Barony

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a decisively smooth experience in Barony, with measured frame rates that consistently clear 60 FPS even at the most demanding settings. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s strong multi-threaded performance ensures high frame rates at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS rows to determine the optimal settings, the role of each component, and how the game scales across resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For a 4K display, the High preset is the clear choice, as it is the only tier that balances visual fidelity with a playable frame rate. The measured 85.2 FPS at 3840x2160 on High is well above the 60 FPS threshold, while the Ultra preset drops to 60.1 FPS, leaving almost no headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 101.2 FPS is viable but sacrifices visual quality for a marginal gain over High; the ~16 FPS difference between High and Medium does not justify the graphical downgrade. The Low preset at 132.8 FPS is unnecessary for a smooth experience at this resolution.

At 1440p, the High preset remains the recommended balance, delivering 162.7 FPS. This provides ample headroom above 144 Hz monitors, and the jump to Medium (188.3 FPS) or Low (257.2 FPS) offers diminishing returns for most players. The Ultra preset at 117.2 FPS is still highly playable and can be considered if visual quality is the priority, but the data suggests that High is the sweet spot for consistent high refresh rates.

At 1080p, the system is so powerful that even Ultra produces 187.7 FPS. The High preset at 260.5 FPS is excellent for competitive play or high refresh rate displays, while Low at 410.2 FPS is the ceiling for esports-level responsiveness. Given the massive headroom, the High preset is recommended for 1080p as well, as it offers a strong visual upgrade over Medium (299.9 FPS) while still exceeding the refresh rate of most monitors. The data indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution, as the frame rate gains from lowering settings from High to Low are proportionally smaller than the drops seen from 1440p to 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the primary performance driver in Barony at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s, which is sufficient for the game’s data demands at 4K. The GPU’s 6144 shading units and 48 RT cores, running at a boost clock of 1770 MHz, deliver the raw compute power needed to push pixels. The measured FPS data confirms this: from 1080p High (260.5 FPS) to 4K High (85.2 FPS), there is a ~67% drop in performance, indicating that the GPU’s workload scales significantly with resolution.

The GPU’s benchmark scores contextualize its position. It achieves a passmark G3D score of 23356 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3478, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 30849 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (0.3% faster) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (0.8% slower), according to the nearestRivals data. This suggests that while the RTX 3070 Ti is a capable card for Barony, its raw performance profile is closely matched by those mid-range rivals, yet the measured FPS in this game shows it is more than adequate for high-refresh 1440p and smooth 4K gameplay.

The GPU’s performance characteristics are further highlighted by the settings scaling. At 4K, dropping from High to Low raises the average FPS from 85.2 to 132.8, a 55% improvement, which confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck. At 1080p, the same settings change only raises FPS from 260.5 to 410.2, a 57% improvement, but the absolute numbers are so high that the GPU is less stressed. The card’s 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 339.8 GTexel/s texture rate are the key metrics that enable these results.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K plays a supporting but crucial role, particularly at lower resolutions and high frame rates. With 12 cores, 20 threads, and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, this Alder Lake processor provides substantial multi-threaded headroom. Its benchmark results are strong: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29241 and a single-core score of 4128, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. The PassMark multithread score of 34404 and a single-thread score of 4013 further confirm its capability.

The CPU’s influence on Barony is most evident at 1080p, where the FPS ceiling is high. At 1080p Low, the system hits 410.2 FPS, which is a 60% increase over the 4K Low result of 132.8 FPS. This gap suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than the GPU can render at 4K. However, the CPU’s performance is not the limiting factor at 1080p High (260.5 FPS) or even Ultra (187.7 FPS), as the GPU is still able to keep up.

The CPU’s nearestRivals show a tight race in synthetic benchmarks. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 is 0.3% slower, the Intel Core i5-14500HX is 0.7% slower, while the Intel Core i7-13700T and Intel Core i7-13800H are 0.6% and 0.8% faster, respectively. These deltas are negligible, meaning that swapping to any of these processors would produce nearly identical frame rates in Barony, given the same GPU. The CPU’s 25 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache likely contribute to its consistent frame pacing, but the data does not show any CPU-specific bottlenecks within the measured settings, as all presets at 1440p and above are clearly GPU-limited.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Barony with this hardware?*

A: The data shows that 1440p on High settings provides the best balance, delivering 162.7 FPS. This is smooth for high-refresh monitors, while 4K High at 85.2 FPS is also viable for a cinematic experience.

Q: Does the RTX 3070 Ti bottleneck the i7-12700K in this game?

A: Yes, at 4K and 1440p, the GPU is the limiting component, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops when increasing resolution. At 1080p, the CPU is more capable, but the GPU still manages to produce over 260 FPS on High, so the bottleneck is only relevant at extreme frame rates.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 132.8 FPS, which is 72.7 FPS higher (or 121% faster) than the Ultra preset’s 60.1 FPS. This shows a large performance headroom for competitive settings.

Q: Is the i7-12700K a good match for the RTX 3070 Ti based on synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU’s average benchmark score of 35684 places it in the 89th percentile, while the GPU’s average score of 30849 is in the 74th percentile. The CPU’s higher relative standing indicates it will not hold back the GPU in Barony, which is consistent with the measured FPS showing GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the FPS difference between High and Medium at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset runs at 260.5 FPS, while Medium runs at 299.9 FPS. This is a 39.4 FPS difference, showing that High offers a significant visual upgrade for a modest performance cost.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, but barely. The measured 60.1 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is just above the 60 FPS line, leaving no margin for frame drops. The High preset at 85.2 FPS is much safer for consistent gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals the GPU as the primary limiting factor. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 260.5 at 1080p to 162.7 at 1440p, a 37.5% decrease, and then to 85.2 at 4K, a 67.3% decrease from 1080p. This scaling is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the FPS does not drop proportionally due to other system overheads.

At Low settings, the trend is similar but more pronounced. The 1080p Low result of 410.2 FPS drops to 257.2 at 1440p (a 37.3% decrease) and then to 132.8 at 4K (a 67.6% decrease from 1080p). The fact that the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is nearly identical for Low (67.6%) and High (67.3%) confirms that the GPU’s pixel throughput is the bottleneck, regardless of the visual complexity. The CPU is able to feed frames fast enough at all resolutions, as evidenced by the high 1080p numbers, but the GPU’s rendering capacity diminishes as pixel count increases.

The scaling also shows that the RTX 3070 Ti loses more than half its 1080p performance at 4K, which is expected for a card with 8 GB of memory. The 4K Ultra preset at 60.1 FPS is the only setting that dips near the playability threshold, while all other 4K settings remain above 85 FPS. This indicates that for 4K gaming, the High preset is the practical limit, and for 1440p, the card has enough headroom to enable Ultra at 117.2 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset produces 187.7 FPS, High produces 260.5 FPS, Medium produces 299.9 FPS, and Low produces 410.2 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each step down in settings yields a significant FPS gain, with the largest jump occurring from High to Low (149.7 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset yields 117.2 FPS, High yields 162.7 FPS, Medium yields 188.3 FPS, and Low yields 257.2 FPS. The drop from 1080p High to 1440p High is 97.8 FPS, which is a 37.5% reduction, indicating the GPU is starting to feel the load.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset drops to 60.1 FPS, High falls to 85.2 FPS, Medium to 101.2 FPS, and Low to 132.8 FPS. The gap between 1440p High and 4K High is 77.5 FPS, a 47.6% reduction. The data shows that the 4K Ultra setting is the only measured configuration that approaches the 60 FPS minimum, while all other settings at every resolution comfortably exceed it.

The performance hierarchy is consistent across all resolutions: Low > Medium > High > Ultra. The delta between Medium and High is consistently smaller than the delta between High and Low, suggesting that the High preset includes more GPU-intensive effects that have a moderate cost. The 4K Ultra result of 60.1 FPS is particularly notable, as it is exactly at the threshold of playability, whereas the 1440p Ultra result of 117.2 FPS offers a comfortable margin. Overall, the data supports the recommendation of High settings at 1440p as the optimal configuration for this hardware, with 4K High being a strong alternative for users prioritizing resolution.