Barony

Barony, a roguelike from 2015, presents an unusual stress test for modern hardware. The measured data for the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 shows extreme performance, but the frame rate trajectory across resolutions and settings reveals a system that is almost entirely GPU-bound at higher loads, yet surprisingly CPU-limited at the lowest settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly demonstrates where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 629 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 418.9 FPS, a reduction of roughly 33%. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 217.7 FPS. This steep decline indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU's workload is scaling significantly with resolution, but the sheer magnitude of the frame rates suggests the CPU is still keeping pace.

However, the pattern changes dramatically when looking at Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 305 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 192.1 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 102.5 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 66% performance drop, which is a more typical GPU-bound curve than the Low setting scaling. The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the Ryzen 7 5700X's single-thread performance is likely the limiting factor, preventing the RTX 4090 from pushing even higher. As resolution increases, the GPU becomes the primary constraint.

The difference between settings at the same resolution is also telling. At 4K, the gap between Low (217.7 FPS) and Ultra (102.5 FPS) is a factor of 2.1x. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces significant graphical effects that heavily tax the GPU, whereas the Low preset is more balanced. The 1080p data shows a smaller relative gap, with Low at 629 FPS and Ultra at 305 FPS, further reinforcing that the CPU is holding back the lower-setting results. The frame rates at 1440p represent the sweet spot where the CPU and GPU loads are more balanced, with a 2.2x difference between Low (418.9 FPS) and Ultra (192.1 FPS).

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of components ranks 58th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the top 3.4% of all configurations, which is a strong result for a game that is not particularly demanding on high-end hardware. The rank reflects the raw power of the RTX 4090, but it also shows that the Ryzen 7 5700X is not limiting the overall standing. If the CPU were a significant bottleneck, the combo would likely rank lower despite the powerful GPU.

The CPU itself, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, holds an 83rd percentile ranking against all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 26214. This is a high score, but the nearest rivals show a very tight cluster. The Intel Core i9-11900KF has a delta of 0.1% (a score of 26196), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT is 0.2% ahead (26161), and the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is -0.2% behind (26272). This indicates that while the 5700X is a top-tier processor, its performance is nearly identical to several other high-end options, meaning the combo's rank is likely driven more by the GPU's dominance.

The GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, ranks in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are data-center and professional cards like the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (delta -0.4%) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (delta -0.9%). This shows that the RTX 4090 is not just a gaming card; its raw compute power rivals professional workstation parts. In Barony, this translates to the high ranking, but the game's engine may not be structured to fully utilize the card's extreme capabilities at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a massive piece of silicon, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process. It carries 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This memory configuration is critical for high-resolution textures, but for a roguelike like Barony, it is likely overkill. The card's base clock is 2235 MHz, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and the memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective).

The benchmark data shows that the GPU's performance scales predictably with settings. At 4K, the jump from Low to Medium increases the average FPS from 217.7 to 160.4, and then to 137.8 at High, before dropping to 102.5 at Ultra. This progression suggests that the Ultra preset is using the GPU's shader and texture units to a much higher degree. The card has 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, which are the key components for rasterization. The high texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s are more than sufficient for this game.

The RTX 4090's FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS is extraordinary, but Barony likely does not use ray tracing or DLSS, so the 128 RT cores and 512 Tensor cores may be idle. This means the card is essentially running on its rasterization muscle alone, which is still enough to achieve over 100 FPS at 4K Ultra. The data indicates the GPU is the dominant component in the 4K Ultra scenario, where its capabilities are being stressed by the highest graphical load.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo's performance. At 1920x1080, the results are staggeringly high. With Low settings, the average is 629 FPS. Medium settings produce 495.7 FPS. High settings yield 421.9 FPS. Ultra settings still achieve an average of 305 FPS. These numbers are far beyond the refresh rate of any standard monitor, indicating the CPU is the bottleneck here, as the GPU is not being fully utilized.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high but show the GPU beginning to take on more work. Low settings drop to 418.9 FPS, Medium to 311.7 FPS, and High to 270.1 FPS. Ultra settings at this resolution produce 192.1 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is consistent, showing a linear increase in GPU load.

At 3840x2160, the results are still impressive but finally show a more traditional GPU-bound curve. Low settings average 217.7 FPS, Medium 160.4 FPS, and High 137.8 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K produce an average of 102.5 FPS. This is the only resolution where the Ultra preset dips below the 144 FPS threshold, indicating that 4K Ultra is the first configuration that truly challenges the RTX 4090. The data shows that for most resolutions and settings, this combo is overkill, but at 4K Ultra, it provides a high-refresh-rate experience.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the best experience depends on the target display. For a 1080p or 1440p monitor with a 240Hz or 360Hz refresh rate, the Ultra preset is the only one that will stress the GPU enough to make the frame rate meaningful. At 1080p Ultra, the 305 FPS average is still high, but it shows the GPU is working. At 1440p Ultra, the 192.1 FPS average is an ideal match for a high-end 144Hz or 165Hz monitor, providing a perfect balance of visual quality and smoothness.

For a 4K display, the situation is more nuanced. The High preset at 4K produces an average of 137.8 FPS, which is excellent for a 120Hz or 144Hz panel. The Ultra preset at 4K, with an average of 102.5 FPS, is still very playable and will satisfy users with a 120Hz VRR display, but it represents a 26% performance drop from High. The data suggests that High at 4K is the sweet spot for the best combination of visual fidelity and performance. The Medium preset at 4K, at 160.4 FPS, is also a strong choice if the user prefers to maximize frame rate over minor visual improvements. Given the game is a roguelike, the higher frame rates from lower settings are arguably more valuable for responsive gameplay, but the Ultra preset at 1440p provides the most visually complete package without sacrificing playability.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X is a Zen 3 (Vermeer) architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock is 3.40 GHz, and it boosts up to 4.60 GHz. This configuration is powerful, but its single-thread performance is what matters most in Barony, given the high frame rates observed. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score is 921, and its 2-thread score is 1821, showing that it has strong per-core performance.

The CPU benchmarks reveal its multi-threaded capabilities. It scores 6858 in 3DMark with 16 threads, and its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 22620, with a single-core score of 3193. The PassMark multithread score is 26612, while the single-thread score is 3385. These numbers indicate a balanced processor that can handle both single-threaded and heavily threaded workloads. In Barony, the game logic and physics are likely single-threaded, meaning the CPU's boost clock of 4.60 GHz is the critical factor.

The data suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is the limiting factor. The 629 FPS average is a high number, but it is likely capped by the CPU's ability to process the game's logic. The GPU has so much headroom that it is waiting for the CPU to feed it frames. As resolution increases, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, allowing the CPU to keep up. The 65W TDP of the 5700X is low, but it does not impact performance here, as the CPU is not being maxed out in most scenarios. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache also helps with game data access, contributing to its strong performance in this title.