Barony

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Barony, a roguelike where reaction time and visual clarity can determine survival. The measured data reveals that the Ultra preset is the only setting tier that challenges the hardware, while High offers an exceptional balance of fidelity and raw speed. Specifically, at 1440p, the Ultra preset yields an average of 115.1 FPS, whereas High jumps to 161.8 FPS—a substantial gap. At 4K, the difference is even more pronounced: High averages 85.3 FPS, while Ultra dips to 62.4 FPS. For players seeking the most responsive experience without sacrificing visual quality, the High preset is the clear recommendation. It maintains frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold at 4K and exceeds 160 FPS at 1440p, ensuring the game remains smooth and precise even in dense dungeon environments. The Medium preset is a viable fallback for those prioritizing raw speed, delivering 193.1 FPS at 1440p and 101.9 FPS at 4K, but the visual downgrade from High is not justified by the performance gain. The Low preset, while capable of hitting 256.6 FPS at 1440p, strips too much detail from a game that relies on environmental cues for depth and enemy awareness.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, built on the Ampere architecture with an 8 nm process, is the primary driver of Barony's performance across all tested resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game's texture-heavy procedurally generated environments. The GPU's boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with its 6144 shading units, allows it to handle the game's dynamic lighting and particle effects without stutter. The data indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti is not the limiting factor until the Ultra preset is engaged at 4K, where the average FPS drops to 62.4. This suggests the card's raw compute power (21.75 TFLOPS FP32) is ample for Barony's requirements, but the Ultra preset's increased draw distances and shadow complexity begin to tax the memory subsystem. Interestingly, the GPU's PassMark G3D score of 23356 places it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon RX 6700 and NVIDIA Quadro M5000—show a deltaPct of -0.8% and -0.9% respectively, indicating the 3070 Ti is essentially on par with these competitors in synthetic tests. However, in Barony, the combination with the i5-12400F clearly overperforms synthetic expectations, suggesting the game's engine is well-optimized for the Ampere architecture.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern of diminishing returns, but the magnitude of the drop is telling. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 260.7 at 1080p to 161.8 at 1440p (a 38% reduction) and then to 85.3 at 4K (a 47% reduction from 1440p). This steep curve indicates that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU's workload remains relatively constant regardless of pixel count. The Low preset shows an even more extreme scaling: 409.6 FPS at 1080p drops to 256.6 FPS at 1440p and then to 135.1 FPS at 4K. The fact that the 4K Low result (135.1 FPS) is still well above the 1080p Ultra result (185.4 FPS) demonstrates that the RTX 3070 Ti has substantial headroom, but the Ultra preset's demands at 4K (62.4 FPS) are approaching the limits of the card's memory bandwidth. The data suggests that Barony is not heavily CPU-bound at 1080p, as the i5-12400F's single-thread score of 909 in 3DMark and 3481 in PassMark single-thread are sufficient to feed the GPU. Instead, the scaling pattern points to the GPU's pixel fill rate (169.9 GPixel/s) and texture rate (339.8 GTexel/s) as the key constraints when resolution increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 185.4 on Ultra to 409.6 on Low, with High at 260.7 and Medium at 304.1. This spread is significant, showing that even at 1080p, the Ultra preset imposes a 29% performance penalty over High. Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers shift: Ultra averages 115.1 FPS, High 161.8, Medium 193.1, and Low 256.6. The 1440p data is particularly interesting because it shows the Ultra preset still maintains a playable frame rate, but the gap between Ultra and High (46.7 FPS) is larger than the gap between High and Medium (31.3 FPS), suggesting the Ultra preset's additional effects are disproportionately expensive. At 3840x2160, the hierarchy compresses: Ultra drops to 62.4 FPS, High to 85.3, Medium to 101.9, and Low to 135.1. The 4K Ultra result is the only data point that falls below 60 FPS, which is a critical threshold for smooth gameplay. The scaling from Medium to Low at 4K (101.9 to 135.1 FPS) represents a 32.5% improvement, whereas the same transition at 1080p (304.1 to 409.6) shows a 34.7% improvement, indicating the performance gains from lowering settings are consistent across resolutions, though the absolute headroom shrinks at higher pixel counts.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global context of tested hardware combinations for Barony, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 668th out of 1702 combos. This places it in the 60th percentile of all tested systems, which is a strong showing given the hardware's age and mid-range positioning. The rank is particularly noteworthy because the individual components have mixed benchmark standings: the CPU sits in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 74th percentile. The fact that the combo ranks slightly above what either component's percentile would suggest indicates that the pairing is well-balanced for Barony's specific workload. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, has a deltaPct of 0.1%, meaning the i5-12400F is effectively identical in synthetic benchmarks, yet the i5's newer Alder Lake architecture with 6 cores and 12 threads provides better single-thread performance (2332 in Cinebench R23 single-core) that likely benefits the game's AI and procedural generation logic. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700, shows a deltaPct of -0.8%, but the RTX 3070 Ti's superior ray tracing and tensor cores (48 and 192 respectively) may offer advantages in Barony's lighting effects, even though the game is not known for ray tracing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads based on Alder Lake architecture, plays a supporting but crucial role in Barony's performance. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with a 65 W TDP, provide sufficient processing power for the game's roguelike mechanics, which involve complex procedural generation, pathfinding for enemies, and inventory management systems. The CPU's 3DMark scores paint a clear picture: single-thread performance is 909, while 16-thread performance is 5895, indicating strong scaling across cores. In Barony, the data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as evidenced by the fact that FPS scales almost linearly with GPU workload. At 1080p Low, the CPU manages to feed the GPU to achieve 409.6 FPS, which is well beyond what most displays can show. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 19433 and single-thread score of 3481 are respectable for a 12th-gen chip, but its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, has a deltaPct of only 0.1%, showing that generational improvements have been incremental in raw throughput. However, the i5-12400F's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide flexibility that older platforms lack, which may contribute to more consistent frame times in Barony's dynamically loaded dungeon tiles. The CPU's production status is Active, and its launch MSRP is $174, but the benchmark data shows that it punches above its price class in this game.

FAQ

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

A: The High preset offers the best balance, delivering 260.7 FPS at 1080p, 161.8 FPS at 1440p, and 85.3 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset drops below 60 FPS at 4K (62.4 FPS) and provides diminishing returns over High.

*Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti's VRAM affect Barony at 4K?*

A: The 8 GB of GDDR6X memory with 608.3 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for all presets at 4K. The lowest 4K result (62.4 FPS on Ultra) is not a VRAM limitation but rather a compute and bandwidth constraint, as the Low preset at 4K achieves 135.1 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings. Evidence: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 409.6 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 62.4 FPS. The CPU's single-thread performance (909 in 3DMark) is sufficient to avoid limiting the GPU.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 668th out of 1702 tested combinations, placing it in the 60th percentile. This is higher than the individual component percentiles (CPU at 77th, GPU at 74th), indicating a synergistic pairing for Barony.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and High settings?

A: At 1440p, Medium averages 193.1 FPS compared to High's 161.8 FPS, a 19.3% improvement. At 4K, Medium averages 101.9 FPS versus High's 85.3 FPS, a 19.5% improvement. The consistent gap suggests the settings tier adds similar relative load across resolutions.

Q: Does the Ultra preset ever become playable at 4K?

A: Yes, at 62.4 FPS average, the Ultra preset at 4K is technically playable, but it is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS. For consistent 60+ FPS performance, High at 4K (85.3 FPS) is recommended.