Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a strong performance profile in Hard West, with the data showing a clear GPU-bound trend at higher resolutions and a CPU-bound ceiling at 1080p. The combo ranks in the 79th percentile (621st out of 2949 tested combinations), indicating that this pairing is well above average for this turn-based tactics title, though the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM and the CPU's six cores create specific bottlenecks that are visible in the measured frame rates.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU-GPU combo in Hard West?*

A: The combo ranks 621st out of 2949 tested combinations, placing it in the top 21% of all tested pairings for this game. This is a strong result, but not elite, as the ranking reflects the game's modest demands on both components.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7400F compare to its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 32750, which is nearly identical to its closest competitors. It is 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600T (32707), 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (32697), and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (32662), while sitting 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H (32812). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: What is the best performance setting for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields an average of 85 FPS, while Medium drops to 70 FPS and High to 54 FPS. Ultra is the only setting below 60 FPS, averaging 40 FPS. For a smooth 4K experience, Medium is the highest playable preset, as it maintains 70 FPS average with a minimum of 59 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM become a limiting factor in this game?

A: The data shows no evidence of VRAM capacity being a constraint, as the game runs smoothly even at 4K Ultra with 40 FPS average. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for Hard West, which is a turn-based tactics title with modest texture requirements compared to modern AAA shooters.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1080p to 1440p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 161 at 1920x1080 to 102 at 2560x1440 (a 37% reduction), then to 54 at 3840x2160 (a 47% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes progressively more stressed at higher resolutions, while the CPU headroom is sufficient at 1080p.

Q: What is the minimum FPS observed in the measured data?

A: The only setting with a recorded minimum FPS is Medium at all three resolutions: 178 at 1080p, 113 at 1440p, and 59 at 4K. These minimums are well above playable thresholds, indicating consistent performance without major frame time spikes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, is the primary driver of frame rates at 1440p and 4K in Hard West. The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1920 MHz, combined with 5888 shading units, provide substantial raw compute power for this game's rendering demands. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is ample for the game's visuals, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra settings the memory subsystem does not appear to bottleneck performance.

The RTX 4070's benchmark scores place it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 37648. Its nearest rivals show tight competition: it is 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37628) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507), while trailing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile by 1.3% (38135) and leading the AMD Radeon PRO W6400 by 1.3% (37157). In Hard West specifically, the GPU's performance is most visible in the resolution scaling: at 1080p High, the frame rate of 161 FPS is capped by CPU limitations, but at 4K High, the 54 FPS result shows the GPU working at a much higher utilization level.

The GPU's 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 compute throughput and 455.4 GTexel/s texture rate are more than adequate for a turn-based tactics game where scenes are less dynamic than in fast-paced shooters. The 64 ROPs and 184 TMUs handle the game's visual effects efficiently, though the Ultra preset at 4K (40 FPS) reveals that the most demanding settings still push the GPU to its limits. The RTX 4070's 200 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with a mid-range to upper-mid-range card that can handle this title with ease, but the data shows that Ultra settings at 4K require compromises.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F, a six-core, twelve-thread processor from the 7000 series built on Zen 4 architecture (Raphael), plays a crucial role at 1080p where the frame rates exceed 200 FPS on lower presets. The CPU's base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz, combined with 32 MB of shared L3 cache, provide strong single-thread performance that is essential for game logic and AI calculations in turn-based tactics. The Cinebench R23 scores of 21765 multi-core and 3072 single-core, along with a PassMark single-thread score of 3689, confirm that this CPU can keep pace with the RTX 4070 at lower resolutions.

The CPU's 83rd percentile ranking among all processors (with an average benchmark score of 32750) puts it slightly ahead of its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-14600T (0.1% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H (-0.2% delta). In Hard West, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p Low where the combo achieves 256 FPS average, and at 1080p High with 161 FPS. These numbers suggest that the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the GPU at 1080p, but the frame rates are not purely GPU-limited at this resolution.

The processor's 65 W TDP and 5 nm process node (TSMC) with 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die indicate high efficiency, which is relevant for sustained performance in long gaming sessions. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for this game's memory access patterns. However, the six-core configuration means that the CPU is not the bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, where the GPU's workload dominates. The data shows that at 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 102 FPS, which is a 37% reduction from 1080p High, indicating that the GPU is now the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 621 out of 2949 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 79th percentile. This is a strong showing for a mid-range CPU paired with an upper-mid-range GPU, but the ranking is not higher because the game itself is not particularly demanding. Many combos with lower-end GPUs can still deliver playable frame rates in this turn-based tactics title, which compresses the performance spread among the top contenders.

The ranking suggests that this combo sits in the upper tier of performance, but the measured FPS data reveals that the system is often overkill for the game's requirements. At 1080p Medium, the combo produces 210 FPS average, which far exceeds the 60 FPS target that most gamers consider smooth. Even at 4K Ultra, the 40 FPS average is playable for a turn-based game where reaction time is not critical. The combo's rank of 621 means that 2328 other combos perform worse, but also that 620 combos perform better, likely featuring higher-end GPUs like the RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XTX.

The deltaPct values from the CPU's nearest rivals show that the 7400F is essentially tied with processors like the Intel Core i5-14600T and AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H, meaning that swapping the CPU for a direct competitor would not materially change the combo's ranking in this game. The GPU's nearest rivals show similar tight competition, with the RTX 4070 being within 1.3% of the RTX 4080 Mobile and RX Vega 56. This indicates that the combo's rank is determined more by the GPU's tier than by small differences in CPU performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across the three resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 161 at 1920x1080 to 102 at 2560x1440 (a 37% reduction), and then to 54 at 3840x2160 (a 47% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is steeper than what would be expected if the CPU were the limiting factor, because the number of pixels increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p, and by another 125% from 1440p to 4K.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 256 FPS at 1080p, 162 FPS at 1440p (a 37% drop), and 85 FPS at 4K (a 48% drop). This indicates that at low settings, the GPU is almost exclusively responsible for the frame rate, as the CPU has no trouble feeding it even at 1080p. The fact that 1080p Low produces 256 FPS suggests that the CPU could potentially deliver even higher frame rates if the GPU were faster, but the RTX 4070 is the limiting factor at that point.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern, with 210 FPS at 1080p, 133 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS values at Medium (178 at 1080p, 113 at 1440p, and 59 at 4K) indicate that the frame pacing remains consistent, with no major stutters. The Ultra preset, which is the most demanding, drops to 121 FPS at 1080p, 76 FPS at 1440p, and 40 FPS at 4K. This scaling confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck at all resolutions above 1080p, while the CPU has sufficient headroom to avoid limiting performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 256 FPS, Medium averages 210 FPS with a minimum of 178 and maximum of 241, High averages 161 FPS, and Ultra averages 121 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system has massive headroom, and even Ultra settings are well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the GPU's increasing workload. Low averages 162 FPS, Medium averages 133 FPS (minimum 113, maximum 153), High averages 102 FPS, and Ultra averages 76 FPS. The 1440p results suggest that this resolution is the sweet spot for the RTX 4070, as even Ultra settings maintain a playable 76 FPS average.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly stressed. Low averages 85 FPS, Medium averages 70 FPS (minimum 59, maximum 80), High averages 54 FPS, and Ultra averages 40 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only setting below 60 FPS across all tests, indicating that users targeting 4K should stick to Medium or High settings for a smoother experience. The minimum FPS of 59 at Medium 4K shows that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate stays above playable thresholds for a turn-based tactics game.