Barony

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F paired with the Intel Arc B370 is a peculiar combination for Barony, a roguelike that is not traditionally demanding. The data shows a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics processor, which ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs. While the CPU is a strong performer with a robust 83rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, the Arc B370’s integrated-class silicon holds the entire experience back, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The benchmark results indicate that this setup is best treated as a 1080p machine for this title, where it can deliver playable, and sometimes excellent, frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the most balanced experience for this combo in Barony is the Medium preset at 1920x1080. Here, the average frame rate is 107 FPS, with a minimum of 91 FPS and a maximum of 123 FPS. This is a significant jump in visual quality over the Low preset while maintaining a frame rate that is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 91 FPS minimum ensures that even in busy dungeon rooms with numerous enemies and particle effects, the game will not stutter or feel sluggish.

If your priority is maximum smoothness and you are using a high-refresh-rate monitor, the Low preset at 1920x1080 is the only option that truly saturates the display. It pushes the average to 144 FPS, which is a perfect match for a standard 144Hz panel. However, the visual compromise is substantial, and the data suggests that the jump from Low to Medium costs roughly 37 FPS but likely provides a much richer visual environment for a game that relies on readability of items and enemies. The Medium preset is the sweet spot for most users; it provides a high-performance buffer while retaining enough graphical fidelity to make the game look like its intended vision.

Stepping up to High at 1080p drops the average to 92 FPS. This is still playable, but the 15 FPS loss from Medium for what is often a marginal visual gain in a stylized roguelike makes it less attractive. The Ultra preset at 1080p is where the GPU starts to show its limits, with the average falling to 66 FPS. While technically playable, the performance headroom is gone, and any particularly chaotic scene could cause noticeable dips. The data clearly shows that Ultra is not worth the cost on this hardware.

At higher resolutions, the situation worsens. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset manages a 67 FPS average with a 57 FPS minimum, which is just on the edge of acceptable for a game like this. At 3840x2160, even the Medium preset struggles, averaging only 35 FPS. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: stick to 1080p with Medium settings for the best combination of smoothness, visual quality, and safety margin. The Low preset is a viable fallback for competitive or high-refresh play, but Medium is the recommended default for the best overall experience.

FAQ

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

A: Technically yes, but the experience will be poor. The measured data shows an average of 30 FPS on High settings and 47 FPS on Low settings at 3840x2160. The Medium preset averages 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor and cannot maintain smooth gameplay at this resolution.

Q: What is the best resolution for a high-refresh-rate monitor?

A: The only resolution that allows the system to reach a high refresh rate is 1920x1080. On the Low preset, the average FPS is 144, which is ideal for a 144Hz monitor. The Medium preset at 1080p also provides a high average of 107 FPS, which is still well-suited for 100Hz+ displays.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The benchmark data strongly indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The Intel Arc B370 has a percentile rank of just 5 among all GPUs, while the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F ranks in the 83rd percentile. As resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, frame rates drop dramatically (e.g., from 107 to 35 FPS on Medium), which is a classic sign of GPU limitation, not CPU limitation.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7400F compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7400F's average benchmark score of 32750 places it in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals. It is effectively tied with the Intel Core i5-14600T, which scores 32707 (a 0.1% difference). It is also nearly identical to the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360, which are 0.2% and 0.3% faster, respectively, and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H, which is 0.2% slower.

Q: What are the minimum FPS numbers like for the Medium preset?

A: The data includes minimum FPS for the Medium preset at all three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 91 FPS. At 2560x1440, it drops to 57 FPS. At 3840x2160, the minimum is 30 FPS. These figures show that the system has a modest performance buffer at 1080p but becomes prone to stutter at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the Intel Arc B370 have any close rivals in terms of raw performance?

A: Based on its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184, its closest rivals are all older, low-end cards. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 is 0.2% faster, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 is 0.5% faster, and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M is 0.7% faster. The AMD FirePro M2000 is 1.4% slower. This context shows the Arc B370 is performing at the level of a decade-old entry-level GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a stark and predictable scaling pattern that highlights the GPU-bound nature of this configuration. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the Medium preset, the average frame rate drops from 107 FPS to 67 FPS, a loss of 40 FPS or roughly 37%. The jump to 3840x2160 is even more punishing, as the average falls to 35 FPS, which is less than one-third of the 1080p performance. This severe degradation with increased pixel count is the definitive signature of a system where the graphics processor is the primary bottleneck.

The data shows that this combo is not capable of "future-proofing" or high-resolution gaming. The 1080p performance is the only acceptable range, and even then, it requires settings adjustments to maintain high frame rates. The 1440p results are borderline, with only the Low preset breaking the 90 FPS mark. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with even the Low preset failing to reach 50 FPS. The scaling suggests that the Intel Arc B370, with its limited 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 20 ROPs, simply does not have the raw throughput to handle the pixel fill rate required by 1440p and 4K resolutions in this game.

The implication for the user is that the resolution must be treated as a fixed constraint. If you own a 1440p or 4K monitor, you will be forced to play at lower internal resolutions or accept sub-60 FPS performance. The system is best suited for a 1080p display, where it can provide a smooth and responsive experience. The data suggests that the CPU has plenty of headroom at 1080p, as the frame rate scales almost entirely with the GPU's workload. This is a classic case of a strong processor being held back by a weak graphics solution, making resolution a more critical factor than settings for this particular pairing.

How This Combo Ranks

The overall ranking for this specific combination in Barony is stark: it sits at rank 2701 out of 2935 tested combos. This places it in the bottom 8% of all system configurations tested for this game. This is a very low standing, which is a direct consequence of the Intel Arc B370's weak performance. The CPU is not the culprit; the Ryzen 5 7400F is a modern, capable processor. Rather, the GPU's lowly 5th percentile ranking drags the entire combo down, making it one of the slower systems in the database for this title.

This low rank is despite the fact that Barony is a 2015 roguelike with relatively simple graphics. The results show that even for older or less demanding games, a severely underpowered GPU can cripple the overall experience. The combo's rank is more indicative of the GPU's absolute performance level than any specific game optimization. For comparison, the GPU's nearest rivals are all integrated or entry-level parts from over a decade ago, such as the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M. This places the entire system in a performance class that is not suited for modern gaming standards, even at lower resolutions.

The takeaway is that while the CPU provides a solid foundation, the GPU choice is a severe limiting factor. For a game like Barony, this combo ranks as one of the least capable in the entire database. It will run the game, but it will do so at the bottom of the performance spectrum. Users should be aware that this is not a balanced configuration; the GPU is a major bottleneck that prevents the system from achieving anything close to the performance that the CPU alone would suggest.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, and its 32 MB of shared L3 cache is ample for gaming workloads. In Barony, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, enemy AI, and the generation of the procedurally generated dungeons. The benchmark data suggests that the CPU handles this task with ease, as the system's frame rates are not bottlenecked by the processor at any resolution.

The CPU's performance metrics are strong. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21765 and single-core score of 3072 indicate a highly capable processor for both multi-threaded and single-threaded tasks. Its PassMark single-thread score of 3689 is also solid. These scores are relevant because Barony, like many roguelikes, may have a significant single-threaded component for its game logic. The Ryzen 5 7400F's strong single-core performance ensures that the game logic will not be a limiting factor.

The evidence for the CPU not being the bottleneck is the FPS scaling. When the resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the frame rate plummets. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rate would remain relatively flat regardless of resolution, as the CPU work would be the same. Instead, the frame rate drops by roughly 70% at 4K compared to 1080p on the Medium preset, which is a clear indicator that the GPU is saturated. The CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU frames at 1080p, but the GPU simply cannot render them fast enough as the pixel count increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates for this combination is as follows:

At 1920x1080:

• Low: Average 144 FPS.
• Medium: Average 107 FPS, with a minimum of 91 FPS and a maximum of 123 FPS.
• High: Average 92 FPS.
• Ultra: Average 66 FPS.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: Average 91 FPS.
• Medium: Average 67 FPS, with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 78 FPS.
• High: Average 58 FPS.
• Ultra: Average 42 FPS.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: Average 47 FPS.
• Medium: Average 35 FPS, with a minimum of 30 FPS and a maximum of 41 FPS.
• High: Average 30 FPS.
• Ultra: Average 22 FPS.

This data shows a clear hierarchy. The 1080p Low preset is the only configuration that achieves a 144 FPS average, which is a hallmark of a very smooth experience. The 1080p Medium preset is the most balanced, offering a high average with a respectable minimum. The 1440p results show the system's limits, with only the Low preset remaining above the 90 FPS mark. The 4K results are all below 50 FPS, making them generally unplayable for a smooth experience. The minimum FPS data for the Medium preset across all resolutions highlights the performance degradation: 91 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and a stutter-prone 30 FPS at 4K. This detailed breakdown confirms that the Intel Arc B370 is a 1080p-class component, and its performance falls off a cliff as resolution demands increase.