Hard West

Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015, presents an interesting benchmark scenario when paired with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The measured data reveals a configuration that is heavily skewed toward GPU performance, with the RTX 4090's immense compute capabilities far exceeding the demands of this older title. The benchmark results show a system that is capable of delivering high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, but the scaling patterns indicate that the CPU becomes a more significant factor as resolution decreases.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the shifting balance between CPU and GPU load. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo achieves an average of 170.1 FPS, which drops to 105.6 FPS at 2560x1440, and further declines to 59.1 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 37.9% performance reduction when moving from 1440p to 4K at Ultra settings, showing that the GPU is still the primary limiting factor even at this high resolution. The scaling is less severe at lower settings, where the frame rate at 1080p Low reaches 225.7 FPS, while 4K Low produces 119.6 FPS.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G's six cores and twelve threads begin to constrain performance, particularly at lower settings where the GPU has more headroom. The difference between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is only 30.8 FPS, which is a smaller gap than the 75.3 FPS difference between 1440p Ultra and 4K Ultra. This indicates that the CPU is becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions, while the GPU's workload scales more predictably with resolution at higher settings. The turn-based nature of Hard West means that frame rate spikes are less critical than in action titles, but the consistent scaling pattern shows a system that remains playable even at demanding 4K Ultra settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth providing ample resources for Hard West's relatively modest graphical requirements. The GPU's 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units deliver massive parallel processing power, which is reflected in the benchmark scores including a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 and a Passmark G3D score of 38194. The RTX 4090's boost clock of 2520 MHz ensures that even at 4K resolution, the GPU can maintain high utilization rates.

The card's 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores are largely irrelevant for this 2015 title, which does not utilize these modern features. However, the GPU's raw rasterization performance is more than sufficient, as evidenced by the 4K High average of 77.7 FPS. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power means that Hard West's visual effects and lighting calculations are handled with substantial headroom, allowing the CPU to become the limiting factor in certain scenarios. The GPU's 91st percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473, places it in the upper echelon of graphics hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 115th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 6.8% of all configurations. This ranking is notably lower than what the GPU alone might suggest, primarily due to the CPU's more modest performance profile. The Ryzen 5 5600G, with its 3.90 GHz base clock and 4.40 GHz boost clock, achieves a 78th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19983. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11600H, which scores 19949 (0.2% lower), and the AMD EPYC 7713P, which scores 20024 (0.2% higher).

The GPU's nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA Tesla T4 with a score of 66733, show that the RTX 4090 performs near the top of its class. However, the combo's rank of 115 indicates that many other pairings with more powerful CPUs achieve better overall performance in Hard West. This discrepancy highlights the importance of CPU selection even in GPU-intensive scenarios, as the Ryzen 5 5600G's 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 51.2 GB/s bandwidth may limit the RTX 4090's ability to reach its full potential in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all resolution and settings combinations. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 170.1 at Ultra settings to 225.7 at Low settings, with Medium and High settings producing 208.1 and 194 FPS respectively. This narrow range of 55.6 FPS between Low and Ultra suggests that the CPU is the primary limiting factor at this resolution, as the GPU has sufficient headroom to handle even the most demanding settings.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain impressive but show more variation. Ultra settings produce 105.6 FPS, High settings deliver 147.2 FPS, Medium settings achieve 182.4 FPS, and Low settings reach 194.9 FPS. The 89.3 FPS spread between Low and Ultra indicates that the GPU is becoming more involved in determining performance, though the CPU still plays a significant role. At 4K, the scaling becomes even more pronounced, with Ultra settings dropping to 59.1 FPS, High settings at 77.7 FPS, Medium settings at 97.5 FPS, and Low settings at 119.6 FPS. This 60.5 FPS spread at 4K demonstrates that the RTX 4090's capabilities are being fully exercised at this resolution, with the CPU bottleneck largely alleviated.

FAQ

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 194 at 1920x1080 to 147.2 at 2560x1440, and further to 77.7 at 3840x2160. This represents a 59.9% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600G compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600G has an average benchmark score of 19983, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-11600H (19949) and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-11800H (20024). It also closely matches the AMD EPYC 7713P at 20024.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's performance limited by the CPU in this game?

A: Yes, the data suggests CPU limitations at lower resolutions. The difference between 1080p Low (225.7 FPS) and 1440p Low (194.9 FPS) is only 30.8 FPS, while the gap between 1440p Ultra and 4K Ultra is 46.5 FPS, indicating the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Q: What settings provide the best balance of performance and visual quality at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings deliver 147.2 FPS, which is 39.5% higher than Ultra settings' 105.6 FPS. The Medium setting achieves 182.4 FPS, providing even more headroom while still offering improved visuals over Low settings.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 115th out of 1699 total combos, placing it in the top 6.8% of all configurations tested in Hard West. This ranking reflects the strong GPU performance tempered by the CPU's more moderate capabilities.

Q: What is the RTX 4090's memory configuration and how does it affect performance?

A: The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. This configuration ensures that memory bandwidth is not a limiting factor in Hard West, allowing the GPU's 16384 shading units to operate at full efficiency.