Hard West

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates for Hard West across the tested settings presets reveal a clear hierarchy, with the optimal experience depending heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 161.4 FPS average, which is substantially above the refresh rate of most standard displays and only 28.6% below the Low preset's 226.2 FPS. The Medium preset at 210.3 FPS offers a middle ground, but the gap between Medium and Ultra is relatively small at 23.3%, suggesting that Ultra is the sensible choice for 1080p users who prioritize visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

Moving to 2560x1440, the analysis shifts. The Ultra preset drops to 103.3 FPS, which remains playable but represents a 41.8% reduction from the Low preset's 191.9 FPS. The High preset at 138.6 FPS provides a balanced compromise, sitting 25.5% above Ultra and 27.8% below Low. For 1440p displays with 120Hz or higher refresh rates, the High preset emerges as the recommended setting, as it maintains a frame rate that can fully utilize such panels while preserving meaningful graphical detail. The Medium preset at 177.6 FPS is also viable, but the visual uplift from Medium to High appears to justify the 22.0% performance cost.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. The Ultra preset averages 57.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay. The High preset at 74.6 FPS restores that margin, offering a 30.6% improvement over Ultra. However, the Low preset at 113.3 FPS and Medium at 95.0 FPS both provide substantial headroom. For 4K users, the High preset is the recommended choice, as it delivers a frame rate that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS while retaining most of the game's visual features. Pushing to Ultra introduces a noticeable performance penalty with diminishing returns, and the data suggests that High is the highest preset that maintains a consistent experience at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the observed performance envelopes. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is critical for Hard West's turn-based tactics rendering, where high-resolution textures and geometry buffering can saturate memory throughput. The 4K results, where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, show the RTX 5080's raw compute capabilities: the FP32 throughput of 56.28 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s allow the card to maintain 74.6 FPS at High settings even at 3840x2160.

The GPU's clock behavior is also relevant. With a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2617 MHz, the RTX 5080 demonstrates that sustained boost operation is key to achieving the measured frame rates. The 5 nm process node and 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die contribute to the efficiency required for these clock speeds. The pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and the 112 ROPs handle the fill-rate demands of Hard West's detailed environments, while the 10752 shading units provide ample compute for the game's lighting and shadow calculations.

Notably, the RTX 5080's benchmark profile places it in the 89th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 59188. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Arc A570M at 58239 (1.6% slower), the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60326 (1.9% faster), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X at 57661 (2.6% slower). These small deltas indicate that the RTX 5080 sits in a competitive performance band, but the measured game data shows it excels specifically in Hard West's workload, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU can feed it adequately. The GPU's 16 GB VRAM capacity proves sufficient at all tested settings, as no resolution or preset combination shows signs of memory-related stuttering or frame drops.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo at 1920x1080?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 226.2 at the Low preset with 1920x1080 resolution. The Ultra preset at the same resolution still achieves 161.4 FPS, indicating significant headroom even at maximum settings.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at 4K compared to lower resolutions?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 57.1 FPS, which is the lowest measured result across all settings and resolutions. This represents a 64.6% reduction from the same preset at 1920x1080 (161.4 FPS), highlighting the substantial scaling cost at 4K.

Q: Is the RTX 5080's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for Hard West at maximum settings?

A: Yes, the 16 GB GDDR7 memory with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 still delivers 57.1 FPS, and none of the measured data points indicate memory capacity or bandwidth limitations at any tested configuration.

Q: Which settings preset offers the best balance at 2560x1440?

A: The High preset at 138.6 FPS provides the best balance, as it is 34.2% faster than Ultra (103.3 FPS) while only 27.8% slower than Low (191.9 FPS). This makes High the recommended choice for 1440p displays with high refresh rates.

Q: How does the combo's performance at 4K High compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K High, the combo achieves 74.6 FPS, which is 53.8% slower than 1080p Ultra's 161.4 FPS. This demonstrates that the RTX 5080 can handle 4K with reduced settings, but the GPU's scaling efficiency diminishes at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the rank of this combo among all tested combinations in Hard West?

A: The combo ranks 134th out of 1699 tested combinations, placing it in the top 7.9% of all configurations tested for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination achieves a rank of 134 out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 92.1st percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU's strong performance, as the RTX 5080 sits in the 89th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 59188. The CPU, by contrast, is in the 78th percentile of all processors, indicating that the GPU is the primary driver of this combo's high standing.

The measured frame rates corroborate this ranking. At 1920x1080, the combo exceeds 161 FPS even at Ultra settings, which is a strong result for a turn-based tactics game that may not heavily stress modern hardware. The 4K Ultra result of 57.1 FPS is the only measurement below 60 FPS, and even that is a playable frame rate for the genre. The combination's ability to maintain 74.6 FPS at 4K High suggests that the RTX 5080's architectural advantages—such as its 84 RT cores and 336 tensor cores—contribute to efficient rendering in this title.

The rank of 134 out of 1699 indicates that approximately 1565 other combos perform better, which is expected given that the RTX 5080 is not the top-tier GPU in the database. However, the delta between this combo and higher-ranked configurations is likely small, as the GPU's nearest rivals show performance differences of only 1.6% to 2.6%. The CPU's nearest rivals also exhibit negligible deltas (0.2% to 0.3%), meaning the entire combo is positioned within a tight performance cluster. For Hard West specifically, this combo delivers a smooth experience across all tested resolutions and presets, with only the 4K Ultra setting dipping below 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G provides 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne codename), with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This CPU is a 7 nm part from TSMC, featuring 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a 16 MB L3 cache, which is shared across the six cores. The CPU supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, and it connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes.

In the context of Hard West, the CPU's role is less demanding than the GPU's, given the turn-based tactics genre's typically modest CPU requirements. The measured frame rates show that even at 1920x1080 with Low settings (226.2 FPS), the CPU does not become a bottleneck, as the 5600G's single-thread performance—demonstrated by its 3DMark single-thread score of 872 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2365—is sufficient to feed the RTX 5080.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also relevant for background tasks and game logic. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16758 and PassMark multithread score of 19717 indicate that the 5600G can handle the game's AI and turn-based calculations without issue. The CPU's 16 MB L3 cache and 12 threads ensure that the game's internal systems, such as enemy pathfinding and decision trees, execute efficiently. However, the data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo: the performance scaling from Low to Ultra presets is more pronounced at higher resolutions, which is a GPU-bound trend.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core i7-11600H (0.2% faster average score), Intel Core i7-11800H (0.2% slower), AMD EPYC 7713P (0.2% slower), and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (0.3% faster). These negligible deltas confirm that the 5600G's performance is well-matched to its peers, and in Hard West, it provides more than enough processing power to avoid constraining the RTX 5080. The integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics are present but irrelevant in this discrete GPU configuration. Overall, the CPU's 65 W TDP and efficient design make it a capable partner, though the benchmark results suggest that the GPU's performance ceiling is the primary determinant of this combo's 134th rank.