Hard West

Hard West, a turn-based tactics title released in 2015, is not a demanding benchmark in the traditional sense, but the pairing of an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 cores, 16 threads, base 3.60 GHz, boost 4.40 GHz) with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (8 GB GDDR6, 128-bit, 272.0 GB/s) produces a clear and measurable spread of results. The data covers three resolutions — 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 — each at Low, Medium, High, and Ultra quality. The combo ranks 2013rd out of 3722 tested combinations in this game, a middling placement that reflects the CPU sitting in the 84th percentile against all CPUs while the GPU sits in the 61st percentile against all GPUs. Those positions hint at a system whose processor has far more headroom than its graphics card. The FPS numbers confirm that split, with the GPU dictating the highs and lows at higher resolution. Below, the measured data is broken down along resolution, settings, and component temperature.

Resolution Scaling

The first and most visible trend is the aggressive drop as pixel count increases. At 1080p High, the trio averages 117 FPS. Step to 2560x1440 High and the average falls to 74 FPS. At 3840x2160 High it collapses further, to 39 FPS. That is a reduction of roughly half from the 1080p figure, and it signals that the RTX 4060, not the 3700X, is the dominant component past 1080p — the 117 to 74 to 39 progression is a side-by-side example of pixel-count steering.

The same curve is visible on the Low preset: 1080p Low runs at 186 FPS, 1440p Low at 118, and 4K Low at 62. Again, each step up in resolution yields a pronounced drop, further evidence that the Zen 2 architecture with its 32 MB of L3 cache is not the primary limiter. Medium brings the clearest view: 1080p Medium yields 152 FPS with min 129 and max 175; 1440p Medium is 96 with min 82 and max 111; 4K Medium is 51 with min 43 and max 58. So even at the presumably popular 1440p Medium, the average falls below 100, and at 4K Medium the crowd tumbles below 60.

What this reads as: the game is not starved for CPU threads. The 3700X's 65 W TDP and 3.80 billion transistors on a 74 mm² die are more than adequate for a turn-based, mouse-driven strategy title. Instead, the GPU's 3072 shader units and 96 texture units must travel a 128-bit path for the 8 GB of GDDR6, and the memory bus becomes a bottleneck as pixels quadruple. The 4K Ultra result, at 29 FPS, is a clear sign that the scene is neither a CPU-bound micro-rendering nor a trivial overlay: the 4060 simply runs out of pixel fill rate at the highest load.

FAQ

Q: What is the best measured settings for a stable 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows 1080p Medium stays at 152 FPS (min 129, max 175). At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 96 FPS (min 82, max 111) — still above 60. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 51 FPS (min 43, max 58), which is below the 60 FPS line.

Q: Is the combo capable of playing at 1080p?

A: Yes. All presets at 1920x1080 run well above the execute bar, from 88 FPS on Ultra up to 186 FPS on Low. High sits at 117 FPS, Medium at 152 FPS.

Q: How much does the CPU matter in Hard West?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X manages to pull the whole game at high fixture without being a bottleneck at lower resolutions, but the frame rate that drops most steeply at 1440p and 4K suggests the GPU is the dominant constraint. The CPU's core/thread count (8/16) places it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is only in the 61st percentile — the CPU clearly has more headroom than the GPU.

Q: What does the 8 GB of VRAM mean for Hard West?

A: With 8 GDDR6 configured and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth, the 4060 can handle the majority of 1080 and 1440 scenes without issue. At 3840 x 2160 with Ultra preset, the average FPS falls to 29 FPS, indicating that memory capacity and bus width become a limiting factor when the engine tries to feed 8 GB of textures across a 128-bit glare.

Q: In which resolution does the combo still hold above 60 FPS High?

A: At 2560x1440, High averages 74 FPS — just above the threshold. At 3840x2160 it drops to 39 FPS, so to go above 60 FPS at 4K you must drop to the Low preset, which averages 62 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2013rd out of 3722 tested combinations, placing it near the middle of the database's field. It does not break into the top tier of results, consistent with the GPU's below-average standing in the overall GPUs.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060 uses the Ada Lovelace architecture (AD107 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process, 18,900 million transistors, 159 mm²). It runs at a base clock of 1830 MHz and boosts to 2460 MHz, with memory at 2125 MHz per chip (effective 17 Gbps). On paper, those are modest numbers for a GPU aimed at 1080p territory, and the FPS data supports that classification.

The card's 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit interface is the most obvious limiting factor when the resolution climbs. The pixel rate is listed at 118.1 GPixel/s and texture at 236.2 GTexel/s, both figures that appear sufficient for 1080p, but at 2160p with Ultra shadows and load the fill rate starts to cap the frame rate at 29 FPS. In GPU compute benchmarks, the 4060 is also placed by its 61st percentile rank, and its measured passmark G3D score of 19545 sits below the 3D scholarly scene's direct — but those figures confirm the mid-range position.

An interesting note in the GPU's itself: its closest performance-adjacent rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (deltaPct -0.2%), the AMD Radeon 780M (deltaPct 0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (deltaPct 0.5%), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (deltaPct 0.7%). All of these are much larger or older parts, yet they score within 1% of the 4060's average score (17639). This tells the reader that the 4060 does not drastically outpace — it just sustains adequate frame rates when combined with a 16-core CPU.

The GPU's 115 W TDP and 300 W PSU suggestion are practical for such a build, but the real test is the 8 GB frame buffer at higher settings. In Hard West, which is not a super serial graphics renderer, the effect is clear: 1080p automatically handles the 8 GB, while 1440p and 4K start to expose the bandwidth ceiling.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination sits at 2013 of 3722 tested combos. That puts it in a band with thousands of other mid-range pairs, alongside the CPU's 84th percentile and the GPU's 61st percentile. The discrepancy between those two percentiles is the most informative piece: the Ryzen 7 3700X is comfortably above the CPU majority in the benchmark database — its nearest rivals in average score are the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, +0.1%), the AMD EPYC 4244P (34220, +0.1%), the Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333, -0.2%), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34083, +0.5%). All of them land within a 1% window, a sign that the 3700X is right at the "current" centroid of a desktop CPU.

Meanwhile, the GPU dashes with the 21st percentile, meaning it is average-or-lower relative to the video card population. That combo score — with the CPU outperforming the GPU by a 84-to-61 margin — places the overall system in the middle-of-the-pack in Hard West's list of tested combinations. It is not a high-end racer, and that has consequences for targeting 4K without swings.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of image quality and stability, the 1920x1080 Medium preset is the standout: it delivers an average of 152 FPS with min 129 and max 175. This is far above a 60 FPS bar and won't drop below 129 even in the weakest moments. If you prefer 1440p as your display panel, 2560x1440 Medium is the strongest option: 96 FPS average, min 82 and max 111, a margin of 60. For a 4K monitor, the only sane choice is the Low preset at 62 FPS, which stays over 60 but barely has no min recorded. 4K Medium drops to 51 (min 43), and 4K Ultra is a 29 FPS slide into unplayable territory.

Do not favor High over Medium at any resolution for a pure frame-rate driver: 1080 High is 117 vs 152 on Medium; 1440 High is 74 vs 96 on Medium; 4K High is 39 vs 51 on Medium. The Medium preset consistently outperforms the High preset, which fits the game's aged rendering style: heavy Medium settings are enough to satisfy most expectations.

If you own a 144Hz monitor, the 1080p Medium is the only preset that consistently stays above 144 FPS (max seen 175, min 129). For a 60 Hz display, both 1440p Medium and 4K Low are viable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

| Resolution | Quality | Average FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

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

| 1920x1080 |