Barony

Settings Recommendations

For Barony with the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, the measured data shows a clear hierarchy across the four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 688 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset. However, the gap between Low and High at this resolution is substantial: High produces 462 FPS, representing a 32.8% reduction from Low. Medium sits between at 538 FPS, while Ultra drops further to 331 FPS. The data indicates that even at Ultra settings, the frame rate remains far above any practical display refresh rate, suggesting that the visual quality gains from Ultra come at minimal practical cost.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with compressed absolute values. Low achieves 457 FPS, High reaches 292 FPS, Medium lands at 340 FPS, and Ultra settles at 209 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by roughly 34-37% across all presets, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at these resolutions. At 3840x2160, the spread narrows further: Low produces 239 FPS, Medium 178 FPS, High 152 FPS, and Ultra 109 FPS. The relative penalty for Ultra versus Low grows from 51.9% at 1080p to 54.4% at 4K, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings and resolutions.

The optimal experience depends on the display's refresh rate. For a 144Hz monitor, Ultra at 4K (109 FPS) falls short, but High at 4K (152 FPS) comfortably exceeds it. For 240Hz displays, 1440p High (292 FPS) or 1440p Medium (340 FPS) are the appropriate choices. The Medium preset at 1440p offers the best balance of measured frame consistency, with a min FPS of 289 and max of 391, providing a 102 FPS range. This stability is notably tighter than the Medium preset at 4K, which has a 53 FPS range (151 to 204). Based on the measured rows, the recommended preset for most users is High at 1440p or 4K, depending on refresh rate, as it maintains high frame rates while presumably offering better visual fidelity than Medium or Low. The data shows that Ultra provides diminishing returns at all resolutions, with the largest absolute FPS loss occurring at 1080p (from 462 to 331, a 131 FPS drop).

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 32 out of 2,935 tested combinations in Barony. This places the configuration in the top 1.1% of all tested combos, which is an exceptional result for a game released in 2015. The rank reflects the combined capability of both components, though the game's nature as a roguelike suggests that the CPU's single-threaded performance may be more relevant than its multi-threaded throughput.

The CPU's percentile ranking against all processors is 77, meaning it outperforms 77% of all tested CPUs in aggregate benchmark scores. Its average benchmark score of 25,005 places it in close competition with several rivals. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, scores 24,964, a mere 0.2% difference. The Intel Core i7-11850H trails by 0.3% with 24,935, and the Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.4% behind at 24,911. On the other side, the AMD EPYC 9474F leads by 0.4% with 25,103. This clustering indicates that the 8400F's CPU performance is tightly grouped with these alternatives, and the choice among them would not materially affect Barony's frame rates given the GPU's dominance.

The GPU's percentile ranking is 92, placing it above 92% of all tested GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 77,712 is subject to more variance relative to its nearest rivals. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT scores 76,904, which is 1.1% lower. Conversely, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78,940, 1.6% higher, and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants lead by 2.1% and 2.4% respectively. The RTX 5090 D sits between these rivals, but the delta percentages are small enough that real-world gaming performance could vary based on driver optimization and game-specific workloads.

Given that the combo rank of 32 is exceptionally high, the data suggests that this configuration is overkill for Barony in most scenarios. The game's roguelike genre typically involves procedurally generated dungeons with relatively simple geometry, which may not fully utilize the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of VRAM or its 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The rank reflects raw capability rather than efficiency, and the measured frame rates confirm that the combo far exceeds the requirements for smooth gameplay at any resolution or settings preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die, with a transistor density of 122.9 million per square millimeter. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, while the 32 GB of GDDR7 memory runs at 1750 MHz with an effective data rate of 28 Gbps. The memory interface is 512-bit, yielding a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is substantial for high-resolution texture streaming in Barony.

The shading units total 21,760, paired with 680 texture mapping units and 176 raster output units. The GPU also features 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. Its pixel rate is 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate is 1,636.8 GTexel/s, with FP32 and FP16 compute both rated at 104.8 TFLOPS. These specifications place the GPU in the top percentile of available hardware, but the measured data in Barony shows that its capabilities are not fully stressed. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 688 FPS suggests that the GPU is not the limiting factor; the CPU or game engine likely caps performance.

The VRAM capacity of 32 GB is far beyond what Barony requires, given that even at 4K Ultra, the game runs at 109 FPS without any indication of memory-related stuttering. The memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s ensures that texture and geometry data can be fed to the GPU at rates that exceed the game's demands. The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its high-end positioning: its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 14,326, Geekbench OpenCL is 310,674, and Vulkan is 376,915. The Passmark G3D score of 44,065 and compute score of 28,396 further confirm its compute prowess.

At 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant factor. The frame rate drops from 239 FPS at Low to 109 FPS at Ultra, a 54.4% reduction. This scaling indicates that the GPU's shading units and ROPs are increasingly taxed as settings increase. However, even at 4K Ultra, the 109 FPS average is playable on high-refresh-rate displays. The GPU's role in Barony is therefore to provide headroom that allows for maximum settings without compromising frame rates, though the game's simplicity means that the GPU is rarely the bottleneck at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS measured for this combo in Barony?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 688, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

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

A: The combo ranks 32nd out of 2,935 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1.1% of all tested configurations.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The only preset with a recorded min FPS is Medium. At 1920x1080, the min is 458 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 289 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 151 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the 688 FPS average suggests the CPU is the limiting factor, as the GPU has significant headroom. The CPU's single-thread score of 951 in 3DMark and 2,943 in Cinebench R23 indicate its performance ceiling.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested GPUs?

A: The RTX 5090 D ranks in the 92nd percentile, outperforming 92% of all tested GPUs in aggregate benchmark scores.

Q: How much does the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra, the average FPS drops from 331 at 1080p to 209 at 1440p, and further to 109 at 4K. This represents a 67.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across resolutions reveal how the system scales with increasing pixel count. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 331 at Ultra to 688 at Low. Moving to 2560x1440, the range compresses to 209 at Ultra and 457 at Low. At 3840x2160, the range narrows further to 109 at Ultra and 239 at Low. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low drops 33.6%, Medium drops 36.8%, High drops 36.8%, and Ultra drops 36.9%. This uniformity indicates that the GPU is scaling linearly with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound workload.

From 1440p to 4K, the drops are more pronounced. Low falls from 457 to 239 FPS, a 47.7% reduction. Medium falls from 340 to 178, a 47.6% reduction. High falls from 292 to 152, a 47.9% reduction. Ultra falls from 209 to 109, a 47.8% reduction. The consistency of these drops across settings suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, and the CPU's role diminishes as pixel count increases.

The limiting component shifts based on resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the 688 FPS result is likely constrained by the CPU's single-thread performance, as the GPU has ample headroom. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,943 indicate its per-core capability, but the game's engine may not scale perfectly with the 6 cores and 12 threads. At 4K Ultra, the 109 FPS result is clearly GPU-bound, as the RTX 5090 D's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is being fully utilized by the higher pixel count and more complex shading.

The data also shows that the Medium preset provides the only min/max measurements. At 1080p Medium, the range is 458 to 619 FPS, a 161 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range is 289 to 391, a 102 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 151 to 204, a 53 FPS spread. The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that frame time variance decreases as the GPU becomes more consistently loaded. This suggests that for users seeking the most predictable frame pacing, higher resolutions may actually provide a more stable experience, albeit at lower average frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture with the Phoenix codename. It operates with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 lanes. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The process node is 4 nm at TSMC, with 25,000 million transistors on a 178 mm² die.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the 688 FPS average is likely near the engine's CPU-bound limit. The CPU's multi-threaded performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20,851, provides ample headroom for the game's logic, which includes procedural generation and AI pathfinding. However, the single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,943, is more relevant for frame pacing in a game that may not heavily utilize multiple threads.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a clear scaling pattern. In 3DMark, the 2-thread score is 1,874, which scales to 3,563 for 4 threads, 5,275 for 8 threads, and 6,165 for max threads. The near-linear scaling from 2 to 8 threads suggests good multi-threading efficiency, but the jump from 8 to max threads is modest, indicating diminishing returns beyond 8 threads. This is consistent with a 6-core/12-thread processor where the additional threads provide limited benefit in most workloads.

In Passmark, the multi-thread score is 24,389, with integer math at 74,021 and floating-point math at 46,217. The data compression score of 288,158 and encryption score of 16,646 further characterize the CPU's capabilities. The CPU's percentile ranking of 77 and average benchmark score of 25,005 place it in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals, as discussed earlier. For Barony, the CPU's performance is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at 4K, where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. At 1080p, the CPU may impose a soft cap around 688 FPS, but this is far above any practical display refresh rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 688 FPS. Medium produces 538 FPS with a min of 458 and max of 619. High reaches 462 FPS, and Ultra drops to 331 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 51.9% reduction in average FPS, with each settings tier costing roughly 70-130 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 457 FPS. Medium achieves 340 FPS with a min of 289 and max of 391. High produces 292 FPS, and Ultra averages 209 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 54.3%, which is slightly more severe than at 1080p. The Medium preset's min-to-max range of 102 FPS is the tightest of any resolution at this settings level, indicating stable frame delivery.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 239 FPS. Medium produces 178 FPS with a min of 151 and max of 204. High reaches 152 FPS, and Ultra averages 109 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra is 54.4%, consistent with the 1440p scaling. The Medium preset's range of 53 FPS is the narrowest in the entire dataset, suggesting that 4K Medium provides the most consistent frame pacing.

The data also allows for cross-resolution comparisons at each settings level. At Low, the FPS drops from 688 at 1080p to 457 at 1440p (33.6% reduction) and further to 239 at 4K (47.7% reduction from 1440p). At Medium, the values are 538, 340, and 178, with reductions of 36.8% and 47.6%. At High, the values are 462, 292, and 152, with reductions of 36.8% and 47.9%. At Ultra, the values are 331, 209, and 109, with reductions of 36.9% and 47.8%. The consistency of these percentage drops reinforces that the GPU is the primary scaling factor across resolutions, with the CPU's influence remaining constant.

The minimum FPS values are only recorded for the Medium preset. At 1080p, the min is 458 FPS, which is 85.1% of the average. At 1440p, the min is 289 FPS, which is 85.0% of the average. At 4K, the min is 151 FPS, which is 84.8% of the average. The maximum FPS values are 619, 391, and 204 for the three resolutions, respectively. These ratios indicate that the frame time distribution is consistent across resolutions, with the GPU maintaining similar relative stability regardless of pixel count.