Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers an exceptionally high refresh rate experience in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015 that is clearly not demanding by modern standards. The measured data reveals a configuration that is heavily bottlenecked by software and game engine limits at lower resolutions, with the GPU only beginning to assert its influence as pixel count rises. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, contextualizes the combo’s standing, and answers common questions based strictly on the provided benchmark results.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic but reveals a predictable shift in system balance. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 523.4 FPS; moving to 1440p Low drops that to 328 FPS, and at 4K Low it settles at 173.9 FPS. That represents a 66.8% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor only as resolution climbs. The 1080p numbers are so high that they clearly exceed what any 60Hz or even 144Hz display can show, meaning the CPU is likely not the constraint — instead, the game’s render thread or engine overhead caps performance well below what the hardware could theoretically deliver.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is steeper: 240.2 FPS at 1080p, 151.1 FPS at 1440p, and 79.6 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K Ultra is 47.3%, which is nearly proportional to the pixel count increase (2.25x pixels, 47% fewer frames), suggesting that at Ultra the GPU is the dominant bottleneck across all resolutions. In contrast, the Low setting shows a shallower per-step decline, implying that the game’s CPU-side logic and geometry processing are more significant at lower graphical loads. The data suggests that for this roguelike, the RTX 4070 SUPER is overkill at 1080p and only becomes fully utilized at 4K Ultra, where it still maintains a playable 79.6 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER brings 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for Barony, which is a low-poly roguelike with simple textures, so VRAM capacity is unlikely to ever be a limiting factor. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz are high, but the measured FPS at 1080p (over 500 FPS on Low) suggests the card is not being pushed to its thermal or power limits in this title. The card’s 7168 shading units and 224 texture mapping units are massive overkill for a game of this visual complexity.

The GPU’s performance percentile of 84 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42576, places it just 0.2% behind the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and 0.3% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE. In practical terms for Barony, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s raw compute is irrelevant at 1080p, but the scaling from 1080p to 4K Ultra (a 66.9% FPS drop) shows that the card’s fillrate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors at maximum settings and resolution. The card’s 80 ROPs and 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are what ultimately determine the 4K Ultra ceiling of 79.6 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. At 4K, Ultra settings yield 79.6 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh displays; dropping to High raises the average to 110.8 FPS, a 39.2% improvement, while Medium reaches 129.3 FPS and Low jumps to 173.9 FPS. The jump from Ultra to High at 4K is the most significant single-step gain (31.2 FPS), suggesting that Ultra includes a disproportionately expensive effect (likely shadows or post-processing) that can be sacrificed without major visual loss in a roguelike with top-down perspective.

At 1440p, the sweet spot is High at 207.7 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of most 144Hz monitors, while Ultra remains viable at 151.1 FPS. For 1080p users, even Ultra at 240.2 FPS exceeds any common display refresh rate, so the recommendation is to simply max settings and enjoy the headroom. The data implies that High settings at 4K or Ultra at 1440p offer the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, with the 4K High result of 110.8 FPS being particularly strong for a single-player roguelike where responsiveness matters more than pixel-perfect shadows.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 313th out of 1702 combos for Barony. That places it in the top 18.4% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing but not the absolute top tier. The ranking is likely held back by the fact that the game is CPU-bound at lower resolutions, and the 7900X’s 12 cores and 24 threads are far more than this 2015 roguelike can utilize. The combo’s rank of 313 suggests that many higher-ranked systems likely use faster single-threaded CPUs, even if the GPU is weaker, because Barony’s engine rewards high clock speeds over core counts.

The CPU’s benchmark percentile of 93 among all CPUs, with an average score of 50556, puts it on par with the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (0.1% faster) and AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT (0.4% faster). However, those rival CPUs would likely score nearly identically in Barony because the game’s frame rates at 1080p are capped far below what any modern CPU can produce. The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking is also respectable, but again, the game’s low graphical demands mean that a mid-range GPU would deliver the same 1080p experience. The 313th rank out of 1702 indicates that this is a top-quartile system, but the data suggests diminishing returns for this specific title.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER overkill for Barony?

A: Yes, the data shows 523.4 FPS at 1080p Low and 332.3 FPS at 1080p High, which far exceeds any display refresh rate. The GPU only becomes fully utilized at 4K Ultra, where it drops to 79.6 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: At 4K High, the combo achieves 110.8 FPS, which is smoother than 4K Ultra’s 79.6 FPS. For 1440p, High at 207.7 FPS is excellent, while 1080p Ultra at 240.2 FPS is the maximum quality option.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X scores 50556 on average, which is 0.1% slower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and 0.4% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT. In Barony, these differences are negligible due to game engine limits.

Q: Does the 12 GB of VRAM matter for this game?

A: No, Barony’s simple textures and geometry do not stress the 12 GB GDDR6X memory. The bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s is also far more than needed, as shown by the high FPS at all settings.

Q: What settings should I use for 4K gaming?

A: High settings at 4K provide 110.8 FPS, which is a 39.2% improvement over Ultra’s 79.6 FPS. Medium at 129.3 FPS is also viable if you prefer higher frame rates.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: It ranks 313th out of 1702 combinations, placing it in the top 18.4% of systems tested for Barony. This is a strong result, though not the absolute best due to the game’s CPU-bound nature at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 523.4 FPS on Low, 387.5 FPS on Medium, 332.3 FPS on High, and 240.2 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 135.9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 92.1 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings introduce a significant rendering cost. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 328 FPS (Low), 247.4 FPS (Medium), 207.7 FPS (High), and 151.1 FPS (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, averaging about a 37% reduction, which aligns with the pixel count increase of 78%.

At 3840x2160, the results are 173.9 FPS (Low), 129.3 FPS (Medium), 110.8 FPS (High), and 79.6 FPS (Ultra). The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper, with Low dropping by 47% and Ultra dropping by 47.3%, confirming that the GPU’s fillrate is the primary constraint at 4K. The data shows that the difference between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases: at 1080p, Low is 2.2x faster than Ultra; at 1440p, it is 2.2x faster; at 4K, it is 2.2x faster. This consistency indicates that the settings scaling is purely GPU-bound, with no CPU interference even at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its 64 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) are far beyond what Barony needs. The CPU’s single-thread performance, as shown in Cinebench R23 at 6168 points, is exceptional, but the game’s measured FPS at 1080p Low (523.4 FPS) is likely limited by the engine’s draw call submission or physics simulation, not the CPU’s raw speed.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the 7900X scores 50556 on average, which is 0.1% below the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT. These deltas are trivial and would not manifest in Barony’s frame rates, as the game is not multi-threaded enough to use the 7900X’s 24 threads. The CPU’s 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects its strong overall performance, but in this specific roguelike, the bottleneck shifts entirely to the GPU only at 4K Ultra. At 1080p, the data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor — the game’s own engine overhead caps performance around 500 FPS, as evidenced by the 523.4 FPS ceiling on Low settings. For a 2015 roguelike, the 7900X provides more than enough computational headroom, with the measured results indicating that a less powerful CPU would deliver nearly identical FPS at standard resolutions.