Hard West

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for Hard West with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and Intel Arc B390 shows a steep and consistent performance decline as resolution increases, a pattern that clearly points to the GPU as the primary limiting component in this pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 87 FPS average, but moving to 1440p drops that to 55 FPS, and at 4K it falls further to 29 FPS. That represents a 67% performance loss from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which is an extreme scaling curve that indicates the graphics processor is struggling to keep pace with pixel throughput demands.

The Ultra preset tells an even more dramatic story. At 1080p, the combo manages 41 FPS average, but at 1440p that drops to 26 FPS, and at 4K it collapses to just 14 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 66% reduction, nearly identical to the Low preset's scaling. This uniform percentage drop across different quality settings is a classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario; if the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling curve would flatten at higher resolutions as the graphics card becomes the limiting factor, but here the consistent proportional losses suggest the Arc B390 is saturated at every resolution tested.

The Medium preset row provides the only min/max FPS data in the measured results, offering additional insight into the scaling behavior. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 82. At 1440p Medium, the average falls to 45 FPS with a range of 38 to 52. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 27. The spread between minimum and maximum FPS remains relatively tight at each resolution—roughly 21% at 1080p, 31% at 1440p, and 29% at 4K—which indicates the frame pacing is consistent even as the GPU becomes increasingly overwhelmed.

What the data reveals about the limiting component is unambiguous. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a desktop processor with 8 cores, 16 threads, and a 96 MB shared L3 cache, and its benchmark results place it in the 77th percentile among all CPUs. The Arc B390, by contrast, sits in the 9th percentile among all GPUs, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 that places it near the bottom of the performance hierarchy. When a top-quartile CPU is paired with a bottom-decile GPU, the resolution scaling curve will always reflect GPU limitations, and that is exactly what the measured FPS shows. The CPU has ample headroom to feed frames, but the GPU simply cannot render them faster as pixel counts rise.

FAQ

Q: How does the Arc B390 perform relative to its closest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M, 2.5% ahead of the GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% ahead of the GeForce GT 710. These are extremely small deltas, placing the Arc B390 at the very bottom of the GPU performance spectrum.

Q: What is the best resolution for playable frame rates in Hard West with this combo?

A: Based on the measured data, 1080p is the only resolution where the combo achieves consistently playable performance across all settings. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 87 FPS average, Medium delivers 71 FPS, High delivers 55 FPS, and even Ultra manages 41 FPS. At 1440p, only Low (55 FPS) and Medium (45 FPS) remain above 30 FPS, while at 4K all presets fall below 30 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 5700X3D compare to its nearest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700X3D has an average benchmark score of 24709, which is 0.1% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D (24728), 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (24822), 0.5% above the Intel Core i5-12450HX (24576), and 0.6% above the Intel Core i5-11600 (24563). These deltaPct values are all within one percentage point, indicating near-identical synthetic CPU performance.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck this game at 4K resolution?

A: The data clearly shows the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D ranks in the 77th percentile among all CPUs, while the Arc B390 ranks in the 9th percentile among all GPUs. At 4K, the best average FPS achieved is 29 on Low settings, and Ultra drops to 14 FPS, demonstrating that the graphics processor cannot handle the pixel workload regardless of quality settings.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, Low produces 87 FPS while Ultra produces 41 FPS, a difference of 46 FPS. At 1440p, Low produces 55 FPS while Ultra produces 26 FPS, a difference of 29 FPS. At 4K, Low produces 29 FPS while Ultra produces 14 FPS, a difference of 15 FPS. The absolute gap narrows as resolution increases because the GPU becomes more constrained.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations for Hard West?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D with Intel Arc B390 ranks 3312 out of 3722 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the bottom 11% of all combinations. This low ranking is consistent with the GPU's 9th percentile standing among all graphics cards.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Hard West with this hardware pairing leads to a clear verdict: the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance of visual quality and playable performance. At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers an average of 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 82, which provides a smooth experience with a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset at 1080p drops to 55 FPS average, which is still playable but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes, while the Low preset at 1080p reaches 87 FPS but sacrifices visual fidelity for a frame rate that the turn-based gameplay does not require.

For players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, 1080p High at 55 FPS is a viable alternative, but the data suggests that the jump from Medium to High costs 16 FPS (23% reduction) while the jump from High to Ultra costs another 14 FPS (25% reduction). The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot where the game's turn-based tactical presentation benefits from stable frame pacing without unnecessary visual compromises.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts to Low settings, which produces 55 FPS average. Medium at 1440p drops to 45 FPS, which may be acceptable for a turn-based game where twitch reflexes are not required, but the 38 FPS minimum recorded in the data suggests potential stutter in complex scenes. The 4K resolution is not recommended for this combo under any settings, as even Low produces only 29 FPS average, which falls below the standard playability threshold.

The ultra preset should be avoided entirely with this hardware combination. At 1080p Ultra, the combo manages only 41 FPS, at 1440p Ultra it falls to 26 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 14 FPS. These figures indicate that the Arc B390's 24 ROPs and 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are insufficient for the visual effects enabled by the Ultra preset, even at the lowest resolution tested.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D paired with the Intel Arc B390 ranks 3312 out of 3722 tested combinations in Hard West, placing it in the bottom 11% of all combos. This ranking is overwhelmingly driven by the GPU's performance class rather than the CPU, as the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a strong processor by any measure. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus score of 77 means it outperforms 77% of all CPUs in the database, while the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus score of 9 means it outperforms only 9% of all GPUs.

The disparity between CPU and GPU performance classes creates a heavily imbalanced pairing. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D's 3DMark scores demonstrate its capability: 6764 in the 16-thread test, 5357 in the 8-thread test, and 804 in the single-thread test. These scores, combined with a passmark multithread score of 26318 and a cinebench R23 multicore score of 22366, indicate a processor that can handle modern game workloads with ease. The Arc B390, in contrast, has only one benchmark recorded—the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482—which places it in the company of decade-old entry-level GPUs.

The combo's low ranking in Hard West specifically reflects the game's rendering demands. As a turn-based tactics title from 2015, Hard West is not particularly CPU-intensive, meaning the game's performance is largely determined by the graphics card. The measured FPS data confirms this: the combo's best result is 87 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a modest figure for an older game, and the 4K results are universally below 30 FPS. A stronger GPU paired with the same CPU would dramatically improve the combo's ranking, but the Arc B390's hardware limitations cap the achievable performance.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor based on the Xe3-LPG architecture with a Panther Lake chip, manufactured on Intel's 3 nm process. Its clock speeds are listed as a 300 MHz base and a 2500 MHz boost, with the memory type and bus width both marked as "System Shared," meaning the GPU relies on shared system memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This memory configuration is a critical limitation for Hard West, as the game's texture and buffer requirements at higher resolutions must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth.

The GPU's compute specifications are modest: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. These translate to a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS. The 12 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) API support are forward-looking features, but they do little to help in a 2015 turn-based tactics game that does not utilize ray tracing. The GPU's TDP is listed at 80 W, and its slot width is "IGP," confirming its integrated nature.

The benchmark results for the Arc B390 are stark. Its only recorded score is 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which places it in the 9th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are all NVIDIA entry-level parts from over a decade ago: the GeForce GT 520MX (1463 score, 1.3% lower), GeForce 800M (1460 score, 1.5% lower), GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446 score, 2.5% lower), and GeForce GT 710 (1443 score, 2.7% lower). These deltas are all within 3%, meaning the Arc B390 performs essentially at the level of a low-end GPU from the early 2010s.

In the context of Hard West, the GPU's role as the limiting component is evident from the FPS data. The system-shared memory architecture means that at higher resolutions, the GPU must access system memory for frame buffers and textures, which adds latency and reduces effective bandwidth. The measured FPS at 4K—18 FPS on High, 24 FPS on Medium, and 29 FPS on Low—shows that even the lowest quality settings cannot overcome the memory bandwidth and compute limitations at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for Hard West with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and Intel Arc B390 spans three resolutions and four quality settings, providing a comprehensive picture of the combo's performance envelope.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. The Low preset produces an average of 87 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded across all configurations. The Medium preset averages 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 82, providing the only full min/max data in the entire dataset. The High preset drops to 55 FPS average, and the Ultra preset falls to 41 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a clear step-down pattern: Low to Medium costs 16 FPS, Medium to High costs 16 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 14 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance declines substantially across all settings. The Low preset averages 55 FPS, which is a 37% reduction from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 and maximum of 52, showing a tighter range than the 1080p Medium result. The High preset averages 35 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 26 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 29 FPS, compared to 46 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's limitations compress the performance range as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain playable frame rates under any settings. The Low preset averages 29 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 25 FPS. The Medium preset averages 24 FPS with a minimum of 20 and maximum of 27, representing the lowest min/max values in the dataset. The High preset averages 18 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 14 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is severe: Low falls from 87 to 29 FPS (67% reduction), Medium falls from 71 to 24 FPS (66% reduction), High falls from 55 to 18 FPS (67% reduction), and Ultra falls from 41 to 14 FPS (66% reduction).

These consistent reduction percentages across all quality settings reinforce the conclusion that the GPU is the sole limiting factor. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D's strong single-core performance—3DMark single-thread score of 804, Geekbench single-core score of 1849, and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3157—ensures that the CPU can prepare frames faster than the Arc B390 can render them at every resolution and settings combination tested.