Barony

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers exceptional performance in Barony, achieving a top-tier combo rank of 111 out of 2935 tested combinations. The data shows a system capable of maintaining very high frame rates across all resolutions, with the CPU providing a robust foundation for the GPU's immense rendering power.

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

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process node by TSMC. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and can boost up to 5.80 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. This configuration provides substantial multi-threaded headroom, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and single-core score of 7,303. In a roguelike title like Barony, which relies heavily on procedural generation and complex game-state logic, this single-core strength is directly relevant: the game's simulation and AI routines benefit from the high boost clock, while the 24 threads ensure that background tasks and engine overhead never create a bottleneck.

The processor's cache hierarchy — 192 KB L1 per core, 3 MB L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 — contributes to low-latency access to frequently used data. This is important for maintaining consistent frame pacing in a genre where unpredictable events and entity interactions can cause sudden CPU load spikes. The benchmark results show that the CPU's average benchmark score of 84,003 places it in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is one of the most capable processors available. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83,807, a delta of only 0.2%, making the performance difference between these two effectively negligible in synthetic tests.

In the context of Barony's measured FPS, the CPU's role becomes clearer. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 663 FPS, which is a CPU-bound scenario; the fact that the frame rate drops to 303 FPS at Ultra settings at the same resolution suggests that the GPU is taking over as the limiting factor as graphical load increases. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 60,860 and single-thread score of 4,823 indicate it can feed the RTX 4090 efficiently, preventing the processor from being the primary constraint even at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems in Barony?*

A: This combination ranks 111th out of 2,935 tested combos, placing it in the top 3.8% of all systems. This confirms it as a high-end configuration capable of delivering near-top-tier performance in this title.

Q: What is the FPS difference between the lowest and highest settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rate ranges from 219 FPS at Low settings down to 100 FPS at Ultra settings. This represents a 54% drop in performance from Low to Ultra, demonstrating the significant GPU load impact of higher graphical presets.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes a bottleneck at higher settings. At 1920x1080, the system produces 663 FPS on Low but only 303 FPS on Ultra. Since the CPU's single-core performance (7,303 in Cinebench R23) is strong, the 360 FPS gap between Low and Ultra is primarily attributed to the GPU's rendering workload, not CPU limitations.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60,347, which is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60,326 (a 0% delta). It is 2.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M and 2.9% behind the AMD Radeon PRO V710, indicating that while the RTX 4090 is a top consumer card, its synthetic average is closely matched by some professional workstation GPUs.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values recorded at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the minimum FPS values are 419 at 1080p, 264 at 1440p, and 138 at 4K. These minimums are notably lower than the average FPS (493, 311, and 163 respectively), indicating that while average performance is high, frame drops can still occur during intensive scenes.

Q: Does the CPU's performance place it above or below the 90th percentile?

A: The CPU scores in the 96th percentile among all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 96% of processors. This high percentile, combined with its 24 cores and 5.80 GHz boost clock, ensures it is not a limiting factor in most gaming scenarios, including Barony.

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

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 423 to 267, a 37% reduction. Further scaling to 3840x2160 at High yields 140 FPS, which is a 48% drop from the 1440p result and a 67% drop from 1080p. This steep decline as resolution increases is a classic indicator of GPU-bound performance: the RTX 4090's rendering pipeline is being tasked with exponentially more pixels, and its frame output scales accordingly.

The same pattern holds for Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 303 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, this falls to 191 FPS (a 37% drop), and at 4K Ultra, it reaches 100 FPS (a 48% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across different settings levels suggests that the GPU's compute and memory resources are the primary constraint at higher resolutions, rather than any CPU limitation. The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 384-bit bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provides ample capacity, but the sheer pixel count at 4K demands more from the shading units and RT cores.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The system achieves 663 FPS at 1080p, 418 FPS at 1440p, and 219 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is only 33% of the 1080p Low figure, indicating that even with minimal graphical effects, the GPU's fill rate becomes a limiting factor. This is supported by the GPU's pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s, which are substantial but finite resources. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 1440p (37% reduction) and 1440p to 4K (48% reduction) at both High and Ultra settings underscore that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck as resolution scales, while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom to feed frames up to the 4K ceiling.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This system's combo rank of 111 out of 2,935 places it in the upper echelon of all tested configurations for Barony. To contextualize this rank, consider that the 111th position means it outperforms 2,824 other combos, representing the top 3.8% of all systems. This is a strong result, but it is not the absolute top, suggesting that there are 110 configurations that achieve higher frame rates in this title. Those higher-ranked systems likely feature either a more optimized CPU-GPU pairing for this specific game or perhaps slightly better silicon lottery outcomes.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2% faster) and AMD EPYC 4584PX (1.1% slower) — suggest that the processor choice introduces minimal variance in overall system performance. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (2.5% slower), are professional cards that do not typically appear in gaming rigs, meaning the RTX 4090 is effectively the fastest consumer gaming GPU in this comparison set. The 111th rank is therefore likely influenced by the specific combination of this CPU and GPU, as well as the test environment's configuration, rather than any deficiency in the hardware itself.

Given that the data shows measured FPS values (the `dataIsMeasured` field is true), the rank is based on actual in-game performance rather than extrapolated estimates. The high rank is consistent with the observed FPS values, which exceed 300 FPS at 1080p Ultra and maintain above 100 FPS at 4K Ultra. For a roguelike game, which often has less demanding graphics than AAA shooters, this combination provides overwhelming performance headroom, ensuring smooth gameplay even in chaotic scenes with numerous enemies and particle effects.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the flagship of the GeForce 40-series, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. It features 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and boosts to 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus delivers 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for high-resolution textures and complex shader workloads in Barony.

The GPU's benchmark scores reveal its immense compute capability: it scores 82.58 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16, and achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223. Its PassMark G3D score of 38,194 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 271,631 confirm its dominance in graphics workloads. The GPU's percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs is slightly lower than the CPU's 96th percentile, but this is because the GPU comparison set includes professional and workstation cards with different optimization profiles. In gaming-specific benchmarks, the RTX 4090 is typically unrivaled.

In Barony, the GPU's role is to render the game's procedural environments and effects. The measured FPS at 1080p High (423 FPS) and 1440p High (267 FPS) demonstrate that the GPU can handle standard gaming resolutions with ease. At 4K Ultra, the 100 FPS average still provides a smooth experience, but the 50% reduction from 1080p Ultra (303 FPS) highlights the GPU's workload intensity. The RTX 4090's 128 RT cores are not heavily utilized in a roguelike title, but its raw rasterization power ensures that even the most demanding settings remain playable. The GPU's end-of-life production status and launch MSRP of 1,599 USD (stated once) reflect its position as a top-tier product, though its performance in this test confirms it remains competitive.

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

The measured FPS data for Barony with this combo is comprehensive, covering three resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the system achieves the following average FPS: 663 at Low, 493 at Medium (with a minimum of 419 and maximum of 567), 423 at High, and 303 at Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium is 170 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 70 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 120 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that Ultra settings introduce additional rendering passes that disproportionately impact performance.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 418 at Low, 311 at Medium (minimum 264, maximum 358), 267 at High, and 191 at Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is 227 FPS, with each setting step costing roughly 50-70 FPS. The Medium settings show a minimum of 264 FPS, which is still well above 60 FPS, indicating that even the most demanding scenes at 1440p remain highly playable. The 4K resolution at 3840x2160 yields 219 FPS at Low, 163 at Medium (minimum 138, maximum 187), 140 at High, and 100 at Ultra. The gap from Low to Ultra is 119 FPS, and the minimum FPS at 4K Medium (138) is still above the 100 FPS average at Ultra, showing that settings choices have a significant impact on frame rates.

Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p Low result of 663 FPS is 6.6 times higher than the 4K Ultra result of 100 FPS, illustrating the extreme performance range. The Medium settings at all resolutions provide a balanced profile, with 493 FPS at 1080p, 311 FPS at 1440p, and 163 FPS at 4K. These figures suggest that Medium or High settings at 1440p or 4K deliver the best experience for players seeking high refresh rates, while Ultra at 4K remains viable for those prioritizing visual fidelity. The data confirms that this combo can handle Barony at maximum settings with playable frame rates even at 4K, and at lower resolutions it provides performance far beyond the typical 144 Hz or 240 Hz display refresh rates.