Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is an exceptionally powerful combination for Barony, a 2015 roguelike that clearly scales well beyond typical refresh rates. The measured data shows this combo is highly overqualified for the title, delivering triple-digit frame rates even at 4K with maximum settings. The benchmark results indicate that the primary challenge for users is not achieving playable performance, but rather selecting a settings preset that balances visual fidelity with the headroom required for a high-refresh-rate display.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows that the Ultra preset is the only configuration that dips below the 100 FPS threshold at 4K, averaging 89.6 FPS. While this is still perfectly playable on a standard 60Hz display, it represents a significant performance penalty compared to the High preset. At 4K, the High preset delivers 123.6 FPS, which is a substantial 34 FPS improvement over Ultra. This suggests that the Ultra preset likely enables expensive effects that are not well-optimized in this older title, making High the superior choice for 4K.

For 1440p users, the High preset achieves 239.6 FPS, which is ample for even the fastest 240Hz gaming monitors. The Ultra preset at this resolution still manages 174.6 FPS, so those with 175Hz displays can safely enable maximum settings without issue. However, the gap between Medium (281.3 FPS) and High (239.6 FPS) is 41.7 FPS, indicating that High offers a solid balance of quality and speed for competitive play.

At 1080p, the performance ceiling is essentially unlimited. The Low preset hits 595.4 FPS, while High reaches 381.3 FPS and Ultra still manages 273.7 FPS. Given that most 1080p displays top out at 240Hz or 360Hz, the Ultra preset at 273.7 FPS is more than sufficient for maximum refresh rates. The recommendation is straightforward: use the High preset at 4K for the best visual-to-performance ratio, and use Ultra at 1440p and 1080p if you prioritize image quality, as the frame rates remain well above 144 FPS in both cases.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark data places this combination at rank 123 out of 1702 tested combos for Barony. This top-tier ranking places it in the 92.8th percentile of all configurations tested, which is exceptionally strong for a game that is not known for being graphically demanding. The ranking reflects the sheer brute force of the RTX 4080 SUPER, which sits at the 88th percentile of all GPUs, combined with the Core Ultra 7 265K, which ranks at the 97th percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF and the Intel Core i9-14900KF, both of which score within 0.2% of the 265K in average benchmarks. This indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck in any meaningful way for Barony, as the performance delta between these processors is negligible. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, scores 0.2% higher on average, while the RTX 5070 Ti trails by 2.9%. These rival comparisons suggest that this combo is well-balanced, with neither component dramatically outclassing the other in a way that would create a bottleneck in this particular game.

The rank of 123 out of 1702 is notable because it shows that while many higher-end combos exist (likely featuring newer RTX 50-series or Radeon RX 9000-series cards), this pairing still delivers top-tier performance. The data suggests that for Barony specifically, the RTX 4080 SUPER provides enough compute headroom to push frame rates far beyond what the game's engine was likely designed to handle, making the ranking more proof of raw hardware capability than to any specific game optimization.

FAQ

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K a bottleneck for the RTX 4080 SUPER in Barony?

A: Benchmark results indicate no bottleneck. The CPU sits at the 97th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals score within 0.2% of its average benchmark score. The measured FPS scales consistently with resolution changes, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios.

Q: Can this combo run Barony at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages 89.6 FPS. While this is below the 100 FPS mark, it is still highly playable. For a smoother experience, the High preset at 4K delivers 123.6 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to the RTX 5070 Ti in average GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, while the RTX 5070 Ti scores 52086. This puts the 4080 SUPER 2.9% ahead of the 5070 Ti based on the deltaPct values in the data.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 240Hz 1440p monitor?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 delivers 239.6 FPS, which matches a 240Hz refresh rate almost exactly. The Ultra preset at 174.6 FPS is also viable for 175Hz displays, but High is the precise match for 240Hz.

Q: Does the game utilize the 20 cores of the Core Ultra 7 265K?

A: The data does not provide core utilization metrics for Barony. However, the CPU's high percentile ranking and the fact that frame rates scale linearly with resolution suggest that the GPU is the primary performance driver, not the CPU core count.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra?

A: The 1080p Low preset averages 595.4 FPS, while 4K Ultra averages 89.6 FPS. This represents a performance drop of approximately 85%, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed at 4K with maximum settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows extraordinary performance across all settings. The Low preset averages 595.4 FPS, Medium drops to 444.5 FPS, High yields 381.3 FPS, and Ultra still delivers a robust 273.7 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 54% reduction in frame rate, but even the most demanding preset keeps the average well above the refresh rate of virtually any monitor on the market.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low averages 379.4 FPS, Medium hits 281.3 FPS, High reaches 239.6 FPS, and Ultra settles at 174.6 FPS. The relative drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: Low falls by 36%, Medium by 37%, High by 37%, and Ultra by 36%. This uniformity suggests that the performance scaling is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload.

At 3840x2160, performance takes a more significant hit but remains impressive. Low averages 199.3 FPS, Medium drops to 148.5 FPS, High manages 123.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 89.6 FPS. The step from Medium to High at 4K costs 24.9 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs 34 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces disproportionately expensive rendering features at 4K, making High the sweet spot for maintaining high refresh rates.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 595.4 FPS at 1080p to 379.4 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 216 FPS. Moving from 1440p to 4K (3840x2160), the frame rate falls to 199.3 FPS, a further drop of 180.1 FPS. This translates to a 66.5% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings.

At the Ultra preset, the scaling is different. The frame rate goes from 273.7 FPS at 1080p to 174.6 FPS at 1440p, then to 89.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 67.3% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is remarkably similar to the Low preset scaling. The consistency of this scaling across all four settings presets strongly indicates that the system is entirely GPU-bound in Barony.

The RTX 4080 SUPER has a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s over a 256-bit bus, and the 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is more than sufficient for this title. The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor: the Core Ultra 7 265K's benchmark scores place it among the top 3% of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals (the 265KF and i9-14900KF) score within 0.2%, confirming that any of these processors would deliver nearly identical results.

The fact that 4K Ultra still averages nearly 90 FPS is notable for a game released in 2015. The performance headroom at lower resolutions is effectively wasted unless paired with a high-refresh-rate monitor, as 1080p Low at 595.4 FPS exceeds the refresh rate capabilities of any commercially available display. For the best experience, the data suggests that 4K High at 123.6 FPS provides the optimal balance of visual quality and smoothness, leveraging the GPU's capabilities without sacrificing frame rate.