Barony

Barony is a lightweight roguelike that nonetheless shows a wide performance spread depending on resolution and settings, and this particular pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600K with the Intel Arc B580 produces results that are far more nuanced than the game’s simple visuals might suggest. The measured data reveals a system that is capable of delivering exceptionally high frame rates at mainstream resolutions, but which also exhibits a predictable and steep drop-off as pixel count climbs. The combination ranks in the 1321st position out of 1702 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, a position that is heavily influenced by the GPU’s workload at higher resolutions rather than any CPU limitation.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies in this system. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 272.4 FPS, which is an extraordinarily high figure that indicates the CPU is doing the heavy lifting and the GPU is far from saturated. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 174.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 36%, and at 4K Low the average falls to 92 FPS, which is just over half of the 1080p result. This pattern demonstrates that the Intel Arc B580 is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases, a typical scenario for a mid-range GPU paired with a high-end processor.

The scaling becomes even more pronounced at higher settings. At High settings, the drop from 1080p (178.3 FPS) to 1440p (108.6 FPS) is a 39% reduction, and then to 4K (57.9 FPS) is another 47% cut from the 1440p figure. This steepening curve suggests that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading throughput are being taxed progressively harder. The data implies that the Core i5-14600K, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, is never the limiting factor at any resolution; even at 4K Ultra, where the average is 43.6 FPS, the CPU has ample headroom. The performance degradation is almost entirely attributable to the Arc B580’s capabilities, which makes sense given its 192-bit memory bus and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting a smooth experience, the choice of settings is critical because the gap between Low and Ultra is substantial. At 1080p, even Ultra settings yield 126.9 FPS, which is well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors, so there is no practical reason to drop below High at this resolution. The data shows that High at 1080p (178.3 FPS) offers a strong balance, providing a 40% improvement over Ultra while still looking significantly better than Low.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. High settings produce 108.6 FPS, which is excellent for most displays, but Medium (129.2 FPS) offers a 19% performance uplift with only a minor visual penalty. Given that the jump from Medium to High costs 20.6 FPS, and the jump from High to Ultra costs 28.3 FPS, Medium is the sweet spot for maintaining a comfortable margin above 120 FPS. At 4K, the situation becomes more constrained. High settings deliver 57.9 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action, while Medium (68.3 FPS) is the better choice if you want to stay closer to 60 FPS. Low at 4K (92 FPS) is the only setting that provides a truly fluid experience, but it sacrifices visual fidelity that many players will find unacceptable. The measured rows suggest that Medium at 4K is the best compromise, as it keeps the average above 60 FPS while retaining a reasonable level of detail.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the decisive component in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the observed frame rates. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the GPU has a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The card’s boost clock is fixed at 2670 MHz, which is notably high, and its 2560 shading units are arranged in a configuration that delivers solid raw throughput. In synthetic benchmarks, the Arc B580 scores 15748 in Passmark G3D and 3068 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs tested.

The nearest rivals in the database illustrate its positioning. The Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021, which is just 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon 760M (22999) and 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA P106-100 (22950). It is also within 0.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (23181), which is a much more expensive card. This tight grouping explains why the combo ranks relatively low in-game; the Arc B580 is competitive at lower resolutions but lacks the memory bandwidth and raw power to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, where the 43.6 FPS result is a direct consequence of its 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 213.6 GPixel/s pixel rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the data shows a wide range depending on settings. Low settings produce 272.4 FPS, Medium 205.1 FPS, High 178.3 FPS, and Ultra 126.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 145.5 FPS, which is a 53% reduction, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces significant shading and post-processing workloads that the Arc B580 handles with decreasing efficiency. At 1440p, the numbers are 174.4 FPS (Low), 129.2 FPS (Medium), 108.6 FPS (High), and 80.3 FPS (Ultra). The relative drop from Low to Ultra is 94.1 FPS, or 54%, which is consistent with the 1080p scaling.

At 4K, the breakdown is 92 FPS (Low), 68.3 FPS (Medium), 57.9 FPS (High), and 43.6 FPS (Ultra). The Ultra setting at 4K is the only configuration that falls below 45 FPS, and it represents a 53% reduction from Low. This consistency in percentage drop across resolutions suggests that the Arc B580’s performance scaling is predictable and directly tied to its pixel throughput. The lack of min or max FPS data means we cannot assess frame time consistency, but the averages indicate that the system is capable of maintaining smooth gameplay in all but the most demanding 4K Ultra scenario.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combos for Barony, this pairing of the Core i5-14600K and Arc B580 ranks 1321 out of 1702, placing it in the 22nd percentile. This is a surprisingly low ranking given the strong CPU and capable GPU, but it is explained by the game’s sensitivity to GPU performance at higher resolutions. The combo’s average benchmark score across all CPU and GPU tests is 49166 for the processor and 23021 for the graphics card, which are both respectable figures, yet the in-game rank is dragged down by the 4K results.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (49062, +0.2%), Intel Core i5-14600KF (49367, -0.4%), AMD EPYC 4345P (49595, -0.9%), and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698, +1%). These deltas are all within 1%, meaning the processor is not a differentiator in this game. The GPU’s nearest rivals are similarly close, with the AMD Radeon 760M (22999, +0.1%), NVIDIA P106-100 (22950, +0.3%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (23181, -0.7%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729, +1.3%). This tight clustering indicates that the Arc B580 is performing exactly as expected, and the low in-game rank is a function of the game’s demanding 4K Ultra preset rather than any hardware deficiency.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a high-end desktop processor with 14 cores (6 performance and 8 efficiency) and 20 threads, running at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It features 24 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a TDP of 125 W. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 32881 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4642 in single-core, which places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 49166, and its closest rival is the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which is only 0.2% behind.

In Barony, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and the data shows it is more than adequate for this task. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 272.4 FPS, which is a clear indication that the CPU is not a bottleneck. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is struggling at 43.6 FPS, the CPU has ample headroom. The 14-core configuration is overkill for this game, which is a roguelike that does not utilize multi-threading heavily, but the high single-core performance of 4642 in Cinebench R23 ensures that the game’s main thread is never starved. The processor’s 5.30 GHz boost clock is particularly beneficial for this workload, as it allows the game to run at maximum speed without any CPU-induced frame drops. The conclusion is straightforward: the Core i5-14600K is not the limiting factor in any measured configuration, and its performance is more than sufficient to support the Arc B580’s capabilities.