Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the Intel Arc B570 produces a highly capable setup for Barony, but the data reveals distinct performance tiers across its four settings presets. The measured rows show that the Medium preset delivers the most balanced experience at every resolution. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 182 FPS, while High drops to 156 FPS and Ultra falls to 112 FPS. At 2560x1440, the pattern holds: Medium averages 115 FPS, High hits 99 FPS, and Ultra manages 71 FPS. Even at 3840x2160, Medium remains playable at 60 FPS, whereas High drops to 52 FPS and Ultra falls to 37 FPS. The Low preset, while faster, sacrifices visual fidelity for gains that are not necessary given Medium's strong performance. Notably, the Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max FPS data: at 1080p it ranges from 155 to 209 FPS, at 1440p from 98 to 132 FPS, and at 4K from 51 to 69 FPS. This consistency suggests that Medium provides the most stable frame pacing relative to its average. For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, Ultra is viable at 1080p (112 FPS) and 1440p (71 FPS), but at 4K it dips below 40 FPS, making it a poor choice at that resolution. The data clearly indicates that Medium is the recommended preset for general play, offering a robust frame rate with headroom above 60 FPS even at 4K, while High and Ultra are only advisable at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 brings a specific set of specifications that directly influence Barony's performance metrics. The GPU is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture (Battlemage generation) using a 5 nm process from TSMC, with 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. Its memory configuration consists of 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2375 MHz, with an effective speed of 19 Gbps. These specifications are notable because Barony, as a roguelike title, may not heavily stress memory bandwidth, yet the data shows clear scaling with GPU load. The base and boost clocks are both set at 2500 MHz, which is relatively modest for a dedicated GPU, but the architecture's efficiency compensates. The B570 has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs, alongside 18 ray tracing cores. Its compute capabilities include 11.52 TFLOPS for FP32 and 23.04 TFLOPS for FP16 (2:1 ratio). Pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s. These figures translate into real-world performance: the GPU's average benchmark score is 20556, placing it in the 65th percentile against all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (avg score 20534, deltaPct 0.1) and the Intel Arc A750 (avg score 20582, deltaPct -0.1), indicating that the B570 sits in a competitive mid-range tier. In Barony, the GPU's role becomes evident when examining the FPS scaling across settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 245 FPS, which drops to 112 FPS at Ultra—a 54% reduction. This scaling suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher settings, as the CPU has ample headroom. The B570's 150 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with a mainstream card, and its PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides adequate bandwidth for this title. The VRAM capacity of 10 GB is more than sufficient for Barony's likely texture demands, as evidenced by the consistent performance even at 4K Ultra (37 FPS), where memory pressure would typically cause stutters if capacity were insufficient. The data implies that the B570's clock speeds and memory bandwidth are well-matched to the game's requirements, with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as settings increase.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 reveals how the system's performance degrades with increasing resolution, providing insight into the limiting component. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 245 at 1080p to 154 at 1440p (a 37% decrease) and then to 81 at 4K (a 47% decrease from 1440p). This steep decline indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is heavily taxed by resolution, as the CPU is unlikely to be the bottleneck given its high benchmark scores. At the Medium preset, the averages are 182 FPS at 1080p, 115 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 60 FPS at 4K (48% drop from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across Low and Medium suggest that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, not the CPU. The High preset shows 156 FPS at 1080p, 99 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 52 FPS at 4K (47% drop). Similarly, Ultra yields 112 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p (37% drop), and 37 FPS at 4K (48% drop). The uniformity of these percentage decreases—hovering around 37% for 1080p-to-1440p and 47-48% for 1440p-to-4K—strongly implies that resolution scaling is purely GPU-bound. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would plateau or drop less severely at lower resolutions, but the data shows near-linear scaling with pixel count. For instance, moving from 1080p to 4K quadruples the pixel count, and the FPS drops by roughly 67% (from 245 to 81 at Low), which aligns with GPU-bound behavior. The measured min/max FPS at Medium further corroborates this: at 1080p, the range is 155-209 FPS; at 1440p, 98-132 FPS; and at 4K, 51-69 FPS. The min FPS scales similarly to the average, indicating that frame pacing is consistent rather than sporadic, which is typical of a GPU-limited scenario. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, only the Low preset (81 FPS) or Medium (60 FPS) are viable, while High and Ultra fall below 52 FPS. At 1440p, all presets except Ultra (71 FPS) remain above 99 FPS, making it a sweet spot for higher settings. Overall, the resolution scaling analysis confirms that the Intel Arc B570 is the limiting component, with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D providing ample CPU headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2985 out of 3717 tested combos in Barony. This percentile placement—roughly the 20th percentile (100 - (2985/3717)100)—indicates that this pairing is below average in the database, which is surprising given the CPU's high benchmark performance. The CPU itself is exceptional, with a percentile vs all CPUs of 95 and an average benchmark score of 75779. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (avg score 75738, deltaPct 0.1), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (avg score 75716, deltaPct 0.1), the AMD EPYC 8224P (avg score 75582, deltaPct 0.3), and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (avg score 75488, deltaPct 0.4). The CPU's deltaPct against these rivals is negligible (0.1-0.4%), meaning it is statistically tied with them in overall benchmark performance. However, the combo rank of 2985 suggests that the GPU drags down the overall system performance in Barony. The Intel Arc B570's percentile vs all GPUs is 65, with an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (avg score 20534, deltaPct 0.1), Intel Arc A750 (avg score 20582, deltaPct -0.1), NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (avg score 20480, deltaPct 0.4), and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (avg score 20662, deltaPct -0.5). The GPU is mid-range, but in Barony, its performance at 4K Ultra (37 FPS) and even 1440p Ultra (71 FPS) is limiting. The combo rank being in the bottom 20% of all tested pairs indicates that most other combinations—likely featuring faster GPUs—achieve better FPS in this game. The data implies that while the CPU is top-tier, the B570's performance is the bottleneck, preventing the combo from reaching higher ranks. This is particularly evident when considering that the CPU's 95th percentile ranking is offset by the GPU's 65th percentile, resulting in a system that underperforms relative to its CPU's potential. For users seeking better Barony* performance, upgrading the GPU would yield more significant gains than changing the CPU, as the current pairing leaves substantial CPU headroom untapped.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor from the 9000 series, based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge). It has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, with a TDP of 170 W. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 128 MB of L3 cache, which is substantial for gaming workloads. Its memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, along with ECC memory support. The CPU is built on a 4 nm process from TSMC, with 16,630 million transistors across a dual-die design (2x 70.6 mm²). Its benchmark scores are impressive: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 42018, single-core 2259; Geekbench multicore hits 26736, single-core 3064; and Passmark multithread scores 70255. In Barony, the CPU's role appears minimal, as the FPS scaling with resolution is uniform across settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 245 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame rate cap for this game. However, the data does not show CPU bottlenecking at higher settings—the FPS drops consistently with resolution, indicating the GPU is the constraint. The CPU's high single-thread performance (Passmark single thread 4737, Cinebench R23 single-core 2259) is beneficial for Barony, which is a roguelike that may rely on single-threaded logic. The 16 cores and 32 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and any multi-threaded aspects of the game, but the measured FPS does not suggest that core count is a limiting factor. The CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 16374 and max-thread score of 17184 indicate strong multi-threading, but in Barony, the data shows that even at 1080p, the FPS ceiling (245 FPS at Low) is likely dictated by the GPU's capability rather than CPU limits. The CPU's cache configuration—128 MB L3—is designed to reduce memory latency, which can benefit gaming, but the uniform FPS drops suggest that cache is not the primary bottleneck. Overall, the CPU's role in this combo is to provide a high-performance foundation without being a limiting factor, as evidenced by the fact that the FPS scales almost entirely with GPU load across resolutions and settings. The CPU's 95th percentile ranking ensures it will not hold back the B570, but the GPU's mid-range performance caps the system's overall output.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Barony with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Intel Arc B570 provides a detailed view of performance across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 245 FPS, which is the highest in the dataset. Medium yields 182 FPS with a min of 155 and max of 209, High produces 156 FPS, and Ultra delivers 112 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with Ultra being 54% slower than Low. At 2560x1440, Low averages 154 FPS, Medium 115 FPS (min 98, max 132), High 99 FPS, and Ultra 71 FPS. The 1440p results show a similar pattern, with Ultra being 54% slower than Low (71 vs 154 FPS). At 3840x2160, Low averages 81 FPS, Medium 60 FPS (min 51, max 69), High 52 FPS, and Ultra 37 FPS. The 4K data shows that Ultra is 54% slower than Low (37 vs 81 FPS), maintaining the same relative gap. However, the absolute FPS values at 4K are much lower, with only Low and Medium exceeding 60 FPS. The min/max data for Medium reveals the frame consistency: at 1080p, the range is 155-209 FPS (a 54 FPS spread); at 1440p, 98-132 FPS (a 34 FPS spread); and at 4K, 51-69 FPS (an 18 FPS spread). The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming more saturated, reducing frame-time variance but also lowering overall performance. The data also shows that the percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistently around 37% across all settings (e.g., Low: 245 to 154, a 37.1% drop; Ultra: 112 to 71, a 36.6% drop). Similarly, the drop from 1440p to 4K is around 47-48% (e.g., Medium: 115 to 60, a 47.8% drop; High: 99 to 52, a 47.5% drop). This consistency underscores that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU's performance is not affecting the scaling. The measured FPS breakdown also highlights that the Low preset at 4K (81 FPS) is comparable to the Ultra preset at 1440p (71 FPS), suggesting that users can trade resolution for settings to achieve similar frame rates. The data provides a clear picture: for high-refresh monitors at 1080p, even Ultra is playable at 112 FPS, while at 4K, only Low and Medium offer acceptable performance above 60 FPS.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo in Barony?*

A: The highest average FPS is 245, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: At 4K resolution, which settings preset keeps the average FPS above 60?

A: At 3840x2160, both the Low preset (81 FPS) and the Medium preset (60 FPS) maintain an average above 60 FPS. The High preset (52 FPS) and Ultra preset (37 FPS) fall below this threshold.

*Q: How does the combo rank compare to other tested combinations in Barony?*

A: This combo ranks 2985 out of 3717 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 20% of all configurations. The ranking indicates that the GPU is a significant limiting factor despite the CPU's high performance.

Q: What are the min and max FPS values for the Medium preset at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the measured min FPS is 98 and the max FPS is 132, with an average of 115 FPS.

*Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this system for Barony?*

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The FPS drops consistently by about 37% from 1080p to 1440p and 47-48% from 1440p to 4K across all settings, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The CPU's high benchmark scores and 95th percentile ranking suggest it has ample headroom.

Q: What is the average FPS for the Ultra preset at 1920x1080?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 112. This is the lowest at 1080p, but still playable for most users.