Barony

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Barony with the Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Arc B370 reveals a steep performance curve as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 144 FPS average, which drops to 91 FPS at 1440p Low and 47 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 68% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets: High settings drop from 92 FPS at 1080p to 58 FPS at 1440p and 30 FPS at 4K, while Medium settings fall from 107 FPS to 67 FPS to 35 FPS across the same resolution steps.

The resolution scaling behavior indicates the Arc B370 is the primary limiting component. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (deltaPct -0.2), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (deltaPct -0.5), and AMD Radeon HD 7650M (deltaPct -0.7). These are all legacy or low-power parts, confirming the GPU's modest absolute performance. The 1080p to 1440p transition at Low settings shows a 37% FPS drop (144 to 91), while the 1440p to 4K transition shows a 48% drop (91 to 47). The increasing percentage drop at higher resolutions is classic GPU-bound behavior — the pixel throughput demand grows faster than the GPU can scale, and the system-shared memory architecture means the GPU competes with CPU memory traffic.

At Ultra settings, the pattern intensifies: 66 FPS at 1080p, 42 FPS at 1440p, and 22 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured point below 30 FPS, and it represents a 67% reduction from 1080p Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is substantial: 78 FPS at 1080p, 49 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. This spread indicates that Barony's graphical settings have a large impact on the Arc B370's workload, but the CPU is not the bottleneck — the i7-14700K's 20 cores and 28 threads are far beyond what a roguelike title needs, and its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2701 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony. That places it in the bottom 8% of all configurations, which is a striking result given the CPU's high standing. The i7-14700K alone achieves a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69355. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 9115 (deltaPct 0.1), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (deltaPct -0.2), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (deltaPct -0.7), and AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (deltaPct -0.9). These are all high-end server or desktop parts, confirming the CPU's competitive position.

The GPU tells a different story. The Arc B370's average benchmark score of 1184 places it in the 5th percentile, and its nearest rivals are all older or lower-tier parts. The massive discrepancy between the CPU's 94th percentile and the GPU's 5th percentile explains the combo's low overall rank — the GPU drags the entire system down despite the CPU's strength. In Barony, which is a roguelike with relatively modest CPU demands, the GPU's limitations become the defining factor. The combo rank of 2701 out of 2935 means that 234 other combos perform worse, but the vast majority of tested configurations outperform this pairing.

The data suggests that pairing a top-tier CPU with a bottom-tier GPU creates a severely unbalanced system for this game. The CPU's headroom is effectively wasted because the GPU cannot translate that compute power into frame rate. The 1080p Low result of 144 FPS is the only point where the combo approaches high-refresh territory, and even that is modest by modern standards. The 4K Ultra result of 22 FPS is below the playable threshold for most users, and the 4K Medium result of 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS indicates inconsistent frame pacing at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K brings 20 cores and 28 threads to this combination, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The processor is built on Intel's 10 nm process with a die size of 257 mm², and it supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory through a dual-channel interface. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's Cinebench R15 multi-core score is 5035, single-core is 313.5, Cinebench R20 multi-core is 18544, single-core is 2617, and Cinebench R23 multi-core is 33440.5 with a single-core score of 2160.

In the context of Barony, the CPU's role is minimal. The game is a roguelike, and its computational demands are far below what this processor can deliver. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU throttling or bottleneck — the frame rate drops are entirely attributable to resolution and settings changes, which affect the GPU workload. The i7-14700K's performance relative to its nearest rivals is essentially flat: the AMD EPYC 9115 is 0.1% faster, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.2% slower, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.7% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is 0.9% slower. These sub-1% differences are within noise and confirm that the CPU is not a differentiator in this pairing.

The CPU's 125 W TDP and active production status suggest it is a mainstream desktop part, but its release date of 2023-10-16 and launch MSRP of $409 position it as a high-end offering. The 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs means it outperforms the vast majority of processors, but this advantage is irrelevant when the GPU cannot keep up. The Geekbench scores reinforce this: multi-core 20767 and single-core 2569, both strong results. However, in Barony, the CPU's 28 threads are never fully utilized — the game's roguelike nature means most work is sequential and graphics-bound. The Passmark multi-thread score of 52392 and single-thread score of 4472 demonstrate the CPU's capability, but the data shows the GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution and settings combination.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this CPU-GPU pairing in Barony?

A: The 1080p Low setting delivers 144 FPS average, which is the highest measured result. For a more visually detailed experience, 1080p Medium still achieves 107 FPS, while 1080p High hits 92 FPS. At 1440p, only Low settings (91 FPS) maintain a high frame rate.

Q: How does the Arc B370 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 is nearly identical to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, deltaPct -0.2), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, deltaPct -0.5), and AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, deltaPct -0.7). The AMD FirePro M2000 is 1.4% slower at 1168.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700K a bottleneck in Barony?

A: No. The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads, combined with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, far exceed Barony's requirements. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K follows the GPU's capability curve, and the CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all processors indicates it is not the limiting component.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low settings produce 144 FPS average, while Ultra settings produce 66 FPS average. That is a 78 FPS difference, representing a 54% reduction in frame rate from Low to Ultra at the same resolution.

Q: Does the combo rank improve at lower resolutions?

A: The combo rank of 2701 out of 2935 is a single game-wide metric that does not vary by resolution. However, the measured FPS data shows that lower resolutions improve frame rates significantly, with 1080p results roughly three to six times faster than 4K results depending on settings.

Q: What does the GPU's 5th percentile ranking mean for gameplay?

A: The Arc B370 ranks in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, meaning 95% of GPUs perform better. In Barony, this translates to playable frame rates only at 1080p Low through High settings, with 4K Ultra at 22 FPS being the worst case.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160 (4K), the measured results are as follows: Low settings average 47 FPS, Medium settings average 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS and maximum of 41 FPS, High settings average 30 FPS, and Ultra settings average 22 FPS. The 4K results show a clear degradation as settings increase, with Ultra being less than half the frame rate of Low. The Medium setting's minimum of 30 FPS indicates occasional frame drops below the average.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the results improve substantially: Low settings average 91 FPS, Medium settings average 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS and maximum of 78 FPS, High settings average 58 FPS, and Ultra settings average 42 FPS. The 1440p Low result is nearly double the 1080p Ultra result, demonstrating the resolution's impact on the GPU workload.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the results are the strongest: Low settings average 144 FPS, Medium settings average 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 FPS and maximum of 123 FPS, High settings average 92 FPS, and Ultra settings average 66 FPS. The 1080p Low result of 144 FPS is the only measured point that approaches high-refresh-rate territory, and the Medium setting's minimum of 91 FPS still provides a smooth experience.

The data shows a consistent pattern across all settings: each resolution step down roughly doubles the frame rate. From 4K to 1440p, frame rates increase by approximately 90-100% across all settings. From 1440p to 1080p, frame rates increase by approximately 55-60% across all settings. This nonlinear scaling reflects the GPU's memory architecture — the system-shared memory means the GPU must compete with CPU memory traffic, and higher resolutions require more memory bandwidth that the shared architecture cannot fully provide.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Panther Lake chip with Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2400 MHz, and its TDP is just 25 W. The GPU features 1280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output units, along with 10 ray tracing cores. Its pixel rate is 48.00 GPixel/s, texture rate is 96.00 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS with FP16 at 12.29 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio).

The GPU's memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with no dedicated VRAM. This means memory size, type, bus width, and bandwidth are all system-dependent. The memory clock is listed as "System Shared," which is a critical limitation for a game like Barony that scales with resolution. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which are modern API standards, but the hardware's raw performance is modest.

The Arc B370's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184 places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are all significantly older parts. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186, deltaPct -0.2), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190, deltaPct -0.5), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (1192, deltaPct -0.7), and AMD FirePro M2000 (1168, deltaPct 1.4) are all from previous generations, yet they perform within 1.4% of the Arc B370. This places the GPU firmly in the entry-level category despite its modern architecture.

In Barony, the GPU's role is dominant. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows the expected behavior of a GPU with limited pixel throughput and shared memory bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 22 FPS is below playable thresholds, while the 1080p Low result of 144 FPS is the only high-refresh option. The GPU's 25 W TDP and IGP form factor mean it is designed for low-power systems, not gaming performance. The display outputs being "Portable Device Dependent" further confirm its mobile-oriented design.

The GPU's release date of 2026-01-26 and active production status indicate it is a current product, but its performance class is closer to integrated graphics from a decade ago. The system-shared memory is particularly problematic for Barony at high resolutions, as the GPU must share memory bandwidth with the CPU, reducing effective throughput. The result is that the i7-14700K's capabilities are largely wasted — the CPU can feed frames far faster than the GPU can render them, creating a permanent GPU bottleneck that no settings adjustment can fully overcome.