Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers measured performance in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title released on 2015-11-17. The data, captured across three resolutions and four quality settings, places this combo at rank 485 out of 1699 tested combinations. This pairing of a 2019 mid-range CPU with a 2024 high-end GPU produces a wide FPS envelope, from 183.2 at 1080p Low to 44.5 at 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture (codename Matisse), fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boosts to 4.20 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory interface is dual-channel DDR4 with 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and it supports PCIe Gen 4 with 16 lanes. The CPU had a launch MSRP of $199. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor scores 15045 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2124 in single-core; 3DMark results show 4603 with max threads and 696 single-thread. The processor sits at the 76th percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rivals — the Intel Core i5-11400, AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, AMD Ryzen 5 1600, and AMD EPYC 9274F — are all within 0.3% of its average score, indicating a tightly contested mid-range segment.

For Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's single-thread performance is the more relevant metric. The 2124 single-core Cinebench R23 score and 696 3DMark single-thread score are modest by 2024 standards, but the game's 2015 release means it does not demand heavy multi-threading. The 6 cores and 12 threads are ample for the game's logic, and the 4.20 GHz boost clock provides responsive per-core throughput. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 183.2 FPS, which suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor at lower resolutions. The 76th percentile ranking reinforces that this processor is a solid, if unspectacular, foundation for this title.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, fabricated on a 5 nm process. It carries 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1980 MHz and boosts to 2475 MHz, with memory clocked at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). Its compute resources include 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, 80 ROPs, 56 ray-tracing cores, and 224 tensor cores. The chip contains 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die, with a transistor density of 121.8M / mm². The GPU had a launch MSRP of 599 USD. In Passmark's G3D test, it scores 29995, and Geekbench results show 192684 in OpenCL and 179271 in Vulkan. The GPU ranks at the 84th percentile among all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (delta -0.2%), AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (-0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro 580X (+1.4%), and NVIDIA Tesla M40 (+1.6%).

For Hard West, the GPU's raw throughput is far beyond what a 2015 title requires. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 133.2 FPS, and even at 4K Ultra it maintains 44.5 FPS. The 12 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for the game's textures, and the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures no memory bottleneck at any tested setting. The boost clock of 2475 MHz and the 35.48 TFLOPS FP32 throughput provide ample compute headroom. The GPU's pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s help at 4K. The card is a dual-slot design with a 220 W TDP, a 1x 16-pin power connector, and a suggested PSU of 550 W. Its dimensions are 267 mm in length, 112 mm in height, and 42 mm in width. Display outputs include 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, with support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The data indicates that the GPU is the dominant component in this pairing, especially at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of resolution scaling. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 183.2 at 1080p to 158.6 at 1440p, then to 96 at 4K. At Ultra settings, the progression is 133.2 at 1080p, 86 at 1440p, and 44.5 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial in every settings tier, which points to the GPU becoming the limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The scaling behavior is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU adequately, as evidenced by the high FPS at Low settings (183.2). But at 4K, the GPU's workload increases dramatically, and the FPS falls to 96 at Low and 44.5 at Ultra. The range from Low to Ultra at 4K spans 96 down to 44.5, while at 1080p it spans 183.2 down to 133.2. This suggests that the settings impact is roughly constant across resolutions, while the resolution itself imposes a consistent penalty.

The data shows that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance and the GPU's headroom allow for very high frame rates. At 4K, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the primary constraints. The 44.5 FPS at 4K Ultra is still playable, but the 62.5 FPS at 4K High and 75.9 at 4K Medium show that the GPU has enough headroom for most users to prefer High or Medium settings at 4K. The turn-based nature of Hard West means that even the 44.5 FPS floor at 4K Ultra is acceptable, as there is no twitch gameplay demanding high frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full FPS table from the measured data is as follows. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 183.2 FPS on Low, 172.1 on Medium, 152.8 on High, and 133.2 on Ultra. The 1080p results are all above 130 FPS, making this resolution ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. The progression from Low to Ultra is monotonic, with each settings tier reducing the average FPS.

At 2560x1440, the FPS figures are 158.6 on Low, 143.6 on Medium, 111.8 on High, and 86 on Ultra. The 1440p results remain strong, with even Ultra at 86 FPS. The drop from Medium to High at 1440p is notable, as the FPS falls from 143.6 to 111.8.

At 3840x2160, the FPS figures are 96 on Low, 75.9 on Medium, 62.5 on High, and 44.5 on Ultra. The 4K results show a wider relative spread, with Ultra falling below 45 FPS. The data shows that 4K High (62.5 FPS) is a reasonable target for smooth gameplay, while 4K Ultra (44.5 FPS) is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action — though Hard West is turn-based, so lower frame rates are more tolerable.

The progression across settings is monotonic at every resolution: Low > Medium > High > Ultra. The data also shows that the gap between Low and Medium is smaller than the gap between High and Ultra at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K the gaps are more evenly distributed. Across all resolutions, the 1080p Low result of 183.2 FPS is the highest figure in the dataset, while the 4K Ultra result of 44.5 FPS is the lowest.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 485 out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the upper portion of the field, though not at the very top. The CPU's 76th percentile and the GPU's 84th percentile suggest that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing, and the combo rank reflects that balance.

The CPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i5-11400, AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, AMD Ryzen 5 1600, and AMD EPYC 9274F — all have average scores within 0.3% of the Ryzen 5 3600, meaning the processor is essentially tied with its direct competitors. The GPU's nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, are similarly close, with deltas of -0.2% and -0.3% respectively. The AMD Radeon Pro 580X and NVIDIA Tesla M40 trail by 1.4% and 1.6% respectively.

The rank of 485 out of 1699 means that a majority of tested combos rank below this pairing. The combination of a mid-range 2019 CPU with a high-end 2024 GPU produces a system that is well-suited to Hard West, delivering playable frame rates at all tested settings and resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 44.5 FPS is the lowest figure in the entire dataset, and even that is acceptable for a turn-based tactics game. The combo's rank reflects a strong overall performance, with the GPU carrying the load at higher resolutions and the CPU providing adequate support at 1080p and 1440p.