Hard West

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Hard West with the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 shows a clear progression as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the combo produces 74 FPS on average. Moving to 2560x1440 at Ultra drops that figure to 47 FPS, a reduction of 27 FPS. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average falls to 25 FPS, which is a 49 FPS decline from the 1080p result.

Examining the Low settings row reveals the scaling pattern more directly. At 1920x1080 Low, the system delivers 157 FPS. At 2560x1440 Low, it achieves 100 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it reaches 52 FPS. This represents a 33% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 48% drop from 1440p to 4K when using Low settings. The frame rate reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low is 105 FPS, indicating that the rendering load at 4K is substantially heavier even with minimal graphical features enabled.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the combination is likely CPU-limited or engine-limited in certain scenarios, because the jump from Low to Ultra only reduces FPS from 157 to 74 — a 83 FPS spread. At 1440p, the spread between Low and Ultra is 53 FPS (100 to 47), and at 4K it narrows to 27 FPS (52 to 25). As resolution climbs, the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor, as evidenced by the shrinking gap between settings presets at higher resolutions. The 4K Medium row shows a minimum of 36 FPS and maximum of 49 FPS, with an average of 43, while the 1440p Medium row has a minimum of 69 FPS and maximum of 94 FPS, averaging 82. These ranges indicate that even within a single settings preset, frame times vary considerably at higher resolutions.

The RX 7600 with its 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be the primary constraint at 4K, where even Low settings only yield 52 FPS. For a turn-based tactics game, this may be acceptable, but the data clearly shows that 4K Ultra is not a playable target for this combo, whereas 1080p and 1440p offer much more headroom.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings for this combo?

A: The measured average FPS is 74 at 1920x1080 Ultra. This is the highest settings preset available in the data, and it still maintains a playable frame rate above 60 FPS.

Q: How does the 3840x2160 Medium result compare to 2560x1440 Medium?

A: At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 43, with a minimum of 36 and maximum of 49. At 1440p Medium, the average is 82, with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 94. The 4K result is roughly 48% lower than the 1440p result on average.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 a strong performer in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU has a percentile rank of 78 when compared against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26324. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, scores 26274, a delta of 0.2%, meaning the 7600 is essentially tied with that mobile flagship.

Q: What is the GPU's benchmark percentile and how does it compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600 has a percentile rank of 57 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15171. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM, scores 15199, a delta of -0.2%, indicating the RX 7600 is slightly behind that card in aggregate benchmarks.

Q: What is the combo's rank in Hard West among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2575 out of 3722 tested combinations in this game. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all tested systems, with roughly 31% of combinations performing better.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and High settings at 2560x1440?

A: At 1440p, Low settings produce an average of 100 FPS, while High settings produce 63 FPS. This is a 37 FPS reduction when moving from Low to High, indicating that the higher preset imposes a significant additional rendering load.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 achieves a rank of 2575 out of 3722 tested combinations in Hard West. This rank places the combo in the 69th percentile — meaning about 31% of all tested systems deliver higher frame rates in this game. Given that this is a turn-based tactics title from 2015, the combination is by no means at the top of the leaderboard, but it is firmly in the upper half of the distribution.

To contextualize this rank, consider the individual component standings. The CPU has a percentile rank of 78 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 78% of tested processors in synthetic workloads. The GPU has a percentile rank of 57 against all GPUs, meaning it outperforms 57% of tested graphics cards. The combo's in-game rank of 2575/3722 (69th percentile) sits between these two figures, suggesting that Hard West's performance is not solely dictated by either component but rather by how they interact under this game's specific rendering demands.

The nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (deltaPct 0.2%), AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (deltaPct -0.3%), Intel Core i9-11900KF (deltaPct 0.4%), and AMD Ryzen 5 8540U (deltaPct 0.5%). These deltas are all within half a percent, meaning the 7600 is effectively interchangeable with these processors in raw compute terms. For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (deltaPct -0.2%), AMD Radeon Pro 560X (deltaPct 0.6%), AMD Radeon 680M (deltaPct -0.7%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (deltaPct 0.7%). Again, the differences are minimal, with the RX 7600 essentially matching these cards in aggregate benchmark scores.

The fact that the combo ranks 2575 out of 3722 — rather than higher — suggests that Hard West may not scale perfectly with the strengths of this hardware. The game's turn-based nature likely means that frame rates are not the primary concern, but the data shows that the RX 7600's mid-range position (57th percentile) drags the overall combo down from what the CPU alone would suggest. If the GPU were as strong relative to its peers as the CPU is, the combo rank would likely be higher.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, all four presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — produce average FPS above 60. The Low preset achieves 157 FPS, Medium reaches 129 FPS, High hits 99 FPS, and Ultra maintains 74 FPS. For a turn-based tactics game, even the Ultra preset at 1080p is well within comfortable territory, so players can maximize visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the picture changes. Low delivers 100 FPS, Medium delivers 82 FPS, and High delivers 63 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. Given that Hard West is turn-based, 47 FPS may still be acceptable, but the data suggests that High settings at 1440p offer the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate — 63 FPS average with no reported minimums below playable levels.

At 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. Low yields 52 FPS, Medium yields 43 FPS (min 36, max 49), High yields 33 FPS, and Ultra yields 25 FPS. None of these presets reach 60 FPS at 4K. The Low preset at 52 FPS is the only one that approaches a smooth experience, and even it falls short. Players targeting 4K with this combo would need to accept either Low settings or a frame rate in the 25-43 FPS range. Given the turn-based nature of the game, Medium at 4K (43 FPS average) might be the most reasonable compromise, as it provides better visual quality than Low while maintaining a playable, if not perfectly smooth, frame rate.

The data indicates that the best overall experience is achieved at 2560x1440 with High settings, which delivers 63 FPS average. This provides a substantial visual upgrade over Low settings while remaining above 60 FPS. For players who prioritize frame rate above all else, 1920x1080 with Ultra settings at 74 FPS is the highest quality preset that still exceeds 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, for a total of twelve data points. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 157 FPS. The Medium preset produces an average of 129 FPS, with a minimum of 110 and maximum of 148 FPS. The High preset produces an average of 99 FPS, and the Ultra preset produces an average of 74 FPS. This represents a spread of 83 FPS from Low to Ultra at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset produces an average of 100 FPS. The Medium preset produces an average of 82 FPS, with a minimum of 69 and maximum of 94 FPS. The High preset produces an average of 63 FPS, and the Ultra preset produces an average of 47 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 53 FPS, narrower than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces an average of 52 FPS. The Medium preset produces an average of 43 FPS, with a minimum of 36 and maximum of 49 FPS. The High preset produces an average of 33 FPS, and the Ultra preset produces an average of 25 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 27 FPS, the narrowest of the three resolutions.

Comparing across resolutions for the same preset, the Low settings row shows the largest absolute drop: from 157 FPS at 1080p to 100 FPS at 1440p to 52 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset drops from 129 at 1080p to 82 at 1440p to 43 at 4K. The High preset drops from 99 at 1080p to 63 at 1440p to 33 at 4K. The Ultra preset drops from 74 at 1080p to 47 at 1440p to 25 at 4K. In every case, the 1080p to 1440p transition costs roughly 30-40% of the frame rate, and the 1440p to 4K transition costs another 40-50%.

The minimum and maximum FPS values are only recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the range is 110 to 148 FPS, a 38 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range is 69 to 94 FPS, a 25 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 36 to 49 FPS, a 13 FPS spread. This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that frame pacing becomes more consistent as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, whereas at lower resolutions, CPU or engine variability creates wider swings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on the Zen 4 architecture with a 5 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 32 MB shared L3. It supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 7600 shows strong single-thread performance with a 3dmark single-thread score of 999 and a cinebench R23 single-core score of 1852. Its multi-thread scores include a cinebench R23 multicore score of 12735 and a passmark multithread score of 27058. The CPU's percentile rank of 78 against all CPUs indicates it outperforms the majority of tested processors.

For Hard West, a turn-based tactics game released in 2015, the CPU's role is likely less demanding than in fast-paced action titles. Turn-based games typically have fewer simultaneous entities and less complex physics, meaning the single-thread performance of the 7600 (with a geekbench single-core score of 2521 and passmark single-thread score of 3910) is likely sufficient. The 12 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and any engine multithreading.

The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 157 FPS, which is well above what most displays can show. This suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor at lower resolutions. The fact that FPS drops substantially when moving to higher resolutions — regardless of settings preset — indicates that the GPU takes over as the primary constraint. The CPU's high single-thread scores and 78th percentile ranking suggest it has plenty of capability for this game, and the bottleneck at 4K is almost certainly not the processor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is based on the Navi 33 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 6 nm process. It has a base clock of 1720 MHz, a game clock of 2250 MHz, and a boost clock of 2655 MHz. The memory configuration consists of 8 GB GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 7600 achieves a passmark G3D score of 16634 and a geekbench OpenCL score of 88051. Its percentile rank of 57 against all GPUs places it in the middle of the distribution, which is consistent with its measured performance in Hard West. The GPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (deltaPct -0.2%), AMD Radeon Pro 560X (deltaPct 0.6%), AMD Radeon 680M (deltaPct -0.7%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (deltaPct 0.7%).

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a notable consideration for Hard West at high resolutions. While the game is from 2015 and likely not extremely VRAM-hungry, the 4K Ultra preset only produces 25 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is heavily taxed at that resolution. The 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth may also be limiting factors, as higher resolutions require more memory bandwidth to feed the shader units.

The FPS data shows that the GPU is the clear bottleneck at 4K. Even at Low settings, the RX 7600 only manages 52 FPS, and at Ultra it drops to 25 FPS. The narrowing FPS spread between settings at higher resolutions — from 83 FPS at 1080p to 27 FPS at 4K — confirms that the GPU's compute and memory resources are saturated at 4K regardless of the quality preset. The RX 7600's 57th percentile ranking suggests that mid-range GPUs will struggle with 4K in this title, while the 1080p and 1440p results demonstrate that the card is well-suited for those resolutions.