Barony

Barony, a roguelike with a 2015 release, presents an interesting benchmark scenario when paired with the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. The measured data for this combination, ranking 597th out of 1702 tested configurations, reveals a system where the GPU is the primary driver of performance scaling across resolutions and settings, while the CPU provides a robust foundation that rarely becomes the limiting factor.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S family, running on the Intel Socket 1700 platform. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz can boost up to 4.40 GHz, and it draws a 65 W TDP. The processor's cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 18 MB L3 cache. This configuration places the i5-12400 in the 77th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19850.

In synthetic tests, the i5-12400 demonstrates strong scaling from single to multi-threaded workloads. Its 3DMark single-thread score is 910, which rises to 1692 for two threads, 3012 for four threads, and 4745 for eight threads, eventually reaching 5890 at max threads. This scaling pattern indicates that the processor can efficiently utilize its cores, though the incremental gains diminish as more threads are added. Cinebench results reinforce this, with the R23 multicore score of 15935 significantly outpacing the single-core score of 2249.

The processor's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores 19831 (a 0.1% delta), and the Intel Core i7-8700 at 19894 (a -0.2% delta). The i5-12400 sits almost exactly between these two older i7 parts, with a 0.4% advantage over the Intel Core i5-11600K's 19771 score. For Barony, a game that is not typically CPU-bound, the i5-12400's 12 threads provide ample headroom. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 436.9 FPS, a figure that is more likely constrained by the game engine's frame pacing or the GPU's rendering pipeline than by the CPU's processing capacity, given that the processor's multithreaded PassMark score of 18747 is substantial for a roguelike title.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a high-end graphics card built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, utilizing the Navi 21 chip manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 1825 MHz, with a boost clock of 2250 MHz and a game clock of 2015 MHz. The 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 20.74 TFLOPS.

This GPU sits in the 87th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49982. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, which scores 48704 (a 2.6% delta in favor of the RX 6800 XT), and the NVIDIA RTX A1000 at 50826 (a -1.7% delta). In DirectX benchmarks, the card achieves a PassMark G3D score of 24980, while its compute score is 13245. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is particularly relevant for Barony, as the game's procedural generation and tile-based rendering can benefit from having ample memory for textures and assets, though the measured FPS suggests that raw rasterization throughput is the more dominant factor.

The GPU's performance in Barony at 4K Ultra, where it averages 69 FPS, shows that even a card with this level of compute power is challenged by the highest settings at the highest resolution. The transition from 1080p Ultra (196.9 FPS) to 4K Ultra (69 FPS) represents a reduction of roughly 65%, which is a substantial drop that underscores the GPU's role as the primary performance limiter in this configuration.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 436.9 FPS, which falls to 275.5 FPS at 1440p and 141.9 FPS at 4K. This represents a 36.9% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 48.5% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scale of these reductions indicates that the RX 6800 XT is being pushed progressively harder as pixel count increases, with the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth becoming the bottleneck.

For High settings, the pattern is similar: 277.4 FPS at 1080p, 172.6 FPS at 1440p, and 94.5 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 37.8%, and from 1440p to 4K is 45.3%. The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings suggests that the GPU's workload scales predictably with resolution, independent of the quality preset. This is a hallmark of a system where the CPU is not imposing a significant constraint, as a CPU-bound scenario would show diminishing FPS differences at higher resolutions where the GPU becomes the sole limiter.

At Ultra settings, the FPS values are 196.9 at 1080p, 127.3 at 1440p, and 69 at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 35.3%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 45.8%. The fact that the 4K Ultra result (69 FPS) is less than half of the 1080p Ultra result (196.9 FPS) confirms that the GPU's compute resources are the determining factor. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect the 4K result to be closer to the 1080p result in absolute terms, as the CPU's work per frame does not increase with resolution. The data clearly shows the opposite, with the GPU being the dominant constraint across all tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The benchmark data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 436.9 FPS, Medium settings yield 324.8 FPS, High settings achieve 277.4 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 196.9 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 54.9% reduction in FPS, which is a substantial impact from quality settings alone.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected decline. Low settings average 275.5 FPS, Medium settings achieve 204.3 FPS, High settings reach 172.6 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 127.3 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 53.8%, which is slightly less than the drop at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's workload is becoming more uniform as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the performance scales down further. Low settings still deliver a playable 141.9 FPS, Medium settings achieve 107.5 FPS, High settings produce 94.5 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 69 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra reduction at 4K is 51.4%, which is the smallest percentage drop across all resolutions. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is operating closer to its saturation point, where the relative impact of quality settings diminishes because the pixel throughput is already the primary bottleneck.

The data shows that the system is capable of exceeding 60 FPS at all settings and resolutions tested, with the sole exception of 4K Ultra, which sits at 69 FPS. For a roguelike game, where precise timing and reaction are less critical than in competitive shooters, these frame rates are more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. The 4K Ultra result, while lower, still clears the 60 FPS threshold, making this combination a viable option for high-resolution play.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12400 compare to its closest rivals in overall CPU performance?

A: The i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, which puts it 0.1% above the Intel Core i7-9700 (19831) and 0.4% above the Intel Core i5-11600K (19771). It trails the Intel Core i7-8700 by 0.2% (19894) and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX by 0.4% (19928).

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile and how does it stack against the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49982. It outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, which scores 48704, by a margin of 2.6%.

Q: What is the maximum FPS achieved by this system, and under what conditions?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 436.9, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is more than double the 4K Low result of 141.9 FPS, highlighting the significant impact of resolution on performance.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the system drop below 100 FPS?

A: The system falls below 100 FPS only at 4K resolution. At 4K High, it averages 94.5 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it averages 69 FPS. All other tested configurations exceed 100 FPS, with the lowest non-4K result being 127.3 FPS at 1440p Ultra.

Q: What does the FPS difference between 1080p and 4K indicate about the system's bottleneck?

A: The large FPS drop from 1080p to 4K, such as from 277.4 FPS to 94.5 FPS at High settings, indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component. The CPU's performance does not scale with resolution, so the consistent FPS reductions across all settings point to the GPU's rendering workload as the main constraint.

Q: How does the system's rank in Barony compare to other tested configurations?

A: This CPU-GPU combination ranks 597th out of 1702 tested configurations in Barony, placing it in the upper third of all tested systems. This rank reflects a balance of high-end GPU performance and capable mid-range CPU power, resulting in strong overall frame rates.