Hard West

Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015, presents an interesting benchmark scenario when paired with the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The data shows a configuration where the GPU is overwhelmingly dominant, and the final frame rates are dictated by the CPU's ability to feed it, particularly at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions and settings, placing the results in context within the broader database.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic CPU-bound scenario at lower resolutions. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces an average of 182.2 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average increases to 147.9 FPS, and at 4K High, it drops to 78.1 FPS. The performance delta between 1080p and 1440p is a 34.3 FPS drop, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 69.8 FPS. This pattern indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is the primary limiting factor; the RTX 4090 is capable of rendering far more frames than the Ryzen 5 5500 can process.

The scaling becomes more linear when the graphical load is increased. At Ultra settings, the frame rates are 167.5 FPS at 1080p, 109.4 FPS at 1440p, and 58.9 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is roughly 65%, which is a more substantial reduction than the 57% drop seen at High settings. This suggests that as the settings and resolution increase, the load shifts from the CPU to the GPU, and the RTX 4090's raw power becomes the deciding factor. The data indicates that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is finally being pushed to a point where its performance ceiling is the bottleneck, rather than the CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks at position 129 out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the top 7.6% of all configurations tested for this specific game. The high rank is primarily attributable to the immense power of the RTX 4090, which is in the 91st percentile of all GPUs. The CPU, while more modest, is still in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, ensuring it does not hold the system back to a significant degree.

The rank of 129 out of 1699 is a strong showing, but it is not at the very top. The data suggests that combos with even more powerful CPUs, such as those with higher single-thread performance, would likely rank higher. The Ryzen 5 5500's nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-12500 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with a delta of -0.1% to -0.2%. This indicates that the CPU's performance is average for its class, and the overall rank reflects the GPU's overwhelming contribution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, running on the AMD Socket AM4 platform. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, and it can boost up to 4.20 GHz. In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game, the CPU's role is primarily to manage game logic, unit AI, and frame pacing. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to maintain high frame rates, but its single-thread performance is the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

The CPU's benchmark scores show a single-thread score of 836 in 3DMark and 2319 in Cinebench R23. These are moderate scores, and in a game like Hard West, which may not be heavily multi-threaded, the single-thread performance becomes critical. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 219.9 FPS, a number that is likely at the upper limit of what the CPU can process for this game. The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide adequate bandwidth, but the 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck in this context, as the game is not memory-intensive.

The CPU's 3DMark multi-threaded scores, such as 5386 for 16 threads and 5411 for max threads, show that it has decent multi-core capabilities. However, the game's engine likely relies more on a few fast cores rather than many slower ones. The 12-thread count is more than enough for the game's logistics, and the performance gap between the Low and High settings at 1080p is only 37.7 FPS, suggesting that the CPU's frame processing time is relatively constant regardless of graphical fidelity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1080p, the average frame rates are as follows: Low is 219.9 FPS, Medium is 203.4 FPS, High is 182.2 FPS, and Ultra is 167.5 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 23.8% reduction in frame rate. The difference between High and Ultra is a modest 14.7 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset adds a significant graphical load without a proportionally large performance cost.

At 1440p, the averages are: Low is 186.3 FPS, Medium is 172.1 FPS, High is 147.9 FPS, and Ultra is 109.4 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is 38.5 FPS, which is more substantial than at 1080p. This suggests that the Ultra preset at 1440p begins to tax the GPU more heavily. At 4K, the averages are: Low is 120.8 FPS, Medium is 100 FPS, High is 78.1 FPS, and Ultra is 58.9 FPS. The scaling here is steep, with the difference between Low and Ultra being 61.9 FPS, a 51.2% drop.

The data shows that the combo can easily handle 1440p at High settings with an average of 147.9 FPS, and even 4K at Medium settings with 100 FPS is playable. However, 4K Ultra drops to 58.9 FPS, which, while still smooth for a turn-based game, indicates the graphical ceiling for this configuration. The performance at 1080p is exceptionally high, with all settings above 167 FPS, making it overkill for most displays.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed performance leader in this configuration. It is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz. It is equipped with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth.

In Hard West, the RTX 4090's role is to render the game's visuals, and its performance is only fully utilized at 4K Ultra settings, where it produces 58.9 FPS. The GPU's benchmark scores are extraordinary, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 and a Passmark G3D score of 38194. Its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56, have significantly lower average scores, with the RTX 4090 leading by a wide margin.

The GPU's 24 GB of VRAM is far more than Hard West requires, so memory capacity is not a factor. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are also not heavily utilized in this older title, which relies on traditional rasterization. The data indicates that the RTX 4090's raw compute power is the reason this combo ranks so high, but its potential is often bottlenecked by the CPU at lower resolutions. The GPU only becomes the limiting factor at 4K, where its performance is the primary determinant of the final frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user's display resolution and refresh rate. For a 1080p display with a 144 Hz refresh rate, the Ultra preset, with an average of 167.5 FPS, provides the best experience, fully utilizing the display's capabilities while delivering the highest visual fidelity. The High preset at 182.2 FPS is also excellent, but the extra 14.7 FPS from dropping to High is unlikely to be noticeable on a 144 Hz panel.

For a 1440p display, the High preset at 147.9 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a high frame rate that exceeds most 144 Hz monitors' refresh rates. The Ultra preset at 109.4 FPS is still smooth and provides a more detailed image, making it a viable option for users with a 100 Hz or 120 Hz display. The Medium preset at 172.1 FPS offers no advantage over High unless the user has a 165 Hz display and prioritizes frame rate over visual quality.

For a 4K display, the Medium preset at 100 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides a smooth, playable experience for a turn-based game. The High preset at 78.1 FPS is also playable and offers better visual detail, but the drop to 58.9 FPS on the Ultra preset makes it less desirable, especially for users who prefer a consistently high frame rate. The Low preset at 120.8 FPS is unnecessarily demanding on the CPU and does not provide enough of a frame rate advantage over Medium to justify the visual compromise. In summary, the data shows that the best experiences are found at High settings for 1080p and 1440p, and Medium settings for 4K, balancing visual quality with the measured frame rates.