Barony

Barony is a roguelike that leans heavily on CPU threading and raw draw-call throughput, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT produces a combination that is surprisingly GPU-bound at high resolutions but clearly CPU-limited at 1080p. The measured data shows this combo ranks 956th out of 1702 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems for this title. The 6-core, 12-thread Comet Lake processor with a 2.90 GHz base and 4.30 GHz boost clock provides enough headroom for the RDNA 2 graphics card, but the scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings, indicating a system that transitions from CPU-bound at lower resolutions to GPU-bound at 4K. At High settings, average FPS falls from 219.7 at 1920x1080 to 137.0 at 2560x1440, then to 75.0 at 3840x2160 — a 65.9% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The jump from 1440p to 4K alone costs 45.3% of the frame rate, which is a classic sign of the GPU hitting its fill-rate and memory bandwidth limits.

Low settings tell a different story. At 1920x1080, the combo produces 347.2 FPS, but at 2560x1440 it drops to 216.0, and at 4K it reaches 113.3. The 1080p-to-1440p drop of 37.8% is larger than the 1440p-to-4K drop of 47.5% in relative terms, but the absolute numbers suggest the CPU is still keeping pace. The fact that Low settings at 4K (113.3 FPS) outperform High settings at 1440p (137.0 FPS) by a wide margin shows that graphics settings, not resolution alone, determine the limiting component.

Ultra settings expose the GPU's ceiling most clearly. At 1080p Ultra, the combo hits 157.2 FPS, which drops to 97.3 at 1440p and 53.9 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS, and the 44.6% drop from 1440p to 4K indicates that the RX 6700 XT's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated by the combination of high pixel count and maxed-out effects. The data shows that 1080p is where the i5-10400F's single-thread performance (688 in 3dmark_single_thread, 2541 in PassMark single-thread) becomes the primary constraint, while 4K shifts the burden almost entirely to the GPU.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 53.9, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. This is the only configuration in the measured data that fails to reach 60 FPS, and it indicates that the RX 6700 XT is the limiting factor at this extreme setting.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces 347.2 FPS, which is more than double the 4K Low result of 113.3 FPS. The huge gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p (347.2 vs 157.2) suggests the GPU is still doing significant work, but the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are likely capping performance in less demanding scenes.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: 2560x1440 offers the best balance. At High settings it delivers 137.0 FPS, and even Ultra settings maintain 97.3 FPS. This resolution keeps the frame rate well above 60 FPS across all settings while providing a visual upgrade over 1080p.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 956th out of 1702 tested combinations for Barony. This places it in the lower-middle tier, meaning roughly 56% of tested combos perform better in this specific game, despite the hardware's respectable individual benchmark scores.

Q: Does the GPU's VRAM capacity matter for this game?

A: The RX 6700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is more than sufficient for Barony's measured configurations. The 4K Ultra result of 53.9 FPS is more likely limited by the GPU's 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate than by memory capacity.

Q: What settings give the highest frame rate at 4K?

A: Low settings at 3840x2160 produce 113.3 FPS, which is the highest measured 4K result. Medium settings yield 85.9 FPS, while High drops to 75.0 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium (24.2% reduction) is smaller than from Medium to High (12.7% reduction), suggesting diminishing returns.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 956 out of 1702 places it in the 43.7th percentile of tested systems for Barony. This is notably lower than the CPU's individual percentile of 73 and the GPU's percentile of 77, which indicates that Barony's specific workload does not favor this pairing as much as synthetic benchmarks would suggest. The i5-10400F's nearest rivals in general CPU benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7552 (avg score 14115, 0.4% higher) and the Intel Core i5-8500 (avg score 14332, 1.1% higher), but in Barony, the game's heavy reliance on single-thread performance and cache latency may expose weaknesses that general benchmarks miss.

The GPU's nearest rivals tell a similar story. The RX 6700 XT's average benchmark score of 33721 is 0.7% higher than the RX 6800 (33493) and 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A5000 (33294), yet the in-game rank suggests Barony does not fully utilize the GPU's capabilities. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p High, the combo achieves 219.7 FPS, which is high in absolute terms but likely constrained by the CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s memory bandwidth. The rank of 956 out of 1702 means there are 956 better-performing combos, and the gap between this rank and the component percentiles suggests that pairing a higher-clocked CPU with this GPU would yield better Barony performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results across all settings. Low settings produce 347.2 FPS, Medium drops to 255.5 FPS, High reaches 219.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 157.2 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 54.7% reduction, which is substantial but still leaves all configurations far above playable thresholds. The 1080p results indicate that the i5-10400F's 4.30 GHz boost clock and 6 cores are sufficient to feed the GPU at this resolution, even at Low settings where the CPU is typically the primary constraint.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers remain strong but show the GPU beginning to take over. Low settings drop to 216.0 FPS, Medium to 160.6 FPS, High to 137.0 FPS, and Ultra to 97.3 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result is particularly telling — it is 38.1% lower than the 1080p Ultra result, while the 1440p Low result is only 37.8% lower than 1080p Low. This suggests that the GPU's compute resources are being taxed more heavily as settings increase, while the CPU still has headroom at lower settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings yield 113.3 FPS, Medium drops to 85.9 FPS, High to 75.0 FPS, and Ultra to 53.9 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration below 60 FPS, and the 52.5% reduction from Low to Ultra at this resolution is the largest percentage drop across any resolution. The data shows that 4K Ultra demands more from the RX 6700 XT's 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs than the card can deliver in this game.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process from TSMC, is the dominant factor at higher resolutions. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 4K textures but not for maxed-out effects at that resolution. The GPU's base clock of 2321 MHz and boost clock of 2581 MHz, with a game clock of 2424 MHz, allow it to reach 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which translates to the observed 4K High result of 75.0 FPS.

The 40 ray tracing cores and 160 texture mapping units contribute to the card's ability to handle Barony's visual effects, but the game's roguelike nature means that draw calls and geometry complexity are more important than raw pixel throughput. The GPU's 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate and 413.0 GTexel/s texture rate are the specifications that matter most at 4K, and the measured data confirms that Ultra settings at 3840x2160 exceed what these figures can sustain in real-world conditions. The card's 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 33721 show it is a competent performer, but Barony's specific workload pushes it to its limits at the highest settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. Its 2.90 GHz base clock and 4.30 GHz boost clock, combined with a 12 MB shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth, provide the foundation for the combo's performance. The CPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all processors and average benchmark score of 14168 indicate solid general-purpose performance, but Barony's roguelike gameplay tends to favor single-thread responsiveness.

The CPU's 3dmark_single_thread score of 688 and PassMark single-thread score of 2541 are the most relevant metrics for this game. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 347.2 FPS, which suggests the CPU is still able to feed the GPU effectively, but the smaller-than-expected gap between 1080p Low and 1440p Low (347.2 vs 216.0) hints that the CPU's 12 threads are being utilized efficiently. The CPU's nearest rivals — the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.4% higher average score) and Ryzen 3 7320C (0.8% lower) — have similar general benchmark scores, but the i5-10400F's 4.30 GHz boost clock gives it an edge in lightly-threaded scenarios that Barony frequently presents.

Settings Recommendations

For the best measured experience, 2560x1440 with High settings offers the strongest combination of visual quality and performance, delivering 137.0 FPS. This configuration provides a 45.3% improvement over 4K High (75.0 FPS) while maintaining a 37.6% higher frame rate than 1440p Ultra (97.3 FPS). The 1440p High setting is the sweet spot because it stays well above 60 FPS while offering more detail than Medium settings (160.6 FPS) at a negligible visual cost.

At 1920x1080, High settings (219.7 FPS) are recommended over Ultra (157.2 FPS) because the 28.4% frame rate reduction for Ultra is unlikely to be visually noticeable in a roguelike with relatively simple geometry. For 4K users, Medium settings (85.9 FPS) are the highest quality option that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Low settings (113.3 FPS) are the best choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays. Ultra settings at 4K should be avoided since the 53.9 FPS result falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and the drop from High to Ultra (28.1% reduction) is not justified by the visual improvements in this game.