Barony

Barony, a 2015 roguelike, presents an unusual benchmark scenario when paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. The combination ranks 596th out of 2935 tested combos, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations. This high ranking is expected given the components' specifications, but the game's engine and the measured frame rates reveal a complex interaction between CPU and GPU that goes beyond raw hardware strength.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Barony?

A: The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 596th out of 2935 tested combos, placing it in the 79.7th percentile of all configurations tested in this game.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 493, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is followed by 366 FPS at the same resolution with Medium settings, and 315 FPS at High settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX has an average benchmark score of 63173, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-13790F (63080) and 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G (63331). It also outperforms the AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P185 by 0.5% and the Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX by 0.7%.

Q: What is the GPU's synthetic benchmark standing?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79842 and ranks in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, scores 79605, which is 0.3% lower, while the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT trails by 1.1%.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest average FPS is 74, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is a significant drop from the 104 FPS at High settings and 121 FPS at Medium settings at the same resolution.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and what is its bandwidth?

A: The GPU has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 28 Gbps effective.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination secures the 596th position out of 2935 tested combos. This ranking places the configuration firmly in the upper echelon of tested systems, though it is not at the very top. The data indicates that while the hardware is exceptionally powerful, the game's engine—a roguelike with less demanding graphics than modern AAA titles—does not fully stress the system to its limits, potentially allowing other combos with different architectural balances to edge ahead.

Examining the CPU's synthetic performance, the Core Ultra 7 265HX achieves an average benchmark score of 63173, sitting in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13790F, scores 63080, a negligible 0.1% difference. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G scores slightly higher at 63331, representing a 0.2% lead over the Intel chip. These margins are within noise for synthetic tests, yet in Barony, the specific threading model and cache behavior might favor one architecture over another. The GPU, with an average score of 79842 and a 92nd percentile ranking, similarly sits close to its nearest rivals: the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB scores 79605 (0.3% lower), and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78940 (1.1% lower).

The gap between the combo's rank (596/2935) and the individual component percentiles (93rd and 92nd) suggests that Barony does not scale perfectly with this hardware. The game's roguelike nature, with its procedural generation and potentially CPU-bound logic, means that the RTX 5090's immense graphical power is often underutilized, especially at lower resolutions. The ranking reflects the average performance across all tested settings and resolutions, where the 1080p results are heavily CPU-limited, dragging the overall position down from what the GPU's capabilities might suggest.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that highlights the CPU as the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves 315 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings, the average drops to 199 FPS, a 36.8% reduction. At 3840x2160, the average further declines to 104 FPS, which is 67% lower than the 1080p result. This steep decline from 1080p to 4K is characteristic of a system where the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions; the GPU has ample headroom to render more pixels, but the CPU cannot feed it with frames fast enough.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more moderate. At High settings, the drop from 199 FPS to 104 FPS represents a 47.7% decrease. This suggests that as resolution increases, the GPU begins to take on a more significant role, and the performance curve becomes more typical of a GPU-bound scenario. However, the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high, indicating that even at 4K, the RTX 5090 is not fully saturated. The difference between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings is even more pronounced: 493 FPS to 311 FPS, a 36.9% drop, while the 1440p to 4K transition at Low settings sees a 47.6% decrease (311 to 163 FPS).

The diminishing returns from 1440p to 4K, compared to the steeper drop from 1080p to 1440p, suggests that the CPU bottleneck is most severe at 1080p. At 4K, the GPU's workload increases enough to make it a more balanced partner, yet the frame rates still exceed 74 FPS even at Ultra settings. This indicates that for a game like Barony, the 265HX's 20 cores and 30 MB of L3 cache are more than sufficient to maintain high frame rates, and the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are overkill for the game's graphical demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is 493, a figure that far exceeds the refresh rates of most monitors. Medium settings reduce this to 366 FPS, with a minimum of 312 FPS and a maximum of 421 FPS. High settings yield 315 FPS, while Ultra settings bring the average down to 226 FPS. The progression shows a 54.1% drop from Low to Ultra, which is a significant but expected cost for the visual enhancements at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains robust but shows more variation. Low settings achieve 311 FPS, Medium at 231 FPS (min 197, max 266), High at 199 FPS, and Ultra at 142 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra here is 54.3%, nearly identical to the 1080p scaling. This consistency suggests that the relative cost of each settings tier is stable across these two resolutions, with the GPU becoming slightly more involved as pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160, the 4K performance is still impressive but demonstrates the expected decline. Low settings average 163 FPS, Medium at 121 FPS (min 103, max 139), High at 104 FPS, and Ultra at 74 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 54.6%, again consistent with the other resolutions. The minimum FPS of 103 at Medium 4K indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains high frame rates. The difference between High (104 FPS) and Medium (121 FPS) is 16.3%, while the gap between Medium and Low (163 FPS) is 34.7%, showing that the settings tiers have non-linear performance costs.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is clear: Ultra settings impose a heavy penalty, while Low settings unlock the system's full potential. The RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are more than adequate for Barony's visual effects, even at 4K Ultra, where the 74 FPS average is still playable for most users.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 plays a crucial role in this combo, though its vast resources are not fully taxed by Barony. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is far beyond what a roguelike like Barony requires, as the game's textures and assets are unlikely to exceed a few gigabytes. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores provide advanced features like ray tracing and DLSS, but these are not relevant to this game's rendering pipeline.

The GPU's clock speeds—2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost—are high, but the measured results show that at 1080p, the system is not GPU-bound. The 493 FPS at Low settings reflects the CPU's ability to feed frames, but it also means the RTX 5090 is idling, waiting for work. As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU's workload grows, but the 104 FPS at High settings still indicates that the GPU is not operating at its maximum potential. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are more than sufficient to handle the 3840x2160 resolution at any settings preset.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores, such as the 39650 in Passmark G3D and 334370 in Geekbench OpenCL, reflect its raw power. However, in a game like Barony, the bottleneck shifts to the CPU. The 32 GB of VRAM might prove useful in other titles with heavy texture packs or in future games, but for this specific benchmark, it is a resource that remains largely unused. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs is an indicator of its overall capability, but its performance in Barony is more constrained by the game's engine and the CPU's frame delivery.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user's refresh rate and resolution preference. At 1920x1080, High settings deliver 315 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors (240Hz or higher). Ultra settings still provide 226 FPS, which is excellent, but the 28% performance drop from High to Ultra may not justify the visual gains in a game with Barony's art style. Medium settings at 366 FPS are overkill for most displays, and Low settings at 493 FPS are only useful for competitive play where every frame matters.

At 2560x1440, High settings (199 FPS) are the sweet spot for 144Hz or 165Hz monitors, as they provide a comfortable margin above the refresh rate. Ultra settings at 142 FPS are also playable on 120Hz screens, but the drop to 142 from 199 is noticeable. Medium settings at 231 FPS offer headroom for those with 240Hz displays, while Low at 311 FPS is excessive. For 4K at 3840x2160, High settings (104 FPS) are recommended for 100Hz displays, as they provide a smooth experience. Medium settings (121 FPS) are better suited for 120Hz panels, while Ultra (74 FPS) is acceptable for 60Hz monitors but may cause visible frame pacing issues on higher-refresh displays.

The data shows that Medium settings offer the most balanced experience across all resolutions, with minimum FPS values that are only slightly lower than the average. For example, at 4K Medium, the minimum is 103 FPS, which is close to the 121 average, indicating stable frame delivery. At 1080p Medium, the min of 312 FPS is similarly close to the 366 average. This stability suggests that Medium settings avoid the occasional spikes that might occur at Ultra, making it the safest choice for consistent performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample capacity for Barony's procedural generation and game logic. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 63173 indicate that it is a high-end mobile processor, and the measured FPS in Barony reflects its strength.

The CPU's synthetic scores are revealing. In Cinebench R23, it scores 40642 in multi-core and 5737 in single-core. The single-core score is particularly relevant for Barony, as roguelikes often rely on a single primary thread for game logic. The Passmark single-thread score of 4500 further confirms this capability. The CPU's 20 cores are more than Barony can utilize, but the high single-thread performance ensures that the game's main loop runs efficiently.

At 1080p, the CPU is clearly the limiting factor. The 493 FPS at Low settings confirms the 265HX's ability to process game logic quickly, but the RTX 5090 is capable of rendering far more frames if the CPU could provide them. The drop in FPS from Low to Ultra at 1080p (493 to 226) is due to increased GPU workload, but the absolute numbers show that the CPU can sustain over 200 FPS even at Ultra. At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes, and the GPU becomes more significant, but the 265HX still ensures that frame rates remain high.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s and dual-channel DDR5 support are adequate for the game's data requirements. The 17,800 million transistors on a 3 nm process node from TSMC contribute to its efficiency, but in this benchmark, the focus is on raw performance. The 265HX's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G, offer similar synthetic scores, but in Barony, the Intel chip's combination of high boost clock and large cache likely provides a slight edge in frame delivery. The data shows that the CPU is never the bottleneck at 4K, but at 1080p, it defines the upper limit of performance.