Barony

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-12600KF compare to its nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The i5-12600KF posts an average benchmark score of 27,799. This puts it within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27,896) and the Intel Core i9-10900K (27,872), and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (27,712). The data shows this CPU sits in a performance band where these four chips are effectively tied.

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves at 1080p, and at what settings?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 600, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is a hard performance ceiling for this pairing at that resolution, as the frame rate appears capped or limited by the engine rather than by either component.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 outperform its nearest GPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: Yes, but narrowly. The RTX 4080's average benchmark score is 54,247. This is 0.1% ahead of the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209), 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828 is actually higher, so the 4080 is 1.1% behind), and 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698 is also higher, so the 4080 is 2.6% behind). The data indicates the 4080 sits slightly below the W5700X and RX 6750 GRE in raw aggregate scores but is effectively neck-and-neck with the 4080 SUPER.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations for Barony?

A: This combo ranks 244th out of 3,717 tested combinations. This places it in the top 6.6% of all tested combos, indicating a very strong pairing for this game, though not at the absolute top tier.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS recorded is 239, with a maximum of 324. This means even the lowest frame rates stay well above typical high-refresh display thresholds.

Q: What is the boost clock of the i5-12600KF, and how many cores does it have?

A: The i5-12600KF has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz and a base clock of 3.70 GHz. This hybrid configuration provides strong single-thread performance for game logic while maintaining ample multi-thread capacity.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of raw frame rates in Barony, and the data confirms it has ample headroom across all tested resolutions. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. With 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs, the card is built for high-throughput rendering. Its base clock is 2205 MHz with a boost clock of 2505 MHz, and the memory runs at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed. The FP32 compute throughput is 48.74 TFLOPS, which is substantial for a game like Barony that relies on procedural generation and physics calculations.

The RTX 4080's role becomes clearer when comparing its benchmark standing. Its average benchmark score is 54,247, with a percentile rank of 86 among all GPUs. The nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 54,209 — a delta of just 0.1%. This means the standard 4080 is essentially identical in performance to its SUPER successor. Interestingly, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and AMD Radeon 8060S score higher in aggregate benchmarks (55,698 and 55,757 respectively, deltas of -2.6% and -2.7%), yet the 4080 still delivers superior in-game results at 4K Ultra, suggesting Barony favors the 4080's architecture or driver optimization.

The GPU's performance scaling with resolution is telling. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 600 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 91 FPS. This is a reduction to roughly 15% of the low-settings frame rate, which indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for Barony, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the card maintains playable frame rates without apparent memory-related stuttering. The 716.8 GB/s bandwidth ensures that the procedural texture generation common in roguelikes doesn't become a bottleneck.

The RTX 4080's 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are largely irrelevant for Barony, which is not a ray-traced title. However, the raw rasterization power of 280.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 761.5 GTexel/s texture rate directly benefits the game's 3D voxel-style environments. The card's end-of-life production status and 320 W TDP are worth noting for builders looking at long-term upgrades, but for this specific title, the GPU provides more than enough headroom to max out high-refresh displays at 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF plays a supporting but crucial role in this combo. With 10 cores and 16 threads from its Alder Lake architecture, it offers a mix of performance and efficiency cores. The base clock is 3.70 GHz, boosting to 4.90 GHz for single-threaded workloads. This boost clock is critical for Barony, which relies heavily on single-thread performance for game logic, pathfinding, and procedural dungeon generation. The CPU's L3 cache is 20 MB shared, with 1.25 MB L2 per core and 80 KB L1 per core, providing low-latency access to frequently used game data.

The CPU's benchmark scores paint a picture of balanced performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 23,391 multi-core and 3,302 single-core. The Geekbench scores are 12,137 multi-core and 2,157 single-core. For 3DMark, the 16-thread score is 7,956, and the single-thread score is 1,016. These figures indicate that the CPU can feed the RTX 4080 without creating a significant bottleneck, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the i5-12600KF's average benchmark score of 27,799 is essentially tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K (27,872, delta -0.3%), the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (27,896, delta -0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE (27,712, delta +0.3%). This means the CPU is right in the sweet spot for gaming performance. The 5800X3D's famous 3D V-Cache doesn't give it an edge in aggregate benchmarks, and Barony doesn't appear to be cache-sensitive enough to differentiate these chips.

The CPU's percentile rank of 79 among all CPUs indicates it outperforms about 79% of processors on the market. For Barony specifically, the combination of high single-thread performance and reasonable multi-thread capacity means the CPU rarely becomes the limiting factor. The evidence is in the FPS scaling: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 600 FPS, but this appears to be an engine cap rather than a CPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates across resolutions at low settings, but instead we see 600 FPS at 1080p, 379 FPS at 1440p, and 198 FPS at 4K — indicating the GPU is the scaling factor.

The CPU's 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier make it a practical choice for overclocking, though the data doesn't include overclocked results. The Intel Socket 1700 platform supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, which gives builders flexibility, though the benchmark data doesn't specify which memory type was used. For Barony, the CPU's role is to maintain stable frame pacing, especially in scenes with many enemies or complex procedural generation, and the data suggests it does so effectively.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). The results show a clear and consistent scaling pattern.

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves extremely high frame rates across all settings. Low settings yield 600 FPS average, which is likely an engine limit. Medium settings drop to 446 FPS, with a minimum of 379 and maximum of 513. High settings produce 383 FPS average, while Ultra settings yield 274 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is 154 FPS (a 25.7% decrease), while the jump from High to Ultra is 109 FPS (a 28.5% decrease). This suggests that Ultra settings impose a significant additional GPU load compared to High.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show more differentiation between settings. Low settings average 379 FPS, Medium averages 281 FPS (min 239, max 324), High averages 242 FPS, and Ultra averages 173 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 206 FPS drop, which is a 54.4% reduction. This is a more pronounced difference than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. Low settings average 198 FPS, Medium averages 147 FPS (min 125, max 169), High averages 126 FPS, and Ultra averages 91 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 107 FPS drop, which is a 54.0% reduction — similar in percentage terms to 1440p. This suggests that the GPU is consistently the bottleneck at higher resolutions, with the CPU providing adequate support.

Comparing resolutions at the same settings, the scaling is consistent. At High settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p results in a 141 FPS drop (from 383 to 242, a 36.8% reduction), and moving from 1440p to 4K results in a 116 FPS drop (from 242 to 126, a 47.9% reduction). At Low settings, the drops are 221 FPS (1080p to 1440p, 36.8%) and 181 FPS (1440p to 4K, 47.8%). The consistency of these percentages suggests that the game scales predictably with resolution, and the combo delivers a balanced performance profile.

The minimum and maximum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, show relatively tight frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 379 and maximum is 513, giving a range of 134 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 85 FPS (min 239, max 324), and at 4K Medium, the range is 44 FPS (min 125, max 169). The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is more consistently loaded, reducing frame time variance.

How This Combo Ranks

This combo ranks 244th out of 3,717 tested combinations for Barony. This places it in the top 6.6% of all tested combos, which is an excellent result. The ranking reflects the strong synergy between the i5-12600KF and RTX 4080 for this specific game.

To contextualize this rank, consider that Barony is a roguelike with relatively modest graphics requirements compared to AAA titles. The fact that this combo still ranks 244th suggests that there are many combos with more powerful CPUs or GPUs that achieve even higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU can become a factor. However, the practical difference between rank 244 and rank 1 is likely negligible for actual gameplay, as frame rates above 144 FPS are already well beyond what most displays can show.

The GPU's percentile rank of 86 and CPU's percentile rank of 79 both contribute to this high combo ranking. The GPU is the stronger component relative to its peers, which is appropriate for a game that is more GPU-bound at higher resolutions. The CPU's rank is still strong, but it doesn't need to be exceptional for Barony, which doesn't heavily utilize many cores.

Comparing to the nearest rivals, the CPU is tied with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and Core i9-10900K, meaning that swapping to either of these CPUs would likely not change the combo's rank significantly. Similarly, the GPU is tied with the RTX 4080 SUPER, so upgrading to that card would not improve the rank. This suggests that the current combo is well-optimized for Barony, and further upgrades would yield diminishing returns.

The combo rank of 244 out of 3,717 puts it in the 93.4th percentile of all tested combos. This is a strong result, but it also indicates that there is headroom for improvement if a builder were to pair a higher-end CPU or GPU. However, the data shows that the current combo already achieves 600 FPS at 1080p Low, which is likely an engine cap, so there's little practical benefit to pursuing higher ranks.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and refresh rate.

For 1920x1080 displays, the combo delivers exceptional performance at all settings. Even at Ultra, the average FPS is 274, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors. High settings at 383 FPS offer a smoother experience with reduced GPU load, which can help with thermals and power draw. The data suggests that Ultra settings at 1080p are perfectly playable, but High settings provide a better balance of visual fidelity and performance headroom. For competitive play, Low settings at 600 FPS (if the display supports it) would minimize input latency, but the difference between 274 and 600 FPS is imperceptible on most displays.

For 2560x1440 displays, the recommendation is High settings at 242 FPS average. This provides excellent visual quality while maintaining frame rates well above 144 Hz. Ultra settings at 173 FPS are also viable, especially on 144 Hz displays, but the 69 FPS drop from High to Ultra may not justify the visual improvement. Medium settings at 281 FPS offer a good option for competitive players who want maximum frame rates, but the visual downgrade from High is noticeable. The data shows that Medium settings have a minimum FPS of 239, which is still very high, so this is a safe choice for maintaining consistent frame pacing.

For 3840x2160 displays, the recommendation is High settings at 126 FPS average. This is just below the 144 Hz threshold, but it's very playable on 120 Hz displays. Ultra settings at 91 FPS are also viable for slower-paced roguelike gameplay, but the 35 FPS drop from High is significant. Medium settings at 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 FPS provide the best option for 4K displays with 144 Hz refresh rates, as it maintains frame rates above 120 FPS even in the worst-case scenarios. Low settings at 198 FPS are overkill for 4K and would sacrifice too much visual quality for marginal performance gains.

The overall recommendation is to use High settings for the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, High offers 383 FPS; at 1440p, High offers 242 FPS; and at 4K, High offers 126 FPS. This provides a consistent experience where the frame rate scales predictably with resolution. For users with 144 Hz displays, Medium settings at 4K offer the best guarantee of staying above the refresh rate, while High settings at 1440p and 1080p provide ample headroom. The data does not include any upscaling or frame generation features, so these recommendations are based on native rendering only.