Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i3-12100F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces an unusual performance profile in Barony, a 2015 roguelike that scales from extremely high frame rates at 1080p to still-impressive but notably lower figures at 4K. With the RTX 5090 D ranking in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs and the i3-12100F sitting in the 68th percentile among CPUs, this pairing leans heavily on GPU headroom while the four-core processor becomes an increasingly visible constraint as resolution drops. The measured data reveals a system that delivers 641 FPS at 1080p Low but falls to 109 FPS at 4K Ultra, a spread that tells a clear story about where the bottleneck shifts across settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and follows a consistent pattern across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 641 at 1080p to 457 at 1440p, then to 239 at 4K. That represents a 62.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the RTX 5090 D is still flexing considerable muscle at the highest resolution but the workload is scaling with pixel count. At Medium settings, the progression runs 538 FPS at 1080p, 340 at 1440p, and 178 at 4K — a 66.9% drop from 1080p to 4K. High settings show 462 FPS at 1080p, 292 at 1440p, and 152 at 4K, a 67.1% reduction. Ultra settings produce 331 FPS at 1080p, 209 at 1440p, and 109 at 4K, a 67.1% decline as well.

The consistency of these percentage drops across presets — all clustering around 63-67% — suggests that resolution scaling is behaving predictably, with the GPU handling the increased pixel workload without sudden inefficiencies. However, the absolute numbers at 1080p are telling. At 641 FPS on Low, the frame rate is so far beyond typical display refresh rates that the CPU is likely the limiting factor; the i3-12100F’s four cores and eight threads cannot push frames higher regardless of GPU capability. The data supports this: the 1080p to 1440p drop at Low settings is only 28.7% (641 to 457), while the 1440p to 4K drop is 47.7% (457 to 239). The smaller relative drop at lower resolutions indicates the CPU ceiling is being approached, whereas the larger drop at higher resolutions shows the GPU becoming more dominant in determining performance.

At Ultra settings, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute values. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 36.9% (331 to 209), and the 1440p to 4K drop is 47.8% (209 to 109). This suggests that even at Ultra, the CPU is still a partial constraint at 1080p, but the GPU workload at 4K Ultra is heavy enough that the RTX 5090 D becomes the primary limiter. The fact that 4K Ultra still produces 109 FPS average — well above playable thresholds — indicates that this game is not particularly demanding on the GPU even at maximum settings, which is consistent with its 2015 release date and roguelike genre.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D brings formidable specifications to Barony, including 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, a 2017 MHz base clock and 2407 MHz boost clock, and 21760 shading units. These figures place the card in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rivals in the aggregate benchmark data include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at a 1.1% higher score, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 1.6% lower, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB at 2.1% lower, and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB at 2.4% lower. This puts the RTX 5090 D in a narrow performance band with those competitors, despite its massive memory capacity and bandwidth advantages on paper.

In Barony specifically, the GPU’s role is somewhat paradoxical. The game produces frame rates that would challenge even high-refresh-rate displays, yet the measured data shows that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 641 FPS average is likely constrained by the CPU, as the RTX 5090 D could theoretically render far more frames given its compute resources. The GPU’s 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate are far beyond what a roguelike from 2015 requires, even at 4K Ultra where the card still delivers 109 FPS.

The 32 GB of VRAM is another indicator of the GPU’s overcapacity for this title. Barony, with its blocky voxel-style graphics and relatively simple rendering demands, would not approach anywhere near 32 GB of memory usage at any resolution or settings combination. The GDDR7 memory running at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is excessive for this workload. The measured data shows that the GPU’s performance in Barony is more about raw pixel throughput than memory bandwidth or capacity, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates that scale predictably with resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured rows, the most balanced experience appears to be at High settings across all resolutions. At 4K High, the average FPS of 152 is smooth and well above the 144 Hz threshold that many high-end monitors support. At 1440p High, 292 FPS provides ample headroom for even the fastest refresh rates available. At 1080p High, 462 FPS is so far beyond display capabilities that it offers no practical benefit over lower settings. The Medium preset provides a middle ground with 178 FPS at 4K, 340 at 1440p, and 538 at 1080p, but the jump from Medium to High costs only 26 FPS at 4K (178 to 152, a 14.6% reduction) while delivering improved visual quality.

Ultra settings, while still playable at 109 FPS at 4K, represent a significant 28.3% drop from High at that resolution (152 to 109). At 1440p Ultra, 209 FPS is still excellent, but the 28.4% reduction from High (292 to 209) may not justify the visual gains in a game with Barony’s simple aesthetic. Low settings, while producing the highest frame rates (641 at 1080p, 457 at 1440p, 239 at 4K), sacrifice visual fidelity in a way that likely detracts from the game’s atmosphere, particularly given that 4K Low still delivers 239 FPS — more than enough for any display.

The data suggests that High is the optimal preset for this combination. It provides the best balance between visual quality and frame rate, with 152 FPS at 4K being the minimum across all resolutions and still comfortably exceeding 144 Hz. For users with 240 Hz or higher refresh displays at 1440p, the 292 FPS at High is sufficient, while those with 4K 120 Hz panels will find 152 FPS to be surplus. Medium is a reasonable fallback if the user prioritizes maximum frame rates, but the visual difference between Medium and High in a game from 2015 is likely minimal.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows a clear progression across settings. Low produces an average of 641 FPS, which is the highest figure recorded for this combination. Medium averages 538 FPS with a minimum of 458 and maximum of 619, indicating some frame time variance but no dips below playable thresholds. High averages 462 FPS, and Ultra drops to 331 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 310 FPS, a 48.4% reduction from the Low baseline. This wide range at the same resolution highlights how settings presets significantly impact the rendering workload, though even at Ultra, the frame rate is far beyond what most displays can show.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern continues but with lower absolute values. Low averages 457 FPS, Medium averages 340 FPS with a minimum of 289 and maximum of 391, High averages 292 FPS, and Ultra averages 209 FPS. The Low to Ultra drop is 248 FPS, a 54.3% reduction. The Medium preset’s minimum of 289 FPS is still exceptionally high, suggesting that frame pacing remains consistent even under varying scene complexity. The 1440p numbers indicate that this resolution is where the combination really shines, as even Ultra at 209 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all consumer monitors.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more grounded but remain impressive. Low averages 239 FPS, Medium averages 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 and maximum of 204, High averages 152 FPS, and Ultra averages 109 FPS. The Low to Ultra drop is 130 FPS, a 54.4% reduction. The Medium preset at 4K is particularly noteworthy, with a minimum of 151 FPS that never drops below the 144 Hz threshold. High at 152 FPS is essentially identical to Medium’s average, suggesting that the settings scaling at 4K is less pronounced than at lower resolutions. Ultra at 109 FPS is the only configuration that dips below 144 Hz, but it remains well within the 90-120 Hz range that many 4K displays support.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 44th out of 3717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 1.2% of all configurations measured. This ranking is notable given the CPU’s relatively modest position in the overall benchmark hierarchy — the i3-12100F sits in the 68th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking does more heavy lifting. The rank of 44 out of 3717 suggests that the combination performs exceptionally well in this game, likely because Barony is not heavily multithreaded and the GPU’s raw power can compensate for the CPU’s limitations.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores provide context for its positioning. The Intel Core 3 N355 scores 13492 with a 0% delta, meaning it performs essentially identically to the i3-12100F’s 13494 average. The Intel Core i5-9500 scores 13452, coming in 0.3% lower, while the Intel Core 5 120UL scores 13594, running 0.7% higher, and the Intel Core i7-1250U scores 13351, sitting 1.1% lower. These deltas are all within a narrow 1.8% band, indicating that the i3-12100F is squarely in a competitive tier of processors whose performance differences are minimal in synthetic benchmarks.

The GPU’s nearest rivals show a similar clustering. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT scores 76904, 1.1% higher than the RTX 5090 D’s 77712, while the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78940, 1.6% lower, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB scores 79396, 2.1% lower, and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB scores 79605, 2.4% lower. The tight grouping of these scores suggests that the RTX 5090 D’s benchmark performance is comparable to these rivals, despite the significant architectural and specification differences. In Barony, the ranking of 44 out of 3717 indicates that the combination outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations, even those with more balanced CPU-GPU pairings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Core 12th Gen series, based on the Alder Lake architecture and manufactured on Intel’s 10 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 3.30 GHz and boosts to 4.30 GHz, with a 58 W TDP and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark results show a single-thread score of 893 in 3DMark and 1674 in Cinebench R23 single-core, while multithreaded results reach 4023 in 3DMark max threads and 11860 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. The processor’s average benchmark score of 13494 places it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, with a PassMark multithread score of 14015 and a PassMark single-thread score of 3444.

In Barony, the CPU’s role is likely significant at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The 1080p Low result of 641 FPS suggests that the i3-12100F’s single-thread performance is sufficient to drive very high frame rates, but the four-core, eight-thread configuration may limit frame pacing in scenes with many entities or complex game logic. The game’s 2015 release date means it was designed for CPUs with far less capability, so the i3-12100F’s modern architecture handles the workload comfortably. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4051, which is nearly identical to the 8-thread score of 4026 and max threads score of 4023, indicates that the processor’s performance scales poorly beyond four threads — a characteristic that matters little in Barony if the game is primarily single-threaded.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks — the Core 3 N355, Core i5-9500, Core 5 120UL, and Core i7-1250U — all score within 1.1% of the i3-12100F, suggesting that any of these processors would deliver similar results in Barony. However, the measured data for this specific combination shows that the i3-12100F does not meaningfully hold back the RTX 5090 D at 4K, where GPU-bound workloads dominate. At 1080p Low, the 641 FPS ceiling is more likely a CPU limitation, but since no display can show that many frames, the practical impact is negligible. The CPU’s 4.30 GHz boost clock and strong single-thread performance ensure that Barony’s game logic runs smoothly, and the 12 MB L3 cache provides adequate data locality for a roguelike with procedurally generated levels.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 4K Ultra settings for this combination?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 109 FPS, with no minimum or maximum values recorded.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Barony?

A: This combination ranks 44th out of 3717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 1.2% of all measured configurations.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this pairing?

A: The highest recorded average is 641 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS recorded at Medium settings across all resolutions?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 458 FPS and maximum is 619 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 289 FPS and maximum is 391 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 151 FPS and maximum is 204 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rival in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 D scores 77712 on average, which is 1.1% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, 1.6% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, 2.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB, and 2.4% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 457 FPS while Ultra averages 209 FPS, representing a 248 FPS or 54.3% reduction from Low to Ultra.