Barony

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 delivers a playable experience across all tested settings in Barony, but the data reveals a clear shift in system behavior depending on resolution. At 1080p, the combo produces exceptionally high frame rates, while 4K performance drops significantly, indicating a transition from a CPU-bound scenario to a GPU-bound one as pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep and consistent drop as resolution scales from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 193 FPS at 1080p to 122 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 64 FPS at 4K. This represents a reduction of 36.8% from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47.5% from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is similar across all quality presets, though the absolute numbers differ.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 302 FPS at 1080p, 191 FPS at 1440p, and 100 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 66.9%, which is the largest percentage decline in the entire dataset. This suggests that at 1080p Low, the system is heavily CPU-limited; the Ryzen 5 8400F's single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 951) is the bottleneck, allowing the RTX 5050 to render frames as fast as the CPU can feed it. As resolution rises, the GPU's workload increases, and the RTX 5050's raw throughput becomes the limiting factor.

The Medium settings row provides the only min/max FPS data in the entire measurement set. At 4K Medium, the average is 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 and maximum of 85. This 22 FPS spread between min and max indicates some frame time variance, but the minimum of 63 FPS remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Medium, the average jumps to 142 FPS with min/max of 120/163, and at 1080p Medium, the average is 225 FPS with min/max of 191/258. The consistency of the frame pacing improves as resolution drops, with the 1080p minimum of 191 FPS being 84.9% of the average.

Ultra settings show the most severe scaling penalty. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 46, which is below the playable threshold for many users. At 1440p Ultra, the average recovers to 87 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it reaches 138 FPS. The gap between Ultra and High at 4K is notable: 46 FPS versus 64 FPS, a 28.1% performance hit for the highest preset. This indicates that the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely shadows, reflections, and ambient occlusion) disproportionately tax the RTX 5050 at higher resolutions.

The data clearly shows that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 8400F's 6 cores and 12 threads (with a max_threads 3dmark score of 6165) are sufficient to drive frame rates above 300 FPS at Low settings, meaning the GPU has headroom. At 4K, however, the RTX 5050's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth are taxed heavily, and the CPU's role diminishes. The 4K results are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 5050's 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the primary constraint.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Barony with this combo?

A: Based on the measured data, 1440p High offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering 122 FPS average. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while providing significantly more detail than 1080p. At 4K High, performance drops to 64 FPS, which is borderline, while 1440p Ultra at 87 FPS is also viable if you prefer maximum settings.

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

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The data shows 100 FPS at 4K Low and 74 FPS at 4K Medium. At 4K High, the average drops to 64 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 46 FPS, which is below the generally accepted 60 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. For a consistent 4K experience, Medium settings are the practical ceiling.

Q: How does the RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a limiting factor at 4K with higher settings. The RTX 5050 has a 128-bit memory bus and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth. While the data does not explicitly show VRAM capacity being exceeded, the performance drop from 4K Medium to 4K High (74 to 64 FPS) and then to 4K Ultra (46 FPS) suggests that the GPU's memory subsystem and compute resources are increasingly strained as texture quality and effects increase.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 8400F a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Yes, particularly at lower settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 302 FPS, and at 1080p Medium, it reaches 225 FPS. These numbers are extraordinarily high, and the CPU's single-thread score (951 in 3dmark_single_thread) becomes the limiting factor. The GPU is not fully utilized at these settings, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS difference between Low and Medium (302 vs 225) compared to the difference between Medium and High (225 vs 193).

Q: What is the frame time consistency like?

A: The only min/max data available is for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the min/max is 191/258 FPS, a spread of 67 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it's 120/163 FPS, a spread of 43 FPS. At 4K Medium, it's 63/85 FPS, a spread of 22 FPS. This pattern indicates that frame pacing becomes more stable at higher resolutions, likely because the GPU workload is more consistent and less prone to CPU-induced spikes.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested combinations in Barony?

A: The combo ranks 1775 out of 2935 tested combinations in Barony, placing it in the 60.5th percentile. This means it performs better than roughly 60% of all tested combos but is not in the top tier. The rank suggests that while the combo is capable, there are many faster configurations, particularly those with higher-end GPUs for 4K gaming.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions, and its specifications explain the observed scaling behavior. The GPU has a base clock of 2317 MHz and a boost clock of 2572 MHz, with 2560 shading units and 80 TMUs. Its 32 ROPs are relatively low for a modern card, which likely contributes to the steep drop in performance at 4K Ultra where fill-rate demands increase.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a moderate amount for a 2025 GPU, and the data suggests it is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a constraint at 4K with higher presets. The FP32 compute rating of 13.17 TFLOPS is the raw shader throughput, and the pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s indicates how quickly the GPU can fill the screen. At 4K resolution (approximately 8.3 million pixels), the pixel rate allows for roughly 9,900 frames per second of pure fill, but this is not the limiting factor; the shader and memory bandwidth are.

The RTX 5050's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (avgScore 21153, deltaPct -0.6%), AMD Radeon HD 8970M (avgScore 21237, deltaPct -1%), AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (avgScore 20713, deltaPct 1.6%), and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (avgScore 21379, deltaPct -1.6%). The RTX 5050's avgBenchmarkScore is 21035, which places it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. This positioning indicates it is a mid-range card, and the Barony results are consistent with that classification.

The GPU's role in Barony is particularly evident in the 4K results. At 4K Low, the average FPS of 100 is more than double the 4K Ultra result of 46 FPS. This 54 FPS difference is entirely due to the GPU's workload, as the CPU is not the bottleneck at this resolution. The RTX 5050's 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores are present but do not appear to be heavily utilized in this roguelike title, which likely relies on traditional rasterization. The DirectX 12 benchmark score of 66 in Passmark (out of a possible high) suggests the GPU's DX12 path is not its strongest, which could impact performance in Barony if the game uses that API.

Measured FPS Breakdown

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

• 3840x2160 (4K) Ultra: 46 FPS average
• 3840x2160 (4K) High: 64 FPS average
• 3840x2160 (4K) Medium: 74 FPS average (min 63, max 85)
• 3840x2160 (4K) Low: 100 FPS average
• 2560x1440 (1440p) Ultra: 87 FPS average
• 2560x1440 (1440p) High: 122 FPS average
• 2560x1440 (1440p) Medium: 142 FPS average (min 120, max 163)
• 2560x1440 (1440p) Low: 191 FPS average
• 1920x1080 (1080p) Ultra: 138 FPS average
• 1920x1080 (1080p) High: 193 FPS average
• 1920x1080 (1080p) Medium: 225 FPS average (min 191, max 258)
• 1920x1080 (1080p) Low: 302 FPS average

At 1080p, the scaling between settings is linear but with diminishing returns. The difference between Low and Medium is 77 FPS (302 to 225), between Medium and High is 32 FPS (225 to 193), and between High and Ultra is 55 FPS (193 to 138). The Ultra preset incurs a 28.5% penalty over High, which is substantial. At 1440p, the pattern holds: Low to Medium is 49 FPS, Medium to High is 20 FPS, and High to Ultra is 35 FPS. The Ultra penalty over High is 28.7%, nearly identical to 1080p.

At 4K, the scaling becomes more aggressive. Low to Medium is 26 FPS, Medium to High is 10 FPS, and High to Ultra is 18 FPS. The relative penalties are: Medium is 26% slower than Low, High is 13.5% slower than Medium, and Ultra is 28.1% slower than High. The 4K Ultra result of 46 FPS is the only measurement below 60 FPS, highlighting that this resolution/settings combination is unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

The Medium settings rows are the only ones with min/max data, which provides insight into frame consistency. At 1080p Medium, the min of 191 FPS is 84.9% of the average, indicating occasional dips but still extremely high performance. At 1440p Medium, the min of 120 FPS is 84.5% of the average, and at 4K Medium, the min of 63 FPS is 85.1% of the average. This consistency across resolutions suggests the frame pacing is stable, with the worst-case dips staying proportionally similar.

How This Combo Ranks

In the Barony benchmark database, this specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 ranks 1775 out of 2935 tested combos. This places it in the 60.5th percentile, meaning it outperforms 60.5% of all configurations tested in this game. The rank is a composite measure that accounts for performance across all tested resolutions and settings, weighted toward typical gaming scenarios.

The CPU alone has a percentileVsAllCpus of 77, meaning it is better than 77% of all CPUs in the database. Its avgBenchmarkScore is 25005, which is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (avgScore 24964, deltaPct 0.2%). Other close rivals include the Intel Core i7-11850H (deltaPct 0.3%) and the Intel Core i7-13620H (deltaPct 0.4%). The AMD EPYC 9474F is 0.4% faster. This indicates the 8400F is a solid mid-range CPU with strong multi-threaded performance (cinebench_r23_multicore score of 20851) and decent single-thread capability (cinebench_r23_singlecore score of 2943).

The GPU has a percentileVsAllGpus of 66, which is lower than the CPU's percentile. Its avgBenchmarkScore is 21035, and its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (deltaPct -0.6%), AMD Radeon HD 8970M (deltaPct -1%), AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (deltaPct 1.6%), and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (deltaPct -1.6%). The RTX 5050 is positioned as a mid-range GPU, and its lower percentile compared to the CPU suggests that the GPU is the weaker component in this pairing.

The combo rank of 1775 reflects this balance. The CPU's strong performance (77th percentile) is somewhat wasted at 1080p where it is the bottleneck, but at 4K, the GPU's limitations (66th percentile) hold the combo back. The rank of 1775 out of 2935 suggests that while this is a capable combination, there are many other combos that either have a stronger GPU for 4K or a more balanced pairing for high-refresh 1080p gaming. Specifically, combos with the same CPU but a higher-end GPU would likely rank significantly better, as would combos with the same GPU but a faster CPU for 1080p scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend entirely on the target resolution and refresh rate of your display.

For 1440p displays, the High preset at 122 FPS is the standout choice. It provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining a frame rate that is more than double the 60 FPS target. The 1440p High result of 122 FPS is actually higher than the 1080p Ultra result of 138 FPS, meaning you get better visual fidelity at a higher resolution with only a 11.6% FPS penalty. If you have a 144Hz display, 1440p Medium at 142 FPS is the better option, as it stays within 2 FPS of the refresh rate cap and includes the min FPS of 120, ensuring smooth frame delivery.

For 1080p displays, the choice is between raw performance and visual quality. The 1080p High preset at 193 FPS is the sweet spot for high-refresh monitors (165Hz or 240Hz), as it exceeds the 144Hz threshold and comes close to 165Hz. The 1080p Ultra preset at 138 FPS is also viable for 144Hz displays, providing the best visuals at this resolution. The 1080p Medium preset at 225 FPS is only recommended for 240Hz displays, as the extra frames beyond 225 are imperceptible on lower refresh screens. The 1080p Low preset at 302 FPS offers no practical benefit unless you have a 300Hz+ display, and the visual compromise is severe.

For 4K displays, the recommendations are more restricted. The 4K Medium preset at 74 FPS is the best option for a standard 60Hz 4K display, as it provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS and includes a minimum of 63 FPS, which avoids noticeable stutter. The 4K High preset at 64 FPS is technically playable on a 60Hz display but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The 4K Low preset at 100 FPS is an option if you prioritize frame rate over visuals, but the visual degradation at this resolution may be noticeable. The 4K Ultra preset at 46 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the 60 FPS threshold and will result in a noticeably less smooth experience.

The overall best experience per the measured rows is 1440p High. It offers 122 FPS, which is suitable for most gaming monitors, and the High preset includes the visual features that make Barony's roguelike environments readable. The 4K Medium preset is the fallback for 4K owners, and 1080p High is the choice for esports-style play where frame rate is paramount. Avoid 4K Ultra entirely, as the 46 FPS result indicates the RTX 5050 does not have sufficient compute or memory bandwidth for that configuration.