Barony

Barony, a roguelike from 2015, is not typically a demanding title by modern standards, but the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile combo reveals a wide performance envelope across its four graphics presets. The benchmark results show this system is capable of delivering exceptionally high frame rates, even at 4K, making the choice of settings a matter of display refresh rate and preference for visual fidelity versus absolute smoothness. The data provides a clear hierarchy across resolutions, with the 1080p measurements reaching figures that far exceed the refresh rates of most displays, while the 4K Ultra preset remains the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile handle Barony's four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 139 FPS, which is already well above the standard 60 Hz or even 144 Hz refresh rates found in many gaming laptops. The High preset increases the average to 193 FPS, and the Medium preset pushes it further to 225 FPS. The Low preset achieves a staggering 303 FPS average. Given that the visual differences between High and Ultra in a game of this age are often subtle, the High preset at 1080p offers the best balance, providing a 39% performance headroom over Ultra while still maintaining a high level of graphical quality.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scaling remains robust. The Ultra preset averages 87 FPS, which is perfectly playable on a 60 Hz monitor and even suitable for a 75 Hz display. However, the High preset at this resolution jumps to an average of 122 FPS, a 40% improvement over Ultra. This makes High the recommended setting for 1440p, as it comfortably supports high-refresh-rate gaming and provides a smooth experience without compromising on the game's core visual presentation. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 142 FPS, but the jump from High to Medium is less necessary given that High already clears the 120 FPS mark.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes. The Ultra preset averages 46 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target most gamers prefer. The High preset, however, achieves a solid 64 FPS average, making it the optimal choice for 4K. This allows for a smooth, console-like experience while retaining the enhanced visual details of the High preset. The Medium preset at 4K, with an average of 74 FPS and a minimum of 63 FPS, is also a viable option for those who want a bit more performance headroom, but High offers a better visual experience for a minimal performance cost. The Low preset at 4K hits 100 FPS, but the significant reduction in visual quality is generally not worth the performance gain when High is already playable.

The overall recommendation is that the High preset provides the best experience across all three resolutions. It offers a substantial performance uplift over Ultra while avoiding the drastic visual downgrades of Low. The data shows that this combination is powerful enough to prioritize High settings as the default choice, with adjustments only needed for those seeking the absolute maximum frame rates on 1080p or 240Hz displays, where the Medium or Low presets could be considered.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 303 FPS, which is achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset. This indicates the system is heavily overqualified for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming in this title.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and RTX 4060 Mobile combo capable of 4K gaming in Barony?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160, the system delivers a playable 64 FPS average on the High preset and a 74 FPS average on the Medium preset. However, the Ultra preset drops to a 46 FPS average, which falls below the standard 60 FPS smoothness target.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from Ultra to High settings?

A: The performance gain is significant. At 1920x1080, the average frame rate increases from 139 FPS on Ultra to 193 FPS on High, a 39% improvement. At 2560x1440, it increases from 87 FPS to 122 FPS, a 40% improvement. At 3840x2160, it increases from 46 FPS to 64 FPS, a 39% improvement.

Q: Does the game become CPU-bound at any point with this hardware?

A: The data suggests that at lower resolutions and settings, the frame rates are so high that it is likely the CPU becomes a limiting factor. For instance, the 303 FPS average at 1080p Low and the 225 FPS at 1080p Medium are figures that often exceed the rendering throughput of the GPU in other scenarios, indicating the CPU is keeping up with a very high workload.

Q: What are the minimum FPS numbers recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The benchmark data includes minimum FPS figures only for the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 191 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 121 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 63 FPS. These figures indicate that even the lowest recorded frame times on Medium are well within the playable range.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 Mobile's performance compare to a desktop RTX 2080 in this context?

A: While there are no direct game benchmarks for the RTX 2080 in this data, the GPU's average benchmark score is 22895, which is 0.7% higher than the RTX 4060 Mobile's average score of 22729. This suggests the mobile GPU is performing at a level comparable to the older desktop card.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile is the primary driver of the frame rates observed in Barony, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a 256.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game of Barony's visual complexity. The GPU's 3072 shading units, operating at a boost clock of 1890 MHz, deliver the raw compute power needed to achieve the high frame rates seen in the data. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 11.61 TFLOPS, which is a strong indicator of its capability in a light 3D environment.

The benchmark results show a clear correlation between GPU load and resolution. At 1080p, the GPU is likely not the bottleneck, as frame rates are extraordinarily high. However, as the resolution increases to 1440p and then to 4K, the pixel count grows, placing a greater demand on the GPU's rendering pipeline. The drop from 193 FPS at 1080p High to 122 FPS at 1440p High, and further to 64 FPS at 4K High, illustrates the increasing workload on the RTX 4060 Mobile. This pattern is consistent with a GPU that is capable but not overly powerful, requiring a balance in settings to maintain high performance at 4K.

The GPU's 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present for ray tracing and DLSS features, but for Barony, these are not likely to be significant factors given the game's age and art style. The standard rasterization performance, as measured by the PassMark G3D score of 17469, is what primarily determines the outcome. The GPU's 67th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it is a solid mid-range performer, and the data confirms this, as it is able to handle the game at high settings across all resolutions, only faltering on the Ultra preset at 4K. The GPU's memory clock of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) is also a key factor in maintaining the texture fill rate necessary for high-resolution rendering.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data is comprehensive, covering four settings presets at three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system shows extreme performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 303 FPS, which is the highest score recorded. The Medium preset follows with an average of 225 FPS, and its minimum and maximum are 191 and 259 FPS, respectively. The High preset averages 193 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 139 FPS. These numbers show a clear performance hierarchy, with a 118% difference between the Low and Ultra presets.

At 2560x1440, the performance is still very high but scales down predictably. The Low preset averages 191 FPS, which is a 37% decrease from the 1080p Low score. The Medium preset averages 142 FPS, with a minimum of 121 and a maximum of 164 FPS. The High preset averages 122 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 87 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 119%, showing a similar spread to the 1080p results. The curve from Low to Ultra is not linear; the drop from Low to Medium is 49 FPS, from Medium to High is 20 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 35 FPS, indicating that the High preset offers a sweet spot in terms of performance per visual increment.

At 3840x2160, the system begins to feel the pressure. The Low preset averages 100 FPS, a 47% decrease from the 1080p Low score. The Medium preset averages 74 FPS, with a minimum of 63 and a maximum of 85 FPS. The High preset averages 64 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to an average of 46 FPS. This is the only resolution where any preset falls below the 60 FPS threshold. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steep, with the High preset dropping from 122 to 64 FPS, a 48% reduction. This indicates that the 4K resolution is pushing the RTX 4060 Mobile to its limits, requiring a reduction in settings to maintain a high frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the bottleneck in this system. At 1080p High, the system averages 193 FPS. When moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 122 FPS, a 37% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K High, the frame rate drops to 64 FPS, a 48% decrease. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K is 67%, which is a significant reduction in performance.

This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The number of pixels at 4K is 4 times that of 1080p, and the frame rate does not scale linearly with pixel count due to other bottlenecks like memory bandwidth and fill rate. The fact that the frame rate drops by about 37% from 1080p to 1440p (a 2.25x pixel increase) and then by 48% from 1440p to 4K (a 2.25x pixel increase) shows that the GPU is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates at lower resolutions would be much closer to each other, as the CPU workload does not scale with resolution.

The data for the Low preset shows a similar trend. At 1080p Low, the average is 303 FPS. This drops to 191 FPS at 1440p Low, a 37% decrease, and then to 100 FPS at 4K Low, a 48% decrease from 1440p. The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings presets strongly indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile's rendering capabilities are the primary constraint. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, is delivering enough processing power to avoid becoming a bottleneck, even at the high frame rates seen at 1080p. The scaling shows that to achieve 60 FPS at 4K, users must dial back to the High preset, as the Ultra preset is too demanding for the GPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a high-end mobile processor with 16 cores and 32 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock is 2.50 GHz, and it can boost up to 5.40 GHz. For a game like Barony, which is not heavily multithreaded, the high boost clock is more critical than the core count. The CPU's single-thread performance is measured at a Cinebench R23 score of 6030, which is strong and ensures that the game's main logic thread can run efficiently.

The CPU's role in this benchmark is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game state data. The data shows that at 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the CPU's performance is crucial to achieving them. The jump from 193 FPS on High to 303 FPS on Low suggests that the system is capable of producing very high frame rates, and the CPU is able to keep up with the GPU's output. The processor's 64 MB of L3 cache is also beneficial for game logic, as it reduces latency when accessing frequently used data.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 8945HX has an average benchmark score of 76212, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This places it in the top tier of CPUs, with a 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The high single-core and multi-core performance ensures that the CPU is not a limiting factor in Barony. The PassMark multithread score of 51405 further confirms its strength in multi-threaded workloads, even if Barony does not fully utilize them. The CPU's 55W TDP shows its efficiency, as it delivers this level of performance within a mobile power envelope.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for Barony, the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile holds a specific position. The combo rank is 2263 out of 3717 tested combinations. This places it in the 39th percentile of all tested combos, meaning that about 61% of the other combinations tested achieve higher frame rates in this game. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the high frame rates measured, but it is important to note that the database likely includes many high-end desktop configurations with more powerful GPUs.

The rank of 2263 out of 3717 suggests that while this combo is capable, it is not at the top of the performance heap for Barony. The RTX 4060 Mobile is a mid-range mobile GPU, and its 67th percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects this. In a game like Barony, which is not graphically demanding, the GPU is the primary differentiator, and more powerful GPUs will naturally achieve higher frame rates, especially at 4K Ultra settings. The CPU, while powerful, is not the primary factor in this ranking, as even a lower-end CPU could likely achieve high frame rates in this game when paired with a top-tier GPU.

The data shows that this combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming in Barony, and it can handle 4K at High settings. The ranking, however, indicates that for those seeking the absolute maximum performance, particularly at 4K Ultra, there are better combinations available. The combo's performance is consistent with the GPU's own ranking, suggesting that the CPU is not holding back the system. For a mobile platform, this is a strong result, offering a very playable and smooth experience across the board, but it is not the best-performing setup in the database for this specific title.