Barony

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Barony reveals a dramatic scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 506.1 FPS, but this drops to 318.5 FPS at 1440p and further to 165.3 FPS at 4K. That represents a 67.3% reduction from 1080p Low to 4K Low, which is a substantial performance hit that suggests the GPU becomes progressively more stressed as pixel count rises.

The Ultra preset shows an even steeper decline: 233.8 FPS at 1080p, 148 FPS at 1440p, and 77.8 FPS at 4K. Interestingly, the drop from 1080p to 1440p Ultra is 36.7%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K Ultra is 47.4%. This accelerating decline indicates that at 4K Ultra, the RX 7900 XT is approaching its rendering limits, particularly with the demanding visual effects that the Ultra preset enables.

Looking at the Medium preset, the scaling tells a similar story: 379.1 FPS at 1080p, 238.7 FPS at 1440p, and 126.5 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 37.0% and 47.0% respectively, nearly identical to the Ultra pattern. This consistency across presets suggests that the limiting factor is primarily the GPU's raw rasterization throughput rather than any specific setting.

The High preset follows the same trend but with slightly different magnitudes: 325.1 FPS at 1080p, 205.3 FPS at 1440p, and 104.6 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 36.9%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 49.1%. These numbers indicate that even at High settings, the 4K resolution demands nearly double the GPU work per frame compared to 1440p.

The data reveals that Barony's engine scales predictably with resolution, with no anomalous bottlenecks at any specific setting. The fact that 4K Low (165.3 FPS) still exceeds 1440p Ultra (148 FPS) is noteworthy — it shows that resolution alone doesn't dominate performance as much as the combination of resolution and quality settings. This suggests that players on 4K displays have considerable flexibility: they can choose between high frame rates at lower quality or playable frame rates at maximum quality, with the GPU having enough headroom for either approach.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in Barony?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 506.1, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Low?

A: The 4K Ultra average is 77.8 FPS, which is 84.6% lower than the 506.1 FPS seen at 1080p Low. This represents the largest performance gap between any two measured configurations.

Q: Is the RX 7900 XT capable of running Barony at 4K High?

A: Yes, the measured data shows an average of 104.6 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings, which is well above typical playable thresholds.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations in Barony?

A: The combo ranks 341st out of 1702 tested combinations, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU become the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data indicates that at 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor — the 506.1 FPS Low result far exceeds what most displays can show, suggesting the CPU or engine limits frame rates at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the difference between 1440p Medium and 4K Medium?

A: The 1440p Medium average is 238.7 FPS, while 4K Medium is 126.5 FPS — a 47.0% reduction when moving to 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the primary driver of Barony's performance, and its specifications explain much of the measured behavior. With 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, the card delivers 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This large memory pool is more than sufficient for Barony's needs, even at 4K Ultra, where the game's procedural generation and tile-based rendering can create substantial memory demands.

The GPU's clock profile shows a base clock of 1387 MHz, a game clock of 2025 MHz, and a boost clock of 2394 MHz. The difference between base and boost clocks is substantial — 72.7% higher at peak — which indicates that the card can dynamically scale its performance based on thermal and power headroom. In Barony, where scenes can vary dramatically in complexity due to the roguelike's randomized dungeon generation, this boost behavior likely helps maintain consistent frame rates during intense combat sequences.

The RDNA 3.0 architecture with 5376 shading units and 192 ROPs provides the raw compute power needed for Barony's rendering. The 51.48 TFLOPS FP32 performance is particularly relevant, as Barony's visual style — while not high-end — still requires significant pixel throughput at high resolutions. The pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s directly correlate with the frame rates observed: at 4K Ultra, the 77.8 FPS result suggests the card is working near its texture-fetch and pixel-fill limits.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its strong position. The passmark G3D score of 29009 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, while its average benchmark score of 38358 puts it in close competition with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.0) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.6). This parity with high-end mobile GPUs is interesting, as the RX 7900 XT is a desktop card with a 300 W TDP, suggesting it trades some efficiency for raw performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce 506.1 FPS, Medium 379.1 FPS, High 325.1 FPS, and Ultra 233.8 FPS. The progression shows that each quality tier costs roughly 20-25% performance, with Ultra being the most demanding relative to High.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers remain high but show the expected reduction. Low yields 318.5 FPS, Medium 238.7 FPS, High 205.3 FPS, and Ultra 148 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 53.5%, which is slightly less than the 53.8% gap at 1080p, indicating that resolution scaling is consistent with quality scaling.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low produces 165.3 FPS, Medium 126.5 FPS, High 104.6 FPS, and Ultra 77.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 80 FPS, making it the most demanding scenario in the measured data. Even so, 77.8 FPS remains playable for most users, and the 4K High result of 104.6 FPS provides a comfortable margin.

The consistency across resolutions is remarkable: the ratio of Low to Ultra performance remains relatively stable (2.16x at 1080p, 2.15x at 1440p, 2.12x at 4K). This suggests that Barony's quality settings scale uniformly regardless of resolution, which simplifies optimization — players can expect the same relative performance trade-offs at any resolution they choose.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that High settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance for most users. At 4K, High delivers 104.6 FPS, which is 34.4% faster than Ultra's 77.8 FPS while offering marginally reduced visual fidelity. At 1440p, High's 205.3 FPS is well above the 148 FPS of Ultra, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate displays.

For competitive play or maximum frame rates, Low settings at 1080p offer 506.1 FPS — a figure that exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all gaming monitors. Even at 4K, Low produces 165.3 FPS, which is sufficient for 144 Hz displays and demonstrates that the GPU has substantial headroom when visual effects are minimized.

Medium settings represent a middle ground that may be preferable for users who want better visuals than Low without the performance cost of High. At 1440p, Medium's 238.7 FPS is 16.3% faster than High, while at 4K, Medium's 126.5 FPS is 20.9% faster than High. The visual difference between Medium and High in Barony is noticeable but not transformative, making Medium a viable option for those prioritizing frame rates.

Ultra settings should be reserved for users with 1080p or 1440p displays who prioritize visual quality above all else. At 1080p, Ultra's 233.8 FPS is still excellent, and at 1440p, 148 FPS remains playable. However, at 4K, the 77.8 FPS result may feel less smooth to sensitive players, making High the recommended choice for 4K displays.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F provides the computational backbone for this combo, and its specifications reveal why it doesn't bottleneck the RX 7900 XT in Barony. With 6 cores and 12 threads running at a 2.50 GHz base clock and 4.40 GHz boost, the CPU delivers strong single-threaded performance — critical for a roguelike where game logic, pathfinding, and procedural generation often run on limited threads.

The CPU's benchmark scores confirm its capability. The 3dmark single-thread score of 909 and passmark single-thread score of 3481 indicate robust per-core performance. In Barony, which likely doesn't scale perfectly across many threads, this single-thread strength is more important than raw multi-core throughput. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache also helps by keeping frequently accessed game data close to the cores.

The CPU's 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19221, places it in close competition with several notable processors. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, scores 19210 with a deltaPct of 0.1 — essentially identical performance. The AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS scores 19364 (deltaPct -0.7), while the AMD EPYC 7773X scores 18979 (deltaPct 1.3). This clustering suggests the i5-12400F sits in a well-populated performance tier.

At 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the 506.1 FPS result indicates that the CPU can feed frames faster than most displays can show. The 3dmark 16-thread score of 5895 and max-thread score of 5912 suggest that even when all threads are utilized, the CPU maintains consistent performance. The cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 further confirms that multi-threaded workloads are handled competently.

The data implies that Barony is not CPU-limited with this combo at any resolution or setting. The CPU's ability to sustain high frame rates even at 1080p Low — where GPU load is minimal — demonstrates that the i5-12400F has sufficient headroom for this game's computational demands.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 341st out of 1702 tested combinations in Barony, placing it in the 80th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong result, but not a top-tier one, which is surprising given the GPU's individual performance.

The RX 7900 XT alone ranks in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 38358, while the CPU ranks in the 77th percentile. The combo's 80th percentile ranking is roughly in line with these individual scores, suggesting that neither component is dragging the other down significantly. However, the fact that the GPU's nearest rivals include the RTX 5080 Mobile and RTX 4080 Mobile — both with deltaPct values under 1% — indicates that the GPU is highly competitive, yet the overall combo doesn't crack the top 20% of tested configurations.

This ranking gap may be explained by the nature of Barony itself. As a roguelike with procedurally generated dungeons, the game's performance can vary based on map complexity, enemy density, and particle effects. The measured FPS data shows a wide range across settings — from 506.1 FPS at 1080p Low to 77.8 FPS at 4K Ultra — which suggests that the game's engine has variable demands that don't always align with typical GPU benchmarks.

The 341st ranking out of 1702 combos means that 1361 other combinations performed better in this specific game. This could be due to combinations with faster CPUs that better handle Barony's single-threaded logic, or GPUs with higher raw throughput for the specific rendering paths Barony uses. The data indicates that while this combo is solidly above average, it doesn't reach the elite tier that the RX 7900 XT's individual benchmarks might suggest, making Barony a game where system balance matters more than raw component strength.