Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a fascinating performance profile in Hard West, where the GPU's immense power is consistently held back by the CPU at lower resolutions, yet still manages to dominate the 4K landscape. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable of running this turn-based tactics title at maximum settings, though the bottleneck dynamics shift dramatically depending on the resolution and preset chosen.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic CPU-bound scenario at lower resolutions, with the scaling pattern indicating that the RTX 4090 is rarely the limiting factor. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo produces 145.2 FPS, which drops to 109.3 FPS at 1440p and further to 54.9 FPS at 4K. This represents a 62% performance reduction from 1080p to 4K, a steep decline that suggests the GPU is finally being tasked meaningfully at the highest resolution.

The story becomes clearer when examining the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the system delivers 187.3 FPS, while 1440p Low only drops to 160 FPS (a mere 15% reduction), and 4K Low still maintains 120.3 FPS. The relatively small gap between 1080p and 1440p Low indicates that the Ryzen 5 4600G's six cores and twelve threads are the primary constraint at these settings, as the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute sits largely idle. The 4K Low figure of 120.3 FPS versus the 1080p Low figure of 187.3 FPS shows a 36% drop, which is when the GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth begin to matter.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 172.4 FPS at 1080p, 147.9 FPS at 1440p, and 96.5 FPS at 4K. The High preset delivers 156.8, 135.3, and 75.8 FPS respectively. The most telling data point is the Ultra preset at 4K: 54.9 FPS. This is the only configuration where the RTX 4090 appears genuinely stressed, suggesting that Hard West's Ultra settings at 4K push the GPU's 16384 shading units to meaningful utilization.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combination overkill for Hard West?*

A: Yes, significantly. The RTX 4090 ranks in the 91st percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 4600G sits in the 75th percentile among CPUs. Even at 4K Ultra, the combo produces 54.9 FPS, which is well above playable thresholds for a turn-based tactics game.

Q: Why does the FPS drop so much from 1080p to 4K?

A: The data shows a 62% reduction from 1080p Ultra (145.2 FPS) to 4K Ultra (54.9 FPS). This indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K, whereas lower resolutions are constrained by the CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by the 3dmark_single_thread score of 726.

Q: Which preset offers the best experience at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset delivers 109.3 FPS, while High yields 135.3 FPS and Medium 147.9 FPS. The High preset provides a strong balance, as the jump from High to Ultra costs 26% performance for marginal visual gains.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 4600G a bottleneck for the RTX 4090?

A: Benchmark results indicate yes, particularly at 1080p. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 13593 and single-core score of 1919 are modest compared to the GPU's capabilities, explaining why 1080p Low (187.3 FPS) does not scale proportionally to the GPU's Passmark G3D score of 38194.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, it achieves 75.8 FPS, and at 4K Medium it hits 96.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 54.9 FPS, which is still acceptable for a turn-based title, though not ideal for smooth camera panning.

Q: How does the 4600G's integrated graphics affect these results?

A: The Radeon Vega 7 integrated graphics are inactive when the RTX 4090 is installed. All measured FPS figures come from the discrete GPU, with the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads handling game logic and AI calculations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and the measured FPS data shows its capabilities are only fully utilized at 4K with higher presets. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which becomes critical at 3840x2160 resolution where texture data demands are highest. The Ada Lovelace architecture's 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units deliver a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s, enabling the 4K High result of 75.8 FPS.

Clock speeds play a notable role in the scaling pattern. The base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz allow the GPU to maintain high utilization even in less demanding scenes. The 4K Low result of 120.3 FPS versus the 1080p Low result of 187.3 FPS indicates that the GPU's 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate is sufficient to handle 4K rendering when visual effects are minimal, but the Ultra preset's additional shading load brings the frame rate down to 54.9 FPS.

The GPU's benchmark percentile (91st) and average score of 66473 reinforce its top-tier status. However, the nearestRivals data shows the Tesla T4 (-0.4% delta), Tesla P40 (+0.5%), and Radeon Pro Vega 56 (-0.9%) are all within 1.3% of the 4090's average score, though these are workstation-oriented cards unlikely to be found in gaming systems.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all presets. Low settings produce 187.3 FPS, Medium 172.4 FPS, High 156.8 FPS, and Ultra 145.2 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is only 22%, indicating that even the most demanding preset at 1080p cannot stress the RTX 4090, with the CPU's single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 726) acting as the ceiling.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results are 160 FPS on Low, 147.9 FPS on Medium, 135.3 FPS on High, and 109.3 FPS on Ultra. The Ultra preset shows a more pronounced drop (32% below Low), suggesting the GPU begins to take on more responsibility at this resolution. The gap between Medium and High is only 12.6 FPS (8.5%), while High to Ultra costs 26 FPS (19.2%).

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more dramatic. Low yields 120.3 FPS, Medium 96.5 FPS, High 75.8 FPS, and Ultra 54.9 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration where the frame rate falls below 60 FPS, and the progression from Low to Ultra represents a 54% performance reduction. This suggests that 4K Ultra settings engage the GPU's full compute capabilities, including its 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, though Hard West's turn-based nature means these features are used for lighting and shadow effects rather than real-time ray tracing.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database's tested combinations, this pairing ranks 333rd out of 1699 combos, placing it in the top 20% of all tested systems. This rank reflects the GPU's dominance in the overall benchmark suite, but the CPU's relatively modest performance (75th percentile) tempers the combined score. The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 66473 is offset by the Ryzen 5 4600G's average of 17489, resulting in a combo that is strong but not elite.

The rank of 333 out of 1699 means there are 332 combinations that outperform this pairing, likely featuring higher-end CPUs like the Intel Core i5-12450H (which scores 17475, a 0.1% delta from the 4600G) or the Intel Core i3-14100T (17636, -0.8% delta). These rivals demonstrate that the 4600G is the limiting factor; pairing the RTX 4090 with a CPU that scores closer to 17665 (the Core i3-13100F, -1% delta) would likely push the combo higher in the rankings.

Settings Recommendations

For the best measured experience, the High preset at 1440p stands out as the optimal configuration. It delivers 135.3 FPS, which is 19% above the 60 FPS threshold, while the jump to Ultra at 1440p costs 19.2% performance for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in a turn-based tactics game. At 4K, the Medium preset (96.5 FPS) provides the best balance, as High drops to 75.8 FPS and Ultra falls below 60 FPS.

The data suggests avoiding Ultra settings at 4K, as the 54.9 FPS result is the only sub-60 FPS figure in the entire measured set. For players with 1080p displays, the Ultra preset at 145.2 FPS is entirely viable, as is the High preset at 156.8 FPS. The Low preset offers 187.3 FPS at 1080p, but this provides no tangible benefit in a turn-based game where reaction time is less critical.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G's six cores and twelve threads are sufficient for Hard West's turn-based mechanics, but the benchmark data reveals this CPU as the primary bottleneck in most configurations. The processor's Zen 2 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC, features a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its 8 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for the game's AI calculations, but the single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 726) limits frame rates at lower resolutions.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 13593 and single-core score of 1919 place it well below the RTX 4090's performance tier. This explains why the 1080p Low result (187.3 FPS) does not scale to the GPU's theoretical capabilities. The Passmark multithread score of 15992 and single-thread score of 2653 further confirm that the CPU's 12 threads are the limiting factor when the GPU has excess headroom.

The nearestRivals data shows the 4600G is closely matched with the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (17482, 0% delta) and Intel Core i5-12450H (17475, 0.1% delta), both of which would likely produce similar bottlenecking behavior with the RTX 4090. The CPU's 75th percentile ranking among all processors indicates it is a mid-range part, and in this pairing, it prevents the system from achieving the frame rates that the GPU alone could produce at 1080p and 1440p. At 4K, however, the CPU's limitations become less relevant as the GPU's workload increases, allowing the system to deliver respectable results at High settings (75.8 FPS).