Barony

Barony, a 2015 roguelike, presents an interesting case study for the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT pairing. The measured data reveals a combination that is heavily influenced by resolution and settings, with the CPU showcasing significant headroom. This analysis explores how this specific combo handles the game's demands, from 1080p to 4K, and what the performance deltas indicate about the system's balance.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking observation is how average FPS scales with resolution. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves 189.6 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 High drops that to 117.5 FPS, a substantial reduction of roughly 38%. The jump to 3840x2160 High further reduces performance to 65.7 FPS, which is about 44% lower than the 1440p result and 65% lower than 1080p. This scaling pattern is a classic indicator that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

This is further supported by the Low settings data. At 1080p Low, the system outputs 298.7 FPS. At 1440p Low, it still manages 188 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 98.7 FPS. The performance penalty from 1080p to 1440p at Low is about 37%, which is very similar to the High setting drop. This consistency across settings suggests that the resolution itself, not the graphical complexity, is the primary driver of the FPS decline. The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is doing the heavy lifting to feed the GPU, but as resolution rises, the RX 7600 XT's rendering workload becomes the bottleneck, causing the frame rate to plummet.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low (298.7 FPS) and Ultra (136.1 FPS) is a massive 162.6 FPS. At 4K, that gap shrinks to 54.6 FPS (98.7 vs 44.1). This compression of the settings delta at 4K reinforces that the GPU is saturated and cannot leverage the reduced load from lower settings as effectively. Essentially, the data shows a system where 1080p is CPU-bound, 1440p is a balanced middle ground, and 4K is firmly GPU-bound.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's overall performance in Barony is recorded with a rank of 1132 out of 1702 tested combinations. This places it in the lower third of all tested systems, which is a surprising position given the individual component scores. The CPU has a percentile rank of 82, meaning it outperforms 82% of all tested CPUs, and the GPU sits at the 63rd percentile. Yet, their combined performance in this specific title is not as dominant.

This discrepancy suggests that Barony's performance is not solely dependent on raw CPU or GPU power. The game's roguelike nature, which often involves complex procedural generation and game logic, may place a premium on single-thread performance or specific instruction sets where the 8400F excels. However, the ranking suggests that other combinations, likely with different balances of components, achieve higher frame rates in this specific title. The rank indicates that while this combo is competent, it is not an optimal match for Barony when compared to a wide field of other hardware pairings, possibly due to the game favoring different architectural strengths.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1980 MHz, a game clock of 2470 MHz, and a boost clock of 2755 MHz. In Barony, the GPU's 16 GB frame buffer is unlikely to be a limiting factor, as roguelikes typically do not have massive texture memory requirements.

The GPU's role becomes clear in the resolution scaling. The 4K Ultra result of 44.1 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, showing that the card's compute capabilities are stressed at 4K with maximum settings. The card's FP32 performance is 22.57 TFLOPS, which is utilized heavily at higher resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p and 1440p, the GPU has enough headroom to produce high frame rates, but at 4K, its limits are exposed. The 63rd percentile ranking against all GPUs aligns with its mid-range positioning, and its nearest rivals include the RX 7600 and RTX 2060 SUPER, indicating it is a solid performer but not at the top tier. The boost clock of 2755 MHz is the peak, but sustained performance in-game is likely closer to the 2470 MHz game clock.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Barony at 4K?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High settings, the combo averages 65.7 FPS, which is playable. However, at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 44.1, which may feel less smooth.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rate monitors?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the best choice for high refresh rates. At Low settings, the combo hits 298.7 FPS, and even at High settings, it maintains 189.6 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU performance compare to its rivals?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25064. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, scores 25057, a delta of 0%. The Ryzen 5 7500F scores 24993, which is 0.3% slower.

Q: How does the GPU performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT has an average benchmark score of 20146. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 460, scores 20088, which is 0.3% slower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is 1.9% slower, while the RX 7600 is 0.6% faster.

Q: At which resolution does the CPU become less of a factor?

A: The performance drop from 1080p to 1440p is significant (e.g., 189.6 to 117.5 FPS on High), suggesting the GPU takes on more responsibility. The drop from 1440p to 4K is even steeper, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS on Low settings is 298.7, while on Ultra it is 136.1. This represents a difference of 162.6 FPS, showing a wide range of performance depending on settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the optimal experience depends on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the High preset provides an excellent balance, delivering 189.6 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay on high refresh rate displays. While Ultra is also playable at 136.1 FPS, the visual gain may not justify the 28% performance loss compared to High. For 2560x1440, the High preset again appears ideal, with 117.5 FPS. The Medium preset at 138.4 FPS offers an alternative for those who want more headroom, but High is still comfortably within a playable range. At 3840x2160, the High preset is the most balanced choice, yielding 65.7 FPS. The Low preset at 98.7 FPS is the only way to get closer to 100 FPS at 4K, but it comes with a significant visual downgrade. The Ultra preset at 44.1 FPS is best avoided for a consistently smooth experience. Therefore, the data suggests that the High preset is the "sweet spot" for this combo across all resolutions, offering a strong balance between visual fidelity and performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. It features a 16 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. In Barony, its role is to handle game logic, entity updates, and draw calls. The CPU's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 951 and a passmark_single_thread score of 3684, is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

The data strongly suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting component. The 298.7 FPS at Low settings indicates that the GPU is not being fully utilized, as the frame rate is likely capped by the CPU's ability to process frames. This is a common scenario in less graphically intensive games like roguelikes. The CPU's performance is good enough to feed the GPU at 1080p, but as resolution increases, the GPU's workload becomes the bottleneck. The CPU's percentile rank of 82 and its average benchmark score of 25064, which is nearly identical to the Ryzen 7 2700X, confirm it is a capable mid-range processor. However, in this specific game, the CPU's strength does not translate into a top-tier combo rank, implying that Barony may be more sensitive to other factors like memory latency or specific game engine optimizations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo in Barony is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 298.7 FPS
• Medium: 222 FPS
• High: 189.6 FPS
• Ultra: 136.1 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 188 FPS
• Medium: 138.4 FPS
• High: 117.5 FPS
• Ultra: 84 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 98.7 FPS
• Medium: 73.8 FPS
• High: 65.7 FPS
• Ultra: 44.1 FPS

This breakdown shows a clear and consistent hierarchy. At every resolution, Low settings provide the highest frame rate, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the slowest. The performance deltas between each setting tier remain relatively consistent at each resolution, underscoring the predictable scaling of the game's graphics options. The most significant absolute drop is from Medium to High at 1080p, a decrease of 32.4 FPS, while the smallest absolute drop is from Medium to High at 4K, a decrease of 8.1 FPS. This data confirms that the game scales as expected and that the RX 7600 XT has the most headroom at lower resolutions and settings.