Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus paired with the Intel Arc B390 delivers a playable, but not consistently smooth, experience in Barony, with performance heavily dictated by resolution and settings. At 1080p, the combination is capable of high frame rates, but 4K Ultra settings prove too demanding, dropping to 24 FPS. The data indicates a system where the integrated GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially as resolution scales.

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

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. This configuration provides substantial processing power, as evidenced by its strong synthetic benchmark scores. The processor achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44253 and a single-core score of 2439, indicating robust performance across both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads.

In the context of Barony, a roguelike game, the CPU's high single-core performance is particularly relevant. The game's logic, procedural generation, and entity updates often rely on single-threaded performance. The processor's Passmark single-thread score of 5068 suggests it can handle these tasks efficiently. However, the measured frame rates in the game show that the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 159 FPS, a figure that suggests the CPU has ample headroom. The bottleneck shifts to the GPU as resolution increases, with the average FPS dropping to 53 at 4K Low settings, demonstrating that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than the graphics solution can render at higher resolutions.

The 24 cores and 24 threads also ensure that background tasks and the game's simulation do not compete for resources, providing a stable foundation. The CPU's performance percentile of 96 indicates it outperforms the vast majority of all CPUs. When compared to its nearest rivals, the Intel Xeon 6520P scores 93786, which is essentially identical (0% delta). The AMD EPYC 4564P is 1.5% faster, and the AMD EPYC 9175F is 1.9% faster, illustrating that the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is at the top of its class for this metric. For a game like Barony, where frame pacing and simulation stability matter, this level of CPU performance ensures that the processor will not be the source of stutter or slowdowns, even in complex scenes with many entities on screen.

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

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture and part of the Arc Graphics-M (Panther Lake) generation. It features a boost clock of 2500 MHz and has 1536 shading units. Critically, its memory configuration is "System Shared," meaning it draws from the system's DDR5 memory rather than having dedicated VRAM. This architecture is a significant factor in the game's performance, as the GPU must share memory bandwidth with the CPU, which can become a bottleneck.

The GPU's performance is modest, as indicated by its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482. This places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it performs better than only 9% of the graphics cards in the benchmark database. Its nearest rivals are all older, low-end NVIDIA parts: the GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% slower), GeForce 800M (1.5% slower), GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% slower), and GeForce GT 710 (2.7% slower). This context is crucial for setting expectations; while the Arc B390 is an integrated solution, it performs in the same league as these dedicated entry-level graphics cards from a previous generation.

In Barony, this GPU performance translates directly to the measured frame rates. The system's frame rate is clearly bound by the GPU's rendering capabilities. At 1080p Low, the 159 FPS result is achievable, but as the settings are increased to Ultra, the average drops to 73 FPS, showing a 54% performance hit. The GPU's lack of dedicated VRAM means that higher texture quality settings, which require more memory, will likely force more data to be paged from system memory, potentially causing performance dips. The data shows that the GPU is the primary limiter for achieving high frame rates at higher resolutions and settings, making it the component to upgrade if smoother 4K gameplay is desired.

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

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern that confirms the GPU as the limiting component. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, and then to 3840x2160, results in significant frame rate drops across all settings. This behavior is classic for a system where the graphics processor is the bottleneck, as the CPU has sufficient performance to maintain frame rates if the GPU could keep up.

At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 159 FPS at 1080p to 100 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop) and then to 53 FPS at 4K (a 47% drop from 1440p). The scaling is less severe but still substantial at High settings, where the frame rate goes from 102 FPS at 1080p to 64 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop) and then to 34 FPS at 4K (a 47% drop). This linear progression in percentage loss strongly indicates that the GPU's fill rate and shading power are being saturated as the pixel count increases.

The most telling data point is the comparison between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings. The average FPS plummets from 73 to 24, a 67% reduction. This steep decline highlights that the integrated graphics solution is overwhelmed by the sheer number of pixels at 4K, especially when combined with the highest visual fidelity settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a plateau in frame rates as resolution increases, since the CPU's workload would remain constant. Instead, the frame rates scale almost inversely with the number of pixels, which is definitive evidence that the Intel Arc B390 is the performance limiting factor in this configuration.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Given the measured data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a consistent 60 FPS experience, the 1440p High preset is the best choice, delivering an average of 64 FPS. This provides a good balance between visual quality and smoothness. For players prioritizing higher frame rates at 1440p, the Low preset achieves 100 FPS, which is excellent for fast-paced action, but sacrifices visual fidelity.

At 1080p, the data shows that the High preset is the sweet spot, yielding an average of 102 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and offers improved visuals over the Low preset, which runs at 159 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p is also viable at 73 FPS, but it is 29 FPS slower than High, a significant cost for the extra graphical details. The Medium preset at 1080p offers 118 FPS, which is a good middle ground, but High provides better visuals for only 16 FPS less.

For 4K gaming, the data suggests that players should avoid the Ultra preset, as it drops to 24 FPS, which is unplayable. The High preset at 34 FPS is also below the playable threshold for most. The Low preset at 53 FPS is the only 4K option that approaches playability, though it still falls short of a smooth 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K, with an average of 39 FPS, is a compromise but still not ideal. Therefore, the recommendation is to play at 1440p High for the best overall experience, or 1080p High if maximum smoothness is required.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Barony with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with the High preset is the most balanced option, yielding an average of 64 FPS. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 102 FPS for a smoother experience, but 1440p offers a sharper image while still maintaining a playable frame rate.

Q: Can this system run Barony at 4K?

A: Yes, but with significant compromises. The measured data shows that even at Low settings, the average frame rate at 3840x2160 is 53 FPS. The High and Ultra presets drop to 34 FPS and 24 FPS respectively, which are not ideal for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to other GPUs?

A: The Intel Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, which is 1.3% slower. It also performs similarly to the GeForce 800M and GeForce GT 625 OEM.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: Benchmark results indicate that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component. This is evident from the significant frame rate drops when moving from 1080p to 1440p to 4K. The CPU's high single-thread score of 5068 suggests it has ample power to handle the game's logic, but the GPU cannot keep up with the rendering demands at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 159 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 73 FPS. This represents a 86 FPS difference, or a 54% reduction in frame rate when moving to the highest quality settings.

Q: How much better is the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus than its nearest rival?

A: The processor’s average benchmark score is 93785, which is essentially tied with the Intel Xeon 6520P at 93786 (0% delta). The AMD EPYC 4564P is 1.5% faster, and the AMD EPYC 9175F is 1.9% faster, showing the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is highly competitive.

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

The following data represents the measured average FPS for the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Intel Arc B390 combination in Barony.

1920x1080

• Low: Average FPS of 159.
• Medium: Average FPS of 118, with a minimum of 101 and a maximum of 136.
• High: Average FPS of 102.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 73.

2560x1440

• Low: Average FPS of 100.
• Medium: Average FPS of 75, with a minimum of 64 and a maximum of 86.
• High: Average FPS of 64.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 46.

3840x2160

• Low: Average FPS of 53.
• Medium: Average FPS of 39, with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 45.
• High: Average FPS of 34.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 24.

These figures show that the system is most comfortable at 1080p, where it can exceed 100 FPS on Medium and High settings. At 1440p, the system can still achieve playable frame rates on High settings, but the margin for error is reduced. At 4K, the system struggles to maintain a consistent 60 FPS on any preset, with only the Low preset coming close.