Hard West

Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015, responds predictably to modern hardware, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and Intel Arc B580 produces a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. The measured data shows a system that is thoroughly capable at 1080p, solid at 1440p, and only at 4K does the Intel Arc B580 begin to show its limits. This analysis walks through the measured FPS rows, settings recommendations, and the division of labor between the six-core CPU and the 12 GB GPU, using only the provided benchmark data.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combination in Hard West provides a straightforward path for optimization, with the optimal preset depending entirely on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the system has ample headroom across all settings. The Low preset delivers an average of 151 FPS, while Medium reduces that to 124 FPS, and High drops further to 95 FPS. Even the most demanding Ultra preset maintains a playable 71 FPS average. Given that the lowest measured average at 1080p is still well above 60 FPS, the recommendation is to prioritize visual fidelity. The Ultra preset, at 71 FPS average, offers the best experience for users with 60 Hz displays, as it provides the highest image quality while remaining comfortably above the refresh rate threshold. For users with high-refresh monitors, the High preset at 95 FPS average strikes a better balance, offering a significant frame rate increase over Ultra while still retaining most of the graphical enhancements. The Medium preset at 124 FPS is only advisable for competitive play or for those who prioritize frame rate above all else, but the data does not suggest it is necessary for a smooth experience.

At 2560x1440, the performance picture changes, and the recommendations must be adjusted accordingly. The Low preset posts a 96 FPS average, which is excellent for this resolution. Medium follows at 79 FPS, and High at 60 FPS exactly. The Ultra preset, however, drops to a 45 FPS average. For 1440p, the High preset is the clear winner. At exactly 60 FPS average, it provides a fluid experience that matches standard display refresh rates, and it does so with more visual detail than the Medium preset. The Medium preset, at 79 FPS, is a reasonable alternative for those who want a buffer above 60 FPS, but the jump to High is relatively modest in cost. The Ultra preset should be avoided at this resolution, as 45 FPS is below the 60 FPS target and would result in a less smooth experience. The Low preset, while fast, sacrifices too much visual quality for a turn-based tactics game where immersion matters.

At 3840x2160, the Intel Arc B580 is the limiting factor, and the settings recommendation becomes a matter of compromise. The Low preset yields a 50 FPS average, which is the only preset that approaches playability. Medium drops to 41 FPS, High to 32 FPS, and Ultra to 24 FPS. None of these reach the 60 FPS target. For 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option for a semi-fluid experience, but the data suggests that users should consider dropping to 1440p and using High settings instead, which provides a 60 FPS average and a much better visual experience overall. If 4K is a hard requirement, the Low preset at 50 FPS is the best the data shows, but it is a significant compromise. The Medium preset at 41 FPS is playable for a turn-based game, where frame rate dips are less noticeable than in action titles, but it is not ideal. The High and Ultra presets at 4K are effectively unusable for a smooth experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1920x1080 with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: The Ultra preset provides a 71 FPS average, which is the highest quality setting that still maintains a frame rate above 60 FPS. For users wanting higher frame rates, the High preset at 95 FPS average is the next best option, while the Low preset at 151 FPS average is only for those who prioritize maximum performance over visual quality.

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

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the maximum average FPS is 50 on the Low preset. The Medium preset drops to 41 FPS, High to 32 FPS, and Ultra to 24 FPS. While the game is playable at Low settings, none of the presets reach a 60 FPS average, indicating that 4K is a significant challenge for the Intel Arc B580 in this title.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to the High preset at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves a 60 FPS average, which is exactly at the standard 60 Hz refresh rate target. The Ultra preset drops to a 45 FPS average, which is a 25% reduction in frame rate. The data suggests that the High preset is the better choice at this resolution, as it offers a smoother experience with a modest loss in visual fidelity.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1920x1080?

A: The Low preset averages 151 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 71 FPS. This represents a difference of 80 FPS, with the Low preset being more than twice as fast as the Ultra preset. The Medium preset at 124 FPS and High preset at 95 FPS sit between these two extremes.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at 3840x2160. The frame rates drop significantly from 1080p to 4K, with the 1080p High preset at 95 FPS falling to 32 FPS at 4K High. This scaling behavior is typical of GPU-bound scenarios, where the resolution increase places more load on the graphics card than the processor.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset has recorded minimum FPS values for all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 105 FPS, at 2560x1440 it is 67 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it is 35 FPS. These minimums show that the frame pacing remains consistent, with no severe dips below the averages.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a six-core, twelve-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on the Raphael codename using a 5 nm process from TSMC. Its base clock is 4.00 GHz with a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, and it has a 96 MB shared L3 cache. In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game from 2015, the CPU's role is less demanding than in fast-paced action titles, but the data still shows its influence on performance. The PassMark single-thread score for this CPU is 3494, while the multithread score is 25047. These scores place the processor at the 89th percentile versus all CPUs, indicating strong overall performance.

The game's engine, being from 2015, is likely to be more sensitive to single-thread performance than to multi-core scaling. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D's single-thread score of 3494 is competitive, and the data shows that at lower resolutions, the CPU is able to feed the GPU sufficiently. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 151 FPS, which suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at this resolution, as the frame rate is high enough to indicate the GPU is the primary limiter. The L3 cache of 96 MB is a notable feature, but the measured data does not provide a direct link between cache size and game performance. The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth are also factors, but their impact on Hard West is not explicitly quantified in the FPS data.

The CPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, include the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H with a delta of 0.2% and the Intel Core i9-13950HX with a delta of 0.5%. These are all within a narrow band of performance, with the Ryzen 5 7500X3D's avgBenchmarkScore of 44573 sitting close to the Intel Core i5-14600, which has a delta of -0.7%. For a game like Hard West, which is not heavily threaded, the single-thread performance is more relevant, and the data shows that the CPU is capable of delivering high frame rates at 1080p, where CPU overhead is more apparent.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and Intel Arc B580 ranks 2221 out of 2949 tested combos in Hard West. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the rankings, which is somewhat surprising given the individual component scores. The CPU has an avgBenchmarkScore of 44573, which is at the 89th percentile, and the GPU has an avgBenchmarkScore of 23021, which is at the 68th percentile. The combo rank of 2221 suggests that the pairing is not optimized for this specific game, or that other combinations with similar or lower individual scores perform better.

The data shows that the combo rank is 2221, which means that 728 other combinations perform better. This could be due to the game's age and its preferences for certain hardware architectures. The Intel Arc B580, with its Xe2-HPG architecture and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, may not be fully utilized by a 2015 title that was likely optimized for older graphics APIs. The GPU's PassMark G3D score is 15748, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP with a delta of -0.2% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 with a delta of 0.6%. These scores indicate that the B580 is a mid-range performer, and in Hard West, it performs accordingly.

The ranking also reflects the CPU's contribution. With a rank of 2221, the combo is not in the top quartile, but it is also not at the bottom. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the system delivers high frame rates, which is a positive sign. The rank is likely dragged down by the 4K performance, where the GPU struggles. The data shows that the Ultra preset at 4K only achieves 24 FPS, which is a poor result compared to other combos that may handle 4K better. The combo rank, therefore, is a holistic measure that balances the strong 1080p performance against the weak 4K performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases. Starting at 1920x1080, the High preset averages 95 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the same preset drops to 60 FPS, which is a 37% reduction. At 3840x2160, the High preset further drops to 32 FPS, which is a 47% reduction from the 1440p figure and a 66% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels rendered has a direct impact on frame rate.

The Low preset shows a similar trend. At 1080p, it averages 151 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 96 FPS (a 36% reduction), and at 4K it falls to 50 FPS (a 48% reduction from 1440p and a 67% reduction from 1080p). The Medium preset follows with 124 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p (a 36% reduction), and 41 FPS at 4K (a 48% reduction from 1440p and a 67% reduction from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows the steepest drops: 71 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p (a 37% reduction), and 24 FPS at 4K (a 47% reduction from 1440p and a 66% reduction from 1080p).

The consistency of these percentage drops across all presets is telling. Each resolution step from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rate by roughly 36-37%, and from 1440p to 4K by roughly 47-48%. This uniformity indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, as the CPU's workload does not scale with resolution in the same way. The Intel Arc B580's 12 GB of VRAM and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the data demands, but the raw rendering power, as measured by its 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 performance, is the bottleneck. The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 7500X3D is not the limiting factor, as the frame rate drops are almost entirely attributable to the increased pixel count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combination in Hard West is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 151 FPS, with no minimum or maximum values recorded. The Medium preset averages 124 FPS, with a minimum of 105 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. The High preset averages 95 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 71 FPS, with no min or max values for either. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 96 FPS. The Medium preset averages 79 FPS, with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. The High preset averages 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 45 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 50 FPS. The Medium preset averages 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS. The High preset averages 32 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 24 FPS.

These numbers show a clear hierarchy. The Low preset always delivers the highest frame rate, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra in that order. The gaps between presets are consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 80 FPS, at 1440p it is 51 FPS, and at 4K it is 26 FPS. The absolute difference shrinks as resolution increases, but the percentage difference remains similar, with Ultra being roughly 47% of Low's frame rate at each resolution. The Medium preset's min and max values provide insight into frame pacing. At 1080p, the min of 105 FPS and max of 143 FPS show a range of 38 FPS, while at 1440p, the range is 23 FPS, and at 4K, the range is 12 FPS. This tightening of the range at higher resolutions is expected, as the GPU becomes more consistently loaded.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the primary driver of the frame rate differences observed across settings and resolutions. This GPU, based on the Xe2-HPG architecture and Battlemage generation, has a base and boost clock of 2670 MHz, 2560 shading units, and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth is 456.0 GB/s, and it has a TDP of 190 W. The GPU's PassMark G3D score is 15748, which places it at the 68th percentile versus all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (delta of -0.2%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (delta of 0.6%), indicating that its overall performance is similar to those older cards.

In Hard West, the GPU's role is evident in the resolution scaling data. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are significant, with the High preset falling from 95 FPS to 32 FPS. This behavior is consistent with a GPU that has limited raw rendering power for high-resolution workloads. The 12 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor in this game, as Hard West is not a VRAM-intensive title, and the data does not show any anomalies that would suggest memory capacity issues. The GPU's FP32 performance of 13.67 TFLOPS and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s are the specifications that likely determine its fill rate, and the measured FPS numbers reflect a mid-range result.

The GPU's clocks are a fixed 2670 MHz for both base and boost, which is a high operating frequency. The measured data shows that at 1080p, the GPU is able to produce high frame rates, but at 4K, it falls below 60 FPS on all presets. This indicates that the GPU's compute and rasterization capabilities are the limiting factor, not its memory subsystem or clock speed. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3068 is a synthetic benchmark that aligns with the GPU's mid-range positioning, and the PassMark DirectX 11 score of 128 further confirms this. The GPU's role in this combo is to provide a solid 1080p and 1440p experience, while 4K requires significant settings reductions to maintain playable frame rates.