Barony

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rate data for Barony with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 7600 shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 288 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium drops to 214 FPS average, High to 184 FPS, and Ultra to 132 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 156 FPS, indicating that the preset selection has a massive impact on performance headroom.

For players targeting the smoothest possible experience, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best measured balance. The data shows a minimum FPS of 182 and a maximum of 246 at this setting, meaning the frame time consistency is well within a comfortable range for fast-paced roguelike gameplay. Ultra at 1080p, while producing 132 FPS average, sacrifices a substantial portion of the available performance for visual fidelity that may not be perceptible in a game of this genre.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the recommended choice. The measured average is 135 FPS, with a minimum of 115 and a maximum of 155. This represents a 53 FPS drop from the 1080p Medium result, but the frame rate remains well above display refresh rates commonly used at this resolution. High settings at 1440p produce 116 FPS average, which is still playable, but the gap between Medium and High is only 19 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns when stepping up from Medium.

The 3840x2160 results tell a different story. At 4K, Medium produces 71 FPS average with a minimum of exactly 60 FPS, which is the only preset at any resolution where the minimum FPS is recorded at the 60 FPS threshold. High at 4K delivers 61 FPS average, which is technically playable but leaves almost no margin for frame time spikes. Ultra at 4K drops to 43 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. Low at 4K produces 95 FPS, but the visual quality reduction is substantial given how the preset scales across all resolutions.

The optimal preset per the measured data is Medium. It provides the best combination of average FPS, minimum FPS stability, and visual quality across all three resolutions. Low settings are only recommended when maximum frame rates are the absolute priority, and Ultra settings should be avoided at 4K given the 43 FPS result. High is a viable alternative at 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows Medium consistently outperforms it with a smaller visual penalty than the frame rate difference suggests.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, manufactured on a 6 nm process by TSMC. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1720 MHz, a game clock of 2250 MHz, and a boost clock of 2655 MHz. Memory runs at 2250 MHz with 18 Gbps effective speed across a 128-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is a defining characteristic of this card, and the measured results in Barony suggest that VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at the tested settings.

The GPU features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. Pixel rate is measured at 169.9 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 339.8 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 21.75 TFLOPS, which is identical to the FP16 rating at a 1:1 ratio. The card draws up to 165 W TDP and uses a single 8-pin power connector, with a suggested power supply of 450 W. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8, which is sufficient for this class of GPU.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it at the 57th percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15171. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM, which scores 15199, a delta of -0.2 percent. The AMD Radeon Pro 560X trails by 0.6 percent at 15082, and the AMD Radeon 680M scores 15270, which is 0.7 percent higher. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti is 0.7 percent behind at 15063. These tight margins indicate that the RX 7600 sits in a competitive performance band where small percentage differences separate adjacent products.

In Barony specifically, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary driver, with the GPU able to push frame rates above 200 FPS at Medium settings. At 1440p, the GPU begins to assert more influence, with the average FPS dropping by roughly 37 percent across the preset range. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with Ultra settings producing only 43 FPS and High producing 61 FPS. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for the visual complexity of Barony, as no memory-related stuttering or texture thrashing is indicated by the measured data.

The GPU's clock behavior, with boost reaching 2655 MHz, indicates that thermal and power headroom are available during sustained loads. The 18 Gbps effective memory speed provides sufficient bandwidth for the game's texture streaming requirements. The RDNA 3.0 architecture includes 32 ray tracing cores, though Barony's rendering workload does not appear to heavily utilize this feature based on the frame rates achieved.

FAQ

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

A: The measured data shows that 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides 135 FPS average with a minimum of 115 FPS. This represents the best balance between image quality and frame rate stability, as 4K Medium drops to 71 FPS and 1080p Medium reaches 214 FPS but with less visual clarity.

Q: Is the Ultra preset viable at any resolution?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p where it produces 132 FPS average. At 1440p Ultra drops to 83 FPS, and at 4K Ultra falls to 43 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for a fast-paced roguelike.

Q: How does the RX 7600 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 7600 has an average benchmark score of 15171, which is 0.2 percent lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM at 15199. It outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro 560X by 0.6 percent and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti by 0.7 percent, while trailing the AMD Radeon 680M by 0.7 percent.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 4K with this setup?

A: The measured results at 3840x2160 range from 43 FPS at Ultra settings to 95 FPS at Low settings. Medium produces 71 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS, and High produces 61 FPS. Only Low and Medium settings deliver frame rates above 60 FPS at this resolution.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset reaches 288 FPS, which is likely CPU-limited given the GPU's compute capabilities. At 1440p and 4K, the frame rates scale downward in a manner consistent with GPU limitation, indicating the CPU provides sufficient headroom at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations?

A: This Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination ranks 2007 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony, placing it in the lower third of the tested pool.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates show a wide spread across settings. Low produces 288 FPS average, which is the highest recorded result in the dataset. Medium delivers 214 FPS with a minimum of 182 and a maximum of 246. High achieves 184 FPS, and Ultra drops to 132 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 156 FPS, representing a 54 percent reduction in average frame rate when maximizing visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the scaling pattern continues. Low produces 182 FPS average, Medium delivers 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 and a maximum of 155, High achieves 116 FPS, and Ultra drops to 83 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 99 FPS, which is a smaller absolute difference than at 1080p but a similar proportional reduction of 54 percent.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates compress significantly. Low produces 95 FPS average, Medium delivers 71 FPS with a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 81, High achieves 61 FPS, and Ultra drops to 43 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is 52 FPS, which represents a 55 percent reduction. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is exactly 60, indicating that this is the boundary of playable performance at this resolution.

The Medium preset is the only one where minimum and maximum FPS values are recorded across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the range is 182 to 246, a spread of 64 FPS. At 1440p, the range is 115 to 155, a spread of 40 FPS. At 4K, the range is 60 to 81, a spread of 21 FPS. This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded as resolution increases, reducing frame time variance.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 ranks 2007 out of 2935 tested combos in Barony. This places the combination in the lower third of the tested pool, which is notable given the CPU's high benchmark standing. The CPU alone ranks at the 96th percentile versus all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 84003, but the GPU's 57th percentile standing drags the combined ranking down.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K with an average score of 83807, which is 0.2 percent lower. The AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 83090, a 1.1 percent deficit, while the AMD EPYC 9135 scores 82980, a 1.2 percent deficit. The AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85072, which is 1.3 percent higher. These margins show that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is competitive within its immediate CPU peer group, with deltas under 1.5 percent across all four nearest rivals.

The GPU's nearest rivals paint a different picture. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM is 0.2 percent higher, the AMD Radeon 680M is 0.7 percent higher, and the AMD Radeon Pro 560X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti are 0.6 and 0.7 percent lower respectively. These extremely tight margins indicate that the RX 7600 is in a dense performance cluster where individual benchmark variance could reorder the standings.

The combo rank of 2007 out of 2935 suggests that while the CPU provides substantial headroom, the GPU is the limiting factor for overall performance in Barony. The CPU's 96th percentile standing is effectively wasted in this pairing for frame rate purposes, as the GPU cannot fully utilize the processing power available. This is consistent with the measured frame rates, which show GPU-bound scaling at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on the Arrow Lake Refresh codename with a 3 nm process node from TSMC. The base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. The CPU has 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with a dual-channel bus delivering 115.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and ECC memory is supported. The socket is Intel Socket 1851, and the CPU is unlocked for multiplier adjustment.

The CPU's benchmark results are strong. Cinebench R15 multicore scores 5214 and singlecore scores 736. Cinebench R20 multicore reaches 21727 and singlecore 3067. Cinebench R23 multicore produces 51731 and singlecore 7303. Passmark results include a multithread score of 60860, a single thread score of 4823, and a physics score of 3315. Data compression scores 698346, data encryption 52563, extended instructions 52338, floating point math 214760, integer math 166194, and random string sorting 79744. The find prime numbers score is 503.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 84003, placing it at the 96th percentile versus all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K at 83807, a 0.2 percent difference. The AMD EPYC 4584PX at 83090 is 1.1 percent lower, and the AMD EPYC 9135 at 82980 is 1.2 percent lower. The AMD EPYC 7F72 at 85072 is 1.3 percent higher. These deltas are all under 1.5 percent, indicating that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is firmly positioned at the top of the desktop CPU performance hierarchy.

In Barony, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the frame rate reaches 288 FPS. This high frame rate suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates far beyond what the GPU can render at higher settings. At 1440p and 4K, the frame rates drop in a manner consistent with GPU limitation, as the CPU's 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock provide ample single-threaded and multi-threaded performance for the game's roguelike simulation logic. The 36 MB of L3 cache helps maintain low latency for frequently accessed game data.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals the bottleneck characteristics of this combination. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 288 at 1080p to 182 at 1440p, a reduction of 106 FPS or 37 percent. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is 87 FPS, from 182 to 95, a further 48 percent reduction. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 193 FPS, representing a 67 percent decrease.

At Medium settings, the scaling is steeper. The average FPS drops from 214 at 1080p to 135 at 1440p, a reduction of 79 FPS or 37 percent. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is 64 FPS, from 135 to 71, a 47 percent reduction. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings is 143 FPS, a 67 percent decrease.

At High settings, the average FPS drops from 184 at 1080p to 116 at 1440p, a reduction of 68 FPS or 37 percent. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is 55 FPS, from 116 to 61, a 47 percent reduction. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 123 FPS, a 67 percent decrease.

At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 132 at 1080p to 83 at 1440p, a reduction of 49 FPS or 37 percent. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is 40 FPS, from 83 to 43, a 48 percent reduction. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings is 89 FPS, a 67 percent decrease.

The consistent 37 percent reduction from 1080p to 1440p and the 47 to 48 percent reduction from 1440p to 4K across all four presets indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling factor. The pixel count increases by 78 percent from 1080p to 1440p and by 125 percent from 1440p to 4K, and the frame rate reductions track closely with these pixel count increases. This is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the CPU has sufficient headroom to maintain the same level of game logic performance regardless of resolution.

The fact that the scaling pattern is identical across all presets suggests that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck at every quality level. The CPU's 24 cores and high boost clock are not the limiting factor in any measured configuration. The 67 percent total reduction from 1080p to 4K across all presets confirms that this combination is GPU-limited for Barony, and any performance improvement at higher resolutions would require a more powerful graphics card rather than a faster processor.