Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

This combination of Intel's 10-core Raptor Lake processor and NVIDIA's flagship Blackwell GPU produces extraordinary frame rates in Barony, a 2015 roguelike that scales surprisingly well with modern hardware. The measured data reveals a system that is never below 109 FPS at any tested setting, with the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and the i5-13400F's 16 threads working together to push even 4K Ultra well past standard display refresh rates. The GPU sits in the 92nd percentile among all graphics cards, while the CPU holds the 77th percentile among all processors, creating a balanced pairing where neither component consistently bottlenecks the other across the resolution spectrum.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K tells a compelling story about where the bottleneck shifts in this system. At Low settings, performance falls from 677 FPS at 1920x1080 to 239 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 438 FPS, which represents a 64.7% decrease. This dramatic falloff indicates that even at the lowest graphical preset, the GPU is being taxed substantially as pixel count quadruples. The RTX 5090 D's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth are stretched by 4K resolution, yet the card still delivers 239 FPS, suggesting Barony's rendering pipeline is relatively lightweight even when the GPU must process four times the pixels.

Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings shows a decline from 292 to 152 FPS, a 47.9% reduction. The percentage drop is smaller than the Low-setting falloff, which hints that at higher quality presets, additional shading work partially masks the raw pixel-count penalty. At Medium settings, the 1440p to 4K transition goes from 340 to 178 FPS, a 47.6% decrease. Ultra settings show the most resistance to resolution scaling: 209 FPS at 1440p drops to 109 FPS at 4K, a 47.8% decline. This consistency across Medium, High, and Ultra presets—all hovering around 47-48%—suggests a uniform GPU-bound scaling pattern once quality settings engage additional effects.

The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU plays a more significant role in limiting performance. The jump from 462 FPS at High to 677 FPS at Low represents a 46.5% improvement purely from lowering settings, which is a larger relative gain than at 4K, where the same settings change yields only a 57.3% improvement (152 to 239 FPS). This disparity indicates that at 1080p Low, the i5-13400F's 4.60 GHz boost clock and 20 MB of L3 cache are approaching their limits for Barony's game logic, while at 4K, the GPU's rendering workload dominates the frame time budget.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra in Barony?

A: Yes, with substantial headroom. The measured 4K Ultra average is 109 FPS, which is 81.7% above the 60 FPS target. The minimum observed frame rate at 4K Medium is 151 FPS, suggesting that even the most demanding preset remains comfortably playable on high-refresh displays.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score of 77712 places it 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904) and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605) by 2.4%. This places the card in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs.

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 677 FPS while Ultra delivers 331 FPS, a difference of 346 FPS. The Low preset is 104.5% faster than Ultra. Medium settings (538 FPS) and High settings (462 FPS) sit between these extremes, with Medium being 62.5% faster than Ultra.

Q: Does the i5-13400F bottleneck the RTX 5090 D in Barony?

A: The data suggests partial CPU limitation only at 1080p Low. The 677 FPS result at that setting likely approaches the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability, given the i5-13400F's 3DMark single-thread score of 960 and multi-thread score of 7314. At all other tested settings and resolutions, the GPU appears to be the primary performance determinant.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from 4K to 1440p at Ultra settings?

A: The 1440p Ultra average of 209 FPS is 91.7% higher than the 4K Ultra average of 109 FPS, representing a 100 FPS gain. This makes 1440p Ultra a strong choice for users with 240 Hz displays who want maximum visual quality.

Q: What is the system's overall ranking among tested combinations in Barony?

A: This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 34th out of 2935 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1.2% of all configurations. The high ranking reflects the RTX 5090 D's exceptional rasterization performance combined with the i5-13400F's solid multi-threaded capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals that Medium settings offer the most compelling balance between visual fidelity and performance, particularly because it is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum frame rates. At 4K Medium, the average of 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS and maximum of 204 FPS shows consistent frame delivery without the extreme spikes that might indicate instability. This represents a 63.3% performance increase over Ultra at the same resolution (178 vs 109 FPS), while presumably retaining most of the visual enhancements that distinguish Medium from Low.

For users prioritizing maximum smoothness, Low settings at 1440p deliver 457 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all commercial displays and provides 34.5% more performance than Medium at the same resolution (457 vs 340 FPS). The 1080p Low result of 677 FPS approaches the theoretical ceiling for competitive play, though the CPU may cap further gains. High settings serve as a middle ground, offering 292 FPS at 1440p and 152 FPS at 4K, making it the appropriate choice for 144 Hz 4K monitors or 240 Hz 1440p displays.

Ultra settings, while visually impressive, exact a significant performance toll. The 109 FPS at 4K Ultra and 331 FPS at 1080p Ultra are still excellent by absolute standards, but the 63.3% penalty from Medium to Ultra at 4K suggests diminishing returns. Given that Medium is the only preset with complete frame time data (minimum and maximum), it appears to be the most thoroughly validated setting in the test suite, reinforcing its recommendation as the optimal balance point for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 2935 tested CPU-GPU combinations in Barony, this pairing achieves the 34th position, placing it firmly in the top percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the synergistic pairing of the RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile GPU performance with the i5-13400F's 77th percentile CPU capability. The gap between this combo's rank and the individual component percentiles suggests that Barony's workload benefits disproportionately from GPU compute power, allowing the flagship graphics card to boost the pairing despite the mid-range CPU.

The combo's rank implies that only 33 other configurations deliver higher frame rates in this game, likely featuring even more powerful processors or more favorable CPU-GPU balance. The i5-13400F's nearest CPU rivals—the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (avg score 25284, 0% delta), Intel Core 5 120 (25362, -0.3% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, -0.3% delta), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25201, 0.4% delta)—all sit within 0.4% of the Intel chip's 25292 average benchmark score, indicating that processor choice among these options would have minimal impact on Barony performance.

The GPU's nearest rivals tell a different story. The RTX 5090 D's 77712 average score is within 2.4% of cards like the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904, 1.1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940, 1.6% slower), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (79396 and 79605, 2.1% and 2.4% slower respectively). This tight clustering suggests that the RTX 5090 D's ranking advantage comes more from its raw compute capabilities in Barony's specific rendering paths than from a massive synthetic benchmark lead.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D brings formidable specifications to Barony: 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, with a base clock of 2017 MHz boosting to 2407 MHz. The GPU's 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs process Barony's roguelike visuals at exceptional rates. The memory configuration is particularly notable—32 GB far exceeds what a 2015 roguelike would require, suggesting the card is operating well within its memory capacity even at 4K Ultra, with headroom for future titles or texture mods.

The clock speeds play a meaningful role in the measured results. The 2407 MHz boost clock, combined with the 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, enables the card to maintain high frame rates even when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s provide the theoretical throughput that explains why 4K High achieves 152 FPS while 1080p Ultra reaches 331 FPS. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 44065 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14326 corroborate its top-tier positioning.

The 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU indicate the power envelope required for these performance levels, while the PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures sufficient bandwidth for data transfer. The GPU's dual-slot design and 304 mm length make it a substantial physical component, but the 48 mm width accommodates the massive cooler needed to dissipate heat from the 92,200 million transistors on the 750 mm² die. In Barony, where frame rates frequently exceed 200 FPS at lower settings, the GPU's raw compute capability is the primary enabler, with the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensuring texture data flows without starving the shading units.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers extraordinary performance across all presets. Low settings produce 677 FPS average, Medium achieves 538 FPS with a minimum of 458 FPS and maximum of 619 FPS, High reaches 462 FPS, and Ultra maintains 331 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 346 FPS spread (677 to 331), with each step up in quality costing between 76 and 131 FPS. The Medium preset's frame time data—458 minimum and 619 maximum—indicates a 35.2% variance between its worst and best frames, suggesting some scene-dependent complexity in Barony's rendering.

At 2560x1440, performance remains exceptionally high. Low settings yield 457 FPS, Medium delivers 340 FPS (minimum 289, maximum 391), High produces 292 FPS, and Ultra achieves 209 FPS. The 1440p results show a 248 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, proportionally smaller than at 1080p, which reinforces the GPU-bound nature of higher resolutions. The Medium preset's 289 to 391 FPS range represents a 35.3% variance, nearly identical to the 1080p Medium variance, suggesting consistent frame pacing characteristics regardless of resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system still delivers exceptional results. Low settings achieve 239 FPS, Medium averages 178 FPS (minimum 151, maximum 204), High reaches 152 FPS, and Ultra maintains 109 FPS. The 4K spread from Low to Ultra is 130 FPS, and the Medium preset's frame range (151-204 FPS) shows a 35.1% variance, matching the pattern observed at lower resolutions. This consistency across resolutions and the complete frame data available for Medium suggests that Barony's rendering workload scales predictably, with the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth determining the ceiling at each quality level.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides 10 cores and 16 threads across its Raptor Lake architecture, with a 2.50 GHz base clock boosting to 4.60 GHz. The 20 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core supply Barony's game logic with rapid data access, while the 65 W TDP keeps power consumption modest. The CPU's benchmark results—Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22604 and single-core score of 3191, plus Geekbench multi-core of 11068 and single-core of 1996—establish it as a capable mid-range processor, though not a top-tier enthusiast chip.

In Barony, the CPU's role becomes apparent at high frame rates. The 1080p Low result of 677 FPS likely approaches the processor's maximum frame delivery capability, given that the GPU could theoretically render even faster at such low graphical loads. The 3DMark scores illustrate the CPU's threading characteristics: 2-thread score of 1880, 4-thread score of 3459, 8-thread score of 5591, and 16-thread score of 7314. These show excellent scaling from 2 to 8 threads but diminishing returns beyond 8 threads, suggesting Barony may not fully utilize all 16 threads.

The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 25032 and 3DMark max-thread score of 7307 place it near its rivals: the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS scores 25284 (0% delta), Intel Core 5 120 scores 25362 (-0.3%), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D scores 25365 (-0.3%), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H scores 25201 (0.4%). This clustering within 0.4% indicates that any of these processors would produce nearly identical results in Barony, making the i5-13400F's 77th percentile ranking a reflection of its overall capabilities rather than a game-specific advantage. The 4.60 GHz boost clock likely provides sufficient single-thread performance for Barony's game logic, while the 10 cores ensure background tasks and engine threads have ample resources without impacting frame delivery.