Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i5-12400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The measured frame rates for this combination in Barony reveal a system that scales dramatically with resolution and settings, with the 1080p Low preset reaching 506.2 FPS while the 4K Ultra preset drops to 76.9 FPS. This 6.6x spread between the fastest and slowest configurations indicates a workload that shifts between CPU-bound and GPU-bound territory depending on the chosen parameters. The data suggests that Barony, despite its roguelike heritage, presents a surprisingly demanding rendering pipeline at higher settings, making this pairing capable of either esports-tier responsiveness or visually rich 4K gameplay depending on user priorities.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings presets, but the rate of decline reveals important information about the limiting component. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 506.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 165.5 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction to roughly one-third of the original performance. This steep decline indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU becomes increasingly burdened as pixel count rises, though the absolute numbers remain high enough to suggest the CPU still has headroom at 1080p.

Moving to High settings, the scaling shows 324.3 FPS at 1080p dropping to 202.1 FPS at 1440p, then further to 107.5 FPS at 4K. The incremental drop from 1440p to 4K (approximately 47% reduction) is larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (approximately 38% reduction), suggesting that the RTX 5070's rendering pipeline becomes progressively less efficient as fill-rate demands increase. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 229.7 FPS at 1080p, 143.9 FPS at 1440p, and 76.9 FPS at 4K, with each resolution step costing roughly 35-47% of the previous performance.

The data implies that at 1080p, particularly with Low or Medium settings, the Core i5-12400 is likely the primary constraint—the 506.2 FPS Low result far exceeds what most displays can show, indicating the CPU is pushing frames as fast as the render thread allows. At 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with only 76.9 FPS achieved. The 4K Medium result of 125.9 FPS versus 4K High at 107.5 FPS shows that the GPU has limited headroom at this resolution regardless of minor setting adjustments.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combination?

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 506.2, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This represents the absolute ceiling of the data set, with the 1080p Medium preset reaching 379.2 FPS and 1080p High at 324.3 FPS.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, all measured 4K presets exceed 60 FPS. The lowest result is 76.9 FPS at Ultra settings, while Medium achieves 125.9 FPS, High reaches 107.5 FPS, and Low tops out at 165.5 FPS at 3840x2160.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals based on average benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5070's average benchmark score of 41687 places it 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300. It trails the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by 0.5% and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X by 0.7%, indicating near-parity among this group.

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

A: The Core i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-9700 and 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-11600K. It sits 0.2% below the Intel Core i7-8700 and 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX.

Q: What frame rate difference exists between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 321.8 FPS while Ultra produces 143.9 FPS. This represents a 177.9 FPS difference, with Medium at 239.9 FPS and High at 202.1 FPS filling the gap between the extremes.

Q: Does the GPU's VRAM capacity appear sufficient for Barony at maximum settings?

A: The RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory, and the measured results show playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra (76.9 FPS). The data does not indicate any VRAM-related performance cliffs, suggesting the 12 GB capacity is adequate for this game's demands at all tested configurations.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 achieves a combo rank of 362 out of 1702 tested combinations in Barony, placing it in the top 21.3% of all pairings in the database. This ranking reflects the balance between the CPU's 77th percentile standing among all processors and the GPU's 83rd percentile among all graphics cards, with the integrated performance landing slightly below what the individual percentiles might suggest. The gap between component rankings and combo ranking implies that Barony's engine may not fully utilize the potential of this pairing, likely due to the game's 2015 release date predating the architectural features of both components.

The rank of 362 indicates that while this is a strong performer, there are 361 combinations that achieve higher average frame rates in this specific game. Given that the RTX 5070's benchmark scores place it statistically indistinguishable from the RTX 3090 (0.6% delta), the combo ranking likely reflects CPU-side limitations at lower resolutions where the i5-12400's 6 cores and 12 threads become the constraining factor. At higher resolutions where the GPU dominates, the pairing should perform more consistently with its component rankings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings produces results from 229.7 FPS (Ultra) to 506.2 FPS (Low). The Medium preset delivers 379.2 FPS and High reaches 324.3 FPS. These numbers indicate that even the most demanding 1080p configuration exceeds 200 FPS, making this resolution entirely GPU-limited at Ultra while potentially CPU-limited at lower presets given the extreme frame rates involved.

The 2560x1440 measurements show a more compressed range: Low produces 321.8 FPS, Medium 239.9 FPS, High 202.1 FPS, and Ultra 143.9 FPS. The step from High to Ultra at this resolution costs 58.2 FPS, which is the largest single-preset drop in the 1440p data. At 3840x2160, the spread narrows further: Low yields 165.5 FPS, Medium 125.9 FPS, High 107.5 FPS, and Ultra 76.9 FPS. The 4K results show the smallest proportional differences between presets, suggesting the GPU is consistently the bottleneck at this resolution across all quality levels.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 brings 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2512 MHz and base clock of 2325 MHz drive 6144 shading units across 192 texture mapping units and 80 raster output pipelines. The GPU's 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores provide the architectural foundation for DirectX 12 Ultimate support, which Barony can leverage despite its older release date.

The measured frame rates show the GPU operating well within its capabilities, with the largest performance gap appearing between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings (184.4 FPS difference). The 4K Ultra result of 76.9 FPS demonstrates that the GPU can handle the most demanding configuration in this test, though the 5 nm process and 31,100 million transistors suggest the card is running at moderate efficiency given the 250 W TDP. The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs aligns with its performance class, and the benchmark data shows it competing closely with the RTX 3090 despite the generational difference in architecture.

Settings Recommendations

For users prioritizing maximum frame rates, the 1080p Low preset at 506.2 FPS represents the absolute performance ceiling, though this configuration sacrifices visual quality for speed. The Medium preset at 1080p offers a more balanced experience at 379.2 FPS, providing 75% of the Low preset's performance while likely improving visual fidelity substantially. At 1440p, the Medium preset at 239.9 FPS appears to be the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate displays, delivering smooth gameplay while maintaining reasonable image quality.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 125.9 FPS offers the best balance between visual quality and performance, as the jump to High only costs 18.4 FPS but the jump to Ultra costs an additional 30.6 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K remains viable at 76.9 FPS for users with 60 Hz displays, but the diminishing returns from High to Ultra suggest that High at 107.5 FPS provides the most efficient use of GPU resources at this resolution. The data indicates that Medium settings across all resolutions consistently offer the most favorable performance-to-quality tradeoff in this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 features 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core provide the memory hierarchy needed for game workloads. The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-thread performance (3456 in Passmark single-thread) and capable multi-thread performance (15935 in Cinebench R23 multicore), which are relevant for Barony's roguelike simulation logic.

The CPU's 77th percentile ranking among all processors places it above the i7-9700 by 0.1% and the i5-11600K by 0.4% in average benchmark scores. In the measured game data, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p Low settings where the 506.2 FPS result likely approaches the engine's maximum frame rate ceiling. The 3dmark scores—910 single-thread, 1692 for 2 threads, 3012 for 4 threads, 4745 for 8 threads, and 5890 for max threads—indicate that the CPU scales reasonably well with thread count, though the 6-core/12-thread configuration shows diminishing returns beyond 8 threads. For a game from 2015, the single-thread performance is likely the more critical factor, and the CPU's 910 3dmark single-thread score suggests it handles Barony's per-frame logic efficiently.