Barony

Barony is a roguelike that behaves very differently from most modern AAA titles for hardware scaling. Based on the measured data for the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700, this combination delivers exceptional frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings. The data shows that this is a configuration capable of pushing far beyond the typical 60 FPS target, making it a strong candidate for high-refresh-rate displays even at demanding resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is significant, but the absolute numbers remain high enough to be playable at every resolution tested. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 230 FPS at 1920x1080 to 145 FPS at 2560x1440, and then to 76 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 37% decrease from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 48% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as resolution increases, which is expected given the pixel count jump.

The Low settings preset shows a similar trend but with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 360 FPS, which drops to 227 FPS at 1440p and 119 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is particularly notable because it still exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors, indicating that even the most demanding resolution is far from a struggle for this pairing. The gap between Low and High settings at 1080p is 130 FPS, but this gap narrows to 43 FPS at 4K, further confirming that pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset offers the most complete data with min and max FPS recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 268 FPS with a minimum of 228 FPS and a maximum of 308 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 169 FPS with a minimum of 144 FPS and a maximum of 194 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 102 FPS. The minimum FPS values at each resolution stay within a reasonable range of the average, suggesting consistent frame pacing without major stutters.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates, as expected. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 165 FPS, which drops to 104 FPS at 1440p and 54 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that players seeking maximum visual fidelity at 4K may need to consider a more powerful GPU. However, for the vast majority of use cases, the scaling curve shows that this combo maintains playable or excellent performance across the board.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is the dominant component in this pairing for frame rate delivery. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, the card provides 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for the texture and geometry loads in Barony. The GPU's base clock of 1900 MHz and boost clock of 2459 MHz, with a game clock of 2041 MHz, indicate a solid factory-tuned card that can sustain high clocks under load. The 2560 shading units and 96 ROPs help explain why the card scales so well from 1080p to 4K, as it has sufficient raw compute to handle the increased pixel workload.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is a key advantage in this context. While Barony may not be a VRAM-heavy game, the capacity ensures that there is no memory pressure even at 4K Ultra settings. The 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, built on TSMC's 5 nm process, contribute to the card's efficiency and thermal headroom. The 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is more than enough for a roguelike title, and the 393.4 GTexel/s texture rate ensures that texture-heavy scenes do not cause slowdowns.

Comparing the GPU's synthetic benchmark scores to its nearest rivals provides context for its performance class. The RX 7700 scores 20974 in Passmark G3D, which is 1.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and 1% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9060. It is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500. This places the card in a competitive mid-range tier, but the actual in-game results for Barony show it performing far better than these synthetic deltas might suggest, likely due to the game's lighter GPU demands. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2865 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 106028 further reinforce that this is a capable card for both rasterization and compute workloads.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 ranks 1336 out of 2935 tested combos for Barony. This places it in the 45th percentile of all combinations, which might seem modest given the high frame rates observed. However, this rank must be interpreted carefully. The comboRankInGame likely accounts for the CPU's relative weakness compared to newer processors, as the i5-9400 is an older Coffee Lake part with a 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The GPU, with its 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs, is the stronger component in this pairing.

The rank suggests that while the combo delivers excellent playable performance, there are many other combinations that achieve even higher frame rates, likely due to faster CPUs. The i5-9400's nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (0.2% faster average score) and the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.4% faster), showing that the CPU is competitive with other mid-range parts but not a top performer. For Barony specifically, the rank indicates that the combo is better than 54% of all tested configurations, which is a solid result for a pairing that skews toward GPU-heavy performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo produces exceptional results. Low settings yield an average of 360 FPS, High settings drop to 230 FPS, Medium settings average 268 FPS with a minimum of 228 and maximum of 308, and Ultra settings average 165 FPS. These numbers show that even at Ultra, the frame rate exceeds 144 FPS, making this an ideal setup for high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors. The gap between Low and Ultra is 195 FPS, indicating that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected reduction. Low settings average 227 FPS, High settings average 145 FPS, Medium settings average 169 FPS with a minimum of 144 and maximum of 194, and Ultra settings average 104 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium settings of 144 FPS is exactly at the threshold for many 1440p gaming monitors, suggesting that players can lock to 144 Hz without drops. The Ultra setting at 104 FPS still provides a smooth experience, though it may not fully saturate a 144 Hz display.

At 3840x2160, the 4K results are the most demanding. Low settings average 119 FPS, which is impressive for 4K and indicates that esports-style play is viable at this resolution. High settings average 76 FPS, Medium settings average 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 and maximum of 102, and Ultra settings average 54 FPS. The Medium setting at 4K is the sweet spot for 60 FPS gaming, as the minimum of 75 FPS ensures no drops below the target. Ultra settings at 4K are the only configuration that fails to maintain 60 FPS, so players prioritizing smoothness over visuals should stick to High or Medium.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Barony at 4K with high settings?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 High settings is 76 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold. Players can expect a smooth experience at 4K High without any dips below 60 FPS, based on the available data.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: For a 144 Hz 1440p monitor, Medium settings provide an average of 169 FPS with a minimum of 144 FPS, ensuring no drops below the refresh rate. Ultra settings average 104 FPS, which is also playable but may not fully saturate a 144 Hz display.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, which is 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 and 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i3-10305. It is 0.3% faster than the Intel Core i7-10710U and 0.4% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500.

Q: Is the GPU strong enough for this game's requirements?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 scores 20974 in Passmark G3D, placing it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. It is 1.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti but 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500, indicating it is more than sufficient for Barony's demands.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average at 1920x1080 Ultra is 165 FPS. This is ideal for high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, as it exceeds 144 Hz and provides a very smooth experience.

Q: Does the combo bottleneck at any resolution?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, as the FPS drops are proportional to the pixel count increase. At 1080p and 1440p, the frame rates are high enough that the CPU's 6-core, 6-thread configuration does not appear to hinder performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The processor lacks hyper-threading, which is a notable limitation in multi-threaded workloads, but for Barony, a roguelike that likely relies more on single-core performance, this is less of an issue. The 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 cache per core provide adequate data locality for game logic.

The CPU's benchmark scores paint a clear picture of its capabilities. In Cinebench R23, it scores 6629 in multicore and 935 in single-core. The single-core score of 935 is particularly relevant for gaming, as many game engines still depend heavily on single-threaded performance. The Geekbench scores of 5141 multicore and 1389 single-core align with these results. The CPU's 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is a mid-range part, but its performance is sufficient to keep up with the RX 7700 in Barony, as evidenced by the high frame rates at lower resolutions.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 and the Intel Core i3-10305, both of which score slightly higher. This suggests that the i5-9400 is not a top-tier processor, but it is competitive with other options from its era. The 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth and DDR4 support are standard for the platform. With a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, the CPU can handle the single-threaded demands of Barony without becoming a bottleneck, especially since the game's roguelike nature means it does not heavily utilize multi-threading. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 360 FPS, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU well beyond typical refresh rates.