Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER delivers a commanding performance in Hard West, securing the 87th position out of 1,699 tested combos. This places the configuration in the top 5.1% of all systems in the database for this specific title, underscoring a high degree of synergy for a turn-based tactics game that is typically not considered a demanding benchmark. While the rank is impressive, the data suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the primary driver of these frame rates, with the Ryzen 5 7600 providing ample single-thread headroom to avoid bottlenecks at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 87 out of 1,699 combos is a strong indicator of top-tier performance. The data shows this system outperforms the vast majority of tested hardware configurations in Hard West. To contextualize this, the CPU’s own percentileVsAllCpus is 83, meaning the Ryzen 5 7600 is already a high-performing processor relative to all others in the database. Its average benchmark score of 26,617 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with a deltaPct of just 0.2% compared to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and 0.3% against the Intel Core i9-11900K. This suggests the CPU is highly capable, but its performance is a known quantity.

The GPU, however, sits even higher in its own percentile, with a percentileVsAllGpus of 88 and an average benchmark score of 53,610. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, is only 0.2% behind in average score, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti trails by 2.9%. This data indicates that the combo's high rank is not just a function of a strong CPU, but rather a pairing where the GPU’s substantial computational power is fully utilized. The fact that the system achieves a rank of 87 despite the game’s age suggests that the combination of the 7600’s modern Zen 4 architecture and the 4080 SUPER’s raw throughput creates a platform that can push even a 2015 title to its engine limits.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the central component driving the absolute performance levels seen in the measured results. Its specifications within this test are substantial: 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, while the boost clock is rated at 2550 MHz. These figures are critical for handling the game’s rendering loads, particularly at higher resolutions where memory bandwidth and pixel throughput become bottlenecks. The GPU’s pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s are the raw hardware capabilities that translate directly into the frame rates observed.

The data shows a clear relationship between GPU-bound settings and performance. At 1080p, lowering settings from Ultra to Low increases average FPS from 156 to 277.9. This scaling is significant, but at 4K, the same settings change yields an improvement from 51.6 to 109.4 FPS. The relative performance delta between settings grows at 4K, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is more than adequate for a turn-based tactical game, meaning the limiting factor is not compute but rather the memory subsystem and pixel fill rate under heavy load. The data confirms the GPU is not being held back by the CPU; it is the component that determines the ceiling for each settings preset.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but steep decline as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of GPU-bound performance. At High settings, the system produces 207.7 FPS at 1080p, which drops by 37.8% to 129.1 FPS at 1440p, and then by another 46.5% to 69 FPS at 4K. This pattern reveals that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting component, as the workload scales with pixel count. The CPU’s role is diminished at higher resolutions, as the frame-to-frame time becomes dominated by the GPU’s rendering tasks rather than the CPU’s ability to process game logic.

This scaling is even more pronounced when comparing the Low preset across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 277.9 FPS, which falls to 204.4 FPS at 1440p and 109.4 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 46.5%, which is nearly identical to the drop seen on High settings. This consistency indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and pixel processing capabilities are the consistent limiting factor, regardless of the visual complexity. The Ryzen 5 7600, with its 3.80 GHz base and 5.10 GHz boost clocks, is sufficient to feed the GPU even at 1080p, as evidenced by the extremely high frame rates that would otherwise expose a CPU bottleneck. The data strongly suggests that for this game, the RTX 4080 SUPER is the sole arbiter of performance scaling.

Settings Recommendations

Analyzing the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a significant performance uplift over High and Ultra without the visual compromises of Low. At 1080p, Medium yields 255.9 FPS, which is 48.9 FPS higher than High and 99.9 FPS higher than Ultra. This suggests that the step from Medium to High incurs a noticeable performance cost for what is likely a marginal visual gain in a tactical game. At 1440p, Medium achieves 171.4 FPS, which is still well above the 144 Hz refresh rate of many monitors, while High dips to 129.1 FPS.

For 4K users, the choice is more constrained. The Ultra preset produces an average of 51.6 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a smooth experience. High at 4K delivers 69 FPS, which is the recommended setting for a fluid 60 FPS target. However, Medium at 4K provides 89.6 FPS, which offers a substantial headroom over High and is likely the best option for maintaining high frame rates without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. The Low preset, while achieving 109.4 FPS at 4K, is not recommended as it would significantly degrade the visual presentation of the game’s art style. The data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot, offering a 30.8% performance increase over High at 4K and a 25.3% increase at 1440p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates is as follows.

1920x1080:

• Low: 277.9 FPS
• Medium: 255.9 FPS
• High: 207.7 FPS
• Ultra: 156 FPS

The spread at 1080p is 121.9 FPS, from the lowest to the highest preset. The performance delta between Low and Medium is 22 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 48.2 FPS. This indicates that the High preset introduces a significant rendering cost.

2560x1440:

• Low: 204.4 FPS
• Medium: 171.4 FPS
• High: 129.1 FPS
• Ultra: 99.7 FPS

At 1440p, the drop from Low to Medium is 33 FPS, and from Medium to High is 42.3 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only one that falls below the 100 FPS threshold, suggesting that the extra effects in Ultra are disproportionately expensive at this resolution.

3840x2160:

• Low: 109.4 FPS
• Medium: 89.6 FPS
• High: 69 FPS
• Ultra: 51.6 FPS

At 4K, the scaling becomes more linear. The difference between Low and Medium is 19.8 FPS, between Medium and High is 20.6 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 17.4 FPS. This consistent drop across presets confirms that the GPU is the sole bottleneck, with the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth being taxed heavily. The data shows that even at the highest resolution, the system remains comfortably playable on Medium settings, which confirms the GPU’s capabilities.