Barony

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 secures the #4 spot out of 1,702 tested combos in Barony. This places the configuration in the top 0.2% of all systems evaluated, a position that reflects the exceptional synergy between the 8-core, 16-thread Zen 5 processor and the Blackwell 2.0 flagship GPU. The combo’s ranking is particularly impressive given that Barony is a roguelike title where frame pacing and consistency often matter more than raw peak output. The data indicates that this pairing is not merely powerful on paper; its measured performance in this specific game justifies its elite standing, outpacing the vast majority of the 1,698 other combinations in the database.

How This Combo Ranks

The #4 rank among 1,702 combos places this system in the 99.8th percentile of tested configurations. This positioning is not an anomaly; it is supported by the component-level benchmarks. The CPU achieves a passmark_multithread score of 40,009 and a passmark_single_thread score of 4,430, while the GPU posts a passmark_g3d score of 39,650. These individual strengths converge in Barony to produce a system that sits just behind only three other combinations. The CPU’s nearest rivals in the broader benchmark database—the Intel Xeon 6353P, Intel Core Ultra 5 225, Intel Core i9-13900HK, and Intel Core i5-13600KF—all score within 0.7% of the 9800X3D’s average of 37,780, yet the AMD part’s 96 MB of shared L3 cache provides the specific gaming uplift that these comparisons do not always capture. Similarly, the GPU’s average benchmark score of 84,306 puts it within 1.6% of the NVIDIA CMP 40HX and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600, but its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth deliver the headroom required for the highest settings. The result is a combo that leads the pack in this roguelike, with only three other systems—none of which are named in the rival data—managing to edge it out.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090’s role in Barony is defined by its massive memory subsystem and clock strategy. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2,017 MHz and boosts to 2,407 MHz, with memory running at 1,750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). This configuration yields a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s across a 512-bit bus, which is critical for a game that can generate complex procedural environments. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory ensures that texture streaming and asset loading never become a bottleneck, even at the highest presets. The GPU’s 21,760 shading units and 680 tensor cores provide the compute throughput necessary to handle the particle effects and lighting calculations typical of a roguelike’s dungeon crawls. In the measured results, the GPU’s dominance is most evident when comparing the High preset at 4K (143.6 FPS) to the Medium preset at 1080p (509.3 FPS); the scaling is not linear, indicating that the GPU is operating well within its capabilities across all tested resolutions. The 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 176 ROPs ensure that even the most demanding scenes in Barony are rendered without the frame drops that could plague lesser hardware. This is a GPU that does not struggle; it simply processes the game’s data as fast as the CPU can feed it.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear picture of where the bottleneck lies in this system. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 688.3 FPS; at 4K with Low settings, it drops to 229.3 FPS—a reduction of 66.7%. This steep decline indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly load-bearing as resolution rises, even in a lower-fidelity preset. However, the CPU’s strength is evident in the 1080p numbers: 688.3 FPS at Low and 439.9 FPS at High show that the 9800X3D can feed the RTX 5090 far beyond typical refresh rates, meaning the CPU is not limiting performance at these settings. Moving to 1440p, the High preset yields 280 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 197.9 FPS, showing a 29.3% reduction from High to Ultra. At 4K, the gap between High (143.6 FPS) and Ultra (102.6 FPS) is 28.6%, a similar proportion. The data suggests that the GPU is the primary scaling factor from 1440p upwards, while at 1080p, the CPU’s raw single-thread performance—evidenced by its 4,800 Cinebench R23 single-core score—keeps frame rates exceptionally high. The scaling pattern is textbook: the RTX 5090’s rendering load quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the measured FPS drops accordingly, confirming that this is a GPU-limited scenario at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience based on the measured rows, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the most balanced performance. At 325.5 FPS, it provides nearly double the frame rate of the Ultra preset (197.9 FPS) while maintaining visual fidelity that is only marginally lower. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 45.5 FPS (from 325.5 to 280), which is a 14% reduction for a modest quality gain; players with high-refresh-rate displays may prefer this trade-off. At 4K, the High preset is the clear recommendation—143.6 FPS is well above the 100 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, whereas Ultra drops to 102.6 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Low preset at any resolution is unnecessary; even at 4K Low (229.3 FPS), the visual downgrade is not worth the performance surplus. For the absolute best visual quality, Ultra at 1440p (197.9 FPS) is the sweet spot, as it delivers high fidelity without the performance penalty seen at 4K Ultra (102.6 FPS). The data shows that Medium at 4K (172.2 FPS) is a viable middle ground for players who want 4K resolution but prefer to avoid the Ultra preset’s cost. Overall, the system is so capable that the recommended setting depends on the display’s refresh rate: 1080p users can run Ultra at 316.6 FPS, while 4K users should stick to High unless they prioritize visuals over frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers exceptional results across all presets. Low settings produce 688.3 FPS, while Medium yields 509.3 FPS—a 26% reduction. High settings drop to 439.9 FPS, and Ultra settles at 316.6 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at the highest settings, the system is never GPU-bound in a way that compromises playability; the CPU’s 4.70 GHz base clock and 5.20 GHz boost clock keep the frame pipeline full. Moving to 1440p, the performance scales predictably: Low hits 433.6 FPS, Medium 325.5 FPS, High 280 FPS, and Ultra 197.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 235.7 FPS, showing that the GPU’s workload increases significantly with fidelity. At 4K, the frame rates remain high but the differences narrow in absolute terms: Low reaches 229.3 FPS, Medium 172.2 FPS, High 143.6 FPS, and Ultra 102.6 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 126.7 FPS, a smaller absolute difference than at 1440p, which is consistent with the GPU becoming the dominant constraint. Notably, the 4K Ultra figure of 102.6 FPS is the only measured result below 143 FPS, and it still clears the 100 FPS mark. The data shows a consistent pattern where each settings tier reduces performance by roughly 20-30% across resolutions, with the RTX 5090’s 32 GB memory buffer ensuring no texture-related stutters at any setting. The 9800X3D’s 96 MB cache and 16 threads provide the game logic and AI processing that Barony requires, allowing the GPU to focus purely on rendering. This is a combo that excels at every resolution, with the lowest result (102.6 FPS at 4K Ultra) still being higher than what most systems achieve at 1080p.