Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i5-14600K + AMD Radeon RX 570

Barony, the roguelike from 2015, presents an interesting case study in how a modern high-core-count CPU pairs with an older mid-range GPU. The data shows a system that delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K, particularly at higher quality presets. The combination of Intel's Core i5-14600K and AMD's Radeon RX 570 places this pairing at rank 1605 out of 1702 tested combos in this game, indicating that while the system is functional, it sits in the lower percentile of tested configurations for Barony.

FAQ

Q: What is the best-quality preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 90.6 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset drops to 62.2 FPS, still playable but with less headroom. The Low preset reaches 141.1 FPS, while Medium sits at 106.1 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM affect 4K performance?

A: The 4 GB GDDR5 memory with a 256-bit bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be a limiting factor at 3840x2160. Even at Low settings, the average FPS is only 45.5, and High settings drop to 28.3 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 22.6 FPS, suggesting the GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth constrain high-resolution performance.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested systems in Barony?

A: This specific combination ranks 1605 out of 1702 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 10% of configurations. This low ranking is primarily attributable to the GPU's age and memory constraints rather than the CPU's capabilities.

Q: How does the i5-14600K's 14-core configuration influence Barony's performance?

A: The CPU's 14 cores (6 performance and 8 efficiency) and 20 threads provide substantial processing power, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881. Barony's roguelike nature typically relies on single-thread performance, where the i5-14600K scores 4642 in Cinebench R23 single-core, but the measured FPS data suggests the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the RX 570's performance comparable to more modern GPUs?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 30158 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, 0.2% delta), AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, 0.2% delta), and NVIDIA Tesla M60 (29969, 0.6% delta). Despite being an older Polaris architecture GPU, its benchmark scores are remarkably close to these newer cards.

Q: What resolution provides the most balanced experience?

A: The 2560x1440 High preset at 54.9 FPS offers a good balance between visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the High preset at 90.6 FPS provides the smoothest experience with quality settings enabled, while 4K remains challenging even at Low settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570, built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, operates at a base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz. Its 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs provide a theoretical FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS. The 4 GB GDDR5 memory runs at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes increasingly critical as resolution increases. At 1080p, the RX 570 demonstrates its capability, with the High preset achieving 90.6 FPS. However, the transition to 1440p reveals performance degradation, with High dropping to 54.9 FPS. At 4K, the GPU's limitations become pronounced—even Low settings only achieve 45.5 FPS. The 4 GB VRAM capacity appears insufficient for 4K textures and geometry, as evidenced by the dramatic performance drop from 45.5 FPS at Low to 28.3 FPS at High.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s, while adequate for 1080p, becomes a constraint at higher resolutions where the pixel fill rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s struggle to keep pace. The data suggests that for Barony, the RX 570 is best suited to 1080p gaming, where it can maintain playable frame rates across all quality presets.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the High preset at 90.6 FPS provides the best experience—smooth, responsive gameplay with good visual quality. The Ultra preset at 62.2 FPS remains playable but offers diminishing returns for the 28.4 FPS cost. The Medium preset at 106.1 FPS is a solid alternative for those prioritizing frame rate stability over visual fidelity.

For 2560x1440, the High preset at 54.9 FPS represents the sweet spot. The Medium preset at 66.5 FPS provides more headroom, while the Low preset at 87.1 FPS sacrifices visual quality for performance. The Ultra preset at 39.6 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the 40 FPS threshold for comfortable gaming.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets achieve a consistently smooth experience. The Low preset at 45.5 FPS is the only option approaching playability, while High (28.3 FPS), Medium (34.2 FPS), and Ultra (22.6 FPS) all fall below acceptable levels. For 4K gaming, the data indicates that reducing internal resolution or accepting lower quality settings is necessary.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance spread across settings is substantial. Low settings achieve 141.1 FPS, Medium reaches 106.1 FPS, High delivers 90.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 62.2 FPS. The 78.9 FPS difference between Low and Ultra demonstrates the GPU's sensitivity to quality settings at this resolution.

The 2560x1440 results show a similar pattern with reduced absolute values. Low settings produce 87.1 FPS, Medium hits 66.5 FPS, High reaches 54.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 39.6 FPS. The 47.5 FPS gap between Low and Ultra indicates that the GPU's computational resources are more strained at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapses. Low settings achieve 45.5 FPS, Medium produces 34.2 FPS, High drops to 28.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 22.6 FPS. The 22.9 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is proportionally similar to the 1080p gap but represents a much smaller absolute range, suggesting the GPU is hitting fundamental performance limits rather than scaling with settings.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing ranks 1605 out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the bottom 5.7% of configurations. The low ranking is surprising given the CPU's capabilities—the i5-14600K sits in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 49166. However, the RX 570's 74th percentile ranking among GPUs (average benchmark score of 30158) drags the overall combo ranking down significantly.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (0.2% faster), AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (0.2% faster), and NVIDIA Tesla M60 (0.6% slower). These comparisons highlight that while the RX 570's synthetic benchmark performance is competitive with newer cards, its real-world gaming performance in Barony is constrained by its 4 GB VRAM and older architecture.

The combo's rank suggests that for Barony specifically, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining overall performance. The CPU's 14 cores and 20 threads, while powerful for multi-threaded workloads, do not compensate for the GPU's limitations in this roguelike title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K features 14 cores (6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores) with 20 threads, operating at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This Raptor Lake architecture CPU, built on Intel's 10 nm process, includes 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core. Its benchmark results are impressive: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 32881, single-core reaches 4642, and Geekbench multi-core hits 15846.

In Barony, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but its strong single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 4270) suggests it handles the game's logic and AI calculations efficiently. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs places it near the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (0.2% faster) and Intel Core i5-14600KF (0.4% faster), indicating the i5-14600K's computational capabilities are more than sufficient for this title.

The data suggests that at 1080p, where the GPU has more headroom, the CPU's performance allows the RX 570 to reach its full potential—the 141.1 FPS at Low settings approaches the GPU's practical limits. However, at 4K, the CPU's power becomes irrelevant as the GPU becomes the sole bottleneck, with even the fastest CPUs unable to compensate for the RX 570's memory and compute limitations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck. At High settings, performance drops from 90.6 FPS at 1080p to 54.9 FPS at 1440p (a 39.4% decrease) and then to 28.3 FPS at 4K (a 48.5% decrease from 1440p). This progressive decline indicates that the GPU's compute and memory resources are being increasingly taxed as pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern differs across settings. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p (141.1 FPS) to 1440p (87.1 FPS) represents a 38.3% reduction, while the 4K result (45.5 FPS) shows a 47.8% decrease from 1440p. The Ultra preset shows a more dramatic decline: 62.2 FPS at 1080p, 39.6 FPS at 1440p (36.3% drop), and 22.6 FPS at 4K (42.9% drop).

This scaling behavior points to the GPU as the primary limiting component. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is likely exhausted at 4K, forcing the GPU to rely on slower memory operations. The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth, while adequate for 1080p, becomes insufficient as resolution increases, explaining why even Low settings at 4K (45.5 FPS) cannot match the performance of Ultra at 1080p (62.2 FPS). The data clearly indicates that for the RX 570, 1080p is the practical ceiling, with 1440p possible at reduced settings and 4K only marginally playable at minimal quality.