Barony

Resolution Scaling

Barony's frame rate behavior across resolutions reveals a system that transitions from CPU-bound at 1080p to progressively GPU-limited as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination delivers 180.4 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops that to 118.0 FPS, a reduction of approximately 34.6%. The jump to 3840x2160 yields 57.4 FPS, which represents a further 51.4% decline from the 1440p figure.

The scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a total drop of 123.0 FPS, or about 68.2% of the original 1080p performance. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER's rendering throughput becomes the dominant constraint at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rate ceiling appears to be influenced by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU, given that the Ryzen 9 5950X's 16 cores and 32 threads provide substantial headroom for game logic and draw call processing.

When examining Low settings, the resolution scaling becomes even more pronounced. At 1920x1080 Low, the system achieves 286.9 FPS, which drops to 182.8 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 36.3% reduction) and further to 97.8 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 46.5% reduction from 1440p). The absolute differences between resolutions at Low settings — 104.1 FPS from 1080p to 1440p, and 85.0 FPS from 1440p to 4K — suggest that even with minimal graphical load, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become limiting factors at higher pixel counts.

The Ultra settings curve tells a similar story with lower absolute numbers. Starting at 132.1 FPS in 1080p, Ultra drops to 81.1 FPS at 1440p (38.6% lower) and bottoms out at 44.0 FPS at 4K (45.7% lower than 1440p). The 4K Ultra figure of 44.0 FPS is the only measured result below 60 FPS across the entire dataset, indicating that this combination's playable envelope at maximum settings is bounded by 1440p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X brings formidable processing resources to this pairing. With 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (codenamed Vermeer), the CPU operates at a 3.40 GHz base clock and boosts up to 4.90 GHz. This processor sits in the 93rd percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49062. Its nearest rivals in aggregate performance include the Intel Core i5-14600K at 49166 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i5-14600KF at 49367 (0.6% higher), and the AMD EPYC 4345P at 49595 (1.1% higher), while the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H trails at 48698 (0.7% lower).

In Barony, a roguelike title from 2015, the CPU's role is primarily about maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU is not saturated. The 1080p Low result of 286.9 FPS demonstrates that the 5950X's single-thread performance — evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 944 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5450 — is sufficient to push frame rates well beyond typical display refresh rates. The boost clock of 4.90 GHz provides the raw frequency needed for game logic that may rely on single-threaded execution.

The multi-threaded capabilities of this CPU become relevant in Barony's procedural generation and entity management systems. Cinebench R23 multicore score of 38607 and Geekbench multicore score of 12084 indicate strong parallel throughput. However, the measured frame rates across resolutions suggest that the game does not fully utilize the 16-core configuration, as the scaling from 1080p to 4K follows a GPU-bound trajectory rather than showing signs of CPU saturation at higher resolutions. The 3dmark_8_threads score of 6598 versus the 3dmark_16_threads score of 10810 shows that scaling efficiency from 8 to 16 threads is approximately 63.9%, which is typical for workloads with moderate parallelism.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER employs the TU106 chip on a 12 nm process, featuring 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The GPU's base clock runs at 1470 MHz with a boost of 1650 MHz, yielding 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

This GPU ranks in the 63rd percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774. Its nearest rivals are tightly clustered: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN at 19706 (0.3% lower), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 at 19680 (0.5% lower), the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 at 19623 (0.8% lower), and the NVIDIA Tesla K40m at 19519 (1.3% lower). This positioning places the RTX 2060 SUPER in the mid-range tier, which aligns with its measured Barony performance.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s becomes a critical factor at 4K resolution, where texture fetch and frame buffer writes demand substantial bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 44.0 FPS indicates that the combination of 8 GB VRAM capacity and the available bandwidth is insufficient to maintain smooth performance at the highest settings and highest resolution. The pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s provide context for why 1440p High at 118.0 FPS is achievable — the GPU's fill rate can handle that workload, but 4K pushes it beyond its comfort zone.

The RTX 2060 SUPER's 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in Barony, given the game's 2015 release date and traditional roguelike rendering approach. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility mean the GPU can handle modern rendering paths, but the game's age suggests it primarily uses simpler DirectX 11-style operations, as reflected in the PassMark DirectX 11 score of 130 versus DirectX 12 score of 61.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset of measured frame rates spans three resolutions and four quality settings, providing twelve data points. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 286.9 FPS, Medium 210.9 FPS, High 180.4 FPS, and Ultra 132.1 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 76.0 FPS (a 26.5% reduction), Medium to High costs 30.5 FPS (14.5% reduction), and High to Ultra costs 48.3 FPS (26.8% reduction). This pattern shows that the largest performance penalty occurs when moving from Low to Medium, suggesting that medium-quality effects introduce significant GPU load.

At 2560x1440, the measured values are: Low 182.8 FPS, Medium 134.7 FPS, High 118.0 FPS, and Ultra 81.1 FPS. The delta from Low to Medium is 48.1 FPS (26.3% reduction), Medium to High is 16.7 FPS (12.4% reduction), and High to Ultra is 36.9 FPS (31.3% reduction). The proportional penalties are similar to 1080p, but the absolute frame rates are lower across the board, confirming that resolution scaling affects all settings equally.

At 3840x2160, the results compress further: Low 97.8 FPS, Medium 72.6 FPS, High 57.4 FPS, and Ultra 44.0 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 25.2 FPS (25.8% reduction), Medium-to-High is 15.2 FPS (20.9% reduction), and High-to-Ultra is 13.4 FPS (23.3% reduction). Notably, the absolute differences between settings shrink at 4K, indicating that the GPU is becoming saturated and additional settings changes have diminishing effects on frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this AMD Ryzen 9 5950X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination ranks 1220 out of 1702 tested combos for Barony. This places it in the 28.3rd percentile of all combinations, meaning roughly 71.7% of tested system pairings achieve higher frame rates in this game. The rank reflects the imbalance between the high-end CPU and mid-range GPU — the 5950X's 93rd percentile CPU performance is not fully leveraged because the RTX 2060 SUPER's 63rd percentile GPU performance acts as the bottleneck.

The ranking suggests that many combinations with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs outperform this pairing in Barony. The game's moderate CPU demands mean that the 16-core, 32-thread processor's advantages are less impactful than a higher-tier GPU would be. The 4K Ultra result of 44.0 FPS is a clear indicator of where this combo falls short, as many competing configurations with faster GPUs would maintain 60+ FPS at that setting.

Despite the mid-pack ranking, the combination delivers playable performance at 1080p and 1440p across all settings. The 4K High result of 57.4 FPS is close to the 60 FPS threshold, and 4K Medium at 72.6 FPS is comfortably playable. The ranking of 1220 out of 1702 should be interpreted as a reflection of the GPU's limitations at the highest resolution, not as a condemnation of the overall system capability.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings combination for 60+ FPS at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Medium settings yield 72.6 FPS average, and Low settings achieve 97.8 FPS. High settings fall slightly short at 57.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 44.0 FPS.

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p for high-refresh-rate displays?

A: All settings exceed 130 FPS at 1920x1080. Low achieves 286.9 FPS, Medium 210.9 FPS, High 180.4 FPS, and Ultra 132.1 FPS, making it suitable for 144Hz monitors at most settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Barony?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU's 93rd percentile performance versus the GPU's 63rd percentile, combined with the steep frame rate drops as resolution increases, points to the RTX 2060 SUPER as the bottleneck.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: Its average benchmark score of 19774 is within 1.3% of the GTX TITAN (19706), RTX 2070 (19680), Quadro K5200 (19623), and Tesla K40m (19519), showing near-identical aggregate performance.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested systems in Barony?

A: It ranks 1220 out of 1702 tested combinations, placing it in the lower portion of the database despite strong CPU credentials.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM capacity affect 4K performance?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 44.0 FPS suggests that the 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for maximum settings at 3840x2160, though 4K Medium at 72.6 FPS shows the memory is adequate for lower quality presets.