Barony

# Barony with Intel Core i5-9400 + AMD Radeon RX 9060

The benchmark data for Barony, a roguelike released on 2015-06-22, shows this combination of an Intel Core i5-9400 with an AMD Radeon RX 9060 producing a measured FPS spread that ranges from 48 at 4K Ultra to 315 at 1080p Low. The combo ranks 1704 out of 2935 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database, though the absolute frame rates are high enough for smooth play across most settings and resolutions. The data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-bound as resolution drops, a pattern that becomes clear when examining the scaling behavior across the measured rows.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings, but the magnitude varies significantly depending on the preset. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 315 at 1920x1080 to 199 at 2560x1440, then to 104 at 3840x2160 — a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the drop is from 201 at 1080p to 127 at 1440p and 66 at 4K, representing a 67% decrease as well. The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 235 at 1080p, 148 at 1440p, and 77 at 4K, which is also a 67% decline.

Ultra settings display the steepest relative scaling, dropping from 144 at 1080p to 91 at 1440p and finally 48 at 4K — a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K, matching the other presets in proportional terms. The consistency of this 67% drop across all four settings presets is notable; it suggests that the scaling behavior is governed by the same bottleneck regardless of graphics load. However, the absolute frame rates at 4K tell a different story about the limiting component.

At 4K, the spread between Low (104 FPS) and Ultra (48 FPS) is 56 FPS, while at 1080p, the spread between Low (315 FPS) and Ultra (144 FPS) is 171 FPS. This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes the primary constraint at 4K — the difference between presets shrinks because the graphics card is working near its capacity even at Low settings. Conversely, at 1080p, the wide gap between Low and Ultra suggests that the CPU is capable of pushing very high frame rates when the GPU workload is light, and only when the GPU load increases does the frame rate drop to levels that still remain high.

The data indicates that at 1080p Low, the 315 FPS average is far beyond what most displays can show, meaning the CPU is not the limiting factor there — the GPU is still delivering frames faster than needed. At 4K Ultra, the 48 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered smooth, highlighting that this resolution/settings combination exceeds what the GPU can comfortably handle. The intermediate steps — 1440p Medium at 148 FPS and 1440p High at 127 FPS — show a balanced point where neither component is overwhelmingly stressed, but the scaling pattern suggests the GPU is the dominant limiter at 1440p and above.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060, built on the Navi 44 chip with RDNA 4.0 architecture, has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth. Its clocks are specified as 1700 MHz base, 2400 MHz game, and 2990 MHz boost, with memory running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). The GPU's benchmark scores show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3322 and a Passmark G3D score of 17631, placing it at the 59th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (avg score 16129, delta -0.7%), the AMD Radeon R9 370X (avg score 15862, delta 1%), and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (avg score 15852, delta 1%).

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Barony's roguelike visuals, as evidenced by the measured FPS not collapsing at 4K Ultra — the 48 FPS average indicates the GPU is compute-limited rather than memory-limited. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth supports the 4K texture loads without causing stutter, as the minimum FPS values recorded at Medium settings (66 at 4K, 126 at 1440p, 199 at 1080p) remain proportionally close to the averages, suggesting no VRAM swapping penalties. The boost clock of 2990 MHz is high, and the data shows the GPU can sustain elevated performance across the benchmark runs, though the exact utilization is not provided.

The GPU's percentile rank of 59 means it outperforms just over half of all tested GPUs, which aligns with its measured performance in Barony. At 1080p, the GPU delivers 201 FPS on High and 235 FPS on Medium, indicating it has substantial headroom for this game's engine. At 4K, the GPU's limits become apparent — the 104 FPS at Low drops to 66 FPS at High and 48 FPS at Ultra, showing that the rasterization workload at 4K Ultra exceeds what the 21.43 TFLOPS FP32 throughput can manage at higher frame rates. The GPU's texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s are the relevant specs for this game's fill-rate demands, and the diminishing returns above Medium at 4K suggest those units are saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 achieves a combo rank of 1704 out of 2935 tested combinations in Barony, placing it in the 58th percentile of all combos. This ranking is notably lower than the GPU's individual percentile (59th) and the CPU's individual percentile (47th), indicating that the pairing does not boost performance beyond what each component contributes independently. The rank suggests that in Barony, this combo is competitive with a wide field but not exceptional — roughly 1,231 other combinations deliver higher frame rates.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (avg score 2259, delta -0.2%), Intel Core i7-10710U (avg score 2248, delta 0.3%), AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, delta 0.4%), and Intel Core i3-10305 (avg score 2264, delta -0.4%). These rivals all have average scores within 0.4% of the i5-9400's 2254 average, meaning the CPU's synthetic performance is essentially tied with several other mid-range processors. The GPU's rivals — RTX 3060 Ti, R9 370X, RX 7700 — are also within 2.1% of the RX 9060's average score.

In Barony specifically, the combo's rank of 1704 out of 2935 means it sits above the median but below the top quartile. Given that the game is a roguelike with relatively modest visual demands, the high absolute FPS numbers (even at 4K Medium, 77 FPS) suggest that the rank is more a reflection of the competitive field than any deficiency in this pairing. The data shows that many combinations achieve higher frame rates in this game, likely due to stronger CPUs or GPUs, but the practical difference at 1080p and 1440p is minimal — the combo already delivers well above 60 FPS at those resolutions on all settings except 4K Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows indicate that the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, all four presets exceed 144 FPS, with High at 201 FPS and Medium at 235 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 144 FPS, which is exactly at the threshold for high-refresh 144 Hz displays. For 1080p users, the data supports using Ultra if the display is 144 Hz or lower, since 144 FPS is sufficient for smooth gameplay, while Medium or High provides extra headroom for 240 Hz displays.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 148 FPS with a minimum of 126 FPS, which is ideal for 144 Hz monitors. High at 1440p yields 127 FPS, still above 120 FPS, while Ultra drops to 91 FPS — acceptable for 90 Hz displays but not for 144 Hz. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset based on the measured rows, as it maintains a high average with a minimum above 120 FPS. Low at 1440p reaches 199 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is unnecessary given Medium's strong performance.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes. Medium delivers 77 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS, which is playable on 60 Hz displays but not on higher refresh rates. High at 4K provides 66 FPS, dropping below 60 FPS in the worst case at Medium (the 66 min FPS at 4K Medium is the lowest recorded minimum). Ultra at 4K averages 48 FPS, which is below the typical 60 FPS smoothness threshold. For 4K, the data suggests Low (104 FPS) for high-refresh 4K displays, or Medium (77 FPS) if visual quality is prioritized over frame rate headroom. The best experience per the measured rows is 1080p Ultra at 144 FPS for maximum visual fidelity with smooth frame rates, or 1440p Medium at 148 FPS for a balance of resolution and performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are: Low at 315 FPS, Medium at 235 FPS (min 199, max 270), High at 201 FPS, and Ultra at 144 FPS. This resolution shows the widest spread between presets, with Ultra delivering 54% of Low's frame rate. The Medium preset's minimum of 199 FPS indicates stable performance even under load.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 199 FPS, Medium at 148 FPS (min 126, max 170), High at 127 FPS, and Ultra at 91 FPS. The Medium minimum of 126 FPS is notably lower than the 1080p Medium minimum of 199 FPS, showing a 37% drop in minimum frame rate when moving from 1080p to 1440p. The Ultra preset at 1440p (91 FPS) is close to the 4K High preset (66 FPS) in relative terms, but the gap between them is 25 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 104 FPS, Medium at 77 FPS (min 66, max 89), High at 66 FPS, and Ultra at 48 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 66 FPS is the lowest recorded minimum across all rows, and it matches the 4K High average of 66 FPS. The 4K Ultra average of 48 FPS is exactly half of the 1080p Ultra average of 144 FPS, demonstrating the resolution scaling pattern. The progression from 4K Low to 4K Ultra shows a 56 FPS total drop, with each preset step costing roughly 14-19 FPS on average.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo averages 315 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all resolutions and presets.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K on any preset?

A: Yes, the data shows 4K Low averages 104 FPS, 4K Medium averages 77 FPS, and 4K High averages 66 FPS, all above 60 FPS. Only 4K Ultra at 48 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations in Barony?

A: The combo ranks 1704 out of 2935 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field, roughly at the 58th percentile.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium?

A: The 2560x1440 Medium preset records a minimum FPS of 126, with an average of 148 FPS and a maximum of 170 FPS.

Q: Which preset at 4K has the lowest minimum FPS?

A: The 4K Medium preset has a minimum FPS of 66, which is the lowest minimum recorded across all measured rows in the data.

Q: How does the GPU's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, while its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16129, a delta of -0.7%, meaning the rival is slightly ahead.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache, with 64 KB L1 and 256 KB L2 per core, and supports DDR4 memory on a dual-channel bus with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth. Its synthetic benchmarks include a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 6629 and singlecore score of 935, a Geekbench multicore score of 5141 and singlecore score of 1389, and an average benchmark score of 2254, placing it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs.

In Barony, the CPU's role becomes evident when examining the 1080p performance. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 315 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls to sustain that level. The 1080p Ultra average of 144 FPS indicates that even at the highest settings, the CPU does not become a bottleneck at this resolution — the GPU is still the limiting factor, as evidenced by the consistent 67% scaling drop from 1080p to 4K across all presets.

However, the CPU's 47th percentile rank and the fact that it has only 6 threads (no hyper-threading) means it may struggle in CPU-heavy scenes, though the measured FPS data does not show any anomalies at the minimum frame rates — the lowest min FPS is 66 at 4K Medium, which is still acceptable. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-10710U (avg score 2248, delta 0.3%) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (avg score 2246, delta 0.4%), are within 0.4% in synthetic scores, indicating that this CPU is competitive with other mid-range processors of its era. In Barony, the CPU's 6 cores at 4.10 GHz boost are sufficient to keep the GPU occupied at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU's limitations dominate the frame rate, making the CPU's role secondary. The data shows that the combo's rank of 1704 out of 2935 is consistent with a mid-tier CPU paired with a mid-tier GPU — neither component boosts the other, but together they deliver playable frame rates across most settings, with the only sub-60 FPS result being 4K Ultra at 48 FPS.