Barony

# Barony with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The combination of Intel's Core Ultra 9 185H mobile processor and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 produces a capable 1080p and 1440p gaming experience in Barony, with 4K remaining playable at reduced settings. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions while the CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads provide ample headroom for this roguelike title.

Resolution Scaling

Barony's frame rate response to resolution changes is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling lies. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system delivers an average of 335 FPS, which drops to 214 FPS at High settings and 153 FPS at Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the same Low preset yields 211 FPS, High produces 135 FPS, and Ultra falls to 97 FPS. At 3840x2160, the numbers compress further: Low averages 110 FPS, High drops to 70 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 51 FPS.

The scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a 70 FPS average at 4K versus 214 FPS at 1080p, representing roughly a 67% reduction in frame rate when pixel count increases by a factor of 4. This non-linear scaling indicates that the RTX 5070 is not purely fill-rate limited; otherwise, the 4K score would be closer to 25% of the 1080p figure. The game's roguelike nature, with its procedural generation and potentially complex scenes, likely introduces other bottlenecks beyond raw pixel throughput.

Between 1440p and 4K at High settings, the drop is from 135 FPS to 70 FPS, a 48% decrease. This is a steeper decline than the 1080p-to-1440p transition, which sees 214 FPS fall to 135 FPS, a 37% drop. The increasing penalty at higher resolutions suggests that the 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on the RTX 5070, with its 672.0 GB/s bandwidth, begins to feel pressure as resolution climbs, though the game remains comfortably playable even at 4K High.

The Medium preset data provides the only min/max frame rate figures in the measured set. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 249 FPS with a minimum of 211 and maximum of 286 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 157 FPS with a 133 FPS minimum and 181 FPS maximum. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 82 FPS with a 70 FPS minimum and 94 FPS maximum. These ranges show consistent frame pacing at lower resolutions, with the 4K Medium spread of 24 FPS between minimum and maximum indicating some scene complexity variance but no severe stuttering.

The Low preset shows the system's raw capability: 335 FPS at 1080p, 211 FPS at 1440p, and 110 FPS at 4K. This represents a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K, similar to the High preset's scaling. The consistency of this ratio across presets suggests that resolution scaling is largely independent of visual quality settings, pointing to a stable GPU-bound performance profile.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is a Meteor Lake mobile processor with 16 cores, 22 threads, a base clock of 3.90 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s dual-channel memory bandwidth provide the compute foundation for Barony's engine. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all tested CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,670, places it well above the median for modern processors.

In Barony specifically, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work per frame. The jump from 1440p Low at 211 FPS to 1080p Low at 335 FPS, a 59% increase, indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU with frames at a very high rate. However, the fact that 1080p Low does not exceed 335 FPS suggests this is near the CPU's practical limit for this game, even with 22 threads available.

The processor's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 at 35,719 average score (-0.1% delta), the Intel Core 7 250H at 35,728 (-0.2% delta), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 at 35,802 (-0.4% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X at 35,909 (-0.7% delta). All four rivals score within 1% of the Core Ultra 9 185H, indicating that this processor sits in a tightly contested performance band where no single chip has a meaningful synthetic advantage.

The 16-core, 22-thread configuration is notable for a mobile part, and Barony's roguelike gameplay, which often involves complex simulation and procedural generation, can leverage multiple cores. The CPU's 45 W TDP reflects a power-conscious design that still delivers competitive performance. The passmark multithread score of 29,376 and single-thread score of 3,697 show a balanced capability profile, with single-thread performance being critical for game logic and AI while multithread performance handles background tasks and asset streaming.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 1,591 out of 2,935 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the 46th percentile of all system pairings. This mid-pack ranking might seem modest given the hardware's individual capabilities, but it reflects the fact that Barony is not an exceptionally demanding title, and many older or lower-end combos can achieve playable frame rates. The RTX 5070's 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU's 85th percentile ranking suggest the individual components are strong, but the game's relatively light requirements mean that the combo's absolute position among all tested systems is less impressive.

The combo's performance relative to other pairings improves dramatically when considering the actual measured frame rates. At 1080p Ultra, the system delivers 153 FPS, which is far beyond the 60 FPS threshold that most games target. Even at 4K Ultra, the 51 FPS average is close to playable, and dropping to High settings at 4K yields 70 FPS, which is smooth for most players. The ranking data suggests that many combos in the database are tested with more demanding games where this hardware would shine even brighter.

The RTX 5070's nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 at 40,318 average score (0.1% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 at 40,063 (0.8% delta), the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 40,870 (-1.2% delta), and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile at 39,568 (2% delta). These professional-oriented GPUs score similarly in synthetic tests, but the RTX 5070's gaming-specific architecture, with 6,144 shading units and 48 RT cores, provides advantages in real-world gaming scenarios that synthetic benchmarks may not fully capture.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this system in Barony?

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings delivers 135 FPS average, while 1920x1080 at Ultra achieves 153 FPS. Both are excellent, but 1440p High provides a better balance of visual quality and performance, with the 4K High preset at 70 FPS being the highest resolution option that maintains smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 5070's 12 GB VRAM hold up at 4K?

A: The measured 4K results show playable frame rates at all presets, from 110 FPS at Low to 51 FPS at Ultra. The 12 GB GDDR7 memory with 672.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for Barony at 4K, as the game does not show severe frame rate collapses that would indicate VRAM capacity issues.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H a bottleneck in this game?

A: The CPU appears to provide adequate headroom, as frame rates scale significantly with resolution changes. The 1080p Low result of 335 FPS suggests a CPU-imposed ceiling around that range, but at more practical settings like 1440p High (135 FPS) and 4K High (70 FPS), the GPU is clearly the limiting factor.

Q: How does this combo compare to systems using AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350?

A: The Core Ultra 9 185H scores 35,670 in average benchmarks versus 35,719 for the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350, a difference of -0.1%. In Barony specifically, this combo's ranking of 1,591 out of 2,935 reflects the overall system performance, and the CPU's synthetic similarity suggests comparable gaming results.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured data shows 249 FPS average at 1080p Medium, with a minimum of 211 FPS and maximum of 286 FPS. This represents a 63% improvement over the High preset at the same resolution, making Medium an excellent choice for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: Does the game run better at Low settings than High at 4K?

A: Yes, the 4K Low preset averages 110 FPS compared to 70 FPS at High, a 57% increase. The Low preset also outperforms 4K Medium (82 FPS) by 34%, showing that Barony's visual settings have a substantial impact on GPU load at high resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 31,100 million transistors on a 263 mm² die. Its 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation pipelines provide substantial compute capacity, with FP32 performance rated at 30.87 TFLOPS. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for Barony across all tested resolutions.

The GPU's clock profile shows a base of 2325 MHz and boost of 2512 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with the 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, position the RTX 5070 as a strong mid-range to upper-mid-range gaming GPU. Its 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40,377, places it ahead of the majority of graphics cards in the database.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes dominant as resolution increases. The 1080p Ultra result of 153 FPS versus the 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS shows a 67% reduction, which is consistent with the GPU being the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The GPU's pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed for the game's pixel-heavy effects, while the 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 performance handles the shader work.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all professional workstation cards, which is interesting because it highlights the RTX 5070's positioning. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.1% delta), Radeon Pro WX 7100 (0.8% delta), Radeon Pro 5300 (-1.2% delta), and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (2% delta) all score within 2% of the RTX 5070 in average benchmark scores. However, the gaming-specific features and driver optimizations of the GeForce line likely provide an advantage in Barony that these professional cards would not match.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver playable frame rates, but the Medium preset at 249 FPS average offers the best combination of smoothness and visual quality, with the High preset at 214 FPS being nearly as good. The Ultra preset at 153 FPS remains excellent, but the diminishing returns from Medium to Ultra may not justify the 39% frame rate drop for most players.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 135 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides a 39% improvement over Ultra (97 FPS) while maintaining visual fidelity that is nearly indistinguishable in most scenes. The Medium preset at 157 FPS is also viable for competitive play, but the jump from Medium to High is substantial in visual terms for only a 14% performance cost. The Low preset at 211 FPS is unnecessary unless targeting very high refresh rates.

At 3840x2160, the High preset at 70 FPS is the best balance, offering smooth gameplay with good visual detail. The Medium preset at 82 FPS provides a 17% improvement but sacrifices noticeable visual quality. The Ultra preset at 51 FPS is borderline, dipping below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for smooth action. The Low preset at 110 FPS is overkill for visual quality but demonstrates the system's capability at 4K.

For players with high refresh rate monitors (144Hz or above), the 1080p Medium preset (249 FPS) or 1440p Medium preset (157 FPS) are the best options. For those prioritizing visual quality, the 1440p Ultra preset (97 FPS) or 4K High preset (70 FPS) deliver excellent experiences. The data shows that Barony scales well across all settings, with no broken presets or severe performance cliffs, making this combo a versatile choice for a wide range of display configurations.