The Technomancer

The Technomancer pairing the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 lands at rank 2336 out of 2825 tested combos for this game. That places it in the bottom half of the field, around the 17th percentile of all CPU and GPU pairings tested. This is a combination where a very modern, high-end processor is strapped to a GPU from the same era as the game itself, and the ranking reflects that the graphics card is the limiting factor in almost every scenario. The data shows a system that can deliver playable frame rates at 1080p, but struggles to maintain smooth performance at higher resolutions, which is typical of a GPU-bound pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 2336 out of 2825 tested configurations places it firmly in the lower third of all pairings tested for The Technomancer. This is a low position, but the context is important: the ranking is dominated by the GPU’s performance ceiling, not the CPU’s capabilities. The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a top-tier processor, sitting in the 96th percentile against all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 84003. In contrast, the GTX 1070 sits in the 47th percentile against all GPUs with an average score of 9780. When you pair a 96th percentile CPU with a 47th percentile GPU, the overall combo ranking will inevitably be dragged down to the GPU’s level in a game like this.

The delta between this CPU and its nearest rivals is minimal. The Core Ultra 9 285K scores 83807, which is 0.2% lower. The AMD EPYC 4584PX and EPYC 9135 score 83090 and 82980 respectively, which are 1.1% and 1.2% lower. The only rival ahead is the AMD EPYC 7F72 with a score of 85072, which is 1.3% higher. These differences are negligible for gaming. The CPU is not the bottleneck here. The GPU’s nearest rivals tell a similar story of mediocrity: the AMD FirePro W5000 scores 9803 (-0.2%), the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scores 9832 (-0.5%), and the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scores 9724 (+0.6%). The GTX 1070 is right in the middle of a pack of workstation and older cards, which explains why it does not push this combo higher in the rankings.

For a game released in 2016, the data indicates that this combo is acceptable for 1080p gaming but falls short of what you would want for 1440p or 4K. The rank suggests that most other tested combinations—likely those with more balanced or more powerful GPUs—will deliver a better experience in The Technomancer.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the defining component in this pairing. It features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1506 MHz and boosts up to 1683 MHz. Memory runs at 2002 MHz, which translates to 8 Gbps effective. This is a Pascal architecture card built on a 16 nm process at TSMC, with 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs.

In The Technomancer, the data shows the GPU is the primary constraint. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 117 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 60 FPS. This is a 49% reduction in frame rate from Low to Ultra at the same resolution, which points directly at the GPU struggling with the increased graphical load. The card’s 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for this game’s textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the raw compute power of the GP104 chip is not enough to maintain high frame rates at Ultra settings.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 9780 places it just below the 50th percentile, and its nearest rival delta percentages are all under 1%, indicating that it is sitting in a dense cluster of similarly performing cards. In practical terms for this game, the GTX 1070 delivers playable performance at 1080p Medium (90 FPS) and High (77 FPS), but the Ultra preset is exactly at 60 FPS, which is the minimum for many players. At 1440p, the card falls below 60 FPS on High (50 FPS) and Ultra (39 FPS), making those settings less viable for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 117 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, it drops to 76 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 42 FPS. That is a 64% drop in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at the same settings. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is being pushed harder at each resolution step, while the CPU has more than enough headroom to feed the frames.

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at High settings shows a drop from 77 FPS to 50 FPS, which is a 35% reduction. From 1440p High to 4K High, the drop is from 50 FPS to 27 FPS, a 46% reduction. The pattern is consistent: the higher the resolution, the more the GTX 1070 becomes the limiting factor. At 1080p, the CPU’s power is still able to shine, with frame rates above 60 FPS on all settings except Ultra, which hits exactly 60 FPS. At 1440p, only Low (76 FPS) and Medium (59 FPS) remain playable. At 4K, every setting falls below 45 FPS, with Ultra at 21 FPS being effectively unplayable.

This scaling behavior confirms that the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is not the bottleneck. If the CPU were the constraint, we would see frame rates plateau across resolutions, but instead the FPS drops consistently as resolution increases. The data suggests that for this game, 1080p is the sweet spot for this GPU, with 1440p being a compromise, and 4K being out of reach for smooth gameplay.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Technomancer at 60 FPS on 1080p Ultra?

A: Yes, the measured average FPS for 1080p Ultra is exactly 60 FPS. This means it can hit the standard 60 FPS target, but there is no headroom above it, so any demanding scene could cause drops below that threshold.

Q: What is the best resolution to play at with this setup?

A: The data shows 1080p is the most practical resolution. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 90, and at High it is 77, both well above 60 FPS. At 1440p, only Low (76 FPS) and Medium (59 FPS) are near or above 60 FPS, while High drops to 50 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more responsible for the performance in this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting component. The CPU sits in the 96th percentile with an average benchmark score of 84003, while the GPU sits in the 47th percentile with a score of 9780. The FPS drops significantly as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 9780. Its closest rival, the AMD FirePro W5000, scores 9803, which is 0.2% higher. The NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scores 9832 (0.5% higher), while the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scores 9724 (0.6% lower) and the Tesla C2070 scores 9716 (0.7% lower). All are within 1% of each other.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with this combo?

A: At 4K, the highest average FPS is 42 on Low settings. Medium drops to 32 FPS, High to 27 FPS, and Ultra to 21 FPS. These are all below 60 FPS and are generally considered not smooth for action gameplay.

Q: Does the CPU’s high core count help in this game?

A: The CPU has 24 cores and 24 threads, but The Technomancer is a game from 2016 that is not likely to utilize all of them. The benchmark data shows the CPU is not the bottleneck, as frame rates scale with resolution, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU’s strength is better used in other applications.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 117 FPS. Medium settings drop to 90 FPS, with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS. High settings yield 77 FPS on average. Ultra settings produce exactly 60 FPS on average. This is the only resolution where all settings are at or above 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low settings average 76 FPS. Medium settings average 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS. High settings average 50 FPS. Ultra settings average 39 FPS. For a 60 FPS target, only Low settings are reliably above it, with Medium being just below.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is overwhelmed. Low settings average 42 FPS. Medium settings average 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. High settings average 27 FPS. Ultra settings average 21 FPS. None of these are close to 60 FPS, and even Low settings are below 45 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each step up in settings at a given resolution costs roughly 15-25% of the frame rate, and each step up in resolution at a given setting costs roughly 35-45% of the frame rate. The only anomalies are the 1080p Ultra result, which lands at exactly 60 FPS, and the 1080p Low result, which is the only one above 100 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake Refresh codename, built on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3. This is a massively powerful processor, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and a single-core score of 7303. Its average benchmark score of 84003 places it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs.

In The Technomancer, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The data suggests it does this effortlessly. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the combo achieves 117 FPS. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would see this number cap out regardless of resolution or settings. Instead, we see the FPS drop as resolution increases, which is the opposite of a CPU bottleneck. The CPU’s high single-core performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303) is likely sufficient for this game’s engine, which was released in 2016 and would not be able to fully utilize 24 cores.

The CPU’s nearest rivals are all within 1.3% of its average score, with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K just 0.2% behind and the AMD EPYC 7F72 1.3% ahead. These differences are noise for gaming. The takeaway is that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo for The Technomancer. The GTX 1070 is the clear performance cap, and any FPS improvements would require a GPU upgrade, not a CPU one. The CPU’s capabilities are wasted in this pairing for this specific game, as it could easily drive a much more powerful graphics card.