Barony

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 produces results that place this combination at rank 1626 out of 1702 tested combos in Barony. This places the pairing in the lower quarter of all tested configurations, indicating that while the hardware is functional for this roguelike, it does not deliver a top-tier experience at higher visual demands.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1626 out of 1702 demonstrates that this pairing struggles relative to the broader field of tested systems in Barony. This position is heavily influenced by the GPU’s age and the game’s rendering demands; the CPU scores well in synthetic benchmarks, but the overall frame output is capped by the graphics card. The data shows that at 1080p Ultra, the system manages 62.7 FPS, which is above playable thresholds, but the rank suggests that most other combinations achieve higher frame rates at similar settings. The gap between this combo and higher-ranked systems grows substantially at 4K, where even Low settings yield only 44.8 FPS. This rank is not a reflection of the CPU’s capability—the i5-12600KF holds an 84th percentile rank among all CPUs—but rather a direct consequence of the RX 570’s position at the 74th percentile among all GPUs. The combination’s overall standing is therefore a story of a strong processor held back by a modest graphics solution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the primary determinant of this combo’s performance ceiling. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which becomes a limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU’s base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz, combined with 2048 shading units, yield a peak FP32 throughput of 5.095 TFLOPS. In Barony, this translates to a clear pattern: the GPU’s memory capacity and compute power dictate frame rates more than the CPU’s capabilities. The 4 GB VRAM is particularly relevant because the game’s Ultra preset at 4K drops the average FPS to 19.7, a result that suggests the memory buffer is overwhelmed by texture and geometry data. At 1080p Low, the GPU can stretch to 138.1 FPS, but the steep decline to 62.7 FPS at Ultra indicates that the card’s 32 ROPs and 128 TMUs struggle with the increased fill-rate demands. The GPU’s 14 nm Polaris chip, while end-of-life, still provides adequate performance for lower presets, but the benchmark results make clear that this is a component designed for 1080p gaming, not high-refresh or high-resolution scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 102.8 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and only 35.3 FPS below the Low preset’s 138.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium yields 65 FPS, which remains smooth, while High at the same resolution drops to 56.2 FPS, introducing potential stutter on variable refresh displays. The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution: at 1080p it produces 62.7 FPS, at 1440p it falls to 42.7 FPS, and at 4K it becomes unplayable at 19.7 FPS. Low settings provide the highest frame rates, but the visual compromise is significant, especially at 4K where the game still only reaches 44.8 FPS. For players prioritizing frame rate consistency, Medium is the clear choice; it maintains playable performance at 1440p and delivers excellent headroom at 1080p, while avoiding the steep penalties seen at High and Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Examining the data resolution by resolution, the pattern is consistent: frame rates scale inversely with both resolution and settings quality. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 138.1 FPS on Low, 102.8 FPS on Medium, 89.6 FPS on High, and 62.7 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium represents a 25.5% reduction in frame rate, while the move from Medium to High costs another 12.8%, and High to Ultra drops a further 30%. At 2560x1440, the figures are 86.6 FPS on Low, 65 FPS on Medium, 56.2 FPS on High, and 42.7 FPS on Ultra. The relative penalty for enabling Ultra at 1440p is a 50.7% loss compared to Low, which is slightly less severe than at 1080p but still substantial. At 3840x2160, the performance collapses: Low yields 44.8 FPS, Medium drops to 33.1 FPS, High falls to 31.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 19.7 FPS. The 4K results are particularly telling—even the Low preset produces less than half the frame rate of the 1080p Low setting, and the Ultra preset is effectively unplayable. These numbers highlight a hardware combination that can handle 1080p gaming with ease at lower presets but degrades rapidly as resolution and quality increase.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the limiting component. At Low settings, moving from 1920x1080 (138.1 FPS) to 2560x1440 (86.6 FPS) represents a 37.3% decrease, and then to 3840x2160 (44.8 FPS) a further 48.3% decrease from the 1440p figure. This pattern—a near-halving of frame rate at each resolution step—is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, has ample headroom; its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444 and single-core score of 3309 indicate it is not the bottleneck. Instead, the RX 570’s pixel fill rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are overwhelmed as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s also becomes a constraint, as the 4 GB frame buffer must be swapped more frequently at higher resolutions. The data strongly suggests that the GPU is the sole limiting factor: the CPU could likely push higher frame rates if paired with a more powerful graphics card, but the RX 570 simply cannot keep up with the increased workload at 1440p and 4K. The scaling is not linear, which points to memory bandwidth saturation rather than pure compute limits.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all presets remain playable, with Low at 138.1 FPS, Medium at 102.8 FPS, High at 89.6 FPS, and Ultra at 62.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium exceed 60 FPS, while 3840x2160 fails to reach 60 FPS on any preset.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158, which places it 0.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109) and 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097). It also leads the NVIDIA Tesla M60 by 0.6% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile by 0.8%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting component. The CPU holds an 84th percentile rank among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 74th percentile. The frame rate drops from 138.1 FPS at 1080p Low to 44.8 FPS at 4K Low, a 67.6% reduction that correlates with the GPU’s workload, not the CPU’s capabilities.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 65 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings. This is the only 1440p preset that maintains a smooth experience, as High drops to 56.2 FPS and Ultra to 42.7 FPS.

Q: Should I use the Ultra preset in Barony?

A: The data does not support using Ultra for this combo. At 1080p it produces 62.7 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 42.7 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 19.7 FPS. The visual gain does not justify the performance loss compared to Medium, which offers 102.8 FPS at 1080p.

Q: How does the CPU rank against its immediate rivals?

A: The i5-12600KF has an average benchmark score of 27827, which is 0% different from the Intel Core i9-10900K (27829), 0.1% behind the Intel Core i5-12600K (27851), 0.2% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (27872), and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700H (27716).