Barony

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 144th out of 2,935 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 5% of all tested systems. This is a strong result, but the data indicates that the pairing is heavily GPU-bound, with the RTX 5090 D delivering frame rates that far exceed what the Ryzen 5 3600 can meaningfully support at lower resolutions. The measured frame rates show a clear pattern: at 1080p and 1440p, the system produces massive FPS numbers that are likely limited by the CPU's single-thread performance, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, and the FPS drops to more balanced levels.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's 144th place ranking out of 2,935 tested combos is a strong showing for a system built around a 2019-era CPU and a 2025-era GPU. The data shows that this pairing is not optimal in the traditional sense—the GPU is far more capable than the CPU—but the ranking reflects that the system still delivers playable-to-excellent performance across all measured settings. The rank of 144 indicates that only 143 other combinations of CPUs and GPUs tested in this database produce higher average frame rates in Barony. Given the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU's 71st percentile, this result is slightly below what the GPU alone might suggest, confirming that the CPU is indeed a limiting factor in some scenarios.

The Ryzen 5 3600's nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database are the Intel Core i7-1260P (0.2% faster), the AMD EPYC 7742 (0.2% faster), the Intel Core i5-11400 (0.2% slower), and the AMD EPYC 7573X (0.2% slower). These extremely small delta percentages show that the Ryzen 5 3600 sits in a tightly clustered performance band, meaning that swapping to any of these near-identical CPUs would produce virtually indistinguishable results in Barony. The GPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% slower), NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (2.1% slower), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (2.4% slower), show a slightly wider spread, but still place the RTX 5090 D in a narrow performance tier. This suggests that the 144th rank is not a fluke but a consistent result reflective of the hardware's capabilities.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this combo, and the measured FPS data makes this clear. At 4K Ultra, the GPU produces 109 FPS average, while at 1080p Low it reaches 477 FPS average. This massive scaling demonstrates that the GPU has enormous headroom. The card features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is overkill for Barony, a roguelike that does not demand high VRAM capacities, but it ensures that memory bandwidth is never a bottleneck. The GPU's base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and it offers 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. It scores 44,065 in Passmark G3D and 28,396 in Passmark GPU compute, with a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 77,712 places it in the same performance class as the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants, though the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB VRAM and Blackwell architecture give it advantages in other workloads. In Barony specifically, the GPU's 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores are likely underutilized, as the game's roguelike genre does not typically leverage such features heavily. The measured FPS at 4K High (152 FPS average) versus 4K Low (239 FPS average) shows a 57% performance increase when lowering settings, indicating that the GPU's raw rasterization power is the primary driver of these results.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Barony with this combo?

A: The data shows 1440p provides the best balance of high frame rates and visual quality. At 1440p High, the combo averages 292 FPS, which is above the 240Hz refresh rate of most high-end monitors, while 4K High averages 152 FPS, still very playable but lower. At 1080p, the system exceeds 400 FPS in most settings, which is beyond the refresh rate of nearly all displays, making the extra performance imperceptible.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 3600 compare to its nearest CPU rivals in this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600's nearest rivals are all within 0.2% of its average benchmark score. The Intel Core i7-1260P and AMD EPYC 7742 are 0.2% faster, while the Intel Core i5-11400 and AMD EPYC 7573X are 0.2% slower. In Barony, these differences would translate to less than one frame per second, meaning the choice between these CPUs is irrelevant for this game.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB VRAM necessary for Barony?

A: No. Barony is a roguelike from 2015 and does not require large VRAM allocations. The 32 GB GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is far more than this game needs. The VRAM capacity has no measurable impact on the FPS results; the GPU's raw compute power is what drives performance.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures for the Medium settings?

A: The measured data includes minimum FPS only for the Medium settings. At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 151 with an average of 178. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 289 with an average of 340. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 364 with an average of 428. These minimums are all well above 60 FPS, indicating smooth performance even in demanding scenes.

Q: How does the combo's ranking compare to its component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 144th out of 2,935, which is in the top 4.9% of all tested systems. The GPU ranks in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 71st percentile among all CPUs. The combo's ranking is higher than the CPU's percentile alone would suggest, but lower than the GPU's percentile, reflecting the CPU's role as the limiting factor in some scenarios.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution?

A: At 4K, Low averages 239 FPS and Ultra averages 109 FPS, a 54% reduction. At 1440p, Low averages 409 FPS and Ultra averages 209 FPS, a 49% reduction. At 1080p, Low averages 477 FPS and Ultra averages 331 FPS, a 31% reduction. The gap narrows as resolution decreases, showing that the GPU has more headroom at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings. At 4K, the High preset (152 FPS average) offers the best experience—it is 43 FPS faster than Ultra (109 FPS) while still providing excellent visual quality. At 1440p, High (292 FPS) is again the recommended choice, as it delivers over 290 FPS while Ultra (209 FPS) provides diminishing returns for the extra GPU load. At 1080p, the situation changes: Ultra (331 FPS) is the best option because even at the highest settings, the frame rate is far above any display's refresh rate, and the difference between Low (477 FPS) and Ultra (331 FPS) is not perceptible on standard monitors.

The Medium settings are not recommended at any resolution, as they provide only marginal improvements over High (178 FPS vs 152 FPS at 4K) but with no visual benefit significant enough to justify the loss in quality. The data shows that the High preset offers the best balance of frame rate and visual fidelity across all three resolutions. For competitive play where maximum frame rate is desired, the Low preset at 1440p (409 FPS) provides the highest smoothness without sacrificing too much visual clarity, but for the vast majority of players, High is the clear winner.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160 (4K), the combo delivers: High settings average 152 FPS, Low settings average 239 FPS, Medium settings average 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS and maximum of 204 FPS, and Ultra settings average 109 FPS. The scaling from Ultra to Low represents a 219% increase in frame rate, demonstrating that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution. The Medium settings show the only recorded minimum FPS data, suggesting that this setting produces the most consistent frame pacing.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the results are: High settings average 292 FPS, Low settings average 409 FPS, Medium settings average 340 FPS with a minimum of 289 FPS and maximum of 391 FPS, and Ultra settings average 209 FPS. The jump from 4K to 1440p is substantial, with High settings improving from 152 FPS to 292 FPS, a 92% increase. This indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, and reducing resolution to 1440p unlocks significantly more performance.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the results are: High settings average 406 FPS, Low settings average 477 FPS, Medium settings average 428 FPS with a minimum of 364 FPS and maximum of 492 FPS, and Ultra settings average 331 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 1080p is much smaller than from 4K to 1440p, with High settings improving only from 292 FPS to 406 FPS, a 39% increase. This diminished scaling suggests that the CPU is starting to become a limiting factor at 1080p, as the GPU has more than enough power to render frames faster than the CPU can feed it.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 3000 series, based on the Zen 2 architecture (Matisse) on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance: it scores 15,045 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6,318 in Cinebench R20 multi-core. However, its single-thread performance is more modest, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,124 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1,536. This single-thread performance is crucial for Barony, a roguelike that likely relies heavily on a single game thread for logic and entity updates.

The measured FPS data reveals that the CPU becomes the bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (477 FPS) and Ultra (331 FPS) is only 146 FPS, whereas at 4K, the difference between Low (239 FPS) and Ultra (109 FPS) is 130 FPS. The fact that 1080p Low does not exceed 500 FPS, despite the GPU's enormous capability, suggests that the CPU's single-thread limit is around 500 FPS in this game. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 2,562 and 3DMark single-thread score of 696 support this, showing that it is a mid-range performer by modern standards, ranking in the 71st percentile among all CPUs.

The CPU's 3DMark scores show a strong scaling from 2 threads (1,361) to 16 threads (4,605), indicating good multi-threading capability. However, Barony's performance is more dependent on single-thread speed, and the CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 696 is the weakest link in the combo. The CPU's nearest rivals, all within 0.2% in average benchmark score, would perform nearly identically in this game, meaning that upgrading the CPU to any of these alternatives would yield negligible FPS improvements. The data confirms that the RTX 5090 D is massively overqualified for this pairing at 1080p, and users seeking maximum frame rates should consider a higher-clocked CPU or accept that the system is GPU-limited at 4K and CPU-limited at 1080p.