The Technomancer

The Technomancer, a 2016 Action RPG, is not a demanding title by modern standards, yet how this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti handles it reveals a clear performance hierarchy driven by resolution and settings. The measured data provides a complete picture of framerate scaling from 1080p up to 4K, showing exactly where this combination excels and where it begins to strain.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all quality presets, which points directly to the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases. At 1080p High, the combo produces an average of 179 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 117 FPS, a reduction of 62 frames. At 4K High, the average falls further to 64 FPS. This trajectory shows that the RTX 4070 Ti is being pushed harder at every step up in resolution, even though the CPU remains more than capable of feeding it frames.

The scaling from Low to Ultra settings at each resolution reinforces this. At 1080p Low, the system hits an average of 273 FPS, which is an extremely high ceiling. At 1080p Ultra, it still manages 140 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 133 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU has headroom to spare at this resolution. At 1440p, the Low preset yields 178 FPS, while Ultra drops to 91 FPS. The margin here is 87 FPS, showing the GPU is working harder but still delivering smooth gameplay on the highest settings.

At 4K, the picture changes dramatically. Low preset produces 98 FPS, Medium produces 75 FPS, and High drops to 64 FPS. Ultra is the only setting that falls below 60 FPS, with an average of 50 FPS. The scaling from 4K Low to 4K Ultra is a 48 FPS difference, which is a much tighter band than at lower resolutions. This compression indicates that at 4K, the GPU is saturated, and the framerate is limited by raw pixel throughput rather than the complexity of the scene settings. The data suggests that 4K Ultra is the breaking point for this hardware combo in this game, while 1440p and below offer plenty of performance for high-refresh-rate displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark data places this specific combination at rank 307 out of 2825 tested combos for The Technomancer. This puts it in the top 11% of all systems tested, which is a strong result for a game that is nearly a decade old. The rank reflects the balance between the high-end CPU and the upper-midrange GPU, and the measured FPS confirms that this pairing is more than sufficient for a smooth experience at most settings.

The CPU itself sits in the 96th percentile when compared to all processors in the database, and its average benchmark score is 84003. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83807, which is a 0.2% difference. This means the 290K Plus is effectively tied with the previous flagship in raw compute performance. The AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 83090, a 1.1% deficit, while the AMD EPYC 9135 scores 82980, a 1.2% deficit. The only rival with a higher score is the AMD EPYC 7F72 at 85072, which is 1.3% ahead. These are all server-class or high-end desktop parts, so the 290K Plus is in elite company.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4070 Ti sits in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44795. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile, which scores 45152, a 0.8% advantage. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 45384, which is 1.3% ahead, and the Intel Arc A730M scores 45592, a 1.7% lead. The NVIDIA RTX A6000 trails slightly with a score of 44075, which is 1.6% behind. The margins here are small, suggesting the 4070 Ti is a well-positioned card with performance comparable to a wide range of other products.

For The Technomancer specifically, the combo rank of 307 out of 2825 means there are 306 systems that outperform it, but there are 2518 systems that do not. This is a solid placement, especially considering the game’s age and the fact that many top-tier combinations would be overkill for it.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip and a 5 nm process. It has 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines. The memory configuration includes 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The base clock is 2310 MHz with a boost clock of 2610 MHz, and the memory runs at 1313 MHz, which translates to 21 Gbps effective.

In The Technomancer, the 12 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at any of the tested settings. The game is from 2016, so its texture requirements are modest compared to modern titles. Even at 4K Ultra, the framerate drops due to compute load rather than memory exhaustion. The data shows that the GPU’s raw throughput is what matters here, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p and 1440p.

The GPU’s pixel rate is 208.8 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 626.4 GTexel/s, which are figures that align with its performance in the measured results. The FP32 compute of 40.09 TFLOPS gives it plenty of power for a game like The Technomancer, which does not rely on heavy ray tracing or advanced effects. The card’s TDP is 285 W, and it requires a 600 W power supply, but those are power specifications rather than performance indicators.

The passmark G3D score for this GPU is 31624, and its DirectX 11 score is 288. These synthetic results support the observed framerates, showing that the card is well-suited for the DirectX 11 rendering path that a 2016 game would use. The RTX 4070 Ti is effectively overkill for this title at 1080p and 1440p, but it hits its limits at 4K Ultra, where it delivers an average of 50 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average framerate is 273 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, at 4K with Low, Medium, and High settings, the average framerates are 98, 75, and 64 FPS respectively. Only the Ultra preset falls below 60 FPS, with an average of 50 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus compare to its direct predecessor, the 285K?

A: The 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the 285K’s score of 83807. The performance difference is negligible.

Q: What is the GPU’s VRAM capacity and does it cause issues in this game?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. The measured results show no signs of VRAM limitations at any resolution or settings preset, as the game’s requirements are well within this capacity.

Q: What is the combo’s ranking relative to other systems tested in this game?

A: The combo ranks 307th out of 2825 tested combinations, placing it in the top 11% of all systems benchmarked for The Technomancer.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti perform against the RTX 5090 Mobile in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 44795, while the RTX 5090 Mobile scores 45152. The mobile card is 0.8% faster, which is a marginal difference.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture. 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 cache. This configuration provides substantial single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 scores of 7303 single-core and 51731 multi-core.

In The Technomancer, the CPU’s role is less critical than the GPU’s, as the game’s engine is not heavily threaded. The measured framerates at 1080p Low (273 FPS) and 1080p High (179 FPS) show that the CPU is not a bottleneck, as these numbers are high enough to be limited by the GPU’s rendering speed. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4823 and multithread score of 60860 indicate that it has more than enough processing power to handle the game’s logic and physics.

The high boost clock of 5.80 GHz is particularly beneficial for a game that relies on single-core performance, which is common for titles from this era. The CPU’s 96th percentile ranking among all processors confirms that it is one of the fastest available, and its nearest rivals are all within a 1.3% performance delta. This means that swapping to a different top-tier CPU would not yield a meaningful framerate improvement in The Technomancer, as the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The CPU’s memory support for DDR5 with a dual-channel bus and 115.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures that data can be fed to the GPU quickly, but again, this is not a bottleneck in this specific game. The 36 MB of L3 cache helps with repeated data access, which is beneficial for game logic. Overall, the CPU is far more powerful than what The Technomancer requires, and its performance is essentially a non-factor in the final framerate results.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best experience at each resolution. At 1080p, every preset delivers excellent framerates, with Low at 273 FPS, Medium at 210 FPS, High at 179 FPS, and Ultra at 140 FPS. Since even the Ultra preset exceeds 140 FPS, there is no reason to lower settings at this resolution. The Ultra preset offers the best visual quality while still maintaining a framerate that is well above what most monitors can display.

At 1440p, the choices are more nuanced. The Ultra preset delivers an average of 91 FPS, which is still smooth for most players. The High preset provides 117 FPS, which is a significant jump for a modest visual reduction. The Medium preset hits 137 FPS, and Low reaches 178 FPS. For players with a 144Hz monitor, the High preset at 117 FPS is a good balance, as it stays close to the refresh rate while maintaining high visual fidelity. For those prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Medium preset at 137 FPS is the better choice.

At 4K, the recommendations change based on the target framerate. The Ultra preset averages 50 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The High preset at 64 FPS is the sweet spot, as it stays above 60 FPS and provides most of the visual benefits. The Medium preset at 75 FPS is also a strong option if you want more headroom. The Low preset at 98 FPS is the best choice for a high-refresh-rate 4K display, but it sacrifices significant visual quality.

Given the game’s age and the hardware’s capabilities, the optimal experience is to play at 1440p with the Ultra preset, which delivers 91 FPS. This provides the best combination of visual fidelity and performance. If you prefer 4K, the High preset at 64 FPS is recommended, as it stays above the 60 FPS threshold. For 1080p, use the Ultra preset without hesitation, as it delivers 140 FPS and looks the best. The data shows that this combo is powerful enough to run The Technomancer at high settings on any resolution, but the Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS.