Hard West

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 787 out of 2,949 tested combinations in Hard West. This places the pairing in the 73rd percentile of all tested combos, a strong showing that reflects the GPU's dominance in this turn-based tactics title. The rank is notable because Hard West is not a graphically demanding game by modern standards; the RTX 5090 D is massively overprovisioned for the workload, yet the combination still lands in the upper quarter of all tested systems.

The CPU's own standing supports this placement. The Ryzen 5 2600 sits at the 75th percentile among all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 21,484. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21,440, 0.2% ahead), the Intel Core i9-11900H (21,367, 0.5% ahead), the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21,635, 0.7% behind), and the AMD EPYC 9454 (21,223, 1.2% behind). These deltas are all within 1.2%, indicating the Ryzen 5 2600 sits in a tightly clustered performance band where no single rival holds a decisive edge.

The GPU, meanwhile, ranks at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. Its nearest rivals — the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904, 1.1% ahead), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, 1.6% behind), NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396, 2.1% behind), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, 2.4% behind) — all fall within a narrow 2.4% band. The RTX 5090 D is clearly a top-tier GPU, and the combination's 787th rank out of 2,949 is dragged down only by the CPU's mid-range position.

In practical terms, the data shows a system that is GPU-bound in almost every scenario tested. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for Hard West's turn-based logic, and the GPU's enormous compute resources are never fully stressed. The rank reflects this imbalance: the combo performs well above the median but not at the very top, where CPU-GPU pairs with more balanced specifications reside.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the clear performance driver in this combination. Its memory configuration is extraordinary: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory clocks run at 1750 MHz, with an effective data rate of 28 Gbps. These figures are far beyond what Hard West requires — the game is a 2015 turn-based tactics title with modest texture and geometry demands — but they ensure that the GPU never becomes a bottleneck at any resolution or setting tested.

The GPU's compute resources are equally massive. It features 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. The chip, codenamed GB202, is built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. Clock speeds are 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost, which translate to a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance reaches 104.8 TFLOPS in both FP32 and FP16, with a 1:1 ratio.

In Hard West specifically, the GPU's role is to render simple 2D and 3D scenes with minimal particle effects or dynamic lighting. The benchmark results show that even at 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 D maintains an average of 62 FPS, which is well above playable thresholds. The GPU's raw power is so far ahead of the game's needs that the measured FPS differences across settings are more indicative of CPU or engine limitations than GPU capability. The 32 GB VRAM is never remotely taxed; even the most demanding textures in a 2015 tactics game would consume a fraction of this capacity.

The GPU's benchmark scores confirm its top-tier status. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 14,326; in Geekbench OpenCL, 310,674; in Geekbench Vulkan, 376,915; and in Passmark G3D, 44,065. These numbers place it at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. For Hard West, the GPU's role is effectively to render frames as fast as the CPU can feed them — and the data shows it succeeds in doing so.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system scales across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 121 (Ultra) to 158 (Low), with High at 134 and Medium at 148. Moving to 1440p, the averages drop to 104 (Ultra), 115 (High), 127 (Medium), and 136 (Low). At 4K, the averages fall further to 62 (Ultra), 83 (High), 102 (Medium), and 110 (Low).

The scaling pattern is telling. From 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings, the FPS drops from 121 to 62, a 48.8% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 134 to 83, a 38.1% reduction. At Medium, from 148 to 102, a 31.1% reduction. At Low, from 158 to 110, a 30.4% reduction. These percentages show that the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor as resolution increases, but the overall FPS remains high even at 4K.

The fact that even 4K Ultra maintains 62 FPS average indicates that the GPU is never the primary bottleneck in this combination. The CPU, with its 3.40 GHz base and 3.90 GHz boost clocks, is more likely the limiting factor at lower resolutions where the GPU could theoretically render even faster. At 1080p Low, the 158 FPS average suggests the CPU is nearing its limit for feeding frames to the GPU, since the RTX 5090 D is capable of far higher frame rates in less demanding scenarios.

The resolution scaling data also shows diminishing returns on performance. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K at most settings. For example, at High settings, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 14.2% (134 to 115), while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 27.8% (115 to 83). This pattern is consistent with the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute capabilities being less taxed at lower resolutions, with the CPU becoming relatively more important as resolution decreases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080): The lowest resolution tested shows the highest frame rates. At Low settings, the average FPS is 158. Medium settings yield 148 FPS average, with a minimum of 125 and maximum of 170. High settings produce 134 FPS average. Ultra settings deliver 121 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra is 37 FPS, indicating that settings have a moderate impact at this resolution.

1440p (2560x1440): Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain high but show a clearer separation between settings. Low settings average 136 FPS. Medium settings average 127 FPS, with a minimum of 108 and maximum of 146. High settings average 115 FPS. Ultra settings average 104 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 32 FPS, slightly narrower than at 1080p.

4K (3840x2160): At 4K, the frame rates drop more noticeably but remain playable across all settings. Low settings average 110 FPS. Medium settings average 102 FPS, with a minimum of 87 and maximum of 118. High settings average 83 FPS. Ultra settings average 62 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 48 FPS, the widest of any resolution, reflecting the GPU's increased workload at higher pixel counts.

The Medium settings rows are the only ones with complete min/max data. At 1080p Medium, the range is 125-170 FPS, a 45 FPS variance. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 108-146 FPS, a 38 FPS variance. At 4K Medium, the range is 87-118 FPS, a 31 FPS variance. This tightening of variance at higher resolutions suggests that frame pacing becomes more consistent as the GPU takes on more of the rendering load.

Across all resolutions and settings, the lowest recorded average is 62 FPS (4K Ultra) and the highest is 158 FPS (1080p Low). No setting combination drops below 60 FPS average, which is the conventional threshold for smooth gameplay. The data indicates that this system can handle Hard West at maximum settings in 4K, though players seeking higher frame rates would prefer 1440p or 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's rank in Hard West among all tested combinations?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination ranks 787th out of 2,949 tested combos, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all systems tested in this game.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21,484. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V, scores 21,440 (0.2% ahead), while the AMD EPYC 9454 scores 21,223 (1.2% behind). All rivals fall within a 1.2% delta.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded at any resolution and setting?

A: The highest average FPS is 158, recorded at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest average is 62 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the GPU outperform its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT scores 76,904 (1.1% ahead), while the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78,940 (1.6% behind). The GPU sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and what is its memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 5090 D has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, with a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, running at 28 Gbps effective.

Q: What is the FPS range at 4K Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 102, with a minimum of 87 and a maximum of 118. This is the only 4K setting with complete min/max data.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 serves as the pairing's potential bottleneck, though its impact on Hard West is minimal given the game's turn-based nature. The CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. It is built on the Zen architecture (specifically Zen+ Pinnacle Ridge) using a 12 nm process at GlobalFoundries, with 4,800 million transistors on a 213 mm² die. Cache configuration includes 96 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 16 MB shared L3.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a mid-range processor. In Cinebench R15, it scores 1,248 multicore and 157.3 singlecore. Geekbench results are 5,648 multicore and 1,154 singlecore. Passmark tests show a multithread score of 13,160 and a single-thread score of 2,239. The CPU's average benchmark score of 21,484 places it at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, with nearest rivals all within 1.2% — indicating it is neither a standout nor a laggard in its class.

In Hard West, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, AI decisions, and turn-based calculations, which are typically lightweight. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (158 FPS average) suggests the CPU can feed frames to the GPU at a rate that exceeds most displays' refresh rates. However, the fact that 1080p Ultra (121 FPS) is substantially lower than 1080p Low (158 FPS) indicates that the GPU's settings impact is more significant than the CPU's processing limits.

The CPU's memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel configuration, offering 46.9 GB/s bandwidth. It uses PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes from the CPU, which is sufficient for the RTX 5090 D's PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, though the older standard may slightly limit data transfer in extreme scenarios. The 65W TDP and 12 nm process node are modest by modern standards, but the CPU's performance in this game is adequate.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are all within a tight band: the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21,440), Intel Core i9-11900H (21,367), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21,635), and AMD EPYC 9454 (21,223). This clustering suggests that for Hard West, any of these CPUs would produce similar results, and the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings in Hard West. At 1080p, all settings produce average FPS above 120, so players can choose Ultra (121 FPS) without sacrificing smoothness. The 37 FPS difference between Low (158) and Ultra (121) at 1080p is noticeable but not critical, and the visual improvements from Ultra settings likely outweigh the frame rate reduction for most players.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts slightly. Ultra settings average 104 FPS, which is still smooth, but High settings (115 FPS) offer a better balance of visual quality and performance. The 11 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 1440p may not justify the additional graphical load, especially since the game's visual differences between High and Ultra are typically subtle in turn-based tactics.

At 4K, the data suggests prioritizing settings for playable frame rates. Ultra settings average 62 FPS, which is the minimum recommended threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings (83 FPS) provide a comfortable margin above this threshold, while Medium (102 FPS) and Low (110 FPS) offer even more headroom. For 4K, High settings appear optimal: 83 FPS average is well above the 60 FPS target, and the visual quality remains high without the performance cost of Ultra.

The Medium settings rows provide the only min/max data, which can inform stability expectations. At 4K Medium, the range is 87-118 FPS, indicating consistent frame delivery. At 1440p Medium, the range is 108-146 FPS, and at 1080p Medium, it is 125-170 FPS. These ranges suggest that Medium settings offer the most stable frame pacing across all resolutions, making it a safe default choice.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity over frame rate, 4K Ultra at 62 FPS is viable, but the 21 FPS drop from High (83 FPS) to Ultra (62 FPS) at 4K is steep. The data shows that the RTX 5090 D is powerful enough to handle Hard West at any settings, but the CPU's mid-range performance may introduce minor frame pacing inconsistencies at lower resolutions. Overall, the recommended presets are: 1080p Ultra (121 FPS), 1440p High (115 FPS), and 4K High (83 FPS) — each providing a strong balance of visual quality and smoothness without pushing the system to its limits.