Barony

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is an unusual pairing in Barony, a roguelike where the CPU often dictates the ceiling. The data shows this combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all settings, but the performance scaling pattern reveals a clear bottleneck shift as resolution increases. At 1080p, the system produces output that rivals much more expensive setups, while at 4K, the GPU takes over and still maintains smooth gameplay. This analysis breaks down where this combo excels, where it falls short, and what the numbers mean for a builder deciding if this pairing makes sense.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The system produces 378.4 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, which is a substantial margin above the 271.2 FPS seen at Ultra settings at the same resolution.

Q: How much does the frame rate drop when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 378.4 at 1080p to 123.7 at 3840x2160, representing a reduction of 254.7 FPS or roughly a 67% decrease in performance.

Q: Which component is the primary limiter at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system hits 282.7 FPS. Given that the RTX 4080 SUPER is ranked in the 88th percentile of all GPUs and the Ryzen 5 5500 is in the 79th percentile of CPUs, the data suggests the CPU is beginning to cap performance at this resolution and settings level.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER have enough VRAM for Barony at 4K?

A: Yes, the GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Barony's 4K Ultra setting produces 92.7 FPS, indicating the memory subsystem handles the load without becoming a limiting factor.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations in Barony?

A: This specific CPU and GPU pairing ranks 147th out of 1702 tested combos, placing it in the top 9% of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival, the RX 6900 XT?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT's score of 53489. In practical terms, this translates to a negligible performance difference between the two cards.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the clear performance driver in this pairing, particularly at higher resolutions. Its specifications are substantial: 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines running on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. The memory subsystem is equally robust with 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. These specs translate to a Passmark G3D score of 34245, placing the card in the 88th percentile of all GPUs.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 570.1 FPS, but this is likely constrained by the CPU's ability to feed the graphics card. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully engaged, producing 92.7 FPS. The performance difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 101.7 FPS, showing that the graphics card has significant headroom even in the most demanding scenarios. The card's 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate provide ample raw power for Barony's procedurally generated environments, which can vary significantly in geometric complexity.

The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are not heavily utilized in a roguelike title like Barony, but they contribute to the card's overall capability. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 confirms that the card excels at modern API workloads. Interestingly, the nearest rival in terms of average score is the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, which trails by only 0.2%, but the RTX 4080 SUPER's superior ray tracing and DLSS features make it a more future-proof choice despite the similar raw performance numbers.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a classic CPU-bound scenario at lower resolutions transitioning to GPU-bound at 4K. At High settings, the system delivers 378.4 FPS at 1080p, drops to 241.7 FPS at 1440p, and falls to 123.7 FPS at 4K. This scaling pattern shows a 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 49% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The steep drop at 4K indicates the GPU is now the limiting factor, as the RTX 4080 SUPER's rendering load increases quadratically with pixel count.

The Low settings data tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the system hits 570.1 FPS, which is suspiciously close to the 378.7 FPS at 1440p Low—a 34% drop. At 4K Low, it drops to 194.4 FPS. The fact that 1080p Low fails to exceed 600 FPS suggests the Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread performance is capping the output, as the GPU has plenty of headroom at this low settings level. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 836 and Passmark single-thread score of 3058 support this interpretation.

The medium settings curve shows diminishing returns as resolution increases. From 442.7 FPS at 1080p to 282.7 FPS at 1440p (36% drop) and 148.1 FPS at 4K (48% drop from 1440p). This pattern reinforces that the CPU handles the lower resolutions well, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K regardless of settings. The Ultra settings produce the most balanced scaling: 271.2 FPS at 1080p, 174.8 FPS at 1440p, and 92.7 FPS at 4K, with each step representing a roughly 35-47% reduction.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce 570.1 FPS, Medium hits 442.7 FPS, High reaches 378.4 FPS, and Ultra still maintains 271.2 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 298.9 FPS, indicating that the CPU is able to feed the GPU effectively even at the highest settings, though the gap suggests some CPU limitation at the lower settings where the GPU is less stressed.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers remain impressive but show the expected scaling. Low settings yield 378.7 FPS, Medium produces 282.7 FPS, High delivers 241.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 174.8 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is 33.6% at Low settings, but only 35.5% at Ultra settings, showing that the GPU is becoming more of a factor at the higher resolution. The 1440p Ultra result of 174.8 FPS is still well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still playable but demands more from the GPU. Low settings produce 194.4 FPS, Medium hits 148.1 FPS, High achieves 123.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 92.7 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 92.7 FPS is just below the 100 FPS threshold that many gamers consider ideal, but still comfortably above 60 FPS. The scaling from Medium to Ultra at 4K shows a 55.4 FPS difference, highlighting the GPU's workload at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 147th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 8.6% of all configurations. This rank is notable because the CPU is a budget-oriented processor while the GPU is a high-end offering. The data suggests that Barony is not particularly demanding on the GPU at lower resolutions, allowing this pairing to outperform many combinations with more balanced component selections.

The rank reflects the system's ability to maintain high frame rates across all settings and resolutions. At 1080p, the system produces frame rates that would be competitive with much more expensive CPUs, as the RTX 4080 SUPER's raw power compensates for the Ryzen 5 5500's modest single-thread performance. The 4K results, while lower, still place this combo well above the median performer, as the 92.7 FPS at Ultra settings exceeds what many systems achieve at this resolution.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 5500's average benchmark score of 20875 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-12500's 20897 (0.1% difference) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE's 20900 (0.1% difference). This consistency in CPU performance helps explain why this combo ranks where it does—the CPU provides a stable baseline while the GPU handles the heavy lifting at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for Barony's gameplay. The CPU's Passmark multithread score of 19330 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429 indicate solid multi-threaded performance, while its single-thread score of 3058 in Passmark and 2319 in Cinebench R23 show adequate but not exceptional single-core capability.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p with lower settings. The fact that the system cannot exceed 570.1 FPS even at Low settings suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1645 and 4-thread score of 3151 demonstrate that the processor handles light workloads well, but the 8-thread score of 4593 and max-thread score of 5411 show diminishing returns as more threads are utilized. Barony's roguelike nature, with its turn-based combat and procedural generation, tends to favor single-thread performance.

The CPU's 65W TDP and 7nm process node from TSMC make it an efficient choice, but its performance ceiling is clearly lower than the GPU's capability. At 4K, the CPU's influence diminishes significantly, as the GPU becomes the bottleneck. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system produces 92.7 FPS, which is likely close to the GPU's maximum output rather than being constrained by the CPU. The Ryzen 5 5500's 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that it is a mid-range performer, but in this pairing, it serves as an adequate partner for the RTX 4080 SUPER at higher resolutions.