Hard West

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data for Hard West reveals a telling pattern when scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the High preset, the combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers 192.9 FPS at 1080p, 132.7 FPS at 1440p, and 68.6 FPS at 4K. That is a drop of 31.2% from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a further 48.3% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling curve is steep, suggesting that the RTX 4080 SUPER’s rendering workload becomes the dominant factor as resolution climbs.

Look at the Low preset for comparison: 231.9 FPS at 1080p, 195.4 FPS at 1440p, and 108.7 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 15.7% and 44.4%, respectively. Even with minimal graphical load, the 4K result falls well below the 1440p result, pointing to pixel throughput as the bottleneck rather than CPU instruction execution. Hard West is a turn-based tactics title from 2015, and its rendering pipeline appears to scale predictably with resolution, with the GPU becoming the limiting component at higher pixel counts.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 151.7 FPS at 1080p, 97.8 FPS at 1440p, and 50.6 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 35.5%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 48.3%. Interestingly, the gap between High and Ultra at 4K is 18 FPS (68.6 vs 50.6), which is a 26.2% reduction. This suggests that Ultra settings impose additional shading or post-processing costs that disproportionately affect higher resolutions. At 1080p, the same High-to-Ultra gap is 41.2 FPS (192.9 vs 151.7), a 21.4% reduction, indicating that the CPU can still feed the GPU effectively at lower resolutions.

What does this imply about the limiting component? At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600’s six cores and twelve threads appear sufficient to keep frame rates high, with the GPU not fully saturated. At 4K, however, the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 736.3 GB/s bandwidth become the decisive factors, and frame rates drop to playable but not extreme levels. The data indicates a classic GPU-bound scenario at 4K, especially on Ultra where 50.6 FPS is the lowest measured value across all settings.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The RTX 4080 SUPER’s specifications provide context for the measured performance. It features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. In Hard West, a game from 2015, VRAM capacity is unlikely to be a limiting factor even at 4K Ultra, as the game’s assets predate the era of high-resolution texture packs. The benchmark results support this: the GPU never dips below 50.6 FPS, even at the most demanding settings.

The architecture is Ada Lovelace on a 5 nm process, with 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units. The pixel rate is 285.6 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 816.0 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the GPU handles 4K Ultra with relative ease compared to older hardware. The FP32 performance of 52.22 TFLOPS is particularly relevant for a turn-based tactics game, where geometry and shadow calculations may not be as intensive as in real-time action titles.

The RTX 4080 SUPER’s percentile ranking among all GPUs is 88, placing it well above the median. Its average benchmark score is 53610, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53489, deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (53414, deltaPct 0.4). This close grouping suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER’s performance in synthetic tests is only marginally ahead of these competitors, but in Hard West, the measured FPS shows it delivering high frame rates across all resolutions. The GPU’s 80 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores are present, though Hard West’s rendering likely does not leverage these features, meaning the raw rasterization throughput is what drives these results.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 194th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the top 11.4% of all configurations, which is notable given that the CPU is a mid-range part from 2022 and the GPU is a high-end part from 2024. The rank reflects the game’s sensitivity to the GPU, as the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 88th percentile standing among GPUs likely drives the combo’s position more than the CPU’s 79th percentile among all CPUs.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (avgScore 21635, deltaPct 0.6) and the AMD EPYC 9554P (avgScore 21899, deltaPct -0.6). These are server-class processors, yet the Ryzen 5 5600’s performance is within 1% of them, showing that its 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 32 MB L3 cache is competitive for gaming workloads. In Hard West, the CPU’s role is likely minimal, as turn-based tactics do not require high thread counts or rapid context switching.

The combo rank of 194 suggests that many faster configurations exist, but the data shows that this pairing delivers high frame rates in absolute terms. The measured FPS at 1080p High (192.9 FPS) exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors, making the combo’s rank less relevant for practical use. At 4K Ultra, the 50.6 FPS result is still within the range of playability, though it places the combo below the top tier of tested configurations that might achieve higher scores.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are 231.9 for Low, 215 for Medium, 192.9 for High, and 151.7 for Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 34.6% reduction in frame rate, indicating that each settings tier adds a measurable rendering cost. The gap between Medium and High is 22.1 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 41.2 FPS, suggesting that Ultra settings impose a disproportionately heavy load.

At 2560x1440, the values are 195.4 for Low, 167.6 for Medium, 132.7 for High, and 97.8 for Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 50.0%, with the High-to-Ultra gap being 34.9 FPS. This resolution shows a more pronounced scaling penalty, as the GPU must process 78% more pixels than 1080p, and the frame rates reflect that increased workload.

At 3840x2160, the values are 108.7 for Low, 88 for Medium, 68.6 for High, and 50.6 for Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra reduction is 53.4%, the steepest of the three resolutions. The High-to-Ultra gap is 18 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms than at lower resolutions but represents a 26.2% reduction. The 4K results are the most demanding, yet even the lowest measured FPS of 50.6 remains above the 30 FPS threshold typically considered minimum for playable performance.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently delivers the highest frame rates, with 4K Low (108.7 FPS) outperforming 1440p Ultra (97.8 FPS). This indicates that settings adjustments can yield greater performance gains than resolution reductions, a useful observation for players prioritizing smoothness over visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest measured FPS for this combo in Hard West?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 231.9, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 194th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 11.4% of all configurations.

Q: What is the lowest measured FPS, and at what settings?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 50.6, achieved at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: Which resolution shows the largest performance drop from Low to Ultra?

A: The largest percentage drop from Low to Ultra is at 3840x2160, where frame rates fall from 108.7 to 50.6, a 53.4% reduction.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT’s score of 53489.

Q: What is the CPU’s percentile ranking among all CPUs?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 ranks in the 79th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21765.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. This configuration is well-suited for gaming, as most titles, including Hard West, do not utilize more than a few cores effectively. The CPU’s single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its 3dmark single-thread score of 882 and cinebench r23 single-core score of 2584.

In Hard West, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (231.9) is close to the theoretical limit of what a 6-core part can feed to a high-end GPU, but the data shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER still has headroom, as the CPU does not bottleneck at lower resolutions. The passmark single-thread score of 3256 and the 3dmark 2-thread score of 1737 indicate that the CPU can handle the game’s turn-based logic and AI calculations without becoming a limiting factor.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11700F, which has an average score of 21957 and a deltaPct of -0.9, meaning the Ryzen 5 5600 is 0.9% behind. This close margin suggests that the CPU’s performance is comparable to a higher-tier Intel part, which is relevant for understanding why the combo rank is as high as it is. The CPU’s 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21765, confirms that it is a capable mid-range processor, but not a top-tier one. In a game like Hard West, where the GPU dominates, this CPU is more than sufficient.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data shows that 4K Ultra (50.6 FPS) falls short, while 4K High (68.6 FPS) comfortably exceeds it. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 18 FPS, a 26.2% reduction, which may not be worth the visual gain for a turn-based tactics game where frame rate consistency matters less than in fast-paced genres. Therefore, at 4K, the High preset is the recommended choice, as it provides a 35.6% higher frame rate than Ultra while likely retaining most visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 132.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display. The Ultra preset at 97.8 FPS is still smooth, but the 34.9 FPS gap between High and Ultra suggests that High offers the best balance of performance and quality. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset at 195.4 FPS would be the choice, but Medium at 167.6 FPS is a strong alternative that likely retains better visual detail.

At 1080p, all presets deliver frame rates above 151.7 FPS, meaning the CPU-GPU combo is not stressed at this resolution. The Ultra preset at 151.7 FPS is the best experience, as it provides maximum visual quality without sacrificing playability. Even the most demanding settings do not cause the frame rate to drop below 150 FPS, making 1080p the resolution where players can afford to maximize quality.

Overall, the data suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot across all resolutions, as it delivers 192.9 FPS at 1080p, 132.7 FPS at 1440p, and 68.6 FPS at 4K. This preset provides a consistent experience that balances visual quality with performance, and it avoids the steep performance penalties associated with Ultra settings. For players who prioritize frame rate above all else, the Low preset at 4K (108.7 FPS) or Medium at 1440p (167.6 FPS) are viable options, but the measured data indicates that High is the most sensible default for this hardware combination.