Barony

Barony, the roguelike from 2015, proves to be an unexpectedly demanding title for high-refresh-rate displays when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The measured data reveals a configuration capable of triple-digit frame rates at 4K, yet the scaling between presets and resolutions paints a nuanced picture of where the bottlenecks lie. The combination of a mobile Meteor Lake processor with the flagship desktop-class Ada Lovelace GPU creates a unique performance profile that deserves close scrutiny.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this configuration reveals a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets, with the most significant performance deltas occurring at the highest resolution. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 71 FPS, which is a substantial 28 FPS drop from the High preset's 99 FPS average. This represents a 28.3% reduction in performance for what is typically a marginal visual improvement in a game with Barony's aesthetic. The Medium preset at 4K produces a 116 FPS average, which is 17 FPS higher than High and 45 FPS higher than Ultra, suggesting that the jump from Medium to High carries a disproportionate performance cost.

For players prioritizing smooth gameplay at 4K, the Medium preset at 116 FPS appears to be the sweet spot, as it maintains a comfortable margin above the 100 FPS threshold while still offering enhanced visual fidelity over Low. The Low preset at 4K achieves 156 FPS, but the visual compromise in a roguelike where readability matters may not be worth the 40 FPS gain over Medium. At 1440p, the High preset delivers a 190 FPS average, which is only 31 FPS behind Low's 298 FPS but 54 FPS ahead of Ultra's 136 FPS. This makes High the recommended choice at 2560x1440 for those seeking a balance between fluidity and visual quality, as the jump to Ultra introduces a significant 28.4% performance penalty.

The 1080p results show a similar pattern, with High producing a 301 FPS average against Ultra's 216 FPS. Given that the RTX 4090 is clearly capable of exceeding 300 FPS at this resolution, the choice between High and Ultra becomes a matter of whether the frame rate ceiling or visual consistency matters more. The data suggests that High is the optimal preset for this configuration, as it provides the best performance-per-visual-step ratio across all three resolutions. The Medium preset's minimum FPS figures, which are the only ones recorded in the dataset, show 98 FPS at 4K, 188 FPS at 1440p, and 298 FPS at 1080p, indicating that even the lowest frame dips remain playable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in this configuration brings formidable specifications that directly influence the measured results. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, the GPU has ample resources for Barony's procedural generation and particle effects. The AD102 chip, built on TSMC's 5 nm process, contains 76,300 million transistors across a 609 mm² die, and its 16,384 shading units are put to work in the higher presets. The boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with the base clock of 2235 MHz, allows the GPU to maintain high throughput even under sustained load.

The GPU's memory configuration proves particularly relevant at 4K Ultra, where the 71 FPS average suggests the card is being pushed to its limits. The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and geometry data remain readily available, but the sheer computational load of the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 exceeds what the GPU can sustain at higher frame rates. The data shows that the RTX 4090's 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, while not directly utilized by Barony's traditional rendering pipeline, contribute to the overall power envelope that enables the high clock speeds.

The GPU's benchmark scores, including a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 271,631, place it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database, such as the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a 0% delta and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 with a 0.3% delta, are workstation-oriented cards that score similarly in synthetic benchmarks but lack the gaming-focused feature set. The PassMark G3D score of 38,194 and the PassMark GPU Compute score of 26,613 further demonstrate the card's computational prowess, though Barony's actual performance is more dependent on raw rasterization throughput than on compute workloads.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the configuration scales with resolution and where the limiting component shifts. At High settings, the average FPS moves from 301 at 1920x1080 to 190 at 2560x1440, a 36.9% drop, and then to 99 at 3840x2160, a further 47.9% drop from 1440p. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, as the CPU's performance headroom becomes less relevant as pixel count increases. The 1080p High result of 301 FPS suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at this resolution, but the 4K result of 99 FPS shows the GPU's pixel throughput becoming the limiting factor.

The Low preset scaling tells a slightly different story. From 471 FPS at 1080p to 298 FPS at 1440p, the drop is 36.7%, and then to 156 FPS at 4K, a 47.7% drop from 1440p. This consistent scaling pattern across presets suggests that Barony's rendering pipeline scales linearly with resolution when the CPU is not the bottleneck. The Medium preset shows 351 FPS at 1080p, 221 FPS at 1440p, and 116 FPS at 4K, with the 1080p to 1440p drop being 37% and the 1440p to 4K drop being 47.5%. These consistent percentages across all presets indicate that the configuration's performance at each resolution is primarily determined by GPU fill rate and bandwidth.

The Ultra preset, however, shows a more pronounced scaling penalty. At 216 FPS for 1080p, 136 FPS for 1440p, and 71 FPS for 4K, the drops are 37% and 47.8% respectively. The 4K Ultra result of 71 FPS is particularly notable, as it falls below the 72 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces additional rendering complexity that disproportionately affects higher resolutions, possibly through increased shadow resolution, post-processing effects, or draw distance that tax the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading units.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Examining the measured data resolution by resolution provides a comprehensive view of the configuration's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 471 FPS, which is the highest recorded figure in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 351 FPS with a minimum of 298 FPS and a maximum of 403 FPS, indicating excellent frame time consistency. High at 1080p delivers 301 FPS, and Ultra trails at 216 FPS. These numbers suggest that at 1080p, the configuration is capable of driving even the highest refresh rate monitors to their limits, with the Ultra preset still exceeding 200 FPS.

The 2560x1440 results show a step down in performance but remain highly playable. Low achieves 298 FPS, Medium produces 221 FPS with a minimum of 188 FPS and maximum of 254 FPS, High delivers 190 FPS, and Ultra manages 136 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 188 FPS ensures that even the most intense moments in Barony's procedurally generated dungeons remain fluid. The 1440p High result of 190 FPS is particularly relevant for gamers with 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, as it provides sufficient headroom to avoid frame rate drops below the refresh rate.

At 3840x2160, the configuration shows its limits. Low achieves a respectable 156 FPS, Medium produces 116 FPS with a minimum of 98 FPS and maximum of 133 FPS, High delivers 99 FPS, and Ultra drops to 71 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, and its 98 FPS minimum is reassuring for those concerned about frame pacing. The High preset's 99 FPS average sits right at the edge of 100 FPS, making it a borderline choice for 4K gaming, while the Ultra preset's 71 FPS falls short of the 72 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on standard 60Hz displays with VRR.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 610th out of 2,935 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 20.8% of all configurations. This ranking is notable given that the CPU is a mobile part while the GPU is a desktop-class behemoth, suggesting that Barony's performance is heavily weighted toward GPU throughput. The rank of 610 out of 2,935 means that 2,325 other combinations outperform this setup in this specific game, which might seem counterintuitive given the RTX 4090's presence.

The ranking reflects the CPU's potential bottlenecking in certain scenarios. The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, with its 16 cores and 22 threads, has a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14,551 and a single-core score of 1,759. Its PassMark single-thread score of 3,509 and multithread score of 25,933 place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, but its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H with a 0.3% delta and the AMD EPYC 4244P with a -0.4% delta. The CPU's average benchmark score of 34,083 is competitive, but in a game like Barony that may rely heavily on single-thread performance for game logic and procedural generation, the mobile processor's 3.80 GHz base clock and 5.00 GHz boost clock may not be sufficient to fully saturate the RTX 4090.

The combo's rank of 610 suggests that there are many configurations with desktop CPUs that achieve higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU performance matters more. At 1080p Low, the 471 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU can handle high frame rates, but the scaling to 4K reveals the GPU's dominance in this pairing. The rank indicates that while this combo is powerful, it is not among the top performers for Barony, likely due to the CPU's mobile nature limiting performance in CPU-bound scenarios.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is a mobile processor from the Core Ultra Series 1, built on Intel's 7 nm Meteor Lake architecture. Its 16 cores and 22 threads operate at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 28 W that belies its performance capabilities. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache, which is crucial for maintaining high frame rates in a game like Barony where procedural generation creates unpredictable memory access patterns.

The CPU's benchmark results show a balanced profile. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14,551 and single-core score of 1,759 indicate strong multi-threaded performance, while the PassMark integer math score of 89,415 and floating point math score of 66,273 demonstrate solid arithmetic throughput. The data compression score of 291,161 and encryption score of 17,169 suggest that the CPU handles varied workloads efficiently. However, the PassMark find prime numbers score of 118 and physics score of 1,806 are lower, which might affect game physics calculations.

In Barony, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 471 FPS average suggests that the CPU is capable of processing game logic and rendering commands at a very high rate. However, the fact that this combo ranks 610th out of 2,935 indicates that other CPUs, likely desktop parts with higher single-thread performance, can achieve even higher frame rates at 1080p. The Ultra 7 165H's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while respectable, places it below the top-tier processors that might be paired with an RTX 4090 in other configurations.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for gaming, but the mobile platform's memory constraints may limit performance in memory-intensive scenarios. The PCIe Gen 5 support with 8 lanes for the CPU ensures that the GPU can communicate at high bandwidth, but the integrated Arc Xe-LPG 128EU graphics, while not used in this configuration, demonstrate the processor's versatility. The 5.00 GHz boost clock is competitive with desktop parts, but the thermal and power constraints of a mobile platform likely prevent sustained operation at peak clocks during extended gaming sessions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming on this configuration?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset delivers a 116 FPS average with a 98 FPS minimum, making it the best balance between visual quality and performance. The High preset drops to 99 FPS, while Ultra falls to 71 FPS, which is below the 72 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's memory configuration affect Barony's performance?

A: The 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and geometry data are never bottlenecked, even at 4K Ultra. This is reflected in the consistent frame rates across resolutions, with the GPU's computational throughput being the primary limiting factor.

Q: Why does the combo rank 610th out of 2,935 despite having an RTX 4090?

A: The ranking reflects the CPU's mobile nature. The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,759 and PassMark single-thread score of 3,509, may not provide the single-thread performance needed to fully saturate the RTX 4090 in all scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU bottlenecks are more apparent.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 471 FPS average, while Ultra produces 216 FPS average. This represents a 255 FPS difference, or a 54.1% reduction in performance, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional visual effects significantly impact the GPU's rendering throughput.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Ultra 7 165H has a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14,551 and an average benchmark score of 34,083. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H, has a 0.3% higher average score, while the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is 0.5% lower, indicating that the CPU is closely matched with its direct competitors.

Q: Does the configuration maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The 4K Ultra preset produces a 71 FPS average, which is below the 72 FPS threshold commonly considered the minimum for smooth gameplay. While this is playable on a 60Hz display, it may not provide a consistent experience on higher refresh rate monitors, and the Medium preset at 116 FPS is recommended for 4K play.