Barony

# Barony Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers exceptional performance in Barony, ranking 231st out of 2,935 tested combos, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations. The data shows a system capable of maintaining high frame rates across all resolution and settings combinations, with the 4K Ultra preset still producing an average of 90 FPS, demonstrating that this pairing is well-balanced for the game's demands.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 231 out of 2,935 tested combinations places this system in the 92.1st percentile of all configurations evaluated for Barony. This is a strong result, especially considering the game's roguelike genre, which typically presents a mix of CPU-bound procedural generation and GPU-bound rendering tasks. The ranking reflects a system that sits comfortably above the median performer, with only 230 other combinations achieving higher frame rates across the tested scenarios.

When examining the CPU's overall benchmark standing, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus holds a 96th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,003. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83,807, representing a marginal 0.2% advantage for the 290K Plus. The AMD EPYC 4584PX trails by 1.1% with a score of 83,090, while the AMD EPYC 9135 sits 1.2% behind at 82,980. Interestingly, the AMD EPYC 7F72 outperforms the 290K Plus by 1.3%, scoring 85,072. These narrow margins suggest that within the top tier of processors, the 290K Plus is competitive but not dominant, which aligns with its mid-pack ranking in this specific game.

For the GPU, the RTX 4080 SUPER achieves an 86th percentile ranking among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 54,209. Its closest competitor, the RTX 4080, scores 54,247, a negligible 0.1% difference. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% behind at 54,828, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB trails by 2.7% with a score of 55,698. The AMD Radeon 8060S sits 2.8% behind at 55,757. These comparisons show that the 4080 SUPER is positioned firmly in the upper echelon of GPUs, though the differences among its nearest rivals are small enough that game-specific optimizations can shift relative performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the AD103 chip using a 5 nm process at TSMC, featuring 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. It operates with a base clock of 2,295 MHz and a boost clock of 2,550 MHz, with memory running at 1,438 MHz (23 Gbps effective). The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is substantial for handling high-resolution textures and effects in Barony.

The GPU's compute capabilities are equally impressive, with 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units. The 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores support the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set, and the card delivers 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s indicate strong fill-rate performance, which directly influences how quickly the game can render its procedurally generated environments.

In Barony, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 597 FPS, but this drops to 197 FPS at 4K Low, a 67% reduction. The RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB VRAM capacity proves sufficient even at 4K Ultra, where the average frame rate remains playable at 90 FPS. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s ensures that texture streaming and shader operations do not become bottlenecks at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the relatively smooth scaling from Medium to High settings at each resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Arrow Lake Refresh generation, manufactured on a 3 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, with a thermal design power of 125 W. The processor features a substantial cache hierarchy including 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and a single-core score of 7,303. The PassMark multi-thread score of 60,860 and single-thread score of 4,823 further confirm its capabilities. In the context of Barony, a roguelike game that often involves complex procedural generation and pathfinding calculations, the CPU's 24 cores provide ample headroom for background tasks while maintaining high frame rates.

The CPU's role in Barony becomes more apparent when examining frame rate scaling at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 597 FPS, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough draw calls to reach very high frame rates. However, the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a drop to 273 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor as graphical settings increase. The CPU's 5.80 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded performance is sufficient for the game's main loop, while the 24 threads handle auxiliary tasks without causing frame time spikes.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo compare to the next-best CPU alternative?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus outperforms the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K by a marginal 0.2% in average benchmark score, with scores of 84,003 and 83,807 respectively. This difference is negligible for gaming performance in Barony.

Q: What is the GPU's closest competitor in benchmark performance?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54,209 on average, which is only 0.1% behind the RTX 4080's score of 54,247. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% behind at 54,828.

Q: Does the system maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings, the system achieves an average of 90 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay in Barony.

Q: What is the highest frame rate recorded across all tested configurations?

A: The maximum average frame rate recorded is 597 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings, indicating that the system can produce extremely high frame rates when GPU load is minimized.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-core performance compare to its single-core performance?

A: The CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 versus a single-core score of 7,303, representing a roughly 7x scaling factor, which reflects its 24-core design and efficient multi-threading capabilities.

Q: Is the GPU memory bandwidth sufficient for high-resolution gaming?

A: The 736.3 GB/s bandwidth provided by the 16 GB GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus is more than adequate, as evidenced by the system maintaining 126 FPS at 4K High settings.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear pattern of frame rate reduction as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, but the magnitude of this reduction varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 597 FPS at 1080p to 377 FPS at 1440p (a 36.8% reduction), and then to 197 FPS at 4K (a 47.7% reduction from 1440p). This steep decline indicates that at Low settings, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU can maintain high frame rates but the GPU's pixel throughput limits performance at higher resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more gradual in percentage terms: 273 FPS at 1080p drops to 172 FPS at 1440p (37% reduction) and then to 90 FPS at 4K (47.7% reduction). The consistent percentage drops across settings suggest that the GPU's workload scales predictably with resolution, and the CPU's performance headroom is sufficient to avoid becoming a limiting factor even at 1080p Ultra. The Medium settings show a similar pattern, with 444 FPS at 1080p, 280 FPS at 1440p, and 146 FPS at 4K, with the 1440p result including a minimum frame rate of 238 FPS and maximum of 322 FPS.

The frame rate data indicates that the limiting component shifts from CPU-bound at 1080p Low to GPU-bound at 4K Ultra. At 1080p Low, the 597 FPS result suggests the CPU is the bottleneck, since the GPU would likely be capable of higher frame rates if the CPU could feed it faster. However, at 4K Ultra with 90 FPS, the GPU's pixel and texture processing capabilities are clearly the limiting factor, as the CPU's 24 cores provide ample processing power for the game's logic.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the High settings preset at 1440p provides the most compelling experience, delivering an average of 240 FPS. This configuration offers a substantial improvement over the 172 FPS at Ultra settings while maintaining the visual enhancements that come with High preset. The 4K High option at 126 FPS is also excellent for users with high-resolution displays, providing smooth gameplay without requiring the performance sacrifice of Ultra settings.

The Medium preset deserves consideration for users who prioritize frame rate stability over visual fidelity. At 1440p Medium, the system achieves 280 FPS with a minimum of 238 FPS, ensuring consistent performance even during intense gameplay moments. The 1080p Medium option at 444 FPS (minimum 377 FPS) is overkill for most displays, but the 4K Medium at 146 FPS offers a strong middle ground for those wanting higher resolutions without the performance cost of Ultra.

The Ultra preset is best reserved for users with high-refresh-rate 4K displays who value maximum visual quality. The 90 FPS average at 4K Ultra is playable, and the 172 FPS at 1440p Ultra provides excellent visual fidelity with high frame rates. However, given that the High preset at 4K achieves 126 FPS, a 40% improvement over Ultra, most users will find the High preset to be the optimal choice for 4K gaming. The Low preset offers 597 FPS at 1080p, which is only relevant for competitive play or extremely high-refresh-rate displays, as the visual quality reduction outweighs the performance gain for most players.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 resolution, the system produces its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 597 FPS, while Medium reaches 444 FPS with a minimum of 377 FPS and maximum of 510 FPS. High settings deliver 381 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 273 FPS. These results demonstrate that at 1080p, the system is capable of exceeding the refresh rates of virtually all gaming monitors, even at maximum settings.

Moving to 2560x1440 resolution, the frame rates remain high but show the expected reduction. Low settings average 377 FPS, Medium averages 280 FPS with a range of 238 to 322 FPS, High averages 240 FPS, and Ultra averages 172 FPS. The 1440p results show that the system can comfortably drive high-refresh-rate 1440p displays at High settings, with the 240 FPS average matching the refresh rate of many premium gaming monitors.

At 3840x2160 resolution, the system still delivers playable frame rates across all settings. Low averages 197 FPS, Medium averages 146 FPS with a range of 124 to 168 FPS, High averages 126 FPS, and Ultra averages 90 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that the RTX 4080 SUPER's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's highest visual demands, with even the most demanding configuration maintaining an average above 60 FPS. The only configuration with min/max data is the Medium preset at each resolution, which shows a consistent pattern of approximately 15% variation between minimum and average frame rates, indicating stable performance without significant frame time spikes.