Hard West

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 pairing delivers a commanding performance in Hard West, placing in the top 1% of tested combinations. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at 4K, yet transitions to a more balanced profile at lower resolutions, with frame rates that scale predictably with graphical settings.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant and reveals the RTX 5090 as the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 238.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 152.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 86.7 FPS. The scaling continues to 4K, where the average drops further to 78.4 FPS. This represents a 67% performance loss from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU's rendering load is the dominant constraint as pixel count increases.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, the system achieves 294.8 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 238.1 FPS at 1440p and then to 126.3 FPS at 4K. The most dramatic scaling occurs at Ultra settings, where the frame rate drops from 175.7 FPS at 1080p to 113.6 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 60.6 FPS at 4K. This steep decline at 4K Ultra suggests that the game's most demanding visual features are particularly taxing on the GPU, requiring substantial computational resources.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the high frame rates. However, at 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with the frame rate scaling almost linearly with the increase in pixel count. This is typical for a turn-based tactics title, where the visual fidelity of environments and character models places a premium on GPU throughput rather than CPU logic.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090's specifications are central to understanding its performance in Hard West. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This massive memory allocation ensures that even at 4K Ultra settings, there is no risk of VRAM capacity limiting performance, allowing the GPU to operate without texture swapping or streaming hitches.

The GPU's clock speeds, base 2017 MHz and boost 2407 MHz, contribute to its raw computational power. With 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs, the RTX 5090 achieves a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the GPU is able to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra, where the game's detailed environments demand high fill rates.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS is particularly relevant for Hard West's lighting and shadow calculations. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate of 60.6 FPS shows that even this flagship GPU is challenged by the game's maximum settings, indicating that the title's Ultra preset includes effects that are computationally expensive. The benchmark scores support this, with the GPU achieving a Passmark G3D score of 39,650 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,411, both of which place it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 7 7700X and RTX 5090 ranks 15th out of 1,699 tested combinations in Hard West. This top-tier ranking places it ahead of the vast majority of systems, reflecting the synergy between the CPU's strong single-threaded performance and the GPU's massive rendering capabilities.

The ranking is particularly impressive given that the RTX 5090's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the RTX 5090 D (0.1% faster average score) and the RTX 5050 Mobile (0.2% faster average score). In real-world gaming, however, the combination's position in the 15th spot suggests that factors beyond raw GPU compute, such as CPU scheduling and memory bandwidth, play a role in determining actual frame rates.

For the CPU, the Ryzen 7 7700X's average benchmark score of 34,313 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals, the Intel Core i5-13500 (0.4% faster) and Intel Core i7-12800HX (0.5% faster), are extremely close in synthetic tests, but the combination's 15th place ranking in Hard West indicates that the CPU's Zen 4 architecture provides a solid foundation for the GPU to perform at its peak.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 294.8 FPS, Medium 273.5 FPS, High 238.9 FPS, and Ultra 175.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 119.1 FPS, showing that even the most demanding preset at 1080p is far beyond the refresh rate of most monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 238.1 FPS at Low, 194.1 FPS at Medium, 152.2 FPS at High, and 113.6 FPS at Ultra. The relative scaling between settings remains consistent, with Ultra requiring 47.7% more GPU resources than Low. This resolution is the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate displays, as even Ultra settings comfortably exceed 100 FPS.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes more modest. Low settings average 126.3 FPS, Medium 99.5 FPS, High 78.4 FPS, and Ultra 60.6 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS, making it a borderline choice for players seeking smooth frame pacing on 60 Hz displays. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a 51.9% performance cost, which is slightly less severe than at lower resolutions, indicating that the GPU is already nearing its limits.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 7700X provides robust single-threaded performance that is essential for a turn-based tactics game like Hard West. The CPU's base clock of 4.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensure that game logic, AI decision-making, and UI responsiveness are handled quickly. Its 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture, deliver a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30,325 and a single-core score of 4,281.

The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache is beneficial for game data access patterns, reducing latency when the GPU requests new frames. The memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s, provided by dual-channel DDR5 support, ensures that data can flow efficiently between the CPU and GPU.

In Hard West, the CPU's role is less about raw multi-core throughput and more about maintaining consistent frame pacing. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 294.8 FPS, which is likely near the upper limit of what the CPU can feed to the GPU. The Passmark multi-thread score of 35,686 and single-thread score of 4,190 indicate that the CPU has ample headroom for this title, and the bottleneck at 4K is squarely on the GPU side.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, the data shows an average of 60.6 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is playable, though it is the only configuration that dips below 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for high-refresh-rate monitors?

A: At 2560x1440, all settings exceed 113 FPS, with Low settings reaching 238.1 FPS, making it ideal for 144 Hz or higher displays.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 238.9 FPS at 1080p to 78.4 FPS at 4K, a 67% reduction.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as frame rates scale significantly with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU may be more of a limiting factor, given the extremely high frame rates.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other systems?

A: It ranks 15th out of 1,699 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM help in this game?

A: The large memory pool ensures no VRAM limitations at 4K Ultra, allowing the GPU to operate without performance hits from texture streaming.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K displays, the High preset provides the best balance, delivering an average of 78.4 FPS. This is a significant improvement over Ultra's 60.6 FPS, with a 29% performance gain that likely comes with minimal visual compromise. Medium settings at 99.5 FPS are also viable for players who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset is recommended, as it achieves 113.6 FPS while providing the best visual quality. Players with 144 Hz monitors may prefer High settings at 152.2 FPS, which still offers excellent detail.

For 1920x1080, all settings are playable, but Ultra at 175.7 FPS is the recommended choice for maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness. The data shows that the system has enough headroom at this resolution to handle the most demanding preset with ease, making it the optimal choice for players who want the full visual experience.