Barony

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the Intel Arc B390 presents a fascinating study in system balance for Barony. The benchmark data reveals a configuration where the CPU’s immense processing power is consistently held back by the GPU’s modest rendering capabilities, a dynamic that becomes clearer at each resolution and settings tier. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the board indicate that the experience is defined by the graphics card’s limits rather than the processor’s potential.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Barony shows a clear and consistent hierarchy across all three tested resolutions: Low settings deliver the highest average FPS, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra producing the lowest frame rates. At 1920x1080, the drop from Low to Ultra is substantial, moving from 159 FPS down to 73 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a significant rendering load that this GPU struggles to manage. The data suggests that for players prioritizing a smooth, high-refresh-rate experience, the Low preset is the only setting that truly unlocks the system's potential, pushing average FPS to 159 at 1080p and maintaining a solid 100 FPS at 2560x1440.

However, the value of the Medium preset cannot be overlooked. At 1080p, it yields a very playable 118 FPS average, with measured minimums of 101 FPS and maximums of 136 FPS. This suggests that Medium offers a substantial visual improvement over Low while still maintaining frame times that exceed the 100 FPS threshold. The 2560x1440 Medium setting also remains viable at 75 FPS average, with a minimum of 64 FPS. In contrast, the High preset at 1440p drops to 64 FPS, which is a more significant sacrifice for visual fidelity. The data implies that Medium offers the best balance, providing a stable performance floor that is absent from the High and Ultra presets. The Ultra preset, with its 46 FPS average at 1440p and 24 FPS at 4K, appears to be a showcase mode rather than a playable option for this hardware combination.

The performance cost of High over Medium is notable. At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 118 to 102, a 16 FPS reduction. At 1440p, the drop is from 75 to 64, an 11 FPS reduction. This suggests that the High preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the Intel Arc B390. Given the data, the recommended path for the best experience is to start with the Medium preset. It provides the most consistent frame pacing, as evidenced by the recorded min/max ranges, while still offering a step up in visual quality from Low. For those who absolutely require the highest possible frame rates for competitive play or maximum fluidity, Low is the clear choice, but Medium is the sweet spot for the overall experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a high-end desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture. Its benchmark scores are substantial, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23230 and a single-core score of 2080. It also has a large 96 MB shared L3 cache, a feature typical of the X3D line designed to boost gaming performance. However, in Barony, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The benchmark results show that the system's performance is not limited by the processor, as even at the lowest settings and resolution, the frame rates are not exceptionally high when compared to what this CPU is capable of supporting.

The data suggests that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU with data. The system's inability to maintain high frame rates at higher settings is a direct consequence of the graphics card's rendering throughput. The CPU's strong multi-threaded performance, evidenced by its 3DMark 16-thread score of 10081, is likely underutilized in a roguelike title like Barony, which may not be heavily threaded. The high single-thread performance, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2964, is more relevant for game logic and physics, but it seems this is not the bottleneck. The measured FPS differences between settings are far more pronounced than any potential CPU limitation, pointing to the GPU as the primary constraint.

Furthermore, the CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is telling. The 9800X3D has an average benchmark score of 39768, which is within 0.8% of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450. This indicates that its raw processing power is not in a class of its own, yet it is more than sufficient for this task. The fact that framerates plummet as settings increase, regardless of the CPU's capacity, confirms that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting factor. The CPU is essentially waiting for the GPU to catch up, and the frame rates in Barony are a direct reflection of the GPU's performance ceiling.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Barony with this hardware?*

A: According to the measured data, 1920x1080 provides the highest average FPS across all settings, ranging from 159 FPS on Low to 73 FPS on Ultra. The 2560x1440 resolution offers a significant drop in performance, with the Medium preset averaging 75 FPS. The data indicates that 1080p is the most fluid experience, while 1440p is viable only on lower presets.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to the Low preset in terms of performance?

A: The data shows a dramatic performance cost for Ultra. At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 159 on Low to 73 on Ultra, a reduction of 54%. At 2560x1440, the drop is from 100 to 46 FPS, and at 3840x2160, it falls from 53 to 24 FPS. The Ultra preset clearly demands far more from the GPU than it can deliver.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D a bottleneck for this game?

A: No, the data suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor. The CPU has a high average benchmark score of 39768 and is within 0.8% of its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700. The frame rates in Barony scale directly with settings and resolution, which is characteristic of a GPU bottleneck, not a CPU one.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 2560x1440?

A: At 1440p, the system can only consistently exceed 60 FPS on the Low preset, which averages 100 FPS. The Medium preset averages 75 FPS, but with a minimum of 64 FPS, it is close to the 60 FPS threshold. The High and Ultra presets fall short, averaging 64 and 46 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. It is just 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and 2.7% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710. This indicates it is positioned at the very low end of the performance spectrum.

Q: What can be inferred from the minimum FPS data?

A: The only recorded minimum FPS values are for the Medium preset. At 1080p, the minimum is 101 FPS, and at 1440p, it is 64 FPS, which is a stable floor. At 4K, the minimum is 33 FPS. This suggests that the Medium preset has more consistent frame pacing than other settings, where only average FPS is provided.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the Intel Arc B390 ranks at 2601 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony. This places the system in the bottom 11% of all configurations tested, which is a surprisingly low position given the CPU's performance class. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's limitations. The Intel Arc B390, with an average benchmark score of 1482, sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, and its performance is comparable to entry-level graphics cards from over a decade ago.

This ranking highlights a severe imbalance in the system. The CPU is a top-tier desktop part, with a percentile ranking of 87 among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The combo's rank is therefore dragged down almost entirely by the GPU. It is a clear case where the processor's potential is wasted, as the graphics card cannot translate that power into high frame rates. The data implies that pairing a high-end processor with a low-end GPU yields a system that performs like a low-end machine in graphics-intensive scenarios. The 2601st place ranking serves as a quantitative measure of this mismatch, showing that the overall experience is defined by the weakest link in the chain.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 159 at 1920x1080 to 100 at 2560x1440, a 37% reduction, and then to 53 at 3840x2160, a further 47% reduction from the 1440p figure. This steep decline as resolution increases is a hallmark of a graphics card that is struggling to fill pixels. The same trend is visible across all settings. At the Medium preset, the average FPS goes from 118 to 75 to 39 across the three resolutions.

This scaling behavior indicates that the Intel Arc B390's rendering pipeline is the primary constraint. When the resolution increases, the number of pixels that need to be shaded and rasterized grows exponentially, and this GPU does not have the raw throughput to handle the increased load. The CPU is not the limiting factor here; if it were, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the data shows a consistent and significant drop, which points directly to the GPU. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is substantial, but the jump to 4K is even more punishing, with the Ultra preset dropping to an unplayable 24 FPS average. This confirms that the system is best suited for 1080p gaming, where the GPU can maintain acceptable performance levels, or 1440p on lower settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed look at the system's performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset yields an average of 73 FPS, High follows at 102 FPS, Medium at 118 FPS, and Low leads with 159 FPS. The Medium preset has recorded min/max values of 101 and 136 FPS, respectively.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. The Ultra preset averages 46 FPS, High is at 64 FPS, Medium at 75 FPS, and Low at 100 FPS. The Medium preset's min/max are 64 and 86 FPS. At 3840x2160, the system struggles significantly. The Ultra preset averages just 24 FPS, High is at 34 FPS, Medium at 39 FPS, and Low at 53 FPS. The Medium preset's min/max are 33 and 45 FPS.

Across all settings, the pattern is consistent. Low is always the fastest, Ultra is always the slowest, and Medium provides a middle ground with the only recorded frame time variance data. The differences between settings are more pronounced at lower resolutions, suggesting that the GPU has more headroom to render additional effects at 1080p before hitting its absolute limit. At 4K, even the Low preset cannot reach 60 FPS, averaging only 53 FPS, which highlights the GPU's severe lack of pixel-pushing power.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, with a boost clock of 2500 MHz. It has 1536 shading units, 48 TMUs, and 24 ROPs. Its performance, as measured by the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, is a score of 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. This is a very low score, and the data from Barony reflects this. The GPU's role in this game is to be the definitive performance limiter.

The GPU's memory is "System Shared," meaning its bandwidth and size are dependent on the system's main memory. This is a common trait for integrated graphics and is a significant disadvantage for gaming, as it must share the memory bus with the CPU. The measured FPS in Barony shows that this limitation is critical. The GPU's performance is comparable to rivals like the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, which is a very old and weak discrete card. The data shows that this GPU is simply not designed for demanding 3D rendering, and Barony, despite being a roguelike, still requires a certain level of graphical throughput that the Arc B390 cannot provide at higher settings or resolutions.

The GPU's low FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s are indicative of its limited capability. The benchmark results show a clear ceiling for the GPU, which is reached early. The Ultra preset in Barony is particularly demanding, pushing the GPU to its limits and resulting in the lowest frame rates. In essence, the GPU is the component that dictates the entire performance profile of this system. The CPU is waiting, but the GPU can only render so many frames per second, and the data shows that number is quite low for modern gaming standards.