Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a dominant performance in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015 that is far more demanding on the GPU than the CPU. The measured data shows this combination ranks in the 78th percentile of all tested combos, placing it at rank 805 out of 3722. The system is consistently capable of high frame rates even at 4K, though the scaling patterns reveal that the RTX 4080 is the primary bottleneck as resolution increases, while the 7700X has ample headroom to feed it at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data across the three tested resolutions reveals a predictable and steep decline as pixel count increases, which is classic GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 123 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops this to 99 FPS, a 19.5% reduction. The jump to 4K at High settings yields 73 FPS, which is another 26.3% decrease from the 1440p result. This pattern—where each resolution step costs roughly a fifth to a quarter of the remaining performance—indicates that the RTX 4080 is doing the heavy lifting, and the CPU is not the limiting factor at any point.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story. At 1080p, the system achieves 117 FPS, which drops to 95 FPS at 1440p (an 18.8% loss) and then to 70 FPS at 4K (a 26.3% loss from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across different presets strongly suggests that the scaling is purely resolution-driven, with no unexpected CPU stalls or memory bandwidth bottlenecks appearing at higher pixel counts. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads running at a 5.40 GHz boost clock, is more than sufficient for this game's turn-based logic, which does not appear to be heavily threaded or demanding on raw compute.

Comparing the Low preset scaling further confirms the GPU-bound nature. At 1080p Low, the system hits 211 FPS. At 1440p Low, this falls to 170 FPS (a 19.4% loss), and at 4K Low, it reaches 125 FPS (a 26.5% loss from 1440p). The fact that the percentage losses are nearly identical across Low, High, and Ultra presets—all hovering around 19-20% for the 1080p to 1440p step and 26% for the 1440p to 4K step—indicates that the rendering pipeline is uniformly filling pixels, and the drop-off is a pure function of the 4x pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K versus the 2.25x increase from 1080p to 1440p. This is textbook behavior for a GPU-limited scenario.

The only anomaly in the data is the Medium preset, which includes min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 164 FPS with a range of 139 to 188 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 132 FPS with a range of 112 to 152 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 97 FPS with a range of 83 to 112 FPS. The variance of roughly 20-25 FPS between min and max at each resolution suggests occasional scene complexity spikes, but the averages remain firmly in playable territory. The Medium preset's averages sit almost exactly halfway between the Low and High presets at each resolution, which is expected for a linear quality scaling.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play this game with this combo?

A: The data shows that 1440p High offers the best balance, delivering 99 FPS average. While 1080p High hits 123 FPS, the visual upgrade to 1440p is substantial for only a 24 FPS loss. 4K High is still very playable at 73 FPS, but the 1440p option provides a smoother experience with less GPU strain.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 4K produces an average of 70 FPS, which is only 3 FPS lower than the High preset's 73 FPS. This suggests that the visual difference between High and Ultra is minimal in terms of performance cost, making Ultra a viable choice for players seeking maximum fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

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

A: The scaling data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The consistent 19-26% frame rate drops when moving from 1080p to 1440p to 4K are characteristic of a GPU-bound workload. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X's 8-core, 16-thread configuration with a 5.40 GHz boost clock is more than adequate for this turn-based tactics title, which does not appear to stress the CPU heavily.

Q: Can this system maintain 60+ FPS at all tested settings?

A: Yes. The lowest average frame rate recorded in the entire dataset is 70 FPS at 4K Ultra. Every other preset and resolution combination exceeds 70 FPS, with the 1080p Low preset reaching as high as 211 FPS. This means the system never drops below the 60 FPS threshold in any measured configuration.

Q: How does the Medium preset's frame time variance compare to others?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with recorded min and max values. At 4K Medium, the range is 83 to 112 FPS, a 29 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range is 112 to 152 FPS, a 40 FPS spread. At 1080p Medium, the range is 139 to 188 FPS, a 49 FPS spread. The absolute variance increases with lower resolution, but the relative variance remains consistent at roughly 20-30% of the average.

Q: What does the combo's overall rank tell us about its competitiveness?

A: The combo ranks 805th out of 3722 tested combinations, placing it in the top 21.6% of all systems. This is a strong result, though not top-tier, indicating that while this build excels at Hard West, there are faster combinations available for those seeking absolute maximum frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame data places this AMD Ryzen 7 7700X + RTX 4080 combination at position 805 out of 3722 tested combos. This means roughly 78.4% of all tested systems are slower, while 21.6% are faster. For a game released in November 2015, this is a very strong showing, as the hardware is several generations newer than the title itself. The RTX 4080, released in September 2022, and the Ryzen 7 7700X, also from September 2022, are both modern components that significantly exceed the requirements of a turn-based tactics game from the mid-2010s.

The rank of 805 out of 3722 becomes more meaningful when considering the percentile standings of the individual components. The CPU has a percentileVsAllCpus of 85, meaning it outperforms 85% of all CPUs in the database. The GPU has a percentileVsAllGpus of 86, putting it ahead of 86% of all GPUs. The fact that the combo ranks slightly lower (78.4th percentile) than either component's individual percentile suggests that the game's engine or the specific pairing introduces some inefficiency that prevents the system from achieving its full theoretical potential, or that the game simply does not scale well with the extreme hardware on offer.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the CPU, the Ryzen 7 7700X's average benchmark score of 35909 is only 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845's 35802, and 0.5% higher than both the Intel Core 7 250H and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350. This indicates that the 7700X is not a standout performer in raw CPU benchmarks; it is essentially tied with several other mid-range and mobile processors. However, in Hard West, the CPU is rarely the bottleneck, so this parity does not translate into meaningful frame rate differences. The GPU's nearest rivals tell a similar story, with the RTX 4080's 54247 average score being within 0.1% of the RTX 4080 SUPER's 54209, and only 1.1% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X.

The practical upshot is that this combo is well above the median for Hard West performance. The 4K Ultra result of 70 FPS is higher than what the vast majority of the 3722 tested combos would achieve, and the 1080p Low result of 211 FPS is in the top tier for high-refresh-rate gaming. For players with a 144Hz or 165Hz monitor, the 1440p Medium setting at 132 FPS or the 1080p High setting at 123 FPS are the sweet spots for taking full advantage of the display's refresh rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS dataset covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), for a total of 12 distinct configurations. Every configuration was measured with data marked as "measured", meaning these are real-world test results rather than estimates.

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptionally high across all presets. The Low preset delivers an average of 211 FPS, which is the highest figure in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 164 FPS with a range of 139 to 188 FPS. High averages 123 FPS, and Ultra averages 117 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 94 FPS, indicating that the visual quality settings have a significant impact on performance even at 1080p, but the absolute numbers are so high that all presets are playable on any modern display.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains very strong. Low averages 170 FPS, Medium averages 132 FPS with a range of 112 to 152 FPS, High averages 99 FPS, and Ultra averages 95 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is only 4 FPS, which is the smallest gap between these two presets across all resolutions. This suggests that at 1440p, the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly taxing on the RTX 4080.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still solidly playable. Low averages 125 FPS, Medium averages 97 FPS with a range of 83 to 112 FPS, High averages 73 FPS, and Ultra averages 70 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 70 FPS is the lowest average in the dataset, but it remains above the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The 4K Low result of 125 FPS is noteworthy, as it demonstrates that even at maximum resolution, the system can exceed 120 FPS when visual quality is reduced.

The Medium preset is the only one with min and max FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the spread from min to max is 49 FPS (139 to 188). At 1440p Medium, the spread is 40 FPS (112 to 152). At 4K Medium, the spread is 29 FPS (83 to 112). This decreasing absolute variance with increasing resolution is consistent with GPU-bound behavior, where higher resolutions smooth out frame time spikes because the GPU is consistently saturated.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 plays the dominant role in determining Hard West's frame rates. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, the GPU has more than enough memory capacity and throughput for a game from 2015. The game's textures and geometry are unlikely to exceed even a fraction of the 16 GB VRAM, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is also far in excess of what this title requires, meaning the memory subsystem is not causing any bottlenecks.

The GPU's clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz. These high clocks, combined with 9728 shading units and 112 ROPs, give the RTX 4080 substantial raw pixel-pushing capability. The pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are the specifications that directly influence how quickly the GPU can fill the screen with rendered frames. The measured FPS data confirms that these specifications translate into real-world performance: the 4K High result of 73 FPS and the 4K Ultra result of 70 FPS are both strong showings for a game that is not known for being graphically demanding.

The GPU's FP32 compute of 48.74 TFLOPS and FP16 of 48.74 TFLOPS (1:1) indicate that the card has massive compute headroom for any shader work the game might require. However, Hard West is a turn-based tactics title with relatively simple graphics, so the GPU is likely operating well below its maximum compute utilization. The RTX 4080's 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are present but are unlikely to be engaged by this game, as it predates widespread ray tracing adoption and does not use DLSS.

The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus of 86 means it outperforms 86% of all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 54247 is nearly identical to the RTX 4080 SUPER's 54209 (0.1% difference) and slightly below the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X's 54828 (1.1% difference). This suggests that the RTX 4080 is a well-balanced card that sits near the top of the performance hierarchy, and the Hard West results reflect this positioning. The data shows that the GPU is the performance limiter in this system, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate drops with increasing resolution, but it is a very capable limiter that keeps the experience smooth across all tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the player's display and preference for visual fidelity versus frame rate. For players with a 60Hz display, the 4K Ultra preset at 70 FPS is the best choice, as it delivers the maximum visual quality while still exceeding the 60 FPS refresh rate. The 4K High preset at 73 FPS is nearly identical in performance and may be preferable if the visual difference between High and Ultra is imperceptible on the player's screen.

For players with a 120Hz or 144Hz display at 1440p, the Medium preset at 132 FPS is the standout recommendation. It provides a 40 FPS headroom over the 1440p High preset's 99 FPS, allowing the display to operate at its full refresh rate. The 132 FPS average with a min of 112 FPS ensures that even the most demanding scenes stay above the 120 FPS threshold. For those who prioritize visual quality over raw frame rate, the 1440p High preset at 99 FPS is still an excellent choice, as it remains well above the 60 FPS floor.

At 1080p, the choice is between the High preset at 123 FPS and the Ultra preset at 117 FPS. The 6 FPS difference between these two is minimal, so the Ultra preset is recommended for players with high-refresh-rate monitors who want the best visual experience. The 1080p Low preset at 211 FPS is only useful for competitive play or extreme high-refresh-rate displays (240Hz+), as the visual quality reduction is substantial for a game that is not competitive in nature.

The Medium preset deserves special consideration. Its measured min and max FPS values show consistent frame pacing at all resolutions, with the 4K Medium configuration delivering 97 FPS average and a minimum of 83 FPS. This makes 4K Medium the best option for players who want a 4K experience but find the 70 FPS average of 4K Ultra to be too close to the 60 FPS threshold for comfort. The 83 FPS minimum ensures that frame drops never become noticeable, providing a smoother overall experience than the higher-quality presets.

The game's turn-based nature means that frame rate spikes and drops are less disruptive than in fast-paced action games, but the data still shows that the Medium preset offers the most consistent experience. The lack of min/max data for the other presets prevents a direct comparison of frame time variance, but the Medium preset's recorded ranges of 139-188 FPS (1080p), 112-152 FPS (1440p), and 83-112 FPS (4K) demonstrate that the system maintains stable performance even under load. For most players, the 1440p Medium preset at 132 FPS represents the best overall balance of visual quality, smoothness, and headroom, making it the recommended starting point before adjusting based on personal preference.