Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The measured frames per second across all resolutions and settings presets indicate that this combination is far more than sufficient for the game’s demands, with performance headroom that suggests the CPU is rarely the limiting factor. The benchmark data reveals a clear pattern: the RTX 4070 carries the graphical load effectively, while the 8-core Ryzen 7 7700 provides ample processing power to avoid bottlenecks, even at lower resolutions where CPU overhead typically becomes more pronounced.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across the four presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—shows that the best experience balances visual fidelity with frame rate stability. At 1920x1080, the High preset produces an average of 160.8 FPS, which is a substantial 40.4 FPS improvement over the Ultra preset’s 120.4 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 40.4 FPS, a 25.1% reduction in frame rate, while the visual difference in a turn-based tactical game is often minimal since the camera is typically static or slowly panning. Therefore, the High preset at 1080p offers the best experience per the measured rows, delivering frame rates well above any display’s refresh rate while retaining most of the graphical enhancements.

At 2560x1440, the High preset again stands out. It delivers 105.2 FPS, which is 29.3 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 75.9 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution yields 130.5 FPS, but the step up to High adds only 25.3 FPS less than the jump from High to Ultra. The data suggests that High at 1440p is the sweet spot, as it maintains a triple-digit frame rate while the Ultra preset dips below the 90 FPS threshold, which can be noticeable on high-refresh-rate monitors. For 4K resolution, the situation changes. The High preset at 3840x2160 produces 54.9 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The Medium preset at 68.6 FPS is smoother, but the Low preset at 86.2 FPS offers the most responsive experience. Given that Hard West is turn-based, the 54.9 FPS at High 4K is acceptable, but for those prioritizing smoothness, Medium at 4K provides a better balance without sacrificing too much visual quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, with its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 192-bit memory bus, is the primary driver of the measured FPS results. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s ensures that texture streaming and high-resolution assets are handled without stutter, which is critical at 4K where the data shows a significant performance drop compared to lower resolutions. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and 5888 shading units provide the raw compute power needed to push the High preset at 1440p to 105.2 FPS. The data indicates that the RTX 4070 is not the bottleneck at 1080p, where even the Ultra preset achieves 120.4 FPS, but its role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases.

The RTX 4070’s 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for Hard West at all tested settings, as the game’s 2015 release date means it does not require the large memory pools of modern titles. The GPU’s performance at 4K Ultra, which drops to 39.1 FPS, highlights the limits of the AD104 chip under extreme load, but this is an outlier scenario. The measured data shows that the GPU’s capabilities are best utilized at 1080p and 1440p, where it maintains high frame rates across all presets. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 81 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37283, places it in the upper tier, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 37507, a delta of -0.6%, showing the RTX 4070 is slightly behind that specific competitor in synthetic benchmarks but clearly superior in real-world gaming based on the FPS data.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals where the system’s limits lie. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 160.8, which drops to 105.2 at 1440p High—a 34.6% decrease—and then to 54.9 at 4K High—a further 47.8% decrease from 1440p. This pattern is consistent across all settings. For the Low preset, the frame rate falls from 255.1 at 1080p to 160.4 at 1440p (a 37.1% drop) and then to 86.2 at 4K (a 46.3% drop). The scaling factor from 1080p to 4K is roughly 2.3x for the High preset (160.8 to 54.9), which is close to the theoretical pixel count increase of 4x, but the actual drop is less severe because the GPU is not fully saturated at 1080p.

This data suggests that the RTX 4070 is the limiting component at 4K, as the CPU’s role diminishes when the GPU is burdened with nearly four times the pixels. At 1080p, the Ryzen 7 7700’s high single-thread performance—evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1049 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4136—keeps the frame rate high, but as resolution increases, the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth become the primary constraints. The 4K Ultra result of 39.1 FPS is the clearest indication of GPU limitation, as the CPU has ample headroom to process the game logic in this turn-based title. The scaling curve implies that for 4K gaming, dropping to Medium settings (68.6 FPS) is a more sensible choice than sticking with High, as the visual difference is less noticeable than the 14.3 FPS gain.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Hard West with this combo for a 60 Hz monitor?*

A: At 4K, the High preset yields 54.9 FPS, which is below 60, so a 1440p resolution with High settings at 105.2 FPS is the better option for a 60 Hz display, as it provides a comfortable margin above the refresh rate.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 achieves 255.1 FPS, which is 134.7 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 120.4 FPS, representing a 111.9% performance increase.

*Q: Is the RTX 4070’s 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Hard West?*

A: Yes, the 12 GB GDDR6X memory is more than adequate for this 2015 title, as the measured FPS data shows no signs of memory-related stuttering even at 4K Ultra, which is the most demanding tested configuration.

Q: Does the Ryzen 7 7700 bottleneck the RTX 4070 at any resolution?

A: Based on the data, no. At 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 255.1 FPS, which is near the practical limit for many displays, and the CPU’s 3dmark_max_threads score of 8479 suggests it can handle the game’s logic without limiting the GPU.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1440p and 4K at Medium settings?

A: At 1440p Medium, the average FPS is 130.5, while at 4K Medium it is 68.6, a difference of 61.9 FPS, which indicates a 47.4% reduction in performance when moving to 4K.

Q: How does the combo’s performance at 4K Ultra compare to 1080p High?

A: The 4K Ultra preset delivers 39.1 FPS, which is 121.7 FPS lower than the 1080p High preset’s 160.8 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding scenario by a significant margin.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, provides the computational backbone for Hard West. The game’s turn-based mechanics rely heavily on CPU logic for unit actions, pathfinding, and AI decisions, and the data suggests this processor handles these tasks effortlessly. The 7700’s base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz, combined with a 32 MB shared L3 cache, deliver strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by the 3dmark_single_thread score of 1049 and Passmark single-thread score of 4063. This is crucial for a game that may not be heavily multithreaded, given its 2015 release date.

The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, shown in the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29302, are likely overkill for Hard West, but they ensure that background tasks or complex in-game scenarios do not cause frame drops. The 7700’s percentile ranking of 91 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40468, places it in the top 9% of processors, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H, scores 40431, a delta of 0.1%, indicating they are nearly identical in synthetic performance. In practice, the 1080p Low result of 255.1 FPS shows that the CPU is not a limiting factor, as this frame rate is often bounded by the GPU’s rendering speed rather than the processor’s ability to issue draw calls. The 65 W TDP of the 7700 also means it runs efficiently, leaving thermal headroom for sustained performance during long gaming sessions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear hierarchy across presets. The Low preset achieves 255.1 FPS, Medium reaches 210.2 FPS, High drops to 160.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 120.4 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is linear, with each step up in quality costing roughly 45 FPS on average. At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers: Low at 160.4 FPS, Medium at 130.5 FPS, High at 105.2 FPS, and Ultra at 75.9 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 29.3 FPS at this resolution, compared to 40.4 FPS at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is starting to become more of a factor.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops are more pronounced. Low yields 86.2 FPS, Medium 68.6 FPS, High 54.9 FPS, and Ultra 39.1 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 47.1 FPS, which is similar in absolute terms to 1080p but represents a much larger percentage drop (54.6%) due to the lower starting point. The 4K Ultra result of 39.1 FPS is the only scenario where the frame rate dips below 40 FPS, indicating that this setting is not recommended for smooth gameplay. Across all resolutions, the High preset provides the most consistent experience, with frame rates that are 75% or more of the Low preset’s performance while offering significantly better visuals.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination ranks 421st out of 1699 tested combos in Hard West, placing it in the top 24.8% of all configurations tested. This rank is impressive given that the game is from 2015 and the combo is relatively modern, suggesting that many other tested systems likely use older or lower-tier hardware. The rank of 421 indicates that there are 420 other combos that achieve higher measured FPS, but the data shows that this combo already delivers frame rates far exceeding playability thresholds at all tested settings except 4K Ultra.

The combo’s position in the rankings is driven by the RTX 4070’s strong performance, as the GPU’s percentile of 81 is lower than the CPU’s 91, meaning the GPU is the more likely bottleneck in this pairing. However, the measured FPS data shows that even at 4K High, the combo achieves 54.9 FPS, which is above the 30 FPS console standard and playable for a turn-based game. The rank of 421 out of 1699 also implies that there is a long tail of lower-performing combos, and this setup’s 1080p High result of 160.8 FPS places it in the upper echelon for competitive play, should the user choose to play at lower resolutions for maximum responsiveness. The data suggests that this combo is well-balanced for Hard West, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential across all resolution and settings combinations.