Barony

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a remarkable performance profile in Barony, a 2015 roguelike that scales exceptionally well with modern hardware. The benchmark data shows this combination is capable of crushing even 4K Ultra settings, though the CPU becomes a notable limiting factor at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, optimal settings, and how this combo stacks against the 1,702 other tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across all four settings presets and three resolutions reveals a clear hierarchy, with High emerging as the most balanced choice for this specific combo. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 286.3 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display refresh rate currently on the market. Dropping to Low increases the average to 447.5 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss in a game like Barony—where environmental readability matters for roguelike gameplay—is not worth the extra headroom unless chasing extreme refresh rates.

For 2560x1440 users, High remains the sweet spot, producing 178.5 FPS. This is still well above the 144Hz threshold that most high-refresh monitors target. The Medium preset at 211.3 FPS offers a marginal gain of 32.8 FPS over High, but the visual downgrade is disproportionate to the performance benefit. At 4K (3840x2160), High yields 97.5 FPS, which is comfortable for 60Hz displays and even viable for 120Hz panels. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 69.8 FPS, which remains playable but introduces unnecessary risk of frame drops in busy roguelike scenes.

The data suggests that Ultra is only recommended for 1080p, where the 208.5 FPS average still provides smooth gameplay. However, given that High at 1080p offers 286.3 FPS—a 37% improvement over Ultra—and the visual differences between High and Ultra in Barony are typically subtle, High is the recommended preset across all resolutions. The CPU's six-core, six-thread configuration from the Coffee Lake architecture shows its age at lower resolutions, but the RTX 3080’s Ampere architecture compensates well.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. The measured data shows 97.5 FPS average at 3840x2160 with High settings. This is comfortably above 60 FPS, making 4K High the recommended configuration for this resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 208.5 at 1920x1080 to 69.8 at 3840x2160, representing a reduction of 138.7 FPS. This indicates the GPU becomes more heavily utilized at higher resolutions, as expected.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 bottlenecked by the i5-9400 in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate CPU limitation at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 447.5 FPS, but the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low is only from 447.5 to 286.2 FPS—a 36% drop—suggesting the CPU may be capping performance more than the GPU at 1080p.

*Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested systems for Barony?*

A: The combo ranks 526th out of 1,702 tested combinations, placing it in the top 31% of all configurations. This is a strong result given the i5-9400’s mid-range positioning.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its nearest rival, the i3-10305?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-10305’s score of 2300. This places the two processors effectively on par in synthetic workloads.

Q: Does the RTX 3080 outperform its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo?

A: The RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 35787, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro Duo’s score of 35860. The difference is negligible in real-world gaming scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination secures position 526 out of 1,702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the upper third of all configurations. This ranking is impressive when considering the CPU’s modest standing: the i5-9400 sits at the 50th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2305. The GPU, meanwhile, performs at the 80th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 35787.

The data reveals a significant imbalance in component strength. The RTX 3080’s nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, -0.2% delta), AMD Radeon 880M (35646, +0.4% delta), AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36101, -0.9% delta), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile (35435, +1% delta)—all cluster within 1% of its score. This tight grouping shows the GPU is competitive at the highest tier. The CPU, however, sits within 0.6% of its nearest rivals, with the i3-10305 (2300, +0.2% delta), i3-1125G4 (2299, +0.2% delta), Xeon E-2134 (2295, +0.4% delta), and i7-8809G (2319, -0.6% delta) all clustered together.

The 526th overall rank reflects a system where the GPU carries most of the load. In a roguelike like Barony, which relies heavily on procedural generation and physics calculations, the CPU’s 6 cores and 6 threads are adequate but not exceptional. The combo’s ranking suggests it outperforms most systems, but the CPU prevents it from cracking the top 500. The 1,702-combo pool includes configurations with newer, higher-core-count CPUs that would pair better with the RTX 3080’s raw power.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 447.5 FPS, Medium drops to 335.1 FPS, High settles at 286.3 FPS, and Ultra maintains 208.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 239 FPS, indicating that even at the most demanding preset, the system has massive headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the data shows a predictable decline but still impressive numbers. Low settings yield 286.2 FPS, Medium achieves 211.3 FPS, High provides 178.5 FPS, and Ultra drops to 130.4 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra (208.5 to 130.4 FPS) represents a 37.5% reduction, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the drop from 286.3 to 178.5 FPS is a 37.7% reduction, showing consistent scaling.

At 3840x2160, the performance remains strong but the GPU’s limits become apparent. Low settings hit 147.2 FPS, Medium reaches 111.9 FPS, High manages 97.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 69.8 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure is the only one below 60 FPS in the entire dataset, confirming that this preset is the system’s only real challenge. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K (147.2 to 69.8 FPS) shows the RTX 3080’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth handling the resolution increase admirably.

The data across all resolutions reveals a consistent pattern: High settings offer the best balance of visual quality and performance, with 1080p High (286.3 FPS) representing the ceiling for practical gaming, and 4K High (97.5 FPS) remaining viable for 60Hz displays. The RTX 3080’s 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 164.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are more than sufficient for Barony’s roguelike rendering demands.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data from 1080p to 4K reveals critical insights about the bottleneck in this system. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (447.5 FPS) to 2560x1440 (286.2 FPS) is a 36% drop, and further to 3840x2160 (147.2 FPS) is a 48.6% drop from 1440p. This steep decline at Low settings indicates the GPU is progressively becoming the limiting factor as resolution increases, since Low settings minimize CPU overhead.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more gradual: 1080p (208.5 FPS) to 1440p (130.4 FPS) is a 37.5% reduction, and 1440p to 4K (69.8 FPS) is a 46.5% reduction. The overall 4K-to-1080p ratio at Ultra is 0.335 (69.8/208.5), meaning 4K delivers just 33.5% of the 1080p frame rate. This is a typical GPU-bound scaling curve, confirming that the RTX 3080 is the dominant performance component at higher resolutions.

However, the 1080p Low vs. High comparison reveals CPU involvement. At 1080p, Low (447.5 FPS) vs. High (286.3 FPS) shows only a 36% difference, while at 4K, Low (147.2 FPS) vs. High (97.5 FPS) shows a 34% difference. The similar relative gaps across resolutions suggest the CPU is not the sole bottleneck; rather, the i5-9400’s 2.90 GHz base and 4.10 GHz boost clocks, combined with its 9 MB shared L3 cache, are sufficient for Barony’s single-threaded roguelike logic but limit the absolute ceiling. The 1080p Low result of 447.5 FPS is likely near the CPU’s practical limit, as the GPU could theoretically push higher if the processor could feed it faster.

The data indicates the system is best utilized at 1440p or 4K, where the GPU’s 80th percentile performance dominates and the CPU’s 50th percentile standing becomes less relevant. At 1080p, the i5-9400’s 6 threads are insufficient to fully unlock the RTX 3080, capping potential frame rates. This explains why the combo ranks 526th overall rather than higher—at lower resolutions, the CPU holds back the GPU, but at higher resolutions, the GPU takes over and delivers excellent results.