Hard West

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Hard West shows a clear and consistent scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the system produces 130.2 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 drops this to 82.1 FPS, a reduction of approximately 37%. At 3840x2160, Ultra settings yield 45.8 FPS, which is roughly 44% below the 1440p result and about 65% below the 1080p figure. This steep decline indicates that the rendering load grows substantially with pixel count, a pattern typical of a game that places heavy demands on the graphics pipeline.

The scaling behavior differs across settings tiers. At Low settings, the frame rate goes from 231.5 FPS at 1080p to 172.8 FPS at 1440p, then to 91.5 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 47%, which is larger than the 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p. This non-linear relationship suggests that at lower settings, the GPU becomes increasingly stressed as resolution climbs, while at higher settings the gap between 1440p and 4K narrows. For High settings, the figures are 171.8 FPS at 1080p, 109.1 FPS at 1440p, and 60.1 FPS at 4K — a 45% reduction from 1440p to 4K, compared to a 36% reduction from 1080p to 1440p.

The data points to the GPU as the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. At 1080p, even Ultra settings exceed 130 FPS, leaving headroom that the CPU can fill. At 4K, the frame rates across all settings fall into a range where the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck. The RTX 5070's 201.0 GPixel/s pixel rate and 482.3 GTexel/s texture rate are directly relevant here; these figures determine how quickly the GPU can fill the increased pixel count at 4K. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 45.7 FPS (91.5 versus 45.8), which is narrower than the 101.3 FPS gap at 1080p (231.5 versus 130.2). This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions reinforces that the GPU, not the game's graphical options, is the limiting factor once pixel counts rise.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 brings 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015, this memory configuration is more than sufficient; the game's texture and geometry demands are modest by modern standards. The 12 GB capacity ensures that even at 4K Ultra, there is no risk of running out of video memory, which would otherwise cause stuttering or texture thrashing. The measured 45.8 FPS at 4K Ultra is not a memory limitation but a raw compute and fill-rate limitation.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base of 2325 MHz and a boost of 2512 MHz. These clocks, combined with 6144 shading units and 80 ROPs, generate the frame rates observed in the benchmark data. The FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS gives context for how quickly the GPU can process the game's shader work. Hard West's isometric camera and static scenes in turn-based combat do not push the GPU's geometry or ray tracing capabilities — the RTX 5070 has 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores, but these are largely idle in a game of this era.

Comparing to the nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 5070's average benchmark score of 41687 places it within 0.6% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (41441) and 0.2% of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (41610). It sits slightly below the AMD Radeon Pro 580X (41991) by 0.7%. These deltas are small, indicating that the RTX 5070 performs in the same tier as these cards in synthetic benchmarks. In Hard West specifically, the GPU's percentile rank of 83 among all GPUs suggests it sits comfortably in the upper echelon for this game's requirements. The PassMark G3D score of 29137 further underscores that the card handles DirectX 11 workloads well, which is relevant since Hard West's engine relies on that API generation.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Hard West at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes. The measured data shows 60.1 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings. This is above the 60 FPS threshold, making 4K High a viable configuration. Ultra settings at 4K drop to 45.8 FPS, which may be acceptable for turn-based gameplay but is not ideal for smooth camera movement.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 231.5 FPS while Ultra settings produce 130.2 FPS. This represents a 43.8% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset. The gap is substantial but leaves Ultra well above 120 FPS for high-refresh displays.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to the RTX 3090 in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5070's average benchmark score is 41687, while the RTX 3090 scores 41441. The RTX 5070 is 0.6% ahead of the RTX 3090. This puts the two cards effectively at parity in aggregate performance, though individual game results may vary.

Q: Which resolution shows the largest drop when moving up to 4K?

A: The data shows that Low settings experience the largest relative drop from 1440p to 4K, falling 47% from 172.8 FPS to 91.5 FPS. High settings drop 45% from 109.1 to 60.1 FPS. Medium drops 49% from 147.1 to 74.3 FPS, and Ultra drops 44% from 82.1 to 45.8 FPS.

Q: Is the 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Hard West?

A: Yes. The game's release date and graphical scope do not demand large memory pools. The 12 GB GDDR7 configuration with 672.0 GB/s bandwidth is far beyond what Hard West requires, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor in any of the measured configurations.

Q: What is the highest frame rate achievable in the measured data?

A: The highest measured average is 231.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 1440p, the maximum is 172.8 FPS also at Low settings. At 4K, the maximum is 91.5 FPS at Low settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear picture of which preset delivers the best balance. At 1080p, Ultra settings run at 130.2 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and even exceeds 120 FPS for high-refresh monitors. Since the gap between Medium (217.4 FPS) and Ultra (130.2 FPS) is 87.2 FPS, the Ultra preset sacrifices significant headroom but still remains fluid. For most users at 1080p, Ultra is the recommended choice because the frame rate remains high while the visual quality benefits from the full settings suite.

At 1440p, the trade-off becomes more pronounced. Ultra runs at 82.1 FPS, which is still playable and above 60 FPS. High runs at 109.1 FPS, offering a 32.9% improvement over Ultra. Given that turn-based tactics do not require twitch reflexes, either preset works. The data suggests High is the better option for 1440p because it provides a comfortable margin above 100 FPS while still delivering strong visual fidelity. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is 27 FPS, which is noticeable for smoothness but not critical for this genre.

At 4K, the choice is more constrained. Ultra produces 45.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS standard. High produces 60.1 FPS, just crossing the threshold. Medium produces 74.3 FPS, providing a more comfortable margin. For 4K, Medium is the recommended preset because it yields 74.3 FPS, which is 62% higher than Ultra and 24% higher than High. The visual step from Medium to High at 4K is likely smaller than the frame rate difference suggests, making Medium the most efficient option. Low at 4K runs at 91.5 FPS but sacrifices too much visual quality for a turn-based game where immersion matters.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low runs at 231.5 FPS, Medium at 217.4 FPS, High at 171.8 FPS, and Ultra at 130.2 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High, a 45.6 FPS reduction. The full range from Low to Ultra spans 101.3 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 172.8 FPS, Medium at 147.1 FPS, High at 109.1 FPS, and Ultra at 82.1 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 38.0 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 27.0 FPS. The range from Low to Ultra is 90.7 FPS, slightly narrower than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 91.5 FPS, Medium at 74.3 FPS, High at 60.1 FPS, and Ultra at 45.8 FPS. The largest relative drop is from Medium to High, a 19.1% reduction, while the absolute drop from High to Ultra is 14.3 FPS. The range from Low to Ultra is 45.7 FPS, significantly compressed compared to lower resolutions.

The data also reveals how each settings tier scales with resolution. For Low, 1080p to 1440p drops 25.4%, and 1440p to 4K drops 47.0%. For Medium, the drops are 32.3% and 49.5% respectively. For High, the drops are 36.5% and 44.9%. For Ultra, the drops are 36.9% and 44.2%. This pattern shows that lower settings become more resolution-bound at 4K, while higher settings maintain a more consistent scaling ratio.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 3 architecture with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide ample throughput for game logic and AI in a turn-based tactics title. Hard West's gameplay is not heavily threaded; the CPU's 12 threads are more than sufficient for the game's simulation and pathfinding tasks.

Benchmark results place the Ryzen 5 5600 in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21765. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11700F at 21957 (0.9% ahead) and the AMD EPYC 9554P at 21899 (0.6% behind). The 3DMark single-thread score of 882 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2584 indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for games that rely on a primary simulation thread.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS at Low and Medium settings. At 231.5 FPS, the CPU is likely near its limit for this game's engine, as the GPU has ample headroom at that resolution. The fact that 1080p Ultra still achieves 130.2 FPS shows that the CPU does not bottleneck even at higher settings. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the larger resolution-based drops. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are not stressed by Hard West's turn-based logic, which typically uses far fewer threads. The PassMark multithread score of 21541 and single-thread score of 3256 confirm that the processor delivers balanced performance suitable for this workload.