Barony

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti pairing delivers exceptional performance in Barony, with the data showing that this combination is capable of running the roguelike at extremely high frame rates across all tested resolutions. The most striking result is the 1080p Low preset achieving 353 FPS, which indicates that the system has substantial headroom even in the most demanding scenarios. While the combo ranks in the 49th percentile of all tested configurations, the absolute numbers reveal that Barony is not a challenging title for this hardware, making the ranking more a reflection of the sheer number of higher-end combos tested rather than any deficiency in this pairing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, operating at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This 14 nm part features a 9 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. In the context of Barony, which is a roguelike genre title, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain consistent frame pacing and handle game logic, rather than push massive multi-threaded workloads. The benchmark data shows that the i5-9400 achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, placing it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, scores nearly identically with an average benchmark score of 2259 versus 2254 for the i5-9400, a negligible 0.2% difference.

At 1080p resolution, the CPU's influence on the measured FPS becomes apparent when comparing settings. The jump from Low (353 FPS) to Ultra (162 FPS) shows a 191 FPS drop, which is far more pronounced than the resolution scaling effects. This indicates that at lower settings, the CPU is capable of feeding frames at a rate exceeding 350 FPS, but the GPU becomes the limiting factor as settings increase. The i5-9400's single-threaded performance, while not class-leading, is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 3060 Ti in Barony, as evidenced by the 225 FPS High preset result at 1080p. The processor's 65W TDP and 6-core configuration are modest by today's standards, but for a game like Barony that does not appear to scale heavily with core counts, the i5-9400 provides enough compute headroom to keep the GPU well-fed.

The data suggests that the CPU's 4.10 GHz boost clock is the key factor in maintaining high average FPS, particularly in the 1080p Low and Medium settings where frame rates exceed 260 FPS. Comparing to the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500, which has an average benchmark score of 2246 (0.4% lower than the i5-9400), the Intel part delivers a slightly better baseline for gaming. However, the real takeaway is that Barony's engine appears to be more sensitive to GPU settings than CPU core scaling, as the i5-9400's 6 threads are clearly adequate for the game's demands. The Geekbench single-core score of 1389 further reinforces that the i5-9400 has sufficient per-core performance to handle the roguelike's logic without introducing frame time spikes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1410 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and its memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). With 4864 shading units, 152 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, the RTX 3060 Ti provides 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This GPU sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16129, placing it just 0.7% above the AMD Radeon RX 9060 and 1.4% below the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M.

The GPU's role in Barony is clearly the dominant factor at higher settings and resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 53 FPS, which is a 70 FPS reduction from the 4K High preset (74 FPS). This massive performance penalty indicates that the Ultra preset introduces GPU-intensive effects that heavily tax the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB VRAM and compute units. The 4K Medium preset maintains a playable 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS, showing that the GPU can handle the game's medium settings even at the highest resolution. The RTX 3060 Ti's 448.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes a critical asset at 4K, where texture streaming and memory bandwidth demands increase substantially.

At 1440p, the GPU demonstrates its strength with a Low preset result of 223 FPS and a High preset of 142 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 31% FPS drop at High settings (from 225 to 142), which is consistent with the GPU being the primary bottleneck at this resolution. The RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB VRAM appears sufficient for Barony at all tested settings, as there are no signs of memory-related stuttering in the min FPS data. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, such as the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (1.4% higher average score), would likely perform similarly in this title, but the RTX 3060 Ti's newer architecture and higher memory bandwidth give it a slight edge in consistency.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 263 FPS with a minimum of 223 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display refresh rate currently available, while High drops to 225 FPS and Ultra to 162 FPS. The differences between Medium and High are relatively small in terms of playability, but Medium provides a 17% FPS boost over High, making it the preferred choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1440p, Medium maintains 166 FPS (minimum 141 FPS), which is still well above the 144Hz threshold for most gaming monitors, whereas High drops to 142 FPS and Ultra falls to 102 FPS.

For 4K users, the Medium preset is the only viable option for smooth gameplay, delivering 87 FPS with a 74 FPS minimum. The High preset at 4K drops to 74 FPS, which is still playable but may feel less fluid on high-refresh-rate 4K displays, while Ultra at 4K falls to 53 FPS, which is borderline for fast-paced action. The data strongly suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this combo, as it provides a 63% FPS improvement over Ultra at 1080p (263 vs 162) and a 64% improvement at 4K (87 vs 53). The Low preset offers diminishing returns, with only a 34% improvement over Medium at 1080p (353 vs 263) but a 33% improvement at 4K (116 vs 87), indicating that the visual quality trade-off may not be worth the extra frame rate.

The minimum FPS data for Medium settings across all resolutions shows consistent frame pacing, with 223 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, and 74 FPS at 4K. This consistency suggests that the Medium preset avoids the frame time spikes that can occur with higher settings, making it the recommended choice for a stable gaming experience. For users with 60Hz displays at 4K, the High preset at 74 FPS is also viable, but Medium offers more headroom for future game updates or background processes.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 and RTX 3060 Ti combination ranks 1835 out of 3717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the 49th percentile of all configurations. This mid-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the high absolute FPS numbers, but it reflects the fact that many of the combos tested above this pairing likely feature more recent CPUs and higher-tier GPUs. The rank indicates that while this combo is far from the top of the leaderboards, it is also not in the lower half of performers, and the actual gameplay experience is exceptional for this title.

The ranking becomes more meaningful when considering the CPU and GPU individually. The i5-9400's 47th percentile among all CPUs and the RTX 3060 Ti's 59th percentile among all GPUs suggest that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing. However, in Barony specifically, the combo's 49th percentile ranking is slightly below the GPU's individual percentile, indicating that the CPU may be holding back the GPU at lower resolutions where frame rates are extremely high. At 1080p Low, the 353 FPS result is likely CPU-limited, as the i5-9400's single-thread performance becomes the bottleneck above 350 FPS.

Compared to other combos, this pairing sits in a competitive position. The data shows that the combo is not in the top tier of performers, which would include combinations of the latest flagship CPUs and GPUs, but it is also well above the bottom quartile. For a game like Barony, where the 1080p High preset achieves 225 FPS, the ranking is more of a theoretical measure than a practical concern, as the actual frame rates are far beyond what most displays can show. The 3717 total combos tested indicate a diverse range of hardware, and this pairing's mid-pack rank suggests it offers a solid balance of CPU and GPU capabilities without any glaring bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 225 to 142, a 37% reduction. From 1440p to 4K at High settings, the FPS drops from 142 to 74, a 48% reduction. This accelerating rate of decline indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are increasingly taxed by the larger pixel count. The 4K Ultra preset's 53 FPS result further confirms that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU's performance is relatively unaffected by resolution.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a different pattern: 353 FPS to 116 FPS, a 67% reduction. At Low settings, the GPU is less stressed, allowing the CPU to play a larger role in determining the final frame rate. However, even at Low, the 4K resolution still requires the GPU to process 8.3 million pixels per frame, which explains the significant drop. The Medium preset shows a more linear scaling pattern, with 263 FPS at 1080p, 166 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K, representing 37% and 48% reductions respectively. This consistency indicates that Medium settings scale predictably with resolution, making it the most reliable preset for estimating performance at different displays.

The resolution scaling analysis also reveals that the i5-9400 is not a significant bottleneck at 1440p and 4K, as the FPS drops are consistent with GPU-bound scenarios. At 1080p, however, the CPU's influence becomes more apparent, particularly at Low settings where 353 FPS approaches the limit of what the 6-core processor can sustain. The data suggests that users with 1080p displays and high-refresh-rate monitors (240Hz+) will be limited by the CPU in Barony, while those with 1440p or 4K displays will be limited by the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers outstanding performance across all settings. The Low preset achieves 353 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset and indicates that the CPU can push well beyond 300 FPS when the GPU is not heavily loaded. The Medium preset drops to 263 FPS with a minimum of 223 FPS and a maximum of 302 FPS, providing a very smooth experience. High settings deliver 225 FPS, while Ultra drops to 162 FPS. The 1080p results show a 191 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, highlighting the significant performance impact of the Ultra preset's graphical enhancements.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains highly playable. Low settings achieve 223 FPS, Medium delivers 166 FPS (minimum 141 FPS, maximum 191 FPS), High reaches 142 FPS, and Ultra falls to 102 FPS. The 1440p results demonstrate that the RTX 3060 Ti has enough headroom to maintain 100+ FPS even at the highest settings, making this resolution the sweet spot for the combo. The minimum FPS at Medium (141 FPS) indicates that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above 140 FPS, ensuring a responsive experience.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly but remains playable at most settings. Low achieves 116 FPS, Medium delivers 87 FPS (minimum 74 FPS, maximum 100 FPS), High reaches 74 FPS, and Ultra drops to 53 FPS. The 4K results show that Ultra is not a viable setting for smooth gameplay, but High and Medium both provide playable frame rates. The minimum FPS at Medium (74 FPS) is still above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended 4K preset. The data shows a clear progression from 353 FPS at 1080p Low to 53 FPS at 4K Ultra, demonstrating the GPU's performance envelope across the tested configurations.