Barony

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers a highly playable experience in Barony, with performance scaling predictably from the CPU-bound lows of 1080p to the GPU-bound territory of 4K. The measured data shows a system that can easily handle high refresh rates at mainstream resolutions but will require settings adjustments to maintain smooth gameplay at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings presets, revealing a clear shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 261.8 FPS, which falls to 166.6 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 83.8 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 68% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K on Low, indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The scaling pattern is similar for the High preset: 168.6 FPS at 1080p drops to 107.2 FPS at 1440p and then to 55.5 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is roughly one-third of the 1080p performance, which is typical for a mid-range GPU like the RTX 2060 when pushed to higher resolutions. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, starting at 121.6 FPS at 1080p, falling to 77.8 FPS at 1440p, and bottoming out at 37.2 FPS at 4K.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases, which is expected. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 140.2 FPS, while at 4K it shrinks to 46.6 FPS. This narrowing suggests that at 4K, both presets are limited by the GPU's raw throughput rather than by settings-specific effects, whereas at 1080p there is enough headroom for the settings to make a larger relative impact.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K gaming, the data strongly favors the Low preset, which delivers 83.8 FPS — comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 64.9 FPS is also playable, but the High preset at 55.5 FPS dips below 60, and Ultra at 37.2 FPS is not suitable for smooth play. Given the large jump from Low to Medium (18.9 FPS), Low is the safe choice for 4K, while Medium is acceptable if visual quality is a priority.

At 1440p, the situation improves significantly. The High preset delivers 107.2 FPS, and Medium reaches 120.6 FPS, both excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. Ultra at 77.8 FPS remains playable, making 1440p the sweet spot for this combination. Players with 144Hz displays can use Medium or High, while those with 60Hz panels can comfortably run Ultra.

At 1080p, the system is rarely constrained. Even Ultra produces 121.6 FPS, which is sufficient for most displays. The Low preset at 261.8 FPS is overkill for any current monitor, so users should prioritize visual fidelity. The recommendation is to use High at 1080p for the best balance, as it provides 168.6 FPS while retaining most of the visual enhancements over Low.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Barony at 4K?*

A: Yes, but only with reduced settings. The Low preset achieves 83.8 FPS at 3840x2160, while Medium drops to 64.9 FPS. High and Ultra fall below 60 FPS, at 55.5 and 37.2 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best resolution for a 144Hz monitor?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 120.6 FPS and High reaches 107.2 FPS, both suitable for 144Hz displays. At 1080p, all presets exceed 121 FPS, with Low hitting 261.8 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 16074, placing it 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S (15996) and 1.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15786). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and AMD Radeon Pro 5700 by 1.7% (16351 each).

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a bottleneck for this game?

A: Given that the game appears GPU-bound at 4K (FPS scales with settings), the CPU is likely not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU's average benchmark score is 20875, with a 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 168.6 FPS at 1920x1080 with the High preset. This is well above the refresh rate of most monitors, providing headroom for consistent performance.

Q: How much does the Ultra preset cost in performance compared to High?

A: At 1080p, Ultra is 47 FPS slower than High (121.6 vs 168.6 FPS). At 1440p, the gap is 29.4 FPS (77.8 vs 107.2). At 4K, the gap narrows to 18.3 FPS (37.2 vs 55.5).

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 261.8 FPS
• Medium: 195.4 FPS
• High: 168.6 FPS
• Ultra: 121.6 FPS

The spread from Low to Ultra is 140.2 FPS, indicating that the CPU and GPU have ample headroom at this resolution. Even Ultra exceeds 120 FPS, making 1080p the most forgiving environment for this hardware.

2560x1440:

• Low: 166.6 FPS
• Medium: 120.6 FPS
• High: 107.2 FPS
• Ultra: 77.8 FPS

At 1440p, the frame rates remain strong, with Low still above 160 FPS and Ultra holding above 75 FPS. The 88.8 FPS difference between Low and Ultra shows that settings have a moderate impact here.

3840x2160:

• Low: 83.8 FPS
• Medium: 64.9 FPS
• High: 55.5 FPS
• Ultra: 37.2 FPS

The 4K results are the most demanding, with only Low and Medium clearing the 60 FPS mark. The 46.6 FPS gap between Low and Ultra is the smallest across resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1365 MHz with a boost clock of 1680 MHz, and it contains 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present but likely not heavily utilized in Barony, given its roguelike genre.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 14111 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 71278. In DirectX 12, the PassMark score is 53, while DirectX 11 yields 110, suggesting the game's engine may favor older APIs. The 4K performance drop from Low (83.8 FPS) to Ultra (37.2 FPS) indicates that the 6 GB VRAM and memory bandwidth are sufficient for the game's demands, as the frame rate scales with GPU compute load rather than hitting memory limits.

The RTX 2060's average benchmark score of 16074 places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, scores 15996 (0.5% slower), while the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 both score 16351 (1.7% faster). This mid-pack positioning explains why the GPU can handle 1440p well but struggles at 4K with higher presets.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne codename) on TSMC's 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with 16 MB of L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, providing 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 16429 in multicore and 2319 in single-core tests. The 3DMark results show a single-thread score of 836, scaling to 5386 with 16 threads, indicating good multi-threading scaling. The PassMark multithread score of 19330 and single-thread score of 3058 further characterize the CPU's capability.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 20875 places it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core i5-12500 with a score of 20897 (0.1% faster), while the AMD EPYC 7J13 scores 20845 (0.1% slower). The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU enough to reach 261.8 FPS on Low, suggesting it is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. However, the 4K results show the GPU taking over as the limiting factor, as the CPU's performance headroom becomes irrelevant when the GPU is saturated.