Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers exceptional performance in Barony, a roguelike title where the measured frame rates remain exceptionally high across all tested configurations. The data indicates that this combination is heavily biased toward CPU-bound performance at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor only at 4K with the most demanding settings. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, examines the role of each component, and contextualizes the results against the benchmark database's nearest rivals.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a distinct pattern in how performance scales with resolution, highlighting the shifting bottleneck between the CPU and GPU. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 469.5 FPS, a figure so high that it clearly exceeds the practical demands of the game. This score demonstrates that the Ryzen 9 9900X’s single-thread performance is more than sufficient to feed the RTX 4070 at this resolution, leaving the GPU with ample headroom. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 294.7 FPS, a 37% reduction from 1080p Low. This substantial decline indicates that the GPU is now beginning to take on more work, but the frame rate remains far above the threshold where any CPU limitation would manifest.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is even more pronounced. At 4K Low, the average FPS falls to 152.6, representing a 48% drop from the 1440p Low result. This steep decline is a clear sign that the RTX 4070 is becoming the primary limiting component, as the pixel throughput demand at 3840x2160 overwhelms the GPU’s capabilities relative to the CPU’s ability to prepare frames. The trend continues across all settings, but the magnitude of the drop varies. For example, at High settings, the transition from 1080p (297.1 FPS) to 1440p (190.7 FPS) is a 36% reduction, while the drop from 1440p to 4K (100.5 FPS) is 47%. This consistency suggests that the game’s rendering load scales predictably with resolution, and the RTX 4070’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the data, but the raw shading power becomes the limiting factor at 4K.

The most telling indicator of the GPU’s role comes from the Ultra settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 70.4, which is still playable but represents a 67% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score of 215.6 FPS. This dramatic scaling shows that Barony’s Ultra preset introduces significant pixel and shading complexity that the RTX 4070, with its 5888 shading units and 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance, can only process at moderate frame rates when combined with 4K resolution. The data strongly suggests that for users targeting 4K Ultra, the GPU is the definitive bottleneck, while at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU’s 5.60 GHz boost clock and 12 cores provide more than enough headroom to keep frame rates in the triple digits.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest measured average FPS for this CPU-GPU combination in Barony?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 469.5, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This result indicates that the combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X and RTX 4070 is capable of extreme frame rates when the graphical load is minimized.

*Q: How does the RTX 4070's performance in Barony compare to its nearest rivals?*

A: The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37283, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, has an average score of 37507, meaning the RTX 4070 is 0.6% behind it. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is 2.2% ahead with a score of 38135, while the AMD Radeon RX 5300M trails by 2.5% with a score of 36371.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X a limiting factor at 1080p in this game?

A: No, the data shows the CPU is not a limiting factor at 1080p. The measured FPS ranges from 215.6 at Ultra to 469.5 at Low, which are extremely high values. The CPU’s single-thread score of 1286 in 3DMark and 6555 in Cinebench R23 suggest it has ample processing power for the game’s logic at this resolution.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields an average of 294.7 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields 133 FPS. This represents a 55% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest settings, indicating that the Ultra preset adds significant graphical complexity that the RTX 4070 must process.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X compare to the Intel Core i7-14700F in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X has an average benchmark score of 54450, while the Intel Core i7-14700F has an average score of 54097. This means the Ryzen 9 9900X is 0.7% ahead of the i7-14700F. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D is 0.4% ahead of the 9900X with a score of 54681.

Q: What is the lowest measured average FPS in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 70.4, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only configuration in the dataset that drops below 100 FPS, highlighting the demanding nature of 4K Ultra rendering for the RTX 4070.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 plays a critical role in determining the frame rates at higher resolutions and settings, as evidenced by the measured FPS data. The GPU is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines, which together deliver a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS is identical to its FP16 performance, indicating a 1:1 ratio that is typical for this architecture.

In terms of memory, the RTX 4070 is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The memory clock operates at 1313 MHz, with an effective data rate of 21 Gbps. This memory configuration is sufficient for Barony at all tested resolutions, as the game does not appear to exceed the 12 GB capacity even at 4K Ultra. However, the bandwidth and capacity are not the limiting factors; rather, the shading and rasterization throughput of the GPU determine the frame rates at high resolutions.

The benchmark results for the RTX 4070 show an average score of 37283, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its PassMark G3D score is 26927, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 3854. The GPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals is remarkably close, with a 0.6% deficit to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 and a 2.5% advantage over the AMD Radeon RX 5300M. This tight clustering suggests that the RTX 4070 is positioned in a highly competitive segment, and its performance in Barony reflects its mid-to-high-end standing.

The GPU’s role becomes most apparent when examining the scaling from 1440p to 4K. At 1440p Ultra, the average FPS is 133, while at 4K Ultra, it drops to 70.4, a 47% reduction. This scaling is consistent with the GPU being the primary bottleneck, as the CPU’s performance does not degrade with resolution. The RTX 4070’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1920 MHz provide the raw speed needed to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the sheer number of pixels at 4K overwhelms its 158.4 GPixel/s pixel rate, leading to the observed decline.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system’s performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the highest resolution tested in the dataset, the Low settings produce an average of 469.5 FPS. This is the maximum score in the entire dataset and demonstrates the system’s ability to achieve extreme frame rates when the GPU load is minimal. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 348.3 FPS, a 26% reduction from Low, while High yields 297.1 FPS, a further 15% reduction. The Ultra preset at 1080p produces 215.6 FPS, which is 54% lower than the Low preset but still an exceptionally high frame rate.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. The Low preset achieves 294.7 FPS, which is 37% lower than the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 219.9 FPS, while High yields 190.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces 133 FPS, which is 55% lower than the Low preset at the same resolution. This demonstrates that the Ultra preset adds a significant graphical load, but the system still maintains a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops more dramatically. The Low preset achieves 152.6 FPS, which is 48% lower than the 1440p Low result. The Medium preset at 4K yields 115.4 FPS, while High yields 100.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K produces 70.4 FPS, which is the lowest score in the dataset and represents a 54% reduction from the Low preset at the same resolution. This breakdown clearly shows that the RTX 4070’s performance scales predictably with resolution and settings, with the Ultra preset at 4K being the most demanding configuration.

The data also reveals that the performance gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 253.9 FPS, while at 1440p, it is 161.7 FPS, and at 4K, it is 82.2 FPS. This trend indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so heavily loaded that the difference between settings becomes less impactful in absolute terms, but the relative percentage drop remains consistent. The system’s overall rank in the database is 465 out of 1702 combinations, placing it in the top 27% of all tested configurations for this game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X serves as the central processor in this configuration, and its performance characteristics are crucial to understanding the measured frame rates in Barony. The CPU features 12 cores and 24 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It operates at a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The processor is manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC and features a total of 16,630 million transistors across a dual-chiplet design with a die size of 2x 70.6 mm².

The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 64 MB L3 cache. This large L3 cache is beneficial for game logic and data locality, which is particularly important in a roguelike where procedural generation and state management are common. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, which provides ample data throughput for the game’s requirements. It also supports ECC memory and offers PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes from the CPU.

The benchmark scores for the Ryzen 9 9900X are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 and a single-core score of 6555. The 3DMark single-thread score is 1286, while the multi-thread scores range from 2519 for 2 threads to 13929 for max threads. The PassMark single-thread score is 4672, and the multithread score is 54643. These results place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450.

In Barony, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates are extremely high and clearly not limited by the GPU. The fact that the system achieves 469.5 FPS at 1080p Low indicates that the CPU can process game logic and issue draw calls at an extremely high rate. The boost clock of 5.60 GHz is particularly important for this, as single-thread performance is often the bottleneck in game logic. The Ryzen 9 9900X’s single-core Cinebench R23 score of 6555 is a strong indicator of its ability to handle the game’s simulation and AI routines.

Comparing the Ryzen 9 9900X to its nearest rivals, the data shows it is 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700F and 1.5% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is 0.4% ahead of the 9900X, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF is 1.8% ahead. These differences are minimal, suggesting that the CPU is not the primary differentiator in this game, as the frame rates are already so high that any CPU capable of maintaining them would produce similar results. The CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are likely underutilized in Barony, as the game does not appear to scale with more than a few threads, but the high single-thread performance ensures that even the most demanding scenarios are handled without issue.