Barony

# Barony with AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers a compelling performance profile in Barony, a roguelike title that proves surprisingly demanding at higher resolutions. This combination ranks 514th out of 3,717 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 14% of all configurations. The measured frame rates reveal a system that handles 1080p with extraordinary ease, yet the scaling curve from 1440p to 4K exposes where the graphics card begins to assert its influence over the CPU.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K in Barony is dramatic and telling. At Low settings, the system produces 550 FPS at 1920x1080, but this falls to 347 FPS at 2560x1440 — a reduction of 203 FPS or approximately 37%. Moving further to 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 181 FPS, which represents a 67% decline from the 1080p baseline. This steep scaling curve suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU and GPU are working in a balanced state, but the pixel throughput demands at 4K quickly become the limiting factor.

The Medium settings row tells a similar story with more granularity. From 409 FPS at 1080p, the average drops to 258 FPS at 1440p and then to 135 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K here is 123 FPS, which is larger than the 151 FPS gap between 1080p and 1440p in absolute terms but proportionally similar. What stands out is the min FPS data at Medium: at 1080p the minimum is 348 FPS, at 1440p it's 219 FPS, and at 4K it's 115 FPS. The consistency of frame delivery, measured by the spread between min and max, narrows as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU is becoming the bottleneck and smoothing out CPU-driven frame time spikes.

High settings reinforce this pattern. The 1080p average of 351 FPS drops to 222 FPS at 1440p and 116 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is approximately 67%, which mirrors the Low preset's scaling. This consistency across settings suggests that resolution scaling in Barony is primarily a function of pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth rather than compute shader complexity. The RTX 4070 Ti's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 208.8 GPixel/s pixel rate are the specifications that dictate these limits, and the data shows they are being fully utilized at 4K.

Ultra settings provide the clearest evidence of GPU-bound behavior. The average FPS falls from 252 at 1080p to 159 at 1440p and 83 at 4K. The 4K Ultra figure of 83 FPS is barely above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a 47.8% performance hit. This is a larger relative drop than seen in the Low preset, which suggests that Ultra settings introduce additional GPU workload that scales superlinearly with resolution — likely due to increased shader complexity and texture filtering demands that multiply with pixel count.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 514 out of 3,717 tested combinations places this system in the 86th percentile of all configurations tested in Barony. This is a strong showing, but it is not a top-tier result. The rank reflects the balance between the Ryzen 7 7700's processing power and the RTX 4070 Ti's graphics throughput, and the data suggests that while this combo excels at high refresh rate 1080p and 1440p gaming, it is not optimized for 4K Ultra experiences.

The CPU's individual percentile rank is 87th among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 84th percentile among all GPUs. This near-match in percentile positioning indicates a well-balanced pairing — neither component is dramatically over- or under-powered relative to the other. However, the combo rank in Barony being lower than both individual component percentiles suggests that this specific game does not fully utilize the strengths of either part. Barony's roguelike genre typically involves procedural generation and simulation logic, which may create CPU workloads that are bursty rather than sustained, and the GPU may spend cycles waiting on game logic updates.

Comparing to the CPU's nearest rivals provides context for its role in this combo. The Ryzen 7 7700 has an average benchmark score of 40,081, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core 5 221E. The AMD Ryzen 9 270 and Intel Core i9-13905H score 0.4% and 0.6% higher respectively. These sub-1% differences mean that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would produce nearly identical frame rates in Barony — the game is not CPU-limited at the resolutions tested, except possibly at 1080p Low where 550 FPS approaches the limits of what any processor can feed to the GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC. The chip contains 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 121.8 million per mm². The GPU operates at a base clock of 2310 MHz and boosts to 2610 MHz, which are high frequencies that contribute to the impressive frame rates seen in the benchmarks. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory runs at 1313 MHz with a 21 Gbps effective data rate across a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 550 FPS — a figure that likely pushes against CPU draw call limits or game engine frame pacing constraints rather than GPU compute limits. The RTX 4070 Ti's 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than sufficient for the geometry and lighting workloads at this resolution. But at 4K Ultra, the 83 FPS average reveals the GPU working near its capacity. The 208.8 GPixel/s pixel rate and 626.4 GTexel/s texture rate are the specifications that determine how quickly the card can fill the 8.3 million pixels of a 4K frame, and the data indicates these resources are fully committed at that setting.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,024 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 213,808 show strong DirectX 12 and Vulkan performance, which are relevant to Barony's rendering path. The PassMark G3D score of 31,624 places the GPU at the 84th percentile overall. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile, scores 45,152 — 0.8% higher — while the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 45,384 at 1.3% higher. These rival comparisons indicate the RTX 4070 Ti is positioned in a dense performance cluster where small percentage differences translate to minor frame rate variations in practice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4070 Ti paired with the Ryzen 7 7700 produces exceptional frame rates across all settings. The Low preset averages 550 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium averages 409 FPS with a minimum of 348 FPS and maximum of 470 FPS, showing a 122 FPS spread that indicates occasional frame time spikes likely from game logic or asset streaming. High averages 351 FPS, and Ultra averages 252 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 54.2% performance reduction, which is the smallest relative drop across all resolutions — evidence that the GPU has ample headroom at this resolution and the CPU is the primary constraint.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show GPU influence. Low averages 347 FPS, Medium averages 258 FPS with a min of 219 FPS and max of 297 FPS, High averages 222 FPS, and Ultra averages 159 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36.9% at Low, 36.9% at Medium, 36.8% at High, and 36.9% at Ultra — remarkably consistent across settings. This uniformity suggests that the resolution scaling penalty is purely pixel-count driven, not shader-complexity driven, since the relative drop does not change with preset.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low averages 181 FPS, Medium averages 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS and maximum of 155 FPS, High averages 116 FPS, and Ultra averages 83 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows drops of 47.8% at Low, 47.7% at Medium, 47.7% at High, and 47.8% at Ultra. The consistent 47.8% reduction across presets is notable — it indicates that the 4K penalty is independent of settings, which is unusual because more complex settings typically amplify resolution costs. This could mean Barony's rendering pipeline is fill-rate limited at 4K regardless of quality level.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 7000 series based on Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael. It operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The CPU has a 65 W TDP, which is modest for an 8-core part, and it includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes from the CPU.

In Barony, the CPU's performance is most evident at 1080p Low settings where the system achieves 550 FPS. This figure likely approaches the engine's frame rate ceiling or the CPU's ability to issue draw calls and update game state. The Ryzen 7 7700's single-thread performance, measured at 1,049 in 3DMark single-thread and 1,930 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is critical for roguelike games that often have a primary simulation thread. The multi-thread scores are also strong: 8,484 in 3DMark 16-thread, 8,479 in max-threads, and 18,760 in Cinebench R23 multi-core.

The CPU's 87th percentile ranking among all CPUs is supported by its benchmark scores. The PassMark multithread score of 34,470 and single-thread score of 4,063 indicate balanced performance across both single- and multi-threaded workloads. The Geekbench scores of 15,371 multi-core and 2,525 single-core reinforce this. The nearest CPU rivals are all within 0.6% in average benchmark score, which means that in Barony — a game that is not heavily CPU-bound at higher resolutions — the choice of CPU among these alternatives would yield imperceptible frame rate differences.

At 4K Ultra, the CPU's role diminishes significantly. The 83 FPS average is less than half of the 1080p Ultra figure of 252 FPS, and the GPU is clearly the limiting component. The Ryzen 7 7700's 32 MB of L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient to feed the GPU's demand at 4K, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 2,043 and 4-thread score of 3,931 suggest that Barony's threading model, which likely uses a handful of threads for game logic and rendering, is well-served by this processor's per-core performance.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average FPS is 550, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the peak of the dataset and indicates the system is capable of extremely high refresh rate gaming at 1080p.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 83 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold but below the 100+ FPS figures seen at lower resolutions. The frame rate at 4K Ultra is 67% lower than the 1080p Ultra average of 252 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K, where the average FPS drops to 83 at Ultra settings. At 1080p Low, the 550 FPS average suggests the CPU may be the limiting factor, as the GPU is likely capable of higher frame rates. The consistent 47.8% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings points to GPU fill-rate limitations.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset provides the only min/max FPS data in the dataset. At 1080p, the range is 348 to 470 FPS; at 1440p, it's 219 to 297 FPS; and at 4K, it's 115 to 155 FPS. The spread narrows as resolution increases, indicating more consistent frame delivery when the GPU is the bottleneck.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 514th out of 3,717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 14% of all configurations. The GPU is at the 84th percentile among all GPUs, and the CPU is at the 87th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: Does the combo perform better at 1440p or 1080p for competitive play?

A: For competitive play, 1080p offers higher frame rates — up to 550 FPS at Low settings — while 1440p still delivers 347 FPS at Low. Both resolutions far exceed the refresh rate of typical gaming monitors, so the choice depends on visual quality preference rather than competitive advantage.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings in Barony. At 1920x1080, every preset delivers playable frame rates, with even Ultra averaging 252 FPS. The recommended choice at 1080p is High settings, which averages 351 FPS — a 39.2% improvement over Ultra while still maintaining high visual fidelity. The jump from Low to High costs 199 FPS (from 550 to 351), but the visual upgrade is substantial. Medium settings at 409 FPS offer a middle ground, but High provides the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts to Medium settings. The Medium preset averages 258 FPS with a minimum of 219 FPS, ensuring no frame drops below the 144 Hz refresh rate common on 1440p monitors. High settings at 222 FPS are also viable, but the 36 FPS difference between Medium and High may be noticeable in fast-paced scenes. Ultra at 159 FPS is playable but leaves less headroom for frame time spikes. The data suggests that Medium or High at 1440p is the sweet spot, with Medium offering the most consistent minimum frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the recommendations change dramatically. Ultra settings at 83 FPS are borderline for smooth gameplay, and the lack of min FPS data in the dataset means frame drops could push below 60 FPS. High settings at 116 FPS provide a safer margin and are the recommended choice for 4K. Medium at 135 FPS offers even more headroom, but the visual difference between Medium and High in a roguelike game with procedurally generated environments may be less critical than in other genres. The Low preset at 181 FPS is viable for players prioritizing frame rate above all else, but the visual compromises are significant. For the best overall 4K experience, High settings deliver 116 FPS average, which is nearly double the Ultra figure and provides sufficient headroom for demanding scenes.