Barony

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 pairing delivers exceptional performance in Barony, a roguelike title that proves highly scalable across resolutions and settings. The measured frame rates show a system capable of maxing out high-refresh-rate displays even at 4K, with the data revealing a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution and graphical load increase.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a steep performance gradient as resolution climbs from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 600 FPS, which drops to 379 FPS at 1440p and 198 FPS at 4K. This represents a 37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern under High settings tells a similar story. The system delivers 383 FPS at 1080p, 242 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 37%, while the jump to 4K costs another 48% of performance. This consistent proportional drop suggests the RTX 4080 is the primary limiter at higher resolutions, while the CPU has ample headroom at lower pixel counts.

Medium settings show the same trend with 446 FPS at 1080p, 281 FPS at 1440p, and 147 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 37%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 48%. Ultra settings, however, exhibit a slightly different pattern: 274 FPS at 1080p, 173 FPS at 1440p, and 91 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p reduction is 37%, but the 1440p-to-4K reduction is 47%.

The frame rate at 4K Ultra (91 FPS) is only 15% of the 1080p Low figure (600 FPS), demonstrating that Barony scales aggressively with resolution and quality settings. The data indicates that at 1080p, even with Ultra settings, the system is likely CPU-bound given the enormous frame rates, while at 4K the GPU workload dominates and frame rates stay within a more reasonable range for demanding visual quality.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 600 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the ceiling for this pairing, with the Ryzen 7 9700F likely becoming the limiting factor at this extreme frame rate.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 91, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. Even the minimum FPS at 4K Medium (125 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS, indicating smooth gameplay across all tested configurations.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score is 54247, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209). It trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1% and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6%.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 242 FPS while Ultra settings produce 173 FPS. This represents a 29% performance cost for enabling the highest quality preset, a significant trade-off for marginal visual gains.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9700F competitive with other high-end CPUs?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 69996, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. It is 0.2% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.7% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, while trailing the Intel Core i7-14700KF by 0.2%.

Q: How much frame rate is gained by dropping from Ultra to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 600 FPS compared to 274 FPS on Ultra. This is a 119% improvement, demonstrating that Barony is highly responsive to quality adjustments at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing for Barony, especially at higher resolutions and quality settings. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2505 MHz, combined with 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, delivers substantial raw compute power. The FP32 throughput is 48.74 TFLOPS, with texture rate at 761.5 GTexel/s and pixel rate at 280.6 GPixel/s.

The GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth prove sufficient for Barony at all tested settings, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates even at 4K Ultra (91 FPS). The 16 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in this title, which appears to favor raw shader throughput and memory bandwidth over capacity. The GDDR6X memory running at 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth necessary to feed the high core counts at 4K resolutions.

The RTX 4080's percentile ranking of 86th among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247, places it in the upper echelon of graphics cards. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores virtually identically (54209, deltaPct 0.1%), confirming that the 4080 remains competitive despite being end-of-life. The synthetic benchmark scores, including 34457 in Passmark G3D and 214739 in Geekbench OpenCL, correlate with the strong Barony performance observed.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with frame rates scaling from 91 FPS at Ultra to 198 FPS at Low. This 117% improvement from settings reduction shows the GPU's workload is highly sensitive to quality presets. The 4K Medium result of 147 FPS, with a minimum of 125 FPS, indicates that the GPU can sustain high refresh rates even with moderate quality settings at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + RTX 4080 combination ranks 244th out of 3717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 6.6% of all system configurations. This ranking reflects the synergy between a high-end CPU and a premium GPU, though the position suggests that several other combinations deliver higher frame rates in this specific title.

The rank of 244 out of 3717 combos indicates that while this system is exceptionally fast, there are 243 configurations that outperform it in Barony. Given the game's roguelike nature and its apparent scalability, the ranking is likely influenced by both CPU and GPU capabilities. The RTX 4080's 86th percentile GPU ranking and the Ryzen 7 9700F's 94th percentile CPU ranking combine to produce a system that is significantly above average but not at the absolute top tier.

The gap between this combo's rank and the top positions suggests that Barony may favor configurations with even higher-end GPUs, such as those with greater memory bandwidth or core counts. However, the 244th position out of 3717 is an impressive result, placing this system in the top percentile of all tested configurations. The data indicates that this pairing is well-balanced for Barony, with neither component severely bottlenecking the other in most scenarios.

The combo's performance is particularly strong at 1080p, where it achieves 600 FPS at Low settings and 383 FPS at High, suggesting that CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions still deliver exceptional results. At 4K, the system's rank is supported by the GPU's ability to maintain playable frame rates even at Ultra settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F serves as a capable partner to the RTX 4080 in Barony, providing sufficient processing power to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at most resolutions. The CPU features 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 1 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core, provides ample on-die storage for game data.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Passmark multithread score of 36470 and an integer math score of 120788. Single-thread performance is also robust, with a score of 4691, which is critical for Barony's game logic and physics calculations. The CPU's average benchmark score of 69996 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, confirming its high-end positioning.

The Ryzen 7 9700F's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, deltaPct 0.2%), Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163, deltaPct -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, deltaPct 0.7%), and Intel Core i7-14700K (69355, deltaPct 0.9%). These results show the 9700F is competitive with, and in some cases faster than, previous-generation flagship CPUs, despite being a more mainstream 8-core part.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 274 FPS even at Ultra settings. At 1080p Low, the 600 FPS result suggests the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the GPU has ample headroom at such low resolutions. The CPU's 5.50 GHz boost clock and strong single-thread performance are essential for maintaining these high frame rates, as roguelike games often rely heavily on game logic and procedural generation.

The 65W TDP and 4nm process node indicate efficient operation, which is beneficial for sustained performance in long gaming sessions. The CPU's DDR5 memory support with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures the GPU receives data quickly, reducing potential stutters.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 600 FPS, while Medium settings yield 446 FPS with a minimum of 379 FPS and maximum of 513 FPS. High settings average 383 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 274 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 54% reduction in average FPS, showing that quality settings have a significant impact even at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, performance remains exceptionally high. Low settings average 379 FPS, Medium settings produce 281 FPS with a range of 239 to 324 FPS, High settings achieve 242 FPS, and Ultra settings average 173 FPS. The 1440p results indicate that the system can drive high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors at maximum quality, with even Ultra settings exceeding 170 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system still delivers playable frame rates across all settings. Low settings average 198 FPS, Medium settings produce 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 FPS and maximum of 169 FPS, High settings achieve 126 FPS, and Ultra settings average 91 FPS. The 4K results show that the RTX 4080 can handle Barony at 4K with high refresh rates, though Ultra settings require a 120Hz or lower display for optimal experience.

The complete dataset reveals a consistent pattern: as resolution increases, the performance gap between settings narrows. At 1080p, Low to Ultra spans 326 FPS (600 to 274), while at 4K, the same range spans only 107 FPS (198 to 91). This indicates that at lower resolutions, settings have a more pronounced effect on performance, while at 4K, the GPU's workload dominates and settings have a relatively smaller impact. The Medium settings at each resolution provide the best balance, with 4K Medium (147 FPS) offering smooth gameplay while maintaining visual quality.