Hard West

FAQ

Q: What kind of frame rates can I expect with this combo in Hard West at 1080p?

A: The data shows strong performance across all settings. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 129 on Ultra to 217 on Low. Medium settings deliver 202 FPS, while High settings produce 172 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its nearest rivals in general CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 sits very close to its competition. Its average benchmark score is 19593. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 430 scores 19617 (-0.1% delta), the Intel Core i5-12500 scores 19668 (-0.4%), and the Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19499 (+0.5%). This indicates the CPU is squarely in the middle of a tight pack.

Q: Is the RTX 5070's memory configuration sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: Yes. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus with 672.0 GB/s bandwidth. In Hard West at 3840x2160, the average FPS remains playable, with 57 FPS on High and 43 FPS on Ultra, indicating the memory subsystem is not a bottleneck at these settings.

Q: What is the performance gap between the RTX 5070 and its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 5070's average benchmark score is 40377. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 40318 (0.1% faster), while the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 scores 40063 (0.8% slower). The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 scores 40870 (-1.2%), and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile scores 39568 (2% faster). The differences are minimal.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance look in synthetic tests?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 shows solid scaling. In Cinebench R23, it scores 16429 multi-core and 2319 single-core. In 3DMark, it scores 5386 with 16 threads and 836 single-thread. The PassMark multi-thread score is 19330, with a single-thread score of 3058.

Q: Does the game scale well from 1080p to 4K with this hardware?

A: Yes, but the scaling is steep. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 172 at 1080p to 109 at 1440p, then to 57 at 4K. This represents a 67% reduction from 1080p to 4K, showing that resolution increases place significant load on the GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 773 out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West. This places the pairing in the top 21% of all configurations tested for this game. The rank reflects the overall balance between the CPU and GPU, and the data suggests this is a well-matched pair for the game's demands.

Breaking down the rank: with 3722 total combos tested, being at position 773 means roughly 2949 other combinations perform worse. This is a strong showing, indicating that this hardware pairing handles Hard West comfortably. The CPU percentile of 73 (versus all CPUs) and GPU percentile of 82 (versus all GPUs) both contribute to this favorable ranking. The GPU is slightly more capable relative to its peers than the CPU, which is generally a good sign for gaming workloads.

The data reveals that this combo is not at the very top of the charts, but it is far from the bottom. The 5000-series CPU paired with the 50-series GPU creates a system that sits comfortably above the median performer. For context, the CPU's nearest rivals show that it is not an outlier in either direction, so the rank is driven more by the GPU's strength. The GPU's percentile of 82 is notably higher than the CPU's 73, suggesting the graphics card is the primary driver of the combo's position in the rankings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process. It features 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. The GPU has 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, which support DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The card operates at a base clock of 2325 MHz and boosts to 2512 MHz.

Memory is a key feature: 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus delivers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 28 Gbps effective. This bandwidth is substantial for a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, which does not typically require extreme memory throughput. The GPU's pixel rate is 201.0 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 482.3 GTexel/s. Floating point performance is rated at 30.87 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16.

In Hard West, the GPU's role is central to determining frame rates at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the GPU is not fully taxed, as evidenced by the high FPS numbers. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, with average FPS dropping to 57 on High and 43 on Ultra. This suggests that the RTX 5070's compute and memory resources are being fully utilized at 4K. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient, as there is no indication of memory-related stuttering or frame drops in the measured data.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its capability. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 5077. PassMark G3D score is 29137, and Geekbench Vulkan score is 178923. The GPU's average benchmark score of 40377 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals show it is competitive, with the AMD Radeon Pro 580 being essentially tied at 40318 (0.1% difference).

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Hard West with this combo covers four resolutions and four settings levels. All numbers are average FPS unless otherwise noted.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 217 FPS
• Medium: 202 FPS (min 172, max 232)
• High: 172 FPS
• Ultra: 129 FPS

At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high. Even on Ultra, the game runs at 129 FPS, which is far above the refresh rate of most monitors. The gap between Low and Ultra is 88 FPS, or about 40% reduction from Low to Ultra. This indicates that even at the highest settings, the hardware is not stressed.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 173 FPS
• Medium: 142 FPS (min 121, max 163)
• High: 109 FPS
• Ultra: 82 FPS

At 1440p, the frame rates remain very playable. Ultra dips to 82 FPS, which is still smooth for a turn-based game. The Medium setting shows a min of 121 FPS, ensuring no noticeable drops. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 91 FPS drop, or about 53% reduction.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 91 FPS
• Medium: 74 FPS (min 63, max 86)
• High: 57 FPS
• Ultra: 43 FPS

At 4K, the performance is more constrained. Low runs at 91 FPS, which is excellent. High drops to 57 FPS, and Ultra falls to 43 FPS. The Medium setting has a min of 63 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra at 43 FPS is the only setting that might cause noticeable slowdown, but for a turn-based tactics game, this is still playable.

The data shows a clear pattern: the combo delivers high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p across all settings, while 4K requires a trade-off between visual quality and frame rate. The Medium setting at 4K provides a balanced experience with a 74 FPS average.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important information about where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 172 at 1080p, to 109 at 1440p, then to 57 at 4K. This represents a 37% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 67% drop from 1080p to 4K.

At Low settings, the scaling is similar: 217 FPS at 1080p, 173 at 1440p, and 91 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 20%, and from 1080p to 4K is 58%. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 129, 82, and 43 respectively. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 36%, and from 1080p to 4K is 67%.

The scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. When moving from 1080p to 4K, the pixel count quadruples, which places a heavy burden on the GPU's rasterization and shading units. The CPU's role diminishes as resolution increases, since the game's logic and turn-based mechanics do not scale with pixel count.

The data shows that the frame rate reduction is not linear with pixel count. Going from 1080p to 1440p increases pixels by 78%, but the FPS drops by roughly one-third. Going from 1440p to 4K increases pixels by 125%, and the FPS drops by roughly half. This non-linear scaling is typical of GPU-bound scenarios, where memory bandwidth and compute throughput become limiting factors.

For a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, which does not require high frame rates for competitive play, even the 4K Ultra result of 43 FPS is acceptable. The game's turn-based nature means that frame rate drops do not impact gameplay responsiveness as much as in action titles.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Cezanne. It operates at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The CPU has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, providing 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. It uses 16 MB of L3 cache and 512 KB of L2 cache per core.

In Hard West, the CPU's role is less demanding than in action-heavy games. The turn-based mechanics rely more on game logic and AI calculations, which benefit from the CPU's multi-threading capabilities. The 6 cores and 12 threads handle these workloads efficientlyainer. The CPU's boost clock of 4.20 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, such as UI rendering and input processing, are handled quickly.

The benchmark data supports the CPU's capability. In Cinebench R23, the multi-core score is 16429, and the single-core score is 2319. Geekbench shows a multi-core score of 7976 and a single-core score of 1730. PassMark scores include 19330 for multi-thread and 3058 for single-thread. These numbers place the CPU in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals show it is competitive. The Intel Core i5-12500 scores 19668 (0.4% higher), and the Intel Core i7-10700F scores 19499 (0.5% lower). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming scenarios. The CPU's 7 nm process node and TSMC foundry contribute to its efficiency, and the 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die demonstrate a modern design.

In this combo, the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at any resolution tested. At 1080p, the FPS is high across all settings, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU has spare capacity. This balance is ideal for Hard West, where the game's requirements do not stress the CPU heavily. The CPU's PCIe Gen 3 interface, while not the latest, is sufficient for the RTX 5070's needs, as the game does not require massive data transfers between CPU and GPU.