The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 action RPG, places distinct demands on modern hardware. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, using 12 data points across four settings presets and three resolutions. The data shows this combination lands in the lower-middle tier of tested configurations, with playability heavily dependent on resolution and quality expectations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a 60 FPS average?

A: The only resolution where every settings preset achieves at least a 60 FPS average is 1920x1080. At that resolution, the Low preset averages 130 FPS, Medium 100 FPS, and High 85 FPS, with the Ultra preset dropping to 66 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 scores 15283 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon 680M scores 15270 (0.1% delta), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM scores 15199 (0.6% delta). The AMD Radeon RX 7600 scores 15171, which is 0.8% lower.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2212 out of 2825 tested combinations, placing it in the 78th percentile from the top, meaning roughly 78% of tested combos perform better.

Q: Is the 4K Ultra preset playable with this hardware?

A: No. The data shows an average of 24 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is below playable thresholds. Even the 4K Low preset only reaches 47 FPS average.

Q: How much performance headroom does the CPU have relative to its closest rival in synthetic tests?

A: The Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46062. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, scores 46030, a delta of just 0.1%. The Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098, which is 0.1% higher.

Q: What is the largest FPS gap between any two settings presets at the same resolution?

A: At 2560x1440, the difference between Low and Ultra is 42 FPS (85 vs 43). At 1920x1080, the gap between Low and Ultra is 64 FPS (130 vs 66). The 3840x2160 gap is 23 FPS (47 vs 24).

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the optimal experience depends on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 85 FPS average, which provides a smooth experience while retaining visual fidelity. The Medium preset offers 100 FPS, but the 15 FPS gain over High may not justify the visual downgrade. The Ultra preset at 66 FPS is acceptable for those prioritizing image quality, but it sits close to the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the High preset produces 56 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target but playable for slower-paced action RPGs. The Medium preset at 65 FPS is the safer choice for maintaining fluidity. The Low preset at 85 FPS is overly conservative given the hardware, while Ultra at 43 FPS introduces noticeable stutter.

For 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. The Low preset at 47 FPS is the only option approaching playability, but it requires significant visual compromises. The Medium preset at 36 FPS with a min FPS of 30 is borderline, and High at 31 FPS and Ultra at 24 FPS are not recommended for active gameplay.

The data supports a clear recommendation: for the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, use High settings at 1920x1080, which yields 85 FPS. For 2560x1440, Medium at 65 FPS is the optimal trade-off. The 4K resolution should be avoided entirely, as even the Low preset fails to maintain a consistent 50 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2212 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the configuration in the bottom 22% of all tested systems, indicating that this hardware pairing is not well-suited to the game's performance demands.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark percentile of 58% (vs all GPUs) suggests it sits just above the median, but the game's measured FPS tells a different story. The CPU's percentile of 89% (vs all CPUs) is strong, yet the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The rank of 2212 reflects the GPU's inability to maintain high frame rates at 4K, dragging the overall combo down despite the CPU's robust synthetic scores.

Compared to the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 2060 is statistically tied with the GTX 580 (0% delta) and only 0.8% ahead of the RX 7600. This tight grouping means the combo's rank is not an outlier but rather representative of a cluster of mid-range GPUs that all struggle with The Technomancer's engine at high resolutions.

The CPU's nearest rivals show similarly marginal differences. The Core Ultra 5 235 is within 0.2% of the AMD EPYC 4364P and EPYC 7303 in average score, and essentially tied with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375. This indicates that CPU choice among these options would not meaningfully alter the combo's rank, reinforcing that the GPU is the performance bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 2060 delivers its best results. The Low preset averages 130 FPS, representing the highest frame rate in the entire dataset. Medium drops to 100 FPS with a min of 85 and max of 115, providing a 15 FPS margin above the 60 FPS target. High settings produce 85 FPS, which is still comfortable. Ultra settings reduce performance to 66 FPS, leaving only 6 FPS of headroom above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings average 85 FPS, which is a 45 FPS drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 65 FPS with a minimum of 55, meaning some scenes will dip below 60 FPS. High settings average 56 FPS, which is below the target but usable. Ultra settings fall to 43 FPS, making action sequences potentially choppy.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overburdened. Low settings yield 47 FPS, which is the only preset above 40 FPS. Medium averages 36 FPS with a tight range of 30 to 41 FPS. High settings manage only 31 FPS, and Ultra drops to 24 FPS. The 4K results show a severe degradation, with the Ultra preset delivering less than half the frame rate of the 1080p Ultra preset.

The scaling between resolutions shows that the GPU's performance is heavily resolution-bound. The average FPS at 1440p is approximately 65% of the 1080p average across all settings. The 4K average is approximately 37% of the 1080p average. This linear degradation suggests the game is fill-rate limited, which aligns with the GPU's 192-bit memory bus and 6 GB VRAM capacity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's base clock is 1365 MHz with a boost clock of 1680 MHz. These specifications place the card in the mid-range tier, with a passmark G3D score of 14111 and an average benchmark score of 15290.

The GPU's 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it performs better than 58% of tested graphics cards. However, the measured FPS in The Technomancer reveals that this percentile does not translate to high-end gaming performance at modern resolutions. The 6 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p with the settings tested, but the 4K results suggest the memory bandwidth becomes a limiting factor.

The GPU's nearest rival, the GTX 580, has an identical average score of 15283 (0% delta). This is surprising given the architectural differences, but the data shows the RTX 2060's Turing architecture with 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores does not provide a significant advantage in this game's workload. The RX 7600, which scores 15171 (0.8% lower), indicates that AMD's competing card would perform similarly in this title.

The FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS and texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s are moderate figures. The pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s helps explain the 1080p performance, where the card achieves 130 FPS on Low settings. The data suggests that the GPU's raw compute capabilities are adequate for lower resolutions, but the memory subsystem's 336.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot sustain high frame rates at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The CPU features 24 MB of shared L3 cache, with 192 KB of L1 and 3 MB of L2 per core. Its TDP is 65 W, and it supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration.

The CPU's synthetic benchmarks are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14769 and single-core score of 2085. The Passmark multithread score of 37816 and single-thread score of 4516 further demonstrate its capability. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46062.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the FPS scaling with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU is likely not the bottleneck, given the 130 FPS Low preset result. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz provides sufficient single-thread performance for the game's logic, while the 14 cores handle background tasks.

The CPU's nearest rivals show minimal performance differences. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 scores 46030 (0.1% lower), and the Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098 (0.1% higher). This indicates that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would produce nearly identical FPS in this game, confirming that the GPU is the primary performance limiter.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and PCIe Gen 5 support with 20 lanes ensure that data transfer to the GPU is not a limiting factor. The L3 cache of 24 MB is ample for game assets, and the 3 nm process node contributes to efficient power delivery. However, these advantages do not translate to higher FPS when the GPU is saturated at 4K, as the measured data clearly shows.