Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER pairing delivers a decisive performance advantage in Hard West, a 2015 turn-based tactics title. The data shows this combination ranks 84th out of 1,699 tested combos, placing it comfortably within the top 5% of all configurations. This means the system is not merely adequate for the game; it is positioned to crush it at virtually every resolution and settings preset, with the only caveat being a slight dip at the most demanding 4K Ultra preset.

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is built on the Zen 4 architecture and manufactured on a 5 nm process. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This is a modern, high-frequency processor that excels in both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s) provide the low-latency data access that turn-based tactics games rarely stress to their limits.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 7700 is a strong performer. It achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 1049 and a max-thread score of 8479, demonstrating its balanced capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 4136 points in single-core and 29302 points in multi-core tests. These figures indicate that the CPU has ample headroom for the AI calculations and pathfinding logic that drive games like Hard West, but the game's engine is clearly not bottlenecked by the processor in most scenarios.

The nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark database show the 7700's standing. It is statistically tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, with deltaPct values of 0.1% and 0.5% respectively. It also edges out the Intel Core i9-13905H by 0.6% and the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T by 1.2%. Given this hardware, the measured frame rates in Hard West are almost entirely dictated by the GPU and the chosen graphics settings, with the CPU providing a stable foundation that never holds the system back.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and a 5 nm process, it features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 2295 MHz, with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. This substantial memory capacity and bandwidth are more than sufficient for a game from 2015, ensuring that texture streaming and asset loading at high resolutions are non-issues.

The 4080 SUPER's compute capabilities are immense. It boasts 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, along with 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. Its raw FP32 performance is rated at 52.22 TFLOPS, and it achieves a Pixel Rate of 285.6 GPixel/s. In the PassMark G3D benchmark, it scores 34245, a figure that places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals show it leading the pack, with a 0.2% advantage over the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and a 2.9% lead over the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

These specifications translate into a GPU that is wildly overqualified for Hard West. The game's visual fidelity, while stylized, does not demand the brute force that the 4080 SUPER provides. The benchmark results confirm this, showing that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, where it can generate hundreds of frames per second, and remains a capable performer even at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Ryzen 7 7700 and RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a rank of 84 out of 1,699 tested combos in Hard West. This is a top-tier result, placing it in the 95th percentile of all systems tested. This ranking is impressive but not surprising, given the CPU's high single-thread performance and the GPU's absolute dominance in rasterization.

In the context of this database, the combo's rank suggests that there are only a handful of systems that can outperform it, likely those pairing even higher-end CPUs (like the Ryzen 9 series) with the same or faster GPUs. The deltaPct values between the 4080 SUPER and its closest rivals are small (0.2% to 2.9%), meaning that swapping the GPU for a near-peer would not drastically change the ranking. However, the CPU's position relative to its rivals is also tight, with the 7700 being essentially tied with the Ryzen 9 7940H. This tells us that the combo's high rank is a product of a well-balanced pairing that avoids any single point of failure, rather than a single component that is head-and-shoulders above all others.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured frame rates reveal a clear hierarchy of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the system is GPU-bound at lower settings but shows the CPU's limits at Ultra. The Low preset yields an average of 285.9 FPS, while Medium produces 266.4 FPS. High drops to 202.6 FPS, and Ultra, which likely introduces more complex lighting and shadow effects, still manages a robust 155.9 FPS. These numbers indicate that even at 1080p, the game is not heavily taxing the 4080 SUPER, and the frame rates are high enough to saturate any high-refresh-rate monitor.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scaling is predictable. Low settings deliver an average of 206.1 FPS, Medium drops to 171.6 FPS, and High produces 131.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p yields 95.5 FPS, which is just shy of the 100 FPS mark but still incredibly smooth. This resolution is the sweet spot for this combo, offering high frame rates with the visual benefits of a higher pixel count.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the GPU starts to work harder. The Low preset delivers a solid 107.6 FPS, and Medium is still very playable at 87.9 FPS. High settings produce 70.4 FPS, which is ideal for a cinematic experience. However, the Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration to dip below 60 FPS, averaging 51 FPS. This is the single data point where the 4080 SUPER's limitations are visible, but it remains a playable experience for a turn-based game where reaction time is not critical.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is a textbook example of GPU-bound scaling. At the Ultra preset, the average FPS drops from 155.9 at 1080p to 95.5 at 1440p, a decrease of approximately 39%. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops further to 51, a decrease of roughly 47%. This steep decline is a direct result of the pixel count quadrupling from 1080p to 4K, which places an exponentially greater load on the GPU's shading and rasterization units.

At the Low preset, the scaling is even more dramatic. The system averages 285.9 FPS at 1080p, 206.1 FPS at 1440p, and 107.6 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is about 28%, but from 1440p to 4K it is a massive 48%. This pattern strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting component in this pairing. The CPU, with its high boost clock and low-thread performance, is not the bottleneck; if it were, we would see a plateau in FPS at higher resolutions. Instead, the FPS scales inversely with resolution, confirming that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the workhorse here, and its performance ceiling is reached at 4K Ultra.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For a 60 Hz 4K display, the High preset is the definitive choice. It delivers 70.4 FPS, which is comfortably above the refresh rate and provides a noticeable visual upgrade over Medium's 87.9 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 51 FPS, is not recommended for those who prefer a locked 60 FPS experience, though it remains playable for a tactics game. The data suggests that High is the optimal balance for 4K, offering a significant visual boost without sacrificing smoothness.

For 1440p monitors with a 144 Hz refresh rate, the High preset is again the best pick, delivering 131.2 FPS. This is close to the 144 Hz cap and provides excellent visual quality. While the Ultra preset at 95.5 FPS is still smooth, it doesn't hit the refresh rate ceiling, and the visual difference between High and Ultra is often subtle in this title. For 1080p users with high refresh rate displays, the High preset at 202.6 FPS is a perfect match, providing a massive frame rate buffer that will saturate any 144 Hz or 240 Hz monitor. The Ultra preset at 155.9 FPS is also viable, but the marginal visual gains may not justify the 47 FPS drop. In all cases, the Low and Medium presets are unnecessary, as the hardware is capable of running High or Ultra with ease, except for the single 4K Ultra scenario.