The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, places specific demands on modern hardware. The data in this analysis is based on the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 processor paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER graphics card. This combination yields a distinct performance profile across resolutions and settings, and the following sections break down the benchmark results point by point.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces an average of 275 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average drops to 180 FPS, a significant reduction. At the highest tested resolution, 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average frame rate falls further to 99 FPS. This progression from 275 to 180 to 99 FPS represents a substantial performance cost as the pixel count increases, suggesting the workload is becoming more demanding on the rendering pipeline.

The scaling is consistent across all settings. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 211 at 1080p to 138 at 1440p to 76 at 4K. Similarly, at High settings, the system achieves 180 FPS at 1080p, 118 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. The pattern is clear: the frame rate nearly halves from 1080p to 4K in most cases. For instance, the High preset drops from 180 to 65 FPS, a 64% reduction, while the Low preset drops from 275 to 99 FPS, a 64% reduction as well. This consistent ratio indicates that the primary bottleneck is the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity, as the workload scales almost linearly with the number of pixels rendered.

At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high, with even the Ultra preset averaging 141 FPS. This is well beyond the refresh rate of typical monitors. The fact that the CPU, with its 14 cores and 14 threads and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, can feed the GPU enough data to reach 275 FPS at Low settings suggests that at lower resolutions, the system is still GPU-bound, but the CPU is not a limiting factor. However, the massive frame rate at 1080p indicates the GPU is not being fully stressed, and the CPU is keeping up with the demand. The data shows a smooth scaling curve without any anomalies, which points to a well-balanced system where the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions.

The min FPS data available for Medium settings further illustrates the 4K stress. At 3840x2160, the minimum FPS is 64, while the average is 76. At 2560x1440, the minimum is 117 against an average of 138, and at 1920x1080, the minimum is 180 against an average of 211. The gap between min and average FPS widens at higher resolutions, indicating more frame time variance under heavier load. This suggests that while the average performance is playable, the 4K experience can have occasional dips that might be noticeable in fast-paced action.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS for the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combo at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 51 FPS.

Q: How much faster is 1080p compared to 1440p at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS at 1920x1080 is 180, while at 2560x1440 it is 118. This represents a 52% increase in frame rate when dropping from 1440p to 1080p.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS recorded at 2560x1440 with Medium settings is 117, with an average of 138 and a maximum of 159.

Q: Does the system achieve over 200 FPS at any resolution?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 with Low and Medium settings, the average FPS is 275 and 211, respectively.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS with Low settings is 180, while with Ultra settings it is 92. This indicates that Ultra settings are roughly half the performance of Low settings.

Q: Is the 4K experience with High settings smooth?

A: With an average FPS of 65 at 3840x2160, the High settings are playable, but the 4K Ultra preset at 51 FPS is the most demanding, with the Medium preset at 76 FPS being the most balanced for a high-resolution experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the clear driver of performance in The Technomancer. The GPU's specifications, including 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, provide a substantial memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s. This is critical for a game that scales heavily with resolution, as the data shows a significant FPS drop at 4K. The benchmark data indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at all tested resolutions and settings, as frame rates drop consistently as the resolution increases, a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 2340 MHz and a boost of 2610 MHz, are relatively high, but the raw compute power is what matters here. The 16 GB of VRAM is ample for this game, even at 4K, as the data does not show any signs of memory capacity being a bottleneck. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is directly tied to the GPU's ability to fill pixels. The 4K Ultra preset, averaging 51 FPS, represents the maximum stress test for this card in this title, pushing the 44.10 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability to its limits.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 76 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 31087, places it in the upper echelon of graphics cards. However, the data shows that even this high-end card cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra in The Technomancer. The nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA TITAN RTX with a deltaPct of -1.9% and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell with a deltaPct of -1.4%, are all slightly behind in average benchmark scores, but the in-game results show that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is still challenged by this title at the highest settings. The performance difference between the High and Ultra presets at 4K is 14 FPS, which is a significant 27% drop, indicating that the Ultra preset relies heavily on GPU-intensive effects that are not well-optimized for this game.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. For a 4K display, the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, with an average FPS of 76 and a minimum of 64. This is the only 4K preset that consistently stays above 60 FPS, which is the standard for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 4K, with an average of 65 FPS, is also viable, but the Medium preset offers a more comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, as indicated by the minimum FPS data.

At 1440p, the High preset is the recommended choice, delivering an average of 118 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS target and provides enough headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors up to 100 Hz. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 92 FPS, which is still smooth, but the jump from High to Ultra yields only a 26 FPS loss while potentially adding negligible visual improvements in this older title. The Medium preset at 138 FPS is also excellent, but High is preferable for a balance between image quality and speed.

At 1080p, the Ultra preset is the clear winner, offering an average of 141 FPS. This is more than enough for any 1080p monitor, including 144 Hz panels. The data shows that the system has ample performance headroom at this resolution, so there is no reason to compromise on settings. The Low preset at 1080p, with an average of 275 FPS, is only useful for competitive play where absolute maximum frame rates are desired, but the visual quality trade-off is substantial. The measured data suggests that the Ultra preset is the best experience at 1080p, as the game is clearly not CPU-limited at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a complete breakdown of the measured average FPS for each resolution and settings combination.

At 1920x1080, the Low settings produce an average of 275 FPS. The Medium settings produce an average of 211 FPS, with a minimum of 180 and a maximum of 243. The High settings produce an average of 180 FPS. The Ultra settings produce an average of 141 FPS. This shows a clear hierarchy, with Low being the fastest and Ultra being the slowest, but all presets are capable of exceeding 140 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low settings produce an average of 180 FPS. The Medium settings produce an average of 138 FPS, with a minimum of 117 and a maximum of 159. The High settings produce an average of 118 FPS. The Ultra settings produce an average of 92 FPS. This represents a consistent step down from 1080p, with the Low preset seeing a 34% reduction in performance and the Ultra preset seeing a 35% reduction.

At 3840x2160, the Low settings produce an average of 99 FPS. The Medium settings produce an average of 76 FPS, with a minimum of 64 and a maximum of 87. The High settings produce an average of 65 FPS. The Ultra settings produce an average of 51 FPS. The 4K resolution is the most demanding, with the Ultra preset barely breaking 50 FPS. The data shows a clear pattern: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-25% of the frame rate, and each step up in resolution costs a similar amount, leading to a compounded effect at 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235, with its 14 cores and 14 threads, plays a supporting role in The Technomancer. The data suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution or setting. The highest frame rate recorded, 275 FPS at 1080p Low, is a very high number that many CPUs would struggle to feed. The fact that this combo can achieve this indicates that the CPU's single-threaded performance, which scores 2085 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is sufficient for the game's logic and draw call processing.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.00 GHz is a key factor in maintaining high frame rates. The benchmark results show a strong single-core score of 875 in Cinebench R20, which is critical for games that rely on a small number of threads for the main game loop. The multi-core score of 14769 in Cinebench R23 is also solid, but the data shows that the frame rates scale almost entirely with resolution, not with CPU load. This confirms that the game is GPU-bound, and the CPU is providing more than enough performance headroom.

The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per core L2 cache provide fast access to game data, further reducing any potential CPU-side stalls. The nearest rivals in CPU performance, such as the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 with a deltaPct of 0.1% and the Intel Core i9-13900HX with a deltaPct of -0.1%, are all within a fraction of a percent in average benchmark scores. This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 235 is a top-tier performer for gaming, and the results in The Technomancer reflect this, as the game never shows signs of being CPU-limited, even at the highest frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER achieves a rank of 271 out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places it in the top 10% of all configurations in the database. This ranking is impressive, given the game's age and the high performance of the components. The rank indicates that this combo provides a very high level of performance for this specific title, outperforming the vast majority of other hardware pairings.

The rank of 271 out of 2825 is a strong result, but it is not at the very top. This is likely due to the GPU's performance at 4K Ultra, where it averages 51 FPS, which is not a perfect 60 FPS experience. However, for most users, the performance at 1440p and 1080p is exceptional, with the combo achieving over 90 FPS at 1440p Ultra and over 140 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The data shows that this combo is a high-end pairing that is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at standard resolutions, and it handles 4K at Medium settings with ease. The ranking reflects the overall capability across all tested settings, and the strong performance at lower resolutions helps to boost its position.