Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination delivers exceptional performance in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015. The measured data shows this pairing ranks 764th out of 2,935 tested combos, placing it in the top 26% of all systems. This high placement is driven by the CPU's position in the 95th percentile of all processors and the GPU's 87th percentile standing, creating a balanced platform that excels at high refresh rates across all tested resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system reaches 462 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. This drops to 211 FPS at Ultra settings, showing a significant 251 FPS gap between the lowest and highest quality presets.

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

A: The Ryzen 9 8945HX has an average benchmark score of 76,212, putting it virtually tied with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX at 76,155 (0.1% difference) and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D at 75,779 (0.6% ahead). The AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P scores 76,492, which is 0.4% higher.

Q: What is the GPU's position relative to other graphics cards?

A: The RTX 5080 posts an average benchmark score of 56,083, placing it 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon 8060S (55,757) and 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698). The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE scores 57,367, which is 2.2% higher.

Q: Does the system maintain playable frame rates at 4K with maximum settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 70, with no minimum or maximum values recorded. The Medium preset at the same resolution shows 113 FPS average with a minimum of 96 FPS and maximum of 130 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the system drops from 295 FPS at 1920x1080 to 186 FPS at 2560x1440 and 97 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating strong scaling across resolutions.

Q: What are the CPU's key specifications for this game?

A: The Ryzen 9 8945HX features 16 cores and 32 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It has 64 MB of L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration delivering 83.2 GB/s bandwidth.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 8945HX brings substantial processing power to Barony, a game that benefits from strong single-thread performance for its simulation and AI systems. The CPU's architecture is Zen 4 on a 5 nm process from TSMC, with a Dragon Range codename and AMD Socket FL1 interface. The 16 cores and 32 threads provide ample parallel processing capability, while the 2.50 GHz base clock and 5.40 GHz boost clock allow the processor to scale up under load.

Benchmark results show this CPU excels in both single and multi-threaded workloads. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42,713 and single-core score of 6,030 demonstrate strong performance across different task types. The Passmark multithread score of 51,405 and single-thread score of 3,907 further confirm balanced capabilities. The CPU's 95th percentile ranking among all processors indicates it outperforms the vast majority of available CPUs.

The CPU's memory subsystem includes 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache. This large cache hierarchy helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing latency in game logic. The dual-channel DDR5 memory interface with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provides sufficient data throughput for the game's requirements.

In Barony, the measured FPS at lower resolutions suggests the CPU is not the primary bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 462 FPS, which is exceptionally high. The 16-core configuration ensures that background processes and game threads can run without contention, even when the GPU is fully utilized.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals clear performance tiers across the four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 462 FPS, Medium achieves 343 FPS, High reaches 295 FPS, and Ultra drops to 211 FPS. The Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with a minimum FPS of 292 and maximum of 395 recorded.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset maintains 217 FPS average with a minimum of 184 FPS and maximum of 249 FPS. This represents a 63% reduction from the 1080p Medium result, yet remains well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on modern monitors. High settings at this resolution achieve 186 FPS, while Ultra drops to 133 FPS.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the recommended choice for consistent performance. The 113 FPS average with a 96 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay, while High settings at 97 FPS and Ultra at 70 FPS may cause noticeable stuttering during intense scenes. The Low preset at 152 FPS sacrifices too much visual fidelity for the modest frame rate gain over Medium.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset provides the most consistent experience. The measured minimum FPS values at Medium settings show only a 34 FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 48 FPS drop from 1440p to 4K, indicating stable performance scaling. Users seeking maximum visual quality should consider High settings at 1080p or 1440p, where frame rates remain above 186 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 764th out of 2,935 tested combos in Barony. This placement in the top 26% reflects the system's strong overall performance, though it is not among the absolute highest performers. The CPU's 95th percentile score and GPU's 87th percentile score contribute to this ranking, though the specific game optimization plays a significant role.

The rank suggests that while both components are individually powerful, the system faces competition from combos with higher-end GPUs or CPUs that may be better optimized for this particular title. The 764th position out of 2,935 indicates the system outperforms 2,171 other tested configurations, placing it in the upper quartile of all possible pairings.

The CPU's position relative to its nearest rivals shows it is virtually tied with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, which scores 0.1% higher. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 0.6% lower, while the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P scores 0.4% higher. These small differences suggest the CPU is not the limiting factor in the system's ranking.

For the GPU, the RTX 5080's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 8060S (0.6% lower score), AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (0.7% lower), and AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (2.2% higher). The GPU's 87th percentile ranking means it outperforms 87% of all graphics cards, though the specific game performance may vary based on driver optimization and architecture.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 serves as the primary rendering engine for Barony, with its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory providing ample capacity for high-resolution textures. The GPU's memory interface uses a 256-bit bus delivering 960.0 GB/s bandwidth, which supports the high frame rates observed in the measured data. The memory clock runs at 1875 MHz with 30 Gbps effective speed.

The GPU architecture is Blackwell 2.0 on a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring the GB203 chip. The 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units provide substantial compute capability. The 84 ray tracing cores and 336 tensor cores enable advanced rendering features, though Barony's roguelike nature may not fully utilize these capabilities.

The RTX 5080 achieves a boost clock of 2617 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz, with a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS and FP16 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) indicate strong compute throughput. The GPU's 360 W TDP and dual-slot design require a 750 W suggested PSU.

In benchmark tests, the GPU scores 36,565 in Passmark G3D and 21,789 in Passmark GPU Compute. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 8,637 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 235,901 provide additional performance context. The GPU's 87th percentile ranking among all graphics cards confirms its high-end positioning.

The GPU's role becomes increasingly important at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings is 82 FPS (152 to 70), while at 1920x1080 this gap expands to 251 FPS (462 to 211). This indicates the GPU handles resolution scaling efficiently, with the 16 GB VRAM preventing memory bottlenecks even at 4K Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 462 FPS on Low, 343 FPS on Medium (with 292 minimum and 395 maximum), 295 FPS on High, and 211 FPS on Ultra. These results indicate the system is capable of driving high refresh rate displays at 1080p with all quality settings.

At 2560x1440, performance scales predictably: Low settings deliver 291 FPS, Medium achieves 217 FPS (184 minimum, 249 maximum), High reaches 186 FPS, and Ultra drops to 133 FPS. The 1440p results show a 37% reduction from 1080p at Low settings, while the Medium preset shows a 37% reduction as well.

The 3840x2160 results demonstrate the system's 4K capabilities: Low settings achieve 152 FPS, Medium delivers 113 FPS (96 minimum, 130 maximum), High reaches 97 FPS, and Ultra drops to 70 FPS. The 4K data shows a 67% reduction from 1080p at Low settings and a 67% reduction at Medium settings.

The minimum FPS values recorded at Medium settings across all resolutions show the system maintains smooth frame delivery. At 1080p, the minimum of 292 FPS represents a 15% drop from the average, while at 1440p the minimum of 184 FPS is a 15% drop, and at 4K the minimum of 96 FPS is a 15% drop. This consistent 15% variance indicates stable performance without major frame time spikes.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 462 at 1080p to 291 at 1440p (37% reduction) and 152 at 4K (67% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset shows similar scaling: 343 FPS at 1080p drops to 217 FPS at 1440p (37% reduction) and 113 FPS at 4K (67% reduction). The High preset follows the same trend with 295 FPS at 1080p, 186 FPS at 1440p (37% reduction), and 97 FPS at 4K (67% reduction). The Ultra preset shows 211 FPS at 1080p, 133 FPS at 1440p (37% reduction), and 70 FPS at 4K (67% reduction).

The consistent 37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The RTX 5080's 16 GB VRAM and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to maintain performance without memory-related stutters.

The fact that the FPS scaling is nearly identical across all quality presets suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at all resolutions. The Ryzen 9 8945HX's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its 6,030 Cinebench R23 single-core score, ensures the game's logic and rendering commands are processed quickly enough to keep the GPU busy.

The 4K Ultra result of 70 FPS is the only measured value below 96 FPS, indicating the system is capable of maintaining high frame rates even at maximum settings. The performance scaling pattern suggests that users seeking higher frame rates at 4K should reduce settings to Medium, which provides a 61% FPS increase over Ultra while maintaining visual quality.