Barony

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Barony show a steep and consistent performance curve as resolution increases, with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination delivering 440.8 FPS at 1080p Low, dropping to 145.3 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 67.0% reduction in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the Low preset, which is a substantial scaling factor that points toward the GPU becoming the primary limiting component at higher pixel counts.

Examining the High preset specifically, the data shows 283.7 FPS at 1080p, 177.1 FPS at 1440p, and 93.8 FPS at 4K. The transition from 1080p to 1440p yields a 37.6% performance drop, while moving from 1440p to 4K costs another 47.1%. These scaling ratios are characteristic of a system where the graphics card is progressively more constrained as resolution increases, since the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions to feed frames quickly.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story, with 201.1 FPS at 1080p, 125.4 FPS at 1440p, and 67.6 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling, as it sits below 70 FPS, indicating that the combination of maximum settings and high resolution pushes the RX 9070 to its limits in this title. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is 26.2 FPS, which is proportionally larger than the 23.8 FPS gap at 1080p, suggesting that Ultra settings impose a relatively heavier load on the GPU at higher resolutions.

At 1080p, the differences between presets are compressed. The spread from Low to Ultra is 239.7 FPS, whereas the same spread at 4K is only 77.7 FPS. This confirms that at 1080p, the Ryzen 9 7900X with its 12 cores and 24 threads can keep up with the GPU's output, and the frame rate is largely dictated by the graphics card's raw throughput. At 4K, the GPU's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become the dominant factors, and the CPU's role diminishes accordingly.

The data suggests that Barony is not particularly demanding on the CPU side, given the very high frame rates achieved even at 4K Low. The 145.3 FPS at 4K Low versus 93.8 FPS at 4K High demonstrates that graphical settings have a more pronounced effect on performance than resolution alone, which is typical for a roguelike title with relatively simple geometry but potentially complex lighting and post-processing effects.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration appears well-suited to Barony's requirements, as the game does not show signs of memory capacity constraints even at 4K Ultra, where the average frame rate remains playable at 67.6 FPS. The 16 GB capacity is likely more than sufficient for this title, which was released in 2015 and does not feature the large texture sets common in modern open-world games.

Clock speeds for the RX 9070 are listed with a base of 1330 MHz, a game clock of 2070 MHz, and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The memory runs at an effective 20.1 Gbps. The substantial gap between base and boost clocks indicates that the GPU can dynamically scale its frequency based on workload, which is valuable in a game like Barony where frame times may vary with the number of enemies or particle effects on screen.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 79th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34780. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA A2 with a deltaPct of -0.2, meaning the RX 9070 is effectively tied with that card in aggregate benchmarks. The Quadro GV100 is 0.3% behind, and the Radeon HD 7970 is 0.7% behind, indicating that the RX 9070's overall compute performance is closely matched with a range of professional and older consumer cards, though this does not directly translate to gaming performance in Barony.

In Barony specifically, the GPU's 128 ROPs and 224 TMUs contribute to the measured pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s. These specifications help explain why the card can push 440.8 FPS at 1080p Low, as the relatively low resolution does not stress the ROP throughput. At 4K, the pixel rate becomes more relevant, and the 67.6 FPS at Ultra suggests that the card is being pushed near its fill-rate limits.

The FP32 performance of 36.13 TFLOPS provides context for the card's compute capabilities, but Barony is unlikely to leverage this heavily given its age and genre. The RDNA 4.0 architecture with 3584 shading units is more than adequate for this title, and the data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck only at higher resolutions and settings, not at 1080p where the CPU plays a more significant role.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X provides 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. These high frequencies are critical for Barony, which appears to be a lightly threaded title based on the frame rate data. The single-thread benchmark scores of 1093 in 3DMark, 6168 in Cinebench R23, and 2952 in Geekbench indicate strong per-core performance, which directly benefits games that rely on one or two primary threads.

The 64 MB of shared L3 cache is a notable asset, as it can help reduce memory latency for frequently accessed game data. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth may not be fully utilized in Barony, but it ensures that the CPU is not starved for data when processing game logic. The CPU's average benchmark score of 50556 places it in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 at -0.1% delta, the Ryzen 9 5900XT at -0.4%, and the Core i9-13980HX at -0.8%.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates reach 440.8 FPS at Low settings. This extreme frame rate suggests that the CPU is capable of issuing draw calls and processing game logic far faster than the GPU can render at lower resolutions. The 12 cores and 24 threads are likely underutilized in this title, but the high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that the few threads that matter run at maximum speed.

Comparing the 1080p Low result of 440.8 FPS to the 1440p Low result of 278.6 FPS, the 36.8% drop indicates that the GPU is still the limiting factor even at lower settings. However, the fact that the 7900X can sustain such high frame rates shows that it is not a bottleneck in this scenario. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43695 demonstrates that the CPU has substantial throughput for multithreaded workloads, but Barony does not appear to scale with additional cores, as evidenced by the relatively small performance differences between presets at the same resolution.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting high refresh rate displays at 1080p, the Medium preset at 329.6 FPS offers an excellent balance, providing a 15.0% improvement over High settings while maintaining smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 440.8 FPS is only recommended for competitive scenarios where maximum frame rate is paramount, as the visual degradation from Low to Medium is significant but the performance gain is substantial.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 206.5 FPS is the strongest choice, as it stays well above the 144 Hz threshold while delivering better visual quality than Low. The High preset at 177.1 FPS is also viable for 144 Hz displays, and the 29.4 FPS gap between Medium and High is a reasonable trade-off for improved visuals. The Ultra preset at 125.4 FPS is suitable for 120 Hz displays but falls short of 144 Hz, so users with higher refresh panels should opt for High.

At 4K, the recommended preset is Medium at 106.9 FPS, which provides a smooth experience on 60 Hz and 100 Hz displays. The High preset at 93.8 FPS is acceptable for 90 Hz panels, but the Ultra preset at 67.6 FPS is only appropriate for 60 Hz displays. The Low preset at 145.3 FPS is unnecessary at this resolution, as the visual penalty is too severe for the modest performance gain over Medium.

The data shows that Barony scales well with settings changes, with the Medium preset consistently offering the most balanced experience across all resolutions. The 440.8 FPS at 1080p Low indicates that the combination is rarely CPU-bound, so users should prioritize GPU settings that improve visual fidelity without sacrificing frame rate stability.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination ranks 580th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the 66th percentile of all configurations. This rank reflects a strong but not top-tier performance, which aligns with the measured frame rates that are generally high but not record-breaking.

Given the CPU's 93rd percentile ranking among all processors and the GPU's 79th percentile ranking among all graphics cards, the combo's 580th position in Barony suggests that the game does not fully utilize the strengths of either component. The high CPU percentile is partially wasted in this title, as Barony does not appear to be heavily multithreaded, and the GPU's strong compute performance is not fully leveraged by a roguelike game from 2015.

The combo's rank of 580 out of 1702 indicates that there are 579 combinations that perform better in Barony, many of which may feature higher-end GPUs or CPUs with superior single-thread performance. However, the measured frame rates show that this combination delivers excellent playability across all tested settings and resolutions, with even the most demanding 4K Ultra configuration maintaining 67.6 FPS.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 7900X sits within 0.8% of the Core i9-13980HX, Core i7-13850HX, Ryzen 9 5900XT, and Core Ultra 5 235 in aggregate benchmarks. This tight grouping suggests that swapping to any of these CPUs would yield similar results in Barony, as the game is unlikely to differentiate between processors with such close average scores. The GPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern, with the RX 9070 within 0.8% of the NVIDIA A2, Quadro GV100, Radeon HD 7970, and Radeon PRO W6400, though these comparisons are less relevant for gaming performance.

The rank indicates that while this combo is not at the top of the leaderboard, it provides a robust experience in Barony, with the frame rate data confirming that users can expect smooth gameplay at any preset up to 4K High. The 580th rank out of 1702 combos is a solid result, placing this configuration in the upper third of all tested systems for this specific title.