Barony

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Barony, a roguelike title that clearly favors high-refresh-rate displays. The data shows a system that scales predictably across resolutions, with performance remaining fluid even at 4K Ultra settings. This analysis breaks down the measured results, contextualizes the ranking against other tested combos, and examines the respective roles of the CPU and GPU in producing these outcomes.

Resolution Scaling

The performance trajectory from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the CPU’s headroom becoming apparent only at lower settings. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 550 FPS. This drops to 347 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 181 FPS at 3840x2160. The scaling from 1080p Low to 1440p Low represents a 36.9% reduction in frame rate, while moving from 1440p Low to 4K Low results in a 47.8% reduction. This steep decline as resolution increases points directly to the GPU’s pixel throughput becoming the limiting factor, as the CPU is capable of feeding frames far faster than the GPU can render at higher resolutions.

Under High settings, the pattern holds but with a less dramatic slope. The 1080p High average of 351 FPS falls to 222 FPS at 1440p (a 36.8% drop) and then to 116 FPS at 4K (a 47.7% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these proportional decreases across settings indicates that the rendering workload scales uniformly with pixel count, a typical characteristic for a game like Barony that does not appear to have unusually heavy compute shaders or ray tracing demands that would distort the scaling curve.

The most telling data point comes from comparing the Low and Ultra presets at each resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (550 FPS) and Ultra (252 FPS) is a factor of 2.18x. At 1440p, the gap narrows slightly to 2.18x as well (347 vs 159 FPS). At 4K, the ratio is 2.18x (181 vs 83 FPS). This remarkable consistency suggests that the game’s settings primarily affect GPU workload (shading, texture filtering, effects) rather than CPU-side simulation or draw calls. If the CPU were the bottleneck at lower resolutions, we would expect to see a smaller absolute difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p, as the CPU would cap the frame rate. Instead, the 1080p Low result of 550 FPS demonstrates the Ryzen 7 9700F is not holding the system back, even in this best-case scenario for the CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 7 9700F and RTX 4070 Ti achieves a rank of 378 out of 2935 combos for Barony. This places it in the top 12.9% of all tested systems, a strong showing that underscores the hardware’s capability for this title. The percentile ranking is more impressive than the raw FPS numbers alone might suggest, because many higher-ranked combos likely pair even more powerful GPUs with top-tier CPUs, and the gap in actual playable performance may be marginal given the already very high frame rates.

The rank also benefits from the CPU’s overall standing. The Ryzen 7 9700F holds a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 69,996. Its nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark list are the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (average score 69,875, 0.2% lower), the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163, 0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515, 0.7% lower), and the Intel Core i7-14700K (69,355, 0.9% lower). This cluster of results shows the 9700F is essentially performance-equivalent to these high-end desktop and mobile flagship parts in general compute tasks, which translates to a very capable gaming processor.

For the GPU, the RTX 4070 Ti sits at the 84th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44,795. Its nearest rivals in the GPU list are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152, 0.8% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT (45,384, 1.3% higher), the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (44,075, 1.6% lower), and the Intel Arc A730M (45,592, 1.7% higher). The tight grouping of these scores indicates that the RTX 4070 Ti is a solid mid-to-high-tier performer, and its 84th percentile rank is a good match for the CPU’s 94th percentile, resulting in a well-balanced system that avoids a severe bottleneck in either direction for this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the primary driver of frame rate in Barony, especially as resolution and settings increase. Its memory configuration includes 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. For a game like Barony, which is not known for massive texture packs or extreme memory hunger, 12 GB is ample, and the high bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory-intensive effects at 4K Ultra do not cause stuttering or frame drops. The measured minimum FPS of 115 at 4K Medium, compared to an average of 135, suggests the memory subsystem is handling the workload without major hitches.

The card’s clock speeds are also a factor. It operates at a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2610 MHz. These relatively high frequencies contribute to its raw compute throughput, which is rated at 40.09 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. This level of compute power is more than sufficient for the rendering demands of Barony at 4K, as evidenced by the 116 FPS average at 4K High. The card’s architecture, Ada Lovelace, and its 5 nm process node from TSMC allow for this performance within a 285 W TDP. The boost clock behavior in a real-world scenario will depend on thermal headroom, but the data suggests the card is hitting its expected performance targets.

The GPU’s role becomes most apparent when examining the scaling from Medium to Ultra. At 4K, the average FPS drops from 135 at Medium to 83 at Ultra, a 38.5% reduction. This is a significant hit, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces effects that heavily tax the GPU’s shading units and ROPs (80 ROPs). The transition from High to Ultra at 4K (116 to 83 FPS) is a 28.4% drop, which is also substantial. The RTX 4070 Ti is clearly the component that determines whether the system can maintain high refresh rates at the highest visual quality levels, and the data shows it is capable of delivering a playable 83 FPS at 4K Ultra, but with less headroom for a 120 Hz or higher display.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptionally high across the board. The Low preset yields an average of 550 FPS, Medium produces 409 FPS with a minimum of 348 and a maximum of 470, High achieves 351 FPS, and Ultra settles at 252 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is largely CPU-limited even at Ultra settings, as the 252 FPS average still leaves significant GPU headroom. The 550 FPS at Low confirms the Ryzen 7 9700F’s strong single-thread performance, as it is able to process game logic and draw calls with minimal latency.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high, but the GPU begins to take on a more prominent role. The Low preset averages 347 FPS, Medium averages 258 FPS with a minimum of 219 and a maximum of 297, High averages 222 FPS, and Ultra averages 159 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at each setting shows a consistent drop of roughly 36-37%, which aligns with the increase in pixel count (from 2.07 million to 3.69 million pixels, a 78% increase, but the frame rate does not drop proportionally, indicating that other factors like fill rate and bandwidth are not the sole limiters). The minimum FPS of 219 at 1440p Medium shows that the system maintains solid frame pacing, with no major dips that would cause noticeable stutter.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4070 Ti is clearly the determining factor. The Low preset averages 181 FPS, which is still very fast. Medium averages 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 and a maximum of 155, representing a solid experience for a 144 Hz monitor. High averages 116 FPS, and Ultra drops to 83 FPS. The 83 FPS at 4K Ultra is just on the edge of being ideal for a 90 Hz display, but it is perfectly playable on a standard 60 Hz panel. The data shows that for a smooth 4K experience with maximum settings, a higher-tier GPU would be necessary, but the RTX 4070 Ti provides a good balance between visual fidelity and frame rate for this game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F plays a crucial, if often invisible, role in this system’s performance. It is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This high boost clock is critical for gaming, as it directly impacts single-threaded performance. In the passmark single-thread test, the CPU scores 4,691, which is a strong result. This is reflected in the 1080p Low result of 550 FPS, where the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates is the primary constraint.

The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. For a roguelike like Barony, which may involve procedural generation and many in-game entities, the L3 cache is beneficial for keeping frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing memory latency. The processor supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, which is more than adequate to keep the CPU cores fed with data without becoming a bottleneck.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores, the 9700F is effectively tied with the Intel Core i7-14700KF (0.2% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.2% slower). It also edges out the Ryzen 9 7950X by 0.7% and the i7-14700K by 0.9%. These marginal differences in synthetic benchmarks suggest that in a game like Barony, which may not be perfectly optimized for many-core scaling, the 9700F’s strong single-thread performance (boost clock of 5.50 GHz) is likely what enables the extremely high frame rates at 1080p. The 65 W TDP is also noteworthy, as it indicates the processor can deliver this level of performance without requiring an extreme cooling solution, making it a capable air-cooled part.

The data suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this combo at any resolution tested. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, the CPU is able to maintain a minimum frame rate that is likely governed by the GPU’s rendering time rather than CPU stalls. The 550 FPS result at 1080p Low is a direct indicator of the CPU’s headroom; the GPU cannot render frames faster than the CPU can issue them, and that ceiling is well above what the RTX 4070 Ti can achieve at higher resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average frame rate this combo achieves in Barony?*

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 550, which occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

*Q: Can this system run Barony at 4K with high settings?*

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo achieves an average FPS of 116, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to the Intel Core i7-14700KF in general benchmark scores?

A: The two processors are nearly identical in performance. The Intel Core i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70,163, which is 0.2% higher than the Ryzen 7 9700F’s score of 69,996.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p resolution?

A: The data indicates the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. This is evidenced by the massive jump from 252 FPS at Ultra to 550 FPS at Low, suggesting that as the GPU workload decreases, the CPU’s frame generation capability becomes the ceiling.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth, and is it sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. The minimum FPS of 115 at 4K Medium suggests this bandwidth is sufficient to prevent major stuttering in Barony.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested systems for this game?

A: This specific combo ranks 378 out of 2935 tested combinations, placing it in the top 12.9% of all systems for Barony.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user’s display refresh rate and resolution preference. For gamers with a 1080p 240 Hz or higher monitor, the High or Ultra presets are recommended. The High preset delivers 351 FPS, while Ultra delivers 252 FPS, both of which are sufficient to saturate even the fastest refresh rates available. The Low preset’s 550 FPS is excessive for any current display and would offer no visual benefit, so it is not recommended unless the user prioritizes absolute maximum frame rate for competitive play.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 222 FPS is an excellent choice for a 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitor, as it provides a large margin above the refresh rate to account for any minor dips. The Medium preset at 258 FPS is also viable, but the visual quality improvement from High is likely worth the slight reduction in frame rate. The Ultra preset at 159 FPS is perfectly playable on a 144 Hz display, but it sits closer to the refresh rate limit, leaving less headroom for demanding scenes. For a 240 Hz 1440p monitor, the Medium preset is the most appropriate to ensure the frame rate stays consistently above the display’s refresh rate.

For 4K gaming, the choice is more nuanced. The High preset at 116 FPS is ideal for a 120 Hz display, providing a smooth experience with high visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 135 FPS is also a strong option, offering more headroom for a 144 Hz panel. The Ultra preset at 83 FPS is best suited for a 60 Hz or 75 Hz monitor, as it delivers the maximum visual quality while remaining comfortably above 60 FPS. The Low preset at 181 FPS is not recommended at 4K, as the visual downgrade is significant and the frame rate exceeds the capabilities of most 4K displays, making the extra performance moot. In summary, the High preset provides the best balance of visual quality and frame rate across all three resolutions, making it the default recommendation for most users.