Barony

Barony, the 2015 roguelike, places unusual demands on modern hardware. Measured data for the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet transitions to a CPU-bound state at 1080p. The combination ranks 146th out of 1702 tested configurations for this title, placing it in the top 9% of all recorded setups. This analysis breaks down the frame rate data across resolutions and settings, interpreting what the numbers indicate about the role of each component.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a clear and dramatic scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 275 FPS at 1080p to 169.7 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 88.1 FPS at 4K. This represents a 68% drop in performance from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the rendering workload is expanding almost linearly with pixel count. The pattern is consistent across all quality presets, though the absolute numbers differ.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The system delivers 595.5 FPS at 1080p, drops to 376 FPS at 1440p, and then falls to 196 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is just 33% of the 1080p figure, which strongly suggests that the CPU becomes a limiting factor at 1080p Low. The GPU is capable of far more than 595 FPS, but the Ryzen 9 5900X's single-thread performance caps the output. As resolution climbs, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, and the frame rate scales accordingly.

The delta between High and Ultra settings also grows with resolution. At 1080p, Ultra is 27.8% slower than High (275 vs 380.7 FPS). At 4K, the gap widens to 28.8% (88.1 vs 123.8 FPS). This indicates that Ultra settings add a consistent rendering cost that is not resolution-dependent. The 4K Ultra result of 88.1 FPS is still comfortably playable, but it shows that Barony's higher presets can tax even a top-tier GPU when combined with 4K output.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing for most tested scenarios. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a roguelike's texture and geometry demands. The GPU's boost clock of 2550 MHz, combined with 10240 shading units, delivers 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. These specifications translate directly to the high frame rates observed at 1440p and 4K.

At 4K Ultra, the RTX 4080 SUPER produces 88.1 FPS, which is a demanding workload. The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in Barony, as the game does not appear to employ ray tracing or DLSS features in the measured data. Instead, the raw rasterization throughput of 285.6 GPixel/s and 816.0 GTexel/s carries the load. The pixel rate in particular aligns with the observed 4K performance, as filling 8.3 million pixels per frame at 88 FPS requires approximately 730 million pixels per second.

In the broader benchmark context, the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 34245 in Passmark G3D and 53610 in the average benchmark score, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. It leads its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, by a slim 0.2% margin in average score. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 further confirms its high-end positioning. For Barony specifically, the data shows that the GPU only becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K, particularly with High and Ultra settings where frame rates drop below 124 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X serves as the limiting component at 1080p, particularly with lower quality settings. Its 12 cores and 24 threads on the Zen 3 architecture provide substantial multi-threaded capability, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33150. However, Barony's rendering pipeline appears to depend heavily on single-thread performance. The CPU's single-core scores are comparatively modest: 941 in 3DMark single-thread, 4680 in Cinebench R23 single-core, and 2202 in Geekbench single-core.

The evidence for CPU limitation is strongest in the 1080p Low result of 595.5 FPS. This is an exceptionally high frame rate, but the GPU's theoretical capability at that resolution and setting is likely higher. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 3469 and its 3DMark 2-thread score of 1852 suggest that the processor can sustain roughly 600 FPS in lightly-threaded workloads, which matches the observed ceiling. As settings increase to Medium (446.5 FPS) and High (380.7 FPS), the frame rate drops, but the CPU remains the likely constraint until 4K.

The Ryzen 9 5900X's 64 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth are ample for a roguelike's procedural generation and entity management. The CPU's 3.70 GHz base and 4.80 GHz boost clocks provide a solid foundation, but they cannot match the frame rates the RTX 4080 SUPER could theoretically deliver at 1080p. The CPU's average benchmark score of 39453 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, yet its nearest rivals — the AMD EPYC 4245P (0.2% higher) and Intel Core i7-13700 (1% higher) — show that it is not a top-tier single-thread performer by modern standards.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 88.1 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is the most demanding configuration tested and represents the lowest performance point in the dataset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor. The 595.5 FPS result at Low settings is far below what the RTX 4080 SUPER can theoretically produce, and the Ryzen 9 5900X's single-thread performance caps the output.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in this game?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER's average benchmark score of 53610 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT's 53489. In Barony specifically, the GPU delivers strong 4K performance, though the data does not include direct rival comparisons in-game.

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

A: At 2560x1440, High settings produce 241.1 FPS while Ultra produces 169.7 FPS. This is a 29.6% reduction in frame rate for the higher preset.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 5900X's multi-threading help in Barony?

A: The CPU's multi-threaded scores are strong (33150 in Cinebench R23 multi-core), but the game's performance at 1080p suggests it relies on single-thread speed. The 3DMark single-thread score of 941 is the better predictor of Barony's CPU-bound behavior.

Q: Is the system capable of 4K gaming at playable frame rates?

A: Yes, the data shows 123.8 FPS at 4K High and 144.5 FPS at 4K Medium. Even the lowest measured result, 88.1 FPS at 4K Ultra, exceeds the typical 60 FPS playability threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset of measured average frame rates is presented below, organized by resolution and settings. All values represent the average FPS recorded for the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 595.5 FPS
• Medium: 446.5 FPS
• High: 380.7 FPS
• Ultra: 275 FPS

At 1080p, the progression from Low to Ultra shows a 53.8% reduction in frame rate. The gap between Medium and High is 66.2 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 105.7 FPS, indicating that Ultra is disproportionately expensive.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 376 FPS
• Medium: 281 FPS
• High: 241.1 FPS
• Ultra: 169.7 FPS

The 1440p results show a 54.9% drop from Low to Ultra. The Medium to High step costs 39.9 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 71.4 FPS. The Low setting at 1440p (376 FPS) is nearly identical to the High setting at 1080p (380.7 FPS), highlighting the resolution's impact.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 196 FPS
• Medium: 144.5 FPS
• High: 123.8 FPS
• Ultra: 88.1 FPS

At 4K, the Low to Ultra reduction is 55.1%. The Medium to High gap narrows to 20.7 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 35.7 FPS. The 4K Low result (196 FPS) is still higher than the 1080p Ultra result (275 FPS) is lower than the 1440p Low result (376 FPS), showing the steep performance penalty of 4K.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the RTX 4080 SUPER dominates at higher resolutions, while the Ryzen 9 5900X holds back performance at 1080p. For players targeting 1440p or 4K, this combination delivers excellent frame rates across all settings. For 1080p esports-style play, the CPU becomes the limiting factor, though the results remain far above any playability threshold.