The Technomancer

The Technomancer, an Action RPG from 2016, presents a unique performance profile on the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile combination. The benchmark data reveals a configuration that is exceptionally strong at lower resolutions but begins to show its limits as pixel count climbs. This analysis breaks down the measured frames per second to provide clear settings guidance and to explain where the bottleneck lies in this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this hardware combination in The Technomancer shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, all settings are highly playable, but the jump from High to Ultra is substantial: High produces an average of 140 FPS, while Ultra drops to 109 FPS. The Medium preset sits in between at 164 FPS, and Low reaches 214 FPS. For the smoothest experience on a high-refresh display, Low at 1080p is the only setting that pushes past the 200 FPS mark, though High offers a better balance of visual fidelity and speed for most users, sacrificing only 74 FPS compared to Low.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance curve steepens. High yields a solid 92 FPS, while Medium is close behind at 107 FPS. The Ultra preset, however, falls to 72 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 21.7% drop from High. Low at this resolution is the standout, hitting 140 FPS, which matches the 1080p High setting. For a 1440p monitor, High is the recommended preset, as it maintains a frame rate well above 60 FPS and provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium without the performance penalty of Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the data shows that the RTX 4080 Mobile begins to strain. High drops to 50 FPS, Medium to 59 FPS, and Ultra to 39 FPS. Low is the only preset that remains comfortably above 60 FPS, averaging 77 FPS. For 4K gaming, Low is the only viable option for consistent smoothness, but users with variable refresh rate displays might find Medium acceptable, as its average of 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS is within the range of adaptive sync technology. The jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 9 FPS, which is a significant 15.3% reduction for a modest visual gain.

The best experience per the measured rows depends on the target resolution. At 1080p, High is the sweet spot for visual quality and speed. At 1440p, High remains the best choice, offering a near-perfect balance. At 4K, Low is the only setting that guarantees a high frame rate, making it the recommended preset for competitive play, while Medium serves as a compromise for those prioritizing visuals.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is the primary driver of frame rates in The Technomancer, and its specifications explain the performance patterns observed. This GPU is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 7424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s, which is plentiful for a 2016 title but becomes a factor at higher resolutions.

The GPU's clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 1290 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 24.72 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power, allow the card to brute-force its way through older game engines. In The Technomancer, the RTX 4080 Mobile's raw power is evident at 1080p, where it achieves 214 FPS on Low and 140 FPS on High. The data suggests that at these settings, the GPU is not fully saturated, as the frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution decreases.

However, the GPU's role shifts at 4K. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is not exhausted, but the memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s becomes a limiting factor. The frame rate at 4K High (50 FPS) is only 35.7% of the 1080p High score (140 FPS), indicating a significant scaling penalty. This is characteristic of a GPU that is working harder to fill pixels, but the performance drop is more severe than the 2.25x pixel count increase suggests, pointing to bandwidth constraints rather than compute limits. The benchmark results show the RTX 4080 Mobile is in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 38135 places it just 0.4% behind the GeForce MX570 and 0.6% behind the RTX 5080 Mobile, though 1.3% ahead of the desktop RTX 4070.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. On the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 214 FPS at 1080p to 140 FPS at 1440p, a 34.6% reduction, and then to 77 FPS at 4K, a further 45% reduction from the 1440p score. This indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions on Low, as the frame rate is inversely proportional to the pixel count.

On the High preset, the scaling is similar but with steeper drops. The transition from 1080p (140 FPS) to 1440p (92 FPS) results in a 34.3% decrease, and from 1440p to 4K (50 FPS) there is a 45.7% decrease. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets suggests that the game's engine is scaling as expected with resolution, and the RTX 4080 Mobile is consistently the limiting component. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock, does not appear to be holding the GPU back, as the frame rates continue to climb at lower resolutions where CPU overhead would be more apparent.

The most telling indicator of the GPU bottleneck is the performance gap between 1080p and 4K on the Ultra preset. At 1080p, Ultra averages 109 FPS, but at 4K, it drops to 39 FPS. This is a 64.2% reduction, which is larger than the pixel count increase. This non-linear drop indicates that the GPU's memory subsystem and shading units are overwhelmed by the 4K workload. The data shows that the RTX 4080 Mobile can handle 1080p and 1440p with ease, but 4K requires significant settings reductions to maintain playable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The data shows a full range of playable settings. On Low, the average FPS is 214, providing an exceptionally smooth experience. Medium averages 164 FPS, with a minimum of 139 FPS and a maximum of 189 FPS, indicating a stable frame time. High drops to an average of 140 FPS, which is still excellent for most displays. Ultra averages 109 FPS, which is the lowest at this resolution but remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

2560x1440: The performance at 1440p shows a similar hierarchy. Low averages 140 FPS, matching the 1080p High score. Medium averages 107 FPS, with a minimum of 91 FPS and a maximum of 123 FPS, showing a wider variance than at 1080p. High averages 92 FPS, a solid score for high-refresh 1440p monitors. Ultra averages 72 FPS, which is the first preset to dip below the 100 FPS mark, but it remains comfortably playable.

3840x2160: At 4K, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low averages 77 FPS, which is the only setting that stays above 60 FPS. Medium averages 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS, making it a borderline choice for fixed refresh displays. High averages 50 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. Ultra averages 39 FPS, which is the lowest score recorded and is only suitable for slower, more cinematic play.

The data set is complete for Medium settings across all resolutions, showing a consistent pattern of 164 FPS, 107 FPS, and 59 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. This suggests that the Medium preset is the most balanced for this hardware, but High offers a better visual experience at 1440p without a major frame rate penalty.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this hardware?

A: The data shows that High at 1080p averages 140 FPS, which is an excellent balance of visual quality and performance. While Low reaches 214 FPS and Medium hits 164 FPS, High provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium for only a 24 FPS loss. Ultra is also playable at 109 FPS, but the 31 FPS drop from High is not worth the marginal visual improvement.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. The data shows that at 4K, only the Low preset (77 FPS) maintains an average above 60 FPS. Medium averages 59 FPS, which is close but may experience dips to 50 FPS. High (50 FPS) and Ultra (39 FPS) are below the 60 FPS threshold and are not recommended for competitive play. Users should stick to Low or Medium for 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 Mobile compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 Mobile's average benchmark score is 38135. The data shows it is 0.4% behind the GeForce MX570 (score 38299) and 0.6% behind the RTX 5080 Mobile (score 38349). Conversely, it is 1.3% ahead of both the RTX 4070 (score 37648) and the Tesla P4 (score 37628). This places it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. At 1440p, the High preset averages 92 FPS, and Low averages 140 FPS. The fact that frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes suggests the CPU, with its high boost clock of 5.10 GHz, is not a bottleneck. If the CPU were the limit, the frame rates would not increase as dramatically when lowering settings.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Medium and High presets at 1440p?

A: The measured data shows that Medium at 1440p averages 107 FPS, while High averages 92 FPS. This is a difference of 15 FPS, or 14.0% slower on High. The minimum FPS also drops from 91 on Medium to 73 on High, indicating less stable frame pacing on the higher preset.

Q: Does the CPU's core and thread count impact the game's performance?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has 16 cores and 16 threads. The benchmark data suggests this is more than sufficient for The Technomancer. The CPU's average benchmark score of 44466 places it in the 88th percentile, and it is only 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (score 44573) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i9-13950HX (score 44342). This headroom means the game's performance is dictated by the GPU, not the CPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 3 nm process node. Its base clock is 2.10 GHz, which can boost up to 5.10 GHz, and it features 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This CPU is a mobile part with a 25 W TDP, designed for laptops, and its memory support is LPDDR5X on a dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 153.6 GB/s.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data, and the benchmark results indicate it performs this task admirably. The game, released in 2016, is not known for being CPU-intensive, and the Ultra X9 388H's high boost clock of 5.10 GHz ensures that single-threaded performance is not a limitation. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score is 2200.5, and its multi-core score is 18911, which are strong numbers for a mobile processor.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or setting. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 214 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that would tax most CPUs. The fact that the Ultra X9 388H can sustain this level of performance indicates it has ample headroom. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4280 and multithread score of 36811 further confirm its capability. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-13950HX, show a delta of only 0.3%, meaning the Ultra X9 388H is effectively on par with top-tier desktop-class mobile processors from the previous generation.

The CPU's 16 cores and 16 threads are more than adequate for this title, and its 18 MB of L3 cache helps with game asset streaming. The benchmark data shows that the CPU's performance is consistent, and it does not introduce frame rate dips in the measured data, as the minimum FPS values for Medium settings (139 at 1080p, 91 at 1440p, and 50 at 4K) are all proportional to their averages. This stability confirms the CPU's ability to keep up with the GPU, making it a non-factor in the overall gaming experience for this specific title.