Barony

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers a playable but dated experience in Barony, a roguelike where the GPU’s 4 GB VRAM and the CPU’s high core count shape performance more than the game’s genre might suggest. The combo ranks 1642nd out of 1702 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 4% of all pairings, yet the measured frame rates show it can still hit 137 FPS at 1080p Low. The data reveals a system where the graphics card is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the processor’s strength only becomes apparent in lighter settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this pair?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 137.3 FPS average, which is the highest measured result. For a balance of quality and speed, 1080p Medium yields 105.5 FPS, while 1080p High drops to 87.5 FPS. 4K Ultra is the worst at 18.6 FPS.

Q: How much performance does the RX 570 lose when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS falls from 87.5 at 1920x1080 to 53.5 at 2560x1440, then to 30 at 3840x2160. This represents a 65.7% drop from 1080p to 4K, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

Q: Is the Core i7-12700KF strong enough for this game?

A: Yes. The CPU’s 12 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, provide ample headroom. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979 and single-core score of 4091 place it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, meaning processor performance is rarely a bottleneck in Barony.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570’s average benchmark score of 30158 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, a 0.2% advantage) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, also a 0.2% advantage). It is 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla M60 and 0.8% ahead of the RTX 5070 Mobile.

Q: What is the lowest playable frame rate in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS recorded is 18.6 at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. At 4K High, the average is 30 FPS, which is borderline playable but below the 44.7 FPS seen at 4K Low.

Q: Does this combo perform better at 1440p or 1080p?

A: 1080p is significantly stronger. At Medium settings, 1440p delivers 63.8 FPS versus 105.5 FPS at 1080p, a 39.5% difference. The gap narrows at Ultra settings, where 1440p hits 42.9 FPS and 1080p reaches 64.6 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip with a 14 nm process, featuring 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Its base clock runs at 1168 MHz with a boost up to 1244 MHz, while the 4 GB of GDDR5 memory operates at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the GPU in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158.

In Barony, the GPU’s role becomes clear when examining the 4K results. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 44.7 at Low settings to 18.6 at Ultra, with High at 30 and Medium at 35.7. The steep drop from Low to Ultra — a 58.4% reduction — indicates that the RX 570’s 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for high-detail rendering at this resolution. The card’s texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s are adequate for 1080p but become strained as pixel count quadruples.

The GPU’s FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, yet it still manages 137.3 FPS at 1080p Low. This suggests that Barony’s roguelike visuals are not heavily shader-bound at lower settings. The RX 570’s 74th percentile ranking, however, is misleading in this context — its nearest rivals include the RTX 5060 and RX 7700 XT, which in practice would offer far higher frame rates in newer titles, but here the delta is only 0.2% in synthetic tests. For this game, the GPU is the limiting component at 1440p and above, as evidenced by the 39.5% FPS drop from 1080p Medium to 1440p Medium.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a 12-core, 20-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 25 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s 125 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support make it a versatile desktop part, and its 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects strong multi-threaded performance.

Benchmark data shows the i7-12700KF excels in multi-core workloads: its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979 is nearly seven times its single-core score of 4091. The PassMark multi-thread score of 34092 and Geekbench multi-core score of 13596 reinforce this. In single-threaded tasks, the PassMark single-thread score of 3984 and 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 are solid but unremarkable. This CPU sits 0.1% above the Intel Core i5-14400 and 0.2% below the Intel Core i7-13800H in average benchmark scores, showing it is competitive with newer mid-range parts.

In Barony, the CPU’s impact is most visible at 1080p Low settings, where the combo reaches 137.3 FPS. At this settings level, the GPU is not fully stressed, allowing the processor’s 5.00 GHz boost clock to drive frame rates higher. The 12-core configuration ensures that any background tasks or game logic threads have ample resources. However, at 4K Ultra, the 18.6 FPS result indicates the CPU is waiting on the GPU — the processor’s capabilities are far beyond what the RX 570 can feed at high resolutions. The CPU’s 89th percentile standing means it is unlikely to be a bottleneck at any settings; the data consistently points to the GPU as the performance ceiling above 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i7-12700KF and RX 570 ranks 1642nd out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the bottom 3.5% of all configurations. This low ranking is surprising given that the CPU alone sits in the 89th percentile, suggesting that the pairing is heavily dragged down by the GPU’s limitations. The rank reflects the overall balance: a high-end processor paired with a mid-range graphics card from 2017 creates a mismatch where the GPU cannot utilize the CPU’s full potential.

Compared to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RX 570’s average score of 30158 is essentially tied with the RTX 5060 and RX 7700 XT, yet those newer GPUs would likely rank much higher in Barony due to superior memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity. The combo’s rank of 1642 indicates that most other tested systems, including those with older CPUs but stronger GPUs, outperform this pairing. The data shows that in Barony, GPU performance is the dominant factor in overall ranking — a 12-core CPU cannot compensate for a 4 GB GPU at higher resolutions. For users targeting this rank, the practical takeaway is that the CPU has headroom for a future GPU upgrade without becoming a bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a consistent and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 87.5 at 1920x1080 to 53.5 at 2560x1440 (a 38.9% decrease), then to 30 at 3840x2160 (a 43.9% decrease from 1440p). Across all settings, the transition from 1080p to 4K results in roughly a 65-70% reduction in frame rate, depending on the quality preset.

This scaling pattern identifies the GPU as the limiting component. The CPU’s performance — with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979 — does not change with resolution, so the FPS drops must be attributed to the RX 570’s rendering workload. At 1080p Low, the 137.3 FPS result suggests the CPU is capable of driving high frame rates, but the GPU’s pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s becomes insufficient as pixel count increases. The 4K Ultra result of 18.6 FPS is particularly telling: the 4 GB VRAM is likely exceeding its capacity, causing texture thrashing.

The scaling is not linear. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings reduces FPS from 105.5 to 63.8 (a 39.5% drop), but moving from 1440p to 4K at the same settings reduces FPS from 63.8 to 35.7 (a 44% drop). This accelerating decline indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s is increasingly saturated at higher resolutions. For practical purposes, 1080p is the sweet spot for this combo, with 1440p playable only at Low or Medium settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 137.3 FPS average, Medium yields 105.5 FPS, High drops to 87.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 64.6 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 72.7 FPS, showing that settings have a significant impact at this resolution. All 1080p results are comfortably above 60 FPS, making this the only resolution where Ultra settings remain playable.

At 2560x1440, performance becomes more varied. Low settings still deliver 84.8 FPS, but Medium drops to 63.8 FPS, High falls to 53.5 FPS, and Ultra reaches only 42.9 FPS. The 1440p results show that only Low and Medium settings maintain 60+ FPS, while High and Ultra require compromises. The difference between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is 52.5 FPS, indicating that resolution has a larger impact than settings at this level.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles significantly. Low settings produce 44.7 FPS, Medium drops to 35.7 FPS, High falls to 30 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 18.6 FPS. None of the 4K results reach 60 FPS, and even Low settings cannot maintain a smooth 45 FPS. The 26.1 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest of any resolution, showing that the GPU is so constrained that even reducing settings provides limited relief. Across all resolutions, the data confirms that 1080p is the intended operating range for this pairing, with 1440p acceptable for low-to-medium settings and 4K reserved for static scenes or screenshots.