Barony

# Barony with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + AMD Radeon RX 6600

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 produces a playable but not exceptional Barony experience, with measured performance placing this combination at rank 2274 out of 2935 tested combos. The data indicates a system that handles 1080p and 1440p comfortably, but the 4K Ultra preset drops below the 60 FPS threshold, revealing a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall ranking of this combo in Barony?

A: This combination ranks 2274th out of 2935 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems for this game. The percentile positions of both components — the CPU at 94th percentile and the GPU at 63rd percentile — suggest a significant imbalance where the processor far outperforms the graphics card.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 40, which falls short of 60 FPS. However, dropping to High settings at 4K yields an average of 55 FPS, nearly reaching the target. Medium settings at 4K produce a 64 FPS average with a minimum of 55 FPS, making it the highest preset that exceeds 60 FPS on average at this resolution.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69,996. It sits within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875), within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163), and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515). This places it in a tightly contested performance band.

Q: What is the GPU's synthetic benchmark standing relative to competitors?

A: The Radeon RX 6600 has an average benchmark score of 19,036. It essentially matches the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030, 0% delta), sits 0.1% behind the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19,049), and is 0.4% ahead of the RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954). The performance differences among these rivals are minimal.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for smooth gameplay?

A: At 1080p, all presets exceed 120 FPS on average, with Low reaching 262 FPS and Ultra at 120 FPS. At 1440p, High produces 106 FPS and Medium produces 123 FPS, while Ultra drops to 76 FPS. For 4K, Medium is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS on average at 64 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded performance?

A: The CPU scores 36,470 in Passmark multithread tests and 4,691 in single-thread tests. The multithread score reflects the 8-core, 16-thread configuration, while the single-thread score benefits from the 5.50 GHz boost clock. The ratio between these scores indicates strong scaling across cores.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the Zen 5 Granite Ridge architecture, built on a 4 nm TSMC process. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, and it carries 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 CPU lanes. This processor has a 65 W TDP and an unlocked multiplier, making it a power-efficient yet overclockable desktop part.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 9700F demonstrates strong integer and floating-point capabilities. Its Passmark integer math score is 120,788, floating point math is 77,955, and extended instructions reach 33,688. The single-thread score of 4,691 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating excellent per-core performance that benefits games with light threading. The multithread score of 36,470 shows robust scaling across the 16 threads, useful for background tasks and games that leverage multiple cores.

For Barony, a roguelike genre title, the CPU's role is less demanding than in modern AAA shooters. The high single-thread score suggests the processor can handle game logic, pathfinding, and procedural generation efficiently. The nearest rivals — the Ryzen 9 7940HX, Core i7-14700K, and Ryzen 9 7950X — all score within 0.9% of this chip, meaning that swapping among these would produce negligible differences in Barony's frame rates. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 63rd percentile indicates that the processor is not the limiting factor in this combination.

The 8-core configuration with 16 threads provides ample headroom for Barony's roguelike mechanics, which may involve complex state calculations and random generation. The 32 MB L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing memory latency. Given the measured FPS data, the CPU at 1080p Low (262 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (120 FPS) shows that even at lower resolutions where the CPU typically becomes the bottleneck, this processor keeps frame rates high enough to avoid constraining the GPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm TSMC process. It features 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation processors, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The GPU has a base clock of 1,626 MHz, a game clock of 2,044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2,491 MHz. It comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

The GPU's memory configuration of 8 GB at 14 Gbps effective speed provides 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is moderate by current standards. The FP32 performance is 8.928 TFLOPS, and the texture rate is 279.0 GTexel/s. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with modern graphics APIs. Its TDP is 132 W, requiring a 300 W suggested PSU. The GPU's synthetic benchmarks show a Passmark G3D score of 15,096 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 67,623, with the average benchmark score at 19,036 placing it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes increasingly important as resolution and settings rise. The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p, the GPU delivers 262 FPS at Low, 195 FPS at Medium, 168 FPS at High, and 120 FPS at Ultra. At 1440p, these figures drop to 166, 123, 106, and 76 FPS respectively. At 4K, the GPU produces 87, 64, 55, and 40 FPS for Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The drop from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra represents a reduction from 262 to 40 FPS, an 84.7% decrease, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The nearest GPU rivals — the Quadro K6000, RTX 4050 Mobile, and Tesla K20m — all score within 0.3% of the RX 6600 in synthetic benchmarks. This suggests that users with any of these cards would experience nearly identical performance in Barony. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for a roguelike game with relatively modest texture requirements, and the 128-bit bus does not appear to limit performance given the measured frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. Low settings produce 262 FPS average, Medium produces 195 FPS with a minimum of 166 and maximum of 224, High produces 168 FPS, and Ultra produces 120 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 54.2% reduction in average FPS, from 262 to 120, indicating that the GPU handles the increased graphical load but with diminishing returns at higher presets.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but show a noticeable step down. Low settings yield 166 FPS, Medium yields 123 FPS with a minimum of 105 and maximum of 142, High yields 106 FPS, and Ultra yields 76 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at each preset shows a reduction of roughly 36-37%: Low drops from 262 to 166, Medium from 195 to 123, High from 168 to 106, and Ultra from 120 to 76. This consistent percentage drop suggests a scaling factor tied to pixel count rather than a sudden bottleneck shift.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings produce 87 FPS, Medium produces 64 FPS with a minimum of 55 and maximum of 74, High produces 55 FPS, and Ultra produces 40 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe: Low drops from 166 to 87 (47.6% reduction), Medium from 123 to 64 (48.0% reduction), High from 106 to 55 (48.1% reduction), and Ultra from 76 to 40 (47.4% reduction). This uniform reduction pattern indicates that the GPU is consistently the limiting factor at 4K, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom across all presets.

The minimum FPS data points, available only for Medium settings, show that 1080p Medium has a minimum of 166 FPS, 1440p Medium has 105 FPS, and 4K Medium has 55 FPS. These minimums represent the worst-case frame times and suggest that even at 4K Medium, the system rarely drops below 55 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS target. The maximum FPS values for Medium settings are 224 at 1080p, 142 at 1440p, and 74 at 4K, showing a narrowing range as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank in Barony is 2274 out of 2935 tested combinations, placing it in the 22.5th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking is notably lower than the individual component percentiles — the CPU at 94th and the GPU at 63rd — which suggests that the combination's performance in Barony is heavily weighted toward the GPU's capabilities. The rank indicates that most other tested combos outperform this pairing in this specific game.

The mismatch between the CPU's high ranking and the GPU's moderate ranking explains the overall combo position. The Ryzen 7 9700F is a top-tier processor that would pair well with a more powerful GPU, but the RX 6600 holds the system back in GPU-intensive scenarios. For a roguelike game like Barony, which may not heavily utilize multi-threaded CPU performance, the GPU's limitations become the dominant factor in determining the combo's rank.

Given that the GPU sits at the 63rd percentile and the combo at approximately the 22.5th percentile of tested combos, the data implies that Barony's performance scales more strongly with GPU capability than with CPU capability. The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 0.9% of each other, so swapping the 9700F for a comparable processor would not meaningfully change the combo's ranking. Conversely, upgrading the GPU would likely produce a significant improvement in the combo's rank, as the measured FPS data shows the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For a consistent 60 FPS target across all resolutions, the measured data suggests different presets depending on the display resolution. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 120 FPS average, which is well above the target and provides the highest visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. At 1440p, the High preset produces 106 FPS, while Ultra produces 76 FPS, so High offers a comfortable margin above 60 FPS with better quality than Medium at 123 FPS.

At 4K, the Medium preset is the only option that maintains an average above 60 FPS, with 64 FPS and a minimum of 55 FPS. The High preset drops to 55 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS target, and Ultra drops to 40 FPS. For users prioritizing frame rate stability over visual fidelity, 4K Medium is the recommended preset, as it provides the best balance of image quality and performance from the measured rows.

If the user prefers to prioritize visual quality and has a 1440p display, the Ultra preset at 76 FPS is still playable and offers the highest fidelity. The data shows a clear trade-off: at each resolution, the step from High to Ultra reduces FPS by roughly 28-29% (from 168 to 120 at 1080p, from 106 to 76 at 1440p, and from 55 to 40 at 4K). This consistent reduction suggests that Ultra presets add significant graphical effects that impact the GPU, and users should consider whether the visual improvement justifies the frame rate penalty.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 262 at 1080p to 166 at 1440p (36.6% reduction) and then to 87 at 4K (47.6% reduction from 1440p). At Ultra settings, the drop is from 120 at 1080p to 76 at 1440p (36.7% reduction) and then to 40 at 4K (47.4% reduction from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across all presets indicate that the GPU is the limiting component throughout the resolution range.

If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar FPS values across resolutions at lower settings, as the CPU's workload does not scale with pixel count. Instead, the FPS drops proportionally with the number of pixels: 1080p has 2.07 million pixels, 1440p has 3.69 million, and 4K has 8.29 million. The ratio of FPS between resolutions roughly matches the inverse ratio of pixel counts, confirming that the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity are the primary constraints.

The data also shows that the gap between presets widens at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 142 FPS (262 versus 120), while at 4K, the difference is 47 FPS (87 versus 40). This indicates that at 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to render the more demanding Ultra settings without dropping below playable levels, but at 4K, the GPU is already near its limits even at Low settings, leaving less room for preset-based variation. The system is clearly GPU-bound, and the CPU's high single-thread performance ensures that it does not introduce additional bottlenecks at any tested resolution.