The Technomancer

# The Technomancer with Intel Core Ultra 7 165H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile

This combination of Intel's Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile delivers a playable experience across all tested settings in The Technomancer, but the scaling patterns reveal a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions while showing surprising CPU headroom at 1080p. The data shows a clear progression from 234 FPS at 1080p Low to 43 FPS at 4K Ultra, with the gap between settings widening as resolution increases—a classic sign that the GPU is the primary limiter once pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck sits. At High settings, average FPS falls from 153 at 1080p to 100 at 1440p, then to 55 at 4K—a reduction of 35% from 1080p to 1440p and another 45% from 1440p to 4K. This steep decline indicates the RTX 4090 Mobile is being pushed progressively harder as resolution increases, with the CPU becoming less relevant at higher pixel counts.

The Low settings curve shows the most extreme scaling: 234 FPS at 1080p drops to 153 FPS at 1440p (a 35% decrease) and then to 84 FPS at 4K (a 45% further drop). At Medium settings, the pattern holds with 180 FPS at 1080p, 117 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings follow suit with 120 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K.

The fact that 4K Ultra (43 FPS) is less than half of 1080p Ultra (120 FPS) strongly suggests that the GPU's rendering workload scales nearly linearly with pixel count. The Core Ultra 7 165H, with its 16 cores and 22 threads, appears to have ample headroom at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS on Low—something the GPU alone cannot sustain at higher resolutions.

Interestingly, the relative performance gap between settings narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 51% of Low's frame rate (120 vs 234). At 4K, Ultra delivers 51% of Low as well (43 vs 84). This consistency implies the GPU is the limiting factor across all settings, with the CPU not becoming a constraint even at the lowest settings and highest frame rates.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 Mobile is the workhorse here, and its specifications explain why it dominates the scaling behavior. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, it offers 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth—more than enough for The Technomancer's textures at any resolution. The GPU's 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs provide substantial raw throughput, while 76 RT cores and 304 Tensor Cores handle any additional workloads the game might throw at them.

Clock speeds are modest for a flagship mobile part: a base of 1335 MHz and boost of 1695 MHz. The memory runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). These clocks are not extreme, but they are paired with a 120 W TDP that constrains sustained performance. The data suggests this power limit is what keeps 4K Ultra at 43 FPS rather than pushing higher—the GPU simply cannot maintain higher clocks under sustained load.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. PassMark G3D score of 27212 places it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43667. Its nearest rivals are the Quadro M6000 (0.8% higher), RTX 5050 Mobile (0.9% higher), and RTX A6000 (0.9% lower)—a tight cluster that shows this is a well-balanced mid-upper tier part rather than an outlier.

In The Technomancer specifically, the GPU's DirectX 11 score of 262 and DirectX 12 score of 107 from PassMark suggest that the game's engine, which is from 2016, may not fully leverage the latest API features. The DirectX 12 score being lower than DirectX 11 indicates that the game likely runs through a compatibility path rather than using modern rendering techniques, which could explain why even a powerful GPU like this one cannot achieve higher frame rates at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 821st out of 3696 tested combos in The Technomancer, placing it in the top 22% of all systems tested. That is a strong showing, but not exceptional given the hardware involved. The rank reflects the fact that the game is older (released in 2016) and may not scale perfectly with modern hardware, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU performance becomes more relevant.

The Core Ultra 7 165H's average benchmark score of 34083 puts it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, but its nearest rivals show how tight the competition is. The Intel Core Ultra 5 338H scores 33989 (0.3% higher), while the AMD EPYC 4244P scores 34220 (0.4% lower) and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 scores 34222 (0.4% lower). These sub-1% differences mean the CPU is effectively tied with several alternatives, and the combo rank is likely more influenced by the GPU's performance than the CPU's.

The RTX 4090 Mobile's average benchmark score of 43667 places it in the 84th percentile of GPUs, mirroring the CPU's percentile. This symmetry suggests the combo is balanced, but the game's engine may not be able to extract the full potential from either component. The rank of 821 out of 3696 indicates that many other combinations—likely with different CPU/GPU pairings—achieve better results in this specific title, possibly due to the game's older engine favoring different hardware characteristics.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the data shows a wide spread across settings. Low settings deliver 234 FPS average, which is exceptionally high and indicates the GPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution. Medium settings drop to 180 FPS, High to 153 FPS, and Ultra to 120 FPS. The Medium setting has a recorded min FPS of 153 and max of 207, showing some frame time variance but still maintaining a smooth experience.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain playable across all settings. Low delivers 153 FPS, Medium 117 FPS, High 100 FPS, and Ultra 78 FPS. The Medium setting again shows range data with min 100 FPS and max 135 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent at roughly 35% for each setting, suggesting the GPU is scaling predictably with pixel count.

At 4K, the picture changes significantly. Low settings still manage 84 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 65 FPS, High to 55 FPS, and Ultra to 43 FPS. The Medium setting at 4K shows min FPS of 55 and max of 74, indicating that even at lower settings, the frame rate can dip below 60 FPS under load. Ultra at 4K is the only configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, with 43 FPS average.

The progression from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent pattern: Ultra delivers roughly 51-52% of Low's frame rate at every resolution. This consistency across resolutions is a strong indicator that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck, as the relative cost of higher settings does not change with resolution. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect the gap between settings to narrow at higher resolutions where frame rates are lower.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Technomancer at 60 FPS on 4K?

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 84 FPS. Medium settings average 65 FPS but dip to 55 FPS minimum, while High and Ultra average 55 and 43 FPS respectively. For a locked 60 FPS at 4K, you would need to play at Low or accept frame drops at Medium.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 Mobile compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 43667 is 0.8% lower than the Quadro M6000, 0.9% lower than the RTX 5050 Mobile, and 0.9% higher than the RTX A6000. These differences are minimal, putting the 4090 Mobile in a tight performance cluster with those cards.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game's performance?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor. Frame rates scale consistently with resolution (roughly 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and another 45% to 4K), while the Core Ultra 7 165H's 16 cores and 22 threads provide more than enough processing power, evidenced by 234 FPS at 1080p Low.

Q: What is the best settings configuration for a 60 FPS target?

A: At 1080p, any setting from Low to Ultra achieves over 120 FPS, so you can max out at Ultra. At 1440p, Ultra averages 78 FPS, which stays above 60. At 4K, only Low (84 FPS) and Medium (65 FPS) average above 60 FPS, though Medium's minimum of 55 FPS means occasional dips.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: It ranks 821st out of 3696 tested combos, placing it in the top 22% of all configurations tested for The Technomancer. This is a solid result, though not top-tier, reflecting the game's older engine and the balanced but not exceptional pairing of these components.

Q: Does the CPU's benchmark performance align with its in-game results?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 34083 places it in the 84th percentile, with nearest rivals within 0.5% of its score. In-game, the CPU never appears to bottleneck, as frame rates at 1080p Low (234 FPS) are far above what any display typically refreshes, indicating the CPU has significant headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a 16-core, 22-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts to 5.00 GHz, with a 28 W TDP that allows it to fit into thin-and-light laptops while still delivering solid performance. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB L1 per core, 2 MB L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The highest frame rate recorded is 234 FPS at 1080p Low, which is well above typical display refresh rates and indicates the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output even at low graphics settings. The fact that frame rates scale evenly with resolution and settings suggests the CPU is not introducing a bottleneck at any configuration tested.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores of 14551 multi-core and 1759 single-core, along with a PassMark single-thread score of 3509, show strong per-core performance that is sufficient for this game's engine. The game, released in 2016, likely does not utilize more than a few threads effectively, so the 22 threads available are more than adequate. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 34083, which is within 0.5% of its nearest rivals, confirm it is a capable mid-range mobile processor.

The Core Ultra 7 165H's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5, combined with 24 MB of L3 cache, ensures that data feeds to the GPU are not starved. In a game like The Technomancer with dense environments and physics, this bandwidth helps maintain consistent frame delivery. The CPU's PassMark physics score of 1806 and integer math score of 89415 indicate solid computational throughput, though these are not directly correlated with gaming performance.

The data shows that in this combo, the CPU is never the limiting factor. Even at 4K Ultra with 43 FPS, the GPU is clearly the constraint, as reducing resolution to 1080p at the same settings more than doubles the frame rate to 120 FPS. The CPU's performance headroom means that users could potentially pair it with a less powerful GPU without seeing a significant drop in frame rates at higher resolutions, though at 1080p the GPU is still doing most of the heavy lifting.