The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, presents a demanding workload for older hardware. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580, using only the provided benchmark data to assess its capabilities across resolutions and settings.

FAQ

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

A: This combo ranks 2583rd out of 2825 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom tier of systems for this game.

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 76 FPS, which is the highest average FPS recorded for this pairing.

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

A: No. At 3840x2160, even on Low settings, the average FPS drops to 27. On High settings, it falls to 18 FPS, which is below playable thresholds.

Q: How does the GPU's performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RX 580's average benchmark score is 12928, which is 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile and 0.4% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER.

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p on Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the average FPS is 58. At 2560x1440 Medium, it drops to 38 FPS, a reduction of 20 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU have a high benchmark percentile compared to other processors?

A: Yes, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a high-end processor that is unlikely to be the primary bottleneck.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the primary graphics processor in this configuration. It is built on the 14 nm Polaris 20 chip and features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 1257 MHz, with a boost clock of 1340 MHz, and its memory operates at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). The card's computed performance includes a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s, with an FP32 throughput of 6.175 TFLOPS.

In the context of The Technomancer's measured results, the GPU's capabilities are the defining factor for performance. The data shows a clear ceiling for this card. At 4K, the GPU is overwhelmed, producing an average of 14 FPS on Ultra settings and only 27 FPS on Low. This indicates that the RX 580's raw fill-rate and shading power are insufficient for the resolution’s pixel count. The GPU's 8 GB VRAM buffer is not the limiting factor here; rather, it is the compute power of the Polaris 20 chip itself.

The GPU's performance percentile stands at 53rd among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 12928 places it in a competitive bracket with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, which scores 12986. The data suggests that the RX 580 is a mid-range card that was designed for 1080p gaming. The measured FPS in The Technomancer confirms this, with playable scores only appearing at 1920x1080. The GPU's role in this combo is to be the definitive performance limiter, especially as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience is found at 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 76 FPS. This is the only configuration that approaches a high-refresh-rate experience. For a more visually detailed image, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a balance, with an average of 58 FPS and a minimum of 50 FPS, which remains fluid for most gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the data suggests that Low settings are the only viable option for a smooth experience, producing an average of 50 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution drops to 38 FPS, which may be less desirable for action-oriented gameplay. High settings at 1440p produce 33 FPS, and Ultra falls to 25 FPS, both of which are not recommended.

For 4K, no settings preset provides a playable frame rate. The highest average is 27 FPS on Low, which is below the standard for smooth motion. The data strongly indicates that this resolution should be avoided for this game with this GPU. The best experience, therefore, is to prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, sticking to 1080p and the Low or Medium presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 2583rd out of 2825 tested combos in The Technomancer. This places it in the 9th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms only a small fraction of configurations. This low ranking is not due to the CPU, which is a top-tier processor, but is a direct consequence of the GPU's mid-range standing.

The CPU, with an average benchmark score of 84003, is in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which scores 83807 (0.2% lower), and the AMD EPYC 4584PX, which scores 83090 (1.1% lower). The GPU, in contrast, has an average benchmark score of 12928 and sits in the 53rd percentile. This massive discrepancy in relative performance between the two components means the GPU is the definitive bottleneck in almost every scenario.

The combo's rank in-game is a reflection of this imbalance. While the CPU can easily feed the GPU with data, the RX 580 cannot translate that into high frame rates in a demanding title like The Technomancer. The data shows that this pairing is heavily constrained by the graphics card, and its overall ranking reflects that limitation. The system's performance is effectively capped by the GPU's capabilities, regardless of the CPU's immense processing power.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus serves as the system's central processor. It is a 24-core, 24-thread part based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. The CPU features a large cache hierarchy, including 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory bandwidth is rated at 115.2 GB/s via a dual-channel DDR5 interface.

In the context of The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to provide a stable platform for the GPU. Its benchmark scores are exceptionally high, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and a single-core score of 7303. The Passmark single-thread score of 4823 and multi-thread score of 60860 further demonstrate its high processing capability. Given these figures, the CPU is unlikely to be a limiting factor in this game's performance.

The data indicates that the CPU is more than capable of handling the game's logic and physics. With a 96th percentile ranking, it vastly outperforms the GPU. In this combo, the CPU is effectively waiting on the GPU to render frames. The measured FPS across all settings and resolutions is far below what the CPU could theoretically support, confirming that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is not the source of the performance bottleneck. Its high core count and clock speeds ensure that it will not introduce frame pacing issues or stutter, even when the GPU is struggling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed view of the system's performance across three resolutions and four quality presets.

At 1920x1080, the system performs at its best. The Low preset achieves an average of 76 FPS. The High preset produces an average of 50 FPS. The Medium preset yields an average of 58 FPS, with a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 67 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, resulting in an average of 39 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, there is a significant performance drop. The Low preset averages 50 FPS. The High preset averages 33 FPS. The Medium preset averages 38 FPS, with a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 44 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 25 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system is unable to maintain playable frame rates. The Low preset averages only 27 FPS. The Medium preset averages 21 FPS, with a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 24 FPS. The High preset averages 18 FPS. The Ultra preset produces a mere 14 FPS.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: as resolution increases, frame rates fall sharply. The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens at higher resolutions. For instance, at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 37 FPS (76 vs 39). At 1440p, the difference is 25 FPS (50 vs 25). At 4K, the difference narrows to 13 FPS (27 vs 14), suggesting that the GPU is so constrained by resolution that the settings have less of an impact on the final frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a clear and steep decline as resolution scales from 1080p to 4K. On Low settings, the average FPS drops from 76 at 1920x1080 to 50 at 2560x1440, and then to 27 at 3840x2160. This represents a 34% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 64% drop from 1080p to 4K.

This pattern is indicative of a GPU-bound scenario. The resolution scaling directly impacts the number of pixels the GPU must render. The RX 580's fixed shading units, texture units, and ROPs are overwhelmed by the increasing pixel count. The data shows that the GPU's performance does not scale linearly with resolution; the drop from 1440p to 4K is proportionally larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p, which is a common sign of a GPU reaching its memory bandwidth or fill-rate limits.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain relatively constant across resolutions, as lowering resolution would not relieve a CPU constraint. Instead, we see that reducing resolution from 4K to 1080p nearly triples the frame rate on Low settings (27 to 76 FPS). This large increase in performance proves that the CPU is capable of delivering far more frames than the GPU can render. The data conclusively shows that the AMD Radeon RX 580 is the sole limiting factor in this configuration, and its performance ceiling is the reason this combo ranks so low in the game.