Barony

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a performance profile in Barony that is heavily dictated by resolution and preset selection, with the data revealing a system capable of extreme frame rates at lower resolutions but showing clear scaling limitations as pixel count rises. This combination ranks in the 2262nd position out of 3717 tested combos in this title, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database despite the high-end components involved. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the twelve tested configurations show a pattern consistent with a game that becomes increasingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while at 1080p the CPU's headroom allows the RTX 4090 to stretch its legs.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic and predictable decline in average FPS across all settings presets, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly depending on the quality level. At the Low preset, the average frame rate falls from 245 FPS at 1080p to 129 FPS at 4K, representing a reduction of approximately 47% when doubling the linear resolution. This substantial decrease indicates that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is being pushed hard enough at 4K to become the primary limiting factor, though the absolute values remain remarkably high for a roguelike title.

The Medium preset shows a similar scaling pattern, with average FPS dropping from 211 at 1080p to 147 at 1440p and finally to 87 at 4K. The step from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, representing a 40.8% reduction in average FPS, which suggests that the memory bandwidth and raw pixel throughput of the RTX 4090 are being taxed considerably at the higher resolution. The High preset follows this trend with averages of 180, 124, and 73 FPS across the three resolutions, showing a 59.4% drop from 1080p to 4K.

Ultra settings produce the lowest absolute frame rates but reveal the most interesting scaling behavior. At 1080p, the Ultra preset achieves 137 FPS average, which drops to 94 FPS at 1440p and then to 56 FPS at 4K. The decline from 1080p to 4K here is 59.1%, nearly identical to the High preset's drop, indicating that the game's Ultra settings impose a consistent computational load that scales predictably with resolution. The data suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the system retains enough headroom that the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads can feed the GPU adequately, but at 4K the RTX 4090's pixel fill rate and shading capabilities become the bottleneck.

The frame time consistency, where measured, reinforces this interpretation. At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS of 74 against an average of 87 shows a spread of 13 FPS, while at 1440p Medium the minimum is 125 against an average of 147 (a 22 FPS spread), and at 1080p Medium the minimum is 179 versus an average of 211 (a 32 FPS spread). This widening gap between minimum and average FPS as resolution decreases suggests that lower resolutions allow more CPU-driven frame time variation to surface, while at 4K the GPU's consistent workload smooths out some of those fluctuations.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this CPU and GPU combination in Barony?*

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 245, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. This is the only configuration in the measured data that exceeds 240 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 perform at 4K Ultra settings in this game?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system delivers an average FPS of 56. This is the lowest average frame rate recorded across all twelve tested configurations, indicating that Ultra 4K is the most demanding scenario for this combination.

Q: Is there a significant performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: Yes, the difference is substantial. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 216 FPS while Ultra averages 94 FPS, representing a 56.5% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1080p?

A: The minimum FPS for 1920x1080 Medium is 179, with a maximum of 242 and an average of 211. This shows that even at the frame rate floor, the system maintains a high level of performance.

Q: Does the combination rank higher or lower than average in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2262 out of 3717 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 39.2% of all tested systems. This is notable given the high-end nature of both the CPU and GPU.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination delivers the most balanced performance?

A: The 2560x1440 High preset, averaging 124 FPS, offers a strong balance between visual quality and frame rate. Alternatively, 1920x1080 Medium at 211 FPS average provides very high performance with moderate quality.

How This Combo Ranks

The ranking of 2262 out of 3717 total tested combinations places this AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and RTX 4090 pairing in the 39.2nd percentile of all systems tested in Barony. This is a surprisingly low position for hardware that individually ranks high in synthetic benchmarks; the CPU holds an 85th percentile ranking against all processors, and the GPU sits in the 88th percentile against all graphics cards. The discrepancy between component-level rankings and the in-game combo ranking suggests that Barony's engine may not fully utilize the capabilities of this hardware, or that the game's performance is constrained by factors other than raw computational power.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database's average benchmark scores include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 with a 0.3% higher average score, the Intel Core 7 250H with a 0.5% higher score, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 with a 0.5% higher score. These very small deltas indicate that the Ryzen 7 7700X is positioned in a tightly clustered performance band, where minor architectural differences translate to sub-1% variations in synthetic scores. The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H sits 0.7% higher, further confirming that this CPU is competitive with but not dominant over its nearest alternatives.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals show even tighter clustering. The Intel Arc Pro A60 matches the RTX 4090's average benchmark score with a 0% delta, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 0.3% lower. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% higher, and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 is 2.9% lower. This grouping suggests that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4090's average score of 60347 is positioned within a narrow range of professional and workstation-class GPUs, though these rivals are not directly comparable in gaming performance due to different driver optimizations and feature sets.

The fact that a system with this hardware ranks in the lower half of Barony combinations implies that the game may be more sensitive to other system attributes, such as memory configuration or storage speed, or that the game's single-threaded nature limits the benefit of the CPU's 16 threads. The CPU's single-thread benchmark scores, including a 3DMark single-thread score of 1090 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1987, are respectable but may not be the dominant factor in this title's performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its highest performance ceiling. The Low preset averages 245 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield an average of 211 FPS with a minimum of 179 and a maximum of 242, showing the system can maintain high frame rates even with some quality enhancements. High settings reduce the average to 180 FPS, while Ultra settings bring it down to 137 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 44.1% reduction in average FPS, moving from 245 to 137.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are consistent but the absolute values remain high. Low settings average 216 FPS, which is only 11.8% lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 147 FPS with a spread from 125 to 169, representing a 30.3% reduction from the 1080p Medium average. High settings average 124 FPS, down 31.1% from the 1080p High result. Ultra settings average 94 FPS, a 31.4% reduction from the 1080p Ultra average. This consistency in percentage drops across presets suggests that the resolution scaling is uniform, with each preset experiencing roughly a 30% performance penalty when moving from 1080p to 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the performance penalty becomes more severe. Low settings average 129 FPS, which is 47.3% lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 and maximum of 100, representing a 58.8% reduction from the 1080p Medium average. High settings average 73 FPS, down 59.4% from the 1080p High result. Ultra settings average 56 FPS, a 59.1% reduction from the 1080p Ultra average. The near-identical percentage drops for Medium, High, and Ultra from 1080p to 4K (58.8%, 59.4%, and 59.1% respectively) indicate that these presets impose similar relative workloads at 4K, while Low settings show a slightly smaller penalty of 47.3%.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 brings substantial resources to this game, including 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The GPU's memory clock operates at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective transfer rate, while the core runs at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These specifications, combined with 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines, provide the raw throughput necessary to handle Barony's rendering demands across all tested resolutions.

The GPU's architecture, Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm TSMC process, includes 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, though these features are likely underutilized in a roguelike title that does not heavily employ ray tracing or DLSS. The FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s indicate the card's capacity for traditional rasterization, which is the primary workload in this game. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s becomes increasingly relevant at 4K, where the GPU must fill over 8 million pixels per frame.

The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4090's performance ceiling is not fully reached until the resolution and settings demand it. At 1080p Low, the 245 FPS average suggests the GPU is not the limiting factor, as the CPU's frame generation capability caps the output. However, at 4K Ultra, the 56 FPS average indicates the GPU is being pushed to its limits, with the 24 GB memory buffer and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth proving adequate but the shading and rasterization pipelines becoming the bottleneck. The GPU's average benchmark score of 60347 and 88th percentile ranking against all GPUs confirm its high-end positioning, though in Barony the in-game performance does not reflect this dominance as strongly as synthetic tests might suggest.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X provides 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, running at a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This CPU, built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die, includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provides the data throughput necessary to keep the RTX 4090 fed at lower resolutions.

The CPU's benchmark results show a strong multi-threaded capability, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19088 and a 3DMark 16-thread score of 8859. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1987 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2289. The Passmark multithread score of 35686 and single-thread score of 4190 place the CPU in the 85th percentile against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 35909.

In Barony, the CPU's role appears to be most significant at 1080p, where the GPU has enough headroom that the CPU's frame generation rate becomes the limiting factor. The fact that the 1080p Low average of 245 FPS is higher than the 1080p Medium average of 211 FPS suggests that lower settings reduce the CPU's per-frame work, allowing it to push more frames. However, the CPU's 16 threads may not be fully utilized in this roguelike, as the game likely has a primary simulation thread that benefits most from single-thread performance. The CPU's boost clock of 5.40 GHz and single-thread scores indicate it should handle this workload well, but the ranking of 2262 out of 3717 combos suggests that other tested systems may have better optimized configurations for this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience in Barony with this hardware. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best combination of visual quality and performance, with an average of 211 FPS and a minimum of 179 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p, averaging 137 FPS, provides a substantial visual upgrade but at a 35.1% performance cost compared to Medium, which may not be worthwhile given the already high frame rates.

For 2560x1440, the High preset appears to be the optimal choice, delivering an average of 124 FPS. This provides a solid balance, as the Medium preset at 147 FPS offers only marginal visual improvements over Low at 216 FPS, while the Ultra preset at 94 FPS approaches the threshold where frame pacing could become noticeable on high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset's 124 FPS average is sufficient for smooth gameplay and represents a good compromise between quality and responsiveness.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset with its 87 FPS average and 74 FPS minimum is the recommended configuration. The High preset at 73 FPS average drops below the 75 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay, while Ultra at 56 FPS average may introduce noticeable stutter in fast-paced roguelike action. The Low preset at 129 FPS offers the highest frame rate at 4K but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a game where readability of the environment is important. The Medium preset at 4K provides a playable frame rate while maintaining enough detail to render the game's procedural dungeons effectively.