Barony

The Intel Core i3-12100F pairs a 4-core, 8-thread Alder Lake-S design with a 3.30 GHz base clock and a 4.30 GHz boost clock. This is a dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 platform with a 12 MB shared L3 cache, and it sits on the Intel Socket 1700. For a roguelike like Barony, which is not typically a heavily threaded title, the i3-12100F’s single-core performance is the primary driver of CPU-bound scenarios. Its benchmark data shows a single-thread score of 893 in 3DMark and 1681 in Cinebench R23, while the multi-threaded Cinebench R23 result reaches 11912. The processor’s overall average benchmark score of 13516 places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, indicating solid mainstream capability.

The data shows that the i3-12100F’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, posts an average score of 13534, placing the Intel part just 0.1% behind. Conversely, the Intel Core i7-1250U scores 13462, which is 0.4% lower than the i3-12100F, and the Intel Core i3-10105 trails by 0.6% with a score of 13430. The gap widens slightly against the Intel Core i7-7700K, which scores 13280, a 1.8% deficit. In Barony, the i3-12100F’s strong single-thread showing ensures that game logic, AI pathfinding, and procedural generation tasks are handled efficiently, though the 4-core/8-thread layout may become a bottleneck in extreme multi-tasking scenarios outside the game itself.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. The GPU’s clocks are set at a base of 1968 MHz, a game clock of 2359 MHz, and a boost clock of 2589 MHz, with memory running at 2000 MHz or 16 Gbps effective. With 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, the card offers 10.60 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 27985, placing it in the 71st percentile of all GPUs, and it has been marked as end-of-life by the manufacturer.

In terms of direct rivals, the data shows the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti scores 27956, a 0.1% delta, placing it effectively on par with the RX 6600 XT. The AMD Radeon R9 M395X scores 27883, which is 0.4% lower, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 scores 28238, a 0.9% advantage over the RX 6600 XT. The AMD FirePro S7150 scores 28409, leading by 1.5%. For Barony, the RX 6600 XT’s 8 GB VRAM and high boost clock are more than sufficient for the game’s stylized, low-poly aesthetic, which does not demand heavy texture streaming. The GPU’s capability is largely untaxed in this title, meaning the measured FPS figures reflect the CPU’s ability to feed frames rather than the GPU’s raw rendering limits.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT achieves a rank of 1219 out of 1702 tested combos in Barony. This places the pairing in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems, suggesting that while the individual components are competent, the overall configuration is not optimized for this specific game. The rank implies that a significant portion of the 1702 tested combos deliver higher average frame rates, likely due to more balanced CPU-GPU pairings or higher-end parts on either side. The data suggests that the i3-12100F, while strong for its class, may be the limiting factor in this duo, as the RX 6600 XT is capable of pushing higher frame rates when paired with a more powerful processor. The 1219th rank out of 1702 means roughly 71.6% of tested combos outperform this specific setup in Barony, a clear indicator that the CPU is holding back the GPU’s potential in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Barony shows a clear scaling pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 131.7 FPS, while High jumps to 184.3 FPS. Medium produces 212.4 FPS, and Low reaches a substantial 287.5 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at 1080p Ultra, the system is far from struggling, with the Low preset nearly tripling the Ultra figure. Moving to 1440p, the averages drop predictably: Ultra yields 85.4 FPS, High produces 117.5 FPS, Medium hits 132.9 FPS, and Low reaches 179.3 FPS. The 1440p results show a similar pattern to 1080p, with Low being roughly 2.1 times faster than Ultra. At 4K, the frame rates compress further, with Ultra averaging 41.8 FPS, High at 60.5 FPS, Medium at 70 FPS, and Low at 95.5 FPS.

The 4K Ultra figure of 41.8 FPS is the only instance where the system dips below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that the combination is not fully playable at the highest settings and resolution. However, 4K High at 60.5 FPS is just above the playable line, suggesting that a slight settings reduction makes 4K viable. The data shows that the RX 6600 XT’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient even at 4K Ultra, as the frame rate drop from 1440p Ultra to 4K Ultra (85.4 FPS to 41.8 FPS) is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, not a memory capacity limitation. The 1440p Medium result of 132.9 FPS is notably close to the 1080p Ultra result of 131.7 FPS, suggesting that resolution has a more significant impact on performance than the quality preset at these levels.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals a pronounced drop in average FPS as resolution increases, which is characteristic of a system where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. From 1080p Ultra to 1440p Ultra, the frame rate falls from 131.7 FPS to 85.4 FPS, a reduction of 46.3 FPS or roughly 35.2%. Continuing to 4K Ultra, the average drops to 41.8 FPS, a further decline of 43.6 FPS from 1440p, representing an additional 51.1% reduction. This compounding effect shows that the RX 6600 XT is increasingly stressed as pixel count rises, with the 4K Ultra result being less than one-third of the 1080p Ultra figure.

For the Low preset, the scaling is even more dramatic: 287.5 FPS at 1080p falls to 179.3 FPS at 1440p (a 37.6% drop), and then to 95.5 FPS at 4K (a 46.7% drop from 1440p). The fact that Low settings still show such a steep decline indicates that even with minimal graphical load, the GPU’s rendering pipeline is the limiting factor at 4K. The Medium and High presets follow similar curves, with 4K results roughly 33-35% of their 1080p counterparts. This pattern strongly suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this game, as the frame rate scales consistently with resolution regardless of settings. If the i3-12100F were the limiting component, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions, particularly at lower settings. Instead, the data shows that the RX 6600 XT’s compute and memory bandwidth are the determining factors, particularly at 4K where the 128-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth struggle to feed the 2048 shading units. The 4K Ultra result of 41.8 FPS, while low, is still playable for a turn-based roguelike, but the data indicates that users targeting smooth 4K gameplay should stick to High or Medium settings to stay above the 60 FPS mark.