Barony

# Barony with AMD Ryzen 9 9900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers exceptional frame rates in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015 that remains surprisingly demanding at high resolutions. This combination ranks 244th out of 3,717 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 6.6% of all configurations. The data shows a system capable of pushing well beyond the refresh rate of most displays, even at 4K Ultra settings, though the scaling patterns reveal where each component's contribution begins to taper off.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K resolution, the measured rows show a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. At Ultra settings, the combo averages 91 FPS, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. Dropping to High settings raises the average to 126 FPS — a 38% improvement over Ultra — while retaining most of the visual quality. Medium settings at 4K deliver 147 FPS, which is 61% faster than Ultra, but the jump from Medium to High is only 14%, suggesting diminishing returns from lowering settings further at this resolution.

At 1440p, the situation changes dramatically. High settings produce 242 FPS, while Ultra manages 173 FPS. The gap between these two presets is 40%, making High the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium at 1440p hits 281 FPS, but the additional 16% over High may not justify the visual downgrade. Low settings at 1440p reach 379 FPS, which is beyond the capability of most displays and indicates the CPU is becoming the limiting factor.

At 1080p, all presets exceed 274 FPS, with even Ultra delivering 274 FPS and Low hitting 600 FPS. The data shows that Ultra at 1080p is 45% slower than High, which produces 383 FPS. Given that most 1080p displays cap at 144Hz or 240Hz, High settings provide more than enough performance while maintaining visual quality. Medium at 1080p offers 446 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High is only 14% less performance, making High the recommended preset for 1080p gaming.

The best overall experience across all resolutions is High settings. It provides the most balanced combination of visual quality and frame rate headroom, with the smallest percentage drop from Medium while keeping the largest gap from Ultra. For users with high-refresh-rate displays, High at 1440p or 1080p is the clear choice, while 4K users should consider High for smoother gameplay over the marginal visual gains of Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 244 out of 3,717 tested configurations places it in the 93.4th percentile of all tested combinations in Barony. This is a strong showing, though not the absolute top tier — the data indicates that other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates, likely due to the game's specific engine characteristics. The Ryzen 9 9900X holds a 92nd percentile rank among all CPUs, while the RTX 4080 sits at the 86th percentile among all GPUs, suggesting the CPU is slightly more dominant in this pairing.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its performance ceiling. The AMD EPYC 9015 scores marginally higher at 57,555 average benchmark points versus the 9900X's 57,498, a delta of -0.1%. The Intel Core i9-14900 leads by 1.1% with a score of 58,115, while the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M is 1.4% ahead at 58,323. These differences are within noise for gaming workloads, indicating the 9900X is competitive with the best server and desktop chips available.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4080's nearest rival is the RTX 4080 SUPER, which scores 54,209 versus the 4080's 54,247 — a 0.1% delta that puts the standard 4080 slightly ahead in aggregate benchmarks. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X trails by 1.1%, while the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and Radeon 8060S are 2.6% and 2.7% behind, respectively. This places the RTX 4080 firmly in the upper tier of graphics cards, though the 86th percentile rank reflects that several newer or higher-end GPUs outperform it.

In Barony specifically, the combo's rank suggests that the game's roguelike engine is not heavily optimized for multi-threaded CPUs or the latest GPU features. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (600 FPS) indicates a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions, while the 4K Ultra result of 91 FPS shows the GPU taking over as the primary constraint. This balanced behavior across resolutions is why the combo ranks well but not at the very top.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Barony's texture-heavy roguelike visuals. The memory clock runs at 1400 MHz, translating to 22.4 Gbps effective, and the GPU's boost clock reaches 2505 MHz. These specifications support the measured frame rates, particularly at 4K where memory bandwidth becomes more critical.

The GPU's architecture, Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm TSMC process, includes 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. The 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and DLSS, though Barony's roguelike gameplay does not appear to leverage these features heavily based on the measured FPS data. The 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is more than sufficient for this title.

The 4080's pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are the key specifications driving the 4K results. At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 91 FPS, which translates to approximately 746 million pixels per second — well within the GPU's theoretical limits. The 16 GB VRAM ensures no memory capacity issues at any resolution, as Barony's system requirements are modest by modern standards. The GPU's 320 W TDP and triple-slot cooler are adequate for sustained gaming sessions, though the data does not indicate thermal throttling at any measured point.

The RTX 4080's nearest rival comparisons show it is 0.1% faster than the 4080 SUPER in aggregate benchmarks, which is a statistical tie. This means the GPU is not the limiting factor in most Barony scenarios; instead, the CPU's single-thread performance at lower resolutions and the GPU's raw throughput at 4K determine the frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all presets. Low settings produce 600 FPS average, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 446 FPS with a minimum of 379 FPS and maximum of 513 FPS, showing consistent frame delivery. High settings drop to 383 FPS, while Ultra still manages 274 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p is a 54% reduction in frame rate, indicating that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at this resolution, as even the most demanding preset cannot push the GPU to its limits.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts toward a more balanced workload. Low settings produce 379 FPS, Medium hits 281 FPS with a range of 239 to 324 FPS, High delivers 242 FPS, and Ultra drops to 173 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 54%, identical to 1080p, but the absolute values suggest the GPU is beginning to exert more influence. The Medium preset's minimum of 239 FPS still exceeds the refresh rate of most 1440p monitors, making any setting above Low viable for competitive play.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Ultra settings average 91 FPS, which is the lowest measured result. High settings improve to 126 FPS, Medium reaches 147 FPS with a range of 125 to 169 FPS, and Low jumps to 198 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is 54%, matching the other resolutions, but the absolute frame rates are significantly lower. The Medium preset's minimum of 125 FPS indicates that even at 4K, the combo maintains smooth gameplay, though Ultra's 91 FPS average may dip below 60 FPS in intense scenes.

The data reveals a consistent 54% performance drop from Low to Ultra across all resolutions, which suggests the game's settings scaling is resolution-independent. However, the absolute differences between resolutions show that 4K Ultra (91 FPS) is 67% slower than 1080p Ultra (274 FPS), while 1440p Ultra (173 FPS) sits nearly halfway between them.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High settings reduces the average frame rate from 383 FPS to 242 FPS, a 37% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings further drops the average from 242 FPS to 126 FPS, another 48% reduction. This scaling pattern is steeper than the pixel count increase would suggest — 4K has 4 times the pixels of 1080p, yet High settings only drop by 67% in frame rate, indicating that the CPU is still contributing significantly at lower resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the scaling from 1080p (274 FPS) to 1440p (173 FPS) represents a 37% drop, and from 1440p to 4K (91 FPS) a 47% drop. These percentages are nearly identical to High settings, suggesting the GPU's workload scales predictably with resolution. However, the fact that 4K Ultra still achieves 91 FPS — above the 60 FPS threshold — indicates that the RTX 4080's 16 GB memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for this game's demands at maximum settings.

The limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance (evidenced by the 3dmark single-thread score of 1,286 and passmark single-thread score of 4,672) becomes the bottleneck, as the GPU could theoretically render more frames but is constrained by the CPU's instruction throughput. At 4K, the GPU's pixel and texture throughput become the limiting factors, with the 4080's 280.6 GPixel/s rate determining the ceiling. The crossover point appears to be between 1440p and 4K, where the GPU begins to dominate the frame rate equation.

The 4K Low result of 198 FPS versus 1080p Low's 600 FPS shows a 67% reduction, which is consistent across all presets. This consistency indicates that Barony's rendering pipeline scales linearly with resolution, and the combo's balanced design means users can predict performance at any resolution from a single data point.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: High settings provide the best balance at 4K, delivering 126 FPS average compared to Ultra's 91 FPS. The 38% improvement from Ultra to High comes with minimal visual degradation, making High the recommended choice for smooth 4K gameplay.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Barony?

A: This combination ranks 244th out of 3,717 tested combos, placing it in the top 6.6% of all configurations. The CPU holds a 92nd percentile rank among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 86th percentile, indicating a well-matched pairing.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is the primary bottleneck. Low settings produce 600 FPS, while Ultra still achieves 274 FPS, suggesting the Ryzen 9 9900X's single-thread performance limits the frame rate before the RTX 4080's full potential is reached.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1440p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, 1440p produces 242 FPS while 4K drops to 126 FPS, a 48% reduction. This scaling indicates the GPU becomes increasingly important at higher resolutions, though the combo maintains playable frame rates at both.

Q: Does the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM cause any issues in Barony?

A: No. The 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for Barony at any resolution or settings preset. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of memory capacity or bandwidth constraints.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54,247 in aggregate benchmarks versus the 4080 SUPER's 54,209, a 0.1% delta in favor of the standard 4080. This statistical tie means the two GPUs perform nearly identically in Barony's workloads.