Barony

The Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination delivers remarkably high frame rates in Barony, a roguelike title that clearly favors raw GPU throughput at higher resolutions while remaining highly playable even at 4K. The data reveals a system that scales predictably with settings, though the performance gap between presets widens significantly as resolution increases, indicating where the GPU becomes the primary constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent scaling pattern across the three tested resolutions. At 1080p, the combo achieves a staggering 286.8 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 213.0 FPS on Medium, 183.3 FPS on High, and 133.6 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 1440p yields 182.7 FPS (Low), 135.6 FPS (Medium), 115.7 FPS (High), and 83.7 FPS (Ultra). At 4K, the performance drops further to 97.3 FPS (Low), 67.6 FPS (Medium), 63.2 FPS (High), and 41.2 FPS (Ultra).

The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows an average reduction of roughly 36-37% across all settings. However, the jump from 1440p to 4K is more punishing: Low settings lose about 47% of their frame rate, Medium loses about 50%, High loses 45%, and Ultra loses 51%. This disproportionate drop at 4K strongly suggests the RTX 3060 Ti becomes the limiting factor at that resolution, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, Ultra is 53.4% slower than Low; at 1440p, that gap shrinks to 54.2%; but at 4K, Ultra is a full 57.7% slower than Low. This pattern indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even modest settings changes have outsized impacts on the final frame rate.

GPU Role

The RTX 3060 Ti brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock of 1410 MHz and boost clock of 1665 MHz, combined with 4864 shading units, deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS. These specifications position the card at the 69th percentile of all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25120.

In Barony, the GPU's memory bandwidth appears crucial for maintaining playable frame rates at 4K Ultra. The 41.2 FPS at that setting is just below the 60 FPS threshold, and the data suggests that the 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this title, as no out-of-memory stutter is evident in the measured averages. The card's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, scores 25180 on average — a delta of -0.2% — indicating these two GPUs perform nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks, though Barony's specific workload may favor one architecture over the other.

The performance hierarchy within the settings presets reveals that the RTX 3060 Ti's texture and pixel throughput (253.1 GTexel/s and 133.2 GPixel/s respectively) are well-balanced for this game. The 4K Ultra result of 41.2 FPS versus the 1080p Ultra result of 133.6 FPS shows a 69.2% reduction, which aligns with the roughly 4x pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K, minus the gains from reduced CPU bottlenecking at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No. The measured average at 3840x2160 Ultra is 41.2 FPS, which falls short of the 60 FPS target. To reach 60 FPS at 4K, you would need to drop to High settings (63.2 FPS average).

Q: How much faster is Low settings compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings achieve 286.8 FPS average versus 133.6 FPS on Ultra — a 114.7% performance advantage for Low settings.

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

A: 1440p offers the best balance, with High settings delivering 115.7 FPS and even Ultra hitting 83.7 FPS. This provides a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining high refresh rates.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low (286.8 FPS), the frame rate is so high that the CPU likely becomes the limiting factor. The Intel Core i5-12400F's 6 cores and 12 threads, boosting to 4.40 GHz, handle the game logic, but the GPU cannot render frames faster than the CPU can submit them.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti scores 25120 on average, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (25180). This places them effectively at parity, though real-world game performance may vary.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High at 1440p?

A: Medium averages 135.6 FPS while High averages 115.7 FPS — a 17.2% difference favoring Medium settings, which may be worth considering for competitive play.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 1186th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the 30th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects that Barony is not particularly demanding, and many higher-end combos achieve similar or better results, but the 3060 Ti's 69th percentile GPU score and the i5-12400F's 77th percentile CPU score show that this combo is well-matched for the game.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 19221 puts it just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210) and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-1335U (19167). The GPU's relative parity with the RX 6700M and RX 6600 (deltas of -0.2% and -0.5% respectively) suggests that in Barony, this combo should perform very close to those alternative pairings, though the measured data for this specific configuration is what matters most.

Given that the combo ranks 1186th out of 1702, there are 516 configurations that score higher. However, considering the game's release in 2015, this modern combo comfortably exceeds the requirements for smooth gameplay, and the ranking reflects the broad field of tested systems rather than any deficiency in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 286.8 FPS (Low), 213.0 FPS (Medium), 183.3 FPS (High), and 133.6 FPS (Ultra). The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent 20-25% reduction per step, with the largest drop occurring between High and Ultra (a 27.1% reduction).

At 2560x1440, the results are 182.7 FPS (Low), 135.6 FPS (Medium), 115.7 FPS (High), and 83.7 FPS (Ultra). The percentage gaps between settings are similar to 1080p, but the absolute differences are smaller, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 97.3 FPS (Low), 67.6 FPS (Medium), 63.2 FPS (High), and 41.2 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-60 FPS measurement in the entire dataset, making it the sole configuration that fails to maintain a smooth experience.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a minimum, the data shows that 4K Ultra is the only setting that fails to meet this threshold, averaging 41.2 FPS. The best experience at 4K is High settings, which delivers 63.2 FPS — just above the 60 FPS target while providing most of the visual fidelity.

At 1440p, Ultra settings (83.7 FPS) are fully playable and offer the best visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. This resolution provides a 37.4% frame rate improvement over 4K Ultra while still delivering excellent image clarity.

For esports-style play on high refresh rate monitors, 1080p Low settings (286.8 FPS) or 1080p Medium (213.0 FPS) are the optimal choices, as they far exceed 144Hz and 240Hz display capabilities. The 1080p High setting (183.3 FPS) also clears 144Hz easily, making it a strong recommendation for players who want a balance of visuals and speed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F features 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture chip, built on Intel's 10 nm process, has 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 80 KB of L1 cache per core. Its benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518 and a single-core score of 2332, with a Geekbench multicore score of 9138.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the 286.8 FPS result suggests the processor is capable of feeding the GPU far faster than the GPU can render at higher resolutions. The single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 909) is particularly relevant for a roguelike, as these games often have significant single-threaded game logic.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 77th among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 19221, confirms it is a solid mid-range performer. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, scores 19210 (0.1% difference), showing that this 12th-gen chip matches a previous-generation high-end processor in overall capability. The data indicates that for Barony, the CPU is rarely the bottleneck except at the lowest resolution and settings, where the extreme frame rates exceed what the GPU can sustain.