Barony

Barony, a 2015 roguelike with a deliberately retro visual style, is an interesting stress test for a high-end 2025 GPU pairing like the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D. The genre typically implies low system requirements, but the benchmark data here reveals that this combination produces frame rates that push well beyond standard display refresh rates, making the CPU the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. The data shows this pairing is capable of delivering an exceptionally smooth experience across all tested settings, though the performance scaling reveals a classic CPU-limited scenario at 1080p and, to a lesser extent, 1440p.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Barony?

A: The combo ranks 188th out of 2,935 tested combinations for this game. This places it in the top 6.4% of all tested systems, indicating that it delivers very high performance for this title, despite the aging processor.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RTX 5090 D in Barony?

A: Yes, the data suggests it is a significant limiting factor, particularly at 1920x1080. The average FPS at 1080p Low is 451, while at 1440p Low it is 387 and at 4K Low it is 239. The relatively small difference between 1080p and 1440p, compared to the jump to 4K, indicates the CPU is maxing out its output before the GPU can be fully utilized at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the best settings preset to use for a 144Hz monitor at 2560x1440 resolution?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 delivers an average of 209 FPS, which is well above the 144Hz threshold. The High preset is even more comfortable, hitting 292 FPS. Both are excellent choices, but Ultra offers a significant jump in visual quality for a frame rate cost that is still exceptionally high.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D's raw compute power compare to its closest rivals in the benchmark database?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712. This places it 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904) and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396) by 2.1%.

Q: What is the CPU's single-core performance percentile compared to all other CPUs?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 places it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs. Its performance is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, which is only 0.2% slower, and the Intel Core i3-10305, which is 0.4% faster.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D have enough video memory for maximum settings at 4K in this game?

A: Absolutely. The RTX 5090 D is equipped with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus. While the game's visual style is not demanding, this massive memory pool and 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth are more than sufficient for the Ultra preset at 3840x2160, which runs at an average of 109 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a behemoth of a graphics card, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its core is the GB202 chip, which contains 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. The card operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory is a key specification, but for a game like Barony, the sheer amount of memory is not the limiting factor; its 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and data transfer are never a bottleneck.

The card's compute capabilities are staggering, with an FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS. However, the measured FPS data in Barony shows that this raw power is often left on the table. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the card produces 239 FPS. When the resolution drops to 2560x1440, the FPS only increases to 387, and at 1920x1080 it reaches 451 FPS. This scaling pattern is not typical of a purely GPU-bound scenario, where the FPS would typically double or triple when moving from 4K to 1080p. Instead, the increase is modest, suggesting that the RTX 5090 D is being held back by the CPU's ability to feed it draw calls and game logic updates.

The GPU's performance is so high that even at 4K Ultra, it maintains an average of 109 FPS. This is a clear sign that the graphics card is not the primary constraint in this pairing. The benchmark results indicate that the RTX 5090 D is a future-proof component, capable of handling this game and likely many more demanding titles with ease, but its full potential will only be realized when paired with a more modern, higher-clock-speed processor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 188 out of 2,935 tested combinations for Barony. This is an impressive position, placing it in the top 6.4% of all systems tested. This ranking reflects the GPU's massive performance headroom, which can compensate for the older CPU's limitations. The data shows that this pairing is far more capable than the vast majority of systems, even though the CPU itself is only in the 47th percentile of all processors.

The fact that this combo ranks so highly is almost entirely due to the RTX 5090 D. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs is the driving force. In a game like Barony, which is not graphically intensive, the GPU's power is able to brute-force its way to high frame rates, even when the CPU is struggling to keep up. The ranking suggests that for this specific game, the pairing is extremely effective, but it also highlights an imbalance. A system with a more balanced CPU-GPU pairing might score higher in CPU-bound scenarios, but this specific combo's raw GPU power pushes it into the top tier for Barony. The gap between the combo's rank and the CPU's percentile is a clear indicator of where the performance is coming from.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the choice of settings depends heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate of the display. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 451 FPS, which is beyond the capability of any mainstream high-refresh-rate monitor. The Ultra preset at this resolution still delivers an average of 331 FPS, making it the best choice for 1080p users who want maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing the high frame rates that make the game feel responsive.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset drops to an average of 209 FPS, which is still extremely high and ideal for 144Hz or even 240Hz monitors. Given that the minimum FPS is not recorded for the Ultra preset, relying on the average is safe. The High preset at 292 FPS offers a more comfortable margin for 240Hz displays, but for most users, Ultra at 1440p is the recommended setting to get the most out of the game's visuals. It provides a significant visual upgrade over High or Medium for a frame rate cost that is largely imperceptible in a game of this genre.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more nuanced. The Ultra preset averages 109 FPS, which is suitable for a 120Hz display. The High preset is smoother at 152 FPS, making it the best option for 144Hz 4K monitors. The Medium preset at 178 FPS is also a viable option, but the jump from Medium to High is likely worth the small FPS trade-off. The data shows that the Low preset at 239 FPS is unnecessary even at 4K, as the High and Ultra presets provide a much better visual experience while still maintaining high frame rates. The recommendation is to use Ultra for 60Hz displays, High for 144Hz displays, and only consider lower presets if chasing maximum frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of the system's performance across three resolutions and four quality presets.

At 1920x1080, the system is heavily CPU-bound. The Low preset yields the highest average at 451 FPS. The Medium preset shows an average of 405 FPS, with a minimum of 344 FPS and a maximum of 465 FPS. Moving to High, the average drops to 384 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, but still reaches an average of 331 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is only 120 FPS, which is a relatively small percentage change, indicating the CPU is the limiting factor, not the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the GPU begins to take on more work, but the CPU is still a significant constraint. The Low preset averages 387 FPS, which is a drop of 64 FPS from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 340 FPS, with a minimum of 289 FPS and a maximum of 391 FPS. The High preset averages 292 FPS. The Ultra preset delivers an average of 209 FPS. The scaling here is more pronounced than at 1080p, but the FPS values are still incredibly high, confirming the system's capability.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes more of a factor, though it is still never fully stressed. The Low preset averages 239 FPS. The Medium preset averages 178 FPS, with a minimum of 151 FPS and a maximum of 204 FPS. The High preset averages 152 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing an average of 109 FPS. This is the only resolution where the Ultra preset dips below the 144 FPS mark, showing a clear progression of GPU load. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 130 FPS, which is a much larger percentage drop than at 1080p, highlighting the GPU's increasing role.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and a 65W TDP. In the context of Barony, a game that is often not heavily threaded, the CPU's single-core performance is paramount. Its benchmark scores, such as a Geekbench single-core score of 1389, are modest by modern standards, placing it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs.

The data clearly shows the CPU is the primary bottleneck in this pairing. At 1080p, the average FPS at Low (451) and Ultra (331) are far closer than they should be if the GPU were the limiting factor. The CPU's maximum frame output appears to be capped around the 450 FPS range, which is why the FPS does not scale as dramatically with resolution as one would expect from a GPU like the RTX 5090 D. The benchmark results indicate that the i5-9400 is simply unable to issue draw calls and process game logic fast enough to fully utilize the RTX 5090 D's 104.8 TFLOPS of compute power.

The CPU's performance is very close to its nearest rivals, with its average benchmark score of 2254 being within 0.4% of the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264) and 0.3% of the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248). This suggests it is a solid, mid-range performer from its generation. However, in a system with an RTX 5090 D, it is the weakest link. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (109 FPS) suggests that even at high resolutions, the CPU's frame pacing and physics calculations are creating a ceiling. For a game like Barony, this pairing works, but the CPU prevents the system from reaching its full potential, particularly for users with high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p monitors who would benefit from a more powerful processor.