Barony

Barony, a 2015 roguelike, presents an unusual benchmark scenario for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination. The data shows a system capable of extreme frame rates, yet the scaling patterns reveal a complex interplay between the CPU's single-thread performance and the GPU's massive throughput. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings to identify the primary bottleneck in this specific pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is stark and non-linear, indicating a shift in the limiting component. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces 689.3 FPS, but at 3840x2160 with the same settings, it falls to 229.6 FPS—a 66.7% reduction. This is a classic sign of the GPU becoming the primary constraint as pixel count quadruples. However, the scaling is not purely GPU-bound across all settings. At Ultra settings, the drop from 316.7 FPS at 1080p to 106.2 FPS at 4K is a 66.5% decrease, which is proportionally similar, suggesting that the rendering load scales consistently with resolution regardless of quality preset.

The data reveals that the CPU's role is most prominent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 689.3 FPS figure is likely near the ceiling of what the Ryzen 5 7600 can feed to the RTX 5090, as the GPU is underutilized. As resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, and the frame rate becomes more dependent on its capabilities. The difference between 1440p and 4K is telling: at 1440p High, the system hits 275.7 FPS, while at 4K High, it drops to 143.2 FPS—a 48% reduction. This indicates that the RTX 5090 is capable of handling 1440p with relative ease, but 4K pushes it into a more demanding territory where its raw compute and memory bandwidth are fully taxed.

The scaling from Medium to High settings at each resolution is also informative. At 4K, moving from Medium (168.2 FPS) to High (143.2 FPS) costs 14.9% performance, while moving from High to Ultra (106.2 FPS) costs another 25.8%. This steepening curve suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects that disproportionately impact the GPU, likely related to the 32 GB of GDDR7 memory being used for higher-resolution textures and more complex shading. The data strongly implies that at 4K, the RTX 5090 is the limiting factor, while at 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance becomes a more critical element.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its benchmark results show a strong single-thread capability, with a 3dmark_single_thread score of 999 and a passmark_single_thread score of 3910. This is crucial for Barony, a roguelike that likely relies heavily on game logic, pathfinding, and entity updates, which are often single-threaded. The CPU's 3dmark_2_threads score of 1938 indicates that even with two threads, the processor can deliver substantial performance, which is relevant for a game that may not scale perfectly across all cores.

The Ryzen 5 7600's overall average benchmark score is 26617, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (avg score 26574, delta 0.2%) and the Intel Core i9-12900HK (avg score 26672, delta -0.2%). This shows that the 7600 is effectively on par with these competitors in general compute tasks, despite having fewer cores than the 5800X3D. The key differentiator is its high boost clock of 5.10 GHz, which appears to give it an edge in latency-sensitive tasks that Barony likely depends on.

The 65 W TDP and 5 nm process node contribute to efficient operation, but the data suggests that the CPU's performance ceiling is reached at high frame rates. At 1080p Low, the 689.3 FPS result is likely constrained by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls and update game state, as the RTX 5090 is capable of far more. The 3dmark_max_threads score of 6503 shows that the 12 threads are utilized effectively in synthetic tests, but Barony's engine may not be able to leverage all of them, making the single-thread score of 999 more predictive of real-world frame rates in this title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a behemoth, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock is 2407 MHz, and it features 21760 shading units, 170 RT cores, and 680 tensor cores. The GPU's average benchmark score is 84306, placing it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84241 (delta 0.1%), showing that this card is at the very top of the performance stack. The passmark_g3d score of 39650 further emphasizes its dominance in rasterization tasks.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions and settings. The 32 GB VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any setting tested, as even 4K Ultra textures would be unlikely to exceed this capacity. The memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is critical for feeding the 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, ensuring that the shading units are kept busy. At 4K Ultra, the 106.2 FPS result suggests that the GPU is being fully utilized, with the 104.8 TFLOPS being the primary constraint.

The RTX 5090's performance relative to its rivals is consistent across benchmarks, but its advantage in Barony is more pronounced at 4K. At 1080p, the CPU limits the system, so the GPU's raw power is not fully expressed. However, at 4K, the GPU's dominance becomes clear, with the 229.6 FPS at Low settings being more than double the 106.2 FPS at Ultra. This indicates that the GPU scales effectively with resolution, but the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely including ambient occlusion, shadows, and post-processing) have a significant cost. The 170 RT cores are present, but Barony is not a ray-tracing title, so their impact is minimal in this benchmark.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 689.3 FPS (Low) to 316.7 FPS (Ultra). The jump from Low to Medium is 509.1 FPS, a 26.1% drop, while High reduces it to 439.3 FPS (13.7% drop), and Ultra to 316.7 FPS (27.9% drop from High). This shows that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at 1080p, as even the most demanding settings do not reduce the frame rate to a level where the GPU is fully engaged.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are 432.7 FPS (Low), 323.6 FPS (Medium), 275.7 FPS (High), and 201.8 FPS (Ultra). The scaling from Low to Medium is a 25.2% reduction, while High to Ultra is a 26.8% reduction. This resolution represents a balance point where both CPU and GPU are contributing to the performance. The 432.7 FPS at Low is still very high, but the 201.8 FPS at Ultra shows that the GPU is starting to feel the strain of the higher pixel count and quality settings.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly: 229.6 FPS (Low), 168.2 FPS (Medium), 143.2 FPS (High), and 106.2 FPS (Ultra). The scaling from Low to Medium is a 26.7% reduction, while High to Ultra is a 25.8% reduction. This is where the RTX 5090 becomes the clear limiting factor. The 106.2 FPS at 4K Ultra is still highly playable, but it is the lowest result in the dataset, showing that the GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are being fully taxed. The data indicates that for 4K gaming, the RTX 5090 is the bottleneck, while at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 7600's single-thread performance is the constraint.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded in the benchmark data?

A: The highest average FPS is 689.3, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system produces an average of 106.2 FPS, which is the lowest score in the dataset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the CPU appears to be the limiting factor, as the frame rates remain high (316.7 FPS at Ultra) and do not drop dramatically, indicating the GPU is not fully utilized.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the system averages 439.3 FPS at 1920x1080 and 143.2 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 67.4% reduction when moving to 4K.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7600's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance?

A: The CPU's 3dmark_single_thread score is 999, while its 3dmark_max_threads score is 6503, indicating a roughly 6.5x scaling with 12 threads compared to 1 thread.

Q: What is the RTX 5090's average benchmark score relative to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 84306, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 5090 D's score of 84241.