Hard West

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo in Hard West at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 60.9 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is the most demanding preset tested. This is the lowest average across all resolution and settings combinations in the FACT PACK.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 9600X compare to its closest rival in CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X has an average benchmark score of 28246, placing it 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13490F and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 230. It sits 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and 0.5% behind the Intel Core i5-14500T.

Q: What is the RTX 5090's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RTX 5090 sits in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84306. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, scores 84241, a difference of only 0.1%.

Q: Does the CPU's single-thread performance matter for Hard West?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X has a 3dmark single-thread score of 1253 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3603. The measured FPS data suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU's strong single-thread performance supports very high frame rates, with 1080p Low reaching 324.6 FPS.

Q: What is the largest frame rate gap between settings at a given resolution?

A: At 4K, the gap between Low (127.4 FPS) and Ultra (60.9 FPS) is 66.5 FPS, representing a performance drop of more than half when maxing out settings. At 1440p, the gap is 125.5 FPS between Low (237 FPS) and Ultra (111.5 FPS).

Q: Is the combo's ranking in Hard West near the top of the database?

A: Yes, this combo ranks 5th out of 1699 tested combinations, placing it in the top 0.3% of all recorded configurations for this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component here, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip. Its memory configuration is substantial: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The boost clock runs at 2407 MHz, and the memory operates at 1750 MHz. These specs translate into massive fill rates—423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate—which directly influence how quickly the GPU can render the stylized, 2D-art-heavy environments of Hard West.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's headroom. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 324.6 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra it drops to 179.5 FPS. The difference between these two presets is 145.1 FPS, indicating that the Ultra settings load the GPU's shading units (21760) and TMUs (680) more heavily. The RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability is more than sufficient for a turn-based tactics game from 2015, yet the 4K Ultra result of 60.9 FPS shows that even this flagship can be brought to a playable-but-not-overwhelming level by maxed settings at high resolution.

Interestingly, the GPU's benchmark profile—PassMark G3D score of 39650 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411—suggests raw compute dominance. However, in Hard West, the frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K (127.4 to 60.9 FPS) reveals that the game's visual effects at Ultra, likely including heavy post-processing and shadow detail, can stress even a 94th-percentile GPU. The RTX 5090's 176 ROPs handle the final pixel output, and the data implies that at 4K Ultra, those ROPs become a limiting factor, as the frame rate drops below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the floor for smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience. At 4K, Medium settings deliver 99.9 FPS, which is 39 FPS higher than High (77.4 FPS) and 39 FPS higher than Ultra (60.9 FPS). The step from Medium to High costs 22.5 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs only 16.5 FPS. This suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for 4K, offering nearly 100 FPS while presumably retaining most visual fidelity.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts. High settings provide 147.9 FPS, while Medium delivers 195.8 FPS and Low reaches 237 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 36.4 FPS, resulting in 111.5 FPS. For users with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, Medium or High both exceed 144 FPS, making either viable. The data shows that High at 1440p (147.9 FPS) is only slightly above the 144 Hz threshold, so Medium (195.8 FPS) offers more headroom for demanding scenes.

At 1080p, even Ultra settings produce 179.5 FPS, which exceeds most display refresh rates. The measured values—Low at 324.6 FPS, Medium at 302.8 FPS, High at 239 FPS—indicate that the CPU becomes the bottleneck at this resolution, as the frame rates scale more with CPU capability than GPU settings. For competitive or fast-paced play, High at 1080p (239 FPS) provides a balance of visual quality and speed. For maximum smoothness, Low at 324.6 FPS is the clear winner, but the visual compromise may not be worth it given that High still exceeds 200 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the data shows a clear progression: Low averages 127.4 FPS, Medium averages 99.9 FPS, High averages 77.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 60.9 FPS. The delta between each preset step is consistent—27.5 FPS from Low to Medium, 22.5 FPS from Medium to High, and 16.5 FPS from High to Ultra. This diminishing impact of each settings tier suggests that the GPU's resources are being consumed progressively, with Ultra pushing the rendering pipeline to its limits.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are substantially higher: Low hits 237 FPS, Medium reaches 195.8 FPS, High achieves 147.9 FPS, and Ultra settles at 111.5 FPS. The gaps widen here—41.2 FPS between Low and Medium, 47.9 FPS between Medium and High, and 36.4 FPS between High and Ultra. The larger deltas indicate that at 1440p, the GPU has more headroom to show the impact of each settings tier.

At 1920x1080, the frame rates become extreme: Low averages 324.6 FPS, Medium averages 302.8 FPS, High averages 239 FPS, and Ultra averages 179.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is only 21.8 FPS, but the gap between Medium and High is 63.8 FPS, and between High and Ultra it's 59.5 FPS. This pattern suggests that the High preset introduces effects that are particularly demanding, while Low and Medium are closer in performance.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a predictable pattern of frame rate decline as resolution increases. At High settings, the progression is 239 FPS at 1080p, 147.9 FPS at 1440p, and 77.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 38.1% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 47.7% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is roughly linear with pixel count, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting component at High settings.

At Low settings, the scaling is more dramatic: 324.6 FPS at 1080p, 237 FPS at 1440p, and 127.4 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 27%, but from 1440p to 4K it's 46.2%. This steeper decline at 4K Low suggests that even with minimal graphical load, the sheer pixel throughput required at 3840x2160—over 8 million pixels—saturates the GPU's rendering pipeline.

The Ultra settings show the most pronounced resolution sensitivity: 179.5 FPS at 1080p, 111.5 FPS at 1440p, and 60.9 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 37.9%, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 45.4%. This pattern indicates that the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient for any resolution, but the compute load at Ultra settings combined with 4K output pushes the GPU to its practical limit.

The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU's capabilities are more relevant—the fact that Low (324.6 FPS) is only 6.7% faster than Medium (302.8 FPS) at 1080p, compared to a 27.5% gap at 4K, suggests that the Ryzen 5 9600X's 6 cores and 12 threads can feed the GPU fast enough to saturate its output at lower resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock is 3.90 GHz with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, and it has a 32 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong—Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 25525, and PassMark single-thread hits 4570—placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

In Hard West, a turn-based tactics game from 2015, the CPU's role is primarily to manage game logic, AI pathfinding, and unit actions. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (324.6 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (179.5 FPS) shows that even at the lowest settings, the frame rate is high enough that the CPU is likely generating frames faster than the GPU can render at higher presets. The 3dmark_2_threads score of 2456 and 3dmark_4_threads score of 4649 suggest that the CPU's per-thread performance is excellent, which matters for a game that may not utilize all 12 threads efficiently.

The CPU's 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and dual-channel DDR5 support ensure that data can flow quickly to the GPU. The 8,315 million transistors and 70.6 mm² die size indicate a modern, efficient design. The data shows that at 1080p, the frame rate differences between Low and Medium (21.8 FPS) are smaller than at 4K (27.5 FPS), implying that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions—the GPU takes over that role. The CPU's single-thread score of 1253 in 3DMark and 3603 in Cinebench R23 suggest that it can handle the game's logic threads without becoming a limiting factor, even at frame rates above 300 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 5th out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West. This top-tier ranking is unsurprising given that the GPU alone sits in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, and the CPU ranks in the 85th percentile. The data indicates that this combo outperforms the vast majority of tested configurations, with only 4 other combos achieving higher average FPS in this game.

The CPU's nearest rivals show how close the mid-range processor market is: the Ryzen 5 9600X is only 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230, and 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS. This tight grouping suggests that the CPU choice has minimal impact on the final ranking in Hard West, as the GPU dominates the performance equation. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, is only 0.1% behind, indicating that the specific GPU variant matters even less.

The ranking of 5th out of 1699 means this combo is in the top 0.3% of all tested systems. The measured FPS data supports this—at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 324.6 FPS, which is higher than what most systems can produce at any resolution. The combination of a strong 6-core CPU with a flagship GPU creates a system that can handle Hard West's modest requirements with extreme headroom, making it an excellent choice for users who play at high refresh rates or plan to use the system for more demanding titles. The data shows that the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM is far more than Hard West needs, but its compute capabilities ensure that no settings combination can cause the frame rate to drop below 60 FPS at any resolution tested.