Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers a performance profile in Barony that is defined by extreme high refresh rate capability at 1080p and a predictable, GPU-bound scaling curve as resolution increases. Analysis of the measured FPS data indicates that this combination is overwhelmingly powerful for the game's engine, with the RTX 5090 providing the headroom to push frame rates well beyond 300 FPS at lower resolutions, while the CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads ensure consistent minimum frame rates at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a textbook transition from a CPU-limited to a GPU-limited scenario. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 493 FPS, which represents the absolute ceiling of what this processor can feed to the GPU in this title. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average drops to 311 FPS, a reduction of 182 FPS or roughly 37%. This significant drop indicates that the GPU is beginning to take on more work, but the frame rate remains exceptionally high. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average falls to 163 FPS, which is still far above the threshold for smooth gameplay but demonstrates a clear shift in load.

The scaling pattern at High settings is particularly telling. At 1080p High, the average is 315 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 199 FPS, and at 4K High, it reaches 104 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 116 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 95 FPS. This consistent decrease with each resolution step shows that the RTX 5090 is being progressively utilized, but even at 4K, the GPU is not the sole limiting factor. The 4K High result of 104 FPS is higher than the 4K Ultra result of 74 FPS, which suggests that the game's Ultra preset introduces effects that are disproportionately demanding on the GPU's shading and rasterization resources.

The most dramatic scaling occurs between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings, where the frame rate drops by 182 FPS. This large delta suggests that the CPU's ability to issue draw calls and manage game logic is the bottleneck at 1080p Low. Once the resolution increases, the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth become more relevant. The data shows that at 4K, the difference between Low (163 FPS) and High (104 FPS) is 59 FPS, while at 1080p, the difference between Low (493 FPS) and High (315 FPS) is 178 FPS. This compression of frame rates at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K, whereas the CPU constrains performance at 1080p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, with its 16 cores and 22 threads, provides a robust foundation for Barony's simulation logic. The processor's base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.00 GHz are notable for a mobile part with a 28 W TDP, and the benchmark results indicate strong multi-threaded capability. In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 14,551 in multi-core and 1,759 in single-core. These scores place the CPU in the 84th percentile of all tested processors, indicating that it is a high-performing part for its class. Its average benchmark score of 34,083 is nearly identical to that of the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H, which scores 33,989 (a 0.3% delta), showing that in synthetic workloads, the 165H and the 338H are close, but the 165H's higher boost clock likely contributes to the frame rates seen in Barony.

In the context of Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the average FPS of 493 is the highest recorded in the dataset. This suggests that the game's logic and entity updates can be processed quickly by the 165H. The L3 cache of 24 MB shared across the 16 cores is sufficient for the game's data sets. The Passmark multi-thread score of 25,933 reinforces the CPU's ability to handle concurrent tasks. However, the game's engine appears to be sensitive to single-thread performance as well, given that the Cinebench R20 single-core score of 1,303 and the Passmark single-thread score of 3,509 are strong enough to maintain high FPS even when the GPU is not heavily loaded.

The data shows that at 1440p High, the average FPS of 199 is still high, but the CPU is no longer the sole bottleneck. The measured minimum FPS at 1440p Medium is 197 FPS, which is close to the average, indicating that the CPU is providing stable frame pacing. At 4K Medium, the minimum FPS is 103 FPS, and the average is 121 FPS. This tight range suggests that the CPU can consistently feed the GPU with frames, even at higher resolutions. The 165H's performance is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck until the frame rate exceeds approximately 300 FPS, which only occurs at 1080p Low and Medium settings.

The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (average score 34,260, -0.5% delta), show similar synthetic performance, but the 165H's integrated Arc Xe-LPG graphics are irrelevant here since the discrete RTX 5090 handles rendering. The processor's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s via dual-channel DDR5 is adequate for feeding the GPU with data, but the RTX 5090's own 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is the more critical factor at higher resolutions. In conclusion, the 165H is a capable partner that allows the RTX 5090 to reach its potential in Barony at lower resolutions, but it does place a ceiling on absolute maximum FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications are directly reflected in the measured FPS across resolutions. The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for Barony's textures and assets at any resolution. The GPU's boost clock of 2407 MHz and 21,760 shading units deliver enormous computational throughput, evidenced by the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 and a Passmark G3D score of 39,650. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its high-end status, though its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (0.3% delta), are data-center parts that do not directly compete in gaming scenarios.

The GPU's role becomes increasingly clear as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU is often idle-waiting for the CPU, but at 4K, it becomes the limiting factor. The 4K Ultra average of 74 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, and the 4K High average of 104 FPS shows a 30 FPS improvement when settings are lowered from Ultra to High. This indicates that the Ultra preset likely enables features such as advanced shadow rendering or post-processing effects that heavily tax the GPU's RT and tensor cores, even if the game does not explicitly use ray tracing. The GPU's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are high, but Barony's Ultra settings appear to be designed to stress even the most powerful GPUs.

The VRAM capacity of 32 GB is not a limiting factor in this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the GPU did not exhibit any signs of memory-related stuttering, based on the stable average FPS. The memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) is high, but the game's data footprint is small enough that the 512-bit bus is not saturated. The GPU's performance at 4K Medium (121 FPS average) versus 4K High (104 FPS) shows a 17 FPS difference, suggesting that the Medium preset still allows the GPU to flex its raw power. The RTX 5090's FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS is the key metric here, as Barony likely uses standard rasterization, and the GPU's massive compute throughput ensures that even the most complex scenes are rendered quickly.

The GPU's benchmark scores are consistent with its measured gaming performance. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,728 and OpenCL score of 334,370 show strong compute capabilities, but the Passmark DirectX 11 score of 341 and DirectX 12 score of 185 are more relevant to gaming. These scores are lower than expected for a high-end GPU, but they reflect the fact that Barony is an older title (released in 2015) and may not fully utilize modern DirectX 12 features. Despite this, the RTX 5090 still achieves high frame rates, proving that its raw clock speed and core count are sufficient to brute-force the game's engine. The GPU's role is to provide headroom, and the data shows that it does so effectively, with no resolution or settings combination dropping below the 60 FPS threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 493 at Low to 226 at Ultra. The Medium settings produce an average of 366 FPS with a minimum of 312 FPS and a maximum of 421 FPS. The High settings produce 315 FPS on average. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the game is playable at any setting with extreme smoothness, and the minimum FPS at Medium (312 FPS) is higher than the average FPS at High (315 FPS) for a different resolution, showing the scaling.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains very high. Low settings yield 311 FPS, Medium yields 231 FPS (with a minimum of 197 FPS and maximum of 266 FPS), High yields 199 FPS, and Ultra yields 142 FPS. The minimum FPS at 1440p Medium (197 FPS) is above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, ensuring a tear-free experience if V-Sync is enabled. The drop from Medium to High at 1440p is 32 FPS, which is a moderate penalty for the visual improvements. The drop from High to Ultra is 57 FPS, which is a significant penalty, indicating that the Ultra preset at 1440p requires substantially more GPU resources.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still strong but shows the GPU's limits. Low settings produce 163 FPS, Medium produces 121 FPS (with a minimum of 103 FPS and maximum of 139 FPS), High produces 104 FPS, and Ultra produces 74 FPS. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (103 FPS) is higher than the average FPS at 4K High (104 FPS), which is a statistical anomaly but suggests that the Medium preset offers a more stable experience. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that drops below 100 FPS, with an average of 74 FPS. This is still playable but represents a 40 FPS drop from the High preset, making Ultra the least efficient choice at this resolution.

The data shows a clear pattern: for each resolution, the difference between Low and Medium is smaller than the difference between High and Ultra. For example, at 1080p, Low to Medium is a 127 FPS drop, while High to Ultra is an 89 FPS drop. At 4K, Low to Medium is a 42 FPS drop, while High to Ultra is a 30 FPS drop. This suggests that the Medium preset is closer to Low in terms of GPU load, while the Ultra preset is disproportionately more demanding than High. The measured minimum FPS values are only available for Medium settings, and they show that the frame rate is stable, with the minimum being at least 85% of the average in all cases.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Barony, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 596th out of 2,935 total combos. This places it in the top 20.3% of all tested configurations, which is a strong position, but not the absolute top. The rank of 596 indicates that there are 595 other combinations that achieve higher average FPS in this game, likely due to more powerful desktop CPUs that can better feed the RTX 5090 at lower resolutions. The fact that this combo is a mobile CPU paired with a flagship desktop GPU means the CPU is the weaker link, which impacts the overall rank.

The rank is likely influenced by the 1080p Low result of 493 FPS, which is high but not the highest possible. The data shows that the CPU's performance ceiling is around 493 FPS, while other combos with higher single-thread performance may exceed 500 FPS. The GPU's performance is not the limiting factor at 1080p, so the combo's rank is determined more by the CPU's ability to generate frames. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, and the combo's rank improves relative to other combos with weaker GPUs. However, the overall rank of 596 suggests that this combo is best suited for high-resolution gaming where the GPU's strengths are fully utilized.

The percentile data for the CPU (84th) and GPU (92nd) are both high, but the combo rank is lower than either percentile, demonstrating that the pairing is not perfectly balanced. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (0.3% faster in synthetic tests), would likely produce similar or slightly lower FPS in Barony at 1080p, but the RTX 5090's performance is so dominant that it compensates for any CPU deficiencies. The rank of 596 out of 2,935 means that this combo outperforms 2,339 other tested combinations, which is a decisive advantage. For a laptop CPU paired with a desktop GPU, this rank is respectable and indicates that the combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming and solid 4K gaming.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset is the best recommendation for most users. It produces an average of 366 FPS with a minimum of 312 FPS, which is well above any monitor's refresh rate. The High preset at 1080p (315 FPS) is also excellent, but the 51 FPS drop from Medium to High does not justify the visual improvement, as the minimum FPS at Medium (312 FPS) is higher than the average FPS at High (315 FPS). The Ultra preset at 1080p (226 FPS) is still overkill for most displays, but it can be used if maximum visual fidelity is desired without any risk of dropping below 200 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is the recommended choice. It delivers an average of 199 FPS, which is sufficient for 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, and the visual quality is notably better than Medium. The Medium preset at 1440p (231 FPS) offers a higher frame rate, but the difference between Medium and High (32 FPS) is modest compared to the visual gains. The Ultra preset at 1440p (142 FPS) is playable and can be used for 144Hz displays, but the 57 FPS drop from High to Ultra is significant, and the visual difference may not be worth the performance cost. For users with 144Hz monitors, High is the sweet spot, as it provides 199 FPS, leaving headroom to avoid frame drops.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only sensible recommendation for a balanced experience. It produces an average of 121 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS, which is perfect for 120Hz displays. The High preset at 4K (104 FPS) is close to the Medium preset but offers a 17 FPS reduction, which may result in occasional dips below 100 FPS on demanding scenes. The Low preset at 4K (163 FPS) is unnecessarily low in visual quality, and the Ultra preset at 4K (74 FPS) is too demanding for the visual increase, as the 30 FPS drop from High to Ultra is substantial. For a 60Hz display, the Ultra preset at 4K (74 FPS) could be used, but the Medium preset provides a more stable experience. The data shows that the Medium preset at 4K offers the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, with the minimum FPS of 103 ensuring no stutter on standard refresh rate displays.