Hard West

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + Intel Arc B570 combo in Hard West?

A: This combo ranks 2360 out of 2949 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. That rank reflects a pairing where the GPU is the primary limiter at higher settings, while the CPU has enough headroom to push high frame rates at lower settings.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in raw benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, +0.1% delta) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, -0.1% delta). It sits slightly above the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, +0.4%) and slightly below the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662, -0.5%). This means the B570 is statistically tied with those four GPUs in synthetic tests.

Q: What is the CPU's position relative to its nearest rivals in overall processing power?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 has an average benchmark score of 26324, placing it within 0.5% of four close rivals: the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (26274, +0.2% delta), AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (26402, -0.3%), Intel Core i9-11900KF (26212, +0.4%), and AMD Ryzen 5 8540U (26187, +0.5%). The 7600's 78th percentile ranking among all CPUs shows it is a solid mid-range performer.

Q: Can this combo run Hard West at 4K resolution with playable frame rates?

A: At 3840x2160, the best playable result is on Low settings with an average of 44 FPS. Medium drops to 36 FPS (with a min of 31 and max of 42), High falls to 28 FPS, and Ultra is only 21 FPS. So 4K is only viable at Low or Medium, and even then the experience is marginal.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for smooth gameplay?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 134 FPS average, Medium hits 110 FPS (min 93, max 126), and High provides 84 FPS. The 2560x1440 Low preset offers 85 FPS, which is also smooth. For a balance of visual quality and performance, 1080p Medium or 1440p Low are the recommended targets.

Q: How much faster is the CPU in single-threaded versus multi-threaded workloads?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 scores 1852 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 12735 in multi-core, showing roughly 6.9x scaling with all cores active. In Geekbench, the single-core score is 2521 versus 13413 multi-core, indicating strong per-core efficiency and good multi-thread scaling from its 6 cores and 12 threads.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the decisive factor in Hard West's performance envelope. Its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for this turn-based tactics title even at high resolutions. The GPU's base and boost clocks are both fixed at 2500 MHz, meaning there is no dynamic clock variation to consider in frame pacing. With 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation units, the B570 delivers a theoretical pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s.

The card's 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the raw throughput driving the measured results. In Hard West, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset achieves 63 FPS, but at 3840x2160, Ultra drops to 21 FPS — a 3x performance hit from the 1080p result. This scaling suggests that the B570's 10 GB frame buffer is sufficient, but the compute units are overwhelmed by the pixel workload at 4K.

The synthetic benchmarks confirm the B570 sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs. Its PassMark G3D score of 14195 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 indicate a mid-range part. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 96844 versus OpenCL of 83514 shows the architecture favors Vulkan, which is relevant for modern titles but less so for Hard West's older engine. The GPU's nearest rivals — the RTX 3070 Mobile, Arc A750, Quadro M4000M, and R9 M390X — all have average scores within 0.5% of the B570, meaning the hardware is competitively positioned in synthetic tests.

In practice, the B570's performance in Hard West is constrained by its 160-bit memory bus and 10 GB capacity at 4K, but at 1080p and 1440p it has enough headroom. The 150 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest it is a mainstream card, and the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface is adequate for this game's data transfer needs. The 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die (5 nm TSMC process) give it a density of 72.1M transistors per mm², which is efficient but not class-leading.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2360 out of 2949 tested combos in Hard West, putting it in the 20th percentile of all configurations. This is a below-average result for a modern pairing, but the data reveals why: the game is heavily GPU-limited at higher settings, and the B570's mid-range standing drags the combo down.

Looking at the components individually, the CPU is a strong performer. The Ryzen 5 7600 sits at the 78th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26324. It is statistically tied with the Ryzen 9 6900HX (0.2% faster), Ryzen 7 7435HS (0.3% slower), Core i9-11900KF (0.4% faster), and Ryzen 5 8540U (0.5% faster). In contrast, the GPU is at the 65th percentile, with an average score of 20556. This mismatch — a top-quartile CPU paired with a mid-range GPU — means the combo's rank is limited by the graphics card.

The rank of 2360 out of 2949 suggests that most other tested combos either have stronger GPUs or are better balanced for this specific title. Hard West is a turn-based tactics game from 2015, so it does not require enormous CPU resources; the bottleneck is almost entirely the GPU's ability to render frames at the chosen resolution and settings. At 1080p, the combo performs well (134 FPS on Low), but at 4K Ultra it falls to 21 FPS, which is unplayable. This wide spread explains why the combo's overall rank is low — it cannot sustain high frame rates across the full range of test conditions.

The data indicates that if the same CPU were paired with a higher-tier GPU, the combo rank would improve significantly. Conversely, pairing the B570 with a weaker CPU would not change the outcome much in this game, since the CPU is rarely the limiting factor. For users considering this combo for Hard West specifically, the rank implies that lower resolutions and settings are the only viable path to smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best balance: 110 FPS average with a minimum of 93 and maximum of 126. This provides smooth, consistent frame pacing that exceeds the 60 FPS threshold by a wide margin. The High preset drops to 84 FPS, which is still playable but less comfortable, while Ultra falls to 63 FPS — just above 60 but with less headroom. Low at 134 FPS is unnecessary unless the user prioritizes maximum frame rate over visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is the recommended choice, delivering 85 FPS average. Medium drops to 69 FPS (min 59, max 80), which is borderline acceptable but risks dips below 60. High at 53 FPS and Ultra at 40 FPS are not recommended for smooth gameplay. The 1440p Low setting retains enough visual fidelity for a turn-based tactics game while keeping frame rates comfortable.

At 3840x2160, no preset provides an ideal experience. Low achieves 44 FPS, Medium 36 FPS (min 31, max 42), High 28 FPS, and Ultra 21 FPS. For users who insist on 4K, Low is the only option that approaches playability, but even that is marginal. The data suggests that 4K is not a practical target for this combo in Hard West.

The measured rows show a clear pattern: each settings tier reduces average FPS by roughly 20-30% as you move from Low to Medium, Medium to High, and High to Ultra. At 1080p, the gap between Low (134) and Ultra (63) is 71 FPS, while at 4K the same gap is only 23 FPS (44 to 21). This compression at higher resolutions indicates the GPU is hitting its compute ceiling, making settings adjustments less impactful at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 134 FPS. Medium settings yield 110 FPS with a minimum of 93 and maximum of 126, showing tight frame pacing. High settings drop to 84 FPS average. Ultra settings reduce performance to 63 FPS average. The 1080p results span a wide range — from 63 to 134 FPS — giving users substantial flexibility in choosing between visual quality and frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings maintain an average of 85 FPS, which is still smooth. Medium settings deliver 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 and maximum of 80, meaning occasional dips below 60 are possible. High settings fall to 53 FPS, and Ultra drops to 40 FPS. The 1440p data shows a 45 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, indicating that the GPU can handle this resolution at lower settings but struggles with higher presets.

At 3840x2160, the results are consistently below playable thresholds for most users. Low settings average 44 FPS. Medium settings achieve 36 FPS with a minimum of 31 and maximum of 42, showing that even the minimum frame rate is below 60. High settings produce 28 FPS, and Ultra falls to 21 FPS. The 4K data shows a 23 FPS spread across all settings, revealing that the GPU is the bottleneck regardless of configuration.

The Medium settings rows are the only ones with min/max data, providing additional insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the 93-126 FPS range shows a 33 FPS variance, which is acceptable. At 1440p Medium, the 59-80 FPS range has a 21 FPS variance, indicating tighter frame pacing. At 4K Medium, the 31-42 FPS range has only an 11 FPS variance, suggesting the GPU is consistently near its limit.

Across all resolutions, the ratio of Low to Ultra performance is consistent: 1080p shows 134/63 = 2.13x, 1440p shows 85/40 = 2.13x, and 4K shows 44/21 = 2.10x. This uniform scaling indicates that the settings presets have a consistent effect on GPU workload, independent of resolution. The absolute frame rates, however, are heavily resolution-dependent, with 4K delivering roughly one-third of the 1080p performance at every settings tier.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 plays a supporting role in Hard West, providing more than enough processing power for this turn-based tactics title. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture (Raphael), the CPU has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. This 1.30 GHz boost range allows the processor to rapidly scale up for demanding scenes, though Hard West's turn-based gameplay rarely stresses the CPU to its limits.

The CPU's cache hierarchy — 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 32 MB shared L3 — ensures that game logic and AI calculations have fast access to data. The 5 nm TSMC process node houses 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die, making it a compact and efficient design. Memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration provides 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for this game's data requirements.

Synthetic benchmarks confirm the CPU's strength. In Cinebench R23, it scores 1852 single-core and 12735 multi-core, indicating that single-threaded performance is excellent for a 2023 processor. Geekbench scores of 2521 single-core and 13413 multi-core reinforce this picture. The PassMark multi-thread score of 27058 and single-thread score of 3910 show balanced performance across workloads. The 3DMark tests — single-thread 999, 2-thread 1938, 4-thread 3686, 8-thread 5508, and max-thread 6503 — demonstrate effective scaling up to 8 threads, with marginal gains beyond that.

The CPU's 78th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26324, places it in the upper mid-range. Its nearest rivals are all within 0.5% in average score, confirming that the 7600 is competitively positioned. The Ryzen 9 6900HX is 0.2% faster, the Ryzen 7 7435HS is 0.3% slower, the Core i9-11900KF is 0.4% faster, and the Ryzen 5 8540U is 0.5% faster. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

In Hard West specifically, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, pathfinding, and AI turns without becoming a bottleneck. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 134 FPS, which is well beyond what the CPU would limit. Even at 4K Ultra with 21 FPS, the CPU is not the constraint — the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The 7600's 12 threads and high boost clock ensure that even during complex turn-based sequences, the CPU can feed the GPU with enough data to maintain the measured frame rates.

The CPU's integrated Radeon Graphics are not used in this configuration, but their presence adds flexibility. The 65 W TDP, unlocked multiplier, and AMD Socket AM5 compatibility make it a versatile platform component. For Hard West, the Ryzen 5 7600 is overkill in the best sense — it guarantees that the GPU is always the limiting factor, which is the correct balance for a game that is visually simple but resolution-sensitive.