Barony

Barony is a roguelike that leans on procedural generation and fast-paced first-person dungeon crawling, and the measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination reveals a system that utterly demolishes the game's graphical demands. The benchmark results show a setup that is far more powerful than what this title requires, pushing frame rates into the triple digits even at 4K. The data indicates that the primary challenge here is not achieving playability, but rather selecting a settings preset that balances the excessive headroom against the desire for visual fidelity, without ever dipping below the high refresh rate territory that this hardware can easily sustain.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for the four tested presets across each resolution, and the data suggests that the Ultra preset is the only one that meaningfully challenges this hardware. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 81.5 FPS, while the High preset jumps to 111.8 FPS, a significant leap that indicates the Ultra preset is introducing a heavy load, likely through advanced shading or post-processing effects. The Medium preset sits between them at 125.8 FPS, and Low at 169.6 FPS shows the ceiling of performance scaling when the GPU is less burdened.

The best experience per the measured rows is the High preset, particularly for players with high refresh rate displays. At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 208.6 FPS, which is above the 144Hz threshold and leaves ample room for the frame rate to remain smooth during chaotic moments with multiple enemies or destructible environments. While the Ultra preset at 1440p produces 152.1 FPS, it is still a commendable figure, but the High preset’s 208.6 FPS offers a more stable buffer against sudden drops. At 1920x1080, the High preset’s 333.6 FPS is so far beyond the refresh rate of any mainstream monitor that the Ultra preset’s 240.9 FPS becomes the more sensible choice, as it provides a more visually detailed image while still remaining well above 200 FPS. The data implies that the Ultra preset is poorly optimized for this game's engine, as the performance cost from High to Ultra is disproportionately large compared to the visual upgrade from Medium to High.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is a desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture on a 5 nm process. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, and its benchmark scores reflect a strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performer. In the context of Barony, which is a roguelike that likely relies on single-thread performance for game logic, enemy AI, and procedural generation, the CPU’s capabilities are more than sufficient. The 3dmark_single_thread score of 1049 and the passmark_single_thread score of 4063 indicate that the chip has excellent per-core strength, which is crucial for maintaining consistent frame pacing in a game that might have unpredictable computational spikes when generating new levels.

The CPU’s 3dmark_16_threads score of 8484 and the cinebench_r23_multicore score of 29302 suggest that even if Barony were to utilize multiple threads for physics or world streaming, the Ryzen 7 7700 has ample headroom. However, the measured FPS data shows that the performance is likely not CPU-bound at any resolution. For instance, at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 525.5 FPS. This extreme frame rate indicates that the game is running at a speed where the CPU is likely the limiting factor, but it is so high that it does not represent a bottleneck for practical use. The benchmark results show that the CPU is never a hindrance; instead, it is the GPU that dictates the performance scaling when moving between presets and resolutions, as the CPU’s raw speed ensures the render thread is never starved of data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2475 MHz, and it has 7168 shading units. The GPU’s role in Barony is entirely dominant, as the measured FPS data shows that performance scales dramatically with the resolution and settings, which are primarily GPU-centric variables. The VRAM capacity of 12 GB is more than adequate for a game of this visual complexity, as even at 4K Ultra, the data does not suggest any memory-related stuttering or frame drops, with an average of 81.5 FPS.

The GPU’s benchmark scores, such as the passmark_g3d score of 29995 and the 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 4627, place it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. This high percentile explains why the system can achieve 111.8 FPS at 4K High. The data implies that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary driver of the performance differences between the presets. For example, the drop from Low to Ultra at 4K sees the average FPS fall from 169.6 to 81.5, which is a reduction of over half the frame rate. This indicates that the Ultra preset is heavily taxing the GPU’s shader units and memory bandwidth, while the CPU continues to feed it frames without issue. The GPU is clearly the component that determines whether a player can enjoy the game at 4K Ultra or must settle for High to maintain a higher refresh rate.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 7700 and the RTX 4070 SUPER is placed at rank 320 out of 1702 tested combos in Barony. This puts it in the top 19% of all possible CPU-GPU pairings for this specific game, which is a strong showing given the game’s age and modest graphical requirements. The rank suggests that while there are many combinations that can run Barony well, this specific pairing offers a particularly high level of performance that is not necessary for the game but is certainly welcome for those who want to max out their monitor’s refresh rate.

The overall combo rank is likely influenced by the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance, as the Ryzen 7 7700 sits in the 91st percentile vs all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H, has an average score that is 0.1% lower, indicating that the 7700 is essentially at the top of its class for this type of workload. The GPU, in the 84th percentile, is also a high performer, but its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA RTX A6000, are within a 0.2% delta, showing that the RTX 4070 SUPER is competitive but not the absolute fastest. The data suggests that the rank of 320 is a result of the GPU being slightly less dominant relative to other top-tier cards, but the combination is still powerful enough to deliver exceptional frame rates in this roguelike.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and expected trend of declining performance as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop reveals the system’s capabilities. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the High preset averages fall from 333.6 FPS to 208.6 FPS, which is a 37.5% reduction in frame rate. This is a substantial drop that indicates the GPU is becoming more heavily loaded, but the resulting 208.6 FPS is still incredibly high. Moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the High preset average falls further to 111.8 FPS, a 46.4% reduction from the 1440p figure. The scaling is not linear, and the larger drop at higher resolutions is typical of a GPU that is running out of pixel throughput and fill rate.

The drop from 1080p to 4K for the High preset is 66.5%, from 333.6 to 111.8 FPS, which clearly points to the GPU as the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the same number of draw calls would be issued regardless of the output resolution. The fact that the FPS scales so heavily with resolution indicates that the RTX 4070 SUPER is doing the heavy lifting, and its 12 GB of VRAM and 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth are being taxed by the increased pixel count. The data suggests that 4K is the only resolution where this system might require a drop in settings to hit a consistent 144Hz, as the Ultra preset at 4K (81.5 FPS) is the only measured result below the 100 FPS threshold.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Barony?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 525.5, which occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, the data shows an average of 81.5 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is playable but not ideal for high refresh rate monitors.

Q: How much faster is the High preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 208.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 152.1 FPS, making High approximately 37% faster.

Q: Does this system have enough VRAM for Barony?

A: Yes, the RTX 4070 SUPER has 12 GB of VRAM, and the benchmark data does not indicate any performance issues or frame drops attributable to memory capacity in this game.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700 has a passmark_single_thread score of 4063, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H, has an average score that is 0.1% lower, indicating a very close but slightly superior single-thread performance.

Q: What is the frame rate at 1080p on Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings is 386.7, which is exceptionally high.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings preset combination, as provided by the benchmark data.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | ----------: |

| 3840x2160 | High | 111.8 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 169.6 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 125.8 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 81.5 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 208.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 328.2 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 242.7 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 152.1 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 333.6 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 525.5 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 386.7 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 240.9 |

The data reveals a consistent pattern where the Low preset offers the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, High, and then Ultra. The gap between High and Ultra is consistently larger than the gap between Medium and High, suggesting that the Ultra preset may include effects that are disproportionately expensive. For example, at 4K, the difference between Medium and High is 14 FPS (125.8 to 111.8), but the difference between High and Ultra is 30.3 FPS (111.8 to 81.5). This indicates that the Ultra preset is where the GPU's performance characteristics, such as its 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 554.4 GTexel/s texture rate, are pushed to their limits on this specific title.