Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 delivers a highly playable experience in Barony, but the optimal settings depend heavily on your target resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, the combination is overwhelmingly CPU-bound at lower presets, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions, providing a significant jump over High settings without the steep performance penalty of Ultra. For competitive play on high-refresh displays, Low at 1080p is the only setting that approaches the 240Hz class, while 4K users should stick to Medium or below to maintain frame rates above 60 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates reveal a clear hierarchy where the performance cost of each preset is substantial and consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, the average frame rate drops from 261 FPS on Low to 194 FPS on Medium, a 67 FPS or roughly 26% reduction. Moving from Medium to High further reduces the average to 167 FPS, and the jump to Ultra brings it down to 120 FPS. This pattern shows that each preset tier costs a similar amount of performance, with Ultra being the most demanding at 46% slower than High. Given that Barony is a roguelike where reaction time matters, the data suggests Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot—it delivers 194 FPS average, which is still well above 144Hz displays, while providing better visual fidelity than Low. The minimum frame rate of 165 FPS on Medium at 1080p confirms that even the worst-case scenarios stay above the 144Hz threshold, making this preset ideal for smooth gameplay without sacrificing too much visual quality.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds but with lower overall headroom. The Medium preset averages 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 FPS, which is still comfortably above 100 FPS for most gaming monitors. High at 1440p drops to 105 FPS average, while Ultra falls to 76 FPS. For 1440p users, Medium is the recommended preset because it maintains a 123 FPS average, which is high enough for 120Hz displays, and the 104 FPS minimum ensures no noticeable stuttering. High at 1440p is only 18 FPS slower on average, but that difference could be the deciding factor between a locked 100 FPS experience and one that dips into the 90s. Ultra at 1440p, while still playable at 76 FPS, does not justify the visual gains over High given the 29 FPS loss.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. The Medium preset averages 64 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS, which is the only preset that stays above the 60 FPS target on average. High at 4K drops to 55 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, and Ultra falls to 39 FPS, which is not recommended for a roguelike demanding quick reflexes. Low at 4K averages 86 FPS, but the visual quality is severely reduced. For 4K, Medium is the clear recommendation since it is the only preset that balances playability with visual fidelity, maintaining a 64 FPS average and a 55 FPS minimum that stays within the adaptive sync range of most modern monitors. Users with 4K 60Hz displays should accept Medium as the maximum viable setting, as High's 55 FPS average will result in frequent frame drops below the refresh rate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings, as evidenced by the scaling pattern across the measured data. This GPU features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Barony's demands at 1080p and 1440p but becomes strained at 4K. The card's base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1680 MHz, combined with 1920 shading units and 48 ROPs, produce a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s. These specifications explain why the 4K Ultra preset, which likely requires higher fill rates and memory bandwidth, only achieves 39 FPS average—a 67% reduction from the 4K Medium score of 64 FPS.

The GPU's 6 GB VRAM capacity is a critical consideration for 4K gaming. While the Medium preset at 4K maintains 64 FPS, the fact that High drops to 55 FPS and Ultra to 39 FPS suggests that texture memory and shader complexity are the bottlenecks. The RTX 2060's FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, and the Turing architecture's 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores do not provide meaningful benefits in a game like Barony that does not leverage ray tracing or DLSS. The GPU's percentile rank of 58 among all GPUs places it in the mid-range, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, has the same average benchmark score of 15283, indicating the RTX 2060's performance is well-established but not exceptional.

The transition from 1440p to 4K on the same settings illustrates the GPU's limitations. At Medium, the average FPS drops from 123 at 1440p to 64 at 4K, a 48% reduction. This is a larger percentage drop than the resolution scaling alone would suggest, confirming that the RTX 2060's memory bandwidth and pixel throughput are insufficient to maintain performance at 4K without lowering settings. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures compatibility with modern APIs, but the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 53 is notably lower than the DirectX 11 score of 110, suggesting the card is more efficient with legacy graphics paths.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides ample processing power for Barony, as evidenced by the high frame rates at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the bottleneck. This 14-core, 14-thread processor features a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's performance is strong enough that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 261 FPS average, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability in this game. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14769 and single-core score of 2085 indicate strong per-thread performance, which is critical for Barony's game logic and entity updates.

The CPU's percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs places it in the top 11% of processors, and its average benchmark score of 46062 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, which scores 46030, a delta of only 0.1%. This indicates that the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a high-performance part that will not bottleneck the RTX 2060 in most scenarios. However, the data shows that at 1080p, the CPU does become the limiting factor at lower presets. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p results in a 67 FPS drop, but the jump from Medium to High only results in a 27 FPS drop. This nonlinear scaling suggests that the CPU can maintain high frame rates, but the GPU's rendering workload starts to dominate as settings increase.

At 1440p, the CPU's role diminishes further. The difference between Low and Medium at 1440p is 42 FPS (165 to 123), while the difference at 1080p is 67 FPS (261 to 194). This shows that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes more of a bottleneck, and the CPU's headroom is less relevant. The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads are more than sufficient for Barony, which is a roguelike that likely does not utilize more than a few threads. The PassMark multithread score of 37816 and single-thread score of 4516 confirm that the CPU excels at both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, ensuring that even complex game states with many enemies or items will not cause frame rate drops. The CPU's boost clock of 5.00 GHz is particularly advantageous for Barony's single-threaded game loop, as higher clocks directly translate to faster updates per frame.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination ranks 2308 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the bottom 21% of all pairings. This rank is surprisingly low given the measured frame rates, which suggests that the test database includes many higher-end GPU configurations that achieve significantly higher frame rates at 4K Ultra. The combo's rank of 2308 indicates that while this pairing is playable, it is not competitive with modern high-end systems that can maintain 4K Ultra at 60+ FPS. The RTX 2060's age is the primary contributor to this low rank, as the GPU's performance is in the 58th percentile overall, but the CPU's 89th percentile performance cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations at higher settings.

The combo's rank relative to other tested configurations is shaped by the GPU's performance ceiling. At 1080p, the combo achieves 120 FPS on Ultra, which is respectable, but many newer GPUs can exceed 200 FPS at the same settings. The 4K Ultra score of 39 FPS is particularly weak, placing this combo in the lower quartile for that specific test. The data suggests that users with this combo should not expect to run Barony at maximum settings on high-resolution displays. Instead, the combo is best suited for 1080p gaming at Medium to High settings, where it delivers 167-194 FPS, or 1440p at Medium, where it achieves 123 FPS.

The rank of 2308 out of 2935 is a stark reminder that the RTX 2060, while capable, is now several generations old. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600, has a similar average benchmark score of 15171, with a delta of 0.8%, but the RX 7600 likely has better driver optimizations for newer games. For Barony specifically, the combo's rank could be improved by upgrading the GPU, as the CPU has significant headroom, as shown by the 261 FPS at 1080p Low. The CPU's performance is not the limiting factor in this pairing; rather, the GPU's 6 GB VRAM and lower compute throughput prevent the combo from achieving higher ranks at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear transition from CPU-bound to GPU-bound behavior. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 194 at 1080p to 123 at 1440p, a 37% reduction, and then to 64 at 4K, a 48% reduction from 1440p. This scaling pattern is steeper than the theoretical 4x pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K, which would suggest a 75% reduction if the GPU were the sole bottleneck. The actual reduction of 67% (from 194 to 64) indicates that the CPU is still providing some frame rate headroom at 1080p, but the GPU becomes more dominant as resolution increases.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The average FPS drops from 261 at 1080p to 165 at 1440p (37% reduction) and then to 86 at 4K (48% reduction from 1440p). The fact that Low at 1080p achieves 261 FPS, which is far above the 240Hz refresh rate class, confirms that the CPU is the limiting factor at this resolution and preset. The GPU has spare capacity at 1080p Low, as evidenced by the fact that increasing settings to Medium only reduces FPS by 67, not the 100+ that would be expected if the GPU were fully utilized.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 105 at 1440p to 55 at 4K, a 48% reduction. At Ultra, the drop is from 76 at 1440p to 39 at 4K, a 49% reduction. This consistent ~48% reduction across all settings indicates that the GPU is the sole bottleneck at these resolutions, as the CPU's performance is not varying with settings. The limiting component at 4K is clearly the RTX 2060's memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s and its 6 GB VRAM, which are insufficient for the higher texture and geometry loads at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 194 FPS average with a 165 FPS minimum, making it the recommended choice for balancing visual quality and performance. Low achieves 261 FPS, which is only beneficial for 240Hz displays, while High at 167 FPS and Ultra at 120 FPS offer diminishing returns.

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

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings or lower. The Medium preset at 4K averages 64 FPS with a 55 FPS minimum, which is playable on 60Hz displays. High at 4K drops to 55 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 39 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS target.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck for this game?

A: At 1080p Low, the CPU is the bottleneck, as the system achieves 261 FPS, likely near the CPU's limit. At 4K, the GPU is entirely the bottleneck, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution increases across all settings, indicating the RTX 2060 is the limiting factor.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its nearest rivals in this context?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 at 15283 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon 680M at 15270 (0.1% delta). It performs similarly to the AMD Radeon RX 7600, which scores 15171, a 0.8% difference.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p averages 123 FPS with a minimum of 104 FPS and a maximum of 141 FPS. This is suitable for 120Hz displays, as the minimum frame rate stays above 100 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay.

Q: Does the CPU's high core count benefit this game?

A: While the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has 14 cores and 14 threads, Barony is a roguelike that likely benefits more from single-threaded performance. The CPU's boost clock of 5.00 GHz and single-core Cinebench R23 score of 2085 indicate strong per-thread performance, which is more relevant than the core count for this game's frame rate.