Barony

The Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 produces a striking performance profile in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015. The data shows this combination ranks 824th out of 3717 tested combos, placing it in the top 22.2% of all systems. While the CPU is an older six-core part without hyper-threading, the GPU’s raw throughput dominates the frame rate results, delivering triple-digit averages even at 4K resolution.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall ranking of this CPU and GPU combo in Barony?*

A: The combination ranks 824th out of 3717 tested combos, which places it in the 78th percentile of all systems tested. This is a strong result for a game that relies heavily on GPU rendering.

Q: How does the Intel Core i5-9400 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254. Its closest rival is the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 with a score of 2259, which is 0.2% faster. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 trails by 0.4% with a score of 2246.

Q: What is the RTX 5070's synthetic benchmark standing relative to other GPUs?

A: The RTX 5070 has an average benchmark score of 40377 and sits in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 580, scores 40318, which is only 0.1% slower.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 451 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest average is 76 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the game run smoothly at 4K with this hardware?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160, the average frame rate ranges from 76 FPS on Ultra settings to 165 FPS on Low settings. The Medium preset produces 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 FPS.

Q: How much performance difference is there between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 316 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 145 FPS. This represents a 54% performance reduction when moving from Low to Ultra.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boosts up to 4.10 GHz. The chip has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR4 memory via a dual-channel interface with 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth.

In synthetic tests, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935. Its Geekbench scores are 5141 multicore and 1389 single-core. The processor's average benchmark score of 2254 places it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a mid-range part by modern standards.

The i5-9400's nearest rivals in the database are all within 0.4% of its average score. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 is 0.2% faster, while the Intel Core i3-10305 is 0.4% faster. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 is 0.4% slower, and the Intel Core i7-10710U is 0.3% slower. This clustering suggests the i5-9400 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

For Barony, a roguelike that is not typically demanding on CPU resources, the six physical cores provide adequate processing headroom. The lack of hyper-threading means only six threads are available, but the game's mechanics do not appear to require more. The boost clock of 4.10 GHz ensures responsive single-threaded performance, which is often more critical for game logic and AI calculations in this genre.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the dominant component in this pairing. Based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture and manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC, this GPU features 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. It has 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, with a boost clock of 2512 MHz.

The memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's compute capabilities are substantial, with 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. It supports PCIe 5.0 x16 and has a TDP of 250 W, requiring a 600 W power supply.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5070 achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077 and a Passmark G3D score of 29137. Its Geekbench Vulkan score is 178923, and OpenCL score is 172660. The GPU's average benchmark score of 40377 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs.

The nearest rivals to the RTX 5070 are all within 2% of its average score. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 is 0.1% slower, while the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 is 0.8% slower. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 is 1.2% faster, and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is 2% slower. This suggests the RTX 5070 performs near the level of professional workstation GPUs in synthetic tests.

In Barony, the GPU's massive fill rate and memory bandwidth translate directly into high frame rates. The 672.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures texture streaming is never a bottleneck, even at 4K resolution. The 12 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for a 2015 roguelike, which likely has modest texture memory requirements.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 824 out of 3717 tested combinations places this system firmly in the upper quartile of all tested hardware pairings. This ranking reflects the GPU's high percentile score of 82, which dominates the CPU's more modest 47th percentile. The combination outperforms 77.8% of all tested combos, indicating that the RTX 5070 compensates substantially for the older i5-9400.

The discrepancy between the CPU's 47th percentile and the combo's 78th percentile ranking reveals an important characteristic: the GPU is the primary driver of performance in this game. The i5-9400, while not a top-tier processor, provides enough throughput to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5070 at the frame rates observed. The data suggests that upgrading the CPU would yield diminishing returns for Barony specifically.

When compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, which score within 0.4% of the i5-9400, the combo ranking would likely be similar if any of those processors were substituted. The GPU's performance envelope is so large that it effectively defines the system's capability in this title. The 824th rank out of 3717 combos indicates a well-balanced system for this particular game, leaning heavily on GPU muscle.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates reveal a clear hierarchy based on resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 451 FPS on Low to 229 FPS on Ultra. The High preset produces 320 FPS, while Medium delivers 372 FPS with a minimum of 317 FPS and maximum of 428 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop but remain exceptionally high. Low settings yield 316 FPS, High produces 202 FPS, and Ultra drops to 145 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 235 FPS with a minimum of 200 FPS and maximum of 270 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still impressive for a 4K resolution. Low settings maintain 165 FPS, while High produces 105 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 76 FPS, which is still playable. The Medium preset at 4K delivers 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 FPS and maximum of 141 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: Ultra settings cost roughly half the frame rate of Low settings at every resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (451 FPS) and Ultra (229 FPS) is 222 FPS. At 1440p, the spread is 171 FPS, and at 4K, it is 89 FPS. This indicates that the GPU's load scales predictably with settings, with no anomalies in the measured data.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 372 FPS average, which is only 17.5% lower than Low but provides significantly better visual quality. The minimum frame rate of 317 FPS at 1080p Medium ensures no perceptible stuttering.

At 1440p, Medium produces 235 FPS average with a 200 FPS minimum. This is more than sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors and represents an 86 FPS improvement over High settings. The 270 FPS maximum indicates the GPU has headroom to handle scene complexity spikes.

For 4K gaming, Medium is the recommended preset. The 123 FPS average with a 104 FPS minimum is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. While Low offers 165 FPS at 4K, the visual fidelity loss is likely not worth the 42 FPS gain. Ultra at 4K drops to 76 FPS, which may cause noticeable frame pacing issues on high-refresh displays.

The High preset provides a middle ground, but the data shows diminishing returns. At 4K, High produces 105 FPS, which is 18 FPS lower than Medium. The visual difference between High and Medium is typically less pronounced than the performance gap. Therefore, Medium is the optimal choice for consistency and visual quality.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this configuration. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 320 FPS at 1080p to 202 FPS at 1440p, then to 105 FPS at 4K. This represents a 67.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is consistent with the pixel count increase from 2.07 million to 8.29 million (a 4x increase).

The scaling factor varies by settings preset. At Low settings, the drop from 451 FPS at 1080p to 165 FPS at 4K is a 63.4% reduction. At Medium, the drop from 372 FPS to 123 FPS is a 66.9% reduction. At Ultra, the drop from 229 FPS to 76 FPS is a 66.8% reduction. This consistency suggests that no single settings option disproportionately impacts resolution scaling.

The fact that 4K performance is not exactly 25% of 1080p performance indicates that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound. If it were, 4K would produce approximately 112 FPS at Low settings (451/4). Instead, it produces 165 FPS, which is 47% higher than the pure pixel-count prediction. This suggests that the CPU, while not a bottleneck, does impose some limitation at lower resolutions where the GPU could render frames faster than the CPU can issue draw calls.

At 1080p Low, the 451 FPS average is likely approaching the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability. The i5-9400's six cores without hyper-threading may struggle to feed the RTX 5070 fast enough, capping performance below what the GPU alone could achieve. This is evidenced by the non-linear scaling: doubling resolution from 1080p to 1440p only reduces frame rate by 30% at Low settings, rather than the expected 44% reduction if purely GPU-bound.

In contrast, at 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The 105 FPS at High settings represents a 48% reduction from 1440p, which is close to the pixel-count ratio. This indicates that as resolution increases, the system transitions from a CPU-limited state at 1080p to a GPU-limited state at 4K, with the crossover occurring somewhere between 1440p and 2160p depending on settings.