Barony

The pairing of the Intel Core i7-12700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER in Barony delivers exceptional performance, placing this combination in the 316th position out of 3717 tested combos. This places the configuration comfortably in the top percentile of all systems tested for this roguelike title. The data shows a system capable of extreme frame rates that will easily take advantage of high-refresh-rate displays, though the specific settings and resolution chosen will determine whether the bottleneck lies with the processor or the graphics card.

Settings Recommendations

For this specific hardware configuration, the benchmark data suggests that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 444 avg FPS, which is a substantial 63 FPS higher than the High preset’s 381 avg FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 273 avg FPS. The jump from Medium to High at this resolution costs 63 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 108 FPS, indicating that the visual fidelity gains from Ultra come at a steep performance price.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset produces 280 avg FPS with a minimum of 238 FPS and a maximum of 322 FPS. This is 40 FPS ahead of the High preset’s 240 avg FPS and 108 FPS ahead of Ultra’s 172 avg FPS. The 4K results reinforce this recommendation: Medium at 3840x2160 yields 146 avg FPS with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS, while High drops to 126 avg FPS and Ultra falls to 90 avg FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire measured set that dips below the 100 FPS mark, which may be noticeable on higher refresh rate displays.

The Low preset, while achieving the highest frame rates of 597 avg FPS at 1080p, 377 avg FPS at 1440p, and 197 avg FPS at 4K, likely sacrifices too much visual quality for a system of this caliber. The Medium preset provides a 47 FPS advantage over Low at 4K, yet the difference between Low and Medium at 1080p is a massive 153 FPS. Given that the minimum FPS is only recorded for the Medium preset, choosing Medium ensures a more consistent frame pacing experience, with the 4K minimum of 124 FPS still being exceptionally high.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. The GPU operates with a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz, with memory running at 1438 MHz for 23 Gbps effective speed. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for Barony’s requirements at any resolution tested.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are substantial, with 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. The FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s indicate that the card is far from being the limiting factor in this game, even at 4K resolution. The pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s helps explain why the card can sustain such high frame rates at 3840x2160, where the Ultra preset still manages 90 avg FPS.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reinforce its position; it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 19822, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, scores 54247 with a delta of -0.1%, showing that the SUPER variant performs nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 with a delta of -1.1%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 with a delta of -2.7%, meaning the RTX 4080 SUPER is slightly behind these cards in aggregate benchmark scores. However, this does not translate to a disadvantage in Barony, where the measured frame rates are uniformly high.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 316 out of 3717 tested combinations places this system in the top 8.5% of all configurations tested for Barony. This is a strong result, though not the absolute pinnacle, indicating that there are 315 other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in this game. Given the extreme performance levels already achieved, the difference between this combo and those ranked above it is likely minimal in practical terms, as even the lowest measured average FPS of 90 at 4K Ultra is still highly playable.

The ranking suggests that the combination of the Core i7-12700K and RTX 4080 SUPER is well-matched for Barony, with neither component bottlenecking the other to any significant degree. The processor’s 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs and the GPU’s 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicate that both are high-end parts, and the combo rank reflects their combined capability. The fact that the combo ranks lower than the individual component percentiles might suggest that the game is not fully utilizing the hardware, or that other combos with more powerful CPUs or GPUs achieve marginally higher frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved with this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 597 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: Does this combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the 3840x2160 Ultra preset produces an average of 90 FPS, which is still comfortably playable, though it is the lowest average FPS in the entire measured dataset.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54209, which is 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080’s score of 54247, and 1.1% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X’s score of 54828.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: The minimum FPS for the 2560x1440 Medium preset is 238 FPS, with a maximum of 322 FPS and an average of 280 FPS.

Q: What is the Core i7-12700K’s position relative to all CPUs?

A: The Core i7-12700K is in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35287.

Q: Which preset at 1080p shows the largest difference from the Low preset?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 averages 444 FPS, which is 153 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 597 FPS average, representing the largest drop between consecutive presets at that resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals how the system allocates work between the CPU and GPU. At the Low preset, the frame rate drops from 597 FPS at 1080p to 377 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 220 FPS, and then to 197 FPS at 4K, another reduction of 180 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 67%, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as resolution increases, but even at 4K the frame rate remains exceptionally high.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 444 FPS at 1080p, 280 FPS at 1440p, and 146 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 164 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 134 FPS. The High preset follows with 381 FPS at 1080p, 240 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset exhibits the steepest relative decline: 273 FPS at 1080p, 172 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K, representing a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

The consistent pattern across all settings suggests that the system is not CPU-limited at any resolution, as the frame rates scale predictably with the pixel count. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see smaller differences between resolutions, particularly at lower settings where the GPU has less work to do. The fact that even at 1080p Low the system reaches 597 FPS indicates that the Core i7-12700K is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates, and the bottleneck shifts to the GPU as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12th Gen Alder Lake processor with 12 cores and 20 threads, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It features a 25 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core. The processor supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 4 with 20 CPU-only lanes. Its 10 nm process node and 215 mm² die size are typical for this generation.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i7-12700K scores 19784 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1850.5 in single-core, demonstrating strong multi-threaded performance that helps in games with heavy simulation elements. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 9276 and single-thread score of 1043 show that the CPU can handle both lightly and heavily threaded workloads effectively. The Passmark multithread score of 34404 and single-thread score of 4013 place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs.

The nearest rivals to the i7-12700K are the Intel Core i5-13600T with an average score of 35305 and a delta of -0.1%, the Intel Core i7-12700KF at 35365 with a delta of -0.2%, and the Intel Core i7-13700T at 35403 with a delta of -0.3%. The Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35428 with a delta of -0.4%. These deltas are all within 0.5% of the i7-12700K’s average score of 35287, indicating that the CPU’s performance is very closely matched with these alternatives in aggregate benchmarks. For Barony, the CPU’s high single-thread performance and substantial multi-thread capacity ensure that it does not become a bottleneck, as evidenced by the high frame rates even at 1080p where the CPU workload is proportionally larger.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo are consistent across all resolutions and settings, with no anomalies or unexpected dips. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 597 avg FPS, Medium achieves 444 avg FPS with a minimum of 377 and maximum of 510, High achieves 381 avg FPS, and Ultra achieves 273 avg FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 324 FPS, showing a wide range of performance headroom depending on visual quality preferences.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces 377 avg FPS, Medium produces 280 avg FPS with a minimum of 238 and maximum of 322, High produces 240 avg FPS, and Ultra produces 172 avg FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 205 FPS at this resolution, reflecting the increased GPU load. The minimum FPS for Medium at 1440p is 238, which is still well above the refresh rate of most monitors, ensuring smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 197 FPS, Medium averages 146 FPS with a minimum of 124 and maximum of 168, High averages 126 FPS, and Ultra averages 90 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 107 FPS, and the Ultra preset is the only one that drops below 100 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K offers the best balance, with an average of 146 FPS and a minimum of 124 FPS, ensuring consistent performance. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the system remains playable, but for users seeking the highest frame rates, the Medium preset is the recommended choice across all resolutions.