Barony

The Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 pairing delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Barony, with the data showing a clear pattern where the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution increases. At 1080p, the combo produces frame rates that far exceed display refresh rate capabilities, while 4K Ultra still maintains playable performance, indicating a balanced but GPU-bound configuration at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable scaling pattern across the three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo averages 205 FPS, which drops to 129.5 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 65.3 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 36.8% performance drop from 1080p Ultra to 1440p Ultra, and a 68.2% drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra. The frame rate halving from 1440p to 4K at Ultra settings (129.5 to 65.3) strongly suggests the RTX 3080’s rendering pipeline is the limiting component at higher resolutions.

Examining the Low settings across all resolutions tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system produces 451.4 FPS, which drops to 283 FPS at 1440p and 146.1 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop at Low settings is 37.3%, nearly identical to the percentage drop at Ultra settings, but the 4K Low figure still exceeds 144 FPS, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU adequately even at lower graphical loads. The scaling efficiency at High settings shows 285.9 FPS at 1080p, 180.2 FPS at 1440p, and 96.2 FPS at 4K — a consistent pattern where each resolution step costs roughly 37% to 47% of the previous frame rate.

The data indicates that Barony becomes progressively GPU-bound as resolution climbs. At 1080p, the i7-14700K’s 20 cores and 28 threads have enough headroom to push frame rates beyond 400 FPS at Low settings, but the RTX 3080’s 10 GB GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth become the bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate drops to 65.3 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz can boost up to 5.60 GHz, which explains its strong single-threaded performance in Barony’s gameplay logic. The processor achieves a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6287 and a multi-core score of 44534, placing it in the 96th percentile versus all CPUs.

The nearest rival comparison shows the i7-14700K essentially tied with the i7-14700KF, with a deltaPct of 0 meaning identical average benchmark scores (70074 vs 70104). The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X averages 70420, which is -0.5% relative to the i7-14700K, while the AMD EPYC 9115 trails by 0.3% at 69887. These tiny margins suggest that Barony’s CPU demands are well within the capabilities of this processor, and swapping to a slightly faster rival would yield negligible frame rate improvements.

For a roguelike title, the CPU’s role is primarily handling game state calculations and entity updates. The PassMark data shows strong integer math performance at 182876 and floating point math at 134222, which supports smooth procedural generation and physics calculations. The L3 cache of 33 MB shared across cores helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the execution units, reducing memory latency. The 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier indicate this is a high-performance desktop part designed for sustained workloads, though the measured FPS data shows the CPU rarely becomes the limiting factor except at very low settings where it still delivers 451.4 FPS at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 uses the GA102 chip on Samsung’s 8 nm process, with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. Its 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs provide substantial raw compute for Barony’s rendering. The boost clock of 1710 MHz, combined with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, yields 760.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth — a figure that becomes critical at 4K resolutions where texture and geometry data exceed the GPU’s internal caches.

The GPU’s benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 25086 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407, placing it in the 80th percentile versus all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are closely matched: the AMD Radeon Pro Duo averages 35860 (0.2% higher), the AMD Radeon 880M averages 35646 (0.4% lower), and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE averages 36101 (0.9% higher). The RTX 3080’s average benchmark score of 35787 means it sits right in the middle of this competitive group.

In Barony specifically, the GPU’s 10 GB VRAM capacity proves sufficient even at 4K Ultra, where the average frame rate of 65.3 FPS remains playable. The memory bandwidth advantage over its rivals becomes apparent in the resolution scaling data: the frame rate drop from 1440p High (180.2 FPS) to 4K High (96.2 FPS) is 46.6%, which is consistent with memory-bound rendering. The RTX 3080’s support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 ensures compatibility with modern rendering features, though Barony’s roguelike visuals do not appear to stress the RT or tensor cores (68 RT cores, 272 tensor cores) significantly based on the sustained frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i7-14700K and RTX 3080 ranks 548th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the 67.8th percentile. This is a strong showing for a pairing where the GPU is two generations old and the CPU is current-generation, though the ranking reflects the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings. The data indicates this combo outperforms roughly two-thirds of all tested configurations, which makes sense given the RTX 3080’s 80th percentile GPU ranking and the i7-14700K’s 96th percentile CPU ranking.

The gap between the CPU’s near-top-tier percentile and the combo’s 67.8th percentile ranking suggests the GPU holds the combo back in Barony’s most demanding scenarios. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces 65.3 FPS, which is below the 96.2 FPS seen at 4K High — a 32.1% drop from merely reducing settings one step. This indicates that the RTX 3080’s 10 GB VRAM and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for High settings at 4K but become strained at Ultra, where the extra graphical features likely exceed the GPU’s comfortable operating range.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 180.2 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which provides a comfortable margin above 144 Hz monitors.

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate is 65.3 FPS, while dropping to High settings raises it to 96.2 FPS. Low settings at 4K produce 146.1 FPS, showing the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3080’s average benchmark score of 35787 is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35860, +0.2%) and AMD Radeon 880M (35646, -0.4%). The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE leads slightly at 36101 (+0.9%).

Q: What is the CPU’s performance relative to other processors?

A: The i7-14700K scores 70074 on average, placing it at the 96th percentile. It matches the i7-14700KF (70104, 0% delta) and beats the AMD EPYC 9115 (69887, +0.3%) and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (70420, -0.5%).

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo hits 451.4 FPS, suggesting CPU headroom remains. The GPU becomes the bottleneck at 4K, especially at Ultra where frame rates drop to 65.3 FPS.

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 1440p?

A: Ultra settings at 2560x1440 produce 129.5 FPS, which is playable on high-refresh displays. Medium settings yield 209.8 FPS, and Low settings reach 283 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 451.4 FPS on Low settings, 331.8 FPS on Medium, 285.9 FPS on High, and 205 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 54.6% reduction in frame rate, with each settings tier costing roughly 15-20% performance.

At 2560x1440, the measured results are 283 FPS on Low, 209.8 FPS on Medium, 180.2 FPS on High, and 129.5 FPS on Ultra. The Ultra setting here drops below 144 FPS, making High the recommended setting for 144 Hz displays, while Low and Medium provide ample headroom for 240 Hz panels.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are 146.1 FPS on Low, 110.3 FPS on Medium, 96.2 FPS on High, and 65.3 FPS on Ultra. This resolution shows the steepest drop from Low to Ultra at 55.3%, and the Ultra setting falls below 70 FPS, indicating the RTX 3080’s limits are reached here. High settings remain playable at 96.2 FPS, which is suitable for 60 Hz to 90 Hz displays, while Low settings exceed 144 FPS for competitive play.

The complete dataset shows consistent behavior across all three resolutions: Low settings always deliver the highest frame rates, Ultra always the lowest, with Medium and High falling predictably in between. The gap between Low and Medium is larger at 1080p (119.6 FPS difference) than at 4K (35.8 FPS difference), suggesting the GPU’s fill rate limits become more pronounced at lower resolutions where the CPU can feed frames faster.