Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the Intel Arc B370 delivers a playable experience in Barony, but the data indicates a system heavily constrained by the graphics processor. The optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 144 FPS, which is the highest measured score for this combo. However, the Medium preset still produces a highly playable 107 FPS average, with a minimum of 91 FPS, making it the superior choice for a balance of visual fidelity and smooth frame delivery. At 2560x1440, the High preset yields 58 FPS on average, which is generally acceptable, but the Medium preset’s 67 FPS average with a 57 FPS minimum provides a more consistent experience. For 3840x2160, the data shows a significant performance drop; the Low preset is the only viable option, delivering a 47 FPS average, while the High preset falls to 30 FPS and the Ultra preset becomes unplayable at 22 FPS. The best experience per the measured rows is achieved by selecting Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p, or Low settings at 4K, as these presets provide the most stable frame pacing.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo can achieve in Barony?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 144, which occurs at the 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to the High preset at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset produces an average of 42 FPS, which is 16 FPS lower than the High preset’s 58 FPS average. This represents a significant performance cost for the increased graphical load.

Q: Is the 3840x2160 resolution viable for this hardware?

A: The data shows the 4K resolution is only playable at the Low preset, which averages 47 FPS. The Medium preset averages 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS, and the High and Ultra presets drop to 30 and 22 FPS respectively, indicating a substantial performance bottleneck.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1920x1080?

A: The minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is 91, with a maximum of 123 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among other tested configurations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2701 out of 2935 tested combinations, placing it in the lower percentile of all tested systems for Barony.

Q: Does the game scale better with resolution changes or settings changes?

A: The data suggests that resolution scaling has a more significant impact. For example, moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings drops the average FPS from 92 to 30, while changing from High to Ultra at 1080p only drops the average from 92 to 66.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It features a substantial 64 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel interface. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor demonstrates strong multi-threaded capabilities, scoring 29,300 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 12,536 in 3DMark max threads. Its single-thread performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2016.5 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2617.

Despite this CPU’s high performance ceiling, the benchmark results for Barony indicate that it is not the limiting factor in this configuration. The frame rates are far more sensitive to resolution and settings changes than would be expected if the CPU were the primary bottleneck. For instance, at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS is 144, but when the resolution is increased to 3840x2160 at the same settings, the average drops to 47 FPS. This 67% decrease in frame rate is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's role is to feed the graphics card with data, and its ample core count and high clock speeds ensure it can maintain high frame rates without becoming a constraint. The data shows the CPU is performing its role adequately, as the variance in FPS across different settings at the same resolution is more consistent with graphics card limitations.

Further evidence of the CPU’s non-limiting role is seen in its performance relative to its nearest rivals. The Ryzen 9 7900X has an average benchmark score of 53,288, which places it just 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P and 0.6% above the Intel Xeon 634. This positioning shows it has ample processing power for a game like Barony, which is a roguelike that typically relies more on graphical output than on complex AI or physics simulations that would stress the CPU. The processor’s high PassMark multithread score of 51,406 further confirms its ability to handle any background tasks or game logic without impacting the measured frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2701 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony. This places the system in the bottom 8% of all configurations tested for this game, indicating that the overall performance is below what most other hardware pairings achieve. This low ranking is almost entirely attributable to the Intel Arc B370 graphics processor, which has a percentile rank of only 5 among all GPUs. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 is extremely low, and it sits within a tight performance band of rival cards like the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, which scores 1186, and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M, which scores 1192.

The CPU’s high percentile rank of 91 among all CPUs contrasts sharply with the GPU’s low rank, creating a significant imbalance in this pairing. While the Ryzen 9 7900X is a top-tier processor, its capabilities are largely wasted in this configuration because the GPU cannot translate that processing power into higher frame rates. The data shows that the combo’s ranking is a direct result of the GPU’s limitations. For example, the GPU’s nearest rival, the ATI Radeon HD 5770, has a deltaPct of -0.5%, meaning the Arc B370 is only 0.5% faster. This infinitesimal performance gap against legacy hardware underscores why the combo ranks so poorly. The system is effectively held back by the integrated graphics solution, which is designed for low power consumption rather than high-performance gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are generally playable, with the Low preset hitting 144 FPS and the High preset at 92 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop significantly: the Low preset falls to 91 FPS (a 37% decrease), and the High preset falls to 58 FPS (a 37% decrease as well). The scaling from 1440p to 4K is even more severe. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages only 47 FPS, which is a 48% drop from the 1440p result, and the High preset drops to 30 FPS, a 48% decline from the 58 FPS at 1440p.

This pattern is a clear indicator that the Intel Arc B370 is the primary limiting component. The GPU’s fill rate and pixel throughput are insufficient to handle the increased pixel count at higher resolutions. The GPU has a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s, which are modest figures. When the rendering resolution increases, the GPU must process more pixels per frame, and these rates become the bottleneck. The data shows that the frame rate drops almost linearly with the increase in pixel count, which is a classic symptom of a pixel-bound GPU. The CPU’s performance is unaffected by resolution, so the consistent proportional drops in FPS from 1080p to 4K confirm that the graphics processor is saturated at all settings and resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for this combo shows a clear hierarchy of performance across resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 144 FPS. The Medium preset provides a more balanced experience with an average of 107 FPS, a minimum of 91 FPS, and a maximum of 123 FPS. The High preset averages 92 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 66 FPS. This shows a 54% performance penalty from Low to Ultra at the same resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 91 FPS. The Medium preset averages 67 FPS, with a minimum of 57 and a maximum of 78 FPS. The High preset averages 58 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 42 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra here is 54%, consistent with the 1080p scaling.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only setting that remains above 30 FPS, averaging 47 FPS. The Medium preset averages 35 FPS, with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 41 FPS. The High preset averages 30 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages only 22 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 53%, showing that the GPU’s performance ceiling is consistent across all resolutions, but the absolute frame rates are too low for a smooth experience at 4K.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. The GPU has 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output pipelines. It also includes 10 ray tracing cores. Its memory is system-shared, with bandwidth described as system dependent, which is a critical limitation.

The GPU’s performance in Barony is poor, as evidenced by its low percentile rank of 5 among all GPUs. Its sole benchmark score is 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is nearly identical to the scores of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186) and ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190). This places the Arc B370 in a performance class with graphics hardware from over a decade ago. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS, which is a theoretical maximum that the system-shared memory configuration likely prevents it from achieving in practice.

The data from Barony confirms that the GPU is the definitive bottleneck. The fact that the frame rates drop so dramatically when resolution increases, while the CPU remains powerful, points directly to the GPU’s inability to render frames quickly. The system-shared memory is a major factor; because the GPU has no dedicated VRAM, it must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth, which is a severe handicap. This is reflected in the 4K results, where the Ultra preset averages just 22 FPS. The GPU’s 25 W TDP and IGP slot width indicate it is designed for low-power integrated use, not for gaming at high resolutions. The benchmark results indicate that this component cannot provide a consistent 60 FPS experience at any setting above 1080p Low, firmly establishing it as the primary factor in the combo’s low ranking.