Barony

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers exceptional performance in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015. The data shows this pairing ranks 689th out of 3717 tested combos, placing it in the top 18.5% of all systems. Across all tested resolutions, the RTX 4070 SUPER proves to be dramatically overqualified for this game, delivering frame rates that exceed the refresh rate of most high-end monitors even at 4K Ultra settings. The i5-9400, while a capable six-core processor from 2018, does not bottleneck the GPU in this title, as evidenced by the consistently high frame rates across every settings preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Barony?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with High settings provides an excellent balance, delivering an average of 210 FPS. For maximum visual fidelity, 3840x2160 Ultra still achieves a playable 79 FPS average, while 1920x1080 Low reaches 451 FPS for competitive-level responsiveness.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in overall GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 43223, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. It performs within 1% of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (deltaPct -0.1), the RTX 5050 Mobile (deltaPct -0.1), and the Quadro M6000 (deltaPct -0.2), while trailing the RTX 4090 Mobile by just 1%.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RTX 4070 SUPER in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate no significant bottleneck. The i5-9400 achieves a 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs, and the frame rates in Barony are consistently high. At 1920x1080 Low, the system produces 451 FPS, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU adequately even at lower resolutions where CPU load is typically highest.

Q: What kind of FPS improvement can be expected when dropping from Ultra to Low settings?

A: The improvement is substantial across all resolutions. At 3840x2160, the average FPS increases from 79 on Ultra to 172 on Low, a 93 FPS jump. At 2560x1440, the jump is from 151 to 329 FPS, and at 1920x1080, from 239 to 451 FPS.

Q: Does Barony benefit from the RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of VRAM?

A: While the game is a 2015 roguelike and likely does not require extensive VRAM, the 12 GB GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures that memory capacity is never a limiting factor. The GPU's 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is far beyond what this title demands.

Q: How does this combo rank specifically for Barony compared to other systems?

A: This combination ranks 689th out of 3717 tested combos for Barony, placing it in the 81.5th percentile of all systems tested. This high ranking reflects the outstanding performance of the RTX 4070 SUPER, which is in the 83rd GPU percentile, combined with a CPU that provides adequate support.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured data for this system in Barony shows a combo rank of 689 out of 3717 tested combinations, positioning it in the top 18.5% of all systems evaluated. This is a remarkably strong showing, particularly given that Barony is a lightweight roguelike title that does not heavily stress modern hardware. The ranking is driven almost entirely by the RTX 4070 SUPER, which sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 43223. The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43262, deltaPct -0.1), the RTX 5050 Mobile (43268, deltaPct -0.1), the Quadro M6000 (43301, deltaPct -0.2), and the RTX 4090 Mobile (43667, deltaPct -1). These margins of less than 1% indicate that the RTX 4070 SUPER is precisely matched with some of the most powerful cards in the database.

The CPU side of the equation is less impressive but entirely sufficient. The Intel Core i5-9400 holds a 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2254. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, deltaPct -0.2), the Core i7-10710U (2248, deltaPct 0.3), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, deltaPct 0.4), and the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, deltaPct -0.4). These deltas of less than half a percent show that the i5-9400 is a mid-pack performer, but the measured FPS data confirms that this is not a hindrance in Barony. The system achieves over 200 FPS at 1440p High and over 300 FPS at 1080p High, indicating that the CPU can keep up with the GPU's output in this title.

The gap between the GPU's 83rd percentile ranking and the combo's 81.5th percentile ranking is minimal, suggesting that the i5-9400 does not meaningfully drag down the overall experience in Barony. This is a case where a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU produces near-optimal results for the specific workload. The combo rank of 689 out of 3717 is a strong indicator that this system will deliver excellent frame rates in Barony, and the measured data confirms this expectation across all settings and resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings in Barony. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver far more frames than any display can show. Low settings produce 451 FPS, Medium reaches 388 FPS with a minimum of 330 FPS, High hits 333 FPS, and even Ultra maintains 239 FPS. For 1080p users, there is no reason to drop below High settings, and Ultra is perfectly playable. The best experience at this resolution is High or Ultra, as the visual improvements come at no practical cost to smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the picture remains overwhelmingly positive. Low settings achieve 329 FPS, Medium delivers 245 FPS with a minimum of 208 FPS, High produces 210 FPS, and Ultra still maintains 151 FPS. The recommended preset at 1440p is High, as it provides a 210 FPS average that exceeds the refresh rate of most 1440p monitors, which typically top out at 165 Hz or 240 Hz. Ultra remains viable for those who prioritize image quality, with 151 FPS still being exceptionally smooth. The data indicates that Medium is also an option for users with 240 Hz displays, offering 245 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the choices become more meaningful. Low settings achieve 172 FPS, Medium delivers 128 FPS with a minimum of 109 FPS, High produces 110 FPS, and Ultra drops to 79 FPS. For 4K users, the best experience depends on the display's refresh rate. Those with 60 Hz displays can comfortably use Ultra at 79 FPS. Users with 120 Hz displays should select Medium or High, as both exceed 110 FPS. The Medium preset is the recommended choice for 4K, as it offers 128 FPS with a respectable minimum of 109 FPS, providing a 19 FPS buffer above the 110 FPS of High while maintaining a more consistent frame rate. Low settings at 172 FPS are only necessary for users with 144 Hz 4K displays, which remain rare.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals how this system scales across resolutions and settings. At 3840x2160, the average frame rates range from 79 FPS on Ultra to 172 FPS on Low. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, showing an average of 128 FPS with a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 147 FPS. This indicates a frame time consistency of roughly 38 FPS between the lowest and highest points, which is a moderate spread. High settings at 4K produce 110 FPS, while Low reaches 172 FPS. The scaling from Ultra to Low at 4K represents a 93 FPS improvement, or roughly 118% higher performance.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates increase substantially. Low settings achieve 329 FPS, Medium averages 245 FPS with a minimum of 208 FPS and a maximum of 282 FPS, High delivers 210 FPS, and Ultra produces 151 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a spread of 74 FPS between minimum and maximum, which is a wider variance than at 4K, likely due to CPU involvement at higher frame rates. The jump from Ultra to Low at 1440p is 178 FPS, representing a 118% performance increase, mirroring the scaling seen at 4K.

At 1920x1080, the system reaches its peak performance. Low settings achieve 451 FPS, Medium averages 388 FPS with a minimum of 330 FPS and a maximum of 446 FPS, High produces 333 FPS, and Ultra maintains 239 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a 116 FPS spread between minimum and maximum, the widest variance in the dataset, which suggests the i5-9400 is becoming a more significant factor at these extreme frame rates. The scaling from Ultra to Low at 1080p is 212 FPS, a 89% increase, which is slightly less than the scaling at higher resolutions, indicating that CPU limitations are starting to emerge above 400 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this system, and its specifications explain the exceptional performance in Barony. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is far more than necessary for a 2015 roguelike, but it ensures that texture streaming and asset loading never cause hitches, even at 4K Ultra settings. The GPU's 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units are arranged in a configuration that delivers 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s.

The clock speeds of the RTX 4070 SUPER are also noteworthy. The base clock is 1980 MHz, with a boost clock of 2475 MHz. This boost clock is particularly important for a game like Barony, which may have bursty workloads rather than sustained heavy loads. The GPU can quickly ramp to its boost clock and maintain high frame rates. The 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores are present but largely unused in this title, as Barony does not feature ray tracing or DLSS support. The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43223, places it in elite company, and the measured FPS data confirms that this GPU is never the limiting factor in Barony.

The RTX 4070 SUPER's 220 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x16 interface are standard for a card of this class. The 5 nm process node from TSMC, with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, allows for high clock speeds and efficiency. In Barony, the GPU is likely operating at a fraction of its capacity, as even 4K Ultra at 79 FPS is not a demanding workload for this hardware. The GPU's performance is so far beyond the game's requirements that the measured frame rates are likely limited by the game engine's draw call throughput or the CPU's ability to submit work, rather than the GPU's rendering capabilities.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 serves as the supporting component in this system, and its specifications are modest by modern standards but adequate for Barony. The CPU features 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This Coffee Lake Refresh processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process, has a 9 MB shared L3 cache and 256 KB L2 cache per core. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are typical for a mid-range desktop CPU from 2018.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 47th percentile of all processors, with an average score of 2254. Its single-core performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 935, is more relevant for gaming than its multi-core score of 6629, as Barony is unlikely to utilize more than a few threads. The nearest rivals, including the Core i7-10710U (deltaPct 0.3) and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (deltaPct 0.4), show that the i5-9400 is closely matched with other mid-range processors from its era. The CPU's 4.10 GHz boost clock is on the lower end for modern gaming CPUs, but Barony's simple physics and AI systems do not require high single-thread performance.

The measured FPS data shows that the i5-9400 can sustain extremely high frame rates in Barony. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 451 FPS, which is likely approaching the CPU's limit for this game. The widening variance in frame times at 1080p Medium (minimum 330 FPS, maximum 446 FPS) compared to 4K Medium (minimum 109 FPS, maximum 147 FPS) suggests that the CPU is becoming a bottleneck at high frame rates. However, this is only relevant for users with 240 Hz or higher refresh rate displays, as the CPU still maintains an average of 388 FPS at 1080p Medium. The i5-9400's 6 threads are sufficient for Barony, and the CPU does not detract from the overall experience at any reasonable resolution or settings configuration.