Hard West

# Hard West with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015, proves surprisingly demanding at higher settings with this AMD/NVIDIA pairing. The measured frame rates span from 39.8 FPS at 4K Ultra to 242 FPS at 1080p Low, showing a wide performance envelope that depends heavily on both resolution and preset. This combination ranks 499th out of 1,699 tested combos in this game, placing it comfortably in the upper tier of tested hardware configurations. The data indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, with its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, becomes the limiting factor at 4K, while the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X's eight Zen 3 cores provide ample headroom at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario, but with some interesting nuances at different presets. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 153.5 at 1080p to 100.8 at 1440p, then further to 51.7 at 4K. This represents a 66% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the RTX 3080 is heavily taxed by the pixel count at the highest resolution. The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly steep, with performance nearly halving, which suggests that 4K pushes the GPU's 760.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 29.77 TFLOPS of compute to their limits.

Low settings tell a different story. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 242 FPS, dropping to 156.3 at 1440p and 84.9 at 4K. The scaling here is more linear in percentage terms, but the absolute frame rates remain high enough that the CPU's capabilities start to matter more. With a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23,571 and a PassMark single-thread score of 3,445, the Ryzen 7 5800X can feed frames quickly at lower resolutions, but even this processor shows some limitation at 1080p Low where the frame rate exceeds 240 FPS.

Medium settings exhibit a similar pattern to High, with 199.1 FPS at 1080p, 127.6 at 1440p, and 69.3 at 4K. The Ultra preset produces the lowest absolute numbers: 115 FPS at 1080p, 71.1 at 1440p, and 39.8 at 4K. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below the 40 FPS threshold, which is notable for a turn-based tactics game where fast reaction times are less critical than in action genres. The data shows that the gap between Medium and Ultra at 4K is 29.5 FPS, while at 1080p the gap is 84.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU's overhead for Ultra settings becomes relatively more expensive at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Hard West at 4K smoothly?

A: At 4K, the measured results show 51.7 FPS on High and 69.3 FPS on Medium, but only 39.8 FPS on Ultra. For a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, Medium settings are required, while High settings stay playable but slightly below 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for maximum frame rates?

A: At 1080p, the combo reaches 242 FPS on Low, 199.1 FPS on Medium, and 153.5 FPS on High. These numbers indicate that 1080p allows the hardware to stretch its legs, with even Ultra hitting 115 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3080's average benchmark score is 35,787, which places it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Duo and 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE. It is 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon 880M and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5800X a bottleneck for this game?

A: The CPU's benchmark results, including a PassMark multithread score of 27,732 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2,194, suggest it is not a bottleneck at most settings. However, at 1080p Low with 242 FPS, the processor may start to limit performance in lighter scenes.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 156.3 FPS while Ultra averages 71.1 FPS. This represents a 85.2 FPS difference, showing that Ultra settings carry a significant performance penalty at this resolution.

Q: Does the combo rank well among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 499th out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 30% of all hardware combinations measured for this game.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that High settings at 1440p provide the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combo. At 100.8 FPS average, this configuration offers smooth gameplay with substantial headroom above the 60 FPS threshold. The 1440p High preset also leaves enough performance margin to handle complex turn-based scenes without noticeable slowdowns. For players with 4K displays, Medium settings at 69.3 FPS are the recommended choice, as they stay above 60 FPS while delivering a reasonable visual upgrade over Low settings.

For competitive or high-refresh-rate play at 1080p, Medium settings at 199.1 FPS provide an excellent experience, nearly doubling the frame rate of High settings while maintaining decent visual quality. The Ultra preset at 1080p, at 115 FPS, is still very playable but costs 84.1 FPS compared to Medium. Given that Hard West is a turn-based tactics game, the need for extremely high frame rates is less critical than in fast-paced shooters, making visual quality a more important consideration. The data indicates that High at 1440p is the sweet spot for this hardware pairing, offering 100.8 FPS with the visual enhancements that come with the High preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low averages 242 FPS, Medium hits 199.1 FPS, High reaches 153.5 FPS, and Ultra manages 115 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at this resolution shows a 127 FPS drop, which is a 52.5% reduction from the maximum. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the RTX 3080 has substantial headroom, with even the most demanding preset remaining well above 100 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but begin to show the GPU's workload. Low averages 156.3 FPS, Medium 127.6 FPS, High 100.8 FPS, and Ultra 71.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 85.2 FPS, with Ultra dropping below the 72 FPS mark that some players consider optimal for high-refresh monitors. The 1440p High setting at 100.8 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it maintains triple-digit performance while offering better visual quality than Medium.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 3080 is clearly the limiting factor. Low averages 84.9 FPS, Medium 69.3 FPS, High 51.7 FPS, and Ultra 39.8 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 45.1 FPS drop, with Ultra falling below the 40 FPS threshold. Even at Low settings, 4K performance does not reach 90 FPS, highlighting the significant pixel throughput demands of 4K resolution. The data shows that High at 4K provides playable frame rates for a turn-based game, but Medium is the only preset that consistently exceeds 60 FPS at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

This AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 pairing ranks 499th out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the 71st percentile of all measured configurations. This ranking reflects the combined capability of the CPU and GPU, with the RTX 3080's percentileVsAllGpus of 80 and the Ryzen 7 5800X's percentileVsAllCpus of 84 both indicating above-average performance relative to their respective component pools. The CPU's average benchmark score of 27,606 places it within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 and 0.8% of the Intel Core i5-12600KF, while the GPU's average score of 35,787 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon Pro Duo at 35,860.

The combo's ranking in-game is influenced by both components, but the measured FPS data suggests the GPU is more decisive for this title. At 4K Ultra, the 39.8 FPS result shows the RTX 3080 struggling with the highest settings, while the CPU's single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 943, keeps frame rates high at lower resolutions. The ranking position in the upper third of all combos indicates that this hardware configuration is well-suited for Hard West, particularly at 1440p and 1080p where the data shows consistently high frame rates across all presets.