Barony

Barony, a roguelike from 2015, presents an interesting challenge for the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and AMD Radeon 760M combination. The data shows a system with a very capable processor paired with an integrated graphics solution that struggles at higher resolutions. The measured FPS figures reveal a configuration where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, particularly as resolution scales beyond 1080p. This analysis will break down the performance metrics, settings recommendations, and the distinct roles the CPU and GPU play in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for Barony provides a clear picture of how this combo behaves across different quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 98 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate for this configuration. This suggests that for players prioritizing smoothness and responsiveness, the Low preset at 1080p is the optimal choice. The High preset at 1080p still delivers a playable 62 FPS, but the jump from Low to High comes at a significant cost of 36 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p offers a middle ground at 73 FPS, which maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while providing better visual quality than Low.

Moving up the resolution ladder, the situation changes dramatically. At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 62 FPS, which is identical to the High preset at 1080p. This indicates that resolution has a more substantial impact on performance than the quality settings themselves. The Medium preset at 1440p drops to 46 FPS, and High falls to 39 FPS, both of which are below the ideal 60 FPS threshold. At 3840x2160, all presets fail to reach 60 FPS, with even the Low preset managing only 32 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is nearly unplayable at 15 FPS.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Low preset at 1920x1080 stands out as the clear winner. It is the only configuration that approaches triple-digit frame rates, and it provides a substantial performance buffer. If visual fidelity is more important than raw frame rate, the Medium preset at 1080p at 73 FPS is a reasonable compromise, but the data suggests that Barony's performance scales so steeply with resolution that staying at 1080p is essential for a smooth experience. The Ultra preset at any resolution above 1080p results in frame rates below 30 FPS, making it unsuitable for gameplay.

FAQ

Q: What is the most performant setting combination for this system in Barony?

A: The data shows the Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves an average of 98 FPS, the highest measured for this combo. This is the only configuration that significantly exceeds 60 FPS, making it the most performant option.

Q: How does the 2560x1440 resolution compare to 1920x1080 in terms of FPS?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 62 FPS, which is exactly the same as the High preset at 1920x1080. This indicates that moving from 1080p to 1440p has a similar performance impact as moving from Low to High settings at the same resolution.

Q: Is the Ultra preset usable at any resolution?

A: No. The Ultra preset yields 45 FPS at 1920x1080, 28 FPS at 2560x1440, and 15 FPS at 3840x2160. Only the 1080p figure approaches playability, and it is still well below the performance of lower presets.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset has recorded minimum FPS values of 62 at 1920x1080, 39 at 2560x1440, and 20 at 3840x2160. These figures show that even the minimum frame rates at 1080p are playable, but they drop sharply at higher resolutions.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations for Barony?

A: The comboRankInGame data places this configuration at rank 2926 out of 2935 tested combos. This puts it in the bottom 1% of all tested systems, indicating that it is among the weakest performers for this specific game.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the limiting factor in Barony?

A: The data strongly suggests the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU has 16 cores and 32 threads, while the GPU is an integrated Radeon 760M. The dramatic FPS drops as resolution increases, from 98 FPS at 1080p Low to 32 FPS at 4K Low, point to the GPU being unable to handle the increased pixel throughput.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a significant GPU bottleneck. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 98 FPS at 1080p to 62 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 36 FPS. At 4K, the Low preset falls to 32 FPS, which is less than one-third of the 1080p performance. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU that is being overwhelmed by pixel count, rather than a CPU limitation.

The Medium preset tells a similar story, with frame rates of 73 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K. The scaling factor from 1080p to 4K is roughly three times the resolution, yet the FPS drops by a factor of three as well, from 73 to 24. This near-linear relationship between resolution and FPS is a classic sign that the rendering pipeline is fully saturated and the GPU is the primary constraint.

For the High preset, the numbers are 62 FPS at 1080p, 39 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset follows the same pattern with 45 FPS at 1080p, 28 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K. The consistency of these drops across all presets reinforces the conclusion that the Radeon 760M's compute and memory bandwidth are insufficient for higher resolutions. The CPU, with its high core count and boost clock, is not the limiting component here. The data indicates that Barony at 1080p is the only viable resolution for this combo, and even then, lower presets are necessary for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field places this configuration at rank 2926 out of 2935 tested combos. This is an exceptionally low ranking, placing it in the bottom 0.3% of all tested systems for Barony. The rank reflects the overall performance of the CPU-GPU pairing, and the data suggests that while the CPU is powerful, the integrated GPU drags the combined score down significantly.

To contextualize this, the CPU alone has a percentileVsAllCpus of 95, meaning it outperforms 95% of all CPUs in general benchmarks. The GPU, however, has a percentileVsAllGpus of 35, indicating it only outperforms 35% of all GPUs. This massive disparity between the two components explains why the combo ranks so poorly. The system is effectively a high-end processor paired with a low-end graphics solution, and for a game like Barony, the GPU is the dominant factor.

The nearestRivals for the CPU include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX with an average score of 76513 and a deltaPct of 1.6, and the Intel Core i9-14900K with a score of 79097 and a deltaPct of -1.7. These rivals are all desktop-class processors, yet the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 holds its own in CPU benchmarks. The GPU's nearestRivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 with a deltaPct of 0.3 and the NVIDIA Quadro P2000 with a deltaPct of -0.5, showing that the 760M is roughly comparable to entry-level discrete GPUs from a few generations ago. The combination of a top-tier CPU and a bottom-tier GPU is what drives the combo rank to 2926.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Strix Halo. It has a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 64 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a high-end mobile processor, as evidenced by its benchmarks: it scores 35314 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2044 in single-core, and 20992 in Geekbench multicore.

In Barony, a roguelike game, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, AI, and world generation. The high core count and fast boost clock are well-suited for these tasks. The PassMark multithread score of 54934 and the PassMark single-thread score of 4147 indicate that the CPU has ample headroom for any computational demands the game might place on it. The data supports this, as the FPS drops are consistently tied to resolution changes, not to complex scenes or CPU-intensive moments.

The CPU's nearestRivals in general benchmarks are the AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX, with deltaPct values of 1.6 and 2.0 respectively. This shows that the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is competitive with server and high-end mobile processors. For Barony, the CPU is unlikely to be a bottleneck. The measured FPS at 1080p Low is 98 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine limit or the GPU's capability, not a CPU constraint. The 32 threads and 64 MB of L3 cache provide more than enough processing power for a game of this age and genre.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 98 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution averages 73 FPS, with minimum and maximum values of 62 and 84 FPS. High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra drops to 45 FPS. These figures show that 1080p is the only resolution where the combo can consistently hit 60 FPS or above, and only on Low or Medium presets.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 62 FPS, which is a 36 FPS drop from 1080p Low. Medium averages 46 FPS with a minimum of 39 and a maximum of 53. High averages 39 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. None of these configurations reach the 60 FPS target, indicating that 1440p is a stretch for this GPU. The minimum FPS of 39 on Medium suggests that even the average frame rate can dip into unplayable territory during demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, performance degrades further. Low averages 32 FPS, Medium averages 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 28, High averages 21 FPS, and Ultra averages 15 FPS. The 4K data shows that the Radeon 760M is simply not capable of rendering Barony at this resolution with any playable frame rates. The Ultra preset at 4K, with an average of 15 FPS, is effectively a slideshow. The overall pattern is clear: 1080p Low or Medium are the only settings that provide a smooth experience, and any attempt to increase resolution or quality results in a dramatic FPS penalty.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process. It has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, with a base clock of 800 MHz and a boost clock of 2599 MHz. The GPU uses system shared memory, with bandwidth that is system dependent. Its compute capability is rated at 5.323 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. The GPU's benchmarks show a PassMark G3D score of 5310 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 400, placing it in the 35th percentile of all GPUs.

In Barony, the GPU's limitations are immediately apparent from the FPS data. The integrated nature of the GPU, with its shared memory and modest shader count, is the primary reason for the poor performance at higher resolutions. The pixel rate of 41.58 GPixel/s and texture rate of 83.17 GTexel/s are simply not enough to feed a 4K display. The nearestRivals for this GPU include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 with a deltaPct of 0.3 and the NVIDIA GTX 770M with a deltaPct of 0.3, showing that it performs similarly to older entry-level discrete GPUs.

The GPU's VRAM is system shared, meaning it competes with the CPU for memory bandwidth. The CPU's memory bandwidth is 256.0 GB/s, which is shared with the GPU. This shared bandwidth can become a bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU needs to access more texture and framebuffer data. The data suggests that the Radeon 760M is the clear limiting factor in this combo. The CPU is more than capable, but the GPU cannot translate that capability into high frame rates in Barony. The 512 shading units and 16 ROPs are insufficient for modern rendering demands at resolutions above 1080p, resulting in the steep FPS drops observed in the measurements.