The Technomancer

# The Technomancer with Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a highly capable The Technomancer experience, ranking 414th out of 2,825 tested combos (top 15 percent). Across all measured resolutions, the combo maintains playable frame rates, with performance scaling that reveals a GPU-bound scenario at 4K and a CPU headroom that becomes evident only at 1080p. The data shows a clear pattern: this system excels at 1440p High and Ultra settings, where it balances visual fidelity with smooth motion, while 4K Ultra demands compromises that push the average below 50 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary limiting component as resolution increases. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 259 at 1920x1080 to 169 at 2560x1440, a 35 percent reduction, and then to 93 at 3840x2160, a further 45 percent drop. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that has ample headroom at lower resolutions but becomes increasingly constrained by pixel throughput as the resolution climbs.

At Medium settings, the same trend holds with averages of 199 FPS at 1080p, 130 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a minimum of 61 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS, showing that even at this more moderate preset, the GPU is working hard to maintain stability. High settings produce 170 FPS at 1080p, 111 FPS at 1440p, and 61 FPS at 4K, with the 4K average sitting right at the edge of smooth gameplay. Ultra settings, however, reveal the steepest drop: 133 FPS at 1080p falls to 87 FPS at 1440p and then to 48 FPS at 4K, a 64 percent reduction from the 1080p baseline.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling. At High settings, the drop from 111 to 61 FPS (45 percent) is nearly identical to the Low setting drop from 169 to 93 FPS (45 percent), suggesting a consistent pixel-bound workload. This uniformity indicates that the CPU is not introducing a variable bottleneck at these resolutions; the GPU's rendering throughput dictates the outcome. The fact that 4K Ultra barely reaches 48 FPS confirms that the RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for capacity but not for brute-force 4K Ultra rendering in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 414 out of 2,825 tested combinations places it solidly in the upper tier of systems, though not at the very top. This position is consistent with the individual component standings: the CPU sits at the 96th percentile among all processors, while the GPU ranks at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs. The disparity between these two percentile scores explains why the combo ranks slightly lower than the CPU alone might suggest — the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for The Technomancer's demands.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which scores 0.2 percent higher on average, and the AMD EPYC 4584PX at 1.1 percent higher. On the GPU side, the RTX 4070 SUPER's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (0.1 percent lower), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (0.1 percent lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (1 percent lower). These narrow deltas suggest that the combo's ranking is not driven by any single component's exceptional or deficient performance relative to its immediate peers, but rather by the balanced interaction of a top-tier CPU with a strong mid-to-high-range GPU.

In the context of The Technomancer specifically, this ranking means the system outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations. The data shows that the combo's 4K High average of 61 FPS and 1440p Ultra average of 87 FPS are competitive with systems that might cost more or feature newer components. However, the 4K Ultra result of 48 FPS indicates that the combo falls short of the very best configurations that can maintain 60 FPS at maximum settings in this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the decisive factor in this combo's gaming performance, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for The Technomancer at 1440p and 4K, though the 4K Ultra setting appears to stress this configuration. The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 7,168 shading units, delivers a measured FP32 throughput of 35.48 TFLOPS, which translates into the frame rates observed in the data.

The GPU's percentile rank of 83 among all GPUs places it above the majority of competing cards, but its nearest rivals show how tight the competition is. The Quadro M6000 24 GB scores nearly identically (0.1 percent lower), as does the RTX 5050 Mobile (0.1 percent lower), while the RTX 4090 Mobile is 1 percent lower. This clustering means that in The Technomancer, the RTX 4070 SUPER's performance is not uniquely strong but rather representative of a performance tier, with the 12 GB memory capacity being a differentiator against cards with less VRAM.

The GPU's thermal and power profile, with a 220 W TDP and dual-slot design, allows for sustained boost clocks during extended gaming sessions, which is reflected in the stable averages across settings. The memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) contributes to the bandwidth that enables the smooth 1440p results. At 1080p, the GPU is clearly not the limiting factor — the 259 FPS Low average suggests that the CPU or game engine's frame rate cap may come into play, but the data does not indicate any such cap being hit at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K gaming, the data strongly recommends Medium settings as the optimal balance. The 71 FPS average with a 61 FPS minimum provides a playable experience that avoids the frame rate dips seen at High (61 FPS average) and the sub-60 FPS drop at Ultra (48 FPS average). The jump from Low (93 FPS) to Medium (71 FPS) costs 22 FPS but likely delivers substantially better visual quality, making Medium the clear choice for 4K.

At 1440p, Ultra settings are the best recommendation, as the 87 FPS average comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The step down to High (111 FPS) offers a 28 percent improvement but sacrifices the visual fidelity that Ultra provides, and given the headroom, there is no need to compromise. For players who prioritize maximum frame rates, Low at 169 FPS is an option, but the data suggests that Ultra at 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo.

At 1080p, the recommendation is more nuanced. Ultra settings deliver 133 FPS, which is already well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors, while High (170 FPS) and Medium (199 FPS) offer diminishing returns. The data indicates that 1080p Ultra is the best experience, as the GPU has more than enough headroom to handle maximum settings without dropping below 133 FPS. Low settings at 259 FPS are essentially unnecessary unless the goal is to maximize frame rates for competitive play, which is not typical for an Action RPG like The Technomancer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates show a wide spread across settings. Low settings produce an average of 259 FPS, the highest recorded for this resolution. Medium settings reduce the average to 199 FPS, with a minimum of 169 FPS and a maximum of 229 FPS, indicating consistent performance. High settings yield 170 FPS average, while Ultra settings drop to 133 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 49 percent reduction in average FPS, but even the lowest value remains highly playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 169 FPS at Low, 130 FPS at Medium (with a minimum of 111 FPS and maximum of 150 FPS), 111 FPS at High, and 87 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is roughly 35-37 percent, showing a consistent penalty for the increased pixel count. The 1440p Ultra result of 87 FPS is particularly notable, as it demonstrates that the combo can handle maximum settings at this resolution without dropping below 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the data shows 93 FPS at Low, 71 FPS at Medium (with a minimum of 61 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS), 61 FPS at High, and 48 FPS at Ultra. The 4K Low result is strong, but the Medium and High results are where the GPU's limits become apparent. The 4K Ultra result of 48 FPS is the only measured average below 60 FPS across all settings and resolutions, confirming that this setting exceeds the RTX 4070 SUPER's comfortable range for this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus plays a supporting role in this combo, providing ample headroom that prevents CPU bottlenecks at all but the lowest settings and resolutions. With 24 cores and 24 threads, a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache, the CPU's capabilities far exceed what The Technomancer demands. The CPU's average benchmark score of 84,003 places it at the 96th percentile, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2 percent higher) and AMD EPYC 4584PX (1.1 percent higher), showing that it sits at the top of the desktop processor hierarchy.

The CPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks underscores its strength: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and single-core score of 7,303, along with a PassMark multi-thread score of 60,860. These numbers indicate that the CPU can handle any game engine workload, including the physics and AI calculations typical of an Action RPG. The 125 W TDP and 3 nm process node from TSMC contribute to efficient operation, though the CPU's 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die suggest a dense design that runs warm under load.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role becomes evident when comparing frame rates across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 259 FPS average is likely approaching the CPU's limit for this game, as the GPU has significant headroom at this low resolution and settings combination. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and the CPU's performance is more than sufficient to feed the RTX 4070 SUPER without causing frame rate drops. The memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support ensure that data transfer between CPU and GPU is not a limiting factor, even at the higher frame rates seen at 1080p.