The Technomancer

The Technomancer is a 2016 Action RPG that still presents a meaningful challenge to modern hardware at higher settings. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, based strictly on the provided benchmark data. The results show a combo that is capable of smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p, but which struggles to maintain playable frame rates at 4K under maximum load. The data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom for the game's demands.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly indicates that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions, providing a significant visual upgrade over Medium with only a modest performance penalty. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 112 FPS, which is only 19 FPS less than the Low preset's 171 FPS but offers substantially better visual fidelity. This makes High the optimal choice for most users on a 1080p display, as the frame rate remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

For 2560x1440, the High preset again emerges as the best option, producing an average of 73 FPS. This is a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, and the visual quality improvement over Medium (86 FPS) is worth the 13 FPS reduction. The Ultra preset at this resolution drops to 57 FPS, which is playable but dips below the ideal smoothness threshold. If a user has a high-refresh-rate 1440p monitor, the Medium preset at 86 FPS could be preferable, but for standard 60Hz displays, High is the clear winner.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more challenging. The High preset yields only 40 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for most gamers. The Low preset at 61 FPS is the only 4K option that achieves playable performance, but this comes with a significant reduction in visual quality. For 4K gaming, the data suggests that users should either drop to Low settings to achieve 61 FPS or accept the Medium preset's 47 FPS, which provides a better visual experience than Low but still falls short of smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 31 FPS is not recommended for 4K under any circumstances.

The Medium preset's measured minimum FPS values provide additional insight. At 1080p, the Medium preset has a minimum of 111 FPS, matching the average of the Low preset, indicating excellent frame pacing. At 1440p, the Medium preset's minimum of 73 FPS equals the High preset's average, suggesting the system can maintain consistent performance. At 4K, the Medium preset's minimum of 40 FPS reveals occasional dips that could cause noticeable stuttering in action-heavy scenes.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Technomancer at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Only at Low settings, where the average FPS is 61. The High preset averages 40 FPS, Medium averages 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 31 FPS. For consistent 60 FPS at 4K, users must accept Low settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU pairing?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the sweet spot, with all presets exceeding 87 FPS on average. The High preset at 112 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p on High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 112 to 73, a reduction of 39 FPS (approximately 35%). This indicates a significant GPU load increase at 1440p, but the resulting 73 FPS remains playable.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using at any resolution?

A: At 1080p, Ultra delivers 87 FPS, which is usable, but the 25 FPS difference between Ultra and High suggests diminishing returns. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 57 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 31 FPS, making it unsuitable for those resolutions.

Q: How does the Medium preset's minimum FPS compare across resolutions?

A: At 1080p, the minimum is 111 FPS; at 1440p, it is 73 FPS; and at 4K, it is 40 FPS. These minimums show that the system maintains stable performance at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K exposes significant frame time variance.

Q: What does the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p indicate about the system?

A: The gap is 84 FPS (171 vs 87), which is substantial. This large scaling range suggests the GPU is well-utilized across settings, but the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution, as even the highest setting maintains a high frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K provides a clear picture of the system's bottleneck characteristics. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 112 at 1080p to 73 at 1440p and finally to 40 at 4K. This represents a 64% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, which is a strong indicator that the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus width, providing 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, are being saturated by the increasing pixel count.

The scaling pattern reveals a near-linear relationship between pixel count and performance, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios. From 1080p to 1440p, the pixel count increases by 78%, and the FPS drops by 35%. From 1440p to 4K, the pixel count increases by 125% (compared to 1440p), and the FPS drops by another 45%. This escalating performance loss indicates that the GPU's shading units (2560) and texture mapping units (160) are being increasingly taxed, while the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic. The FPS drops from 171 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p and 61 at 4K. The fact that Low settings at 4K still achieve 61 FPS while High settings at 4K only reach 40 FPS suggests that the game's visual effects, such as lighting and shadows, are heavily taxing the GPU's compute resources. The RX 6700 XT's FP32 performance of 13.21 TFLOPS is adequate for lower settings, but the more complex shaders at High and Ultra settings push the GPU to its limits.

The 4K Ultra setting at 31 FPS is particularly telling. This represents a 64% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score of 87 FPS. The fact that the system cannot maintain even 40 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates that the RX 6700 XT, despite its 2560 shading units, is simply not powerful enough for this game's maximum settings at 4K. The data suggests that users targeting 4K should stick to Low settings or consider a more powerful GPU, as the Core Ultra 5 245 is clearly not the bottleneck in this scenario.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data provides a detailed look at how this combination performs across all tested configurations.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers strong performance across all presets. The Low preset achieves an average of 171 FPS, making it the highest result in the entire dataset and indicating excellent CPU and GPU utilization at this resolution. The Medium preset averages 131 FPS, with a minimum of 111 FPS and a maximum of 151 FPS, showing consistent frame delivery. The High preset averages 112 FPS, which is a 14.5% reduction from Medium but still provides a very smooth experience. The Ultra preset averages 87 FPS, which is the lowest at 1080p but remains comfortably above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains playable but shows increased GPU strain. The Low preset averages 111 FPS, which is exactly the same as the 1080p Medium minimum, highlighting the resolution scaling impact. The Medium preset averages 86 FPS, with a minimum of 73 FPS and a maximum of 98 FPS. This represents a 34% drop from the 1080p Medium average, showing that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint. The High preset averages 73 FPS, which is a 35% reduction from 1080p High. The Ultra preset averages 57 FPS, which is the first sign of the system struggling to maintain 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system's limitations become apparent. The Low preset averages 61 FPS, which is just barely above the 60 FPS threshold and represents a 45% reduction from the 1440p Low result. The Medium preset averages 47 FPS, with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 54 FPS, showing significant frame time variance that could be noticeable during gameplay. The High preset averages 40 FPS, which is a 45% drop from 1440p High. The Ultra preset averages 31 FPS, which is below the playability threshold for most users and indicates that 4K Ultra is not viable with this hardware.

The pattern across all resolutions shows that the High preset consistently offers the best balance. At 1080p, the 25 FPS gap between High and Ultra is not worth the visual upgrade for most users. At 1440p, the 16 FPS gap between High and Ultra makes High the clear choice. At 4K, the 9 FPS gap between High and Ultra is irrelevant since neither achieves 60 FPS, but the Medium preset's 47 FPS offers a better compromise between visual quality and playability.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks 1464th out of 2825 tested combos for The Technomancer, placing it in the 48th percentile of all tested configurations. This middle-of-the-pack ranking reflects the GPU's position in the performance hierarchy. The RX 6700 XT holds the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, and its measured performance in this game aligns with its overall standing, though the 4K results drag the ranking down.

The CPU, however, is a much stronger performer. The Core Ultra 5 245 sits in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48995. This places it in close competition with several notable rivals. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G scores 49196, a mere 0.4% higher, while the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 scores 49228, a 0.5% advantage. The Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698, which is 0.6% lower, and the Intel Core i5-14600K scores 48618, a 0.8% deficit. These tight margins indicate that the Core Ultra 5 245 is a well-balanced CPU that performs on par with established competitors.

The ranking suggests that this combo is adequate for playing The Technomancer at 1080p and 1440p with high settings, but it is not optimized for 4K gaming. The GPU's 72nd percentile ranking means that many other tested GPUs will outperform it, particularly at higher resolutions. The fact that the combo ranks in the 48th percentile of all tested combos indicates that there is a substantial number of configurations that deliver better 4K performance, likely due to more powerful GPUs.

The CPU's high percentile ranking (90th) compared to the GPU's (72nd) confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing. This is further supported by the measured FPS data, where 4K performance drops to unplayable levels at High and Ultra settings despite the CPU's strong benchmark results. For users considering this combo, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield significant performance gains in this game, particularly at 1440p and 4K resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The CPU features a 24 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel configuration, providing 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. These specifications place it firmly in the mid-to-high-end desktop segment, and its benchmark performance confirms its capability.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with data and handle game logic. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the system achieves 171 FPS on Low settings, which indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 87 FPS result suggests that the CPU has sufficient headroom to support higher frame rates if the GPU were more powerful. This is consistent with the CPU's 90th percentile ranking, indicating that it outperforms the vast majority of CPUs in general processing tasks.

The CPU's single-thread performance is particularly strong, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 and Passmark single-thread score of 4394. The Technomancer, being a 2016 game, likely relies on fewer threads for its main game logic, making single-core performance crucial. The Core Ultra 5 245's boost clock of 5.10 GHz provides excellent single-threaded throughput, which explains why the CPU does not become a limiting factor even at lower resolutions where frame rates are high.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and a Passmark multithread score of 38706. While The Technomancer may not fully utilize all 14 cores, this headroom ensures that background tasks and system overhead do not interfere with gameplay. The Passmark data compression score of 400942 and data encryption score of 30236 further demonstrate the CPU's capability in general computing tasks, which is useful for a system that may be used for more than just gaming.

The comparison with the Intel Core i5-14600K, which scores 48618 (0.8% lower), shows that the Core Ultra 5 245 is competitive with previous-generation high-end CPUs. This means that users upgrading from an older system will not experience CPU-related performance issues in this game. The CPU's PCIe Gen 5 support with 20 lanes ensures that the RX 6700 XT, which uses PCIe 4.0, is not bandwidth-limited, allowing the GPU to perform at its full potential. Overall, the data shows that the Core Ultra 5 245 is more than sufficient for The Technomancer, and any performance limitations in this system are attributable to the GPU.