Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing delivers a striking performance profile in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower resolutions, with the CPU becoming a more significant factor as resolution climbs. This analysis walks through the measured frame rates, the combo’s standing among other tested configurations, and the role each component plays in producing these results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear inverse relationship between resolution and performance, but the scaling pattern is not uniform. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 234.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 203.1 FPS, a decline of roughly 13%. At 4K Low, the average falls to 121 FPS, which is about 40% lower than the 1080p Low result. This indicates that even at Low settings, the jump to 4K places a substantial load on the GPU, though the frame rate remains highly playable.

The scaling becomes more pronounced at higher quality presets. At High settings, the drop from 1080p (199.3 FPS) to 1440p (143.2 FPS) is a 28% reduction, and then to 4K (75.7 FPS) represents another 47% decline from the 1440p figure. The Ultra preset shows the steepest curve: 171 FPS at 1080p, 108.2 FPS at 1440p, and just 56.2 FPS at 4K. This pattern suggests that the RTX 4090 is the limiting component at 4K Ultra, where the raw pixel throughput demands exceed what even this flagship GPU can sustain for this title.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low (234.1 FPS) is 37% faster than Ultra (171 FPS). At 4K, Low (121 FPS) is 115% faster than Ultra (56.2 FPS). This widening delta indicates that while the GPU handles the extra quality settings at lower resolutions with relative ease, the 4K Ultra workload pushes the graphics card to its limits, leaving less headroom for the CPU to compensate.

The data also shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution tested. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 234.1 FPS is well above typical refresh rates, and the drop to 4K Low (121 FPS) is primarily attributable to GPU rendering load rather than processor limitations. The Ryzen 7 5700’s 8 cores and 16 threads appear sufficient to feed the RTX 4090 even at the highest frame rates observed.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 1,699 tested combinations in the database, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 90th in Hard West. This places it in the top 5.3% of all combos tested, a strong showing that reflects the GPU’s dominance in this title. The rank is more indicative of the RTX 4090’s raw power than the CPU’s contribution, given the game’s relatively modest processor demands.

The CPU itself sits at the 84th percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 27,220. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-9900K with an average score of 27,043 (a 0.7% delta), the Intel Core i7-12700H at 27,006 (0.8% delta), and the Intel Core i7-1370P at 26,991 (0.8% delta). These margins are negligible, indicating that the Ryzen 7 5700 performs essentially on par with those chips in general benchmarks. For Hard West, the combo’s 90th place rank suggests that the game’s engine does not heavily tax the CPU, allowing the RTX 4090 to drive performance nearly unhindered.

The GPU’s percentile ranking is 91st among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 66,473. Its nearest rivals in the database are the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (66,733, -0.4% delta), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66,127, 0.5% delta), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67,097, -0.9% delta). These are compute-oriented cards, but the RTX 4090’s gaming performance in Hard West is clearly superior, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 4K. The combo rank of 90 out of 1,699 underscores that this is a high-end configuration, even if the game itself is older and not particularly demanding by modern standards.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the primary driver of performance in this configuration. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Hard West’s textures and geometry at any resolution. The GPU’s base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 16,384 shading units, deliver the raw compute throughput needed to sustain the frame rates observed.

At 4K Ultra, the RTX 4090 manages 56.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold often considered optimal for smooth gameplay. This suggests that even this flagship card encounters limits with maxed-out settings at 4K in this title. The drop from High (75.7 FPS) to Ultra (56.2 FPS) at 4K is a 26% performance penalty, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces significant additional rendering work, likely from increased shadow quality, post-processing effects, or draw distances.

The GPU’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are far beyond what Hard West requires, yet the 4K Ultra result shows that the game’s engine can still stress the card. The RTX 4090’s 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are irrelevant for this title, which does not use ray tracing or DLSS, but the sheer rasterization power is what matters here. The data confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K, while at lower resolutions the frame rates are high enough that the CPU becomes the more likely limiter, though the measured numbers suggest the Ryzen 7 5700 handles it admirably.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 199.3 FPS.

*Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations in Hard West?*

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 90th out of 1,699 tested combos.

Q: What is the RTX 4090’s memory bandwidth?

A: The GPU has a memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s, provided by 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus.

Q: At 4K with Low settings, what average FPS is achieved?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Low settings is 121 FPS.

Q: What is the Ryzen 7 5700’s boost clock?

A: The CPU has a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz.

Q: Which preset shows the largest performance drop from 1080p to 4K?

A: The Ultra preset shows the largest relative drop, falling from 171 FPS at 1080p to 56.2 FPS at 4K, a 67% reduction.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the High preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo achieves 143.2 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and provides a smooth experience for a turn-based tactics game. The Ultra preset at 1440p still delivers 108.2 FPS, but the visual improvements over High are minimal in a genre that does not rely heavily on fast motion, making High the more efficient choice.

For 4K displays, the High preset is the recommended setting. At 3840x2160 with High, the average FPS is 75.7, which is comfortably playable and avoids the steep performance hit seen with Ultra (56.2 FPS). The Medium preset at 4K yields 100.3 FPS, but the difference between Medium and High in a turn-based game is often negligible on screen, so High is preferable if the extra frames are not critical. At 1080p, the High preset (199.3 FPS) is more than sufficient, and even Ultra (171 FPS) is well above refresh rate limits for most monitors, so users with 1080p panels can safely max out settings without concern.

The Low preset is only necessary for extreme frame rate pursuits, such as 234.1 FPS at 1080p, but offers no tangible benefit for this genre. The data indicates that High is the sweet spot across all resolutions, with Medium as a fallback for those prioritizing higher FPS at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 plays a supporting role in this configuration, but its specifications are more than adequate for Hard West. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne) on a 7 nm process, the CPU provides strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for older games that rely on fewer threads. The boost clock of 4.60 GHz and base clock of 3.70 GHz, along with 16 MB of L3 cache, ensure that the processor can keep up with the RTX 4090’s frame output at lower resolutions.

Benchmark results show the Ryzen 7 5700 achieving a single-thread score of 901 in 3DMark and 2,916 in Cinebench R23, while multi-thread scores reach 6,617 in 3DMark max threads and 20,655 in Cinebench R23. These numbers place it at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27,220, just 0.7% above the Intel Core i9-9900K. For Hard West, the game’s turn-based mechanics do not require intense multi-threaded processing, so the CPU’s 16 threads are largely underutilized, but the high single-thread performance ensures no bottleneck at 1080p.

The data shows that at 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 234.1 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this game. The fact that 4K Low still achieves 121 FPS indicates the GPU is handling the resolution increase, while the CPU maintains a consistent frame delivery. The Ryzen 7 5700’s 65 W TDP and DDR4 memory support (dual-channel, 51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are modest, but they do not constrain performance in this title. The processor’s role is to feed the GPU efficiently, and the measured results confirm it does so without becoming a limiting factor at any tested setting.