Hard West

# Hard West Performance Analysis: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a robust experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. This combination ranks 1581 out of 3722 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of systems evaluated for this game. The data indicates that this pairing is well-balanced for the game's demands, with the CPU's strong single-thread performance and the GPU's substantial rasterization power combining to produce high frame rates across most settings, though the Ultra preset at 4K does present a challenge.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1581 out of 3722 tested configurations places it in the 57th percentile of all tested systems for Hard West. This is a respectable position, suggesting that the Ryzen 5 7600 and RTX 3070 combination outperforms the majority of systems tested for this title. The CPU itself holds a strong position in the broader benchmark landscape, sitting at the 78th percentile versus all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 26324. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (0.2% ahead), the Intel Core i9-11900KF (0.4% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 5 8540U (0.5% ahead), and the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (0.3% behind). These tight margins indicate the Ryzen 5 7600 is a highly competitive processor, just a fraction of a percent off from much higher-tier mobile and older desktop chips.

On the GPU side, the RTX 3070 achieves a 61st percentile ranking versus all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 17208. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (0.7% ahead), the NVIDIA Tesla K40c (1.5% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (1% behind), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (1.1% behind). The fact that the GPU's percentile is lower than the CPU's is notable, but the actual in-game performance data suggests this does not create a bottleneck for the majority of settings. The combination's rank within the game itself reflects a synergy where both components contribute meaningfully, with neither dramatically holding back the other at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all tested resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 173 FPS average, which is only 38 FPS lower than Low but 74 FPS higher than Ultra. This provides a smooth, responsive experience with significantly better visual fidelity than Low. At 1440p, Medium maintains a strong 109 FPS average, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for fluid gameplay, while High drops to 84 FPS and Ultra falls to 63 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K produces 57 FPS, which is playable, but the High preset at 44 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS fall below ideal smoothness.

The Low preset delivers the highest frame rates—211 FPS at 1080p, 133 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K—but sacrifices visual detail in a game where atmospheric presentation contributes to the tactical experience. The High preset provides a noticeable step up in quality from Medium, but the performance penalty is substantial: 40 FPS lower at 1080p, 25 FPS lower at 1440p, and 13 FPS lower at 4K. For most users, Medium represents the sweet spot, offering frame rates that are more than adequate for a turn-based tactics title while retaining enough graphical fidelity to appreciate the game's art direction. Ultra is only recommended for 1080p, where 99 FPS is still perfectly playable.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings drops performance from 173 FPS to 109 FPS, a 37% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, the Medium preset falls further to 57 FPS, another 48% reduction. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3070's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth become increasingly stressed as pixel count rises. The GPU's 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is substantial, but the memory subsystem is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings. At High, performance drops from 133 FPS at 1080p to 84 FPS at 1440p, then to 44 FPS at 4K. At Ultra, the progression is 99 FPS to 63 FPS to 33 FPS. Interestingly, the Low preset shows the most dramatic relative drop from 1440p to 4K—from 133 FPS to 70 FPS, a 47% reduction—suggesting that even at minimal settings, the sheer pixel throughput at 4K overwhelms the GPU's capabilities. The data strongly suggests the RTX 3070 is the limiting component at 4K, while at 1080p and even 1440p, the Ryzen 5 7600's strong single-thread performance (999 in 3DMark single-thread, 1852 in Cinebench R23 single-core) keeps the system from being CPU-bound in this turn-based title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p Resolution:

• Low: 211 FPS average
• Medium: 173 FPS average, with minimum of 147 FPS and maximum of 198 FPS
• High: 133 FPS average
• Ultra: 99 FPS average

At 1080p, every setting produces frame rates well above what is necessary for a turn-based tactics game. Even the Ultra preset, which demands the most from the hardware, achieves nearly 100 FPS, leaving substantial headroom.

1440p Resolution:

• Low: 133 FPS average
• Medium: 109 FPS average, with minimum of 93 FPS and maximum of 126 FPS
• High: 84 FPS average
• Ultra: 63 FPS average

At 1440p, the Medium preset maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Ultra just clears the threshold. The minimum FPS of 93 at Medium shows excellent frame time consistency, with no significant dips.

4K Resolution:

• Low: 70 FPS average
• Medium: 57 FPS average, with minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS
• High: 44 FPS average
• Ultra: 33 FPS average

At 4K, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates on higher presets. Low is the only setting that stays above 60 FPS, while Medium dips to 49 FPS on the minimum. Ultra at 33 FPS is noticeably less smooth, though still playable for a turn-based game where twitch reactions are not required.

FAQ

Q: Is this combination capable of running Hard West at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, at Medium settings the system achieves 57 FPS average at 4K, which is playable for a turn-based tactics title. Low settings provide 70 FPS average, while High and Ultra drop to 44 FPS and 33 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination to maintain a 144 Hz experience?

A: At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 173 FPS and High delivers 133 FPS, both above 144 FPS thresholds for high refresh displays. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 133 FPS, just short of 144 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7600 compare to its nearest CPU rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600 scores 26324 on average, sitting just 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX and 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS, while leading the Intel Core i9-11900KF by 0.4% and the AMD Ryzen 5 8540U by 0.5%.

Q: Does the RTX 3070 bottleneck the Ryzen 5 7600 in Hard West?

A: At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as shown by the steep FPS drops across all settings. At 1080p and 1440p, the combination appears well-balanced, with the GPU's performance scaling appropriately with resolution.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 147 at 1080p, 93 at 1440p, and 49 at 4K. The maximum FPS values are 198, 126, and 66 respectively, showing consistent frame pacing without major stutters.

Q: How does the RTX 3070's overall GPU benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 3070 has an average benchmark score of 17208, placing it 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT and 1.5% behind the NVIDIA Tesla K40c, while leading the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 by 1% and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M by 1.1%.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on the Zen 4 architecture (Raphael) using a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz are well-suited for a turn-based tactics game like Hard West, where single-thread performance is often more critical than multi-core throughput. The CPU's benchmark results confirm this strength: it scores 999 in 3DMark single-thread, 298 in Cinebench R15 single-core, and 1852 in Cinebench R23 single-core. These single-thread scores are competitive with the best processors, ensuring that game logic, AI pathfinding, and turn resolution are handled with minimal delay.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also robust, scoring 6499 in 3DMark max threads, 12735 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, and 13413 in Geekbench multi-core. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide ample fast memory for game data, while the DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth helps feed the GPU efficiently. In the context of Hard West, which is not heavily threaded, the Ryzen 5 7600's strong per-core performance ensures that the game's logic does not become a bottleneck. The 78th percentile ranking versus all CPUs indicates this processor is in the top quarter of all tested units, and its proximity to rivals like the Ryzen 9 6900HX (0.2% ahead) and Core i9-11900KF (0.4% ahead) shows it trades blows with much higher-tier parts.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, based on the GA104 chip in Ampere architecture, is an 8 nm part from Samsung with 17,400 million transistors on a 392 mm² die. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K in Hard West. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1725 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). Its 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 96 ROPs deliver 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which is more than sufficient for a 2015 turn-based tactics title.

The RTX 3070's benchmark performance shows a 61st percentile ranking versus all GPUs, with an average score of 17208. Its closest competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, is just 0.7% ahead, while the NVIDIA Tesla K40c leads by 1.5%. The GPU's 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are not relevant for Hard West, which does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS, but they indicate the card's overall capability. The pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s directly impact how quickly the GPU can fill the screen at high resolutions. The measured FPS data confirms that the RTX 3070 is the component that determines the ceiling at 4K, where even Low settings only achieve 70 FPS, while at 1080p the card delivers 211 FPS on Low, showing it is far from stressed at lower resolutions.