Barony

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Barony across the three tested resolutions show a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling, though the magnitude of the drop varies significantly with the selected quality preset. At 1080p, the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates, ranging from 187.4 FPS at Ultra settings to 407.5 FPS at Low settings. Moving to 1440p, the average frame rates across all presets drop by roughly 35-40%, with the High preset falling from 257.6 FPS to 163.4 FPS and the Low preset dropping from 407.5 FPS to 257.3 FPS. This consistent proportional decline indicates that the rendering workload is scaling predictably with pixel count.

The transition from 1440p to 4K produces an even more pronounced reduction in performance. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate falls to 60.6 FPS, which represents a 47% decrease from the 1440p Ultra result of 114.9 FPS. The 4K High preset yields 83.6 FPS, down from 163.4 FPS at 1440p. The 4K Medium preset achieves 100.2 FPS, while the 4K Low preset reaches 133.7 FPS. These figures suggest that at 4K resolution, the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily, particularly at the higher quality settings where texture and shader complexity increase.

The scaling behavior across resolutions reveals that Barony is primarily GPU-limited in this configuration. The CPU's substantial multi-threading capabilities, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and PassMark multi-thread score of 52425, are not the bottleneck at any resolution. The data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the frame rate exceeds 400 FPS, the system maintains stability. The 407.5 FPS result at 1080p Low versus the 257.3 FPS at 1440p Low indicates a 37% reduction, which aligns closely with the pixel count difference between these resolutions. This linear scaling strongly suggests that the GPU's pixel throughput, rated at 169.9 GPixel/s, is the determining factor.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is slightly steeper, with the 1080p to 1440p drop being 39% (from 187.4 FPS to 114.9 FPS) and the 1440p to 4K drop being 47% (from 114.9 FPS to 60.6 FPS). This non-linear degradation at higher resolutions and settings points to the GPU's memory subsystem becoming a limiting factor. The 4K Ultra result of 60.6 FPS is notably close to the threshold where gameplay smoothness could begin to suffer, suggesting that for 4K displays, users should consider dropping to High or Medium settings to maintain higher headroom.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this hardware combination in Barony?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 407.5 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This demonstrates the CPU's ability to feed the GPU at very high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Barony?

A: Yes, the data shows playable frame rates at 4K across all settings. The lowest result is 60.6 FPS at 4K Ultra, while 4K High delivers 83.6 FPS, 4K Medium reaches 100.2 FPS, and 4K Low achieves 133.7 FPS. All of these exceed the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered the minimum for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 30849, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, scores 30755, which is 0.3% higher. The AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 31112, putting the RTX 3070 Ti 0.8% behind it.

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 407.5 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 187.4 FPS. This represents a 54% reduction in frame rate when moving from Low to Ultra, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a significantly heavier rendering load.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700KF competitive with other high-end CPUs?

A: The i7-14700KF has an average benchmark score of 70104, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700K, scores 70074, a negligible 0% difference. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420, putting the i7-14700KF 0.4% behind.

Q: What memory specifications does the RTX 3070 Ti use in this configuration?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, with a memory clock of 1188 MHz and effective speed of 19 Gbps. This yields a memory bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s, which is critical for handling the texture data in Barony at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance depends heavily on the target resolution. For 1920x1080 displays, all settings are viable, but the High preset at 257.6 FPS offers a strong balance. The Ultra preset at 187.4 FPS still provides ample headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors, while the Medium preset at 302.3 FPS is ideal for competitive play where maximum frame rates are prioritized. The Low preset at 407.5 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all consumer displays, making it unnecessary except for extreme competitive scenarios.

At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 163.4 FPS, which comfortably supports 144Hz monitors. The Medium preset at 192.3 FPS is also excellent, offering a minor visual upgrade over Low while maintaining high frame rates. The Ultra preset at 114.9 FPS is still playable but may not fully utilize a 144Hz display. For 1440p users, the data suggests that High or Medium settings provide the best experience, as the visual improvements from Ultra are not worth the 30% frame rate penalty when comparing High to Ultra.

For 4K resolution, the recommendations shift significantly. The Ultra preset at 60.6 FPS is playable but leaves little margin for frame time spikes. The High preset at 83.6 FPS is the recommended choice for 4K, as it provides substantially better performance with only a modest reduction in visual quality compared to Ultra. The Medium preset at 100.2 FPS offers even more headroom and is suitable for gamers who prefer higher frame rates over maximum detail. The Low preset at 133.7 FPS ensures the smoothest 4K experience but sacrifices noticeable visual fidelity. Given the data, the High preset at 4K offers the best balance, delivering 83.6 FPS while maintaining the core visual enhancements that Barony's roguelike aesthetic benefits from.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the complete set of measurements shows a wide performance envelope. Low settings achieve an average of 407.5 FPS, Medium settings reach 302.3 FPS, High settings produce 257.6 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 187.4 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra demonstrates a consistent step-down in performance, with each quality tier reducing the frame rate by approximately 20-25%. This indicates that the GPU is efficiently utilizing its 6144 shading units and 192 texture mapping units across all presets.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings average 257.3 FPS, Medium settings reach 192.3 FPS, High settings produce 163.4 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 114.9 FPS. The relative differences between presets remain similar to 1080p, with Ultra being roughly 55% slower than Low. The 1440p results confirm that this resolution is well within the comfortable operating range for the RTX 3070 Ti, with even the Ultra preset maintaining triple-digit frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the impact of the increased pixel count becomes evident. Low settings average 133.7 FPS, Medium settings reach 100.2 FPS, High settings produce 83.6 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 60.6 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only measurement that falls below the 60 FPS mark, and it barely clears it. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 55%, which is similar to the relative gap at other resolutions. However, the absolute frame rates at 4K are substantially lower across the board, highlighting the GPU's memory bandwidth and pixel fill rate limitations at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti's performance in Barony is characterized by its Ampere architecture and GA104 chip, manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1575 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz, with 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s, which directly impact the game's rendering throughput at various resolutions and settings.

The memory subsystem plays a critical role in the measured results. The 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 60.6 FPS suggests that the memory bandwidth is being saturated, as the frame rate drops disproportionately compared to the pixel count increase from 1440p. The GPU's FP32 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS and FP16 performance of 21.75 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) indicate strong compute capabilities, but Barony's roguelike rendering appears to be more memory-bound than compute-bound at higher resolutions.

The RTX 3070 Ti's benchmark scores place it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 30849. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, scores 30755 (0.3% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 31112 (0.8% higher). These close margins suggest that the RTX 3070 Ti is positioned competitively in its performance class. The GPU's 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores provide additional capabilities that may not be fully utilized in Barony, but they contribute to the overall feature set of the GeForce 30-series architecture.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF's contribution to Barony's performance is substantial, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is less constrained. The CPU features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. This configuration, based on the Raptor Lake-R architecture on Intel's 10 nm process, provides the computational headroom necessary to maintain high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck. The CPU's L3 cache of 33 MB shared across cores helps reduce memory latency for game logic and AI calculations.

The i7-14700KF's benchmark results demonstrate its high-end positioning. It achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44557 and a single-core score of 6290, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 19287 and single-core score of 2972. The PassMark multi-thread score of 52425 and single-thread score of 4480 further confirm its capability. These scores place the CPU in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70104. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700K, scores 70074 (0% difference), while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420 (0.4% higher).

The CPU's role in Barony becomes most apparent when examining the frame rates at 1080p Low, where the 407.5 FPS result indicates that the CPU can supply draw calls and game state updates faster than the GPU can render them. This is supported by the PassMark data compression score of 694963 and floating point math score of 134393, which reflect the CPU's ability to handle the procedural generation and physics calculations common in roguelike games. The CPU's 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier allow for sustained performance in extended gaming sessions, though the data does not indicate thermal throttling at any measured point. The CPU's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5, along with dual-channel memory bus, provides flexibility for system builders without impacting the measured game performance.