Barony

# Barony with AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

Barony, a roguelike from 2015, presents an unusual benchmark scenario: the game is CPU-bound at lower resolutions, but the RTX 4080 SUPER's immense rasterization power still pushes frame rates that rival high-refresh displays. The measured data reveals a system that delivers playable performance across all tested configurations, but the scaling behavior between presets and resolutions tells a more nuanced story about where the bottleneck truly lies.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals a system transitioning from CPU-limited to GPU-limited territory. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 599.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 199.5 FPS at 3840x2160 — a 66.7% reduction. This massive drop indicates that at 1080p Low, the Ryzen 5 9600X is the limiting component, holding the RTX 4080 SUPER back from even higher frame rates. The GPU simply cannot stretch its legs at lower resolutions when the CPU can feed it data at such a rapid pace.

Moving to High settings, the scaling pattern shifts. The 382.2 FPS at 1080p drops to 240.8 FPS at 1440p, then further to 123.8 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure represents a 67.6% reduction from 1080p, which is nearly identical to the Low preset's drop. This consistency suggests that at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck regardless of settings — the pixel throughput demand overwhelms the RTX 4080 SUPER's capabilities.

The Ultra preset shows the most extreme scaling: 273.7 FPS at 1080p, 170.3 FPS at 1440p, and just 89.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is 67.4% lower than 1080p Ultra, again showing that resolution scaling dominates once the GPU is saturated. Interestingly, the percentage drops across all presets are remarkably similar, indicating that Barony's rendering workload scales almost linearly with pixel count when the GPU is the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for Barony's roguelike visuals. The card's 10240 shading units and 80 RT cores — while overkill for a game from 2015 — ensure that even at 4K Ultra, the average frame rate stays above 89 FPS. The GPU's 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is never fully taxed, as evidenced by the CPU-bound behavior at 1080p Low where the GPU cannot reach its full potential.

The boost clock of 2550 MHz, combined with the base clock of 2295 MHz, allows the card to maintain high throughput during extended sessions. Barony's procedurally generated dungeons with their varied lighting and particle effects benefit from the card's 320 TMUs and 112 ROPs, which handle texture filtering and pixel output efficiently. The 285.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for this game's visual complexity.

Interestingly, the RTX 4080 SUPER's performance relative to its nearest rivals shows a tight grouping. The card sits 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, but trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 2.9%. These small deltas suggest that within this performance class, the GPU choice matters less than the CPU pairing for Barony's measured results.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 9600X, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, demonstrates why core count matters less than single-thread performance in Barony. The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz and 32 MB of L3 cache provide the kind of low-latency responsiveness that roguelike games with their frequent state changes and pathfinding calculations demand. The 3.90 GHz base clock ensures consistent performance even under sustained load.

The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce its strength: a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3603 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3363 place it among the top processors for lightly threaded workloads. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1253 and 2-thread score of 2456 show that Barony's primary thread benefits significantly from the CPU's high clock speeds and Zen 5 architecture's improved instruction handling.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 9600X is 0.3% faster than the Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230, but 0.4% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and 0.5% slower than the Intel Core i5-14500T. These negligible differences in average benchmark scores suggest that the CPU is not the primary differentiator in Barony's performance — the GPU and settings choices matter more.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Ryzen 5 9600X and RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 128th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 7.5% of all systems. This is a strong showing, but the rank reveals something curious: despite having a top-tier GPU and a solid mid-range CPU, the combo does not crack the top 100. The data suggests that Barony's performance ceiling is limited by its CPU dependency at lower resolutions, meaning that combos with even faster CPUs but weaker GPUs might rank higher.

The 1702 total combos tested indicate a broad database of systems, and the 128th rank means this setup outperforms over 92% of tested configurations. However, the gap between this rank and the top positions likely stems from the CPU's 6-core/12-thread configuration — systems with 8 or more cores may handle Barony's background tasks more efficiently, even if their single-thread performance is similar. The combo's percentile standing, while impressive, does not reflect the RTX 4080 SUPER's full potential in this game.

FAQ

Q: Why does the FPS drop so significantly from 1080p to 4K?

A: The drop of 66-67% across all presets indicates the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K. At 1080p Low, the CPU limits performance to 599.9 FPS, but at 4K the GPU's pixel throughput demand reduces average frame rates to between 89.1 and 199.5 FPS depending on settings.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER overkill for Barony?

A: The data shows the GPU is not fully utilized at 1080p, where the CPU constrains performance. However, at 4K Ultra the card still manages 89.1 FPS, proving it handles even the heaviest settings without dropping below playable thresholds.

Q: How does this combo compare to other systems in the database?

A: It ranks 128th out of 1702 combos, placing it in the top 7.5%. The CPU's average benchmark score of 28246 is 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i5-13490F and 0.5% lower than the Intel Core i5-14500T.

Q: What settings should I use for 4K gaming?

A: At 4K, High settings deliver 123.8 FPS, while Ultra drops to 89.1 FPS. Medium at 147.2 FPS offers a good middle ground with only a 19% performance penalty compared to Low.

Q: Does the CPU matter more than the GPU in Barony?

A: At 1080p, yes — the CPU limits performance to 599.9 FPS at Low settings, meaning a faster CPU would improve results. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as shown by the consistent FPS drops across all presets.

Q: Can this system handle 1440p high-refresh monitors?

A: Yes, at 1440p High the combo delivers 240.8 FPS and even Ultra reaches 170.3 FPS, both well above 144Hz refresh rates. The Low preset at 379 FPS exceeds 360Hz monitors' capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates: 599.9 FPS on Low, 442.3 FPS on Medium, 382.2 FPS on High, and 273.7 FPS on Ultra. These numbers indicate that even at Ultra, the game runs far above any current display's refresh rate, making 1080p a resolution where the CPU's 5.40 GHz boost clock and 12 threads are the primary performance drivers.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high: 379 FPS on Low, 280.1 FPS on Medium, 240.8 FPS on High, and 170.3 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p Ultra result still exceeds 144Hz displays, and even the most demanding preset shows no signs of stuttering or frame pacing issues.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops become more pronounced: 199.5 FPS on Low, 147.2 FPS on Medium, 123.8 FPS on High, and 89.1 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result, while lower than other presets, remains above 60 FPS and demonstrates that the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of VRAM and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth handle 4K textures without memory pressure.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K gaming, High settings provide the best balance between visual quality and performance at 123.8 FPS. Ultra at 89.1 FPS is still playable but offers diminishing returns given the small visual difference between High and Ultra in Barony's stylized roguelike aesthetic.

At 1440p, Ultra settings at 170.3 FPS are the clear choice — the performance headroom is so large that there is no reason to compromise on visuals. The Medium preset at 280.1 FPS and High at 240.8 FPS both exceed 240Hz refresh rates, but Ultra's 170.3 FPS still comfortably beats 144Hz displays.

For 1080p, the data suggests that even Ultra at 273.7 FPS is far beyond what any display can show. The Low preset's 599.9 FPS is theoretically useful only for competitive play where maximum frame pacing matters, but for most users, Ultra at 1080p is the sensible recommendation given the game's low graphical demands. The measured results consistently show that this combo never drops below 89 FPS in any tested configuration, making it a robust choice for Barony regardless of resolution or settings preferences.