Barony

Barony is a 2015 roguelike that, despite its turn-based origins, is rendered in a full 3D voxel engine, meaning CPU and GPU headroom directly translate to smoother first-person exploration and combat. This particular combo pairs Intel’s 20-core Core Ultra 7 265HX with NVIDIA’s flagship RTX 4090, producing frame rates that range from playable at 4K Ultra to exceptionally high at 1080p Low. The data shows that this combination is heavily skewed toward GPU dominance at lower resolutions, while the CPU’s multi-threaded muscle becomes a necessary backbone to feed the graphics card at 4K.

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

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX is a mobile processor built on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, featuring 20 cores and 20 threads. Its base clock sits at 2.60 GHz, with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, allowing it to handle both single-threaded game logic and multi-threaded background tasks. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache, which helps reduce latency when the game engine accesses world data. Benchmark results indicate a PassMark single-thread score of 4500 and a multi-thread score of 47985, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs.

In Barony, the CPU’s role is primarily to manage the game’s simulation, including enemy AI, procedural dungeon generation, and physics interactions. The high boost clock of 5.30 GHz is critical for maintaining consistent frame pacing in scenes with many active entities, while the 20 threads ensure that background processes don’t stutter the main render thread. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 471 FPS, which is nearly double the 4K High result of 99 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions — the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. However, at 4K Ultra, where the GPU load increases, the CPU’s ability to feed the RTX 4090 becomes more apparent, as the frame rate drops to 71 FPS, a figure that still reflects strong CPU throughput.

The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 40642 suggests it can handle demanding workloads, and its PassMark data compression score of 511817 indicates fast data processing for procedural generation. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 7 265HX sits within a tight performance band: it is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13790F and 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX, but 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G. These deltas are negligible, meaning the CPU’s raw compute power is on par with its direct competitors, and the FPS differences in Barony are more attributable to the GPU.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Core Ultra 7 265HX and RTX 4090 ranks 610th out of 2935 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the top 21% of all systems. This is a strong showing, but not the absolute top tier, which suggests that while the hardware is capable, other combos with newer or more specialized components may edge it out in this specific title. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU’s 93rd percentile performance and the GPU’s 88th percentile score, with the overall combo being slightly held back by the GPU’s lower percentile relative to the CPU.

The data indicates that the RTX 4090’s average benchmark score of 60347 is 0% different from the Intel Arc Pro A60 and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, but 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M. This places the GPU in a mid-range bracket among its peers, which is surprising given its "flagship" reputation, but the measured FPS in Barony shows it still delivers high frame rates. The combo’s rank of 610 suggests that while this pairing is powerful, it’s not the ultimate combination for Barony, likely because the game benefits more from raw single-thread performance or specific driver optimizations that other CPUs or GPUs might offer.

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

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 301 FPS, which drops to 190 FPS at 1440p High, and further to 99 FPS at 4K High. This represents a 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 48% drop from 1440p to 4K. The pattern is consistent across all settings, indicating that the GPU becomes increasingly the limiting factor as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the frame rate hits 471 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 156 FPS — a 67% reduction, showing that even at low settings, the pixel fill rate of the RTX 4090 is the bottleneck.

The data strongly suggests that at 1080p, the CPU has ample headroom, as the frame rates exceed 300 FPS even at High settings. The GPU’s shading units (16384) and texture rate (1,290.2 GTexel/s) are sufficient to handle 1080p with ease. However, at 4K, the GPU’s pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s becomes saturated, and the frame rates drop to levels where the CPU’s 5.30 GHz boost clock is still fast enough to keep up. The fact that the 4K Ultra score of 71 FPS is less than half the 1080p Ultra score of 216 FPS confirms that the RTX 4090 is the primary limiter at high resolutions, not the CPU.

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

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings tiers.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional frame rates. High settings yield an average of 301 FPS. Low settings push this to 471 FPS. Medium settings average 351 FPS, with a minimum of 298 FPS and a maximum of 403 FPS. Ultra settings reduce the average to 216 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is never challenged, and even Ultra settings provide a frame rate far above the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows the expected decline. High settings average 190 FPS. Low settings reach 298 FPS. Medium settings average 221 FPS, with a minimum of 188 FPS and a maximum of 254 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 136 FPS. The 1440p results show a 37-40% reduction compared to 1080p, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario, confirming that the RTX 4090 is the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more moderate. High settings average 99 FPS. Low settings reach 156 FPS. Medium settings average 116 FPS, with a minimum of 98 FPS and a maximum of 133 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 71 FPS. The 4K data shows that while the combo can handle 4K, it requires settings adjustments to maintain smooth gameplay, with Medium settings providing a playable 116 FPS average, while Ultra dips below the 75 FPS threshold that many gamers consider optimal.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a massive GPU, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock is 2235 MHz, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and its memory operates at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). With 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, the RTX 4090 is designed for high-resolution gaming, and its 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is substantial.

In Barony, the GPU’s role is to render the voxel-based world, handle lighting, and apply textures. The 24 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for the game’s requirements, as Barony is not a VRAM-heavy title. The 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth ensures that texture streaming at 4K doesn’t cause stuttering, which is reflected in the 4K Medium minimum FPS of 98. The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz allows it to sustain high frame rates, but the data shows that at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 71 FPS, suggesting that the GPU’s raw compute is the limiting factor rather than memory capacity or bandwidth.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 88th percentile, with a PassMark G3D score of 38194 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 271631. These scores indicate strong performance, but in Barony, the measured FPS suggests that the GPU’s architecture is not optimally tuned for this specific game’s rendering style. The RTX 4090’s nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60, has an identical average score (0% delta), which is surprising given the RTX 4090’s much higher specifications, but this highlights that Barony may not fully utilize the GPU’s advanced features like ray tracing cores (128 RT cores) or tensor cores (512).

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Barony?

A: The data shows that 1440p High provides an excellent balance, with an average of 190 FPS. At 4K, Medium settings yield 116 FPS, which is playable, but Ultra drops to 71 FPS, making 1440p the sweet spot for high refresh rates.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Core Ultra 7 265HX is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13790F and 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX, but 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G. These differences are minimal and unlikely to affect gameplay.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 4K?

A: Yes, the data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 71 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it is 216 FPS. This 67% reduction shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the CPU has sufficient headroom.

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank in Barony?

A: The combo ranks 610th out of 2935 tested combinations, placing it in the top 21% of systems. This is a strong result, but not the top tier, suggesting other combos may perform better in this specific game.

Q: Does the combo maintain high frame rates at 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 471 FPS, and at High it reaches 301 FPS. Even at Ultra, it maintains 216 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay on any 1080p display.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and is it sufficient?

A: The RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory. This is more than adequate for Barony, as the game does not require extensive VRAM, and the 1.01 TB/s bandwidth prevents texture streaming issues at 4K.