Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination ranks 1362nd out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the bottom 20% of all configurations. This is a surprisingly low rank for a system with modern components, but the data shows the pairing is held back decisively by the GPU in this turn-based tactics title. The RTX 2060 sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 7500F lands at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, creating a clear imbalance where the processor’s headroom is largely wasted at higher settings. The measured frames per second confirm this: at 1080p Ultra, the combo manages 68.9 FPS, which is playable but far from the high-refresh territory its CPU alone could support.

How This Combo Ranks

The 1362nd position out of 1699 combos places this pairing in the lower tier of tested systems for Hard West. This ranking is not a reflection of the CPU’s capability—the Ryzen 5 7500F outperforms the Intel Core i7-11850H by 0.1% and the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX by 0.4% in average benchmark scores, while trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X by only 0.3%. The bottleneck is unmistakably the GPU, which is only 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S and 1.8% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 in its own benchmark pool. The combo’s rank reflects the GPU’s mid-tier standing, and the data shows that this system will consistently fall behind configurations with stronger graphics cards, even if their processors are slower. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (145.9) versus 1080p Ultra (68.9) demonstrates that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU has ample single-thread and multi-thread performance to feed far higher frame rates.

GPU Role

The RTX 2060 brings 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1365 MHz, boosting to 1680 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz. These specifications place it as a solid 1080p-class card, but Hard West’s demands at higher resolutions expose its limitations. At 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 21.1 FPS, which is barely interactive, and even 4K High only reaches 32.3 FPS. The GPU’s 1920 shading units and 48 ROPs are sufficient for the game’s turn-based visuals at moderate settings, but the data shows a steep performance cliff between 1440p and 4K. The 6 GB VRAM is not the primary constraint in this older title; rather, the raw compute throughput of 6.451 TFLOPS FP32 is what caps performance. The GPU’s 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs aligns with its measured behavior: it handles 1080p with ease, struggles at 1440p Ultra, and becomes a bottleneck at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly favors the Medium preset as the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers 118 FPS, which is 34% higher than High and 71% higher than Ultra, while still looking far better than Low’s 145.9 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the system maintains 73 FPS, a comfortable experience for a turn-based tactics game, whereas High drops to 60 FPS and Ultra falls to 43.5 FPS. The Low preset at 1080p offers the highest frame rates but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a game that does not require twitch reflexes. For players favoring 1440p, Medium is the clear choice, as it stays above the 60 FPS threshold while the Ultra preset dips below playable territory. At 4K, no preset is ideal—Medium reaches 39.9 FPS and Low 47.9 FPS—so the data suggests sticking to 1440p for this pairing.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo suitable for 1080p gaming in Hard West?*

A: Yes. The measured FPS at 1080p ranges from 68.9 on Ultra to 145.9 on Low, with Medium at 118 FPS, all of which are well above playable thresholds.

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

A: The Ryzen 5 7500F scores 24993 on average, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-11850H and 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, while trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X by 0.3%.

Q: What is the biggest performance bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU. The RTX 2060’s 58th percentile ranking and the steep FPS drops at higher resolutions indicate it limits performance, while the CPU’s 82nd percentile ranking shows it has headroom.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K in Hard West?*

A: Barely. The best 4K result is 47.9 FPS on Low, but High only achieves 32.3 FPS and Ultra drops to 21.1 FPS, making 4K impractical for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: Low delivers 92.1 FPS, while Ultra delivers 43.5 FPS, a difference of 48.6 FPS. Medium sits in between at 73 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU rank among all tested GPUs?

A: The RTX 2060 is at the 58th percentile, with an average benchmark score of 16074. It is 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600S and 1.8% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5500.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system with diminishing returns at higher resolutions. At Medium settings, the combo delivers 118 FPS at 1080p, drops to 73 FPS at 1440p (a 38% reduction), and falls to 39.9 FPS at 4K (a 66% reduction from 1080p). The pattern is consistent across all presets: High goes from 88 FPS at 1080p to 60 FPS at 1440p to 32.3 FPS at 4K, while Ultra drops from 68.9 to 43.5 to 21.1. The Low preset shows the least relative degradation, from 145.9 to 92.1 to 47.9, but even this cannot sustain 4K playability. The data indicates that the RTX 2060’s memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s and FP32 throughput of 6.451 TFLOPS are insufficient for 4K in this game, as the pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s becomes the limiting factor. The CPU, with its 32 MB L3 cache and 5.00 GHz boost clock, does not appear to constrain scaling, as the FPS drops are proportional to resolution increases rather than CPU workload spikes.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and it features 32 MB of shared L3 cache. In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game that relies on single-thread performance for game logic and unit pathfinding, the CPU’s 3dmark_single_thread score of 974 and passmark_single_thread score of 3841 indicate strong per-core capability. The multi-threaded results are equally robust, with cinebench_r23_multicore at 22799 and passmark_multithread at 26825, meaning the processor can easily handle any background tasks or complex AI calculations. The CPU’s 82nd percentile ranking confirms it is not the bottleneck; the data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work, the combo reaches 145.9 FPS, suggesting the CPU could push higher if paired with a stronger GPU. The 65 W TDP and DDR5 memory support further underscore that this is a modern, efficient processor that will not hold back the RTX 2060 in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers 145.9 FPS on Low, 118 FPS on Medium, 88 FPS on High, and 68.9 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is 77 FPS, showing that the GPU has significant headroom at lower settings. At 1440p, the results are 92.1 FPS on Low, 73 FPS on Medium, 60 FPS on High, and 43.5 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p High result of exactly 60 FPS is notable, as it matches the standard refresh rate of many monitors, making this a viable configuration. At 4K, the numbers become 47.9 FPS on Low, 39.9 FPS on Medium, 32.3 FPS on High, and 21.1 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result is the only one above 45 FPS, and even that is marginal. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset offers the most consistent experience, with a minimum of 39.9 FPS at 4K and a maximum of 118 FPS at 1080p. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p, where 68.9 FPS is playable, but the 43.5 FPS at 1440p and 21.1 FPS at 4K are not. The data clearly shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p Medium or High, with 1440p Medium as a secondary option for users willing to accept lower frame rates.