Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i5-13400F + AMD Radeon RX 570

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers a curious study in bottleneck dynamics within Barony, a 2015 roguelike that is fundamentally CPU-bound in its procedural generation logic yet still leans heavily on GPU throughput for its voxel-style rendering. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that can hit playable territory at 1080p but struggles as pixel count climbs, with the combination ranking 1644th out of 1702 tested combos in this game — a bottom-3.5% placement that suggests neither component is being fully utilized at higher stress levels. The data indicates a pairing where the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom for Barony's single-threaded tendencies, while the GPU's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory becomes the critical constraint at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread Raptor Lake-S part with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, built on Intel's 10 nm process. Its L3 cache totals 20 MB shared across the chip, with per-core L1 and L2 caches of 80 KB and 1.25 MB respectively. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 and a single-core score of 3004, with a Geekbench multicore result of 10971 and single-core of 2301. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 7314 and single-thread score of 960 suggest strong per-core performance, which matters for Barony's roguelike architecture that typically relies on a few dominant threads for game logic and dungeon generation.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 82 versus all CPUs places it comfortably above average, yet in Barony the measured FPS patterns indicate the processor is rarely the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system hits 136.6 FPS, which is more than double the 4K High result of 31.1 FPS — a scaling pattern that points to GPU constraints rather than CPU limitations. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13620H, scores 25201 in average benchmark score with a deltaPct of 0.1% versus the i5-13400F's 25236, showing these chips are nearly interchangeable in raw compute. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D sits at 25365 with a -0.5% delta, while the AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 trail by 0.5% each at 25103 and 25099 respectively. This clustering suggests that for Barony, the i5-13400F's core configuration is more than sufficient, and the 4.60 GHz boost clock provides the single-thread responsiveness the genre demands.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, packing 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Its base clock of 1168 MHz boosts to 1244 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth and 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 5.095 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s are modest by modern standards, and its 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects a mid-tier position. The nearest rival data shows the RX 570's average benchmark score of 30158 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 at 30109 (0.2% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 30097 (0.2% delta), and the NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 29969 (0.6% delta) — an odd grouping that speaks to the RX 570's long tail of driver optimizations rather than raw competitiveness.

In Barony, the GPU's 4 GB VRAM becomes the pivotal constraint at higher resolutions. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra drops to 23.8, while 1920x1080 Ultra achieves 62 FPS — a 2.6x improvement from resolution scaling alone. The memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s appears adequate for 1080p but insufficient for 4K, where texture streaming and framebuffer pressure likely exceed the 4 GB capacity. The GPU's DirectX 12 (12_0) support and Vulkan 1.3 API compatibility are noteworthy for a 2017 card, though Barony's engine may not fully leverage these modern APIs, potentially leaving performance on the table.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a dramatic scaling curve from 1080p to 4K that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At High settings, the system delivers 88.5 FPS at 1920x1080, dropping to 53.7 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 39.3% reduction), and further to 31.1 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 64.9% reduction from 1080p). This pattern persists across all settings: Low settings go from 136.6 FPS at 1080p to 85.4 FPS at 1440p to 46.4 FPS at 4K; Medium drops from 100.9 to 65.9 to 32.1; Ultra falls from 62 to 42.3 to 23.8.

The scaling ratios are remarkably consistent, with 4K performance hovering around 35-38% of 1080p performance across all settings. This uniformity suggests the GPU's compute and memory resources are being taxed proportionally as resolution increases, rather than hitting a hard VRAM wall at a specific threshold. The 1440p to 4K transition is particularly punishing — for instance, High settings lose 22.6 FPS going from 1440p to 4K, versus 34.8 FPS lost going from 1080p to 1440p. This indicates that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo, with 4K being playable only at Low settings (46.4 FPS) and even then barely crossing the 30 FPS threshold for acceptable frame pacing in a roguelike where reaction time matters.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers clear guidance on the optimal settings-to-resolution tradeoffs. At 1920x1080, Medium settings deliver 100.9 FPS, which provides a 12.4 FPS improvement over High (88.5 FPS) and a 38.1 FPS improvement over Ultra (62 FPS). The jump from Low (136.6 FPS) to Medium (100.9 FPS) costs 35.7 FPS, but the visual fidelity gain in a roguelike with procedurally generated dungeons is substantial. For 1080p, Medium is the sweet spot — it maintains well above 60 FPS while sacrificing only 26.1% of the Low preset's frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the calculus shifts. High settings produce 53.7 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while Medium hits 65.9 FPS and Low reaches 85.4 FPS. The data suggests that 1440p users should prioritize Medium (65.9 FPS) or Low (85.4 FPS) to maintain a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. Ultra at 1440p (42.3 FPS) is only viable for players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate consistency. At 3840x2160, only Low settings (46.4 FPS) approach playability, with Medium (32.1 FPS) and High (31.1 FPS) hovering near the 30 FPS threshold and Ultra (23.8 FPS) falling below it. The recommendation is clear: 1080p Medium for the best balance, 1440p Medium as a stretch target, and 4K Low only for those who must have 4K resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1644th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the bottom 3.4% of all configurations. This low ranking is surprising given the individual component percentiles — the CPU sits at 82nd percentile and the GPU at 74th percentile. The discrepancy suggests that Barony's specific workload does not favor this pairing, likely due to the GPU's 4 GB VRAM ceiling and the game's rendering demands at higher resolutions. The rank implies that most other combinations tested, including those with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs, achieve better frame rates in this title.

The ranking data indicates that this combo is not well-suited for Barony's requirements, despite the CPU's strong synthetic performance. The i5-13400F's nearest rivals — the i7-13620H, Ryzen 5 5600X3D, EPYC 9474F, and Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 — all cluster within 0.5% of its average benchmark score, yet the RX 570's nearest rivals (RTX 5060, RX 7700 XT, Tesla M60, RTX 5070 Mobile) represent vastly more modern and capable GPUs. This mismatch highlights how the GPU drags down the overall combo ranking, as the CPU has headroom that the RX 570 cannot utilize in Barony's GPU-intensive rendering.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Barony at 4K?

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 46.4 FPS. Medium (32.1 FPS) and High (31.1 FPS) hover near playability, but Ultra (23.8 FPS) falls below acceptable levels.

Q: What is the best resolution for this setup?

A: 1920x1080 at Medium settings delivers 100.9 FPS, which is the highest frame rate above 60 FPS with balanced visual quality. 2560x1440 Medium (65.9 FPS) is viable but requires accepting lower fidelity.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-13400F scores 25236 in average benchmark, just 0.1% above the i7-13620H (25201), 0.5% below the Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365), and 0.5% above the EPYC 9474F (25103) and Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (25099).

Q: Is the GPU's 4 GB VRAM sufficient for Barony?

A: At 1080p, yes — the GPU achieves 136.6 FPS on Low and 62 FPS on Ultra. At 4K, the VRAM appears to be a limiting factor, with frame rates dropping to 23.8 FPS on Ultra.

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

A: High settings achieve 53.7 FPS while Ultra drops to 42.3 FPS, a difference of 11.4 FPS. The gap narrows at 1080p, where High (88.5 FPS) is 26.5 FPS ahead of Ultra (62 FPS).

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1644th out of 1702 combos, placing it in the bottom 3.4% of all tested systems for Barony, despite the CPU's 82nd percentile and GPU's 74th percentile individual rankings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 136.6 FPS on Low, 100.9 FPS on Medium, 88.5 FPS on High, and 62 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p results show a clear progression: Low to Medium costs 35.7 FPS, Medium to High costs 12.4 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 26.5 FPS. The largest performance penalty occurs between Low and Medium, suggesting that Medium introduces significant rendering effects that tax the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the measured FPS values are 85.4 (Low), 65.9 (Medium), 53.7 (High), and 42.3 (Ultra). The scaling from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by 37.5% on Low, 34.7% on Medium, 39.3% on High, and 31.8% on Ultra. The percentage drop is relatively consistent, indicating resolution scaling affects all settings proportionally.

At 3840x2160, the results are 46.4 FPS (Low), 32.1 FPS (Medium), 31.1 FPS (High), and 23.8 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low setting is the only configuration that exceeds 30 FPS, and it does so by a margin of 16.4 FPS over 4K Ultra. The difference between 1440p and 4K is severe: Low drops by 39 FPS (45.7%), Medium by 33.8 FPS (51.3%), High by 22.6 FPS (42.1%), and Ultra by 18.5 FPS (43.7%). These steep declines underscore the GPU's inability to handle 4K rendering workloads, with the 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth proving insufficient for Barony's high-resolution textures and effects.