Barony

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers a performance profile in Barony that is overwhelmingly dictated by the graphics card at higher resolutions, but which shifts toward CPU limitations at 1080p. The measured frame rates show a predictable pattern: as resolution drops, the average FPS climbs steeply, but the rate of increase slows dramatically at the lowest setting, revealing where the processor begins to assert itself. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 68.8 FPS, while dropping to 4K Low yields 143.9 FPS—more than double the frame rate, indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint at this resolution. Moving to 1440p, the spread widens further: Ultra hits 129.1 FPS, but Low reaches 277.6 FPS, a gain of 148.5 FPS. The most dramatic scaling occurs at 1080p, where Low produces 443.9 FPS against Ultra’s 202.1 FPS, a 241.8 FPS difference. However, the scaling efficiency between Medium and Low at 1080p—330.4 to 443.9 FPS—suggests that the CPU’s 12 cores and 20 threads are becoming a limiting factor, as the GPU’s headroom is no longer fully utilized.

The resolution scaling data indicates that the Radeon RX 9070 is the dominant performance driver from 1440p upward. The difference between 4K High (91.6 FPS) and 1440p High (175.5 FPS) is 83.9 FPS, a massive jump that confirms the GPU is being saturated at 4K. In contrast, the gap between 1440p High and 1080p High is smaller—281.2 versus 175.5 FPS, a 105.7 FPS increase—but the relative gain per pixel reduction is less pronounced, hinting at diminishing returns as the CPU begins to cap throughput. At 1080p Low, the 443.9 FPS figure is exceptionally high, and the difference between Medium (330.4) and Low (443.9) is 113.5 FPS, which is nearly identical to the gap between 1440p High and 1080p High. This suggests that at 1080p, the Core i7-12700K’s single-thread performance, which scores 1043 in 3DMark single-thread and 4128 in Cinebench R23 single-core, is enough to feed the GPU, but the scaling from Medium to Low is not linear, indicating a software or engine-level bottleneck rather than a pure hardware ceiling.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS across resolutions paints a clear picture of where the bottleneck lies. At 3840x2160, the average frame rates range from 68.8 FPS on Ultra to 143.9 FPS on Low, a spread of 75.1 FPS. This substantial range indicates that the RX 9070’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth are being heavily taxed at 4K, particularly with Ultra settings that likely increase texture and shading loads. The jump from 4K Ultra to 4K High (68.8 to 91.6 FPS) is a 22.8 FPS improvement, while the jump from High to Medium (91.6 to 111.5 FPS) adds another 19.9 FPS. These incremental gains suggest that the GPU’s 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs are the limiting factor, as each reduction in settings provides a proportional relief to the rendering pipeline.

When scaling down to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. The Ultra preset produces 129.1 FPS, which is 60.3 FPS higher than the 4K Ultra result, demonstrating that the GPU has significant headroom once pixel count drops by roughly half. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 277.6 FPS, which is nearly double the 4K Low figure of 143.9 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is no longer the sole constraint at 1440p Low; the CPU’s ability to issue draw calls and manage the game’s roguelike logic becomes more relevant. At 1920x1080, the scaling becomes even more telling. The Ultra preset yields 202.1 FPS, which is 73 FPS higher than 1440p Ultra, but the Low preset’s 443.9 FPS is only 166.3 FPS higher than 1440p Low. This compression in scaling—from 277.6 to 443.9 FPS—suggests that the Core i7-12700K, with its 3.60 GHz base and 5.00 GHz boost clocks, is approaching its effective limit for frame generation in this title. The data shows that Barony is not a demanding game in terms of modern GPU features, but the CPU’s 20 threads are sufficient to avoid a hard cap until well past 400 FPS at 1080p.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip, plays a central role in determining the frame rates above 1440p. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Barony’s procedural environments and particle effects. The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz and game clock of 2070 MHz are relatively high, and the 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power ensures that the card is not easily saturated by a 2015-era roguelike. However, the benchmark results indicate that at 4K Ultra, the card’s 128 ROPs and 3584 shading units are still the limiting factor, as the 68.8 FPS result is well below the 1440p Ultra figure of 129.1 FPS. This suggests that the game’s pixel fill rate and shader complexity scale significantly with resolution, and the RX 9070’s 322.6 GPixel/s pixel rate is the bottleneck at 4K.

At lower settings, the GPU’s role diminishes. The difference between 4K Low (143.9 FPS) and 4K High (91.6 FPS) is 52.3 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s texture units (224 TMUs) and memory bandwidth are heavily involved in High settings. But at 1080p Low, the 443.9 FPS result is so high that the GPU is likely idling, waiting for the CPU to supply data. The GPU’s passmark G3D score of 25381 and its 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirm that it is a high-end part, but in Barony, its performance is only fully utilized at 4K and 1440p. The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is more than sufficient for any setting in this game, as even Ultra presets rarely exceed 8 GB in similar titles, so the memory size is not a limiting factor. Instead, the data shows that the RX 9070’s raw compute and memory bandwidth determine the ceiling at higher resolutions, while the CPU takes over at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Barony, this pairing of the Intel Core i7-12700K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 576th out of 1702 combos, placing it in the top 34% of all tested systems. This rank is respectable but not exceptional, given that the CPU and GPU are both high-end parts. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 35684 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (deltaPct -0.3) and the Intel Core i5-14500HX (deltaPct -0.7), meaning the i7-12700K is statistically tied with those parts. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 34780 puts it in the 79th percentile, with rivals like the NVIDIA A2 (deltaPct -0.2) and the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (deltaPct 0.3) showing that the RX 9070 sits in a competitive mid-to-high tier.

The combo’s rank of 576 suggests that while both components are individually strong, the pairing is not optimized for Barony’s specific workload. The game’s roguelike genre typically favors single-threaded performance, and the i7-12700K’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 is strong but not top-tier. The GPU’s 4 nm process and 53,900 million transistors give it a theoretical compute advantage, but the measured FPS data shows that the combo’s performance is more dependent on the CPU at lower resolutions. Compared to other combos in the database, this rank indicates that there are 576 systems that produce higher average FPS in Barony, likely those with newer CPUs like the Core i7-13700T (deltaPct 0.6) or higher-end GPUs. The data suggests that the bottleneck shifts from GPU-bound at 4K to CPU-bound at 1080p, and the rank reflects the average across all resolutions, where the combo performs well but not at the top tier.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measurements show a clear hierarchy: Ultra produces 68.8 FPS, High produces 91.6 FPS, Medium produces 111.5 FPS, and Low produces 143.9 FPS. The step from Ultra to High is a 22.8 FPS gain, from High to Medium is a 19.9 FPS gain, and from Medium to Low is a 32.4 FPS gain. These figures indicate that the GPU’s compute units are heavily stressed at 4K, and each reduction in settings provides tangible relief. At 2560x1440, the same settings yield 129.1, 175.5, 205.9, and 277.6 FPS respectively. The gain from 1440p Ultra to 1440p High is 46.4 FPS, which is double the 4K equivalent, showing that the GPU has more headroom as resolution drops. The gap from Medium to Low at 1440p is 71.7 FPS, the largest single-step increase, suggesting that Low settings remove a significant GPU workload.

At 1920x1080, the results are 202.1 FPS (Ultra), 281.2 FPS (High), 330.4 FPS (Medium), and 443.9 FPS (Low). The Ultra-to-High gap is 79.1 FPS, which is the largest absolute difference among all resolution and setting combinations, indicating that the GPU is still doing meaningful work at 1080p Ultra. However, the Medium-to-Low gap is 113.5 FPS, which is the largest single-step gain in the entire dataset. This suggests that Low settings at 1080p remove a bottleneck, likely related to post-processing or shadow effects that were previously limiting the CPU’s frame rate. The data shows that the combo can exceed 200 FPS at any resolution except 4K Ultra, and exceeds 400 FPS only at 1080p Low, which is an exceptional result for a game that is not typically considered a benchmark title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend on the target refresh rate. For 4K displays, the High preset at 91.6 FPS is the best balance, as it stays above 60 FPS and provides a 22.8 FPS improvement over Ultra while offering better visual fidelity than Medium’s 111.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 68.8 FPS is playable but leaves little headroom for drops in busy scenes, making it a less stable choice. For 1440p, the High preset at 175.5 FPS is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors, while Medium at 205.9 FPS is a strong option for those prioritizing frame rates over visual quality. The Low preset at 277.6 FPS is only necessary for 240Hz displays, but it sacrifices too much visual detail for most players.

At 1080p, the data shows that the High preset at 281.2 FPS is the sweet spot for 144Hz and 165Hz monitors, providing a 79.1 FPS advantage over Ultra while maintaining strong visuals. The Medium preset at 330.4 FPS is ideal for 300Hz panels, but the Low preset at 443.9 FPS is overkill for any current display and represents a significant drop in image quality. The Ultra preset at 202.1 FPS is still above 144Hz, but the visual gains over High are marginal relative to the 79.1 FPS loss. Given that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, there is no benefit to choosing Ultra over High unless the display is capped at 120Hz, in which case Ultra provides the best image quality without sacrificing smoothness. For most users, the High preset across all resolutions delivers the best combination of frame rate and visual fidelity, based on the measured data.