Barony

The data for Barony, a roguelike released in 2015, shows that the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination delivers a wide range of frame rates depending on the resolution and preset. The measured rows provide a complete picture of performance scaling across twelve distinct configurations. The results indicate a system that is generally capable of high refresh rate play at 1080p, but which requires careful settings management at higher resolutions to maintain smooth gameplay. The benchmark results are consistent with the hardware's position in the broader market, where the CPU holds a 77th percentile ranking and the GPU sits at the 63rd percentile among their respective categories.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset for this combination depends entirely on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the data shows that the Ultra preset is the best experience, delivering an average of 129.5 FPS. This is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay and is only 81.7 FPS lower than the Low preset's 287.9 FPS, a difference that is unlikely to be perceptible in a roguelike where the visual fidelity of the Ultra preset adds value. The High preset at 1080p yields 186.2 FPS, and Medium produces 211 FPS, but the Ultra setting remains the most balanced choice for visual quality without sacrificing playability.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Ultra preset still maintains a playable average of 85.8 FPS. However, the High preset at 116.4 FPS offers a more substantial performance headroom, which is beneficial for maintaining consistency during intense gameplay moments. The data suggests that High is the recommended setting at this resolution, as it provides a 30.6 FPS advantage over Ultra while still presenting a visually rich scene. The Medium preset at 132.2 FPS is also viable, but it does not offer the same visual improvements as High for a relatively modest performance gain.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes significantly. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 41.5 FPS, which is below the threshold for a consistently smooth experience. The High preset at 58.2 FPS is marginally acceptable, but the Medium preset at 73.1 FPS is the clear recommendation for 4K. It provides a playable frame rate while retaining a reasonable level of visual detail. The Low preset at 95.3 FPS is the only other option that fully avoids performance concerns, but it sacrifices too much visual quality for a roguelike that benefits from clear environmental cues. Therefore, the best experience at 4K is achieved with the Medium preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1470 MHz with a boost clock of 1650 MHz, and it features 2176 shading units. The GPU's performance percentile of 63 indicates it sits above the median of all tested GPUs, yet its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, which has a 0.5% higher average score, and the older NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, which is 0.3% higher. This places the RTX 2060 SUPER in a competitive but not dominant position.

The benchmark results in Barony highlight the GPU's capacity at different resolutions. The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows the GPU scaling its workload effectively, with the High preset dropping from 186.2 FPS to 116.4 FPS, a 37.5% reduction. This indicates that the GPU is still the primary driver of performance at 1440p, as the CPU has sufficient headroom. However, the jump to 4K reveals the GPU's limitations. The High preset at 3840x2160 produces 58.2 FPS, which is a 50% drop from the 1440p result. The Ultra preset at 4K, yielding 41.5 FPS, shows that the 8 GB VRAM and the GPU's compute capabilities are strained by the higher pixel count. The data suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can maintain high frame rates, but it requires reduced settings to remain playable at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has an 18 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. The CPU's percentile ranking of 77 is notably higher than the GPU's, indicating that it is a stronger component relative to its peers. Its nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Core i7-9700, which is 0.1% faster, and the Intel Core i7-8700, which is 0.2% slower, showing that the i5-12400 is very closely matched with previous generation i7 parts.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080 with the Low preset, the combination achieves 287.9 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that suggests the game is not heavily CPU-bound in this scenario. The High preset at 1080p drops to 186.2 FPS, and the Ultra preset to 129.5 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as settings increase. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 910, is strong enough to keep up with the GPU's output. The data shows that at 1440p and 4K, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as the frame rate drops are proportional to the increased GPU load. The i5-12400's 12 threads provide ample processing power for the game's logic and AI, ensuring that the GPU is fully utilized across all tested configurations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1235 out of 1702 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the lower 27% of all combinations, which is a surprisingly low ranking given the individual strengths of the components. The CPU's 77th percentile and the GPU's 63rd percentile suggest that the pairing is not optimal for this specific game, or that the database includes many combinations with more powerful GPUs that are better suited to Barony's engine. The ranking indicates that while this combo is fully playable, it does not offer the top-tier performance that other pairings might achieve.

When interpreting this rank, it is important to note that it is relative to all other combos in the database, many of which may feature higher-end graphics cards. The RTX 2060 SUPER's nearest rivals, such as the RTX 2070, are only 0.5% faster on average, but the combo rank suggests that the pairing with the i5-12400 does not boost its standing. The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor in most scenarios, and a more powerful GPU would likely push this combo much higher in the rankings. The 1235th rank out of 1702 is a clear signal that this configuration is mid-pack, offering solid 1080p and 1440p performance but falling behind in the 4K Ultra segment where the frame rate dips to 41.5 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals clear scaling patterns across the three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are high across all settings, ranging from 129.5 FPS at Ultra to 287.9 FPS at Low. The drop from Low to Ultra is 158.4 FPS, which is a 55% reduction, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed by the higher visual settings even at 1080p. Moving to 2560x1440, the High preset average of 116.4 FPS is a 37.5% drop from the 1080p High result of 186.2 FPS. This scaling is consistent with the GPU's fill rate and pixel throughput limitations.

The most significant scaling occurs at 3840x2160. The High preset at 4K produces 58.2 FPS, which is a 50% reduction from the 1440p High result. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 41.5 FPS, a 51.6% decrease from the 1440p Ultra's 85.8 FPS. These sharp drops indicate that the GPU is the primary limiting component at 4K, as the CPU's performance does not degrade with resolution. The frame rate differences between 1080p and 4K are substantial, with the High preset falling from 186.2 FPS to 58.2 FPS, a 68.7% reduction. This data strongly suggests that the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for maintaining high frame rates at 4K, and that the i5-12400 has the processing power to handle the game's logic well beyond what the GPU can render at that resolution.