Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a highly playable experience in Hard West, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The measured data shows a predictable pattern: as resolution increases, the frame rate drops substantially, indicating that the rendering load outpaces the CPU’s ability to feed frames only at the extreme high end. At 1080p, the combination produces excellent headroom, but at 4K, the limits of the graphics card become apparent.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a steep performance curve that is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 174.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 58.6 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of approximately 66%. This dramatic drop demonstrates that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s rendering throughput is the limiting factor as pixel count quadruples. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads from the Zen 4 architecture, has ample headroom at 1080p, where the Low preset reaches 174.4 FPS, but cannot compensate for the GPU’s inability to maintain that pace at higher resolutions.

Moving to Medium settings, the scaling is similarly pronounced: 143.3 FPS at 1080p drops to 91.7 FPS at 1440p and then to 47.7 FPS at 4K. The 1440p result shows a more moderate decline of 36% from 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is still capable at this resolution but is starting to feel the pressure. At 4K, the Medium preset’s 47.7 FPS is only slightly above the 38 FPS seen at High settings, indicating that the additional pixel workload outweighs the graphical fidelity gains. The High preset follows the same trajectory: 109.5 FPS at 1080p, 71.3 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K is a 47% reduction, reinforcing that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are saturated at Ultra HD.

The Ultra preset exhibits the most severe scaling, with 79.3 FPS at 1080p falling to 51.3 FPS at 1440p and then to 28.6 FPS at 4K. This 64% drop from 1080p to 4K is the largest proportional decline across all settings, which underscores that the highest quality settings impose a rendering cost that the GPU cannot sustain at 4K. The data indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution; even at 4K Low, the 58.6 FPS result is likely still above the CPU’s floor, given that the 7500F’s single-thread performance is strong enough to handle turn-based tactics without issue. The scaling pattern points squarely at the GPU as the limiting component for this pairing.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the most balanced combination of visual quality and performance. At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 91.7 FPS, which is a 29% improvement over High’s 71.3 FPS while maintaining a smooth frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold. The difference between Medium and High at 1440p is significant enough that players seeking a fluid experience should prioritize the former. At 1080p, Medium also stands out with 143.3 FPS, providing a large margin over High’s 109.5 FPS, which makes it the recommended preset for competitive or fast-refresh displays.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset produces 58.6 FPS, which is the only setting that approaches playability, while Medium drops to 47.7 FPS and High to 38 FPS. Given that the game is a turn-based tactics title, a 47.7 FPS average at Medium is arguably acceptable for this genre, as the lack of fast-paced action reduces the need for high refresh rates. However, the data shows that Ultra at 4K is untenable at 28.6 FPS. For users with a 4K display, the Low preset is the most sensible choice, as it provides a 23% improvement over Medium and a 51% improvement over High, allowing the game to run smoothly without major visual compromises.

The Ultra preset, while visually superior, only makes sense at 1080p, where it achieves 79.3 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra’s 51.3 FPS is below the 60 FPS mark, and at 4K it is nearly unplayable. Therefore, the recommendation is to use Medium at 1440p as the default sweet spot, with Low reserved for 4K and Ultra only for 1080p users who prioritize fidelity over frame rate headroom.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the dominant factor in this game’s performance, given the CPU’s relative strength. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Hard West’s moderate texture requirements but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The card’s base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with 2560 shading units, deliver a peak FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS. These specifications position the GPU in the 65th percentile of all tested GPUs, which aligns with its measured behavior in this title.

The VRAM capacity is not a direct bottleneck in the measured results, as the performance drop from 1080p to 4K is more consistent with compute and bandwidth limitations than memory exhaustion. However, the 8 GB frame buffer is a consideration for future titles or higher texture packs. The GPU’s 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are irrelevant for this non-ray-traced game, but they contribute to the card’s overall architectural efficiency. The fact that the RTX 2070 SUPER sits between the RTX A400 and the GTX TITAN Z in average benchmark score, with a deltaPct of -0.5% and +0.9% respectively, indicates that its performance is well understood and consistent with its place in the lineup.

The GPU’s role is most evident in the Ultra preset at 4K, where the 28.6 FPS result reflects the card’s inability to maintain a playable frame rate under maximum load. At 1080p, the GPU still limits performance, as evidenced by the gap between Low (174.4 FPS) and Ultra (79.3 FPS), which shows that even at lower resolutions, the graphics card is not able to fully utilize the CPU’s capabilities. The CPU’s high single-thread score of 3218 in Cinebench R23 suggests it could push higher frame rates if the GPU were faster, but the RTX 2070 SUPER’s 9.062 TFLOPS is the ceiling for this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination performs admirably across all settings. The Low preset achieves 174.4 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset, indicating that the CPU and GPU are both operating efficiently at this resolution. Medium follows at 143.3 FPS, a 18% reduction from Low, while High drops to 109.5 FPS, a 24% reduction from Medium. Ultra is the most demanding at 79.3 FPS, which is still well above the 60 FPS standard. The 1080p results show a clear hierarchy where each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30 FPS, with the largest absolute gap between High and Ultra being 30.2 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates decline predictably. Low produces 106.4 FPS, which is a 39% drop from the 1080p Low result, showing that the GPU is beginning to feel the pixel load. Medium achieves 91.7 FPS, a 14% reduction from Low, while High falls to 71.3 FPS, a 22% reduction from Medium. Ultra at 1440p is 51.3 FPS, which is 28% below High and the only setting at this resolution that dips below 60 FPS. The 1440p data suggests that the RTX 2070 SUPER is comfortable at Low and Medium, but High and Ultra push it toward its limits.

At 3840x2160, the performance is marginal. Low delivers 58.6 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS target but playable for a turn-based game. Medium drops to 47.7 FPS, a 19% reduction, while High falls to 38 FPS, a 20% reduction. Ultra is the worst at 28.6 FPS, which is 25% below High. The 4K results show that only Low settings can approach a smooth frame rate, and even then, the margin is slim. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K is a 49% decline, which highlights the GPU’s diminishing capacity as resolution scales.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing ranks 1041 out of 1699 combos for Hard West, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems. This rank reflects the GPU’s age and mid-range positioning rather than any CPU deficiency. The Ryzen 5 7500F is a strong processor, sitting in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-11850H (0.1% slower) and the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (0.3% faster). The CPU’s performance is not a limiting factor in this game, as evidenced by the 1080p results, where even Ultra surpasses 60 FPS.

The RTX 2070 SUPER, however, is in the 65th percentile of GPUs, and its nearest rival, the RTX 4060 Mobile, is 2.3% faster, while the RX 5700 is 2.5% slower. This GPU positioning means that the combo’s rank is largely determined by the graphics card’s ability to handle higher resolutions. The 1041st rank out of 1699 combos suggests that many newer or higher-end GPU pairings will outperform this setup, particularly at 1440p and 4K. At 1080p, the combo’s performance is competitive, but the overall rank pulls it down due to the 4K results.

The data shows that this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it delivers strong frame rates across all settings, and acceptable performance at 1440p with Medium settings. For 4K, the combo falls short, which is consistent with the GPU’s end-of-life status and its 8 GB VRAM. The rank of 1041 indicates that a majority of tested combos offer better performance, likely due to more modern GPUs with higher compute throughput. The CPU, by contrast, is a future-proof component that will not hold back a GPU upgrade, but with the RTX 2070 SUPER, the system is firmly in the mid-range tier for this title.