Barony

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers an exceptional experience in Barony, ranking 51st out of 1702 tested combinations. This puts the combo in the top 3% of all systems tested, with the RTX 5090's raw power dominating the CPU's mid-range capabilities. The data shows that at 1080p, the system achieves over 500 FPS on Low settings, while even the most demanding Ultra preset at 4K remains comfortably above 100 FPS, indicating a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions and increasingly CPU-bound as resolution drops.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Barony with this combo?*

A: The data shows that 1440p High delivers 277.6 FPS, which is a significant drop from 1080p High's 442.2 FPS but still far above any display refresh rate. For maximum smoothness, 1080p Medium at 498.2 FPS offers the best balance of visual quality and raw performance.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84306 places it just 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D and 0.2% ahead of the RTX 5050 Mobile. It trails the NVIDIA CMP 40HX by 1.6%, showing that the 5090 is at the absolute top of the GPU hierarchy.

*Q: Is the Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 in Barony?*

A: The CPU's percentile rank of 75 versus the GPU's 94 suggests a potential bottleneck, but the measured FPS data tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system still hits 557.1 FPS, indicating that while the CPU limits maximum frame rates, it does not compromise playability at any resolution.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Ultra and Low settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 101.8 FPS while Low averages 225.9 FPS, a difference of 124.1 FPS. This represents a 122% performance uplift when dropping from Ultra to Low, showing that settings have a massive impact at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the 11400F's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: With an average benchmark score of 17181, the 11400F is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-1240U (17141, -0.2%). It also matches the Intel Core i7-1260P (17212, -0.2%) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17215, -0.2%).

*Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM matter for Barony?*

A: While Barony is a roguelike that does not typically require large VRAM pools, the RTX 5090's 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that no texture or geometry data will ever be constrained, even at 4K Ultra settings.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience in Barony, the data suggests that the Medium preset at 1440p provides the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance. At 2560x1440 Medium, the system averages 320.9 FPS, which is a 43.1 FPS improvement over High settings at the same resolution. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 43.3 FPS (320.9 to 277.6), but the visual difference in a roguelike is often minimal.

If the user prefers maximum visual quality, the Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 314.2 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth. However, the Ultra preset at 1440p (196.8 FPS) and 4K (101.8 FPS) shows diminishing returns. The most interesting recommendation is 1080p Medium at 498.2 FPS, which is 56.2% faster than 1080p Ultra while likely looking nearly identical in this art style.

For users with 144Hz displays, the 4K High preset at 143.7 FPS is the sweet spot, since it exactly matches the refresh rate. For 240Hz displays, 1440p High at 277.6 FPS is the recommended choice, as it stays above the refresh threshold with headroom to spare.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the scaling characteristics of this combo. At High settings, performance scales from 442.2 FPS at 1080p to 277.6 FPS at 1440p (a 37.2% reduction) and then to 143.7 FPS at 4K (a 67.5% reduction from 1080p). This indicates that the system becomes progressively more GPU-bound as resolution increases.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 557.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 437.1 FPS at 1440p and 225.9 FPS at 4K. The fact that 1080p Low still cannot exceed 557.1 FPS suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at low resolutions, since the RTX 5090 is theoretically capable of far higher frame rates.

The ratio between 1080p and 4K performance varies by settings: at Low, the 4K FPS is 40.5% of 1080p FPS, while at Ultra, it is 32.4%. This shows that at Ultra settings, the GPU is more fully utilized, making the resolution scaling more pronounced. The data clearly indicates that the RTX 5090's massive compute resources are the primary driver of performance at 4K, while the 11400F's 6 cores and 12 threads become the constraint at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 51st out of 1702 tested combinations, placing it in the top 3% of all systems. This is a remarkable result given that the Intel Core i5-11400F is an end-of-life desktop processor from the Rocket Lake generation, while the RTX 5090 is the current flagship GPU. The ranking reflects the GPU's dominance, as the CPU's percentile rank of 75 is significantly lower than the GPU's 94.

The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84306 is nearly five times higher than the 11400F's average score of 17181, confirming that the GPU is the primary driver of this combo's high ranking. The 51st position suggests that while the GPU is top-tier, the CPU prevents the combo from reaching the absolute top of the leaderboard, where systems likely pair the 5090 with newer, higher-end processors.

In the context of Barony specifically, this ranking means the combo outperforms 97% of all tested systems. The measured FPS data supports this: even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains 101.8 FPS, which is above the 100 FPS threshold that many users consider the minimum for smooth gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, featuring 21760 shading units and 176 ROPs. Its boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz drive a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for any game.

The GPU's measured performance in Barony shows its strength: at 1080p Low, it pushes 557.1 FPS, and even at 4K Ultra, it maintains 101.8 FPS. The difference between Ultra and Low at 4K (101.8 vs 225.9 FPS) demonstrates that the GPU has substantial headroom, and the settings are the primary factor in frame rate variation.

The RTX 5090's FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS is the key specification driving these results, as Barony's roguelike rendering relies heavily on raw shader performance. The GPU's 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores are less relevant for this title, but they ensure future-proofing for more demanding games. The GPU's benchmark scores, including a Passmark G3D score of 39650, place it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system achieves its highest frame rates: 557.1 FPS on Low, 498.2 FPS on Medium, 442.2 FPS on High, and 314.2 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 242.9 FPS reduction, which represents a 43.6% performance drop. This is the resolution where the CPU's limitations are most apparent, as the GPU is capable of far higher frame rates.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains excellent: 437.1 FPS on Low, 320.9 FPS on Medium, 277.6 FPS on High, and 196.8 FPS on Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each settings tier is substantial, ranging from 21.5% at Low to 37.4% at Ultra, indicating that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are still impressive: 225.9 FPS on Low, 171.8 FPS on Medium, 143.7 FPS on High, and 101.8 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration that falls below 120 FPS, but it remains above 100 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience. The difference between 4K Low and 4K Ultra is 124.1 FPS, the largest absolute gap between settings at any resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s of dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but the data shows they are sufficient for Barony. The CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2029 and a Passmark single-thread score of 2981, is the critical factor for this game's frame pacing.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are reflected in its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and Geekbench multicore score of 7579. In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low where the system achieves 557.1 FPS, suggesting that the CPU's single-thread performance (868 in 3DMark single-thread) is the limiting factor. The 11400F's average benchmark score of 17181 places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being mobile processors like the Ryzen 7 5700U and Core i7-1260P.

The performance difference between 1080p and 1440p at the same settings reveals the CPU's influence. At Low settings, the drop from 557.1 FPS at 1080p to 437.1 FPS at 1440p is 120 FPS, which is primarily due to increased GPU load rather than CPU limitation. However, the fact that 1080p Low cannot exceed 557.1 FPS indicates that the CPU is the bottleneck at this resolution, as the RTX 5090's raw compute would otherwise push frame rates much higher.