Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile delivers a staggeringly high-performance experience in Barony, a roguelike title that is anything but demanding on modern hardware. The measured data shows this combo crushing every resolution and settings tier, with frame rates that far exceed the refresh rates of typical gaming displays. The benchmark results indicate a system that is heavily overqualified for the task, yet analyzing the specific frame rate drops and scaling patterns reveals where the bottlenecks lie and how the hardware behaves under different loads.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking feature of the dataset is how FPS scales from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 471 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 298 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls further to 156 FPS. This represents a 67% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The pattern is consistent across all settings tiers, though the percentage drops vary slightly.

For High settings, the progression is 301 FPS at 1080p, 190 FPS at 1440p, and 99 FPS at 4K. That is a 67% drop from 1080p to 4K, nearly identical to the Low settings scaling. Medium settings show 351 FPS at 1080p, 221 FPS at 1440p, and 116 FPS at 4K, which is a 67% drop as well. Ultra settings produce 216 FPS at 1080p, 136 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K, a 67% reduction.

The consistency of this scaling is telling. A game that is purely GPU-limited would typically show a more dramatic drop when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The fact that the frame rate drops by roughly two-thirds across all settings suggests that the RTX 4090 Mobile is not the sole limiting factor, even at 4K. The data shows that the CPU is playing a significant role in holding back the frame rate, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do.

At 1080p Low, the 471 FPS average is likely near the ceiling of what the Ryzen 9 8945HX can feed to the GPU. The CPU's single-thread performance, measured at 6,030 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is excellent, but even the fastest mobile processors have limits when generating hundreds of frames per second. The 67% drop to 4K indicates that while the GPU is becoming more stressed, the CPU still has a voice in the outcome. If the GPU were completely bottlenecked at 4K, the drop from 1440p to 4K would be steeper than the drop from 1080p to 1440p. Instead, the scaling is linear, pointing to a balanced load where both components contribute to the final frame count.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Dragon Range. It operates with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This is a flagship mobile part, and its benchmark scores reflect that positioning. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42,713 places it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 95% of processors in the database.

In Barony, a roguelike that does not typically require massive multi-threaded workloads, the CPU's raw single-thread speed is what matters most. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6,030 is exceptionally high. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 471 FPS, which is an extreme load for any game engine. At this frame rate, the CPU's per-core performance becomes the determining factor.

The nearest rivals for the 8945HX in the benchmark database are the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (0.1% higher average score), the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (0.4% lower), the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (0.4% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (0.6% higher). These deltas are tiny, meaning the 8945HX is essentially tied with the best desktop and mobile processors available. For a roguelike like Barony, the CPU is never going to be a weak link.

The processor's 64 MB of L3 cache is generous, and the 5.40 GHz boost clock is among the highest in the mobile segment. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is capable of sustaining high frame rates even in the most demanding scenarios, but the measured FPS data suggests that the game itself is not pushing the CPU to its limits. At 1080p Low, the 471 FPS average is likely hitting a game engine limit or a frame pacing threshold rather than a true CPU bottleneck. The fact that the frame rate drops to 156 FPS at 4K Low shows that the GPU is taking on more work, but the CPU is still keeping up without issue.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. It comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 2,250 MHz, which translates to 18 Gbps effective. The GPU has a base clock of 1,335 MHz and a boost clock of 1,695 MHz.

In the benchmark database, the RTX 4090 Mobile sits in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its Passmark G3D score of 27,212 is strong, though the nearest rivals tell an interesting story. The NVIDIA Quadro M6000 scores 0.8% higher, the RTX 5050 Mobile scores 0.9% higher, and the RTX A6000 scores 0.9% lower. These are all professional or lower-tier consumer cards, which suggests the 4090 Mobile is performing near its expected level.

For Barony, the GPU's role is less about raw rendering power and more about maintaining high frame rates without breaking a sweat. The measured FPS numbers show that even at 4K Ultra, the combo averages 71 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the GPU is clearly not struggling. The 16 GB of VRAM is far more than this game needs, and the memory bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s ensures that texture streaming is never a bottleneck.

The scaling from Low to Ultra settings at each resolution shows how the GPU handles increasing load. At 1080p, the jump from Low (471 FPS) to Ultra (216 FPS) is a 54% reduction. At 1440p, Low (298 FPS) to Ultra (136 FPS) is a 54% reduction. At 4K, Low (156 FPS) to Ultra (71 FPS) is a 54% reduction. This consistent percentage across all resolutions indicates that the GPU is scaling predictably with settings, and the frame rate drops are proportional to the increased work.

The RTX 4090 Mobile's FP32 performance of 32.98 TFLOPS is immense, but Barony is not a graphically intensive title. The data shows that the GPU is capable of delivering frame rates that are multiples of what any display can show. The limiting factor in this system is never the GPU; it is the CPU or the game engine itself.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined CPU and GPU configuration ranks 830th out of 3,717 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the top 22% of all systems in the database for this specific game. While the rank might seem low for such high-end hardware, it is important to consider the context.

Barony is a roguelike with simple graphics and gameplay that does not scale well with extreme hardware. Many lower-end systems can achieve playable frame rates, so the competition is dense. The 830th rank out of 3,717 means that 22% of tested combos outperform this one in terms of raw FPS, but those combos likely include desktop parts with higher power limits or more optimized configurations.

The data shows that this combo is not the absolute fastest for Barony, but it is firmly in the upper quartile. The rank is more a reflection of the game's low requirements than any deficiency in the hardware. The 16-core CPU and the flagship mobile GPU are overkill for a title that can run on integrated graphics, but the measured FPS numbers prove that this system will never drop below playable thresholds.

The percentile rankings for the individual components tell a clearer story. The CPU is in the 95th percentile, and the GPU is in the 84th percentile. The combo rank of 830 out of 3,717 suggests that the pairing is slightly less dominant than the individual parts would imply, likely because the game does not scale well beyond a certain frame rate. The system is leaving performance on the table because Barony simply cannot use all the resources available.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides average FPS for each resolution and settings combination, with some entries also including minimum and maximum FPS values. The Medium settings rows are the only ones with full min/max data, which gives insight into frame pacing.

At 1920x1080:

• Low: 471 FPS average
• Medium: 351 FPS average, 298 FPS minimum, 403 FPS maximum
• High: 301 FPS average
• Ultra: 216 FPS average

The Medium settings row shows a 105 FPS spread between minimum and maximum. This indicates that the game has some frame time variance, but the average of 351 FPS is so high that any dips are imperceptible. The minimum of 298 FPS is still above the refresh rate of any mainstream monitor.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 298 FPS average
• Medium: 221 FPS average, 188 FPS minimum, 254 FPS maximum
• High: 190 FPS average
• Ultra: 136 FPS average

The Medium settings row at 1440p shows a 66 FPS spread, which is tighter than at 1080p. This suggests that the GPU is taking on more consistent work as resolution increases, smoothing out the frame times. The minimum of 188 FPS is still exceptionally high.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 156 FPS average
• Medium: 116 FPS average, 98 FPS minimum, 133 FPS maximum
• High: 99 FPS average
• Ultra: 71 FPS average

The 4K Medium row shows a 35 FPS spread, which is the tightest of all measured rows. This indicates that at 4K, the workload is more evenly distributed and the frame times are more consistent. The minimum of 98 FPS is still above 60 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay.

The progression from 1080p to 4K shows a clear pattern. At each settings tier, the average FPS drops by approximately 67% when moving from 1080p to 4K. This is a logical result of the pixel count quadrupling, though the fact that the percentage is consistent across all settings suggests that the game's rendering pipeline is efficient and scales linearly.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target display's refresh rate. The benchmark results show that this system can hit 300+ FPS at 1080p with Low settings, which is overkill for any current gaming monitor.

For a 1080p display with a 240 Hz refresh rate, the High settings preset at 301 FPS average is the best choice. This provides the visual fidelity improvements of High settings while still delivering frame rates that saturate a 240 Hz panel. The Ultra preset at 216 FPS is also viable, but the 85 FPS drop from High to Ultra is not worth the marginal visual gains in a roguelike.

For a 1440p display with a 165 Hz refresh rate, the Medium settings preset at 221 FPS average is ideal. This gives a comfortable margin above the 165 Hz refresh rate, and the minimum FPS of 188 ensures no dips below the refresh rate. The High preset at 190 FPS is also acceptable, but the Medium preset provides a larger buffer for frame time spikes.

For a 4K display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, the Medium settings preset at 116 FPS average is the sweet spot. The minimum FPS of 98 is below the 120 Hz refresh rate, but the average is close enough that most gameplay will feel smooth. The High preset at 99 FPS is also workable, though it sits below the 120 Hz threshold more often.

For a 4K display with a 60 Hz refresh rate, the Ultra settings preset at 71 FPS average is the best option. This maximizes visual quality while staying above the 60 FPS minimum for smooth gameplay. The minimum FPS at Ultra is not provided, but the average of 71 FPS suggests that dips below 60 FPS are unlikely.

The data shows that this combo is powerful enough to run Barony at maximum settings at any resolution and still maintain playable frame rates. The recommendation is to prioritize refresh rate matching. For high-refresh displays, Medium or High settings provide the best balance of visual quality and frame rate headroom. For standard 60 Hz displays, Ultra settings are the clear choice, as the GPU has plenty of overhead to spare.