Barony

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers a playable experience in Barony, but the data clearly shows that the Ultra preset is the outlier, producing an average of only 20.5 FPS at 4K. For the best balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay, the High preset at 1080p is the definitive choice, yielding an average of 88.4 FPS. This combination is ranked 1613 out of 1702 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 6% and confirming that while it can run the game, it requires careful settings management to avoid performance dips.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows show a clear hierarchy, with the Ultra preset being the only one that becomes unplayable at higher resolutions. At 4K, Ultra drops to 20.5 FPS, which is below the standard threshold for smooth motion. The High preset, however, maintains a comfortable 30.6 FPS at 4K, which is just on the edge of playability for slower-paced roguelike gameplay. For the best experience, High at 1080p is the recommended preset, as it delivers an average of 88.4 FPS, which is more than sufficient for the game’s fast-paced dungeon crawling. Medium at 1080p is a viable alternative, producing 106.1 FPS, but the visual downgrade is not necessary given the CPU’s strength. Low at 1080p pushes the frame rate to 135.4 FPS, but this is excessive for a genre that does not require competitive refresh rates. The data indicates that High at 1080p is the sweet spot, offering a 46% improvement over Ultra at the same resolution. At 1440p, the High preset still delivers a respectable 57.4 FPS, making it a strong fallback if a higher resolution display is in use. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely, as even at 1080p it only reaches 60.6 FPS, which is barely acceptable and significantly worse than the 88.4 FPS of High.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for Barony at 1080p, but the data shows a steep decline as resolution increases. The GPU’s base clock is 1168 MHz, boosting to 1244 MHz, with a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. These specifications translate to a raw compute capability of 5.095 TFLOPS. The benchmark results indicate that the RX 570 is the limiting factor when moving from 1080p High (88.4 FPS) to 1440p High (57.4 FPS), a drop of 35%. The GPU’s 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests it is a mid-range part, but its performance in Barony is heavily dependent on resolution. At 4K, the GPU is clearly overwhelmed, as evidenced by the 30.6 FPS at High settings. The 4 GB memory capacity is not the issue here; rather, the raw shader throughput of 2048 shading units is insufficient for 4K rendering. The GPU’s DirectX 12 support (12_0) is sufficient for the game, but the architectural age of the Polaris 20 chip (GCN 4.0) shows in the scaling behavior. The FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS is what drives the frame rates, and the data suggests that this GPU is best utilized at 1080p where it can maintain above 88 FPS on High settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Barony?

A: The data shows that 1080p is the optimal resolution, with the High preset delivering 88.4 FPS and Medium at 106.1 FPS. At 1440p, the High preset drops to 57.4 FPS, which is still playable but less fluid.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever worth using with this hardware?

A: No, the Ultra preset is not recommended. At 1080p it only achieves 60.6 FPS, which is a 31% drop from High (88.4 FPS), and at 4K it falls to an unplayable 20.5 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 570’s 4 GB VRAM affect performance?

A: The 4 GB GDDR5 memory is not the primary constraint in Barony. The performance drop from 1080p High (88.4 FPS) to 4K High (30.6 FPS) is 65%, which is more consistent with a compute limitation than a memory capacity issue.

Q: Can this combo handle 1440p gaming?

A: Yes, but with compromises. The High preset at 1440p achieves 57.4 FPS, which is acceptable for a roguelike. The Medium preset at 1440p is slightly better at 64.9 FPS, but the Low preset at 89.2 FPS is the only one that approaches 1080p levels of smoothness.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 88.4 FPS. This is more than sufficient for the game’s turn-based-ish mechanics, which do not require high refresh rates.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1613 out of 1702 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5% of all systems tested. This is a low rank, but the game’s roguelike genre is not demanding, so the experience is still viable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Starting at 1080p, the RX 570 shows its strength. Low settings produce an average of 135.4 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p yields 106.1 FPS, a 22% reduction from Low. High at 1080p produces 88.4 FPS, which is a further 17% drop from Medium. Ultra at 1080p is the worst performer, hitting 60.6 FPS, a 31% reduction from High. Moving to 1440p, the pattern continues but with compressed margins. Low at 1440p achieves 89.2 FPS, which is nearly identical to High at 1080p (88.4 FPS). Medium at 1440p drops to 64.9 FPS, and High falls to 57.4 FPS. Ultra at 1440p is at 41.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K, the GPU is clearly overextended. Low at 4K is 44.3 FPS, Medium at 4K is 36.0 FPS, High at 4K is 30.6 FPS, and Ultra at 4K is 20.5 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: each preset step up reduces frame rate by 15-30%, and each resolution step up at the same preset reduces frame rate by 35-50%. The High preset at 1080p is the only configuration that offers both high visual quality and a frame rate above 85 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals the GPU as the limiting component. At High settings, the frame rate goes from 88.4 FPS at 1080p to 57.4 FPS at 1440p (a 35% drop) and then to 30.6 FPS at 4K (a 47% drop from 1440p). This scaling is not linear, indicating that the GPU’s fill rate and shader throughput are insufficient for the pixel count increase. The RX 570’s 32 ROPs and 128 TMUs are simply not enough to handle 4K’s 8.3 million pixels. In contrast, the CPU’s role here is minimal, as evidenced by the fact that the 1080p Low preset (135.4 FPS) is more than double the 4K Low preset (44.3 FPS). This 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K is entirely attributable to the GPU’s rendering limits. The data suggests that the i5-12400F is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as the GPU is always the first to hit its ceiling. The 4K results are uniformly below 45 FPS even on Low, which confirms that this resolution is not viable for this combo. The 1440p results are borderline, with only the Low preset exceeding 89 FPS. The sweet spot for this combo is clearly 1080p, where the GPU can maintain high frame rates across all presets except Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1613 out of 1702 tested combos places this system in the bottom 5% of all configurations. This rank is influenced by the GPU’s 74th percentile standing, but the CPU’s 77th percentile ranking is higher, suggesting that the GPU is the weak link. The nearest rival GPUs to the RX 570 are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (0.2% higher avg score) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (0.2% higher), which are both significantly more capable parts. This indicates that the RX 570 is at the lower edge of what is considered a modern GPU. The CPU, however, is much more competitive. The i5-12400F’s nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-8700K (0.1% higher avg score) and the Intel Core i5-1335U (0.3% higher), showing that the CPU is well-matched with CPUs from the previous generation. The low combo rank is not a surprise given the GPU’s age, but the game’s roguelike nature means that even a bottom-5% combo can provide a smooth experience at 1080p with the right settings. The rank is a reflection of raw hardware capability, not the actual game performance, which is acceptable at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache are more than sufficient for Barony’s procedural generation and entity logic. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 19221 indicate that it is a solid mid-range part. In this game, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that the 1080p Low preset achieves 135.4 FPS, which is likely near the engine’s maximum. The CPU’s single-thread performance, as measured by the 3dmark_single_thread score of 909, is strong enough to keep up with the GPU’s output. The multi-threaded performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518, but Barony is not a heavily threaded game. The CPU’s 4.40 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded tasks like game logic are handled quickly. The data shows that the CPU has headroom, as the frame rates are consistently GPU-limited at resolutions above 1080p. The i5-12400F’s 65W TDP and 10nm process are efficient, but these are not factors in the game’s performance. The CPU’s memory support for DDR4 and DDR5 is irrelevant here, as the GPU does not benefit from faster RAM in this title. Overall, the CPU is a capable partner for the RX 570, but it is not the component that defines the performance ceiling in Barony.