Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination delivers a thoroughly playable experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The measured data shows the pairing handles the game with substantial headroom at most settings, though the heaviest visual preset at 4K does push the system to its limits. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates, what they indicate about the system’s bottlenecks, and how this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks against other tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario, but with an interesting twist at the highest settings. At 1080p, the RTX 5070 produces 176.8 FPS on High settings, which drops to 111.4 FPS at 1440p and further to 56.8 FPS at 4K. This trajectory shows a 37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and then a 49% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, indicating that the GPU is increasingly the limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The picture changes dramatically when examining the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 129.8 FPS, but this falls to 81.2 FPS at 1440p and plummets to 40.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is particularly telling—it represents a 69% drop from the 1080p Ultra figure. This steep decline suggests the Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU at higher resolutions, likely related to shadows and post-processing that scale with pixel density.

The Low preset tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system hits 249.2 FPS, and even at 4K Low, it maintains 94.5 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on Low settings is a 62% reduction, which is actually less severe than the Ultra preset’s 69% drop. This indicates that the game’s lower settings are more forgiving on the GPU, allowing the CPU to exert more influence on the final frame rate. The Ryzen 7 5800XT’s 8 cores and 16 threads, with a boost clock of 4.80 GHz, provide sufficient throughput that even at 4K Low, the system stays far above playable thresholds.

What is most instructive is the comparison between High and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the gap between High (176.8 FPS) and Ultra (129.8 FPS) is 47 FPS. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 30.2 FPS (111.4 vs. 81.2). At 4K, the gap shrinks further to 16.4 FPS (56.8 vs. 40.4). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the primary bottleneck—when the GPU is already saturated at 4K, the difference between High and Ultra settings has less relative impact on the frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data clearly identifies the High preset as the optimal balance for this system. At 1080p, High delivers 176.8 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any display refresh rate, while still providing the visual fidelity boost over Medium (226.6 FPS) and Low (249.2 FPS). The jump from High to Ultra costs 47 FPS at 1080p, a 27% reduction, which is a substantial price for the marginal visual improvements Ultra typically offers in a turn-based tactics game.

At 1440p, High produces 111.4 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium offers 144.9 FPS, but the visual difference between Medium and High in Hard West is likely more noticeable than the 33.5 FPS gain would suggest. The Ultra preset at 1440p still achieves 81.2 FPS, which is playable, but the 30.2 FPS drop from High makes it a less attractive option for those who prefer higher refresh rates.

For 4K, the recommendation becomes more nuanced. High settings yield 56.8 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS mark but still smooth for a turn-based game where precise timing is not critical. Medium at 4K gives 77.9 FPS, providing a safer margin above 60 FPS. Ultra at 4K drops to 40.4 FPS, which is playable but feels noticeably less fluid. The data suggests that for 4K, Medium is the safest choice, while High is acceptable for those who prioritize visual quality over frame rate consistency.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Hard West at 4K with High settings?*

A: Yes, but marginally. The measured average is 56.8 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings. This is slightly below the 60 FPS standard but still smooth for a turn-based tactics game.

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming?

A: High settings at 1920x1080 produce 176.8 FPS, which is the best balance between visual quality and performance. Ultra gives 129.8 FPS, a 47 FPS reduction, while Medium gives 226.6 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops significantly from 1080p to 4K across all settings, while the Ryzen 7 5800XT’s 16 threads and 4.80 GHz boost clock keep the CPU from being the constraint.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: High at 2560x1440 gives 111.4 FPS, while Ultra gives 81.2 FPS. The 30.2 FPS difference represents a 27% reduction, making High the more efficient choice for higher refresh rates.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with Low settings?

A: Low settings at 3840x2160 yield 94.5 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and demonstrates the system’s ability to handle even the most demanding resolution when visual effects are reduced.

Q: Is the performance difference between Medium and High significant?

A: At 1080p, Medium gives 226.6 FPS while High gives 176.8 FPS—a 49.8 FPS difference. At 4K, the gap narrows to 21.1 FPS (77.9 vs. 56.8), showing that the GPU’s saturation at higher resolutions reduces the relative impact of these settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured results provides a comprehensive view of the system’s capabilities. At 1920x1080, the frame rates range from a high of 249.2 FPS on Low to a low of 129.8 FPS on Ultra. The progression is 249.2 (Low), 226.6 (Medium), 176.8 (High), and 129.8 (Ultra). This 119.4 FPS spread between the lowest and highest settings demonstrates the GPU’s substantial headroom at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the results are 172.9 FPS (Low), 144.9 FPS (Medium), 111.4 FPS (High), and 81.2 FPS (Ultra). The spread here is 91.7 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, reflecting the increased GPU load. The 1440p Medium result of 144.9 FPS is particularly notable—it exceeds the 1080p High result of 176.8 FPS by a smaller margin than expected, indicating that resolution has a stronger impact than settings at this level.

At 3840x2160, the results are 94.5 FPS (Low), 77.9 FPS (Medium), 56.8 FPS (High), and 40.4 FPS (Ultra). The spread narrows to 54.1 FPS, the smallest of any resolution. This compression of frame rates at 4K is the clearest evidence that the GPU is the limiting component—when the GPU is already working at maximum capacity, changing settings has a diminishing effect on performance. The 4K Ultra result of 40.4 FPS is the only measurement that falls below the 60 FPS playability standard, and even then, it remains playable for a turn-based game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 331st out of 1699 tested combinations in Hard West. This places the combo in the top 19.5% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing for a game released in 2015. The ranking reflects the system’s ability to handle the game’s engine with significant headroom, even at demanding 4K resolutions.

The percentile rankings of the individual components contextualize this performance. The Ryzen 7 5800XT scores in the 86th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29774. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE (29740, +0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (29856, -0.3%), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (29682, +0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868, -0.3%). These margins are all within 0.3%, indicating that the 5800XT is solidly mid-pack among modern CPUs, with no standout advantage or disadvantage.

The RTX 5070 scores in the 83rd percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41687. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (41610, +0.2%), the NVIDIA Tesla M40 (41897, -0.5%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (41441, +0.6%), and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X (41991, -0.7%). The RTX 5070 sits within 0.7% of these cards, showing it performs in line with high-end GPUs from previous generations. The combination of an 86th percentile CPU and an 83rd percentile GPU produces a top 20% ranking in this specific game, which aligns with expectations for a well-matched pairing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. This configuration is well-suited for Hard West, which is a turn-based tactics game that does not demand extreme multi-threaded performance. The CPU’s benchmark results show strong single-thread capabilities—a 3dmark single thread score of 959 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3359—which matter more for this genre than raw multi-core throughput.

The CPU’s multi-threaded scores are also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23794 and a 3dmark max threads score of 7680. These figures indicate that the 5800XT can handle any background tasks or game logic that might run concurrently with the rendering workload. However, the measured frame rates show that the CPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system produces 249.2 FPS, which is likely near the game engine’s practical limit, rather than a CPU bottleneck.

The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for Hard West, as turn-based games often rely on individual game logic threads rather than scaling across many cores. With a single-thread 3dmark score of 959, the 5800XT provides more than enough processing power for the game’s AI and decision-making systems. The 32 MB of L3 cache also helps reduce memory latency, which can benefit games with complex state tracking. Overall, the CPU’s role in this combo is to provide a stable foundation that never constrains the GPU—the measured data confirms that the RTX 5070 is the component that determines the final frame rate, especially at higher resolutions and settings.