Barony

Barony, a roguelike from 2015, is not a typical graphics showcase, but the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination reveals a fascinating performance curve. The results show a system with immense headroom, where the choice of settings dictates whether you are chasing maximum frame rates or visual fidelity. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to provide clear guidance on how to best utilize this hardware for this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across all resolutions and presets indicates that this combination is overwhelmingly powerful for Barony. The primary consideration is not whether the hardware can run the game smoothly, but rather how to balance frame rate against the game's visual enhancements. At 1080p, even the most demanding "Ultra" preset delivers an average of 241.5 FPS, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors. This suggests that players with standard 1080p displays should use the "Ultra" preset without any concern for performance, as the frame rate remains exceptionally high.

For 1440p, the "Ultra" preset produces an average of 151.1 FPS, which is still excellent for high-refresh-rate gaming. The "High" preset at 208.3 FPS offers an even greater performance buffer. Given the minimal visual difference that often exists between "High" and "Ultra" in a game of this style, the "High" preset at 1440p presents the most balanced experience, providing a significant FPS advantage while likely retaining most of the graphical polish. The data shows the "Medium" preset at 243.9 FPS is also a viable option for those who prioritize raw speed above all else.

At 4K, the scales tip. The "Ultra" preset drops to an average of 77.7 FPS. While this is still playable, it is a notable step down from the triple-digit figures at lower resolutions. The "High" preset at 108.3 FPS restores a very smooth experience and is the recommended choice for 4K displays. This settings level provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while delivering the higher-fidelity assets. The "Medium" preset at 130.5 FPS is another strong option for 4K, offering an even larger performance cushion for those who may have variable refresh rate displays and want to ensure absolute fluidity. The "Low" preset, while achieving 171.1 FPS at 4K, is generally unnecessary given the performance of the higher presets. The data strongly suggests that the "High" preset is the optimal choice for 4K, balancing visual quality with a rock-solid frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark data places this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER at rank 324 out of 1702 tested combos for Barony. This percentile placement, within the top 19% of all systems tested, indicates that this pairing is well above average for this specific game. The rank is a composite measure, but the individual component benchmarks help explain this strong showing.

The CPU, with a percentile ranking of 78 against all CPUs, demonstrates solid processing power. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-11600H and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX, have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with a deltaPct of only 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. This places the Ryzen 5 5600G in a very competitive performance tier for general processing tasks. The GPU, the RTX 4070 SUPER, ranks even higher at the 84th percentile against all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is a mere 0.2% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and 0.3% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, showing it is a high-end performer. This combination of a top-quartile CPU and an even higher-quartile GPU results in a system that is exceptionally well-equipped to handle Barony, explaining its strong rank among the thousands of possible combinations.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS at 1920x1080 is 521.5 FPS, which is achieved with the "Low" settings preset.

Q: Can this system maintain a 144 FPS average at 4K resolution?

A: No. The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 171.1 FPS on "Low" settings. However, on the more visually demanding "High" preset, the average drops to 108.3 FPS, which is below the 144 FPS target.

Q: How does the "Ultra" preset at 1440p compare to the "High" preset at 4K?

A: The "Ultra" preset at 2560x1440 achieves an average of 151.1 FPS, while the "High" preset at 3840x2160 achieves an average of 108.3 FPS. This shows a significant performance trade-off when moving to the higher resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor. As resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the FPS drops substantially (e.g., from 334.9 FPS to 108.3 FPS on "High" settings), a pattern typical of GPU-bound scenarios where the rendering load increases.

Q: What is the performance difference between "Low" and "Ultra" settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the "Low" preset achieves 521.5 FPS, while the "Ultra" preset achieves 241.5 FPS. This represents a performance reduction of 280 FPS when moving to the highest visual quality settings.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in Barony?

A: The combo ranks at position 324 out of 1702 total tested combinations, placing it in the top 20% of all systems for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance scaling across different settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high, starting at 521.5 FPS on "Low" and decreasing to 386.6 FPS on "Medium", 334.9 FPS on "High", and finally 241.5 FPS on "Ultra". This shows a steady, predictable drop in performance as visual fidelity increases, but even the lowest figure is far beyond what most displays can show.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern is evident, but with a noticeable shift. The "Low" preset yields 329.9 FPS, "Medium" gives 243.9 FPS, "High" provides 208.3 FPS, and "Ultra" drops to 151.1 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is significant, with a performance decrease of nearly 37% for the "Low" preset and about 37% for the "Ultra" preset. This indicates a substantial increase in rendering load.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve becomes more compressed. The "Low" preset still manages 171.1 FPS, but "Medium" falls to 130.5 FPS, "High" to 108.3 FPS, and "Ultra" to 77.7 FPS. The gap between "Low" and "Ultra" at 4K is 93.4 FPS, which is a smaller absolute difference than at 1080p, but the relative impact is larger. The "Ultra" preset at 4K is the only configuration in the data that drops below 100 FPS, highlighting the extreme demand of combining the highest settings with the highest resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a clear and predictable relationship between resolution and frame rate, which is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound workload. When moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the "High" preset, the average FPS drops from 334.9 to 208.3. This is a decrease of 126.6 FPS, or roughly 38%. The subsequent jump from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 on the same preset sees a further drop from 208.3 to 108.3 FPS, another decrease of 100 FPS.

This pattern of diminishing returns is consistent across all settings. For instance, on "Ultra" settings, the frame rate drops from 241.5 FPS at 1080p to 151.1 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 77.7 FPS at 4K. The consistent and steep decline as pixel count increases strongly suggests that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary limiting component. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, has more than enough headroom to feed the GPU frames at lower resolutions, but it is the GPU's rendering capabilities that determine the final output. The fact that the FPS does not plateau at any resolution indicates that the GPU is being pushed harder and harder with each increase in pixel count, confirming its role as the performance bottleneck in this configuration for Barony.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, provides a solid foundation for this gaming system. Its base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz are adequate for modern games, and its benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16758 and a single-core score of 2365, place it in the 78th percentile of all CPUs. This performance is on par with rivals like the Intel Core i7-11600H, which is only 0.2% faster, and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX, which is 0.3% faster.

In Barony, a game that is not heavily threaded, the single-core performance is often more critical than the multicore capability. The Ryzen 5 5600G's strong single-core score, evidenced by its 3dmark single-thread score of 872, ensures that the game's primary logic thread runs efficiently. The 16 MB of L3 cache and 512 KB of L2 cache per core also help reduce memory latency, which can be beneficial for maintaining consistent frame times. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is not a bottleneck, as the frame rates are exceptionally high. Even at 4K, where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, the CPU's performance is sufficient to keep up, as the FPS drops are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario rather than a CPU limitation. The CPU's role here is to provide a stable and fast platform that does not interfere with the GPU's performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured FPS results. With a boost clock of 2475 MHz and 7168 shading units, it offers immense raw computational power, reflected in its 35.48 TFLOPS FP32 performance. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for the textures and assets in a game like Barony, even at 4K resolution.

The GPU's benchmark scores are in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, putting it just 0.2% behind the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE. This high level of performance is what allows the system to achieve such remarkable frame rates. The data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance scaling. As the resolution increases, the demand on the GPU's pixel and texture processing units grows, and the FPS drops accordingly. For example, the pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are taxed more heavily at 4K, leading to the observed FPS decline. The "Ultra" preset at 4K, which likely increases the draw distance and shadow quality, pushes the GPU to its limits, resulting in the only sub-100 FPS average in the entire dataset. This confirms that the RTX 4070 SUPER is a very capable card, but it is ultimately the component that defines the performance ceiling for this combination in Barony.