Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a robust performance profile in Barony, a roguelike title from 2015. This combination demonstrates exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, positioning it as a top-tier setup for this game. The data reveals a system that is primarily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, while the substantial CPU capabilities become evident at lower settings where frame rates soar. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, contextualizes the hardware's standing among rivals, and interprets the roles each component plays in the observed results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 288.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same settings, the average drops to 181.5 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 94.6 FPS. This pattern indicates that the rendering load scales significantly with pixel count, as expected.

The scaling behavior differs notably across settings presets. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 447.9 FPS at 1080p to 283.8 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 145.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 67.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K. In contrast, at Ultra settings, the drop is from 203.9 FPS at 1080p to 129.2 FPS at 1440p, and then to 67.5 FPS at 4K, a 66.9% reduction. The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests a uniform scaling factor tied primarily to resolution.

The limiting component shifts based on resolution and settings. At 1080p and 1440p, particularly with Low or Medium settings, the frame rates exceed 280 FPS, indicating that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates. However, at 4K, the frame rates drop significantly, with even the Low preset only reaching 145.4 FPS. This suggests the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the increased pixel workload overwhelms the RTX 3080's capabilities. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 77.9 FPS, showing that the GPU has limited headroom for quality improvements at this resolution.

The data indicates that for 1080p and 1440p gaming, the CPU has ample headroom, as frame rates remain extremely high even at Ultra settings. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the frame rate drops to 67.5 FPS at Ultra, which is below the 94.6 FPS seen at High settings. This suggests that users targeting 4K would need to adjust quality settings to maintain high refresh rates.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 547th out of 1702 tested combos in Barony. This places it in the upper third of all configurations tested, which is a strong result for a game of this age. The rank is derived from the measured FPS across all settings and resolutions, and the data indicates that this combo outperforms the majority of other pairings.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its contribution to this ranking. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF has an average benchmark score of 79240, which is 0.2% higher than the 265K's 79102. The Intel Core i9-14900KF scores 79245, also 0.2% higher, while the Intel Core i9-14900K scores 79824, 0.9% higher. The AMD EPYC 7413 leads the group with a score of 80041, 1.2% higher. These small deltas indicate that the 265K is very closely matched with its immediate competitors, and the performance difference in a game like Barony would be negligible.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals show a similar pattern. The AMD Radeon Pro Duo scores 35860, which is 0.2% higher than the RTX 3080's 35787. The AMD Radeon 880M scores 35646, 0.4% lower, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE scores 36101, 0.9% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile scores 35435, 1.0% lower. These minor differences suggest that the RTX 3080 is positioned in a tight performance band, and its ranking in Barony is more influenced by the CPU pairing than by any significant GPU advantage.

The combo rank of 547 out of 1702 indicates that while this setup is not at the absolute top of the chart, it delivers performance that would be more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. The high frame rates measured across all settings and resolutions support this, as even the lowest average FPS of 67.5 at 4K Ultra is playable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The processor sits in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a high-end part. Its average benchmark score of 79102 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with deltas of -0.2% to -1.2%, showing very consistent performance.

In Barony, the CPU's role becomes apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 447.9 FPS, which reflects the CPU's ability to handle game logic and draw calls quickly. Even at 1440p with Low settings, the frame rate remains at 283.8 FPS, indicating the CPU is not a bottleneck at these settings. The high boost clock of 5.50 GHz likely contributes to the strong single-threaded performance needed for a roguelike, which may have complex game state calculations.

The CPU benchmarks show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 50009 and a single-core score of 7060. The Passmark multi-thread score of 58838 and single-thread score of 4904 further support its capability. The large 30 MB of L3 cache and 3 MB per core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for games that require frequent data access.

Given that Barony is a roguelike, it likely relies more on single-threaded performance for procedural generation and game logic. The 265K's single-thread score of 7060 in Cinebench R23 suggests it is more than adequate for these tasks. The data shows that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is not the limiting factor, as frame rates remain high even at Ultra settings. The processor's 20 cores and 20 threads may provide headroom for background tasks, but the game itself appears to be GPU-bound at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achieved by this combo in Barony?

A: The highest average FPS is 447.9, measured at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF?

A: The 265KF has an average benchmark score of 79240, which is 0.2% higher than the 265K's score of 79102. This difference is negligible in practice.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 288.8 at 1080p to 94.6 at 4K, representing a 67.3% reduction.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 67.5, which is significantly lower than the 1080p Ultra average of 203.9. This indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K.

Q: What percentile does the GPU rank in among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is in the 80th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35787.

Q: How many cores does the CPU have and what is its boost clock?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K has 20 cores and 20 threads, with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz and a base clock of 3.90 GHz.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is based on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process by Samsung. It has 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, along with 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. The GPU has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. Its base clock is 1440 MHz with a boost clock of 1710 MHz, and it achieves a FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor, as frame rates exceed 200 FPS even at Ultra settings. However, at 4K, the GPU's workload increases significantly, and the frame rate drops to 67.5 FPS at Ultra. This highlights the GPU's capacity to handle the game's visual effects, but also shows its limitations at very high resolutions.

The GPU's memory configuration is notable, with 10 GB of GDDR6X and a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. This is more than sufficient for a game from 2015 like Barony, which likely does not require high memory capacity. The GPU's texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s are also substantial, allowing for detailed textures and effects at lower resolutions.

The RTX 3080's benchmark scores show it is a capable card, with a Passmark G3D score of 25086 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 167014. Its percentile rank of 80 indicates it is above average, but its nearest rivals show how closely matched it is to other cards. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE has an average score of 36101, which is 0.9% higher, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile scores 35435, 1.0% lower. These small differences suggest that the RTX 3080's performance in Barony is more dependent on the CPU pairing and resolution than on any intrinsic GPU advantage.

The data shows that at 1440p and below, the GPU has significant headroom, as frame rates remain high across all settings. At 4K, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, with the Low preset achieving 145.4 FPS and the Ultra preset dropping to 67.5 FPS. This indicates that users with a 4K display would need to reduce settings to maintain a high refresh rate, while those at 1440p or 1080p can enjoy maximum settings without issue.