The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, shows a wide performance spread across settings and resolutions on the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile platform. The data suggests a system capable of high refresh rates at 1080p, with compromises required as resolution climbs to 4K. The measured frames per second (FPS) reveal a clear hierarchy among the four tested presets, each with distinct implications for frame pacing and visual fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combination points to Medium as the most balanced preset for most users. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 176 FPS, which is 26 FPS higher than High (150 FPS) and only 53 FPS lower than Low (229 FPS). The minimum FPS recorded at Medium is 150, matching the average of the High preset, suggesting a more consistent frame delivery under load. This makes Medium the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate displays at 1080p, providing a significant performance buffer over High without the visual degradation of Low.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves optimal, achieving an average of 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 FPS. This is a 17 FPS improvement over High (98 FPS) and maintains a frame rate above 100 FPS, which is generally considered smooth for action role-playing games. The jump to Ultra at this resolution yields 77 FPS, a playable but less fluid experience, making Medium the clear choice for maintaining high motion clarity.

For 3840x2160 (4K), the data reveals that High is the most viable preset for a quality experience. The High preset produces an average of 54 FPS, which is a 12 FPS improvement over Ultra (42 FPS). While the Medium preset at 4K offers a higher average of 63 FPS, it also shows a minimum FPS of 54, identical to the High preset’s average, indicating potential for stutter in demanding scenes. High provides a more stable baseline for 4K gameplay, sacrificing some average FPS for better consistency, whereas Ultra should be avoided due to its sub-60 FPS average.

The Low preset is not recommended for this configuration. While it offers the highest frame rates at every resolution (229 FPS, 150 FPS, and 82 FPS at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively), its visual quality is likely to be a significant downgrade for a game from 2016, and the performance headroom is unnecessary given the capability of the hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread processor with a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its architecture, Arrow Lake-HX, is built on a 3 nm process, and it features 36 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU scores 35589 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2204 in single-core, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The data indicates that this processor is not a bottleneck for The Technomancer at any tested setting or resolution.

The evidence for this is in the scaling of FPS with resolution. At 1080p, the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as evidenced by the massive drop in FPS when moving from Low (229 FPS) to Ultra (117 FPS) settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively constant regardless of graphics settings. Instead, we see a 112 FPS difference between the lowest and highest presets at 1080p, which clearly demonstrates a GPU-bound scenario.

As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU load intensifies, and the average FPS drops significantly across all settings. The CPU's multi-threaded performance, which is 0.3% behind the Intel Xeon w5-3525 and 0.5% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4484PX in average benchmark score, ensures that it can feed the GPU with data even at 4K Ultra. The single-core performance, which is crucial for game logic and draw calls, is more than adequate given the high FPS numbers at 1080p. The processor’s high boost clock and substantial cache are key to this performance, ensuring that frame times remain consistent even when the GPU is working at maximum capacity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in The Technomancer?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides an excellent balance of visual quality and performance, yielding an average of 115 FPS and a minimum of 98 FPS. While 1920x1080 offers higher frame rates (up to 229 FPS on Low), 1440p is a more appropriate target for this hardware, providing a significant visual upgrade with only a moderate FPS cost.

Q: How does the Low preset affect performance at 4K compared to Ultra?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves an average of 82 FPS, which is nearly double the 42 FPS average of the Ultra preset. This 40 FPS difference demonstrates the extreme GPU load at 4K and shows that lowering settings has a dramatic effect on playability at this resolution.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever playable with this hardware?

A: The Ultra preset is only viable at 1920x1080, where it achieves an average of 117 FPS. At 2560x1440, it drops to 77 FPS, and at 3840x2160, it falls to 42 FPS, which is below the standard 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Therefore, Ultra is only recommended for 1080p displays.

Q: How does the minimum FPS compare between the Medium and High presets at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 reports a minimum FPS of 98, which is identical to the average FPS of the High preset at the same resolution. This indicates that the Medium preset provides a more stable frame delivery, with its worst-case performance matching the average performance of the High preset.

Q: Does this system show signs of CPU bottlenecking at any resolution?

A: No, the benchmark results do not indicate CPU bottlenecking. The frame rates scale consistently with both resolution and graphics settings. The significant FPS differences between Low and Ultra presets at all resolutions, especially the 112 FPS gap at 1080p, confirm that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is the limiting component. The CPU’s 24 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock are sufficient to keep up with the GPU’s output.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the Low and High presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 229 FPS, while the High preset achieves 150 FPS. This is a difference of 79 FPS, highlighting that even at the mainstream resolution, graphics settings have a substantial impact on performance with this high-end mobile hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is ranked 992nd out of 3696 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places the system in the top 27% of all tested configurations, indicating a strong performance tier. The rank reflects the combined processing power of the CPU and GPU, with the data suggesting that this pairing is well-matched for the game’s engine.

The CPU’s individual benchmark percentile is 94, which is very high, and its average benchmark score is 67469, with its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon w5-3525, scoring 67673 (a 0.3% difference). The GPU’s percentile is 81, with an average benchmark score of 38349, placing it close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile, which scores 38135 (a 0.6% difference). This suggests that the combo’s ranking is influenced by the GPU being slightly less exceptional relative to other GPUs than the CPU is relative to other CPUs. The combo’s rank of 992 out of 3696 implies that a substantial number of other, likely more powerful, desktop or high-end mobile configurations achieve higher frame rates in this title. However, for a mobile platform, this ranking demonstrates a high level of capability.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling across resolutions is a classic demonstration of GPU-bound behavior. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 and then to 3840x2160, the pixel count increases dramatically, which directly impacts the GPU’s workload. The data shows a consistent and predictable drop in frame rates across all settings as resolution increases.

For the High preset, the average FPS drops from 150 at 1080p to 98 at 1440p, a 35% decrease, and then to 54 at 4K, a further 45% decrease from 1440p. The Low preset follows a similar pattern, dropping from 229 FPS at 1080p to 150 FPS at 1440p and finally to 82 FPS at 4K. This scaling pattern is typical for a GPU-heavy title, where the rendering resolution has a direct correlation with performance.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this scaling. The frame rate drops are proportional to the increase in pixel count, which is a hallmark of a GPU bottleneck. If the CPU were the constraint, the frame rates would plateau at higher resolutions, but the continuous decline suggests the RTX 5080 Mobile is being pushed harder at each step. The 4K Ultra result of 42 FPS, which is below 60, shows the absolute limit of this GPU in this game at maximum settings, while the 4K Low result of 82 FPS demonstrates the headroom available when visual fidelity is not a priority.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a clear tiering of performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 229 FPS. The Medium preset delivers an average of 176 FPS, with a minimum of 150 FPS and a maximum of 202 FPS. The High preset follows with an average of 150 FPS. The Ultra preset yields the lowest average at 117 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra is 112 FPS, showing the significant impact of settings at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down. The Low preset maintains a high average of 150 FPS. The Medium preset achieves an average of 115 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 98 FPS and a maximum of 132 FPS. The High preset delivers an average of 98 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 77 FPS. The 1440p results show that 60+ FPS is achievable even on the Ultra preset, making this resolution a viable target for high-quality gaming.

At 3840x2160, the performance demands are highest. The Low preset is the only one to maintain a high refresh rate, achieving an average of 82 FPS. The Medium preset delivers an average of 63 FPS, with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 73 FPS. The High preset achieves an average of 54 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding an average of 42 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K gaming requires careful settings management, with only the Low preset providing a significant frame rate cushion. The Medium preset’s minimum of 54 FPS suggests it can dip below the 60 FPS target, whereas High provides a more stable, albeit lower, average.