality at a resolution that benefits from the RX 6800 XT's 16 GB memory. The 4K Ultra preset at 40 FPS is only advisable for players who value resolution over frame rate and can tolerate sub-60 FPS gameplay.

At 1080p, the High preset at 142 FPS is the recommended choice for high-refresh-rate displays up to 144 Hz. The Medium preset at 166 FPS is suitable for 165 Hz panels, while Low at 216 FPS exceeds most display capabilities. For 4K displays, Medium at 60 FPS is the highest playable preset, with High at 51 FPS acceptable for less demanding players.

The data shows that the combo's sweet spot is 1440p Medium to High, where it consistently outperforms the 60 FPS threshold with room to spare. This aligns with the GPU's 16 GB memory capacity and the CPU's strong single-thread performance, creating a balanced system for The Technomancer's Action RPG gameplay.