Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

The pairing of Intel's quad-core Core i3-12100F with NVIDIA's flagship-tier RTX 4080 produces extraordinary frame rates in Barony, a roguelike that clearly favors high-frequency rendering over complex geometry. The measured data shows this combination ranks 244th out of 3,717 tested combos, placing it in the top 7% of all configurations in the database. At 1080p Low, the system hits a staggering 600 FPS average, while even the most demanding Ultra preset at 4K maintains a playable 91 FPS. This is a case where the CPU becomes the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions, while the GPU's massive memory bandwidth and compute resources take over as resolution climbs.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in Barony?

A: This configuration ranks 244th out of 3,717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 7% of all recorded results.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score of 54,247 is nearly identical to the RTX 4080 SUPER, which sits just 0.1% ahead. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X trails by 1.1%, while the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and Radeon 8060S are 2.6% and 2.7% behind, respectively.

Q: What is the best frame rate achieved at 1080p?

A: The highest recorded average is 600 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. Even at Ultra settings, the system maintains a 274 FPS average at the same resolution.

Q: Does the game scale well with resolution?

A: Yes, but with diminishing returns. At 1440p, the system delivers 379 FPS on Low and 173 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 4K, those numbers drop to 198 FPS and 91 FPS respectively, showing a predictable performance curve as pixel count increases.

Q: How does the Core i3-12100F compare to its closest CPU competitors?

A: The i3-12100F's average benchmark score of 13,494 is essentially tied with the Intel Core 3 N355 (0% delta) and Core i5-9500 (0.3% ahead). The Core 5 120UL is 0.7% faster, while the Core i7-1250U is 1.1% slower.

Q: What is the most balanced settings/resolution combination?

A: At 2560x1440 on High settings, the system produces a 242 FPS average, which balances visual quality with headroom above typical high-refresh monitors. The 1080p Ultra setting at 274 FPS also offers a strong quality-to-performance ratio.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC. The GPU packs 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth — a figure that becomes increasingly relevant as resolution scales to 4K. Its 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster operation processors provide the raw throughput needed for Barony's high-frequency rendering. The chip operates at a 2,205 MHz base clock with a 2,505 MHz boost, and memory runs at 1,400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed.

The RTX 4080's compute capabilities are substantial: 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and an equal 48.74 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio). It also includes 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores, though Barony's roguelike gameplay likely doesn't stress these specialized units heavily. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,247, confirms its position near the top of the performance hierarchy. Its closest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54,209 (0.1% delta), showing how tightly packed the high-end field is.

In Barony specifically, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the system achieves 600 FPS on Low settings, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 91 FPS — a 509 FPS swing that illustrates the GPU's workload scaling. The 16 GB VRAM allocation is generous for this title, likely preventing any memory-related bottlenecks even at 4K with Ultra textures. The 716.8 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and memory-intensive effects don't introduce stutter, as evidenced by the consistent frame pacing at Medium settings across all resolutions.

The GPU's 320 W TDP and triple-slot design indicate serious cooling requirements, but the data shows no thermal throttling artifacts in the measured results. The 1x 16-pin power connector and 700 W suggested PSU provide adequate headroom for sustained operation. The card's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface is sufficient for Barony's data transfer needs, and its 12.2-inch length requires a spacious chassis.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear hierarchy of performance across settings presets at each resolution. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 600 FPS, which far exceeds any display's refresh rate — this preset is essentially CPU-bound and offers no practical benefit unless chasing maximum frame times. Medium settings at 1080p produce 446 FPS with a minimum of 379 FPS, while High achieves 383 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p still maintains 274 FPS, making it the best choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing competitive smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the story shifts slightly. Low settings yield 379 FPS, Medium produces 281 FPS with a 239 FPS minimum, and High delivers 242 FPS. Ultra at 1440p drops to 173 FPS — still well above the 144 Hz threshold that most high-refresh monitors support. For users with 144 Hz displays, Ultra at 1440p is the recommended configuration, as it provides the maximum visual quality while staying comfortably above refresh rate limits.

The 4K resolution tells a different tale. Ultra settings at 3840x2160 produce a 91 FPS average, which is playable but may not satisfy users with 120 Hz or 144 Hz 4K displays. High settings at 4K improve to 126 FPS, Medium reaches 147 FPS with a 125 FPS minimum, and Low hits 198 FPS. For 4K users, High settings offer the best compromise — 126 FPS average is smooth on most displays, and the visual uplift over Medium is noticeable in roguelike environments where readability matters.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent experience across all resolutions, as it's the only preset with recorded minimum FPS values (125 at 4K, 239 at 1440p, 379 at 1080p). These minimums indicate reliable frame pacing without severe dips. For competitive play, Low settings at 1080p or 1440p are viable, but the frame rates are so high that diminishing returns set in — the difference between 446 FPS and 600 FPS is imperceptible on any current display.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 244 out of 3,717 tested combos, this configuration sits in the top 6.6% of all systems tested in Barony. This placement is notable given that the Core i3-12100F is a budget-oriented quad-core processor, while the RTX 4080 is a high-end GPU. The combination proves that Barony is far more GPU-dependent at high resolutions, allowing the modest CPU to keep pace when paired with a flagship graphics card.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68 among all processors places it in the upper third, with an average benchmark score of 13,494. Its nearest rivals — the Core 3 N355 (13,492), Core i5-9500 (13,452), Core 5 120UL (13,594), and Core i7-1250U (13,351) — all cluster within 1.1% of its score, indicating that the i3-12100F punches above its weight class in synthetic tests.

The GPU's 86th percentile ranking is more impressive, with an average benchmark score of 54,247. Its rivals — RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209), Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828), Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698), and Radeon 8060S (55,757) — are all within 2.7%, showing that the RTX 4080 is firmly entrenched in the upper echelon of graphics hardware.

The combination's 244th rank reflects the GPU's dominant role in Barony's performance equation. Compared to combos with higher-ranked CPUs but weaker GPUs, this system likely outperforms them in GPU-bound scenarios. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 91 FPS, which is respectable for a roguelike with potentially complex procedural generation. The rank also benefits from the GPU's 16 GB VRAM, which prevents memory-related bottlenecks that could affect lower-VRAM cards at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a quad-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake-S architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It operates with a 3.30 GHz base clock and a 4.30 GHz boost clock, with a 58 W TDP. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, though the memory bandwidth isn't specified in the data.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i3-12100F shows strong single-thread performance with a 3DMark single-thread score of 893, a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,674, and a Geekbench single-core score of 1,932. Its multi-thread results — Cinebench R23 multi-core at 11,860, Geekbench multi-core at 7,252, and PassMark multi-thread at 14,015 — demonstrate capable scaling across its 4 cores and 8 threads. The 3DMark results show near-linear scaling from 4 threads (2,859) to 8 threads (4,026), but minimal gains beyond that (4,023 at maximum threads), indicating that the 4-core design reaches its parallel limit quickly.

In Barony, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The 1080p Low result of 600 FPS likely represents a CPU bottleneck, as the quad-core processor can only feed frames so quickly. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1,659 and single-thread score of 893 suggest that Barony's main thread benefits from the i3-12100F's strong single-core performance (4.30 GHz boost). The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3,444 is solid for a budget processor, which helps maintain high frame rates in scenarios where the game logic is serial.

However, the CPU's modest core count becomes evident in multi-threaded scenarios. The PassMark physics score of 985 and integer math score of 40,978 indicate moderate compute throughput, which could limit performance in complex procedural generation or physics-heavy moments in Barony. The 12 MB L3 cache is adequate for a roguelike's working set, though larger caches on higher-end CPUs might reduce memory latency spikes.

The i3-12100F's launch MSRP of $97 positions it as an entry-level processor, yet its 68th percentile ranking shows it outperforms many older and lower-tier CPUs. Its nearest rivals — the Core 3 N355 (0% delta), Core i5-9500 (0.3% faster), Core 5 120UL (0.7% faster), and Core i7-1250U (1.1% slower) — all sit within a narrow performance band, confirming that the i3-12100F delivers competitive compute for its class.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce a 600 FPS average, which is the highest recorded result in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 446 FPS with a 379 FPS minimum and 513 FPS maximum, showing tight frame pacing. High settings maintain a 383 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 274 FPS — still far above the refresh rate of any mainstream monitor.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales predictably. Low settings achieve 379 FPS, Medium produces 281 FPS with a 239 FPS minimum and 324 FPS maximum, High delivers 242 FPS, and Ultra settles at 173 FPS. The 1440p results show a 17% reduction from 1080p at every settings tier, which is reasonable given the 78% increase in pixel count — this suggests the GPU is not fully saturated at these resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes more demanding. Low settings deliver 198 FPS, Medium produces 147 FPS with a 125 FPS minimum and 169 FPS maximum, High maintains 126 FPS, and Ultra drops to 91 FPS. The 4K Ultra result, while lower than lower settings, remains playable for a roguelike genre where precision and response times matter. The gaps between settings narrow at 4K: the difference between Low and Ultra is 107 FPS at 4K, compared to 326 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset stands out for its consistency, as it's the only tier with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values at all three resolutions. The minimum FPS values — 379 at 1080p, 239 at 1440p, and 125 at 4K — demonstrate that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains playable frame rates. The 1080p Medium result of 446 FPS average with a 379 FPS minimum shows excellent frame consistency, while the 4K Medium result of 147 FPS with a 125 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay on high-refresh 4K displays.

The data reveals that the system's performance headroom is substantial at lower resolutions. The 600 FPS at 1080p Low likely exceeds the CPU's frame generation capability, making it a theoretical maximum rather than a practical target. The 4K Ultra result of 91 FPS is the only measurement below 100 FPS, indicating that most users can achieve high refresh rates with this configuration regardless of their display's resolution.