Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers a broad range of frame rates in Barony, scaling from extremely high triple-digit performance at 1080p to still-playable levels at 4K. The measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets shows a system that is generally GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s strong single-thread performance becomes more relevant at lower resolutions. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, CPU and GPU roles, and provides specific settings recommendations based on the measured FPS rows.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial, but the pattern across settings reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 466 at 1920x1080 to 294 at 2560x1440, and then to 154 at 3840x2160. That is a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is being pushed much harder as pixel count rises. The drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is 48%, which is still significant but less severe than the 1080p-to-1440p step (37% drop), suggesting a somewhat diminishing scaling curve as resolution increases.

At High settings, the scaling is similar but with lower absolute numbers: 298 FPS at 1080p, 188 FPS at 1440p, and 98 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 37% from 1080p to 1440p and 48% from 1440p to 4K. This shows that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the frame rate scales almost directly with the pixel count increase. The RTX 3080 Ti’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth are clearly sufficient to handle the data throughput, but the raw compute power at 4K Ultra (70 FPS) versus 4K Low (154 FPS) demonstrates that the GPU’s pixel and texture rates are the primary constraints.

The Medium settings row provides additional insight, as it is the only preset with min and max FPS data recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 347 FPS with a min of 295 and max of 399. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 219 FPS with a min of 186 and max of 252. At 4K Medium, the average is 114 FPS with a min of 97 and max of 132. The min-to-max spread is relatively consistent across resolutions—roughly 30% of the average—which suggests that frame time variance is not disproportionately affected by resolution, but rather by the settings complexity.

The overall trend points to a system that is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where the 7900X can feed the GPU enough data to maintain high frame rates without the GPU becoming a severe bottleneck. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as evidenced by the fact that dropping from Ultra to Low at 4K only recovers 84 FPS (from 70 to 154), whereas at 1080p the same settings drop recovers 253 FPS (from 213 to 466). This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is more involved in the performance ceiling, while at 4K, the GPU’s shading units and ROPs are the primary constraint.

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. In Barony, which is a roguelike game that does not typically scale well across many cores, the single-thread performance is crucial. The 7900X’s benchmark scores reflect this strength: it achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 1093 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2617. In contrast, its multi-thread scores are higher in absolute terms (3DMark max threads at 12536, Cinebench R23 multi-core at 29300), but the game’s engine likely relies on fewer threads.

At 1080p Low settings, the system hits 466 FPS, which is exceptionally high and suggests that the CPU is able to process game logic and draw calls quickly enough to keep the GPU fed. The fact that the FPS drops to 154 at 4K Low indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, but the CPU’s role is still significant at lower resolutions. The 7900X’s 64 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth provide ample data throughput for a game like Barony, which likely has moderate memory access patterns.

The measured data shows that at 1440p High, the system achieves 188 FPS, which is 37% lower than at 1080p High (298 FPS). This drop is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, but the CPU’s headroom is evident when comparing Low to Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, going from Low to Ultra drops the FPS from 466 to 213, a 54% reduction. At 4K, the same settings change drops from 154 to 70, a 55% reduction. The consistency of this percentage drop across resolutions suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution; instead, the GPU’s performance scales with settings load.

The 7900X’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD EPYC 7313P (0.2% higher average score) and the Intel Core i7-14700F (0.6% lower average score), but these comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks rather than in-game performance. In Barony, the CPU’s 12 cores and high boost clock provide more than enough processing power, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 70 FPS, which is above the playable threshold for most users.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Barony?*

A: The highest average FPS is 466, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 70, which is the lowest recorded average across all tested configurations.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Medium settings at 1440p and 4K?

A: Yes, the average FPS drops from 219 at 2560x1440 Medium to 114 at 3840x2160 Medium, representing a 48% reduction.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest minimum FPS is 97, recorded at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. The highest minimum is 295 at 1920x1080 with Medium settings.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is more relevant, as evidenced by the high frame rates (466 FPS at Low) that are only achievable with strong single-thread performance. The GPU still matters, but the CPU’s 5.60 GHz boost clock and 1093 single-thread 3DMark score support these high frame rates.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 987 out of 3717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 27% of all tested systems.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ranks 987 out of 3717 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the upper quartile of all tested systems, but not at the very top. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU, where the 7900X’s percentile of 91 among all CPUs is higher than the GPU’s percentile of 83 among all GPUs. This suggests that the CPU is relatively stronger than the GPU in this pairing, which is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis showing the GPU becoming the bottleneck at 4K.

The ranking is based on the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, with higher frame rates contributing to a better rank. Given that this system achieves 466 FPS at 1080p Low and 298 FPS at 1080p High, it is clearly capable of high refresh-rate gaming at 1080p. However, the 4K Ultra score of 70 FPS is below the 100+ FPS threshold that many high-end systems achieve, which likely prevents the combo from ranking higher. The fact that the GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (2% lower average score) and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.8% higher) indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti is still competitive, but not the absolute fastest GPU available.

The rank of 987 out of 3717 means that roughly 73% of tested combos perform better in Barony. This is not a poor result, but it does indicate that for this specific game, the combo is not in the top tier. The data suggests that a stronger GPU would improve the 4K performance and thus the overall rank, while the CPU is already sufficient for the game’s demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers the following average FPS: Low at 466, Medium at 347 (with a min of 295 and max of 399), High at 298, and Ultra at 213. The spread between Low and Ultra is 253 FPS, showing that settings have a major impact at this resolution. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 295 is higher than the Ultra average of 213, indicating that even the minimum frame rate at Medium is substantially better than the average at Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low at 294, Medium at 219 (min 186, max 252), High at 188, and Ultra at 135. The drop from Low to Ultra is 159 FPS, which is a smaller absolute difference than at 1080p but still significant. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 186 is above the Ultra average of 135, suggesting that Medium provides a consistently smoother experience than Ultra at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low at 154, Medium at 114 (min 97, max 132), High at 98, and Ultra at 70. The drop from Low to Ultra is 84 FPS, which is the smallest absolute difference across all resolutions. This confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, as the settings have less impact on frame rate when the pixel count is already high. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 97 is close to the High average of 98, showing that the minimum frame rate at Medium is comparable to the average at High.

The data also shows that the Medium preset is the only one with min and max FPS recorded, which allows for a more detailed analysis of frame time consistency. At all three resolutions, the min FPS is roughly 15-20% lower than the average, and the max FPS is roughly 15-20% higher. This consistency suggests that the system does not experience severe frame time spikes, which is important for a roguelike game where quick reactions are necessary.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best settings preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 298 FPS, which is more than enough for any high-refresh-rate monitor. The Ultra preset drops to 213 FPS, which is still playable but offers diminishing returns in visual quality for the 29% performance loss. The Medium preset at 347 FPS is the best choice for competitive play, as it provides a 16% higher frame rate than High while likely offering similar visual fidelity in a roguelike game with simple graphics.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 188 FPS is the sweet spot for most users, as it balances visual quality with a frame rate that exceeds 144Hz refresh rates. The Ultra preset at 135 FPS is also viable for 144Hz displays, but the Medium preset at 219 FPS is better for maximizing smoothness. The Low preset at 294 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality for a marginal gain.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset at 114 FPS is the recommended choice, as it is the only preset that maintains an average above 100 FPS while providing decent visual quality. The High preset at 98 FPS is also playable but dips below the 100 FPS threshold, and the Ultra preset at 70 FPS is not recommended for 4K gaming. The Low preset at 154 FPS is viable for competitive play but will look noticeably worse. Given the min FPS of 97 at 4K Medium, the system will rarely drop below 60 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience in most scenarios.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is a high-end GPU based on the Ampere architecture, featuring 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. Its boost clock of 1665 MHz and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provide a memory bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s. These specifications directly influence the game’s performance, particularly at higher resolutions and settings.

In Barony, the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K Ultra, the system achieves 70 FPS, which is limited by the GPU’s pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 34.10 TFLOPS is more than sufficient for a roguelike game, but the memory bandwidth and ROP throughput are the key factors at high resolutions. The fact that the GPU’s average benchmark score is 41187, with a percentile of 83 among all GPUs, indicates that it is a strong performer but not the absolute top tier.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, which has a 2% lower average score, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300, which has a 0.8% higher score. These comparisons show that the RTX 3080 Ti is still competitive with newer GPUs, but it is not the fastest option available. The 12 GB of VRAM is likely sufficient for Barony, as the game does not require extensive texture memory, but it could be a limitation in other more demanding titles.

The GPU’s performance scaling with settings is consistent with its specifications. At 1080p, the GPU is not the primary bottleneck, as the CPU can push frame rates above 400 FPS at Low settings. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with the frame rate dropping to 70 FPS at Ultra. This is expected given the 4x increase in pixel count from 1080p to 4K, and the GPU’s 186.5 GPixel/s pixel rate is the constraint. The data shows that the RTX 3080 Ti is best suited for 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates across all settings, while 4K gaming requires lowering settings to Medium or Low to achieve playable frame rates.