The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, places specific demands on modern hardware. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, based strictly on benchmark data. The results show a configuration that shifts from being GPU-limited at high resolutions to CPU-limited at lower ones, offering a clear picture of component scaling across a range of settings.

Resolution Scaling

The performance delta between 1080p and 4K is substantial and reveals the workload's nature. At 1080p with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 111 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops that to 72 FPS, and at 4K, the average falls to 40 FPS. This represents a 64% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, which is a steep curve that indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher pixel counts. The 4K Ultra preset further confirms this, yielding just 31 FPS, a figure that suggests the RTX 4070 is being pushed to its limits.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings. With Low settings, the frame rate drops from 169 FPS at 1080p to 110 FPS at 1440p and then to 61 FPS at 4K. This is a total reduction of 108 FPS, or 64%, from the lowest to the highest resolution. The fact that the percentage drop is nearly identical across Low and High settings is telling. It implies that the resolution is the dominant factor in performance, not the complexity of the scene or the settings themselves. The GPU's rendering pipeline is saturated by the sheer number of pixels at 4K, regardless of the visual fidelity level.

What is particularly interesting is the behavior at 1080p. The jump from High (111 FPS) to Low (169 FPS) is a 58 FPS increase. This is a larger absolute gain than the jump from 1440p High (72 FPS) to 1080p High (111 FPS), which is a 39 FPS increase. This suggests that at 1080p, the system is not purely GPU-bound. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 22 threads, has enough headroom to process the fewer pixels faster, but the RTX 4070's frame generation is still the limiting factor for the upper ceiling. The data points to a system where the CPU can feed the GPU more frames at lower resolutions, but the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity cap the maximum output.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, featuring 5888 shading units and 64 ROPs. Its memory configuration includes 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The GPU's boost clock is rated at 2475 MHz. These specifications are central to understanding the measured FPS. The 12 GB frame buffer appears sufficient for this title, even at 4K, as the benchmark runs did not report any memory-related stutters or failures, only performance degradation.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities, listed as 29.15 TFLOPS for FP32, are what drive the high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 130 FPS, and at 1440p Medium, it averages 85 FPS. These numbers indicate a strong performance level for a game from this era. However, the 4K results show the limits of this specific card. The 4K High average of 40 FPS and 4K Ultra average of 31 FPS are below the 60 FPS target that many users consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. The GPU's pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s is likely the constraining factor here, as the demands of 4K resolution require processing over eight million pixels per frame.

The RTX 4070's performance relative to its peers is noteworthy. Its average benchmark score of 37648 places it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. It sits very close to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, which has an average score of 37507, a delta of only 0.4%. It is also just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P4. This indicates that while the RTX 4070 is a capable card, it is not significantly faster than these older or different-class competitors in synthetic tests. In the context of The Technomancer's 4K results, this means the card is a solid performer, but not a 4K powerhouse.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance is found in the High preset. At 1440p, High settings deliver 72 FPS, which is playable and provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium. The Medium preset at the same resolution yields 85 FPS, a 13 FPS improvement, but the jump to High is a more substantial upgrade in visual effects. At 1080p, High settings produce 111 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, costs too much performance; it drops to 56 FPS at 1440p and 86 FPS at 1080p, which is a significant reduction for diminishing returns.

For users with a 4K display, the data suggests that High settings are the maximum viable option, with an average of 40 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K offers 47 FPS, which is a 7 FPS increase but comes with reduced visual fidelity. The Low preset at 4K gives 61 FPS, but the visual quality is likely to be too poor for most users. The Ultra preset at 4K is not recommended, as the 31 FPS average falls below playable thresholds for most. Therefore, the High preset is the sweet spot for this combination, offering the best experience per the measured rows. It provides the most balanced performance across all three resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 ranks 1497 out of 2825 tested combos for The Technomancer. This places it in the 47th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms a slight majority of the combinations in the database. This is a middling rank, which is somewhat surprising given the hardware's individual performance. The CPU is in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU is in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, yet their combined performance in this specific game does not push them higher.

This discrepancy suggests that The Technomancer's engine does not scale perfectly with this hardware. The rank of 1497 indicates that many other combinations, likely with older but higher-clock-speed desktop parts, perform better in this title. The CPU's performance, while strong in synthetic benchmarks, may not translate directly to this game's single-threaded or lightly-threaded workloads. The data shows that the combo is not a top-tier performer for this specific game, despite the components being individually well-regarded. The 2825 total combos tested means there is a wide variety of hardware, and this specific mobile CPU with a desktop-class GPU is a unique pairing that lands in the middle of the pack.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a mobile processor with 16 cores and 22 threads. Its base clock is 3.90 GHz and it boosts to 5.10 GHz. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and a single-core score of 1810.5. The Geekbench multi-core score is 11657, and the single-core score is 1794. These results place the CPU in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. However, its role in The Technomancer appears to be secondary to the GPU.

The evidence for this is in the 1080p Low setting, which achieves 169 FPS. This is a very high frame rate, indicating that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to sustain high output. The CPU's high single-core performance, evidenced by the Passmark single-thread score of 3697, is likely what allows for this. However, as the resolution increases, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and the CPU's contribution becomes less significant. The frame rate drops are consistent with GPU limitations, not CPU ones.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and dual-channel support are adequate for this game. Its architecture, Meteor Lake, is efficient, but the game's engine may not utilize all 16 cores effectively. The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios, except perhaps at the very lowest settings and resolutions where the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can issue draw calls. The 169 FPS at 1080p Low reflects the CPU's capability, but the game's performance ceiling is set by the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates provides a detailed view of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the combo starts at 86 FPS on Ultra, rises to 111 FPS on High, jumps to 130 FPS on Medium, and peaks at 169 FPS on Low. The Medium preset at this resolution has a minimum of 110 FPS and a maximum of 149 FPS, showing a 39 FPS variance, which is the most stable of all measured points.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are: Ultra at 56 FPS, High at 72 FPS, Medium at 85 FPS, and Low at 110 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS, a variance of 25 FPS. This is a tighter range than the 1080p Medium, suggesting that the GPU is becoming more consistently loaded. At 3840x2160, the results are: Ultra at 31 FPS, High at 40 FPS, Medium at 47 FPS, and Low at 61 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 53 FPS, a variance of 13 FPS, indicating that the GPU is fully saturated and frame times are more consistent.

The progression is logical. Each resolution step down halves the pixel count roughly, and the frame rates reflect that. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is significant, but the difference between 1440p and 4K is even more dramatic, with frame rates often dropping by more than 40%. The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates, while 4K is only playable on lower settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in The Technomancer?

A: The highest average FPS measured is 169, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 capable of handling 4K in this game?

A: The data shows that at 4K, the average FPS ranges from 31 on Ultra to 61 on Low. This indicates that 4K is only playable at lower settings, with High settings yielding 40 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H has an average benchmark score of 35670. It is 0.1% slower than the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 and 0.2% slower than the Intel Core 7 250H, but 0.4% faster than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 72 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 56 FPS. This is a 16 FPS difference, or a 22% reduction in performance for the higher preset.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and size?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top half of all tested systems?

A: Yes, the combo ranks 1497 out of 2825 tested combos, placing it in the top 53% of all tested systems for this game.