Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i5-14400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

The Intel Core i5-14400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER delivers a robust experience in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a system that is well-balanced at 1080p, increasingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, and capable of maintaining playable performance even at 4K Ultra. This combination ranks 1198th out of 1702 tested combos in this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, yet the actual FPS figures tell a more nuanced story about where its strengths and limitations lie.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and predictable pattern: as resolution increases, average FPS drops substantially across all quality settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 289.9 FPS, which falls to 178.7 FPS at 1440p and further to 97 FPS at 4K. This represents a 66.5% reduction from 1080p Low to 4K Low, indicating that even at the lowest quality settings, the rendering load at 4K is substantial. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings shows a 45.7% drop, which is steeper than the 38.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p, suggesting the GPU begins to saturate more aggressively as pixel count increases.

The High preset tells a similar story with slightly different magnitudes. At 1080p High, the average is 180.6 FPS, dropping to 116.9 FPS at 1440p and 59.6 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 35.3% from 1080p to 1440p and 49.0% from 1440p to 4K. This accelerating decline at 4K High strongly indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER, with its 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, becomes the limiting component at this resolution. The GPU's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is being pushed to its limits when rendering 8.3 million pixels per frame.

Ultra settings amplify this trend. The system produces 129.9 FPS at 1080p Ultra, 81.8 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and only 45.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 37.0%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 44.6%. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this combination is not ideal for maximum quality at the highest resolution. The pattern across all presets shows that the CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, maintains sufficient headroom at lower resolutions, but the GPU's workload scaling becomes the dominant factor as resolution climbs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a Raptor Lake-R architecture processor with 10 cores and 16 threads, a 2.50 GHz base clock, and a 4.70 GHz boost clock. Its benchmark scores reveal strong multi-threaded capability: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21914 and a single-core score of 3093. The Geekbench multi-core score of 11209 and single-core score of 2333 further confirm this processor's balanced performance profile. In the Passmark suite, the multi-thread score of 25783 and single-thread score of 3723 indicate that this CPU can handle both heavily threaded workloads and lightly threaded tasks with equal competence.

In Barony, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the FPS scaling across quality settings at a fixed resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 160 FPS (from 289.9 to 129.9), which is a 55.2% reduction. This significant gap suggests that at 1080p, the GPU is not the sole bottleneck; rather, the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates influences the upper FPS ceiling. The 289.9 FPS at 1080p Low is a clear indicator that the i5-14400F can sustain very high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily burdened, but the single-core performance of 3093 in Cinebench R23 and 3723 in Passmark single-thread sets an upper bound on how far the frame rate can climb.

The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 per core provide ample fast storage for the game's data, and its DDR4/DDR5 memory support with dual-channel configuration ensures sufficient memory bandwidth for the 16 threads. The processor's 88th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 32508, places it just above the Intel Core i7-12800H (32513, 0% delta) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 (32446, 0.2% delta). This competitive positioning means the CPU is not a weak link in this pairing, and at 1440p and 4K, the GPU's workload dominates to the point where CPU differences become less relevant.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The system achieves an average of 180.6 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, the average FPS is 59.6, which is just below 60 FPS. At 4K Ultra, it drops to 45.3 FPS. For a consistently smooth experience at 4K, Medium settings (72 FPS) or Low settings (97 FPS) are more appropriate.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 19774, which places it 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (19706), 0.5% ahead of the RTX 2070 (19680), and 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (19623). It ranks in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 178.7 FPS, while Ultra produces 81.8 FPS. This is a difference of 96.9 FPS, representing a 54.2% reduction from Low to Ultra.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU plays a significant role at 1080p. The i5-14400F's single-core performance (3093 in Cinebench R23) and the large FPS spread between Low and Ultra settings (160 FPS difference) indicate that the CPU can become a limiting factor at very high frame rates, while the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck at higher resolutions.

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

A: This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 1198th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the 70.4th percentile of all tested systems.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 1198 out of 1702 tested combos, this system sits in the lower-middle tier of the database for Barony. This ranking might seem surprising given the high FPS numbers at 1080p, but it reflects the fact that many other tested combinations feature more powerful GPUs or CPUs that achieve even higher frame rates. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 63rd percentile ranking among all GPUs and the i5-14400F's 88th percentile ranking among CPUs show a pairing where the GPU is the weaker component relative to its own product class. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 2070, scores only 0.5% lower on average, indicating that the 2060 SUPER is positioned competitively within its generation, but it lacks the raw throughput of higher-tier cards that dominate the top ranks in Barony.

The rank of 1198 means that 504 tested combos performed worse, while 1197 performed better. This places the system in the 29.6th percentile from the top, or conversely, in the 70.4th percentile from the bottom. For a roguelike game like Barony, which is not typically considered a demanding title, this rank suggests that the game's performance is more dependent on the GPU than on CPU strength, given the relatively simple graphics and gameplay mechanics. The measured FPS data confirms this: at 1080p Ultra, the system still delivers 129.9 FPS, which is far above playable thresholds, but the rank indicates that many other systems achieve even higher frame rates in this undemanding title.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the data points to Medium settings as the optimal choice across most resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 213.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display refresh rate commonly in use. At 1440p Medium, the average of 136.2 FPS provides a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors, while 4K Medium at 72 FPS is above the 60 FPS threshold for standard displays. The step from Medium to High costs 33.1 FPS at 1080p (from 213.7 to 180.6), 19.3 FPS at 1440p (from 136.2 to 116.9), and 12.4 FPS at 4K (from 72 to 59.6), indicating diminishing returns as resolution increases.

For users prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, Ultra settings are viable at 1080p (129.9 FPS) and 1440p (81.8 FPS), but at 4K the 45.3 FPS average falls below the standard for smooth gameplay. Low settings are only recommended for competitive play or extremely high refresh rate displays, as the 289.9 FPS at 1080p Low and 178.7 FPS at 1440p Low far exceed what most monitors can display. The High preset at 1440p (116.9 FPS) offers an excellent compromise for users with 144Hz displays, providing both high frame rates and good visual quality. Given that the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, Medium at 4K (72 FPS) represents the most sensible choice for 4K users who want to maintain smooth gameplay without sacrificing too much visual quality.