Barony

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 is a mid-range combination from the end of the Polaris and Coffee Lake generations, and its performance in Barony reflects that positioning. The data shows a system that handles 1080p with ease but begins to struggle as resolution climbs, with the GPU clearly becoming the primary bottleneck at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating a classic GPU-limited scenario. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 137.6 at 1920x1080 to 48.1 at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly 65%. This scaling is expected, as the pixel count increases by a factor of four, but the RX 570's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are simply insufficient to maintain high frame rates at that resolution.

The curve becomes even more pronounced at higher quality presets. Moving from 1080p High to 4K High drops the average from 89.9 FPS to 31.8 FPS. The Ultra preset tells the harshest story: a 64 FPS average at 1080p craters to 18.3 FPS at 4K. This 71% performance loss suggests that the combination of increased pixel load and the extra shading work required by Ultra settings overwhelms the GPU's 32 ROPs and 128 TMUs. The data indicates that 4K is not a viable target for this combo, even on Low settings, where the 48.1 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the picture is more nuanced. Low settings yield a playable 87.7 FPS, and High settings hold at 57.3 FPS. However, the jump to Ultra at this resolution brings the average down to 42.9 FPS. This suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this pairing, but only if the user is willing to compromise on quality settings. The scaling between 1080p and 1440p is more linear than the drop to 4K, with the 1440p High result being roughly 36% lower than its 1080p counterpart, reinforcing that the RX 570 is the limiting factor rather than the CPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the workhorse of this combo, and its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus is a defining characteristic. In Barony, a roguelike with procedurally generated environments, the memory capacity may not be as critical as in open-world titles, but the bandwidth is still vital for texture streaming at higher resolutions. The data shows that the GPU's 1168 MHz base clock and 1244 MHz boost clock are adequate for 1080p, where the card delivers a 137.6 FPS average on Low settings.

The GPU's compute capabilities are the bottleneck at higher resolutions. With a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s, the RX 570 is clearly a 1080p-class part. The benchmark results confirm this: the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 880 places it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable for its era but not competitive with modern parts. The nearest rivals in the database, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with a deltaPct of 0.2, have similar average benchmark scores, but the RX 570's architectural age shows in its inability to scale to 4K. The 7 Gbps effective memory speed is not enough to feed the shaders at higher resolutions, leading to the sharp FPS drops observed.

The GPU's thermal and power design, rated at 150 W TDP with a dual-slot cooler, is a non-issue for this game, but the performance ceiling is clear. The 4 GB VRAM is the minimum viable amount for modern gaming, and at 4K Ultra, the 18.3 FPS result indicates the card is not just bandwidth-limited but also fill-rate limited. The data suggests that for Barony, the RX 570 is best treated as a 1080p solution, with 1440p being a stretch goal on lower presets.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested combinations, this pairing sits near the bottom. The combo rank of 1597 out of 1702 places it in the 6th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for Barony. This is a low ranking, but it is not surprising given the age of both components. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus of 50 and the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 74 indicate that while the GPU is above-average relative to its peers, the combination as a whole is held back by the processor's modest multi-threaded performance.

The ranking reflects that the i5-9400 and RX 570 are both end-of-life products. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8809G, has an avgScore of 2319, which is 0.6% higher, showing that the i5-9400 is competitive within its own generation but not against newer silicon. The GPU's rivalry is more interesting: the RX 570's avgBenchmarkScore of 30158 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 at 30109, a deltaPct of 0.2. This means that in synthetic benchmarks, the RX 570 is on par with a much newer card, but in real-world gaming at 4K, the older architecture's limitations become apparent.

This rank of 1597 indicates that the combo is in the bottom 10% of all tested pairs, yet it still manages to produce playable frame rates at 1080p. The data shows that the ranking is heavily influenced by the 4K results, where the combo fails to reach 60 FPS on any preset. For a roguelike that may not require high frame rates, the rank is acceptable, but for a competitive benchmark list, it is a low-tier entry.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 137.6 FPS, which is smooth for any display. Medium settings drop to 102.7 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings yield 89.9 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains a 64 FPS average. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the CPU is not a bottleneck, and the GPU has enough headroom to handle the game's roguelike mechanics without issue.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results show a clear step down. Low settings average 87.7 FPS, which is still playable, but the margin narrows. Medium settings produce 67.9 FPS, High settings drop to 57.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 42.9 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows an average performance loss of about 36-40% across all presets, which is a typical scaling factor for a GPU of this class. The 42.9 FPS at Ultra is below the 60 FPS target but may be acceptable for a turn-based roguelike.

At 3840x2160, the data shows a hard limit. Low settings average 48.1 FPS, which is technically playable but not smooth. Medium settings drop to 35.7 FPS, High to 31.8 FPS, and Ultra to 18.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 29.8 FPS, showing that the quality presets have a massive impact on performance when the pixel count is high. The 18.3 FPS at Ultra is a slideshow, and the data suggests that this combo should not be used at 4K under any circumstances. The 1080p Low result of 137.6 FPS is the standout figure, demonstrating that the RX 570's 4 GB memory and 256-bit bus are sufficient for lower resolution workloads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz provide adequate single-threaded performance for Barony, which is a roguelike that likely relies on a single main game thread. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1125 is respectable, and the multi-core score of 7969 shows that the CPU can handle background tasks, but it is not a high-end part.

In this game, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. At 1080p Low, the 137.6 FPS average is likely CPU-bound, as the RX 570 could theoretically push more frames if the processor were faster. However, the data shows that the i5-9400's 6 threads are sufficient to keep the game running smoothly at 1080p, as the FPS does not drop below 64 even at Ultra. The CPU's 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the game's data demands.

The processor's benchmark scores place it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, with an avgBenchmarkScore of 2305. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305 with a deltaPct of 0.2, show that it is closely matched with newer low-end parts. The boost clock of 4.10 GHz is the key asset here, as it provides the single-thread speed needed for game logic. The 65 W TDP is low, making it an efficient choice, but the lack of hyper-threading means it may struggle in heavily threaded scenarios. For Barony, the data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution, as the GPU consistently bottlenecks first. The 4.10 GHz boost clock appears to be the deciding factor in keeping frame rates stable at 1080p, where the GPU has more headroom.