Hard West

# Hard West — AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

This combination pairs a 2018 six-core AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor with a 2020 Ampere-generation NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, producing measured frame rates across three resolutions and four settings tiers in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The data set includes 12 measured average FPS points, all collected with the CPU running at its stock 3.40 GHz base and 3.90 GHz boost clocks, and the GPU featuring 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus. The combo ranks 729th out of 1,699 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking pattern in the measured data is how frame rates compress as resolution rises. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 160.7 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 137.4 FPS, a reduction of 23.3 FPS, and then 4K Low falls to 84.1 FPS, another 53.3 FPS lower. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings represents a 47.7% performance loss, which is substantial but not catastrophic for a turn-based tactics game where fluidity matters less than in action titles.

The High settings tier shows a similar but slightly steeper curve. The 1080p High average of 136.5 FPS falls to 96.9 FPS at 1440p, then to 50.7 FPS at 4K. That 4K figure is barely above the 40 FPS minimum for playable performance, suggesting the GPU is being pushed hard at that resolution with High settings. The gap between 1080p High and 4K High is 85.8 FPS, a 62.9% reduction, indicating that pixel count is the dominant factor at this tier.

Ultra settings reveal the steepest drop-off. At 1080p Ultra, the combo sustains 116 FPS, which is still excellent. At 1440p Ultra, that falls to 70.6 FPS, a 39.1% decrease. At 4K Ultra, the average collapses to 40 FPS exactly, which is the lowest measured value in the entire data set. This pattern — 1080p to 1440p costing roughly 30-40% and 1440p to 4K costing another 40-50% — strongly indicates that the RTX 3080's pixel throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, rather than the Ryzen 5 2600's processing power.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080's specifications directly explain the resolution scaling behavior observed. With 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth, the GPU has ample memory resources for Hard West, a 2015 title that predates the card by five years. The 320-bit memory bus and 19 Gbps effective memory clock provide the bandwidth needed to feed the 8,704 shading units across 272 texture mapping units and 96 raster output pipelines.

The GPU's clock behavior — 1440 MHz base and 1710 MHz boost — combined with its 29.77 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, allows it to maintain high frame rates at 1080p across all settings. The fact that 1080p Low (160.7 FPS) and 1080p High (136.5 FPS) differ by only 24.2 FPS shows that even at lower settings, the GPU is not fully saturated at 1080p. However, the 4K Ultra result of 40 FPS demonstrates that when both pixel count and shader complexity increase, the GPU's 164.2 GPixel/s pixel fill rate becomes the bottleneck.

The GPU's benchmark percentile of 80 versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35,787, positions it as a high-end part. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, scores 35,860 (0.2% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE scores 36,101 (0.9% higher). This confirms the RTX 3080 is operating near the top of its class, yet the 4K Ultra result of 40 FPS shows that even this level of GPU power cannot fully overcome the demands of 3840x2160 rendering in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hard West?

A: The data shows 1080p is the only resolution where all four settings tiers exceed 60 FPS, with averages ranging from 116 FPS at Ultra to 160.7 FPS at Low. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 70.6 FPS while High remains at 96.9 FPS. At 4K, only Low (84.1 FPS) and Medium (65.5 FPS) exceed 60 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The measured average drops from 136.5 FPS at 1080p High to 96.9 FPS at 1440p High, then to 50.7 FPS at 4K High. This represents a 62.9% reduction from 1080p to 4K, a loss of 85.8 FPS.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 2600 bottlenecking the RTX 3080 at any resolution?

A: The benchmark data suggests the CPU is not the primary limiter. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 160.7 FPS, which is high enough that the GPU is likely still the constraint. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11,186 and single-core score of 1,579 indicate adequate processing power for a turn-based tactics game.

Q: What settings tier provides the best balance at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings deliver 96.9 FPS, while Medium achieves 127.1 FPS. The difference between these two is 30.2 FPS, and both are comfortably above 60 FPS. Ultra at 70.6 FPS is also playable but offers diminishing returns for a 26.3 FPS loss compared to High.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Hard West?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K Low, the combo achieves 84.1 FPS, and at 4K Medium, 65.5 FPS. However, 4K High drops to 50.7 FPS, and 4K Ultra falls to exactly 40 FPS. Playable performance is possible at Low or Medium settings.

Q: How does the RTX 3080's raw performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 35,787, placing it 0.2% below the AMD Radeon Pro Duo (35,860) and 0.9% below the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (36,101). It scores 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon 880M (35,646) and 1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile (35,435).

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rate data, the optimal settings tier depends heavily on target resolution. At 1920x1080, all four settings options deliver well above 60 FPS, with Ultra at 116 FPS being the highest quality option that still maintains excellent fluidity. The jump from Medium (150.4 FPS) to High (136.5 FPS) costs 13.9 FPS, while the jump from High to Ultra costs an additional 20.5 FPS, bringing the total to 116 FPS. For players who prioritize visual fidelity at 1080p, Ultra is the clear choice.

At 2560x1440, High settings at 96.9 FPS provide the best experience. Medium at 127.1 FPS is faster but the visual trade-off may not be worth the 30.2 FPS gain. Ultra at 70.6 FPS is still playable but represents a 27.2% drop from High. The data indicates 1440p High is the sweet spot, offering near-100 FPS performance without sacrificing too much visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the recommendation becomes more nuanced. Low settings at 84.1 FPS and Medium at 65.5 FPS are the only options that exceed 60 FPS. High at 50.7 FPS and Ultra at 40 FPS are technically playable for a turn-based tactics title, where frame pacing matters less than in action games, but they fall below the typical smoothness threshold. For 4K, Medium at 65.5 FPS offers the best compromise between visual quality and performance, as the 18.6 FPS gap between Low and Medium is worth the visual improvement.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ranks 729th out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 57th percentile of all tested configurations. This ranking reflects the fact that the CPU, while competent, is not a top-tier part — its percentile versus all CPUs is 77, and its average benchmark score of 19,616 places it nearly exactly between the Intel Core i5-1345U (19,691, 0.4% higher) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (19,508, 0.6% lower).

The GPU, however, is a high-performing component with an 80th percentile ranking versus all GPUs. The combination of a mid-range CPU from 2018 with a high-end GPU from 2020 produces a system that is capable of excellent 1080p and 1440p performance but falls short of top-tier 4K results. The 729th rank out of 1,699 shows that while many combinations outperform this one, a significant majority of tested systems (roughly 57%) are slower in this specific game. The rank also indicates that the RTX 3080 is carrying most of the performance load, as the CPU's modest single-thread score of 2,239 in PassMark does not hold back the GPU at lower resolutions where frame rates exceed 116 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range is as follows: Low averages 160.7 FPS, Medium averages 150.4 FPS, High averages 136.5 FPS, and Ultra averages 116 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 44.7 FPS, with each successive settings tier costing roughly 10-20 FPS. The smallest drop is between Low and Medium (10.3 FPS), while the largest is between High and Ultra (20.5 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the measured averages are: Low at 137.4 FPS, Medium at 127.1 FPS, High at 96.9 FPS, and Ultra at 70.6 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 30.2 FPS, which is the largest single-tier drop at this resolution. The drop from High to Ultra is 26.3 FPS, making the 1440p Ultra tier the least efficient in terms of FPS per settings increment.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 84.1 FPS, Medium at 65.5 FPS, High at 50.7 FPS, and Ultra at 40 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 18.6 FPS, from Medium to High is 14.8 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 10.7 FPS. Notably, the absolute FPS losses between tiers shrink as resolution increases, but the percentage losses grow — the Ultra tier at 4K is exactly 40 FPS, which is precisely half of the 1080p Ultra average of 116 FPS. This linear halving from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings underscores the pixel-bound nature of this workload at maximum quality.