Hard West

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 73rd out of 2,949 tested combos in Hard West. This places the combination in the top 2.5% of all tested systems, a strong result that reflects the GPU's dominance in this turn-based tactics title. The rank is particularly notable because Hard West is a 2015 release with modest graphical demands, meaning the RTX 5090 D's raw compute power has ample headroom to push extremely high frame rates.

Benchmark results indicate that this combo outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations, though it does not reach the very top of the leaderboard. The 73rd position suggests that a handful of combinations—likely those pairing even higher-end CPUs with the same GPU—achieve marginally better results. However, the gap between this combo and the top performers is likely small given the game's age and the GPU's capabilities.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 83rd among all processors, combined with the GPU's 92nd percentile standing, explains why this combo sits where it does. The RTX 5090 D carries most of the performance weight, while the Ryzen 5 7400F provides sufficient single-thread performance to avoid bottlenecking in a game that relies heavily on turn-based logic rather than continuous physics simulation.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this combo, and its specifications explain why Hard West runs at such high frame rates. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. For a game from 2015, this is an extraordinary amount of memory bandwidth—far more than the title could ever utilize, but it ensures that texture streaming and asset loading never become a limiting factor.

The GPU's clock speeds are equally impressive: a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. In Hard West, where scenes are largely static between turns, these clocks allow the GPU to maintain consistently high utilization during rendering passes. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores provide additional compute headroom, though a turn-based tactics game like Hard West likely does not stress ray tracing or AI acceleration features significantly.

The RTX 5090 D's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the key metric behind its benchmark dominance. PassMark G3D scores of 44,065 and GeekBench Vulkan scores of 376,915 confirm that this GPU ranks in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. In Hard West, this translates to frame rates that exceed 60 FPS even at 4K Ultra settings—a signal of the GPU's brute-force rendering capability.

The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, scores 78,940 on average benchmark score, which is 1.6% higher than the RTX 5090 D's 77,712 average. However, this comparison is misleading in gaming contexts, as the RTX 5090 D's desktop-class architecture and driver optimizations typically yield better real-world performance. The RTX 5090 D outperforms the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 2.4% in average benchmark score, though that comparison is largely irrelevant for gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals clear scaling patterns as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p High settings, the combo achieves 221 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High, the frame rate drops to 158 FPS—a 28.5% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 83 FPS, representing a 47.5% drop from 1440p and a 62.4% drop from 1080p.

These scaling patterns indicate that the GPU becomes increasingly the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while at 1080p the CPU's single-thread performance may constrain maximum frame rates. The 1080p Low setting produces 261 FPS average, which is remarkably high but still below the 300+ FPS that a purely GPU-limited scenario might produce. This suggests that the Ryzen 5 7400F's 3.70 GHz base and 4.70 GHz boost clocks, while strong, do impose an upper ceiling on frame rates in lighter scenes.

The resolution scaling is most dramatic between 1440p and 4K. At Medium settings, 1440p delivers 205 FPS average, while 4K Medium yields 108 FPS—a 47.3% reduction. This steep drop confirms that the RTX 5090 D's pixel throughput, rated at 423.6 GPixel/s, becomes the primary constraint at 4K. The GPU's texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s and FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS are sufficient for high frame rates at lower resolutions, but 4K's fourfold pixel count relative to 1080p demands more from the render pipeline.

Notably, the 4K Ultra setting produces 62 FPS average, which is still playable but represents a significant drop from the 187 FPS achieved at 1080p Ultra. This 66.8% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings demonstrates that even a top-tier GPU faces challenges when pushing extreme resolutions with maximum visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Hard West?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 73rd out of 2,949 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.5% of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7400F has an average benchmark score of 32,750, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600T (32,707), 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (32,697), and 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (32,662). The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H scores 32,812, which is 0.2% higher than the 7400F.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Hard West?

A: The data shows that 1440p High settings deliver 158 FPS average, providing an excellent balance between visual quality and frame rate. At 4K High, the average drops to 83 FPS, which is still smooth but represents a significant reduction.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and does it matter for Hard West?

A: The RTX 5090 D features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory. For a 2015 turn-based tactics game, this is far more than necessary—the game's texture sizes and memory footprint are unlikely to exceed even 4 GB, making the VRAM capacity essentially irrelevant for this title.

Q: Does this combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the 4K Ultra setting produces 62 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth for gaming. However, this is the lowest measured average across all tested configurations.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance, and why does it matter?

A: The Ryzen 5 7400F scores 3,072 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 3,689 in PassMark single-thread tests. Single-thread performance matters for Hard West because turn-based tactics games often rely on a limited number of threads for game logic and AI decision-making.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F provides the computational foundation for this combo, and its specifications reveal how it supports the RTX 5090 D in Hard West. The CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. With a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz, the 7400F offers strong single-thread performance that is crucial for a turn-based tactics game.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 cache per core, 1 MB L2 cache per core, and 32 MB shared L3 cache. For Hard West, the 32 MB L3 cache is particularly relevant because the game's map data and unit states can be frequently accessed during turn calculations. The 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, delivered via dual-channel DDR5, ensures that the CPU can quickly feed data to the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

Benchmark results confirm the CPU's capabilities. Cinebench R23 multicore scores of 21,765 and single-core scores of 3,072 place the 7400F in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. PassMark multithread scores of 25,645 and single-thread scores of 3,689 reinforce this positioning. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600T, scores nearly identically at 32,707 average versus the 7400F's 32,750—a difference of only 0.1%.

In Hard West, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, AI pathfinding, and turn-based event processing. The 12 threads allow for efficient parallelization of these tasks, while the high boost clock ensures responsive single-threaded operations. The 65 W TDP indicates that the CPU operates within a modest power envelope, which is advantageous for sustained performance in longer gaming sessions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which settings presets deliver the best experience for this combo in Hard West. At 1080p, all settings presets produce frame rates above 187 FPS, with Low at 261 FPS, Medium at 243 FPS, High at 221 FPS, and Ultra at 187 FPS average. The differences between presets are relatively small at this resolution, so players with 1080p displays should select Ultra for maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 205 FPS average, which is 47 FPS higher than High's 158 FPS and 87 FPS higher than Ultra's 118 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 174 and maximum of 236 indicate consistent performance. For players seeking the highest frame rates at 1440p, Low delivers 224 FPS average, but Medium offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance.

At 4K, the choices become more consequential. Ultra delivers 62 FPS average, which is technically playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. High provides 83 FPS average, offering a 33.9% improvement over Ultra while maintaining strong visual quality. Medium achieves 108 FPS average with a minimum of 92 FPS, making it the recommended preset for 4K gaming. Low reaches 131 FPS average, but the visual downgrade is substantial for a game with detailed environments.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the best overall experience across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 243 FPS average with a minimum of 206 FPS; at 1440p Medium, 205 FPS average with 174 FPS minimum; and at 4K Medium, 108 FPS average with 92 FPS minimum. This preset consistently maintains frame rates well above 60 FPS even at 4K, while offering better visual fidelity than Low.

For players prioritizing maximum visual quality, High settings at 4K (83 FPS) or Ultra at 1440p (118 FPS) are viable options. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 187 FPS average, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate displays. However, the performance gap between Ultra and High at 4K (62 vs. 83 FPS) makes High the more sensible choice for 4K users who want both quality and smoothness.