Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination delivers a distinctly strong, though not top-tier, performance in Hard West (released 2015 as a turn-based tactics title). The measured frame rates across twelve settings/resolution pairs range from 51 FPS (4K Ultra) to 250 FPS (1080p Low), with the combo ranking 308th out of 3,722 tested combinations. This document breaks down how each component contributes to the results, how the system ranks against other combos, and the practical guidance implied by the data.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT provides 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. Built on the Zen 3 architecture with a 7 nm process, it uses an AM4 socket and supports 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Its per-core L1 and L2 caches are 64 KB and 512 KB, respectively. These specifications place it in the upper mid-range of desktop processors.

Benchmark numbers underline its strength. In Cinebench R23, the processor scores 23,794 points in the multi-core test and 3,359 points in the single-core test. 3DMark shows 16-thread performance of 7,683 and a single-thread score of 959. The PassMark single-thread score is 3,535, while the multi‑thread score reaches 28,053. Its average benchmark score across all tests is 29,879, which places it at the 81st percentile of all CPUs. Relative to its nearest rivals, it is statistically tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (average benchmark score 29,868, deltaPCt 0), almost even with the Ryzen 7 8845HS (29,955, -0.3%) and Ryzen 7 7840HS (29,955, -0.3%), and only 0.6% ahead of the Ryzen 5 9600X (29,713, +0.6%). These comparisons indicate that the chip is positioned solidly within the modern desktop CPU field.

In the context of Hard West, a turn-based tactics title, the CPU is not likely the primary performance limiter. The game’s low-requirement nature is evidenced by the measured frame rates: at 1080p Low, the system produces 250 FPS, which is the highest recorded in the entire dataset. Even at 1080p Medium, the average is 233 FPS, and at Ultra it is 206 FPS. These high single- and multi-thread scores suggest that the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions without becoming a bottleneck. Only at the lowest resolution (1080p) and low quality settings does the CPU’s backend become relevant, yet it still outputs well above 200 FPS. The CPU’s high single‑thread performance (e.g., 3,359 in Cinebench R23) is particularly suited for games that rely on a few well‑optimized threads, which is typical for many turn‑based puzzles. Thus, the data show that the Ryzen 7 5800XT is more than enough for this title, and any FPS caps that appear at higher resolutions are likely on the GPU side.

GPU GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a high-end Ada Lovelace card built on a 5 nm process, with a transistor count of 45,900 million. It is configured with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256‑bit bus, delivering a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The base clock is 2,205 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2,505 MHz. The card features 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, 112 ROPs, 76 ray‑tracing cores, and 304 tensor cores. Its theoretical FP32 throughput is 48.74 TFLOPS, with a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s. The 12‑fan design spans a triple‑slot profile, and the board consumes a TDP of 320 W.

In benchmark studies, the RTX 4080 has an average score of 54,767 (which appears in the pack as `avgBenchmarkScore: 54247`). That places it at the 86th percentile among all GPUs. Against its nearest rivals, it is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER (average 54,209) and trails the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by -1.1%, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6%, and the AMD Radeon 8060S by 2.7%. These numbers show it sits in the top 15% of all graphics cards, with performance close to the 4080 SUPER.

In Hard West, the GPU is the decisive factor at higher resolutions. The measured FPS at 3840×2160 drop steadily with the quality preset: Low gives 109 FPS, Medium 89 (with a min of 76), High 69, and Ultra 51. At 2560×1440 the same settings produce 207, 170, 131, and 98 FPS, while at 1920×1080 they range from 250 to 206 FPS. The steep decline from 1080p to 4K—at every setting—indicates that the GPU’s rendering load becomes the limiting factor climbing to higher resolution, because the CPU can still deliver hundreds of frames at lower resolutions. With 16 GB of VRAM, a requirement that the game’s assets can be stored easily; even at 4K, the 16 GB capacity is more than enough, and the memory bandwidth is far beyond what a 2015 title demands. Thus, the RTX 4080’s core and memory subsystems are not saturated until the resolution climbs to 2160p, where the frame rate can drop to 51 FPS at the highest preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo identified in the study is its ✓ “rank 308” among 3,722 tested game‑ready systems. That places it in the top 13% of all combinations; exactly, it sits above the bottom 3,388 combinations and just below 307 that had a higher measured average FPS. The ranking is global across all settings and resolutions, meaning it reflects the best possible peak results rather than a single preset. Such a rank is expected from a high‑end CPU and GPU pair, but it isn’t spectacular for a system of this level. Some more heavily optimized pairings likely offer even higher FPS, perhaps because Hard.

For instance, the CPU is not overqualified relative to the RTX 4080 for this game. The raw FPS numbers at lower resolutions show the CPU can push above 200 FPS at 1080p, but at 1440p and 4K, the scaling is dominated by the GPU. The fact that the combo ranks 308 places it ahead of roughly 91% of all tested combos (if we consider 2,723 as reference), indicating that most competing systems tested at the same time. The rank is plausible because the CPU is a mid‑range release to the 5000 series from 2024—though it is a good CPU, it is not the top‑of‑the‑line—and the GPU is the second‑generation Ada card, which is still in highest portion of the rank.

However, a rank of 308 out of 3722 is not enough to say the combo is the best possible for this game. Still, it holds its own and delivers smooth performance in most settings, as shown by the frame‑rate tables.

FAQ

Q: Does the Ryzen 7 5800XT bottleneck the RTX 4080 at any settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the system reaches 250 FPS, the highest mean average of any combination. At 1080p High it is 206 FPS. Given the CPU’s high single‑thread benchmark (3,359 in Cinebench R23) and multi‑thread (7,683 in 3DMark 16‑threads), it does not appear to be limiting the full potential of the GPU in the tested resolutions. The GPU become borderline at 4K, where the FPS drops to 69 (High) and 51 (Ultra), indicating the CPU still has headroom.

Q2: What is the best quality setting for 1440p if I want over 100 FPS?

A: The measured FPS at 2560×1440 is 207 FPS at Low, 170 at Medium, 131 at High, and 98 at Ultra. Of these, the Medium preset guarantees an average of 170 (with a minimum of 144) and thus exceeds 100 FPS. High, at 131 FPS, also meets the requirement, while Ultra falls below 100 FPS at 98 FPS.

Q3: How does the RTX 4080 compare with the RTX 4080 SUPER in an average benchmark?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54,247, while the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54,209 in the same test. The delta is +0.1% in favor of the SUPER, meaning the cards are effectively equal in synthetic performance. In real‑game frames, the difference is negligible, and the measured data shows that Hard West itself is not at a resolution where the slight extra performance changes the experience.

Q4: Why is the FPS at 4K Ultra only 51 FPS, while 4K Medium has 89 FPS?

A: According to the measured rows, 4K Ultra gives an average of 669 FPS? Actually the value 51 for Ultra. That preset demands more shading units and memory bandwidth than the Medium setting, which has a 89 FPS mean. The gap of about 38 FPS between Medium and Ultra shows the heavy non‑linear cost of high quality settings at 2160p. The GPU’s Triton‑scale architecture cannot fully compensate for that at the largest resolution, while the Medium preset offers a much higher frame rate.

Q5: Which of the rival CPUs is closest in performance to the 5800XT?

A: The Ryzen 7 7840H has the same average score (29,868) with a deltaPct of 0. It is the direct rival with a delta 0, i.e., perfectly matched. The others are 0.3% and 0.6% away.

Q6: Are the FPS numbers measured or estimated?

A: They are taken from the "measuredFps" array, which lists actual average, minimum, and maximum FR (only for the Medium preset) at each resolution, derived from a real test rig. No estimated bench‑up.

Resolution Scaling

One of the clearest patterns in the data is heavy FPS drop as resolution increases from 1920×1080 to 3840×2160, for every preset that was recorded.

At the High setting, the progression is 206 FPS (1080p) → 131 FPS (1440p) → 69 FPS (4K). In percentage terms, 206 is cut to 40% of 206 when moving to 1440p, a drop of about 63%, and from 131 to 69 means a further 47% decline. At Low, the pattern is 250 → 207 → 109, a drop of 17% from 1080 to 1440p and then 47% to 4K. The Ultra preset falls from 155 → 98 → 51, with a decline of 37.6% and then 48%. The consistent large difference between 1440p and 4K at every quality level reveals that the shift into 2160p places an enormous memory bandwidth burden on the GPU. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is smaller, suggesting that at 1080p the CPU or even the game engine’s logic