The Technomancer

# The Technomancer with Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, shows surprisingly demanding performance characteristics when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a title that scales heavily with both CPU and GPU resources, though the pattern of scaling suggests the RTX 5090 carries most of the load at higher settings while the Ultra 5 225 becomes a factor at lower resolutions and presets.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the 1920x1080 average of 317 FPS falls to 220 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 121 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and another 45% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p Low to 4K Low is 62%, which is a substantial penalty that points to GPU-bound behavior as resolution increases.

The scaling pattern changes with higher settings. At High settings, the drop from 1080p (221 FPS) to 1440p (144 FPS) is 35%, and the drop from 1440p to 4K (79 FPS) is 45%. The Ultra preset shows a similar trend: 1080p Ultra runs at 173 FPS, falling to 113 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop) and then to 62 FPS at 4K (a 45% drop). The consistency of the 1440p-to-4K penalty across all settings — roughly 45% — indicates that pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor at 4K regardless of quality preset.

At Medium settings, the measured minimum and maximum frames provide additional insight. At 4K Medium, the average is 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and maximum of 107 FPS. The spread of 28 FPS between minimum and maximum suggests that frame pacing varies noticeably at this resolution. At 1440p Medium, the average of 169 FPS comes with a minimum of 144 FPS and maximum of 195 FPS, a spread of 51 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average of 259 FPS has a minimum of 220 FPS and maximum of 298 FPS, a spread of 78 FPS. The widening frame range as resolution decreases indicates that the CPU begins to introduce variability when the GPU can render frames faster.

The data shows that at 4K, the RTX 5090 is the primary limiter across all presets, as the consistent 45% drop from 1440p suggests pixel fill rate constraints. At 1080p, the Ultra 5 225's role becomes more prominent, evidenced by the larger frame time variance at Medium settings and the fact that 1080p Low reaches 317 FPS — a figure that approaches CPU-bound territory for many games.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear hierarchy of performance across presets, and the optimal choice depends on resolution. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers 62 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom. The High preset at 79 FPS provides a more comfortable margin while still offering substantial visual fidelity over Medium's 93 FPS. Given that the gap between High and Ultra is only 17 FPS at 4K, while High to Medium is 14 FPS, the High preset emerges as the balanced option at 4K — it captures most of the visual upgrade over Medium without the steep cost of Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the situation shifts. High runs at 144 FPS, which aligns with common high-refresh displays. Ultra at 113 FPS is still smooth, and Medium at 169 FPS offers headroom for competitive play. The 31 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 1440p suggests that Ultra is demanding but not prohibitive. For players prioritizing frame rate, Medium at 169 FPS is attractive, but the High preset's 144 FPS likely represents the best visual-to-performance ratio at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, all presets exceed 170 FPS. Low reaches 317 FPS, Medium 259 FPS, High 221 FPS, and Ultra 173 FPS. The Ultra preset's 173 FPS remains well above 60 FPS and even 144 FPS thresholds, so there is little reason to compromise visual quality at 1080p unless targeting 240Hz or higher refresh rates. The data suggests that Ultra at 1080p is the recommended choice for most users, as the 48 FPS drop from Medium to Ultra is offset by the visual gains, and the absolute frame rate remains high.

The Medium preset's measured minimum and maximum values provide additional context. At every resolution, Medium shows the only complete min/max data: 220-298 FPS at 1080p, 144-195 FPS at 1440p, and 79-107 FPS at 4K. This indicates that Medium is a stable preset with no extreme dips, making it a safe fallback if High or Ultra introduce stutter on other hardware configurations.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090's specifications are central to interpreting these results. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, the card has ample resources for The Technomancer's textures and geometry. The 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs provide the raw compute necessary for the high frame rates observed at 1080p and 1440p. The boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are the operating frequencies that produce these results.

The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate directly relate to the resolution scaling observed. At 4K, the pixel rate becomes a limiting factor, which explains why the drop from 1440p to 4K is consistently around 45% across all settings. The texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s handles the game's texture filtering demands, while the 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores suggest that The Technomancer likely uses some advanced rendering features, though this 2016 title predates widespread ray tracing.

The RTX 5090's benchmark scores contextualize its performance. The PassMark G3D score of 39650 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 79842 compares closely to the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605, deltaPct 0.3) and Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396, deltaPct 0.6), while slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940, deltaPct 1.1) and behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80959, deltaPct -1.4). These deltas of under 1.5% indicate that the RTX 5090's synthetic performance is closely matched by these rivals, yet in The Technomancer, the card delivers the high frame rates shown because of its architectural strengths.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is particularly relevant for a game like The Technomancer, which likely streams large environments. The 32 GB capacity ensures no texture thrashing even at 4K Ultra, and the GDDR7 type provides the speed needed to feed the 21760 shading units.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 51st out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the pairing in the top 1.8% of all configurations, which is an exceptional position. The rank reflects the synergy between a strong CPU and a top-tier GPU, though the CPU's percentile of 85 and GPU's percentile of 92 suggest that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 36938 puts it nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945, deltaPct 0) and slightly behind the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37018, deltaPct -0.2) and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093, deltaPct -0.4). The Intel Core i9-12900T (37112, deltaPct -0.5) is the closest Intel rival. These sub-1% differences mean the Ultra 5 225 is well-matched to its peers in general compute, but the 51st rank in this game suggests that The Technomancer benefits from the CPU's specific characteristics.

The rank of 51 out of 2825 indicates that most combos — 2774 of them — perform worse in this title. This reflects the RTX 5090's dominance, as the GPU's high fill rate and memory bandwidth are well-suited to The Technomancer's rendering demands. The CPU's contribution is secondary, as evidenced by the fact that the combo ranks so high despite the CPU's middling 85th percentile.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Technomancer with this combo?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings delivers 144 FPS, which is a strong balance. At 4K, High settings yield 79 FPS, which is playable, while 1080p Ultra reaches 173 FPS for maximum visual quality.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The 1080p Low average of 317 FPS and the widening frame range at Medium (220-298 FPS) suggest that the CPU begins to limit performance at this resolution, as the GPU is capable of higher frame rates than the CPU can feed.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Ultra averages 62 FPS while High averages 79 FPS, a 17 FPS difference. This 27% reduction from High to Ultra may not justify the visual gains for many players.

Q: Is 32 GB of VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The RTX 5090's 32 GB GDDR7 memory is far more than The Technomancer requires, as the game runs well even at 4K Ultra with 62 FPS. The memory capacity ensures no texture swapping, but the game's demands are well within the card's capabilities.

Q: What CPU rival is closest to the Ultra 5 225 in this context?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F has an average benchmark score of 36945 versus the Ultra 5 225's 36938, a deltaPct of 0. This makes them effectively identical in general compute performance.

Q: Does the combo rank change across settings?

A: The comboRankInGame of 51 out of 2825 is a single overall rank for all tested combos in the game, not per-setting. The measured FPS data shows that the combo's relative advantage grows at higher resolutions where the GPU dominates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 317 FPS. Medium averages 259 FPS with a minimum of 220 and maximum of 298. High averages 221 FPS. Ultra averages 173 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 144 FPS total drop, with the largest single step being the 48 FPS fall from High to Ultra.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 220 FPS. Medium averages 169 FPS with a minimum of 144 and maximum of 195. High averages 144 FPS. Ultra averages 113 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 107 FPS, with the High-to-Ultra step costing 31 FPS.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 121 FPS. Medium averages 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 107. High averages 79 FPS. Ultra averages 62 FPS. The total range from Low to Ultra is 59 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra gap is 17 FPS.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data at all three resolutions, showing a consistent pattern where the maximum exceeds the average by approximately 15% and the minimum falls below by roughly 15%. This indicates stable frame delivery without severe dips.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 has 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 per core provide the data locality needed for game logic. The CPU's architecture, Arrow Lake on a 3 nm process from TSMC, with 17,800 million transistors, delivers strong single-thread and multi-thread performance for a desktop part.

The CPU's benchmark scores reveal its capabilities. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 25891 and single-core score of 3655 indicate balanced performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 4412 and multithread score of 30459 show that the CPU handles both lightly threaded and heavily threaded workloads well. The PassMark physics score of 2342 and floating point math score of 92038 are relevant for game physics and calculations.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role becomes apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 317 FPS average suggests the CPU can feed the RTX 5090 up to this level. The 1080p Medium frame range of 220-298 FPS shows that the CPU introduces variability when the GPU is not the bottleneck. At 4K, the CPU's performance is sufficient, as the GPU's pixel rate limits frame generation, evidenced by the consistent 45% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings.

The CPU's 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for this workload. The PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes ensures the RTX 5090 has full bandwidth for data transfer. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36938, places it in the upper tier, though its nearest rivals — the Ryzen 5 5600F, Ryzen 5 5500X3D, Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450, and Core i9-12900T — all score within 0.5% of it, indicating that the Ultra 5 225 is competitive but not class-leading.

The data shows that the CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads are fully utilized in this game, as the frame rates at 1080p exceed what a weaker CPU could deliver. However, the CPU is not the star of this pairing; the RTX 5090's dominance in the combo's 51st rank out of 2825 is the primary driver of the excellent performance observed.