Barony

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Barony shows a predictable downward trend as resolution increases, but the shape of that curve reveals important information about where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 442.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 279.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 37%. The jump to 4K Low further reduces performance to 148.7 FPS, another 47% drop from the 1440p figure.

This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. The frame rate loss from 1080p to 1440p is substantial but not catastrophic, while the 4K penalty is steep. At Ultra settings, the same trend appears: 200.2 FPS at 1080p, 126.5 FPS at 1440p, and 69.3 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result falls below 70 FPS, suggesting that this particular setting combination pushes the graphics card to its limits in this roguelike title.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low beats Ultra by 242.4 FPS (442.6 vs 200.2). At 4K, the difference shrinks to 79.4 FPS (148.7 vs 69.3). This convergence indicates that at 4K, the GPU's raw throughput becomes the limiting factor regardless of quality preset, whereas at 1080p there is enough headroom for settings to make a larger relative impact.

The data suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot for this pairing. The High preset at 1440p still delivers 180.5 FPS, which is well above typical display refresh rates, while 4K High at 92.4 FPS remains playable but leaves less margin. The resolution scaling curve is smooth and monotonic across all settings, with no anomalous spikes or plateaus that would indicate driver-level bottlenecks or CPU limitations at specific resolution points.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 4 nm process. Its base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz provide the computational foundation for this combo. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor scores 951 in 3dmark_single_thread and 6165 in 3dmark_max_threads, indicating balanced single-core and multi-core capability.

Barony is a roguelike title, a genre that historically relies more on game logic and procedural generation than on massive parallel rendering workloads. The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores of 2943 single-core and 20851 multi-core suggest that it can handle both the serial game loop and any background tasks without creating a bottleneck. The 16 MB shared L3 cache is modest by modern standards, but for a game with relatively simple geometry and physics, it appears sufficient.

The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 442.6 FPS. This extremely high frame rate indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls to saturate it even at low graphical settings. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see a ceiling around a specific FPS value regardless of resolution or settings. Instead, the FPS varies significantly across settings at the same resolution, which points to the GPU as the primary constraint.

The processor's percentile rank of 82 among all CPUs places it in the upper tier of desktop processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X with a nearly identical average score (25057 vs 25064, a 0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F at 24993 (0.3% delta). This positioning means the CPU is not an outlier in either direction; it performs as expected for its class.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock of 2520 MHz and game clock of 2070 MHz provide the raw throughput that drives the high frame rates observed in the measured data.

The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 25381 places it at the 79th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest competitors in the benchmark database show interesting deltas: the NVIDIA A2 scores 34866 (0.2% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 scores 34677 (0.3% lower), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 scores 34541 (0.7% lower). These comparisons are close, indicating that the RX 9070 sits in a competitive performance band.

In Barony specifically, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages 69.3 FPS, which is the lowest measured result. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for this game's texture and buffer requirements, even at 4K with Ultra settings. The memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s ensures that texture streaming and shader data can be delivered without stuttering.

The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution reveals the GPU's headroom. At 1080p, Low delivers 442.6 FPS while Ultra drops to 200.2 FPS — a 242.4 FPS spread that shows the GPU has ample compute resources even when settings are maxed. At 4K, the spread tightens to 79.4 FPS, indicating that the GPU is approaching its throughput ceiling at that resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 284.2 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display. At 1440p High, the 180.5 FPS result remains far above refresh rate thresholds for even high-end monitors. At 4K High, the 92.4 FPS result is smooth and playable, making this the only preset that stays above 90 FPS at 4K.

The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p use, where it delivers 200.2 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, the 126.5 FPS result is still playable but represents a significant drop from High. At 4K Ultra, the 69.3 FPS result dips below the 70 FPS threshold, which may introduce perceptible judder on some displays. For competitive or fast-paced play, the Medium preset at 1440p (205.6 FPS) or 1080p (326.7 FPS) provides additional headroom.

Low settings are unnecessary for performance reasons at 1080p or 1440p, given the high frame rates already achieved at higher presets. At 4K, Low delivers 148.7 FPS, which could be useful if the user prioritizes maximum frame rate over visual quality. However, the High preset at 4K offers 92.4 FPS while presumably providing substantially better visual fidelity, making it the more sensible choice.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 564th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the upper third of all configurations tested, specifically at the 33rd percentile from the top (or 67th percentile from the bottom). The rank of 564 means that 563 combos performed better and 1138 performed worse in this specific game.

This ranking is notable because the individual components have percentile ranks of 82 (CPU) and 79 (GPU) against their respective populations. The combo rank of 564/1702 (roughly 33%) is lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest. This discrepancy indicates that in Barony, the pairing does not achieve the same relative performance as it does in synthetic benchmarks. The game's roguelike nature, with its potentially CPU-intensive procedural generation and game logic, may not fully leverage the GPU's capabilities in the same way that more graphically demanding titles would.

The gap between component percentiles and combo rank suggests that there are many other configurations that perform better in this specific title. The data does not specify which combos rank higher, but the implication is that either a stronger CPU or a different GPU pairing could yield better results in Barony without necessarily improving performance in other games.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results span from 442.6 FPS at Low to 200.2 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset delivers 326.7 FPS, and High delivers 284.2 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent step-down of approximately 116-118 FPS between Low and Medium, then 42.5 FPS between Medium and High, and finally 84 FPS between High and Ultra. The largest drop occurs between Low and Medium, suggesting that Medium introduces significant graphical effects that impact performance.

At 2560x1440, the results are 279.8 FPS (Low), 205.6 FPS (Medium), 180.5 FPS (High), and 126.5 FPS (Ultra). The drop from Low to Medium is 74.2 FPS, from Medium to High is 25.1 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 54 FPS. The pattern differs from 1080p, with a more moderate Low-to-Medium penalty and a relatively large High-to-Ultra drop.

At 3840x2160, the results are 148.7 FPS (Low), 110.2 FPS (Medium), 92.4 FPS (High), and 69.3 FPS (Ultra). The drops are 38.5 FPS (Low to Medium), 17.8 FPS (Medium to High), and 23.1 FPS (High to Ultra). At 4K, the differences between presets compress, with the total spread from Low to Ultra being 79.4 FPS compared to 242.4 FPS at 1080p.

The data shows that at every resolution, the Low preset provides the highest frame rate and Ultra the lowest, with Medium and High occupying the intermediate positions in that exact order. No anomalies exist in the ordering, and the relative gaps between presets shrink as resolution increases. This consistent pattern reinforces the interpretation that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as the rendering load grows.