Barony

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a highly playable experience in Barony, though the data reveals a clear performance ceiling tied to the graphics card. This combination sits at rank 2344 out of 2935 tested combos, indicating that while the CPU is among the best available, the GPU holds this pairing back from top-tier status. The measured frames per second (FPS) show a system that excels at lower resolutions but struggles to maintain high refresh rates at 4K, making it a solid choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming rather than a 4K powerhouse.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and tells a clear story about which component is the bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 245 at 1920x1080 to 154 at 2560x1440, then down to 81 at 3840x2160. That is a 67% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, a massive hit that points directly at the GPU struggling to fill the extra pixels. The Intel Arc B570, with its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth, simply cannot keep pace with the pixel throughput demands of 4K in this roguelike.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more punishing. The average FPS drops from 112 at 1080p to 71 at 1440p, and then collapses to 37 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is less than one-third of the 1080p Low figure, demonstrating that the GPU is the limiting factor in every scenario. The i9-14900K, with its 24 cores and 32 threads, is not the constraint here; the data shows the CPU has ample headroom, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p where the GPU is less stressed.

The Medium settings row provides the only min/max data in the pack, offering insight into frame time consistency. At 4K Medium, the average is 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 69, showing a tight 18 FPS band. At 1080p Medium, the average is 182 FPS with a minimum of 155 and maximum of 209, a wider 54 FPS spread that suggests the CPU is pushing frames faster than the GPU can consistently render at lower resolutions. This pattern reinforces that the GPU is the primary limiter, especially as resolution increases.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in Barony?*

A: Barely, and only at lower presets. The data shows 81 FPS average at 4K Low and 52 FPS at 4K High. Ultra drops to 37 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold most players consider smooth, so 4K is only viable with reduced settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: 2560x1440 offers the best balance. At High settings it delivers 99 FPS average, and at Medium it hits 115 FPS. This resolution keeps frame rates comfortably above 60 FPS across all presets, unlike 4K where Ultra falls to 37 FPS.

Q: How does the i9-14900K compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i9-14900K scores an average of 79097 across all benchmarks. It trails the Intel Core i9-14900KF by 0.3% and the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus by 0.6%, but leads the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 by 1.7%. The AMD EPYC 7413 is 1.2% ahead.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other cards?

A: The Intel Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. It is effectively tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% ahead) and the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% behind), while the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% ahead.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The data indicates the opposite. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 245 FPS average, which is well beyond the GPU's ability to maintain at higher resolutions. The CPU's 6.00 GHz boost clock and 36 MB of shared L3 cache provide far more processing power than Barony demands.

Q: Should I prioritize CPU or GPU upgrades for better performance?

A: The GPU. The Arc B570 is the limiting component, as shown by the drastic FPS drops from 1080p to 4K. Upgrading the GPU would yield larger gains than swapping the i9-14900K, which already ranks in the 95th percentile of all CPUs.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for settings optimization. At 1080p, Ultra settings deliver 112 FPS average, which is smooth and playable, but Medium pushes that to 182 FPS with a minimum of 155. For players with high refresh rate monitors, Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot, offering nearly double the frame rate of Ultra while still maintaining a minimum above 144 FPS. Low at 1080p hits 245 FPS average, but the visual fidelity loss is likely not worth the extra frames when Medium already exceeds 180 FPS.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. High settings produce 99 FPS average, which is excellent for most displays. Medium increases that to 115 FPS, but Ultra drops to 71 FPS. The data suggests High is the best compromise at this resolution, as it stays above 90 FPS while retaining visual quality. Low at 1440p hits 154 FPS, but the gap to High is only 55 FPS, making High the more practical choice for a balanced experience.

4K is where compromises become severe. High settings yield 52 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. Medium gives 60 FPS with a minimum of 51, making it the only 4K preset that consistently stays near the 60 FPS target. Ultra at 37 FPS is not recommended, and Low at 81 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for a roguelike that benefits from seeing enemy details. For 4K, Medium is the optimal preset, as it provides the best playability without dropping below 51 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the pairing shows its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 245 FPS, the highest figure in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 182 FPS average, with a minimum of 155 and maximum of 209. High settings drop to 156 FPS average, while Ultra sits at 112 FPS. All four presets at 1080p exceed 100 FPS, making this resolution the most flexible for any display type.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers remain strong but show the GPU's workload increasing. Low settings average 154 FPS, which is still very high. Medium averages 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 and maximum of 132, keeping frame times tight. High settings deliver 99 FPS average, a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. Ultra drops to 71 FPS average, which is playable but noticeably lower than the other presets.

At 3840x2160, the performance ceiling becomes apparent. Low settings average 81 FPS, the only 4K preset that clears 60 FPS by a wide margin. Medium averages 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 69, making it the most consistent 4K option. High settings fall to 52 FPS average, while Ultra bottoms out at 37 FPS. The 4K data shows a clear pattern: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30% of the frame rate, with the GPU struggling to maintain playable numbers at higher quality levels.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. Its base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, a modest clock speed that limits raw throughput. The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, with 18 ray tracing cores. These specifications translate to an FP32 performance of 11.52 TFLOPS, which is modest for modern gaming.

Memory configuration plays a significant role in the observed results. The 10 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 2375 MHz with a 19 Gbps effective rate, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 160-bit bus. This bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as shown by the high frame rates at those resolutions, but it becomes a bottleneck at 4K where the pixel data demands more memory throughput. The 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is a direct consequence of this bandwidth limitation.

The GPU's benchmark scores contextualize its performance. It scores 14195 in Passmark G3D, placing it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% ahead) and the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% behind), showing it performs at a mid-range level. The Passmark DirectX 11 score of 118 and DirectX 12 score of 72 indicate varying API efficiency, which may affect Barony's rendering pipeline. The GPU's 150 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest it is a power-efficient card, but its 2500 MHz clocks limit its ability to push high frame rates at demanding resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process. Its base clock is 3.20 GHz, boosting to 6.00 GHz, which provides exceptional single-thread performance. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache, ensuring fast data access for game logic. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with PCIe Gen 5 providing 16 lanes for GPU connectivity.

Synthetic benchmarks confirm the CPU's strength. It scores 39399.5 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2262.5 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 21697 and single-core of 2655. In Passmark, it achieves 58674 in multithread and 4697 in single-thread. These scores place it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79097. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-14900KF (0.3% behind), Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (0.6% behind), and AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (1.7% ahead).

In Barony, the CPU's role is evident in the high frame rates at low resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 245 FPS average, a figure that far exceeds what the GPU can maintain at higher resolutions. This indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor; it has ample headroom to feed frames to the GPU. The 6.00 GHz boost clock and 36 MB L3 cache are more than sufficient for a roguelike, which typically relies on single-thread performance for game logic. The CPU's 125 W TDP and active production status make it a reliable choice, but in this pairing, its capabilities are underutilized due to the GPU's constraints.