Barony

The pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is an extreme generational and performance mismatch, yet the benchmark results for Barony reveal a playable, if oddly distributed, experience. The data shows that this combination ranks 135th out of 1702 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 8% of all systems tested. This ranking is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s raw power, but the CPU’s six cores and modest clock speeds create a bottleneck that becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the graphics card has less work to do.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a Coffee Lake desktop processor with six cores and six threads, a base clock of 2.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It lacks hyper-threading, so its six threads are its absolute maximum, and its 9 MB of shared L3 cache is divided across the silicon. For a roguelike like Barony, which typically relies on single-threaded game logic and procedural generation, the i5-9400’s boost clock of 4.10 GHz is the more relevant figure for maintaining frame pacing. The processor’s 50th percentile ranking among all CPUs in the benchmark database reflects its mid-range standing; it is neither a weak performer nor a high-end chip by modern standards.

In this specific test, the CPU’s limitations become most visible when the RTX 4090 is not fully taxed. The measured frame rates show that at 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 449.8 FPS, which is only 14% higher than the 386.6 FPS at 1080p High. This small delta between Low and High at 1080p suggests that the CPU is hitting its ceiling, unable to feed the GPU enough draw calls to push frame rates significantly higher. The i5-9400’s benchmark scores support this interpretation: its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and single-core score of 1125 indicate a processor that can handle modern games but will struggle to maintain ultra-high refresh rates in CPU-bound scenarios. Its nearest rivals, the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i3-1125G4, perform within 0.2% of the i5-9400 in average benchmark score, confirming that this CPU sits at the threshold where newer i3 parts match its throughput.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant force in this pairing, and its specifications are staggering relative to the CPU. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz and its 16384 shading units provide an immense amount of compute throughput, with an FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS. This card was designed for 4K gaming and heavy ray tracing, and its 91st percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database places it near the top of the performance hierarchy. Its average benchmark score of 66473 is nearly 30 times higher than the CPU’s average benchmark score, illustrating the massive gap between the two components.

In Barony, the RTX 4090’s role is to render the game’s pixel-art style with brute force. At 4K Ultra, the system still manages 101.2 FPS, which is well above playable for a roguelike. The GPU’s VRAM capacity is irrelevant for this title’s texture sizes, but the memory bandwidth and core count ensure that even at 4K, the card is never the limiting factor. The measured frame rates at 1440p and 1080p show that the RTX 4090 is capable of pushing well over 300 FPS in most settings, with the only exception being the CPU-bound 1080p Low case. The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, are within 1.3% of its average score, but those are professional or older workstation cards; for gaming, the RTX 4090 stands alone in this dataset.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of how settings scale with this combo. At 4K, the High preset delivers 140.8 FPS, while Ultra drops to 101.2 FPS. The jump from Medium (161.7 FPS) to High (140.8 FPS) is a 13% reduction, while High to Ultra is a 28% reduction. For a roguelike where visual fidelity is secondary to gameplay clarity, the High preset at 4K is the sweet spot: it offers a frame rate that is 39% higher than Ultra, while still maintaining a level of detail that is indistinguishable from the highest settings on most displays. At 1440p, the Medium preset yields 310 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors, but the High preset at 266.3 FPS is still far beyond any display’s refresh rate, making it the better choice for visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1080p, the story is different. The Ultra preset runs at 306.7 FPS, while Low runs at 449.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is only 54.2 FPS (from 449.8 to 404), while the gap from Medium to High is 17.4 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 79.9 FPS. This suggests that the CPU bottleneck begins to flatten the curve at lower resolutions; the GPU is so fast that even at Ultra, the i5-9400 cannot push the frame rate below 300 FPS. For the best experience at 1080p, the High preset is recommended because it provides 386.6 FPS, which is more than enough for any monitor, and it avoids the unnecessary performance hit of Ultra. Across all resolutions, the data indicates that High is the optimal compromise, consistently delivering frame rates that are 39% to 40% higher than Ultra at 4K and 1440p, while maintaining near-identical visual quality for this art style.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo rank of 135 out of 1702 tested combos places this system in the 92nd percentile of all configurations evaluated for Barony. This is a strong ranking, but it is not a top-tier result, which is surprising given the RTX 4090’s dominance. The reason for this is the CPU’s performance ceiling; the data suggests that the i5-9400 is holding the system back from the top rankings, where faster processors would allow the RTX 4090 to reach even higher frame rates. The CPU’s 50th percentile ranking among all CPUs, combined with the GPU’s 91st percentile ranking, means that the bottleneck is almost always the processor. In games that are less CPU-intensive, this combo would likely rank higher, but Barony’s procedural generation and game logic appear to stress the processor.

The rank of 135 is still impressive when considering the full field of 1702 combos. It places this system ahead of many configurations with more balanced pairings, but behind those that pair the RTX 4090 with a faster CPU like a Core i7 or i9. The nearest rivals to the i5-9400 in the CPU benchmark database, such as the Intel Xeon E-2134 (0.4% slower) and Intel Core i7-8809G (0.6% faster), would likely produce similar combo rankings when paired with the same GPU, as the delta in CPU performance is minimal. However, the data shows that the combo’s rank is more a function of the GPU’s raw power than the CPU’s contribution; without the RTX 4090, this system would fall far lower in the rankings.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling behavior reveals the classic signs of a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions, with the GPU taking over as the resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the frame rate drops from 386.6 FPS to 266.3 FPS, a reduction of 31%. This is a massive drop for a 78% increase in pixel count, which suggests that the CPU is still partially limiting performance at 1440p. From 1440p to 4K, the frame rate falls from 266.3 FPS to 140.8 FPS, a 47% reduction. This steeper drop indicates that the GPU is now the primary limiter, as the i5-9400 has enough headroom to feed the RTX 4090 at 4K, but the GPU’s rendering workload at 8.3 million pixels is finally becoming significant.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling is even more pronounced. At 1080p Low, the system produces 449.8 FPS, which drops to 388.3 FPS at 1440p Low (a 14% reduction), and then to 217.5 FPS at 4K Low (a 44% reduction from 1440p). The small drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is a clear indicator that the CPU is the wall; the GPU could easily render more frames, but the i5-9400’s six threads cannot issue draw calls fast enough. The larger drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings shows the GPU beginning to take over, but even at 4K Low, the frame rate of 217.5 FPS is far above any display’s refresh rate. The data indicates that for this combo, the CPU is the limiting component at 1080p and 1440p, while the GPU becomes the limiter only at 4K. This is an inverted curve compared to most systems, where the GPU is the bottleneck at all resolutions; here, the RTX 4090 is so powerful that it forces the CPU to become the constraint.