Barony

Barony’s CPU-bound nature is immediately visible in the measured frame rates for the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination. At 1080p Low, the system produces 633.3 FPS, but this drops by 35% to 407.5 FPS when moving to High settings, and by 54% to 293.4 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 339.9 FPS spread, indicating that the rendering pipeline is heavily influenced by both CPU draw-call overhead and GPU shading load, even at lower resolutions. As resolution increases to 1440p, the same settings progression yields 399.1 FPS (Low), 295.9 FPS (Medium), 258.5 FPS (High), and 184.7 FPS (Ultra), showing a more moderate 214.4 FPS total drop, which suggests the GPU begins to take on more responsibility. At 4K, the frame rates compress further: 208.6 FPS (Low), 158.8 FPS (Medium), 135.6 FPS (High), and 95.6 FPS (Ultra), with a 113 FPS spread that is nearly half of the 1080p delta.

The data points to a classic bottleneck shift. At 1080p, the i7-13700K’s 16 cores and 24 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, are sufficient to push extremely high frame rates, but the gap between Low (633.3 FPS) and Ultra (293.4 FPS) suggests that even this processor’s single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 1136) becomes a limiting factor when the game’s simulation and render-thread workloads increase with settings. Moving to 4K, the RTX 5080’s 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth become the primary drivers; the 4K Low result of 208.6 FPS is only 33% lower than the 1440p Low result of 399.1 FPS, whereas the 1080p to 1440p drop was 37%. This indicates that at 4K, the pixel throughput and shading rate of the GPU are the dominant constraints, while the CPU has more headroom relative to the GPU’s workload. The 4K Ultra score of 95.6 FPS, while still above 60, shows that the GPU’s 10752 shading units are heavily taxed by the highest preset, and the 112 ROPs are processing 3840x2160 pixels with maximum effects.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 633.3 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the peak performance point recorded in the data, highlighting the CPU’s ability to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Low?

A: The 4K Ultra setting produces 95.6 FPS, which is 85% lower than the 1080p Low result of 633.3 FPS. This substantial difference illustrates the combined impact of increased resolution and graphical fidelity on the RTX 5080.

Q: Is the i7-13700K a bottleneck at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo achieves 295.9 FPS. Given that the 1440p Low score is 399.1 FPS, the drop to Medium is 103.2 FPS, suggesting that the CPU is still contributing significantly to the frame time, but the GPU’s shading workload is also scaling up. The 1080p Medium score of 471.3 FPS versus 1440p Medium at 295.9 FPS indicates a 37% reduction, which is a typical GPU-bound scaling pattern, so the CPU is not the sole limiter here.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking in this game?

A: The Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination ranks 90th out of 1702 tested combos for Barony, placing it in the top 5.3% of all configurations measured.

Q: How does the GPU’s compute performance relate to its gaming results?

A: The RTX 5080’s passmark_g3d score is 36565, and its geekbench_opencl score is 264461. These high compute scores align with the observed 4K High result of 135.6 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU’s raw processing power translates into playable frame rates at the highest resolutions.

Q: What is the difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 208.6 at Low to 95.6 at Ultra, a difference of 113 FPS. This 54% performance reduction is the cost of enabling the highest-quality shadows, textures, and post-processing effects that the Ultra preset includes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance, with a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 39000 and a 3dmark_max_threads score of 12412. However, its single-thread capabilities are also notable, with a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1136 and a cinebench_r23_singlecore score of 5505. In Barony, a roguelike that likely relies on game logic and entity updates, the single-thread score is crucial. The data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the system hits 633.3 FPS, which is a scenario where the GPU is barely stressed, allowing the CPU’s thread scheduling and IPC to dictate the ceiling.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals in the database, the i7-13700K has an average benchmark score of 47282, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i7-13700KF (47334) and 0.3% higher than the AMD EPYC 4364P (47131). The difference against the Intel Core i9-12900F is 0.4%, with the i9-12900F scoring 47081. These deltas are minimal, indicating that the i7-13700K’s processing power is well-matched within its tier. For Barony specifically, the CPU’s 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help maintain high frame rates when the game’s procedural generation and AI routines are active. The 1080p High result of 407.5 FPS suggests that even with increased draw calls and physics calculations, the processor’s 24 threads can handle the additional load without causing a significant frame rate collapse.

The CPU’s role becomes more apparent when examining the scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p Medium, the FPS is 471.3, which is 25% higher than the 4K Medium score of 158.8 FPS. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is still the primary driver, as the GPU’s workload is lighter. However, at 4K Low, the FPS is 208.6, which is 67% lower than the 1080p Low score, showing that the GPU’s pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth (960.0 GB/s) are now the limiting factors. The i7-13700K’s 125 W TDP and 10 nm process node allow for sustained boost clocks, which is essential for maintaining these high frame rates over long gaming sessions, but the data shows that in Barony, the CPU is the bottleneck only at lower resolutions and settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for this combo is the High preset at 2560x1440. This configuration yields 258.5 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors, and it provides a substantial visual upgrade over Medium (295.9 FPS) without the steep performance penalty of Ultra (184.7 FPS). The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs 73.8 FPS (a 29% reduction), which is a significant trade-off for marginal graphical improvements in a roguelike where clarity of game elements is more important than cinematic effects. For players who prioritize frame rate above all else, the Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves 633.3 FPS, but this is likely overkill for most displays and sacrifices too much visual fidelity.

At 4K, the High preset delivers 135.6 FPS, which is playable and above the 120 Hz threshold for many TVs. The Medium preset at 4K offers 158.8 FPS, a 17% improvement over High, and is a better choice if the display supports variable refresh rates and the user prefers higher responsiveness. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 95.6 FPS, which is still above 60 FPS but shows that the RTX 5080 is nearing its limit with this CPU at maximum settings. For a consistent experience, the data suggests that 1440p High is the sweet spot, as it provides a 91% higher frame rate than 4K Ultra (258.5 vs 135.6 FPS) while maintaining a resolution that is sharp enough for most gaming scenarios. The 1080p Ultra preset (293.4 FPS) is also viable, but it does not offer the same pixel density as 1440p, making the latter a more balanced choice for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination holds the 90th position out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the 94.7th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is strong, but it is not at the very top, which is expected given that the game is CPU-bound at lower resolutions; combos with higher-end CPUs (e.g., those with better single-thread scores) may edge out this pairing in the 1080p tests. The GPU’s own percentileVsAllGpus is 89, and its avgBenchmarkScore is 59188, which is 1.6% higher than the Intel Arc A570M (58239) and 2.5% higher than the Intel Arc A580 (57756). This indicates that the RTX 5080 is a high-performing GPU, but its ranking in Barony is moderated by the CPU’s performance.

The combo’s rank of 90 suggests that there are 89 other tested combinations that achieve higher average FPS across all settings and resolutions in this game. Given that the CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus is 93, and the GPU’s is 89, the pairing is well-balanced, but the data implies that the CPU is the slightly stronger component relative to its peers. The nearest rivals for the GPU include the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X (2.6% lower avg score) and the Intel Arc Pro A60 (1.9% higher avg score), but these are not necessarily paired with the same CPU. The measured FPS data shows that this combo excels at 1440p and 1080p, with the 1440p Ultra score of 184.7 FPS being particularly strong. The 4K Ultra score of 95.6 FPS is respectable but indicates that for 4K gaming at maximum settings, users might consider a more powerful GPU, as the combo’s rank is likely dragged down by the 4K results relative to other high-end configurations. Overall, the 90th rank out of 1702 is a solid performance, placing this setup in the top tier for Barony, with the understanding that the game’s engine rewards high single-thread CPU performance and the RTX 5080’s capabilities are best utilized at 1440p.