Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination delivers a performance profile in Hard West that is defined by extreme GPU headroom, making the 6-core CPU the primary scaling factor at lower resolutions. The data shows a turn-based tactics title where frame rates are exceptionally high, but the relationship between resolution, settings, and the components reveals a clear bottleneck shift that favors the massive 32 GB GPU at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but not uniform across settings, indicating where the workload transitions from CPU-bound to GPU-bound. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 230 FPS at 1920x1080 to 148 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 82 FPS, and then further down to 78 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 66% performance loss from 1080p to 4K, which is a steep curve driven by the GPU's rendering load. However, the pattern at Low settings tells a different story: the average drops from 271 FPS at 1080p to 233 FPS at 1440p, and then to 123 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure at Low is only 45% of the 1080p Low result, showing that even with minimal graphical work, the RTX 5090 still struggles to maintain the same headroom at the highest resolution.

The limiting component shifts decisively based on resolution. At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 7500F with its 6 cores and 12 threads becomes the constraining factor, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS gap between Low (271 FPS) and High (230 FPS) settings — the GPU is not the bottleneck when the CPU's single-thread performance of 974 in 3DMark and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218 cannot feed frames fast enough. At 4K, the situation inverts: the RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are taxed heavily, and the FPS spread between Low (123 FPS) and High (78 FPS) widens, showing that the GPU's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance are the primary drivers of the output. Medium settings at 4K produce 101 FPS average with a minimum of 86 FPS and a maximum of 116 FPS, indicating that the GPU can handle moderate loads but the CPU still contributes to frame pacing at these mid-range settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 7500F and RTX 5090 ranks 106th out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 2.8% of all configurations. This rank is notable because the GPU, which sits at the 92nd percentile against all GPUs, is far more powerful than the CPU, which only reaches the 77th percentile against all CPUs. The data suggests that the combo's overall ranking is held back by the processor, as the GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355 and Passmark G3D score of 39650 are among the highest recorded, yet the CPU's average benchmark score of 24964 places it just marginally above its nearest rivals.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU's nearest competitors are closely matched: the Intel Core i7-11850H has an average score of 24935 with a deltaPct of 0.1%, meaning the Ryzen 5 7500F is only 0.1% faster, while the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F scores 25005 with a deltaPct of -0.2%, putting it slightly ahead. The Intel Core i7-13620H at 24911 (deltaPct 0.2%) and Intel Core 5 210H at 24872 (deltaPct 0.4%) are similarly close, showing that the CPU's raw compute is not exceptional for its class. In Hard West, this means the combo's 106th rank is a function of the GPU's dominance rather than CPU strength; without the RTX 5090, the ranking would likely fall significantly, as the game's turn-based nature does not heavily leverage the CPU's 12 threads.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Zen 4 Raphael architecture, built on a 5 nm TSMC process with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3, which is critical for a game like Hard West that relies on predictable, low-thread workloads. The CPU's single-thread performance is a key indicator: a Passmark single-thread score of 3841 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2374 suggest strong per-core capability, but the game's turn-based tactics genre typically does not scale beyond a few threads.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p where the difference between Low and Ultra settings is only 96 FPS (271 vs 175 FPS average). This narrow spread indicates that the CPU is delivering frames as fast as it can, and the GPU is waiting on the processor's 12 threads to issue draw calls. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22799 and 3DMark max threads score of 6379 show that the CPU can handle multi-threaded loads, but Hard West does not utilize these capabilities beyond a few cores, leaving the 6-core design with headroom that goes unused. The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the game's data streaming needs, but the processor's 77th percentile ranking versus all CPUs means it is not a top-tier part, and the data reflects this in the 1080p ceiling of 271 FPS average at Low settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5090 paired with the Ryzen 5 7500F produces the following averages: Low settings reach 271 FPS, Medium settings drop to 253 FPS with a minimum of 215 FPS and a maximum of 291 FPS, High settings yield 230 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 175 FPS. The Medium settings data is the only complete set at this resolution, showing a 76 FPS range between minimum and maximum, which suggests some frame pacing variability. At 2560x1440, the averages are 233 FPS for Low, 192 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 163 FPS and maximum of 221 FPS), 148 FPS for High, and 111 FPS for Ultra. The 1440p Medium results show a narrower 58 FPS range, indicating that the GPU is taking on more consistent work.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 123 FPS for Low, 101 FPS for Medium (with a minimum of 86 FPS and maximum of 116 FPS), 78 FPS for High, and 58 FPS for Ultra. The 4K Medium data shows a 30 FPS range, which is the tightest spread across all resolutions, suggesting that the GPU's 32 GB memory buffer and 512-bit bus width are well-suited to the game's assets at this setting. The progression from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent halving of frame rates at each resolution step for High settings (230 to 148 to 78 FPS), but the Low settings path (271 to 233 to 123 FPS) shows a steeper drop at 4K, confirming that the GPU's 176 ROPs and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate become the limiting factor when the resolution increases.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with a GB202 chip, built on a 5 nm process with 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for Hard West's textures and draw distances. The GPU's 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs provide a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s, which are the key metrics for this turn-based game's static scenes and minimal particle effects.

The GPU's role in the measured FPS is most evident at 4K, where the difference between Low (123 FPS) and Ultra (58 FPS) is 65 FPS, showing that the RTX 5090's raw compute power is being exercised across settings. The GPU's boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are modest for a flagship, but the FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the game maintains a playable 58 FPS average. The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking against all GPUs is supported by a Passmark G3D score of 39650 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 334370, but its nearest rivals — the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB with an average score of 79605 (deltaPct 0.3%) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78940 (deltaPct 1.1%) — are far less capable in gaming workloads. The RTX 5090's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is the standout feature for Hard West, as the game's turn-based nature does not demand high frame rates, but the data shows that the GPU is still the dominant component in this combo, driving the 106th rank out of 3722 combos.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this combo in Hard West?*

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 271 at 1920x1080 with Low settings, while the lowest average is 58 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: At which resolution does the CPU become the primary bottleneck?

A: At 1920x1080, the FPS difference between Low (271 FPS) and High (230 FPS) is only 41 FPS, indicating the Ryzen 5 7500F's 6 cores and 12 threads limit the GPU's output, as the RTX 5090 is capable of much higher frame rates.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 106th out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 2.8% of all configurations, but the CPU's 77th percentile ranking versus all CPUs suggests the GPU's 92nd percentile performance is largely responsible for this position.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 2560x1440 Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 192, with a minimum of 163 FPS and a maximum of 221 FPS, showing a 58 FPS range.

*Q: Does the GPU's 32 GB VRAM provide any advantage in Hard West?*

A: The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on the RTX 5090 is not fully utilized by this 2015 turn-based tactics game, but the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth and 512-bit bus width contribute to the tight frame pacing seen at 4K Medium settings, where the range is only 30 FPS.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance score that influences 1080p results?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500F achieves a Passmark single-thread score of 3841 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218, which are the key metrics that cap the 1080p frame rates at 271 FPS average on Low settings.