Barony

The Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination delivers a surprisingly robust experience in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015. Benchmark data shows this pairing achieves playable frame rates even at 4K, though the scaling pattern reveals a system that transitions from CPU-bound at lower resolutions to GPU-bound at the highest settings. This analysis breaks down the specific roles of each component and how they interact across the three tested resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combination in Barony?

A: The combo ranks 1195 out of 1702 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This rank reflects the RTX 2060 SUPER's age, as the GPU sits at the 63rd percentile among all tested graphics cards.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Barony?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High settings, the average frame rate is 61.3 FPS, which is playable. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 42.2 FPS, indicating that maximum quality settings at 4K will push the GPU to its limits.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-12600KF's average benchmark score of 27827 is effectively tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K, which scores 27829 (0% delta). It also sits within 0.4% of the Intel Core i7-13700H, showing that its 10-core, 16-thread configuration remains competitive.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the average frame rate ranges from 284.9 FPS on Low settings to 130.3 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 54.3% drop from Low to Ultra, demonstrating that even at 1080p, the graphics card has a significant impact on performance.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER's average benchmark score is 19774, which is 0.5% higher than the RTX 2070's score of 19680. It also edges out the GTX TITAN by 0.3%, showing that this GPU holds its own against cards from similar generations.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1440p High settings?

A: At 1440p High, the average frame rate is 117.8 FPS. Given that the CPU can push 185.9 FPS at 1080p High, the gap suggests the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases, though the CPU still provides ample headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread desktop processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, and its 20 MB of shared L3 cache helps feed data to the cores efficiently. This CPU also supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, which provides flexibility in system building.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions where the graphics card is less burdened. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 284.9 FPS, a figure that is far beyond what most displays can show, indicating that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with data faster than the rendering pipeline can consume it. The processor's multi-threaded performance, reflected in a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444, ensures that the game's logic and AI routines never become a bottleneck in standard gameplay scenarios.

The CPU's single-thread performance is equally important for a roguelike title, where game logic often runs on a primary thread. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3309 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3925 indicate strong per-core capability. This is crucial for maintaining consistent frame times in Barony, as the game's procedural generation and turn-based elements can create sudden spikes in computational demand that a weaker single-core performer might struggle to handle.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the i5-12600KF posts an average benchmark score of 27827, which is statistically identical to the Intel Core i9-10900K's 27829. It also outperforms the Intel Core i7-13700H by 0.4% (27716), despite that chip being a newer mobile part. This suggests that in CPU-bound scenarios, the i5-12600KF provides performance on par with older flagship desktop CPUs, making it a solid foundation for this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture using TSMC's 12 nm process, with a die size of 445 mm². It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1470 MHz and a boost clock of 1650 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

The GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for Barony's visual demands, though the game's roguelike nature means that texture-rich environments can accumulate over a long session. The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and high-resolution assets are loaded without stutter, as evidenced by the 4K High average of 61.3 FPS. This is a critical figure, as it demonstrates that the memory subsystem can handle the bandwidth requirements of 4K rendering.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities, rated at 7.181 TFLOPS for FP32, are put to the test as resolution increases. At 1080p Ultra, the system reaches 130.3 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, this falls to 42.2 FPS, a 67.6% reduction. This steep drop-off indicates that the GPU's shading units and ROPs are the primary constraint at maximum settings and high resolutions. The pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s are adequate for 1440p gaming but begin to struggle at 4K with Ultra settings.

The RTX 2060 SUPER's benchmark percentile of 63 places it in the mid-range of all GPUs tested. Its average benchmark score of 19774 is 0.5% higher than the RTX 2070's 19680, which is a notable result given the 2070's higher tier in the product stack. This suggests that Barony's rendering workload favors the 2060 SUPER's specific architecture, or that driver optimizations have improved its performance over time.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1195 out of 1702 tested combinations in Barony. This places it in the 70th percentile of all combos, meaning that roughly 70% of tested systems perform better in this game. The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU's age, as the CPU itself is a strong performer that sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs.

The data indicates that this combo is limited by the GPU in most scenarios. The CPU's average benchmark score of 27827 is competitive with the Intel Core i9-10900K (27829), but the GPU's score of 19774 lags behind more modern graphics cards. In Barony, this manifests as a system that can deliver high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p but struggles to maintain playable performance at 4K Ultra settings.

When comparing to combos that use the same CPU with a different GPU, the data suggests that upgrading the graphics card would yield significant gains. The CPU's headroom is evident at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 284.9 FPS, a figure that is likely near the game's engine limit. This indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions, and the GPU's performance ceiling is the primary factor limiting the combo's overall rank.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of increasing GPU dependency. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 185.9 FPS at 1080p to 117.8 FPS at 1440p, a 36.6% reduction. Moving to 4K High, the frame rate falls to 61.3 FPS, which is a 67.0% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling curve is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload increases proportionally with pixel count.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic. The system achieves 284.9 FPS at 1080p, 182.7 FPS at 1440p, and 94.7 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 66.8%, indicating that even at minimal graphical settings, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become limiting factors at higher resolutions. This is a key insight: the CPU is capable of delivering frame rates well above 280 FPS, but the GPU cannot sustain that performance as resolution increases.

The Ultra settings data provides the clearest evidence of the GPU bottleneck. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 130.3 FPS, which drops to 82.4 FPS at 1440p and 42.2 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K reduction of 67.6% is the largest among all settings presets, showing that the combination of high pixel count and maximum graphical effects overwhelms the RTX 2060 SUPER's capabilities. For gamers targeting 4K, the data suggests that High settings (61.3 FPS) are the practical ceiling, while Medium settings (70.7 FPS) provide a slightly smoother experience at a minor visual cost.