The Technomancer

The Technomancer pairs the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 in a combination that produces a wide spread of frame rates depending on resolution and quality settings. The measured data shows this is a system that can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming with high refresh rates, but 4K Ultra is a stretch too far. The RTX 5070 is the dominant factor in most scenarios, though the 165H’s 16 cores and 22 threads provide enough headroom to avoid becoming the bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, revealing a GPU-bound system at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 166 at 1920x1080 to 109 at 2560x1440, then to 60 at 3840x2160. That is a 34% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 45% drop from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is similar at High settings: 109 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K. The scaling suggests that the RTX 5070’s 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the GPU’s 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is simply not enough to maintain playable frame rates at higher presets.

The Medium preset shows the most complete data, with minimum and maximum FPS recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 128 FPS with a minimum of 108 and a maximum of 147. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 83 FPS, with a minimum of 71 and maximum of 96. At 4K Medium, the average is 46 FPS, with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 53. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (39) is identical to the average FPS at 4K High (39), which indicates that the Medium preset at 4K is right at the edge of what the GPU can sustain. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Medium is 45 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K Medium is 37 FPS, showing that the resolution scaling is not perfectly linear but consistently punishing.

Ultra settings are the most demanding, with 1080p Ultra producing 85 FPS average, 1440p Ultra dropping to 56 FPS, and 4K Ultra falling to 31 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is 34%, and from 1440p to 4K is 45%, mirroring the Low and High presets. This consistency suggests that the RTX 5070’s performance scaling is predictable across the resolution range, with no unexpected cliffs or bottlenecks. The limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU, as the CPU’s role diminishes at higher pixel counts. At 1080p, the CPU has more influence, but the data shows the RTX 5070 still leads the performance curve.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the Medium preset is the sweet spot at 1080p and 1440p. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average of 128 FPS is well above the 60 FPS threshold, and the minimum of 108 FPS ensures smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. At 2560x1440 Medium, the 83 FPS average is still excellent, and the 71 FPS minimum is playable for most users. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 38 FPS (from 166 to 128), which is a meaningful trade-off for better visuals. At 1440p, the cost is 26 FPS (from 109 to 83), which is more acceptable.

High settings are viable at 1080p and 1440p, but with caveats. At 1080p High, the 109 FPS average is strong, and at 1440p High, the 71 FPS average is still above 60. However, the drop from Medium to High at 1440p is 12 FPS, which might be noticeable in fast-paced combat. At 4K, High settings are not recommended, as the 39 FPS average falls below the playable threshold for most action RPGs. The Technomancer is an Action RPG, and the data suggests that consistent 60+ FPS is preferable to higher fidelity at 4K.

Ultra settings are only sensible at 1080p, where the 85 FPS average provides a good experience. At 1440p Ultra, the 56 FPS average is borderline, and at 4K Ultra, the 31 FPS average is a slideshow. For users with 1440p monitors, Medium or High is the practical choice. For 4K displays, only Low settings achieve a 60 FPS average, which is a significant visual compromise. The Medium preset at 4K (46 FPS) is the highest quality option that remains semi-playable, but it will require frame rate tolerance.

The data shows that the RTX 5070 is best utilized at 1080p and 1440p, where it can deliver high refresh rates at Medium or High settings. At 4K, the GPU’s limitations are exposed, and users should expect to use Low or Medium presets to maintain playable frame rates. The measured FPS values indicate that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, with 128 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 46 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database for The Technomancer, this specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 1535 out of 2825 tested combos. That places it in the 54th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 46% of combos perform better and 54% perform worse. This is a mid-pack ranking, which is somewhat surprising given the RTX 5070’s 82nd percentile standing among all GPUs and the 165H’s 84th percentile among all CPUs. The combination of two above-average components does not translate into a top-tier result in this specific game, likely due to the game’s age and optimization quirks.

The combo rank of 1535 out of 2825 suggests that The Technomancer is not particularly demanding on modern hardware, and many older or differently configured systems can match or exceed this performance. The RTX 5070’s nearest rivals in the broader GPU benchmark include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.1% higher average score), AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (0.8% lower), AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (1.2% lower), and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (2% lower). These are professional or mobile GPUs, not gaming-focused parts, which indicates that the RTX 5070’s raw compute is comparable to workstation cards in synthetic tests. However, in actual gaming, the RTX 5070’s architecture and drivers likely provide better real-world performance than those rivals.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (0.3% higher average score), AMD EPYC 4244P (0.4% lower), AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (0.4% lower), and AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (0.5% lower). The 165H’s average benchmark score of 34083 is nearly identical to these competitors, with deltas under 0.5%. This means the CPU is not providing any significant advantage or disadvantage in this combo; it is squarely average for its class. The combo rank of 1535 reflects this mediocrity, as the system does not stand out from the crowd in The Technomancer.

Compared to the top combos in the database, this system is likely held back by the game’s engine, which may not fully utilize the RTX 5070’s features or the 165H’s multi-core capabilities. The 1080p Low average of 166 FPS is respectable, but many combos with older, less powerful GPUs can exceed that in this title. The rank suggests that users should not expect top-tier performance in The Technomancer, even with this modern hardware. The data indicates that the combo is more than capable for other games, but for this specific title, the rank is mid-pack.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS values show a clear hierarchy across settings. Low settings produce an average of 166 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. Medium settings drop to 128 FPS average, with a minimum of 108 and maximum of 147. High settings yield 109 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 85 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra is 81 FPS, indicating that the RTX 5070 has significant headroom at 1080p. The minimum FPS at Medium (108) is higher than the average FPS at High (109), which suggests that the Medium preset provides more consistent performance than High.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are 109 (Low), 83 (Medium), 71 (High), and 56 (Ultra). The Medium preset again shows the only recorded minimum and maximum values, with 71 and 96 respectively. The drop from Low to Medium is 26 FPS, from Medium to High is 12 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 15 FPS. The scaling between presets is not uniform, with the largest jump occurring between Low and Medium. At 1440p, the 71 FPS average at High is the lowest that remains above 60 FPS, making it a viable option for users who prioritize visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 60 FPS (Low), 46 FPS (Medium), 39 FPS (High), and 31 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset has a minimum of 39 and maximum of 53, which shows significant frame time variance. The Low preset at 4K achieves exactly 60 FPS average, which is the minimum for smooth gameplay. The High and Ultra presets at 4K are not playable, with averages of 39 and 31 respectively. The data shows that 4K is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the margin is slim.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 108 FPS and maximum of 147 FPS indicate a 39 FPS variance. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 96 FPS show a 25 FPS variance. At 4K Medium, the minimum of 39 FPS and maximum of 53 FPS reveal a 14 FPS variance. The variance decreases as resolution increases, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios. At 1080p, the CPU may cause occasional frame dips, while at 4K, the GPU is consistently maxed out, reducing variance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary driver of performance in this combo, especially at higher resolutions. With 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, the GPU delivers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as evidenced by the high frame rates at those resolutions. At 4K, the 12 GB capacity is not the limiting factor, as the game’s textures likely fit within that allocation. Instead, the GPU’s compute power is the bottleneck, with 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance proving insufficient for 4K Ultra in this title.

The RTX 5070’s boost clock of 2512 MHz and base clock of 2325 MHz are typical for a modern GPU. The 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation pipelines provide the raw throughput needed for rasterization. The 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores are present, though The Technomancer, released in 2016, likely does not use ray tracing or DLSS, making those features irrelevant for this game. The GPU’s 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and average benchmark score of 40377 indicate strong overall performance, but the nearest rivals are professional cards like the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.1% higher) and AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (0.8% lower), suggesting that the RTX 5070’s gaming-specific advantages are not fully captured in synthetic tests.

In this game, the GPU’s role is dominant at 4K. The 39 FPS average at 4K High and 31 FPS at 4K Ultra show that the RTX 5070 cannot handle the pixel count at high quality settings. The 60 FPS at 4K Low is the only playable option, and it requires a significant reduction in visual fidelity. At 1440p and 1080p, the GPU has ample headroom, with 1440p Ultra producing 56 FPS and 1080p Ultra producing 85 FPS. The data suggests that the RTX 5070 is a capable 1440p card and an excellent 1080p card, but it is not a 4K high-refresh solution for this game.

The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s is a key factor in its performance. At 1080p, the bandwidth is not fully utilized, allowing for high frame rates. At 4K, the bandwidth demand increases, but the GPU’s compute limits are reached first. The 192-bit bus width and 12 GB capacity are adequate for this game’s requirements, as no out-of-memory issues are indicated in the measured data. The RTX 5070’s 250 W TDP and dual-slot design are standard for this class of GPU, though power consumption is not directly reflected in the FPS numbers.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H provides the processing foundation for this combo, with 16 cores and 22 threads. The base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz offer strong single-thread performance, which is important for game logic and physics. The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, and the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures data can flow to the GPU without bottlenecking. The CPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs and average benchmark score of 34083 place it in the upper tier of processors.

In The Technomancer, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops across settings. At 1080p, the CPU has more influence, but the data shows that the RTX 5070 still leads performance. The 1080p Low average of 166 FPS suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU at high frame rates, but the 81 FPS spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p indicates that the GPU is still the main constraint. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS across settings at a given resolution, which is not the case.

The 165H’s nearest CPU rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (0.3% higher average score), AMD EPYC 4244P (0.4% lower), AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (0.4% lower), and AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (0.5% lower). These deltas are negligible, meaning the CPU is not providing any unique advantage in this combo. The 165H’s 16 cores and 22 threads are more than sufficient for a game from 2016, which likely uses only a few cores. The single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1759, is adequate for maintaining high frame rates, but it does not boost the combo above its mid-pack ranking.

The CPU’s 28 W TDP is low for a mobile processor, but the 165H is designed for laptops, so the power draw is constrained. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG 128EU graphics are not relevant when the RTX 5070 is present, but they could provide a fallback for tasks that do not require the discrete GPU. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 8 lanes is sufficient for the RTX 5070, which uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 bus interface, though the CPU’s 8 lanes may limit bandwidth in some scenarios. The measured FPS data does not show any CPU-related stuttering or frame pacing issues, as the minimum FPS values at Medium settings are reasonable.

In summary, the CPU’s role is to keep the GPU fed at 1080p and 1440p, and it succeeds. The 165H does not bottleneck the RTX 5070 in this game, but it also does not enhance the combo’s ranking. The mid-pack combo rank of 1535 out of 2825 is more reflective of the GPU’s performance in this specific title than the CPU’s capabilities. For users considering this combo, the CPU is a solid partner that will not hold back the GPU in The Technomancer, but the overall experience is dictated by the RTX 5070’s limits at higher resolutions.