Barony

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers exceptional frame rates in Barony, but the scaling pattern across resolutions reveals a classic shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound, with frame rates that are extraordinarily high across all settings. The Low preset achieves 522.9 FPS, while even the demanding Ultra preset maintains 236.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain very high, with Low hitting 330.9 FPS and Ultra dropping to 149.8 FPS. At 4K, the GPU begins to take over as the limiting factor, with Low producing 173.9 FPS and Ultra falling to 76.5 FPS. The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steepest on the Low preset, which loses 349 FPS (from 522.9 to 173.9), indicating that at lower settings the CPU can feed frames faster than the GPU can render them at higher resolutions. In contrast, the Ultra preset only loses 159.9 FPS (from 236.4 to 76.5) across the same resolution range, showing that the GPU workload scales more predictably with pixel count when settings are maxed. The data suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D's 16 cores and high clock speeds are more than sufficient to keep the RTX 4070 SUPER saturated, while at 4K the GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth become the primary constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination achieves a comboRankInGame of 319 out of 1702 tested combinations, placing it in the top 18.7% of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for Barony. This is a strong result, but it is important to contextualize it against the individual components' standings. The CPU ranks in the 96th percentile versus all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 84th percentile versus all GPUs. The combo rank being lower than both individual percentiles suggests that Barony's engine does not fully leverage the CPU's extreme multi-threading capabilities. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has 16 cores and 32 threads, but the game appears to scale better with the GPU's raw throughput. When compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 1.8% slower on average, while the Intel Xeon 6517P is 1.9% faster. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 0.2% higher on average, which is a negligible difference. This indicates that the combo's performance is not held back by either component being a significant outlier in its class; rather, the game's optimization limits the combined potential. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the system rarely drops below 76.5 FPS even at 4K Ultra, meaning the bottleneck is never severe enough to cause a poor experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and features 7,168 shading units. Its boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz are relatively high, contributing to strong rasterization performance. The GPU's memory configuration includes 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. In Barony, the GPU's role becomes increasingly important as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU is rarely the limiting factor, as evidenced by the small FPS delta between Low (522.9) and Ultra (236.4) — a 286.5 FPS difference. This gap widens at 1440p, where Low produces 330.9 FPS and Ultra drops to 149.8 FPS, a 181.1 FPS difference. At 4K, the GPU's workload dominates, with Low at 173.9 FPS and Ultra at 76.5 FPS, a 97.4 FPS difference. The GPU's 12 GB VRAM appears sufficient for all settings tested, as there are no signs of memory-related stuttering or frame drops. The RTX 4070 SUPER's performance relative to its nearest rivals is notable: it is 1.4% faster than the AMD Radeon Pro 580X and 1.6% faster than the NVIDIA Tesla M40, but 0.3% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE. These tight margins suggest that the GPU is well-positioned in its performance bracket, and the measured FPS in Barony reflects this mid-to-high tier placement.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The system achieves 334.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 173.9 FPS, which is 97.4 FPS higher than the Ultra preset's 76.5 FPS.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 9950X3D bottleneck the RTX 4070 SUPER at any resolution?

A: Data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at 1080p or 1440p, as frame rates exceed 149.8 FPS even on Ultra. At 4K, the FPS drop to 76.5 FPS on Ultra indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU pairs?

A: The combo ranks 319th out of 1702 tested combinations.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER scores 0.3% lower on average benchmark scores than the RX 7650 GRE.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded across all tested settings?

A: The highest average FPS is 522.9, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on display resolution. For 1080p users, the High preset at 334.2 FPS offers an excellent balance of visual quality and performance, as the jump to Ultra only provides diminishing returns at 236.4 FPS. The Medium preset at 388.7 FPS is also viable for competitive play, but High is recommended for the best visual-to-performance ratio. At 1440p, the High preset at 209.3 FPS is the sweet spot, delivering smooth gameplay while maintaining high visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 149.8 FPS is still highly playable, but the 59.5 FPS drop from High to Ultra may not justify the graphical improvements. At 4K, the Medium preset at 128.6 FPS provides a playable experience, while High at 110 FPS is also acceptable. The Ultra preset at 76.5 FPS is the most demanding option and should only be used on displays with adaptive sync, as frame rates may dip below 60 FPS in demanding scenes. The Low preset is only recommended for maximum frame rates in competitive scenarios, as it sacrifices too much visual quality for the 63.9 FPS gain over Medium at 4K. Overall, High settings at 1080p and 1440p offer the best experience, while Medium is the pragmatic choice for 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a flagship desktop processor with 16 cores and 32 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture and codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates at a base clock of 4.30 GHz and boosts up to 5.70 GHz, with a 128 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores are exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 59,712 and a single-core score of 8,430. In Barony, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with enough data to maintain high frame rates. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is not a bottleneck, as even the Ultra preset achieves 236.4 FPS, which is far beyond typical display refresh rates. The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is notable: it is 0.9% faster than the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 and 2.2% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700KF, but 1.9% slower than the Intel Xeon 6517P. The 9950X3D's high single-thread performance (3,401 in Geekbench single-core) is particularly relevant for Barony, as roguelike games often rely on a single main thread for game logic. The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and future games, but Barony does not appear to utilize all cores effectively, as evidenced by the combo rank being lower than the CPU's individual percentile. The 170 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensure that the CPU can sustain high performance without memory bandwidth limitations.