Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile delivers a broad performance envelope in Barony, scaling from highly playable 4K Ultra to extraordinarily high refresh rates at 1080p. The measured data indicates that this combination is capable of handling the game’s roguelike demands with significant headroom, making it a versatile choice for different display and quality preferences. This analysis breaks down the benchmark results to clarify how resolution, settings, and hardware components influence the final frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear trend in how the system’s resources are utilized. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average frame rate is 430 FPS, which is exceptionally high and suggests that the GPU is not the primary constraint at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440 Low, the average drops to 272 FPS, a reduction of approximately 37% from the 1080p figure. This substantial decrease indicates that the GPU is becoming more involved as pixel count rises. At 3840x2160 Low, the average further declines to 142 FPS, which is about 48% lower than the 1440p result. This scaling pattern—where each step up in resolution roughly halves the frame rate gains—points to the GPU being the limiting factor as resolution increases.

When examining the High preset, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute numbers. At 1080p High, the average is 275 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 173 FPS, a reduction of about 37%. At 4K High, the average is 91 FPS, which is a 47% decrease from 1440p. This consistent scaling across presets underscores that the RTX 4080 Mobile’s rendering workload scales predictably with pixel density. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU likely has more influence, given the high frame rates, but by 4K, the GPU’s capabilities become the dominant factor.

The Medium preset provides the only complete dataset with minimum and maximum frame rates, offering insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 320 FPS, with a minimum of 272 and a maximum of 368. At 1440p Medium, the average is 202 FPS, with a minimum of 172 and a maximum of 232. At 4K Medium, the average is 106 FPS, with a minimum of 90 and a maximum of 121. The spread between minimum and maximum is relatively narrow across these resolutions, indicating stable performance without severe frame drops. This consistency is crucial for a roguelike where sudden performance dips could affect gameplay precision.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target display’s resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p displays, the data shows that even Ultra settings achieve an average of 197 FPS, which is well above standard 60Hz and 144Hz refresh rates. This means users with 1080p monitors can freely select Ultra for maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 430 FPS, but such high frame rates are unnecessary unless using a very high refresh rate display, and the visual quality trade-off is substantial.

For 1440p, the High preset delivers an average of 173 FPS, which is suitable for 144Hz or 165Hz monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 124 FPS, still playable on high refresh rate displays but with a noticeable drop from High. The Medium preset at 1440p offers 202 FPS, which provides a comfortable margin for competitive play, but High strikes a better balance between visual quality and performance. Given that the game is a roguelike, where detail clarity can aid in spotting items or enemies, High is recommended for 1440p.

At 4K, the situation becomes more nuanced. The High preset averages 91 FPS, which is perfect for a 90Hz or 120Hz display, offering a good balance of quality and speed. The Medium preset at 4K averages 106 FPS, which is also viable and provides a higher frame rate with slightly reduced visual effects. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 65 FPS, which is playable on a 60Hz display but may feel less responsive on higher refresh rate panels. For 4K, High or Medium are the recommended choices, depending on whether users prioritize frame rate or graphical fidelity. The Low preset at 4K reaches 142 FPS, but the visual downgrade is likely too severe for a game that relies on atmospheric and visual cues.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC, featuring 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Its memory configuration includes 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. This memory capacity is more than sufficient for Barony, a roguelike that does not demand extensive texture memory, and the bandwidth supports high-resolution rendering without bottlenecks. The GPU’s clock speeds are a base of 1290 MHz and a boost of 1665 MHz, with memory running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). These clocks are modest for a high-end mobile GPU, but the architecture’s efficiency compensates, as evidenced by the frame rates achieved.

The GPU’s compute capabilities include 7424 shading units, 232 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, along with 58 ray tracing cores and 232 tensor cores. In Barony, which is not a ray tracing-intensive title, the focus is on traditional rasterization, and the high shading unit count directly benefits frame rates. The pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 386.3 GTexel/s indicate strong fill rate capabilities, which are crucial for maintaining high FPS at 4K resolutions. The FP32 performance of 24.72 TFLOPS is substantial, but for a game like Barony, the raw compute is less important than the memory bandwidth and fill rate.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its overall standing. Its PassMark G3D score is 24,926, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 159,575, and the Vulkan score is 145,807, showing strong compute and graphics API performance. In comparison to its nearest rivals, the data shows the RTX 4080 Mobile is slightly behind the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 by 0.4% and the RTX 5080 Mobile by 0.6%, but ahead of the RTX 4070 by 1.3% and the Tesla P4 by 1.3%. These small percentage differences indicate that the RTX 4080 Mobile is competitively positioned within its performance class, and in Barony, it delivers frame rates that align with its high-end status.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 430 FPS, which is the highest recorded frame rate in the dataset. The Medium preset averages 320 FPS, with a minimum of 272 and a maximum of 368 FPS, showing a wide but stable range. The High preset averages 275 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 197 FPS. This progression demonstrates that each increase in settings from Low to Ultra reduces the average frame rate by roughly 25-30%, which is a typical trade-off for visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 272 FPS, a 37% reduction from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 202 FPS, with a minimum of 172 and a maximum of 232 FPS. The High preset averages 173 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 124 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1440p shows a similar pattern to 1080p, with the Ultra preset being about 54% lower than Low. This indicates that the GPU’s workload increases significantly with both resolution and settings, but the system manages to maintain high frame rates throughout.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 142 FPS, which is still playable but a significant drop from 1080p. The Medium preset averages 106 FPS, with a minimum of 90 and a maximum of 121 FPS, providing a consistent experience. The High preset averages 91 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 65 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate dips below 70 FPS, which may be a concern for users with high refresh rate displays, but it remains suitable for standard 60Hz monitors. The data shows that the RTX 4080 Mobile can handle 4K gaming in Barony, but users must adjust settings to achieve their desired frame rate.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this system in Barony?

A: The highest average frame rate is 430 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: At 4K resolution, which settings preset provides the best balance of performance and visual quality?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 91 FPS, which is suitable for 90Hz displays. The Medium preset averages 106 FPS, offering a higher frame rate with slightly reduced visual effects. Both are viable, but High provides better visual quality, while Medium offers more headroom.

Q: How does the GPU’s memory bandwidth affect performance in Barony?

A: The RTX 4080 Mobile has a memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s, which is ample for Barony’s demands. The data shows that even at 4K Medium, the system maintains an average of 106 FPS, indicating that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck in this game.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p resolution?

A: At 1080p, the frame rates are extremely high, with the Low preset reaching 430 FPS and the High preset at 275 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is not heavily constrained, and the CPU may play a more significant role in achieving these high frame rates.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded in the dataset?

A: The minimum frame rate recorded is 90 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Medium settings preset. This indicates stable performance even at 4K.

Q: How does this system compare to other tested combos in Barony?

A: This combo ranks 1221 out of 3717 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the upper third of all configurations. This ranking reflects its strong performance, though it is not at the very top, as some higher-end systems may achieve even better results.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process by Intel. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 45W. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration provides ample processing power for Barony, which is not a heavily threaded game but benefits from high single-core performance.

In benchmark tests, the Core Ultra 9 185H achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17,984.5 and a single-core score of 1,810.5. Its Geekbench scores are 11,657 for multi-core and 1,794 for single-core. The PassMark multi-thread score is 29,376, and the single-thread score is 3,697. These results indicate strong overall CPU performance, with the single-core performance being particularly relevant for games like Barony that rely on a few threads for game logic and physics.

The CPU’s percentile ranking is 85th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,670. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350, which scores 35,719 (a 0.1% difference), the Intel Core 7 250H at 35,728 (0.2% difference), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 at 35,802 (0.4% difference). These small deltas suggest that the Core Ultra 9 185H is well-matched to its competitors in synthetic benchmarks, but in Barony, the high frame rates at 1080p indicate that the CPU is not a limiting factor, as the GPU is able to render frames quickly enough to keep up with the processor.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Barony, this particular configuration—the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile—ranks 1221 out of 3717 total combos. This places it in the 33rd percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms roughly two-thirds of the configurations tested. Given the high frame rates recorded, this ranking reflects the system’s ability to deliver smooth gameplay across most resolutions and settings.

The ranking is influenced by both the CPU and GPU, but the GPU’s performance is more critical in this game due to the resolution scaling patterns observed. The RTX 4080 Mobile’s 81st percentile ranking among GPUs and the Core Ultra 9 185H’s 85th percentile among CPUs both contribute to the combo’s overall position. However, the fact that the combo ranks lower than either component’s individual percentile suggests that other factors, such as thermal throttling or driver optimization, may play a role in the final results. Nevertheless, the measured data shows that this system is capable of exceeding 60 FPS at 4K Ultra and 190 FPS at 1080p Ultra, which is a strong performance profile for a mobile platform.