Barony

Barony is a 2015 roguelike that turns out to be profoundly unkind to even the most extreme PC hardware. With the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 installed, the game produces frame rates that are almost absurdly high, yet the scaling patterns between resolutions and settings reveal a title that is heavily CPU-bound and largely indifferent to the GPU’s immense power. This combination ranks 111th out of 2935 tested combos, placing it in the top 4% of all systems, but the bottlenecks are clear and consistent across the board.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic, but the percentage decline tells a story about where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 423 FPS at 1920x1080 to 267 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 37%. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 140 FPS, which is a 67% decrease from the 1080p figure. This is a massive performance hit, yet the absolute numbers remain so high that the system is never in danger of becoming unplayable.

The pattern is even more pronounced at Low settings. The average frame rate at 1080p is 663 FPS, which falls to 418 FPS at 1440p and then to 219 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is a 67% reduction, identical to the High setting percentage. This consistency suggests that the scaling is primarily a function of pixel count rather than settings complexity, which is typical for a game that is not visually demanding.

Looking at Medium settings, the data includes minimum and maximum frame rates, which provide additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the average is 493 FPS with a minimum of 419 FPS and a maximum of 567 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 311 FPS with a minimum of 264 FPS and a maximum of 358 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 163 FPS with a minimum of 138 FPS and a maximum of 187 FPS. The minimum frame rates scale similarly to the averages, indicating that even the worst-case frames are not dipping into problematic territory.

The Ultra settings show the lowest frame rates of any configuration, but they still remain high. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 303 FPS, dropping to 191 FPS at 1440p and 100 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only metric that approaches a typical 60 Hz display refresh rate, though it still clears it by a wide margin. The fact that a top-tier GPU is needed to maintain 100 FPS at 4K in a game with simple graphics suggests that the CPU is doing the heavy lifting, and the GPU is merely along for the ride.

The scaling between 1440p and 4K is steeper than between 1080p and 1440p for most settings, which points to the GPU finally becoming a limiting factor at higher resolutions. However, the sheer magnitude of the frame rates means that the limiting component is almost certainly the CPU’s single-thread performance, as roguelike games often rely heavily on game logic and simulation that cannot be parallelized effectively.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product with a launch MSRP of 1,599 USD, and its specifications are staggering. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is listed as 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, and the GPU has a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. The card is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die.

In Barony, the RTX 4090’s role is largely underutilized. The game’s visual fidelity is not demanding enough to stress the GPU’s 16,384 shading units or 512 tensor cores. The data shows that the GPU is capable of producing 663 FPS at 1080p Low settings, which is far beyond what any display can refresh. The VRAM capacity of 24 GB is irrelevant for this title, as the game likely does not require more than a few gigabytes of video memory, even at 4K Ultra settings.

The GPU’s benchmark scores are impressive, with a Passmark G3D score of 38194 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631. However, these numbers have little bearing on Barony’s performance. The nearest rivals to the RTX 4090 in the benchmark database include the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a deltaPct of 0, meaning they are statistically tied, and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 which trails by 2.9%. This suggests that the RTX 4090 is near the top of the GPU hierarchy, but in a game like Barony, that hierarchy barely matters.

The frame rates at 4K Ultra (100 FPS) versus 4K Low (219 FPS) show a 55% difference, which indicates that the GPU is doing more work when settings are increased. Yet even at Ultra, the GPU is not being pushed to its limits, as evidenced by the fact that the frame rate is still three times higher than a standard 30 FPS console target. The GPU’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than sufficient to handle the graphical load, and the bottleneck is clearly elsewhere.

The RTX 4090’s 450 W TDP and suggested 850 W PSU are power-hungry specifications, but they are irrelevant to the game’s performance characteristics. The card is a brute-force solution to a problem that Barony simply does not present. The data indicates that the GPU is never the limiting factor at 1080p or 1440p, and only becomes somewhat relevant at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops to triple digits.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achieved with this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate is 663 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is far beyond the refresh rate of any consumer display.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 9900X3D compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X3D has an average benchmark score of 54762, which is 0.6% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF’s score of 55093. It is 2.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700F, which scores 53620.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate observed in this game?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 100 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is still well above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: Does the RTX 4090’s 24 GB of VRAM provide any benefit in Barony?

A: The data does not indicate any VRAM limitation in Barony. The frame rates remain high even at 4K Ultra, suggesting that the game does not require significant video memory.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of the RTX 4090 among all GPUs?

A: The RTX 4090 is in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, indicating that it is faster than the vast majority of graphics cards in the database.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other systems tested?

A: The combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and RTX 4090 ranks 111th out of 2935 tested combos, placing it in the top 3.8% of all systems tested for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 111 out of 2935 tested combinations places this system in the 96.2nd percentile of all tested hardware configurations. This is an exceptionally high ranking, but it is not the absolute top, which suggests that other combinations can achieve even higher frame rates in Barony. The ranking is likely driven by the CPU’s strong single-thread performance, as the game appears to be more sensitive to processor speed than to GPU capability.

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D has a percentile ranking of 91 among all CPUs, meaning it is faster than 91% of processors in the database. Its average benchmark score of 54762 is very close to the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, which scores 55093, a difference of only 0.6%. This near-tie indicates that the AMD chip is not decisively ahead of its Intel competition, yet it still manages to achieve high frame rates in Barony.

The RTX 4090 has a percentile ranking of 88 among all GPUs, which is slightly lower than the CPU’s ranking. Its average benchmark score of 60347 is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60, which scores 60326, a deltaPct of 0. This suggests that the GPU is highly capable but not uniquely so, and its performance in Barony is likely constrained by the CPU.

The fact that this combo ranks 111th rather than higher confirms the game’s CPU-bound nature. A system with a marginally faster CPU but a slower GPU might achieve a higher rank, as the GPU is not the limiting factor at most resolutions and settings. The 2935 combos tested provide a broad sample, and this particular pairing of a 12-core, 24-thread CPU with a flagship GPU is overkill for a game that cannot utilize the parallelism.

The rank also reflects the efficiency of the CPU’s architecture. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D is built on the Zen 5 architecture with a 4 nm process, and it has a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This high clock speed, combined with the V-cache that is implied by the X3D designation, likely contributes to strong single-thread performance, which is critical for roguelike games. The data shows that the combo is in the top tier, but the headroom for improvement is limited by the game’s own constraints.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with a 4 nm process. It has a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, and it has 128 MB of L3 cache, which is a massive amount for a desktop processor.

In Barony, the CPU is the primary driver of performance. The game’s roguelike nature likely involves complex procedural generation, pathfinding, and game logic that operate on a single thread or a limited number of threads. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D’s high boost clock of 5.50 GHz is ideal for this type of workload, and the large L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which can be a bottleneck in simulation-heavy games.

The CPU’s benchmark scores reflect its strength. It scores 6739 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 47737 in multi-core, which is a significant difference. The single-core score is particularly important for Barony, as the game may not be able to utilize all 12 cores effectively. The Passmark single-thread score of 4646 is also high, and the 3DMark single-thread score of 1269 confirms that the CPU excels at lightly threaded tasks.

The nearest rivals to the Ryzen 9 9900X3D include the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, which has an average score of 55093, and the Intel Core i7-14700F, which scores 53620. The AMD chip is 1.3% faster than the 245K and 2% faster than the Xeon 6505P, but it trails the 245KF by 0.6%. These small percentage differences in synthetic benchmarks do not fully capture the CPU’s performance in Barony, where the frame rates are so high that even a 1% difference could translate to several FPS.

The CPU’s 128 MB of L3 cache is a notable feature, and while the FACT PACK does not specify whether this is 3D V-Cache, the X3D designation implies it. This cache size is likely beneficial for the game’s data structures, which may be repeatedly accessed. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth is also sufficient, as the game is unlikely to be memory-bandwidth bound.

The 12-core configuration is overkill for Barony, but the high clock speeds ensure that the few threads the game does use are executed as quickly as possible. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 91 among all CPUs indicates that it is a top-tier processor, and its performance in this game is a direct result of its single-thread capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 663 FPS for Low, 493 FPS for Medium, 423 FPS for High, and 303 FPS for Ultra. The Medium setting includes a minimum of 419 FPS and a maximum of 567 FPS, which shows a tight distribution around the average.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 418 FPS for Low, 311 FPS for Medium, 267 FPS for High, and 191 FPS for Ultra. The Medium setting has a minimum of 264 FPS and a maximum of 358 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, with the Low setting experiencing a 37% reduction, Medium a 37% reduction, High a 37% reduction, and Ultra a 37% reduction.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 219 FPS for Low, 163 FPS for Medium, 140 FPS for High, and 100 FPS for Ultra. The Medium setting has a minimum of 138 FPS and a maximum of 187 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe, with the Low setting experiencing a 48% reduction, Medium a 48% reduction, High a 48% reduction, and Ultra a 48% reduction. This steeper decline at 4K indicates that the GPU is beginning to become a limiting factor, though the absolute frame rates remain high.

The data shows that the difference between Low and Ultra settings is significant. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 360 FPS (663 vs 303), which is a 54% reduction. At 1440p, the difference is 227 FPS (418 vs 191), a 54% reduction. At 4K, the difference is 119 FPS (219 vs 100), a 54% reduction. This consistency across resolutions suggests that the settings scale uniformly, and the GPU has enough headroom to handle the increased graphical load without introducing a bottleneck.

The Medium settings are the only ones with min and max FPS values, and they show that the frame rate fluctuations are minimal. At 1080p, the min is 419 FPS and the max is 567 FPS, a range of 148 FPS. At 1440p, the min is 264 FPS and the max is 358 FPS, a range of 94 FPS. At 4K, the min is 138 FPS and the max is 187 FPS, a range of 49 FPS. The decreasing range at higher resolutions indicates that the system becomes more stable as the GPU takes on more load, which is counterintuitive but suggests that the CPU is the source of frame time variance at lower resolutions.

Overall, the measured FPS breakdown confirms that this combo is capable of running Barony at extremely high frame rates, even at 4K Ultra. The data shows that the system is CPU-bound at 1080p and 1440p, with the GPU becoming more relevant at 4K. The frame rates are so high that they exceed the refresh rate of virtually all displays, making this combination overkill for the game, but the data provides a clear picture of the hardware’s capabilities.