Hard West

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a solid 1080p experience in Hard West, but it falls short of the 60 FPS target at 4K. The data shows this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can run demanding presets smoothly. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 94.6 FPS on High and 69.4 FPS on Ultra, both comfortably above the playable threshold. Moving to 2560x1440, High settings still hit 61.7 FPS, but Ultra drops to 47.8 FPS. At 3840x2160, no settings reach 60 FPS, with the best result being 52.4 FPS on Low. The Arc B580’s 12 GB memory and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for this turn-based tactics title, while the i3-12100F’s single-thread performance (893 in 3dmark single-thread) keeps the game running responsively.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Hard West at 60 FPS on Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but only at 1920x1080. The measured average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 69.4, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average drops to 47.8 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Ultra it falls to 25.2 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 1440p for this combo?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 is the most demanding preset that stays above 60 FPS, with an average of 61.7 FPS. Medium runs at 77.3 FPS and Low at 95.6 FPS, but High is the highest quality option that remains playable.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B580’s average benchmark score is 23021, which is virtually identical to the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23061, -0.2% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (23172, -0.7% delta). It is 0.6% ahead of the RTX 2080 (22895), indicating near-parity with these cards in synthetic tests.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for this game?

A: The data does not indicate a bottleneck at 1080p or 1440p, as FPS scales consistently with resolution changes. The CPU’s 3dmark 4-thread score of 2859 and 8-thread score of 4026 suggest adequate multi-threading for Hard West’s turn-based mechanics, while its single-thread score of 893 supports responsive UI and AI calculations.

Q: What is the highest FPS this combo achieves in Hard West?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 151.3 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. Medium at 1080p reaches 121.1 FPS, and High at 1080p reaches 94.6 FPS.

Q: Is 4K playable with this hardware?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best average FPS is 52.4 on Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. High and Medium produce 29.4 FPS and 44.1 FPS respectively, while Ultra yields only 25.2 FPS.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 69.4 FPS. This is a strong result, as it leaves 9.4 FPS of headroom above the playable threshold. The data shows a clear progression: Low runs at 151.3 FPS, Medium at 121.1 FPS, and High at 94.6 FPS, so even High is far above the target. Ultra is the recommended choice here because it delivers the best visual quality while maintaining playability.

At 2560x1440, High settings is the most demanding preset that clears 60 FPS, averaging 61.7 FPS. This is a tight margin of only 1.7 FPS above the threshold, so players seeking more stability might prefer Medium at 77.3 FPS. Low runs at 95.6 FPS, but Ultra falls to 47.8 FPS, making it the only non-playable preset at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, no settings preset reaches 60 FPS. The best result is Low at 52.4 FPS, followed by Medium at 44.1 FPS, High at 29.4 FPS, and Ultra at 25.2 FPS. Since none of these meet the playable threshold, 4K gaming is not viable with this combo in Hard West.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals that the GPU plays the dominant role in Hard West’s performance, as FPS scales dramatically with resolution changes. Comparing 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average drops from 94.6 FPS to 61.7 FPS, a 34.8% reduction. This large decline indicates that the Arc B580 is the primary constraint as pixel count increases. The GPU’s 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 213.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the key factors driving this behavior.

The CPU’s influence is less pronounced but still relevant. The i3-12100F’s 4-core, 8-thread configuration (with 12 MB L3 cache) handles the game’s turn-based logic without becoming a limiting factor at 1080p. Evidence for this is the minimal performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p relative to the resolution scaling: 151.3 FPS at Low versus 69.4 FPS at Ultra represents a 54.1% drop, which is consistent with GPU-bound rendering rather than CPU bottlenecks. At 1440p, the same preset comparison shows 95.6 FPS at Low versus 47.8 FPS at Ultra, a 50.0% drop, again pointing to GPU dominance.

At 4K, the GPU’s workload becomes overwhelming, as even Low settings only achieve 52.4 FPS. This is a 44.8% reduction from 1440p Low (95.6 FPS), while the CPU’s workload likely remains similar. The fact that 4K Ultra (25.2 FPS) is less than half of 1080p Ultra (69.4 FPS) confirms that the Arc B580’s 456.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 80 ROPs are the limiting factors at high resolutions. The i3-12100F’s passmark single-thread score of 3444 and 3dmark 2-thread score of 1659 suggest it can keep up with the GPU at all tested resolutions.

The Verdict

This PC can run Hard West at 60 FPS for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but not at 4K. The verdict by resolution is clear: at 1920x1080, all four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable, with Ultra averaging 69.4 FPS. This makes 1080p the sweet spot for this combo, as players can enable maximum visual quality while staying well above the threshold. At 2560x1440, Low, Medium, and High are playable, with High being the best option at 61.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls short at 47.8 FPS, so it should be avoided.

At 3840x2160, the verdict is unequivocal: no settings preset achieves 60 FPS. The closest is Low at 52.4 FPS, which is 7.6 FPS below the playable threshold. The data shows that this resolution is not viable for this hardware combination. The i3-12100F’s 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs and the Arc B580’s 68th percentile among all GPUs indicate that this is a mid-range pairing that excels at mainstream resolutions. For 1080p Ultra and 1440p High, this combo delivers a smooth, playable experience; for 4K, it does not.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The Intel Core i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13494, placing it in the 68th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in terms of average score are the Intel Core 3 N355 (13492, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-9500 (13452, 0.3% delta). The Intel Core 5 120UL (13594, -0.7% delta) and Intel Core i7-1250U (13351, 1.1% delta) are also within 1.1% of the i3-12100F’s performance. For Hard West, any of these CPUs would behave nearly identically, providing similar frame rates at all tested resolutions.

The Intel Arc B580’s average benchmark score is 23021, also in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23061, -0.2% delta), meaning the two cards perform within 0.2% of each other in synthetic tests. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (23172, -0.7% delta) is only 0.7% faster, while the RTX 2080 (22895, 0.6% delta) is 0.6% slower. The NVIDIA P106-100 (23249, -1% delta) is 1% faster. In Hard West, these GPUs would produce nearly identical FPS numbers, with differences of less than 1 FPS at any given resolution and preset. For example, at 1440p High, the Arc B580’s 61.7 FPS would correspond to approximately 61.5-62.1 FPS on any of these rival cards.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and Intel Arc B580 ranks 2808 out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 24.5th percentile of all system pairings. This rank reflects the hardware’s mid-range positioning, as both components individually sit in the 68th percentile of their respective categories. The rank is driven primarily by the GPU’s limitations at higher resolutions, as the CPU’s performance is sufficient for this turn-based tactics title.

The rank of 2808 means that approximately 914 tested combos (24.5%) perform worse than this pairing, while 2808 combos (75.5%) perform better. This is consistent with the system’s ability to handle 1080p and 1440p gaming comfortably but failing at 4K. In the context of Hard West’s 2015 release, this modern mid-range hardware is more than adequate for the game’s requirements, as evidenced by the high FPS counts at lower resolutions. The combo’s rank would likely improve significantly if the comparison focused solely on 1080p performance, where it achieves 69.4 FPS at Ultra settings, but the overall ranking includes 4K results where it struggles.