Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers exceptional performance in Barony, ranking in the 84th percentile of all tested system combos. The data shows a pairing that is heavily GPU-limited at lower resolutions but transitions to a more balanced workload at 4K, where frame rates remain highly playable. This analysis breaks down the component roles, ranking context, and measured frame rates to determine the optimal settings for this roguelike title.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread desktop processor built on the Arrow Lake architecture and manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock is 3.30 GHz with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, and it carries 20 MB of shared L3 cache alongside 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The processor supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 CPU lanes. This is a locked multiplier part, meaning overclocking is not supported, but the stock performance is substantial.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ultra 5 225 scores 25,891 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,655 in single-core. Its Passmark multithread score is 30,459, with a single-thread score of 4,412. These results place the CPU at the 85th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 36,938. The nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36,945, 0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37,018, -0.2% delta), and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37,093, -0.4% delta), showing the Ultra 5 225 is statistically tied with these chips.

For Barony, a roguelike game, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, procedural generation, and entity updates. The high single-core performance (3,655 in R23 single-core) is crucial because roguelikes often have serial game loops that cannot leverage many threads efficiently. The 10-core configuration ensures that background tasks and particle effects do not bottleneck the main game thread. The data supports this: at 1080p Low settings, where the GPU is least stressed, the system achieves 522 FPS, indicating the CPU can feed frames far beyond typical display refresh rates. The boost clock of 4.90 GHz provides the necessary headroom for maintaining consistent minimum frame rates during complex dungeon generation sequences, which are common in the genre.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is based on the AD104 chip using the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). It contains 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs, along with 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores.

The RTX 4070 SUPER's raw compute capabilities are substantial: 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s. Its pixel rate is 198.0 GPixel/s. In synthetic testing, the GPU scores 29,995 in Passmark G3D and 17,108 in Passmark GPU compute. It ranks at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43,223. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262, -0.1% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667, -1% delta), indicating the desktop RTX 4070 SUPER holds its own against mobile flagship parts.

For Barony, the GPU handles rendering of the dungeon environments, lighting, and visual effects. The 12 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game's texture requirements, even at 4K Ultra settings. The high boost clock of 2475 MHz ensures that the GPU can push frames quickly when not constrained by the CPU. The measured data shows the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the system drops to 79 FPS, versus 239 FPS at 1080p Ultra. This demonstrates that the RTX 4070 SUPER's performance envelope is well-matched to the Ultra 5 225's capabilities, with neither component drastically overshadowing the other in this specific title.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER achieves a rank of 479 out of 2,935 tested combos in Barony. This places the system in the top 16.3% of all configurations tested, which is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with an upper-mid-range GPU. The rank indicates that this pairing outperforms 2,456 other combinations, including many with more expensive processors or higher-tier GPUs.

The ranking is particularly notable because the CPU's 85th percentile and GPU's 83rd percentile individually do not guarantee a top-500 finish; the synergy between them matters. The data shows that the Ultra 5 225 provides enough single-thread performance to avoid holding back the RTX 4070 SUPER, while the GPU has enough raw power to dominate at lower resolutions where the CPU is not the limiting factor. This balanced profile is what pushes the combo into the upper echelon of results.

Compared to the nearest rival CPUs (Ryzen 5 5600F, Ryzen 5 5500X3D, Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450), the Ultra 5 225 is essentially performance-equivalent in synthetic tests. However, the measured FPS in Barony shows that the combo's ranking is driven more by the GPU's capabilities than the CPU's marginal differences. The 479th rank out of 2,935 combos suggests that users with this pairing can expect frame rates that are competitive with systems costing significantly more, particularly at 1440p and 1080p where the GPU is the dominant factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured frame rates reveal a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080 (1080p), the system delivers exceptional results: Low settings produce 522 FPS average, Medium settings yield 388 FPS (with a minimum of 330 and maximum of 446), High settings reach 333 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 239 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is entirely GPU-bound at lower settings, with the CPU capable of sustaining frame rates well above 500 FPS when needed.

Moving to 2560x1440 (1440p), the performance remains excellent but shows the expected scaling. Low settings produce 329 FPS, Medium settings deliver 245 FPS (minimum 208, maximum 282), High settings reach 210 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 151 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 37% at Low settings (522 to 329 FPS), 37% at Medium (388 to 245 FPS), 37% at High (333 to 210 FPS), and 37% at Ultra (239 to 151 FPS). This consistent scaling indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor, with the CPU maintaining its performance headroom.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the system still delivers playable frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 172 FPS, Medium settings yield 128 FPS (minimum 109, maximum 147), High settings reach 110 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 79 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a more pronounced drop: 47% at Low (329 to 172 FPS), 48% at Medium (245 to 128 FPS), 48% at High (210 to 110 FPS), and 48% at Ultra (151 to 79 FPS). This larger percentage drop at 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming more stressed, but the frame rates remain well above playable thresholds for a roguelike title.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling pattern reveals a textbook GPU-limited scenario. From 1080p to 1440p, the FPS drops by approximately 37% across all settings, which is exactly what would be expected if the GPU's pixel throughput is the bottleneck. The RTX 4070 SUPER's pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s are the limiting factors, as the CPU's single-thread performance (3,655 in R23 single-core) is sufficient to feed the GPU at these resolutions.

The transition from 1440p to 4K shows a steeper drop of approximately 48%, indicating that the GPU is approaching its memory bandwidth limits (504.2 GB/s) and compute saturation. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of VRAM at 4K Ultra does not cause a capacity issue, but the 192-bit memory bus and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth become increasingly strained as pixel count quadruples. The fact that Ultra settings at 4K still achieve 79 FPS demonstrates that the GPU has enough headroom for demanding configurations, but the scaling curve shows diminishing returns.

The CPU's role in scaling is minimal, as evidenced by the consistent percentage drops across all settings. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p would be less pronounced at lower settings, since the CPU workload does not scale with resolution. Instead, the data shows identical 37% drops at Low and Ultra settings from 1080p to 1440p, confirming that the Ultra 5 225 is not the bottleneck. The CPU's 10 cores and 4.90 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom for the game's logic, allowing the GPU to be the sole determinant of frame rates across all tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured data, the High preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this system. At 2560x1440 High, the system delivers 210 FPS average, which is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of most gaming monitors and provides smooth gameplay without any risk of screen tearing. The 210 FPS result is 39 FPS higher than the Ultra preset at the same resolution (151 FPS), while the visual difference between High and Ultra in a roguelike is typically minimal due to the game's procedural generation and stylized graphics.

For users with 1080p displays, the Ultra preset at 239 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides the highest visual fidelity while maintaining frame rates far exceeding any 1080p monitor's refresh rate capability. The 1080p Ultra result of 239 FPS is 94 FPS higher than the 1440p Ultra result, making it the best option for maximizing image quality without sacrificing smoothness. The Medium preset at 1080p (388 FPS) is unnecessary unless the user has a 360 Hz monitor and wants to push the absolute maximum, but the visual downgrade is not worth the frame rate increase for most players.

For 4K users, the Medium preset at 128 FPS (minimum 109 FPS) is the recommended choice, as it provides a solid frame rate with a minimum that stays above 100 FPS. The High preset at 4K (110 FPS) is also viable, but the Medium preset's minimum of 109 FPS versus High's unspecified minimum makes Medium the safer choice for maintaining consistent performance during intense gameplay moments. The Ultra preset at 4K (79 FPS) is playable but may dip below 60 FPS in complex scenes, making it unsuitable for competitive play or when frame pacing is critical.

The Low presets across all resolutions (522 FPS at 1080p, 329 FPS at 1440p, 172 FPS at 4K) are not recommended for normal use, as the visual degradation is significant for a game where readability of dungeon elements is important. However, the 4K Low result of 172 FPS demonstrates that this system can handle even the most demanding resolution with ease, making it a future-proof configuration for the genre.