Hard West

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1271 out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. That places this configuration in the lower-middle portion of the database, meaning it delivers playable but not exceptional performance for this turn-based tactics title. The rank reflects a system that can handle the game at most settings, but struggles at the highest visual presets and at 4K resolution.

Benchmark results show the CPU holds its own in synthetic tests, sitting at the 82nd percentile among all processors. Its average benchmark score of 24993 places it within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX and 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, showing near-parity with those chips. The GPU, meanwhile, sits at the 63rd percentile among all graphics cards, with an average score of 19774. That puts it 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 and 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, indicating the graphics card is the more limiting factor in this pairing.

The combination's overall rank is dragged down by the GPU's mid-range standing rather than the CPU's strong showing. In a game like Hard West, which relies on turn-based logic rather than twitch reflexes, the measured frame rates reveal where this system excels and where it falls short.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Hard West at 1080p with playable frame rates?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from 74 on Ultra to 156.6 on Low, with High preset delivering 99.4 FPS and Medium reaching 125.4 FPS. All settings provide smooth gameplay at this resolution.

Q: How does the system perform at 1440p?

A: The 2560x1440 results show 60 FPS on High, 83.4 FPS on Medium, 96.4 FPS on Low, and 46.5 FPS on Ultra. The High preset hits the 60 FPS mark exactly, while Ultra falls below that threshold.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware?

A: Barely. At 3840x2160, the best result is 53.8 FPS on Low, with Medium at 42.9 FPS, High at 33.5 FPS, and Ultra at 23.5 FPS. Only the Low preset approaches a consistently playable experience at 4K.

Q: What is the CPU's core and thread configuration?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It belongs to the 7000 series, uses the Zen 4 architecture (codename Raphael), and is built on a 5 nm process by TSMC.

Q: How much video memory does the GPU have?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, with 14 Gbps effective speed.

Q: What is the GPU's compute capability?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. It achieves 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 14.36 TFLOPS of FP16 performance (2:1 ratio).

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the High preset at 1920x1080 is the clear choice. It delivers 99.4 FPS, which is more than sufficient for a turn-based tactics game, while maintaining noticeably better visuals than Low or Medium. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 74 FPS, still playable, but the jump from High to Ultra costs 25.4 FPS for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in this genre.

At 2560x1440, the High preset hits exactly 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for users with 1440p displays. The Medium preset provides headroom at 83.4 FPS if smoother motion is preferred, but High offers the better image quality without dropping below the 60 FPS threshold. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 46.5 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter in a game that benefits from smooth camera pans across the battlefield.

For 4K displays, the Low preset at 53.8 FPS is the only viable option. Medium drops to 42.9 FPS and High falls to 33.5 FPS, both below the threshold for comfortable play. The data shows that this system is not designed for 4K gaming at higher presets, so users should either stick to 1080p or 1440p or accept significant compromises at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system shows strong performance across all presets. The Low preset achieves 156.6 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset. Medium reaches 125.4 FPS, High hits 99.4 FPS, and Ultra settles at 74 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 52.8% drop in frame rate, indicating that the GPU is being progressively taxed by higher visual settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease substantially. Low delivers 96.4 FPS, Medium reaches 83.4 FPS, High hits exactly 60 FPS, and Ultra drops to 46.5 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 35-40% of performance across all presets, with the High preset losing 39.4 FPS and the Ultra preset losing 27.5 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher presets. Low achieves 53.8 FPS, Medium reaches 42.9 FPS, High drops to 33.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 30.3 FPS, showing that the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM and 7.181 TFLOPS of compute power are insufficient for high-end 4K rendering in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At the High preset, performance falls from 99.4 FPS at 1080p to 60 FPS at 1440p and 33.5 FPS at 4K. That represents a 39.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 44.2% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is roughly linear with pixel count, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 156.6 FPS at 1080p drops to 96.4 FPS at 1440p and 53.8 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 38.4% and 44.2% respectively. This consistency across presets indicates that resolution scaling is the dominant factor, not the specific quality settings.

The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads boosting up to 5.00 GHz, is not the limiting factor here. Its high single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 974 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218) ensures it can feed the GPU adequately at lower resolutions. But as resolution increases, the GPU's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance becomes the constraint, causing the frame rates to plummet.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F brings 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz boosts up to 5.00 GHz, providing strong single-threaded performance that is valuable for turn-based tactics games where AI calculations and pathfinding can be CPU-intensive.

Benchmark data shows the CPU excels across multiple tests. It scores 22799 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3218 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 12686 and single-core score of 2759. The 3dmark tests show scaling from 974 in single-thread to 6379 in max threads, indicating good multi-threading efficiency. Its Passmark multithread score of 26825 and single-thread score of 3841 place it well above average.

In Hard West specifically, the CPU's performance is more than adequate. The game's turn-based nature means frame pacing is less critical than in action titles, and the Ryzen 5 7500F's 12 threads handle the game's logic without becoming a bottleneck. The L3 cache of 32 MB shared across cores helps with game data access, and the DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provides fast data transfer.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture using a 12 nm process, featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. Its base clock of 1470 MHz boosts to 1650 MHz, and it contains 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 14.36 TFLOPS of FP16, with 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. Its Passmark G3D score of 16462 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2011 show it performs in the mid-range tier, sitting at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs.

In Hard West, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient at 1080p and 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The measured frame rates show the GPU struggling to maintain 60 FPS at 1440p on Ultra (46.5 FPS) and failing to reach playable levels at 4K on any preset above Low. The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is adequate for the game's textures at lower resolutions, but the 4K data requirements overwhelm the memory system. The GPU's 105.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 224.4 GTexel/s texture rate are the key specifications that determine its 4K performance ceiling, which the data confirms is quite limited.