Barony

Barony, a roguelike that blends first-person dungeon crawling with traditional turn-based mechanics, is not typically the first title that comes to mind for extreme hardware stress-testing. However, the benchmark data for this specific combination—the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080—reveals a fascinating profile that is far more dependent on resolution and settings than one might expect from such a seemingly lightweight genre. This analysis breaks down the measured performance figures, placing them in context against the hardware's known capabilities and its standing among other tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is stark, but the pattern is not linear. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves a staggering 430 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 272 FPS, a reduction of 36.7%. The jump to 4K Low brings the average down to 142 FPS, which is another 47.8% reduction from the 1440p figure. This scaling suggests that at lower resolutions, the workload is becoming increasingly CPU-bound, limiting the frame rate before the GPU can fully flex its muscle.

At High settings, the scaling is more moderate. The 1080p High average is 275 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 173 FPS, a 37.1% drop. The 4K High result is 91 FPS, which is a 47.4% reduction from 1440p. This consistency in percentage drops between Low and High settings indicates that the GPU is still the primary scaling factor at these resolutions, even with the CPU overhead of lower settings.

The Ultra preset tells a different story. It is here that the GPU's limitations become most apparent. The 1080p Ultra average is 197 FPS, which is 132 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. At 1440p Ultra, the average is 124 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it plummets to 65 FPS. The gap between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra is a massive 132 FPS, a 67% reduction in performance. This indicates that Ultra settings introduce a significant GPU workload, likely through effects like shadows and post-processing, which scales heavily with pixel count.

The data suggests that at 1080p and 1440p, the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is able to feed the RTX 4080 adequately in most scenarios, allowing the GPU to be the limiting factor when settings are cranked up. However, at 1080p Low, the CPU begins to hit its ceiling, as evidenced by the 430 FPS cap that seems to be a wall rather than a GPU limit. The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS is the clearest indicator of a GPU-bound scenario, where the sheer pixel count overwhelms the rendering pipeline.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a formidable piece of silicon, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and the 5 nm process. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, it offers a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This is a substantial amount of bandwidth, which is crucial for high-resolution textures. The 4K High result of 91 FPS and 4K Ultra of 65 FPS are likely influenced by this memory subsystem, as Barony's procedural environments can generate large texture sets.

The GPU's clock speeds are high, with a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz. This allows for significant compute throughput, with a peak FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS. The 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are present but are unlikely to be heavily utilized in a game like Barony, which does not rely on ray tracing or DLSS. The pure rasterization power is what matters here, and the 112 ROPs are responsible for the final pixel output. The pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s explains why the GPU can handle 1440p with ease, but the 4K Ultra workload of 65 FPS shows that even this rate can be saturated by complex shading.

The GPU's performance percentile is 86, indicating it ranks higher than 86% of all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score is 54247, and it is closely matched with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, which has a deltaPct of 0.1%. This means the standard RTX 4080 is virtually identical in overall compute capability to the SUPER variant. However, this raw compute power does not translate to a linear FPS increase in Barony, as the game's engine is likely bottlenecked by other factors at lower resolutions.

The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is more than sufficient for Barony at any resolution. The game is unlikely to exceed 8 GB of usage, even at 4K Ultra, so the RTX 4080 will not be capacity-limited. Instead, the limiting factor is the processing throughput. The transition from 106 FPS at 4K Medium to 65 FPS at 4K Ultra highlights the cost of enabling the highest quality settings, which is a 38.7% performance penalty. This is a significant drop that suggests Ultra settings enable computationally expensive effects that the 112 ROPs must process.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mobile processor with a hybrid architecture, featuring 14 cores and 18 threads. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. This is a capable chip, but its mobile nature and 28 W TDP are constraints that become evident in frame rate ceilings. The CPU's average benchmark score is 27507, placing it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, which has a deltaPct of -0.1%, meaning the two are essentially tied in synthetic benchmarks.

In Barony, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, entity updates, and draw calls. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache is helpful for this, but the game's single-threaded performance is often the deciding factor. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1647.5 is respectable, but it is the multi-core score of 12804.5 that showcases the chip's potential. However, Barony may not be able to utilize all 18 threads effectively, leading to a scenario where the CPU becomes the bottleneck at high frame rates.

This is clearly visible in the 1080p Low result of 430 FPS. This is an exceptionally high frame rate, but it is likely a hard limit set by the CPU's ability to process the game's simulation loop. The fact that the 1080p High result is 275 FPS—a 36% drop from Low—suggests that the GPU is now taking on more work, but the CPU is still capable of pushing frames. The 1440p Low result of 272 FPS is nearly identical to the 1080p High result, which further confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor at these settings.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and dual-channel support are adequate for feeding the GPU. However, the mobile processor's power envelope means it cannot sustain its boost clock indefinitely, which could introduce frame pacing issues in long sessions. The data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the GPU is clearly overwhelmed by the pixel count. The 4K Low result of 142 FPS is still high, but it is a 36.7% drop from the 1440p Low figure, indicating that the GPU's fill rate is now the limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 430, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its direct successor in raw performance?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score is 54247, which is 0.1% higher than the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209, indicating they are effectively equal in performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The performance drop from 106 FPS at Medium to 65 FPS at Ultra shows the GPU struggling with the increased pixel workload, while the CPU is capable of pushing higher frame rates.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra?

A: The average FPS drops from 197 at 1080p Ultra to 65 at 4K Ultra, representing a 67% reduction in performance.

Q: Does the CPU's synthetic benchmark score align with its in-game performance?

A: The CPU's average score of 27507 places it in the 79th percentile, and its nearest rival is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 with a deltaPct of -0.1%. In-game, it shows its strength by delivering 272 FPS at 1440p Low, but it appears to hit a ceiling around 430 FPS.

Q: What is the frame time variance at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 202, with a minimum of 172 FPS and a maximum of 232 FPS, indicating a variance of 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration of the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 holds a rank of 926 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the top 31.6% of all tested systems. Given the hardware's individual percentiles—the CPU in the 79th and the GPU in the 86th—this ranking is slightly lower than expected, suggesting that Barony's engine may not be fully leveraging the RTX 4080's capabilities. The combination of a high-end desktop GPU with a mobile CPU creates an imbalance that is not ideal for this title.

The rank of 926 indicates that there are 925 other combos that achieve higher average FPS in this game. This is not a poor showing, but it is not a top-tier result either. The data shows that the system is capable of exceeding 200 FPS at 1440p High and 100 FPS at 4K Medium, which is excellent for most gaming scenarios. However, the 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS is below the 100 FPS threshold that many users consider the gold standard for smooth gameplay.

The ranking is likely pulled down by the CPU's mobile nature, which limits its sustained performance. In a game that can be CPU-bound at high frame rates, the Core Ultra 5 125H's 28 W TDP is a hindrance. The GPU, on the other hand, is a desktop-class part that is close to the top of the charts. The mismatch between the two components is the primary reason the combo does not rank higher. The combo's rank of 926 reflects the fact that a balanced system is often more important than raw component power.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table outlines the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings preset combination.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|---------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 91 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 142 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 106 | 90 | 121 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 65 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 173 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 272 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 202 | 172 | 232 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 124 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 275 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 430 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 320 | 272 | 368 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 197 | - | - |

At 1080p, the system is clearly capable of extreme frame rates, with all presets except Ultra exceeding 270 FPS. The 1080p Medium result of 320 FPS with a minimum of 272 FPS shows excellent consistency. Moving to 1440p, the performance remains highly playable, with High and Medium settings both exceeding 170 FPS. The 1440p Medium result has a min-to-max spread of 60 FPS, which is a wider variance than the 1080p Medium spread of 96 FPS, suggesting frame pacing is slightly less consistent at the higher resolution.

At 4K, the system begins to show its limits. The Low preset at 142 FPS is still smooth, but the Ultra preset at 65 FPS is a significant drop. The 4K Medium result of 106 FPS, with a minimum of 90 FPS, is the only 4K setting with min/max data available. This shows that even at Medium settings, the system can dip below 100 FPS, which may be noticeable in a fast-paced roguelike. The data across all resolutions confirms that the RTX 4080 is the dominant component, but the CPU's performance is sufficient to avoid being the primary bottleneck until frame rates approach the 400 FPS range.