Barony

The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015. The measured frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings confirm that this combination is heavily overqualified for the game’s demands, with the lowest recorded average still sitting at 76 FPS at 4K Ultra. The data shows a system that never struggles, but the performance scaling between settings and resolutions reveals where the bottleneck shifts between the 14-core CPU and the RDNA 3.0 GPU.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-14600K brings a 14-core, 20-thread configuration based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, along with a 24 MB shared L3 cache. For a roguelike like Barony, which was released in 2015 and does not demand modern multi-threaded workloads, the CPU’s single-thread performance is the primary driver. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2064 and Geekbench single-core score of 2491 indicate strong per-thread capability, which matters for the game’s logic, procedural generation, and entity updates. The multi-core scores are equally robust — Cinebench R23 multi-core hits 24491, and Geekbench multi-core reaches 16673 — but Barony is unlikely to saturate all 20 threads; instead, the high boost clock ensures that the primary game thread runs without constraint.

The CPU’s benchmark percentile against all processors is 90, meaning it outperforms the vast majority of desktop chips in synthetic tests. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H at 48698 (deltaPct -0.2), the AMD EPYC 4345P at 48470 (deltaPct 0.3), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX at 48287 (deltaPct 0.7). These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, showing that the i5-14600K sits in a tightly competitive performance band. In Barony, the CPU’s role is to maintain high minimum frame rates and avoid any hitches during complex scenes, such as when large numbers of enemies or destructible objects are on screen. The measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 505 average, which is far beyond any display’s refresh rate, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor even at the lowest graphical settings where the GPU has the least work.

The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 compatibility place this CPU in the mainstream desktop segment, but its performance class is clearly above what Barony requires. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but irrelevant here since the discrete GPU handles all rendering. The memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, along with dual-channel memory bus, provides flexibility, though the game’s performance does not hinge on memory bandwidth given the low graphical complexity. The CPU’s Passmark multi-thread score of 38682 and single-thread score of 4270 further corroborate that it can feed the GPU with data at any resolution, and the measured results show that even at 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 231, which is still far above the 144 Hz threshold that most gamers target.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS rows for Barony include four settings presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — across three resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset yields an average of 505 FPS, Medium drops to 376, High to 323, and Ultra to 231. At 1440p, the averages are 319 for Low, 237 for Medium, 204 for High, and 146 for Ultra. At 4K, the averages fall to 167 for Low, 124 for Medium, 106 for High, and 76 for Ultra. The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance headroom, as it maintains average frame rates above 120 FPS at all resolutions — 376 at 1080p, 237 at 1440p, and 124 at 4K. The Medium preset also includes measured minimum and maximum FPS values, unlike Low, High, and Ultra which have null min and max values. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 319 and the maximum is 432; at 1440p Medium, the minimum is 202 and the maximum is 273; at 4K Medium, the minimum is 105 and the maximum is 143. These ranges show that Medium delivers consistent performance without severe drops, making it the recommended preset for players who want a smooth experience with enhanced visuals over Low.

The High preset is also viable, particularly for 1080p and 1440p where it averages 323 and 204 FPS respectively, but at 4K it falls to 106 FPS, which is still playable but closer to the edge of high-refresh-rate displays. The Ultra preset pushes the GPU hardest, with 231 FPS at 1080p, 146 at 1440p, and 76 at 4K. The 4K Ultra average of 76 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, but it remains above the 60 FPS standard. However, given that the CPU is capable of far higher frame rates, the Ultra preset at 4K suggests that the GPU is the limiting component, whereas at lower resolutions the CPU and GPU together provide enormous overhead. For the best experience per the measured rows, Medium is the sweet spot because it provides a significant visual upgrade over Low while keeping frame rates high enough to avoid any screen tearing or input lag concerns on high-refresh-rate monitors. The High preset is acceptable for those with 144 Hz displays at 1080p or 1440p, but the jump from Medium to High costs 53 FPS at 1080p, 33 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K, which is a substantial trade-off for marginal visual gains in a roguelike where fast reaction times matter.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 505; at 1440p Low, it drops to 319; at 4K Low, it falls to 167. This represents a 36.8% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 66.9% reduction from 1080p to 4K. For Medium settings, the averages are 376 at 1080p, 237 at 1440p, and 124 at 4K, showing a 37.0% drop to 1440p and a 67.0% drop to 4K. High settings follow the same trend: 323 at 1080p, 204 at 1440p, and 106 at 4K, with reductions of 36.8% and 67.2%. Ultra settings see 231 at 1080p, 146 at 1440p, and 76 at 4K, which is a 36.8% drop to 1440p and a 67.1% drop to 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings is striking — the frame rate scales almost identically regardless of preset, which indicates that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the dominant factor as resolution increases.

The RX 7900 XT has a pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s, along with 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus delivering 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications are more than sufficient for Barony’s relatively simple graphics, but the resolution scaling shows that the GPU is still the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the CPU’s high single-thread performance cannot compensate for the increased pixel count. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the CPU’s boost clock and cache efficiency become more relevant, but even then, the GPU is not saturated — the 505 FPS at Low suggests that the CPU could push even higher if the GPU were faster, but that is irrelevant for practical use. The fact that the percentage drops are nearly identical across Low, Medium, High, and Ultra means that the game’s rendering pipeline is not adding significant CPU overhead at higher settings; instead, the GPU workload scales linearly with resolution. This is typical for older titles with simple shaders, where fill rate becomes the limiting factor.

The data also shows that the 4K Ultra average of 76 FPS is the only measured result that approaches the 60 FPS baseline, while all other configurations stay comfortably above 100 FPS. This suggests that for 4K gaming, users should stick to High or Medium settings to maintain higher refresh rates, as the visual difference between Medium and Ultra is unlikely to be noticeable in a roguelike with pixel-art or low-poly aesthetics. The resolution scaling analysis confirms that the i5-14600K is not the limiting component at any resolution; instead, the RX 7900 XT’s performance at 4K is the sole constraint, and even that is only a concern at the highest settings.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 742 out of 3717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 20% of all systems tested. This rank reflects the overall performance across all resolutions and settings, and given that the measured FPS values are exceptionally high, the ranking is likely influenced by the fact that many other combos may use even more powerful GPUs or CPUs that push frame rates even higher. However, a rank of 742 out of 3717 means that there are 2975 combos that perform worse, which places this system well above the median. The percentile rank is approximately 80th, indicating that this combo outperforms four out of five tested configurations.

The CPU’s benchmark percentile of 90 and the GPU’s percentile of 55 are interesting data points — the CPU is far above average, while the GPU is only slightly above average in its own benchmark percentile. Yet, in Barony, the combo still ranks highly because the game is not GPU-intensive enough to expose the RX 7900 XT’s relative weaknesses. The GPU’s nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Radeon 660M at 13812 (deltaPct -0.5), the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile at 13821 (deltaPct -0.5), and the AMD Radeon RX 570X at 13871 (deltaPct -0.9), which are all significantly less powerful than the RX 7900 XT, yet their deltaPct values are within a fraction of a percent, suggesting that the GPU’s average benchmark score is dragged down by its low percentile in certain tests. The RX 9070 XT is a rival with a score of 13543 (deltaPct 1.5), which is actually lower than the RX 7900 XT’s 13745, indicating that the RX 7900 XT outperforms its newer sibling in average benchmark score.

The combo rank of 742 is impressive when considering that the GPU’s percentile is only 55, which means that the CPU is doing the heavy lifting in this pairing. The i5-14600K’s single-thread performance is crucial for Barony’s game logic, and the high average FPS at 1080p Low (505) suggests that the CPU is capable of driving frame rates far beyond what most displays can show. In contrast, a combo with a weaker CPU but the same GPU might rank lower because the CPU would bottleneck the frame delivery. The data shows that this combo is well-balanced for Barony, with the CPU providing enough headroom to avoid any frame rate dips, even in the most demanding scenes.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, fabricated on TSMC’s 5 nm process with 57,700 million transistors and a die size of 529 mm². It features a base clock of 1387 MHz, a boost clock of 2394 MHz, and a game clock of 2025 MHz. The memory configuration includes 20 GB of GDDR6 on a 320-bit bus, delivering 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth and a memory clock of 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). These specifications are far beyond what a 2015 roguelike requires, but they explain why the GPU can maintain high frame rates at 4K. The 20 GB VRAM is never a constraint in Barony, as the game’s textures and assets are small by modern standards, but the memory bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU does not stall on texture fetches.

The GPU’s shading units number 5376, with 336 texture mapping units and 192 raster output units, along with 84 ray tracing cores. The FP32 performance is 51.48 TFLOPS, and the pixel rate is 459.6 GPixel/s. These raw numbers translate directly to the measured FPS: at 1080p Low, the GPU is so underutilized that the CPU becomes the limiting factor, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU’s pixel rate is taxed, bringing the average down to 76 FPS. The GPU’s benchmark scores include a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5623 and a Passmark G3D score of 29009, which are strong but not top-tier, consistent with its percentile of 55 against all GPUs.

The GPU’s role in Barony is to handle the rendering of simple geometry and effects, which it does with ease. The fact that the 4K Low preset averages 167 FPS while 4K Ultra averages 76 FPS shows that the settings have a significant impact on GPU load, but even the worst case remains playable. The GPU’s end-of-life production status and launch MSRP of 899 USD indicate that it is a high-end card, and its performance in Barony reflects that, though the game does not stretch it to its limits. The GPU’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6 ensures compatibility with any rendering path the game uses, and the 2x 8-pin power connectors and 300 W TDP are standard for this performance class. In summary, the RX 7900 XT provides more than enough raw throughput for Barony, and its only limitation is at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops to 76 FPS, still above the 60 FPS threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data for Barony with this combo is comprehensive, covering three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 505 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 376 FPS, with a minimum of 319 and a maximum of 432. The High preset averages 323 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 231 FPS. These numbers show that at 1080p, even the most demanding settings keep the frame rate well above 200 FPS, making this resolution ideal for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors up to 240 Hz.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 319 FPS, which is a 36.8% reduction from 1080p Low. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 237 FPS, with a minimum of 202 and a maximum of 273. The High preset averages 204 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 146 FPS. All of these values are still above 144 FPS except for Ultra, which is close to that threshold. The 1440p Medium configuration is particularly notable for its minimum FPS of 202, which ensures that even the most chaotic scenes with many enemies or projectiles do not cause noticeable stutter.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 167 FPS, the Medium preset averages 124 FPS with a minimum of 105 and a maximum of 143, the High preset averages 106 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 76 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 105 FPS is the only sub-100 FPS minimum in the dataset, but it is still comfortably above 60 FPS. The 4K Ultra average of 76 FPS is the lowest overall, but it remains playable for a roguelike where frame rate is not as critical as in fast-paced shooters. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the Medium preset provides the best balance, with 4K Medium being the only configuration that dips below 100 FPS at its minimum, and even that is a rare occurrence.

The exact numbers reveal that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is nearly uniform at around 37% reduction, and from 1440p to 4K is another 47% reduction, resulting in a total reduction of about 67% from 1080p to 4K. This consistency across settings confirms that the GPU’s fill rate is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s performance is sufficient at all times. For users with a 4K display, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, as it delivers 124 FPS average with a 105 FPS minimum, which is a better experience than the High preset’s 106 FPS average or the Ultra preset’s 76 FPS average. For 1440p users, the High preset at 204 FPS is ideal for 144 Hz monitors, while the Ultra preset at 146 FPS also works for 144 Hz displays. At 1080p, any setting is viable, but the Medium preset’s 376 FPS average ensures maximum smoothness on 360 Hz monitors without sacrificing visual quality.