Barony

# Barony with AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 delivers a strong showing in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015 that remains surprisingly demanding at higher settings. With measured frame rates spanning from 302 FPS at 1080p Low down to 46 FPS at 4K Ultra, this combination demonstrates a clear performance ceiling that shifts depending on resolution and quality preset. The data shows a system that can handle competitive frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, while 4K requires careful settings management to stay fluid.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across resolutions tells a clear story about where this combo's strengths lie. At 1080p High, the system produces 193 FPS, which jumps to 122 FPS at 1440p High and then drops sharply to 64 FPS at 4K High. That represents a 36.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 47.5% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, and the 4K penalty is substantial.

Looking at Low settings, the pattern intensifies. The system hits 302 FPS at 1080p Low, falls to 191 FPS at 1440p Low, and bottoms out at 100 FPS at 4K Low. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 36.8%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 47.6%. These percentages are nearly identical to the High preset, suggesting that resolution scaling in Barony follows a consistent pattern regardless of quality level.

Medium settings show a similar trend with slightly lower absolute numbers: 225 FPS at 1080p, 142 FPS at 1440p, and 74 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset includes measured minimum and maximum frame rates, which provide additional context. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 63 FPS and the maximum is 85 FPS, indicating that even the dips stay above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Medium, the spread is 120 to 163 FPS, and at 1080p Medium, it is 191 to 258 FPS.

Ultra settings reveal the most demanding scenario. The system produces 138 FPS at 1080p Ultra, 87 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and only 46 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold, and it does so by a meaningful margin. The 1080p-to-1440p drop on Ultra is 37%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 47.1%.

The resolution scaling data indicates that the RTX 5050 becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases. The consistent ~37% and ~47% drops across all presets suggest that pixel throughput, not CPU processing, is driving the performance decline at higher resolutions. The Ryzen 5 5500 has enough headroom at 1080p to push frame rates above 300 FPS on Low, but the GPU cannot maintain that pace when pixel counts increase.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, with a die size of 149 mm² containing 16,900 million transistors. It operates with a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, with memory running at 2500 MHz or 20 Gbps effective. The 8 GB GDDR6 memory sits on a 128-bit bus, providing 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the card at the 66th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It delivers 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which matches its FP16 output at a 1:1 ratio. The pixel rate is 82.30 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 205.8 GTexel/s. The card also includes 20 ray tracing cores and 80 tensor cores, though Barony's roguelike rendering likely does not stress these features heavily.

In the benchmark suite, the RTX 5050 achieves a Passmark G3D score of 17326 and a Passmark G2D score of 1113. Its DirectX 11 score of 150 is notably higher than the DirectX 12 score of 66, which could indicate that Barony's rendering path benefits more from older API paths. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 90334 and Vulkan score of 89381 show balanced compute performance across APIs.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL with an average score of 21153 (0.6% higher), the AMD Radeon HD 8970M at 21237 (1% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT at 20713 (1.6% lower), and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile at 21379 (1.6% higher). These are all within a narrow band of ±1.6%, meaning the RTX 5050 sits in a tightly contested performance tier.

The measured frame rates in Barony show the GPU performing consistently with its benchmark position. At 1080p, the card produces over 190 FPS on High settings and over 300 FPS on Low, indicating that it has ample raw throughput for less demanding scenarios. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Barony at all tested resolutions, as the game's roguelike visuals do not appear to exceed this allocation even at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1775 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony. That places it in the 60.5th percentile of all combinations, meaning roughly 40% of tested systems perform better and about 60% perform worse. This is a middle-of-the-pack result that reflects the balanced nature of the pairing.

The combo rank is influenced by both components. The Ryzen 5 5500 sits at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs, while the RTX 5050 sits at the 66th percentile among all GPUs. The combined rank of 1775 out of 2935 suggests that the pairing does not exceed what either component would predict individually, but it also does not fall short.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 scores 19617 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core i5-12500 scores 19668 (0.4% higher), the Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19499 (0.5% lower), and the Intel Core i5-11600KF scores 19723 (0.7% higher). The Ryzen 5 5500's average benchmark score of 19593 places it in a tight cluster where no rival is more than 0.7% away. This means the CPU choice has minimal impact on the overall combo ranking.

The GPU's rival cluster is similarly tight. The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, AMD Radeon HD 8970M, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile all fall within ±1.6% of the RTX 5050's average score of 21035. This suggests that swapping the GPU for any of these alternatives would produce nearly identical results in Barony, assuming the CPU remains constant.

The combo's rank relative to the full test pool indicates that Barony rewards systems with balanced CPU and GPU performance. The game's roguelike nature means that frame rates can vary based on the number of entities, particle effects, and procedural generation, but the measured data shows this combo handling all tested scenarios with reasonable competence.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can this combo achieve at 1080p with High settings?

A: The system produces an average of 193 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate that many gaming monitors support, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with this configuration?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 46 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 4K Medium preset achieves 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS, making it the highest quality setting that maintains fluid performance at 4K.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 19593 is within 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430, Intel Core i5-12500, Intel Core i7-10700F, and Intel Core i5-11600KF. The differences are negligible, with the Intel Core i5-11600KF being the fastest at 19723 and the Intel Core i7-10700F being the slowest at 19499.

Q: What is the GPU's standing among all tested graphics cards?

A: The RTX 5050 ranks at the 66th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score of 21035 places it in a tight cluster with rivals that are all within ±1.6% of its performance level.

Q: Does the game favor higher or lower quality presets for the best experience?

A: The data shows that Medium settings provide the best balance of quality and performance. At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 225 FPS with a minimum of 191 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it achieves 142 FPS with a minimum of 120 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it achieves 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS. All three resolutions maintain frame rates above 60 FPS on Medium.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The resolution scaling is consistent across presets. At High settings, the drop from 1080p to 4K is 66.8%; at Low settings, it is 66.9%; at Medium settings, it is 67.1%; and at Ultra settings, it is 66.7%. In all cases, 4K produces roughly one-third of the frame rate seen at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rate data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Barony experience with this hardware combination. The Medium preset stands out as the recommended choice across all resolutions because it is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum frame rates, and those minimums are consistently above 60 FPS.

At 1080p, Medium delivers 225 FPS average with a minimum of 191 FPS and a maximum of 258 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above refresh rates of 144 Hz or even 240 Hz, making it suitable for competitive play. High settings at 1080p still produce 193 FPS, which is also excellent, but the Medium preset's higher average and verified minimum make it the safer recommendation for maintaining consistent frame pacing.

At 1440p, Medium produces 142 FPS average with 120 FPS minimum and 163 FPS maximum. This is sufficient for 120 Hz or 144 Hz displays, and the minimum frame rate ensures that even demanding scenes stay above the refresh threshold. High settings at 1440p drop to 122 FPS, which is still playable but does not provide the same margin of safety.

At 4K, the choice becomes more critical. Medium achieves 74 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum, which barely clears the 60 FPS bar. High settings drop to 64 FPS, and Ultra falls to 46 FPS. The Medium preset is the only option that maintains playable frame rates at 4K, making it the clear recommendation for users who prioritize resolution over visual fidelity.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. Even at 1080p, it produces 138 FPS, which is lower than the Medium preset at 1440p (142 FPS) and only slightly higher than the High preset at 1440p (122 FPS). The visual improvement from High to Ultra does not justify the 28.5% frame rate reduction observed at 1080p, and the situation worsens at higher resolutions.

For users with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset at 1080p offers 302 FPS, which exceeds the capabilities of most displays. However, the visual quality trade-off is substantial, and the Medium preset's 225 FPS is already well above what most monitors can display. The Low preset is best reserved for scenarios where maximum frame rate is the sole priority, such as competitive play or frame-time consistency testing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture with the Cezanne codename. It operates on the AMD Socket AM4 platform with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The CPU has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth. Its PCIe Gen 3 interface is a potential bottleneck for the RTX 5050, which supports PCIe 5.0 x8, but the impact on Barony appears minimal based on the measured results.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a clear scaling pattern from single-threaded to multi-threaded workloads. It achieves 836 in 3DMark single-thread, 1645 in 2-thread, 3151 in 4-thread, 4593 in 8-thread, and 5386 in 16-thread tests. The max-thread score of 5411 is only slightly higher than the 16-thread result, indicating that the 12 threads are fully utilized. Cinebench R23 scores of 2319 single-core and 16429 multi-core demonstrate strong single-thread performance relative to the multi-thread result.

In the context of Barony, the CPU's role is likely secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The resolution scaling data shows consistent frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K across all presets, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios. However, at 1080p Low, the system produces 302 FPS, which is high enough that CPU limitations could begin to emerge. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 3058 and multi-thread score of 19330 suggest it can handle the game's logic and entity processing without becoming a bottleneck at standard refresh rates.

The CPU's nearest rivals all perform within 0.7% of its average benchmark score of 19593. This tight clustering means that choosing any of these alternatives would produce nearly identical results in Barony. The Intel Core i5-12500, Intel Core i7-10700F, and Intel Core i5-11600KF are all comparable in overall performance, while the AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 is the closest match at just 0.1% higher.

The Ryzen 5 5500's percentile ranking of 73 among all CPUs indicates that it outperforms nearly three-quarters of processors in the benchmark database. This is a strong result for a 6-core part, particularly given its 7 nm process node and 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die. The 16 MB L3 cache and 512 KB L2 per core provide adequate memory hierarchy for game workloads, and the 64 KB L1 per core handles immediate data access needs.

Barony is a roguelike game that does not obviously demand high core counts or extreme single-thread performance. The measured data shows that the Ryzen 5 5500 provides sufficient CPU throughput to keep the RTX 5050 fed at all tested resolutions and presets. The only scenario where the CPU might become a limiting factor is the 1080p Low configuration at 302 FPS, but even this is an extreme case that exceeds typical display refresh rates.