Barony

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Barony, a game where the data shows frame rates that often exceed the refresh rates of standard monitors. At 1080p, the combination is overwhelmingly CPU-bound at lower settings, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint, yet the combo still maintains playable performance. This analysis breaks down the measured results across resolutions and settings, contextualizes the ranking among other tested combos, and examines the specific roles of the processor and graphics card in this roguelike title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for the highest frame rates?

A: The data shows the absolute highest average frame rate is achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings, producing 274.9 FPS. This is significantly higher than any other measured configuration.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p with High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the measured average frame rate is 112.7 FPS. This represents a substantial drop from the 175.7 FPS seen at 1080p High, indicating a clear scaling cost as resolution increases.

Q: Is the system capable of handling 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but with a caveat. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 40.5 FPS. While this is technically playable, it is the lowest measured performance point and might not be ideal for fast-paced action.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580's performance compare to its closest rivals?

A: In synthetic benchmarks, the Arc B580 has an average score of 23021, which is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060's score of 23181. It also outperforms the AMD Radeon 760M by 0.1% and the NVIDIA P106-100 by 0.3%.

Q: What is the CPU's standing relative to other processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F sits in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17181. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, has a nearly identical average score of 17189, showing a performance parity within 0%.

Q: What is the difference in frame rate between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The gap is substantial. The measured average FPS jumps from 128.1 at Ultra settings to 274.9 at Low settings, a difference of 146.8 FPS. This shows that the graphical settings have a massive impact on the performance ceiling.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the "High" preset offers the most balanced experience, particularly at 1440p. At 2560x1440, High settings yield an average of 112.7 FPS, which is a strong result for a high-resolution display. While Low settings at 1440p push the frame rate to 173.6 FPS, the visual fidelity trade-off is likely too steep for most players. The jump from Medium (127.2 FPS) to High (112.7 FPS) costs only 14.5 FPS, making High a more visually rich option with a modest performance hit.

For users with 1080p displays, the Ultra preset is a viable option. The combo still produces an average of 128.1 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, for competitive play or on high-refresh-rate monitors, the Medium preset at 204.3 FPS or even Low at 274.9 FPS provides a significant advantage. At 4K, the choice is more constrained. The High preset delivers 56.8 FPS, which is the best balance of visual quality and playability at that resolution. The Ultra preset's 40.5 FPS is the only setting that dips below the 60 FPS mark, so High is the recommended ceiling for a consistent experience.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 175.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p High reduces performance to 112.7 FPS, a drop of 63 FPS or roughly 36%. The scaling is even more pronounced at 4K, where the High preset yields 56.8 FPS, a further reduction of 55.9 FPS from the 1440p result. This pattern indicates that the system is heavily CPU-bound at 1080p; the processor is capable of feeding frames far faster than the GPU can render at lower resolutions. The dramatic drop at 4K, however, shifts the bottleneck to the GPU, as the rendering load becomes too heavy for the Intel Arc B580 to maintain the high frame rates seen at lower resolutions.

The data from Low settings reinforces this analysis. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 274.9 FPS, but this falls to 173.6 FPS at 1440p and 90.6 FPS at 4K. The performance degradation from 1080p to 1440p is 101.3 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 83 FPS. This shows that even when the GPU load is minimized, the resolution increase still taxes the system, but the scaling is more linear than at High settings. The limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p to the GPU as resolution climbs to 4K, where the Arc B580's rendering capabilities become the primary factor in determining the final frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

In the specific context of Barony, this combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1338 out of 1702 tested combos. This places it in the lower percentile of all tested systems, suggesting that while the performance is solid, many other hardware pairings are capable of achieving higher frame rates in this title. The rank is a relative measure; it indicates that the combo is not at the top of the leaderboard, but it does not detract from the fact that the measured frame rates are generally high and playable.

This ranking is interesting when considering the individual components' synthetic benchmark scores. The CPU sits in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Yet, in this game, the combo's rank is roughly in the 78th percentile (1338 out of 1702). This discrepancy suggests that Barony may be more sensitive to other system factors or that the game's engine does not scale perfectly with the strengths of these specific components. The data shows the combo is capable of high frame rates, but the rank indicates that a significant number of other tested configurations achieve even higher performance, likely due to more powerful GPUs or CPUs that are better optimized for this game's workload.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580's specifications play a crucial role in the game's performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s. This memory capacity and bandwidth are sufficient to handle the assets and textures in Barony at 4K, as evidenced by the playable frame rates at that resolution. The GPU's base clock is 2670 MHz, and its boost clock is also 2670 MHz, which is a fixed clock speed. This is supported by the FP32 performance of 13.67 TFLOPS, which contributes to the rendering capabilities.

The GPU's role becomes more defined when examining the frame rate scaling. At 1080p, the processor is the limiting factor, as the GPU has headroom to render frames quickly. However, as resolution increases, the load on the GPU's pixel and texture units intensifies. The Arc B580 has 80 ROPs and a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s, along with 160 TMUs and a texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s. These figures directly influence the fill rate, which is a bottleneck at 4K. The data shows that the frame rate drops from 175.7 FPS at 1080p High to 56.8 FPS at 4K High, a clear indication that the GPU's rendering capabilities are being pushed to their limits. The 12 GB VRAM buffer ensures that memory is not the limiting factor, but the sheer computational load of rendering at 4K causes the performance to drop, positioning the GPU as the primary constraint at that resolution.