Hard West

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Hard West across the three primary resolutions reveals a classic scaling pattern, but with some notable nuances depending on the quality preset. At 1080p, the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination delivers exceptional headroom, with the Ultra preset achieving 170 FPS and the Low preset reaching 264.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 94.1 FPS, indicating that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU efficiently even at high frame rates.

Stepping up to 1440p, the performance curve becomes steeper. The Ultra preset drops to 111.2 FPS, while High sits at 145 FPS and Medium at 188.5 FPS. The Low preset still manages 223.9 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is beginning to take on more of the workload, but the CPU remains a strong partner. The relative drop from 1080p to 1440p for the Ultra preset is 58.8 FPS (from 170 to 111.2), which is a 34.6% reduction—a substantial hit that points to the increasing pixel-pushing demands of the RTX 4090.

At 4K, the scaling becomes more pronounced and reveals the GPU-bound nature of the high-fidelity settings. The Ultra preset falls to 56.9 FPS, a 54.3 FPS drop from the 1440p Ultra result. High settings at 4K produce 73.7 FPS, while Medium yields 100.1 FPS. The Low preset at 4K still achieves 120.5 FPS, which is a remarkable figure for a turn-based tactics title, but it is still 143.6 FPS below the 1080p Low result. This 4K data indicates that the RTX 4090 is the limiting component at higher resolutions and settings, as the frame rate scales almost inversely with resolution when the graphical load is heavy. The data suggests that for a game like Hard West, the CPU is more than adequate to keep the GPU fed at 1080p, but the GPU’s raw compute power is what determines the ceiling at 4K with Ultra settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant force in this configuration, and its specifications align closely with the measured frame rates. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, the card has a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for a turn-based tactics game with relatively modest texture and geometry demands. The high VRAM capacity ensures that even at 4K with Ultra settings, the card never suffers from memory capacity constraints, allowing the 56.9 FPS result to be purely compute-bound.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also relevant. The base clock is 2235 MHz, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 16384 shading units, allow the RTX 4090 to push through the pixel workload at 4K. The FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS is a clear indicator of the card’s raw throughput, which is why the Low preset at 4K can still hit 120.5 FPS—there is simply enough compute headroom to brute-force through the lower-fidelity shaders. The Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process, contributes to the efficiency of this performance, though the 450 W TDP is a reminder of the power required to sustain these clocks.

Benchmark results for the RTX 4090 place it in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66473. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (with a deltaPct of -0.4) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (with a deltaPct of -0.9), but the RTX 4090’s gaming-focused design gives it a clear edge in this title. The data shows that the GPU’s role in Hard West is to provide the raw FPS headroom at lower resolutions, while at 4K it becomes the primary bottleneck, especially when the Ultra preset is enabled. The 56.9 FPS at 4K Ultra is still playable, but it demonstrates that even the most powerful consumer GPU has limits when pushed to the extreme.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game that likely relies more on single-threaded performance for game logic and AI pathfinding, the CPU’s role is to maintain a stable frame delivery, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor.

The 8400F’s single-thread benchmark results are telling: a 3DMark single-thread score of 951 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943. These numbers indicate strong per-core performance, which is crucial for avoiding frame hitches in a genre that often has complex decision trees. The multi-threaded performance is also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851, but the game’s engine likely does not scale perfectly across all 12 threads, making the single-thread capabilities more important.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU’s influence is most apparent at 1080p, where the Low preset hits 264.1 FPS and the Ultra preset reaches 170 FPS. The gap between these settings is 94.1 FPS, which suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at either setting; the GPU is simply working harder at Ultra. The fact that the 1080p Low result is 143.6 FPS higher than the 4K Low result (264.1 vs. 120.5) shows that the CPU can easily keep up with the GPU’s frame output at lower resolutions, and the frame rate is only limited by the pixel fill rate of the RTX 4090.

The CPU’s 16 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for this game’s data demands. The 8400F’s benchmark percentile of 82 versus all CPUs, with an average score of 25064, puts it in the upper tier of processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct of 0) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (deltaPct of 0.3), indicating that the 8400F is competitively positioned. In Hard West, the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution, as the data shows the GPU is the primary driver of FPS differences between settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Hard West, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 47th out of 1699 combos. This places it in the top 2.8% of all tested configurations, which is an impressive result for a mid-range CPU paired with a flagship GPU. The rank of 47 is notable because it suggests that while the RTX 4090 is the star of the show, the 8400F is not holding it back significantly.

The combo’s ranking is likely influenced by the fact that Hard West is not a particularly demanding game for modern hardware. The RTX 4090’s 91st percentile GPU performance, combined with the 8400F’s 82nd percentile CPU performance, creates a system that is well-balanced for this title. The data shows that the combo is capable of delivering 4K Ultra at 56.9 FPS, which is above the playable threshold, and 1080p Ultra at 170 FPS, which is silky smooth.

The fact that the combo ranks 47th rather than higher is perhaps a reflection of the CPU’s 6-core/12-thread configuration, which may not be optimal for games that can utilize more cores. However, for a turn-based tactics game, the single-thread performance of the 8400F is more than adequate. The combo’s rank also benefits from the RTX 4090’s massive memory bandwidth and compute power, which ensures that the GPU never becomes a bottleneck at 1080p or 1440p. Overall, the ranking indicates that this is a high-performing combo for Hard West, with the GPU doing the heavy lifting and the CPU providing sufficient support.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS at 4K with Ultra settings is 56.9 FPS.

Q: How does the 1080p Low preset compare to the 4K Low preset?

A: The 1080p Low preset achieves 264.1 FPS, while the 4K Low preset achieves 120.5 FPS, a difference of 143.6 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 1080p, as the frame rate varies significantly between Low (264.1 FPS) and Ultra (170 FPS) settings, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU fast enough.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations for Hard West?

A: The combo ranks 47th out of 1699 tested combinations.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: The average FPS at 1440p with High settings is 145 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 4090’s 24 GB VRAM affect performance in this game?

A: The 24 GB VRAM ensures no memory capacity limits are hit, allowing the GPU to focus on compute performance, which is reflected in the high frame rates even at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the average FPS for each resolution and settings combination:

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

|------------|----------|-------------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 73.7 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 120.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 100.1 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 56.9 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 145 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 223.9 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 188.5 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 111.2 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 220.5 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 264.1 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 242.8 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 170 |

The data shows a consistent pattern: as resolution increases, the frame rate drops, and as settings increase from Low to Ultra, the frame rate also drops. The most demanding configuration is 4K Ultra at 56.9 FPS, while the least demanding is 1080p Low at 264.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is significant—94.1 FPS at 1080p, 112.7 FPS at 1440p, and 63.6 FPS at 4K—which highlights the GPU’s workload scaling with graphical fidelity. Notably, the 1440p Ultra result of 111.2 FPS is nearly double the 4K Ultra result, indicating the steep cost of 4K rendering. The Medium preset offers a balanced middle ground, with 242.8 FPS at 1080p, 188.5 FPS at 1440p, and 100.1 FPS at 4K, making it the most versatile setting for high-refresh-rate displays.