Barony

Barony, a roguelike from 2015, presents an interesting benchmark case for the Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060. The measured data shows a configuration that scales predictably across resolutions and presets, with the CPU demonstrating strong headroom in lower-load scenarios. The i5-12400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads boosting up to 4.40 GHz, sits in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, while the RTX 2060, based on the Turing architecture, holds the 58th percentile among GPUs. The measured frame rates reveal that this pairing is capable of high refresh rate gameplay at 1080p and remains playable at 4K with adjusted settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination delivers an average of 169.7 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 16074, which is 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7600S's score of 15996. This performance delta is minimal, indicating near-identical overall compute capability.

Q: What is the maximum average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The highest average frame rate is 263.6 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Is the i5-12400F's benchmark score closer to the Intel Core i7-8700K or the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS?

A: The i5-12400F's average benchmark score is 19221. It is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 0.7% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (19364). The i7-8700K is the closer rival in terms of raw score.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this configuration?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 38.6 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the RTX 2060 support hardware ray tracing?

A: Yes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 includes 30 dedicated RT cores, which are part of its Turing architecture for hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the primary driver for Barony's rendering workload, and its specifications directly influence the measured frame rates. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, paired with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. This memory configuration provides a bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for the texture and geometry data typical of a roguelike's procedurally generated dungeons. The GPU's 1920 shading units and 48 ROPs handle the pixel output, with a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s that becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The data shows that the RTX 2060's performance ceiling is tested most at 4K resolution. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 52.5 on High settings, and falls further to 38.6 on Ultra. This indicates that the GPU's 6 GB frame buffer and compute throughput are being heavily taxed, as the pixel count quadruples compared to 1080p. In contrast, the CPU's role appears secondary in these high-resolution scenarios. The i5-12400F's single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3dmark single-thread score of 909 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2332, provides ample headroom for game logic, but the RTX 2060 becomes the bottleneck when pushing 4K pixels.

The GPU's compute capabilities, measured at 6.451 TFLOPS for FP32, show a clear correlation with the FPS scaling. When the settings are dropped from Ultra to Low at 4K, the average FPS nearly doubles from 38.6 to 88.5, demonstrating that the GPU's shading and texture units are the main constraint. The RTX 2060's 120 texture mapping units and 240 tensor cores also contribute to the overall rendering pipeline, but the measured results suggest that raw rasterization throughput, not AI-assisted features, dictates performance in Barony. The data indicates that for this game, the RTX 2060's 6 GB VRAM is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the memory capacity and bandwidth become marginal, especially on higher presets.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings balance depends heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 169.7 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth 144Hz gameplay. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 192 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains a solid 117.3 FPS average. For 1080p users, the High or Ultra presets are recommended, as they provide the best visual quality while still maintaining frame rates that exceed most display refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, the High preset produces an average of 102.6 FPS, which is ideal for 100Hz or 144Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 1440p achieves 122.4 FPS, offering a slight performance boost with minimal visual compromise. However, the Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 77.9 FPS, which is still playable but may not fully utilize high refresh rate displays. For 1440p, the High or Medium presets are the sweet spot, balancing visual fidelity with the headroom needed for consistent frame pacing.

For 3840x2160, the data shows that only the Low preset provides a comfortable experience, with an average of 88.5 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K yields 66.9 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced roguelike gameplay, but the High preset drops to 52.5 FPS and Ultra falls to 38.6 FPS. Given that Barony is a turn-based roguelike with real-time elements, a stable 60 FPS is recommended. Therefore, the Medium preset is the highest setting that maintains near-60 FPS at 4K, while Low is the safest choice for ensuring no dips below that threshold. The data suggests that 4K users should prioritize Medium or Low to avoid the significant performance penalty of the Ultra preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 263.6 FPS on Low, 192 FPS on Medium, 169.7 FPS on High, and 117.3 FPS on Ultra. This represents a steep drop of 146.3 FPS from Low to Ultra, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects significantly increase the GPU's workload. The 1080p results show a clear hierarchy where each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30% of the frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 163.1 FPS on Low, 122.4 FPS on Medium, 102.6 FPS on High, and 77.9 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 85.2 FPS, which is less severe in absolute terms than at 1080p but still represents a substantial 52% reduction. The 1440p data shows that the RTX 2060 can handle the resolution comfortably at lower presets, with even the High preset exceeding 100 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 88.5 FPS on Low, 66.9 FPS on Medium, 52.5 FPS on High, and 38.6 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 49.9 FPS, and the Ultra preset's 38.6 FPS average is the only measurement in the entire dataset that falls below the 40 FPS mark. This 4K data highlights the GPU's limitations at extreme resolutions, where the 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 192-bit bus become bottlenecks. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a nearly linear decline, suggesting that each preset level adds a similar amount of rendering complexity.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear trend of decreasing frame rates as resolution increases, which is expected given the GPU's fixed pixel throughput. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 169.7 to 102.6, a reduction of 39.5%. This scaling is consistent with the pixel count increase of approximately 78%, indicating that the RTX 2060 is the limiting component at these resolutions. The GPU's pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s is being utilized more fully as resolution increases, and the 6 GB frame buffer begins to fill with higher-resolution textures.

The jump from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at High settings shows a further drop from 102.6 to 52.5 FPS, a 48.8% reduction. This larger relative drop suggests that the RTX 2060 is hitting a harder wall at 4K, likely due to memory bandwidth constraints. The 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is spread across 8.3 million pixels at 4K, compared to 3.7 million at 1440p, and this increased demand per pixel reduces the effective throughput. The data indicates that the GPU's compute units are not the primary bottleneck; rather, the memory subsystem and ROP throughput are stretched thin.

At Low settings, the resolution scaling is more linear. From 1080p to 1440p, the FPS drops from 263.6 to 163.1 (38.1% reduction), and from 1440p to 4K, it drops to 88.5 (45.7% reduction). This pattern suggests that at Low settings, the reduced shading load allows the GPU to operate closer to its theoretical pixel rate, but the 4K resolution still imposes a significant penalty. The i5-12400F's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings, where the CPU's 3dmark max threads score of 5912 and Passmark multithread score of 19433 ensure that game logic is not a limiting factor. The data confirms that for this configuration, the RTX 2060 is the definitive bottleneck at 4K, while the CPU provides a solid foundation for high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.