Barony

Barony is a roguelike where the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination produces a wide spread of frame rates, ranging from 69.3 FPS at 4K Ultra to 468.3 FPS at 1080p Low. The data shows a system that is consistently capable of high refresh rates, but the scaling pattern across resolutions and settings reveals where each component’s workload begins to dominate. This pairing sits at rank 439 out of 1702 tested combos for this game, placing it in the upper quartile of all configurations. The measured rows indicate that the RTX 4070 with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is rarely the bottleneck, except at the most demanding 4K Ultra preset, while the 6-core Zen 5 processor with a 5.40 GHz boost clock keeps up comfortably even at very high frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 468.3 at 1080p to 298.5 at 1440p, then to 158 at 4K—a reduction of 36% from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47% from 1440p to 4K. This pattern indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is the primary limiter as resolution climbs, since the CPU has ample headroom with only 6 cores and 12 threads being exercised lightly at such high frame rates.

At High settings, the scaling is similar in proportion: 297.3 FPS at 1080p drops to 191.2 FPS at 1440p (a 36% reduction), then to 97.9 FPS at 4K (a 49% reduction). The consistent percentage drops suggest that the RTX 4070’s 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are being taxed progressively harder as pixel count increases. The gap between Low and High at 4K is 60.1 FPS, whereas at 1080p that same gap is 171 FPS, showing that the GPU’s fixed cost at higher resolutions compresses the relative impact of settings changes.

Ultra settings magnify the resolution penalty. The 137.4 FPS at 1440p falls to 69.3 FPS at 4K—a 49.6% drop—while the 1080p result of 211.8 FPS is 34.6% higher than the 1440p figure. This near-halving from 1440p to 4K at Ultra is the clearest evidence that the game becomes heavily GPU-bound at this preset, with the 12 GB VRAM and 192-bit bus being pushed to their limits. The data indicates that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combo, as the 4K Ultra result of 69.3 FPS is the only measured row below the 100 FPS threshold, while every other 4K preset remains above 97.9 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X holding back the RTX 4070 in Barony?

A: No. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 468.3 FPS, which is far beyond typical display refresh rates. The CPU’s single-thread score of 3603 in Cinebench R23 and 1253 in 3DMark single-thread indicates it can feed the GPU adequately even at extreme frame rates.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 as the most balanced choice. High settings at 1440p deliver 191.2 FPS, while Ultra at the same resolution yields 137.4 FPS—both comfortably above 120 FPS. At 4K, only Low settings (158 FPS) and Medium (112.4 FPS) exceed 100 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070’s average benchmark score of 37283 puts it 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507) and 2.2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135). It leads the AMD Radeon RX 5300M (36371) by 2.5%.

Q: Does the 6-core CPU limit performance in this roguelike?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X scores 25525 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 30027 in PassMark multithread, ranking in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. The measured FPS at 1440p High (191.2) and 1080p High (297.3) suggest no CPU limitation, as frame rates scale smoothly with resolution.

Q: What happens to frame rates when going from Medium to Ultra at 4K?

A: Medium averages 112.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 69.3 FPS—a 38.4% reduction. This is the largest settings-to-settings gap in the entire dataset, indicating that Ultra’s extra effects are disproportionately expensive at 4K.

Q: Is the 12 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K in Barony?

A: The measured 4K results show no signs of VRAM-related stuttering or crashes. The 12 GB GDDR6X with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth handles all presets, with the lowest result being 69.3 FPS at Ultra, which is more a compute limitation than a memory capacity issue.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, built on the AD104 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture, is the dominant factor in Barony’s performance outside of the lowest resolution and settings. Its boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1920 MHz drive 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, which together produce a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s. These specifications align with the observed scaling: the texture-heavy nature of roguelike environments benefits from the high texture rate, while the 64 ROPs become a constraint at 4K Ultra where pixel fill demands spike.

The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth across a 192-bit bus. At 4K, the difference between Medium (112.4 FPS) and High (97.9 FPS) is 14.5 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra (69.3 FPS) is 28.6 FPS—double the previous increment. This suggests that Ultra settings load additional memory-heavy effects that saturate the 192-bit bus, making bandwidth the limiting factor rather than raw compute. In contrast, at 1080p, the same Ultra-to-High gap is 85.5 FPS (297.3 to 211.8), showing that at lower resolutions the GPU has spare bandwidth and the bottleneck shifts to shading throughput.

The RTX 4070’s 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 158.4 GPixel/s fill rate are sufficient to push 1440p High to 191.2 FPS. The GPU’s percentile rank of 81 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37283, places it within striking distance of the RX Vega 56 (37507) and RTX 4080 Mobile (38135), yet it consistently outperforms the RX 5300M (36371) by 2.5% in synthetic tests. In actual Barony gameplay, the GPU’s directx 12 benchmark score of 103 and passmark g3d score of 26927 indicate strong DirectX 12 support, which aligns with the game’s modern rendering requirements.

Settings Recommendations

For players prioritizing smoothness at 4K, the data shows Medium settings as the optimal choice. The 112.4 FPS average at 3840x2160 Medium exceeds High’s 97.9 FPS by 14.5 FPS, and the difference from Low (158 FPS) is 45.6 FPS, meaning Medium offers a substantial visual upgrade over Low while maintaining triple-digit frame rates. Ultra at 4K falls to 69.3 FPS, which is below the 70 FPS threshold that many players consider minimum for responsive gameplay, making it an unreasonable choice for this resolution.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts to High settings. The 191.2 FPS average at High is only 31.5 FPS lower than Low’s 298.5 FPS, but it provides a significant visual fidelity increase. Ultra at 1440p still achieves 137.4 FPS, which is perfectly playable, but the 53.8 FPS gap between High and Ultra suggests diminishing returns—players gain little visual benefit for a 28.1% performance hit. Medium at 1440p (222.7 FPS) is a valid alternative for those seeking maximum frame rates, but High’s balance of quality and speed makes it the standout preset.

At 1080p, the choice depends on the display’s refresh rate. For 144Hz monitors, Ultra at 211.8 FPS is viable, while High at 297.3 FPS offers headroom for 240Hz displays. Low’s 468.3 FPS is overkill for any current display, and Medium’s 348.1 FPS sits between the two. The data suggests that High at 1080p is the most practical default, as it exceeds 240 FPS while maintaining better visual quality than Medium. For esports-focused play, Ultra at 1080p still clears 200 FPS, making it a reasonable choice for those who prioritize image quality over marginal frame rate gains.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows a clear hierarchy: Low averages 468.3 FPS, Medium 348.1 FPS, High 297.3 FPS, and Ultra 211.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 120.2 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 50.8 FPS, and High to Ultra is 85.5 FPS. This uneven spacing indicates that the Medium preset provides the largest performance jump from Low, while High offers the smallest incremental cost. The 1080p results are consistently GPU-limited, as the CPU’s single-thread performance of 3603 in Cinebench R23 is more than sufficient for the game’s logic.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 298.5 FPS (Low), 222.7 FPS (Medium), 191.2 FPS (High), and 137.4 FPS (Ultra). The percentage drops from 1080p are 36.2% for Low, 36.0% for Medium, 35.7% for High, and 35.1% for Ultra—nearly identical across settings, confirming that resolution scaling is linear and GPU-bound. The 1440p High result of 191.2 FPS is particularly notable because it remains above the 144Hz refresh rate that is common on 1440p monitors, while Ultra’s 137.4 FPS is just below it.

At 3840x2160, the results compress significantly: Low hits 158 FPS, Medium 112.4 FPS, High 97.9 FPS, and Ultra 69.3 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 47.1% for Low, 49.5% for Medium, 48.8% for High, and 49.6% for Ultra. This near-uniform ~49% reduction across all settings reinforces that 4K is purely GPU-bound, with no CPU influence. The 97.9 FPS at High and 112.4 FPS at Medium are both above 90 FPS, making 4K playable at these settings, but Ultra’s 69.3 FPS is the only sub-70 FPS result in the entire dataset. The RTX 4070’s 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K, but the 64 ROPs and 158.4 GPixel/s pixel rate create a hard ceiling at the highest preset.