Barony

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers extraordinary frame rates in Barony, a 2015 roguelike that clearly favors high-frequency rendering over raw geometric complexity. The measured data shows a system that is never strained at any resolution, though the scaling patterns reveal distinct bottlenecks as settings and pixel counts change.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic but predictable drop in performance, with the most significant decline occurring between 1440p and 2160p. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 381.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 242.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 36%. Moving further to 3840x2160 yields 124.4 FPS, which represents a 49% drop from the 1440p figure and a 67% decline from the 1080p baseline.

The scaling behavior at Ultra settings tells a similar story, though the absolute numbers are lower. The 1080p Ultra result of 275.5 FPS drops to 172.1 FPS at 1440p and then to 90.2 FPS at 4K. This pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the gap between 1440p and 4K widens disproportionately compared to the 1080p-to-1440p step.

Interestingly, the Low preset shows the smallest relative decline across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 594.7 FPS, falling to 377.8 FPS at 1440p and 194.5 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 67%, which is nearly identical to the High preset's decline. This consistency suggests that while the GPU load scales with resolution, the CPU overhead remains relatively constant, and the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of VRAM is never saturated even at 4K Ultra.

The data shows that at 1080p and 1440p, the frame rates are so high that the CPU's single-thread performance becomes relevant. The i5-13400F's 3dmark_single_thread score of 960 and passmark_single_thread score of 3634 indicate strong per-core capability, which helps maintain those triple-digit figures. At 4K, however, the GPU's compute throughput takes over as the dominant factor, with the 52.22 TFLOPS FP32 performance driving the 90-194 FPS range depending on settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake architecture, running at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boosting to 4.60 GHz. Its benchmark scores place it in the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25236. This positions it as a solid mid-range performer that is more than capable of feeding the RTX 4080 SUPER in a game like Barony.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is robust, as evidenced by a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 21279 and a passmark_multithread score of 25032. However, Barony is not a heavily threaded title, and the data suggests that the 3dmark_2_threads score of 1880 and the single-thread results are more indicative of real-world performance here. The L3 cache of 20 MB shared across the cores provides ample bandwidth for game logic and entity updates, which are typically single-thread-bound in roguelike titles.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the i5-13400F sits within a narrow performance band. It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D by 0.5% in average score, while leading the Intel Core i7-13620H by 0.1% and the AMD EPYC 9474F by 0.5%. These negligible deltas mean that in CPU-bound scenarios, the choice between these processors would yield nearly identical frame rates. The data shows that at 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is most exposed, the system reaches 594.7 FPS, indicating that even this high figure is not limited by the processor.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 suggest that memory bandwidth is not a constraint in this configuration. The passmark_data_compression score of 311364 and the extended instructions score of 19847 further indicate strong integer and logic performance, which are relevant for procedural generation and pathfinding algorithms common in roguelikes. The benchmark results indicate that the i5-13400F is never the bottleneck in this pairing, even at the highest frame rates measured.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and features 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory operates across a 256-bit bus, delivering 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock of 2295 MHz boosts to 2550 MHz, and its FP32 throughput of 52.22 TFLOPS provides the raw compute headroom that drives the high frame rates observed.

The GPU's percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53610, places it near the top of the performance stack. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, scores 53489, a mere 0.2% difference. The RTX 4080 SUPER leads the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M by 0.4% and the AMD Radeon RX 7700S by 2.1%, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti trails by 2.9%. These margins indicate that the 4080 SUPER is competitive with the previous generation's flagship and holds a slight edge over some current offerings.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes increasingly prominent as resolution and settings increase. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate of 90.2 FPS represents a 68% reduction from the 1080p Ultra figure of 275.5 FPS. This steep decline highlights the GPU's fill-rate and shading load at high pixel counts. The 736.3 GB/s memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and buffer updates keep pace with the 285.6 GPixel/s pixel rate, preventing any memory-related stutters.

The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are largely irrelevant for this title, as Barony does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS in the measured presets. Instead, the raw rasterization performance, driven by the 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate, is what matters. The passmark_g3d score of 34245 and the 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 6600 corroborate the GPU's strength in traditional rendering workloads. The data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting component at 4K, but only because the CPU is so far ahead that the GPU becomes the sole arbiter of frame rate at that resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 144th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 8.5% of all configurations. This is a strong result, though not the absolute pinnacle, suggesting that while this pairing is highly capable, there are faster combinations available, likely featuring higher-tier CPUs or GPUs.

The rank of 144 indicates that the combo outperforms the vast majority of tested systems, but the gap to the top is not solely attributable to the GPU. Given that the i5-13400F sits in the 82nd CPU percentile and the RTX 4080 SUPER in the 88th GPU percentile, the combo's rank aligns closely with the lower of the two percentiles. This suggests that the CPU is the more limiting factor in achieving a higher rank, as the GPU is closer to the top of its respective distribution.

The data implies that pairing the RTX 4080 SUPER with a higher-end CPU, such as one with a higher single-thread score, could improve the combo's rank. However, the measured frame rates are already so high that any improvement would be marginal in practical terms. The combo's position at 144th out of 1702 is commendable, and the delta between this and the top 10 is likely driven by CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions where the i5-13400F's single-thread performance, while strong, does not match the absolute best processors.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across four presets and three resolutions provides a clear picture of the optimal settings for this combo. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver frame rates well above 275 FPS, making the choice purely about visual fidelity. Ultra at 275.5 FPS is the recommended choice for 1080p, as it provides the best image quality without any meaningful compromise in smoothness, given that the refresh rate of most monitors is far below this figure.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset drops to 172.1 FPS, which remains exceptionally high. This is still the best option for 1440p users, as the visual upgrade from High to Ultra is worth the 29% performance cost. The High preset at 242.5 FPS and Medium at 280.5 FPS are viable alternatives for those seeking maximum frame rates, but the data shows no need to sacrifice quality at this resolution.

The 4K resolution presents a more nuanced decision. The Ultra preset at 90.2 FPS is playable, but the High preset at 124.4 FPS offers a 38% improvement with only a modest reduction in visual quality. For most users, High at 3840x2160 is the sweet spot, balancing the crispness of 4K with frame rates that comfortably exceed 120 FPS. The Medium preset at 144.2 FPS and Low at 194.5 FPS are available for competitive play or for users with high-refresh-rate 4K displays, but the High preset provides the best overall experience per the measured rows.

The data shows that the combo is never truly challenged, even at 4K Ultra, which means users can prioritize visual quality without fear of dropped frames. The recommendation is to use Ultra at 1080p and 1440p, and High at 4K, as these settings yield the best balance of image fidelity and performance based on the measured results.