Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a remarkably strong experience in Barony, a roguelike title that clearly favors high refresh rates. The data shows this combination sits at rank 1065 out of 3717 tested combos, placing it in the top 29% of all system pairings. The CPU holds a 68th percentile ranking against all CPUs, and the GPU matches that at a 68th percentile against all GPUs, making this a balanced mid-to-upper tier pairing. With 6 cores and 12 threads from the Comet Lake architecture running at a base of 2.90 GHz and boosting to 4.30 GHz, the processor provides ample headroom for a game that appears to scale well with both resolution and settings changes. The RTX 3080, built on the Ampere architecture with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and a 320-bit bus delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, proves more than capable of pushing extreme frame rates even at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting the smoothest possible experience, the Low preset at 1920x1080 yields an astonishing 449 FPS average, while the Medium preset still delivers 334 FPS. The High preset at 1080p produces 287 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains 206 FPS. The frame rate deltas between settings at 1080p are substantial: dropping from Ultra to Low nearly doubles performance, moving from 206 to 449 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the pattern holds but with tighter margins. Low settings produce 284 FPS, Medium reaches 211 FPS, High hits 181 FPS, and Ultra stays at 130 FPS. The jump from Ultra to Low at 1440p represents a 118% improvement, showing that Barony's settings have a pronounced impact on performance. At 3840x2160, the differences compress further: Low delivers 148 FPS, Medium 110 FPS, High 95 FPS, and Ultra drops to 68 FPS.

The optimal choice depends on the target display. For 1080p and 1440p panels, High settings offer the best balance between visual fidelity and headroom, as the average FPS stays above 180 in both cases. At 4K, Medium settings appear to be the sweet spot: the 110 FPS average with a recorded minimum of 94 FPS and maximum of 127 FPS provides consistent performance without the visual penalty of Low. The Ultra preset at 4K falls to 68 FPS, which is still playable but represents a significant 38% drop from Medium. The data suggests that Medium at 4K is the recommended starting point, with the option to step down to Low if a higher refresh rate is the priority.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080's specifications explain why it handles Barony so effectively across all tested resolutions. With 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, the GPU has substantial parallel processing capability. The 68 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores are present, though Barony's roguelike nature likely does not heavily utilize these specialized units. The memory subsystem is a standout feature: 10 GB of GDDR6X running at 19 Gbps effective across a 320-bit bus yields 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This bandwidth proves critical at higher resolutions where texture streaming and frame buffer demands increase.

The clock behavior shows a base of 1440 MHz with a boost of 1710 MHz, and the memory clock runs at 1188 MHz translating to 19 Gbps effective. The GPU's pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for the high frame rates observed. The FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS indicates strong general compute capability. In benchmark scores, the RTX 3080 achieves a PassMark G3D score of 25086 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407, with an average benchmark score of 23172. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA P106-100 at 23249 (0.3% higher), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 at 23250 (0.3% higher), AMD Radeon RX 6600M at 23273 (0.4% higher), and AMD Radeon R9 M290X at 23276 (0.4% higher). These deltas are minimal, indicating the RTX 3080 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

The GPU's 68th percentile ranking against all GPUs places it above the median but below top-tier offerings. For Barony specifically, the data shows the GPU is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions, as frame rates scale dramatically with settings changes. The GPU's 8 nm process node from Samsung, with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, represents a large, power-hungry design with a 320 W TDP. This power envelope is justified by the performance on display, particularly the ability to maintain 148 FPS at 4K Low settings.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K reveals how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At 1080p Low, the system produces 449 FPS, but at 1440p Low it falls to 284 FPS, and at 4K Low it reaches 148 FPS. This represents a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. At High settings, the progression goes from 287 FPS at 1080p to 181 FPS at 1440p to 95 FPS at 4K, a 67% drop from 1080p to 4K as well. The consistency of this percentage across settings indicates that resolution scaling is uniform and dominated by GPU workload.

The Medium settings show the most complete data with minimum and maximum values recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 334 FPS with a minimum of 284 and maximum of 384. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 211 FPS with a minimum of 179 and maximum of 242. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 110 FPS with a minimum of 94 and maximum of 127. The frame time consistency appears to improve at higher resolutions, as the ratio of minimum to average FPS improves from 85% at 1080p to 85% at 1440p to 85% at 4K, showing stable performance characteristics across all resolutions.

The scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p, the CPU plays a more significant role, as the i5-10400F's 6 cores and 12 threads at up to 4.30 GHz can become a limiting factor when the GPU is capable of producing over 400 FPS. As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant constraint, evidenced by the frame rates compressing into a narrower band across settings. The 4K results show a spread from 68 FPS at Ultra to 148 FPS at Low, while at 1080p the spread spans from 206 to 449 FPS. This compression at higher resolutions is the classic signature of GPU-bound performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range shows exceptional performance. Low settings produce 449 FPS average. Medium settings deliver 334 FPS average with a minimum of 284 FPS and maximum of 384 FPS. High settings reach 287 FPS average. Ultra settings maintain 206 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 54% reduction in frame rate, indicating that each settings tier has a meaningful cost.

At 2560x1440, performance remains high but with clearer differentiation. Low settings deliver 284 FPS average. Medium settings produce 211 FPS average with a minimum of 179 FPS and maximum of 242 FPS. High settings reach 181 FPS average. Ultra settings sustain 130 FPS average. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each settings tier is roughly 37% across the board, showing consistent scaling. The Ultra preset at 1440p still maintains a 130 FPS average, which comfortably exceeds standard 120 Hz display refresh rates.

At 3840x2160, the system remains playable at all settings. Low settings yield 148 FPS average. Medium settings deliver 110 FPS average with a minimum of 94 FPS and maximum of 127 FPS. High settings maintain 95 FPS average. Ultra settings produce 68 FPS average. The 4K Ultra figure is the only measurement below 60 FPS, and even that remains technically playable. The Medium preset at 4K offers the best combination of stability and visual quality, with the 94 FPS minimum ensuring consistent frame delivery.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Barony at 4K with high refresh rates?

A: Yes. At 4K Medium settings, the system delivers 110 FPS average with a 94 FPS minimum. Even at 4K High settings, the average stays at 95 FPS. Only the 4K Ultra preset drops to 68 FPS average.

Q: What is the fastest settings combination for competitive play?

A: The 1080p Low preset produces 449 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate. At 1440p, Low settings still deliver 284 FPS, making both options excellent for high refresh rate displays.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to Low?

A: At 1080p, Ultra delivers 206 FPS versus 449 FPS at Low, a 54% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra delivers 130 FPS versus 284 FPS at Low, a 54% reduction. At 4K, Ultra delivers 68 FPS versus 148 FPS at Low, a 54% reduction.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 or the i5-10400F the limiting factor in this game?

A: At 1080p, the CPU becomes more relevant since the GPU can produce over 400 FPS, suggesting potential CPU limits. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as frame rates compress across settings and resolution scaling is uniform.

Q: What kind of frame time consistency does this combo offer?

A: The Medium preset data shows stable performance: at 1080p the minimum is 284 FPS against a 334 FPS average, at 1440p the minimum is 179 FPS against 211 FPS, and at 4K the minimum is 94 FPS against 110 FPS. The consistent ratio indicates smooth frame delivery.

Q: How does this system compare to other GPU pairings in the database?

A: The RTX 3080's average benchmark score is 23172, placing it 0.3% below the NVIDIA P106-100 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, and 0.4% below the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and AMD Radeon R9 M290X. The overall combo ranks 1065 out of 3717 tested combinations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads from the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. The base clock of 2.90 GHz boosts to 4.30 GHz, and the processor carries 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 over a dual-channel bus with 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU's benchmark results show a clear scaling pattern: 3DMark scores progress from 688 single-thread to 1350 for 2 threads, 2560 for 4 threads, 3929 for 8 threads, and 4735 for max threads. The Cinebench R23 results show 1451 single-core and 10283 multi-core scores, while Geekbench reports 1420 single-core and 6257 multi-core.

The CPU's role in Barony becomes evident when examining the frame rate behavior across resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 449 FPS at Low settings, which approaches the practical limit for many CPUs. The PassMark single-thread score of 2541 and multithread score of 12115 indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for games that rely on a primary thread. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1350 relative to the single-thread score of 688 shows good scaling with additional threads, and the 4-thread score of 2560 suggests the processor handles moderate thread counts efficiently.

The CPU's 68th percentile ranking against all CPUs places it alongside the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher average score), Intel Core 7 160UL (0.3% lower), AMD EPYC 7552 (0.5% higher), and AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.6% lower). These nearest rivals bracket the i5-10400F within a tight performance band, with all deltas under 1%. The average benchmark score of 14185 and the PassMark multithread score of 12115 confirm that this CPU provides adequate compute for the frame rates observed in Barony.

The data suggests that at 1080p with Low settings, the CPU may be approaching its limit, as the 449 FPS figure is exceptionally high. However, at 4K, the CPU has ample headroom, since the GPU becomes the constraint. The CPU's 65 W TDP makes it an efficient choice, and the Intel Socket 1200 platform with PCIe Gen 3 support provides sufficient bandwidth for the RTX 3080's PCIe 4.0 interface, which operates in backward-compatible mode. The processor's lack of integrated graphics is irrelevant here, as the discrete GPU handles all rendering duties.