The Technomancer

# The Technomancer with Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + AMD Radeon RX 9070

The Technomancer is an Action RPG from 2016 that still poses a meaningful challenge to modern hardware at higher settings. This particular pairing—Intel's Core Ultra 7 265 and AMD's Radeon RX 9070—produces a mixed bag of results depending on resolution and preset. At 1080p, the system is clearly CPU-bound at lower settings, pushing past 200 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to just 40 FPS average, indicating the GPU is the primary limiter in that scenario. The data suggests a well-balanced system for high-refresh 1440p gaming, but one that requires careful settings management for 4K play.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU+GPU combo in The Technomancer?

A: The combination ranks 815 out of 2,825 total tested combos for this game, placing it in the upper third of all systems tested.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 7 265 has an average benchmark score of 64,640. It is 0.3% slower than the AMD EPYC 4464P (64,823), 0.3% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (64,438), and 0.7% faster than the AMD EPYC 7343 (64,202). The AMD EPYC 9124 leads the group at 65,104, which is 0.7% ahead.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other graphics cards in the benchmark database?

A: The Radeon RX 9070 sits in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,877. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, scores 24,170 (1.2% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 6800S scores 24,063 (0.8% higher). The RX 9070 edges out the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (23,736) by 0.6% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (23,628) by 1.1%.

Q: What is the best 1440p preset for this system in The Technomancer?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 110 FPS average with a minimum of 94 FPS and a maximum of 127 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while still offering improved visual quality over the Low preset's 143 FPS average.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Technomancer?

A: Yes, but with compromises. At 3840x2160, the High preset yields a 52 FPS average, which is playable. The Medium preset achieves 60 FPS average (with a 51 FPS minimum), while Ultra drops to 40 FPS and Low reaches 79 FPS.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and is it sufficient for this game?

A: The Radeon RX 9070 features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth. For a game from 2016 like The Technomancer, this is far more than adequate at any resolution tested here.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It packs 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. The GPU's clock behavior shows a base clock of 1330 MHz, a game clock of 2070 MHz, and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The memory runs at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective), feeding the 16 GB frame buffer through a 256-bit interface.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities include 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 raster operations pipelines. It also features 56 ray tracing cores. The texture rate is 564.5 GTexel/s, and the pixel rate is 322.6 GPixel/s. Floating-point performance is rated at 36.13 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio). The card draws up to 220 W TDP and requires a 550 W suggested power supply.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the system hits 219 FPS, which is far beyond what the game's engine likely needs, suggesting the GPU is not the bottleneck there. However, at 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 40, a 77% drop from the 1080p Low figure. This indicates that the RX 9070 is being fully utilized at higher resolutions and presets, and its 16 GB VRAM ensures there are no memory capacity limitations even at 4K.

The benchmark scores for the RX 9070 show a Passmark G3D score of 25,381, which places it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6,290, while Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores are 131,539 and 58,705, respectively. The Passmark DirectX 11 score of 281 and DirectX 12 score of 74 provide some indication of how different API paths might perform, though The Technomancer's age means it likely relies on older DirectX paths.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p High, the system produces 144 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High, that drops to 94 FPS—a 34.7% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 52 FPS, which is another 44.7% drop from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor as resolution increases.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling is even more dramatic. The 1080p Low result of 219 FPS drops to 143 FPS at 1440p (a 34.7% decrease), then to 79 FPS at 4K (a 44.8% decrease). These percentage drops are nearly identical to the High preset, suggesting the GPU's workload scales consistently with pixel count regardless of settings.

The Medium preset tells a similar story: 169 FPS at 1080p, 110 FPS at 1440p (34.9% lower), and 60 FPS at 4K (45.5% lower). The consistency of these drops—roughly 35% from 1080p to 1440p and another 45% from 1440p to 4K—points to a GPU-bound scenario at all Medium settings across resolutions.

Ultra settings show slightly different scaling: 112 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p (34.8% lower), and 40 FPS at 4K (45.2% lower). The pattern holds. At every preset, the relative performance drop from resolution scaling is nearly identical, which strongly suggests the CPU is not becoming a bottleneck as resolution rises—the GPU's pixel throughput is what governs these FPS numbers.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset achieves 219 FPS average, which is more than enough for any high-refresh-rate monitor. Medium produces 169 FPS average with a minimum of 143 FPS and maximum of 194 FPS. High reaches 144 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 112 FPS average. All four presets at 1080p exceed 100 FPS, meaning the game feels fluid regardless of settings.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's workload. Low delivers 143 FPS average, Medium yields 110 FPS average (with 94 FPS minimum and 127 FPS maximum), and High produces 94 FPS average. Ultra falls to 73 FPS average. The Medium preset's 94 FPS minimum means even the heaviest scenes stay well above 60 FPS, making this a sweet spot for 1440p gaming.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly working hard. Low achieves 79 FPS average, which is respectable for 4K. Medium hits 60 FPS average with a 51 FPS minimum and 70 FPS maximum—the minimum dipping below 60 suggests occasional stutter in busy scenes. High produces 52 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 40 FPS average. For 4K play, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and playability, though users with adaptive sync displays might tolerate the High preset's 52 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture (Arrow Lake-S) built on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 through a dual-channel interface with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 7 265 shows strong multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 42,216, while the single-core score is 5,960. Cinebench R20 results are 6,268 multi-core and 884 single-core, and Cinebench R15 shows 4,255 multi-core and 600 single-core. Passmark results include a multi-thread score of 49,682 and a single-thread score of 4,689.

The processor's single-thread performance is particularly relevant for The Technomancer, a game from 2016 that likely does not scale well across many cores. The Passmark single-thread score of 4,689 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5,960 indicate excellent per-core performance, which helps maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions where the CPU is more involved.

The CPU's role in this game is most visible at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 219 FPS. This high frame rate, combined with the fact that resolution scaling at higher presets produces nearly identical percentage drops, suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU adequately at 1080p. The Core Ultra 7 265's 5.30 GHz boost clock and modern architecture provide enough single-thread headroom to avoid becoming the primary bottleneck, even at these elevated frame rates.

The CPU holds a 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64,640. Its nearest rivals are all server-class processors, which underscores its strong performance in both single and multi-threaded workloads. The 20 cores and 20 threads (no hyperthreading) provide ample parallelism for modern games, though The Technomancer's age means it likely uses only a fraction of these resources.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p displays, the data suggests using the Ultra preset. At 112 FPS average, it provides excellent visual quality while still maintaining frame rates well above 60 FPS. Users with 144 Hz monitors might prefer High at 144 FPS, but the Ultra preset's 112 FPS is still smooth and offers the best image quality the game can provide.

For 1440p gaming, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. At 110 FPS average with a 94 FPS minimum, it delivers a consistently smooth experience that takes full advantage of 100+ Hz displays. The High preset at 94 FPS average is also viable, but the Medium preset's higher minimum (94 vs. 94, with Medium showing a 127 FPS maximum) provides more headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset at 73 FPS average is playable but leaves less margin.

For 4K resolution, the Medium preset is the best choice. It achieves exactly 60 FPS average with a 51 FPS minimum, which is acceptable for most players. The High preset at 52 FPS average is close behind and might be preferable for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate consistency. The Low preset at 79 FPS is the fastest option, but its visual quality reduction is substantial given the jump from Low to Medium is only 19 FPS (79 to 60). The Ultra preset at 40 FPS average is not recommended for 4K, as the frame pacing at that level would likely feel sluggish.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset provides the most consistent experience in terms of frame time stability, as it is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum values in the data. This suggests the developers tuned this setting level to avoid the extreme frame rate swings seen at other presets, making it the safest choice for a smooth gameplay experience.