Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the Intel Arc B370 delivers a playable, though heavily GPU-limited, experience in Barony. The data indicates this combo ranks near the bottom of the database, and the Arc B370's performance ceiling is the primary constraint across all tested settings and resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates show a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and smoothness for this specific hardware combination. For the best balance of performance and visual quality, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 107 FPS, which is substantially higher than the High preset's 92 FPS and more than double the Ultra preset's 66 FPS. While the Low preset reaches 144 FPS, the jump from Medium to Low is only 37 FPS (a 34.6% increase), whereas the drop from Medium to High costs 15 FPS (a 14.0% decrease). The Medium preset also provides the only complete FPS data set (min/max), with a range of 91 to 123 FPS, indicating stable frame pacing.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again provides the best compromise, averaging 67 FPS. This is a significant step down from the 1080p result but remains fluid for a roguelike title. The High preset at this resolution drops to 58 FPS, while Ultra falls to 42 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable play. The Low preset at 1440p produces 91 FPS, but the visual downgrade is likely not worth the 24 FPS gain over Medium.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more challenging. The Medium preset is the only setting with full FPS data, averaging 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS. This is borderline playable, but the High preset at 30 FPS and the Low preset at 47 FPS show that the GPU is the limiting factor. The Ultra preset at 22 FPS is not recommended.

Verdict: Use Medium settings for the optimal experience. It provides the highest frame rate with complete stability data at 1080p and 1440p, and it remains the only 4K setting with a recorded minimum FPS above 30. For players prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that reaches the 144 FPS mark, but the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality without the extreme fidelity loss.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2701 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the bottom 8% of all tested configurations, which is a critical finding when interpreting the FPS data.

The ranking reflects the severe bottleneck created by the Intel Arc B370. The CPU is among the top performers in the database, but the GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of only 1184 places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. This is a massive mismatch that the benchmark data confirms: the FPS numbers across all resolutions and settings are consistently low, even at 1080p with Low settings.

Contextualizing the GPU's position, its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (scoring 1186, a 0.2% difference) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (scoring 1190, a 0.5% difference). These are legacy components from a different era, indicating that the Arc B370's raw performance is comparable to hardware that is over a decade old. The combo's rank of 2701 out of 2935 is therefore not surprising; it reflects the GPU's fundamental performance ceiling rather than any deficiency in the CPU.

The CPU itself ranks in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54762. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, scores 55093, a mere 0.6% difference. In a game like Barony, which is not heavily threaded, the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads are largely underutilized, making the GPU the sole determinant of the final ranking.

Verdict: The data shows a severe hardware imbalance. This combo ranks near the bottom because the Intel Arc B370 cannot translate the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's substantial processing power into meaningful frame rates. The GPU's 5th percentile standing is the dominant factor in the 2701st overall rank.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370's role in this combo is the defining element, and its specifications explain the measured FPS results. The GPU features a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, with a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is rated at 6.144 TFLOPS.

The most critical specification is the memory configuration: the Arc B370 uses System Shared memory. This means it has no dedicated VRAM, no dedicated memory bus width, and its bandwidth is "System Dependent." In Barony, which requires consistent memory access for procedural generation and game state, this shared memory architecture is a significant bottleneck. The GPU's 25 W TDP and IGP slot width further confirm that this is an integrated-class solution, not a discrete gaming card.

The benchmark data reflects this limitation. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 is extremely low, placing the GPU at the 5th percentile. This score is the only GPU benchmark available, and it accurately predicts the game's performance: at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 144 FPS, but this drops to 66 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The drop is more pronounced at higher resolutions, with the 4K Ultra setting producing only 22 FPS.

The GPU's shading units (1280), texture mapping units (40), and render output units (20) are relatively low counts for a modern architecture. While the chip uses the Xe3-LPG architecture on a 3 nm process, the raw throughput is insufficient for demanding workloads. The RT cores (10) and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 indicate feature completeness, but feature support does not translate to performance.

Verdict: The Arc B370's shared memory architecture and low raw compute metrics are the primary reasons for the combo's poor performance. The GPU's 5th percentile benchmark score and its reliance on system memory create a fundamental performance ceiling that no CPU can overcome.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of playing Barony at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The data shows 144 FPS at Low, 107 FPS at Medium, 92 FPS at High, and 66 FPS at Ultra. For a stable 60+ FPS experience, Medium or High settings are recommended, while Low settings provide the highest frame rate.

Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware?

A: 1920x1080 is the most practical resolution. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 67 FPS, and at 3840x2160, the Medium preset averages only 35 FPS. The 1080p resolution offers the only settings where the combo consistently exceeds 90 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad. Its nearest rivals are the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, 0.2% faster), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, 0.5% faster), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, 0.7% faster). These are all legacy GPUs, indicating the Arc B370's performance is historically low.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D the limiting factor in this setup?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 5th percentile. The data clearly shows the GPU is the limiting factor, as the FPS remains low even at 1080p Low settings.

Q: What is the best 4K performance achievable?

A: The best 4K result is 47 FPS at Low settings. The Medium preset provides 35 FPS, High provides 30 FPS, and Ultra provides 22 FPS. None of these results are ideal for smooth gameplay, and 4K is not recommended for this combo.

Q: Does the Ultra preset ever provide acceptable performance?

A: At 1080p, Ultra averages 66 FPS, which is acceptable. At 1440p, it drops to 42 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 22 FPS. The Ultra preset is only viable at the lowest resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a predictable scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K, confirming the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 107 at 1920x1080 to 67 at 2560x1440, a 37.4% decrease. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops to 35 FPS, a 67.3% decrease from the 1080p baseline.

This scaling is consistent with a GPU-limited scenario. The pixel count increases by 2.25x from 1080p to 1440p, and the FPS drops by 37.4%. From 1440p to 4K, the pixel count increases by 2.25x again, and the FPS drops by 47.8%. The non-linear relationship between pixel count and FPS suggests that the system is also constrained by memory bandwidth, which is "System Dependent" for the Arc B370.

The High preset shows a similar trend: 92 FPS at 1080p, 58 FPS at 1440p (a 37.0% drop), and 30 FPS at 4K (a 67.4% drop from 1080p). The Low preset, which is less demanding on the GPU, shows a smaller relative drop: 144 FPS at 1080p, 91 FPS at 1440p (a 36.8% drop), and 47 FPS at 4K (a 67.4% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings indicates that the rendering pipeline is uniformly bottlenecked by the GPU.

At 1080p, the gap between Low (144 FPS) and Ultra (66 FPS) is 78 FPS. At 1440p, this gap narrows to 49 FPS (91 FPS vs 42 FPS), and at 4K, it narrows to 25 FPS (47 FPS vs 22 FPS). This compression of the settings gap at higher resolutions is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck: as the resolution increases, the GPU reaches its limits regardless of the quality settings, making the FPS differences between presets smaller.

Verdict: The resolution scaling data confirms that the Intel Arc B370 is the limiting component. The FPS drops are proportional across all settings from 1080p to 4K, and the gap between Low and Ultra settings shrinks as resolution increases, indicating the GPU's rendering capacity is exhausted at higher pixel counts.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a high-end desktop processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge). Its base clock is 4.40 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, and it features a substantial 128 MB of L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 47737 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 6739 in Cinebench R23 single-core, placing it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs.

In Barony, a roguelike title, the CPU's role is minimal compared to the GPU. The game's genre does not typically demand high core counts or extreme single-thread performance. The data supports this: the FPS numbers are uniformly low across all settings, and the variation in FPS is almost entirely attributable to resolution and settings changes, not CPU performance.

The CPU's benchmark data indicates it is more than capable of handling the game's logic. Its 3DMark scores show strong scaling from 2 threads (2512) to 16 threads (12490) to max threads (13795), but the game's single-thread performance is sufficient, as evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1269 and a PassMark single-thread score of 4646. The CPU is simply not the bottleneck.

The combo rank of 2701 out of 2935 is telling. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect the rank to be higher, as the CPU is a top-tier part. Instead, the rank reflects the GPU's 5th percentile performance. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (0.6% faster in average score), do not show any FPS advantage in this game because the GPU is the same in all comparisons.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 and dual-channel configuration (89.6 GB/s bandwidth) is also irrelevant in this context, as the GPU uses "System Shared" memory, which may actually compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth. However, the measured FPS data does not show any anomalous CPU-related stuttering or frame drops that would indicate a memory contention issue.

Verdict: The Ryzen 9 9900X3D is overqualified for this game in this configuration. Its 91st percentile ranking and strong multi-threaded scores (47737 in R23 multicore) are wasted because the Arc B370 cannot deliver the frame rates to utilize the CPU's headroom. The CPU is not the limiting component; the data shows the GPU is solely responsible for the combo's low performance and rank.