Barony

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a performance curve in Barony that clearly separates CPU-bound and GPU-bound operating points. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 467.8 FPS, which drops to 296.7 FPS on High and 214.9 FPS on Ultra. This massive spread—a 252.9 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p—indicates that the processor has abundant headroom and the graphics card is the primary limiter even at the lowest settings. The RTX 4070’s 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs and the i7-14700KF’s 96th percentile CPU standing support this interpretation: the CPU is in a higher performance tier than the GPU, so frame rates scale heavily with graphics load.

Moving to 1440p, the same pattern holds but with tighter margins. Low produces 294.7 FPS, High delivers 190.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 136.3 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is 173.1 FPS, whereas the drop from 1080p Ultra to 1440p Ultra is only 78.6 FPS. This asymmetry suggests that at Ultra settings, the GPU is already saturated and additional resolution has a smaller incremental effect, whereas at Low settings, the GPU has enough spare capacity that resolution scaling is more punishing. At 4K, the curve becomes even more compressed: Low yields 155.3 FPS, Medium 115.5 FPS, High 100.4 FPS, and Ultra 69.8 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only sub-100 FPS figure in the entire dataset, confirming that the RTX 4070’s 12 GB GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for most of the range but finally hit a wall at 4K Ultra.

The shape of these results indicates a balanced pairing for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with the GPU becoming the bottleneck only at 4K Ultra. The i7-14700KF’s 20 cores and 28 threads, boosted by a 5.60 GHz clock, are never the limiting factor in any measured configuration; even the 467.8 FPS 1080p Low result does not reveal a CPU ceiling. This is a roguelike title where procedural generation and simulation logic can stress single-thread performance, but the processor’s 33 MB shared L3 cache and 6,290 Cinebench R23 single-core score suggest it handles such workloads comfortably.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS degradation from 1080p to 4K follows a consistent, predictable pattern across all four settings presets. At Low settings, the combo loses 312.5 FPS going from 1080p (467.8 FPS) to 4K (155.3 FPS), a 66.8% reduction. Medium settings see a 232.1 FPS drop from 347.6 to 115.5 FPS, a 66.8% reduction as well. High settings drop from 296.7 to 100.4 FPS, a 66.2% loss, and Ultra falls from 214.9 to 69.8 FPS, a 67.5% reduction. The uniformity of these percentage drops—all within a 1.3 percentage point band—indicates that resolution scaling is purely GPU-limited across the entire settings range. There is no inflection point where the CPU suddenly becomes the constraint; the i7-14700KF maintains its performance advantage at every resolution.

The 1440p results sit roughly halfway between 1080p and 4K in absolute terms, but the ratio tells a more interesting story. At 1440p High, the combo achieves 190.9 FPS, which is 64.3% of the 1080p High score and 190.1% of the 4K High score. This nonlinear scaling suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot for this pairing, where the RTX 4070 is neither overworked nor underutilized. The 4K Ultra result of 69.8 FPS is the only data point below 100 FPS, and it is 32.5% slower than the 4K High result, showing that the Ultra preset’s additional effects cost more than the resolution increase itself at that tier. For players targeting 4K, the data recommends High settings as the highest playable preset, with Medium (115.5 FPS) being a comfortable alternative and Low (155.3 FPS) providing headroom for competitive play.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070’s specifications directly explain its behavior in Barony. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, coupled with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus. The memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, producing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. In a game like Barony, which features dense procedural maps and particle effects, memory bandwidth often becomes a limiting factor at high resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 69.8 FPS suggests that the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is just adequate for the highest settings, but the 4K High result of 100.4 FPS indicates that reducing a single settings tier frees up enough bandwidth to cross the 100 FPS threshold comfortably.

The GPU’s compute resources are substantial: 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores. The FP32 throughput of 29.15 TFLOPS, identical to FP16 (1:1), means the card handles both standard and reduced-precision workloads at the same rate. In Barony’s roguelike rendering, which relies on traditional rasterization rather than ray tracing, the 46 RT cores are largely idle, but the raw shading power drives the high frame rates seen at 1080p and 1440p. The GPU’s 81st percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the upper tier, though its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (0.6% lower average score) and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (1.9% lower), showing that the RTX 4070 sits near the boundary of its performance class rather than at the top.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is not exhausted in any measured configuration, as even the 4K Ultra preset at 69.8 FPS does not show signs of memory thrashing or allocation failures. The GDDR6X type and 192-bit bus width are well-matched to the card’s compute power, and the 200 W TDP suggests the card is power-efficient enough to sustain high clocks during extended sessions. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,854 and Passmark G3D score of 26,927 corroborate the gaming results, indicating that the card’s synthetic performance aligns with its real-world Barony frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Barony?

A: The maximum recorded average FPS is 467.8 at 1080p with Low settings.

Q: Can this combo maintain 144 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes. At 1440p, the combo exceeds 144 FPS on Low (294.7 FPS), Medium (218.3 FPS), and High (190.9 FPS) settings, but falls below on Ultra (136.3 FPS).

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700KF or the RTX 4070 the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU is the limiting component. The i7-14700KF’s 20 cores and 5.60 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom, while the RTX 4070’s 4K Ultra result of 69.8 FPS indicates graphics saturation.

Q: How does the i7-14700KF compare to its nearest rival, the i7-14700K?

A: The two processors have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with the i7-14700KF at 70,104 and the i7-14700K at 70,074, a negligible 0% delta.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking among tested combinations?

A: This pairing ranks 461st out of 1,702 combos tested, placing it in the top 27% of all configurations.

Q: Does the RTX 4070 outperform its nearest GPU rival in synthetic tests?

A: The RTX 4070’s average benchmark score of 37,283 is 0.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56’s 37,507, making them effectively equivalent.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 461 out of 1,702 tested combinations places it in the upper quartile of all pairings, but not at the top tier. This ranking reflects the balance between the i7-14700KF’s 96th percentile CPU performance and the RTX 4070’s 81st percentile GPU performance. The CPU is clearly the stronger component in this pairing, and the overall rank is pulled down by the GPU’s more modest standing. In Barony, where CPU simulation and GPU rendering both matter, this imbalance manifests as the GPU becoming the limiting factor at 4K Ultra while the CPU remains underutilized at lower resolutions.

Compared to other tested combos, this pairing’s 1080p Ultra score of 214.9 FPS and 1440p Ultra score of 136.3 FPS are strong but not record-breaking. The 4K Ultra score of 69.8 FPS is the weakest result in the dataset, and it is this figure that likely contributes most to the 461st overall rank. The i7-14700KF’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, scores 0.4% higher on average, while the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 scores 1.3% higher, indicating that the CPU is competitive with top-tier alternatives. The RTX 4070’s nearest rival, the RTX 4080 Mobile, scores 2.2% higher on average, showing that the desktop GPU is slightly behind its mobile counterpart in synthetic benchmarks despite having a higher TDP.

The rank of 461 out of 1,702 means that 1,241 other combos perform worse in this game, while 460 perform better. This positions the combo as a high-midrange option that excels at 1080p and 1440p but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra. Players with 1440p displays will find this pairing well-suited, as it delivers 190.9 FPS on High settings, while 4K users will need to accept 100.4 FPS on High or drop to Medium for 115.5 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p displays, the Ultra preset at 214.9 FPS is the best choice for visual fidelity, as it remains well above 144 FPS and even exceeds 200 FPS, providing smooth gameplay on high-refresh monitors. The High preset at 296.7 FPS offers nearly 82 FPS more than Ultra, making it preferable for competitive play where every frame matters, but the visual difference may not justify the loss of effects for most players. The Medium preset at 347.6 FPS is overkill for any 1080p display, and Low at 467.8 FPS provides no practical benefit unless the player is chasing absolute minimum input latency.

For 1440p, the High preset at 190.9 FPS is the recommended sweet spot, as it exceeds 144 FPS comfortably while retaining higher-quality effects. The Medium preset at 218.3 FPS is a viable alternative for players who prioritize frame rate over visuals, but the jump from Medium to High costs only 27.4 FPS while providing a meaningful visual upgrade. The Ultra preset at 136.3 FPS is playable on 120 Hz displays but falls short of 144 Hz, so players with 144 Hz monitors should stick to High. The Low preset at 294.7 FPS is unnecessary for most users, as even Medium provides more than enough headroom.

For 4K, the High preset at 100.4 FPS is the best balance of quality and performance, crossing the 100 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 115.5 FPS offers a 15.1 FPS improvement over High and is the safer choice for players who experience frame-time spikes or prefer a buffer above 100 FPS. The Ultra preset at 69.8 FPS is only suitable for 60 Hz displays or players who prioritize maximum visual quality over smoothness, while the Low preset at 155.3 FPS is ideal for players who want to maximize frame rate at 4K on high-refresh displays. The data clearly shows that High is the most balanced preset across all resolutions, offering the best combination of visual fidelity and performance without dropping below 100 FPS at any resolution.