Hard West

# Hard West with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 produces a fascinating set of results in Hard West, a turn-based tactics title from 2015. The data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly powerful for this game, yet the scaling patterns between resolutions and settings expose where the bottleneck shifts from the GPU to the CPU. This combination ranks 764th out of 2,949 tested combos, placing it comfortably in the upper quartile of all systems benchmarked, and the measured FPS figures show headroom that could handle far more demanding workloads, but the specific behavior across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K tells a nuanced story about how this older strategy game interacts with modern hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic but not uniform across settings, which reveals the shifting balance between CPU and GPU limits. At Low settings, the system delivers 246 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 155 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 37% reduction) and then to 82 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 47% reduction from 1440p). This steep decline indicates that even at Low settings, the RTX 3080 becomes the limiting factor as resolution climbs, with the 4K figure representing roughly one-third of the 1080p performance. The pattern at Medium settings is similar: 201 FPS at 1080p, 127 FPS at 1440p (37% lower), and 67 FPS at 4K (47% lower from 1440p). These percentage drops are nearly identical across Low and Medium, suggesting the GPU's raw pixel throughput is the dominant constraint once resolution increases.

However, the High settings row shows a different scaling curve. At 1080p, High yields 155 FPS, which is notably lower than Medium's 201 FPS, indicating that High introduces additional GPU workload that the 3080 must process. Moving to 1440p High drops to 98 FPS (37% reduction), and 4K High lands at 51 FPS (48% reduction from 1440p). The percentage declines remain consistent, but the absolute values are lower, meaning the extra visual fidelity of High settings compounds the resolution penalty. Ultra settings follow the same trajectory but with even larger drops: 116 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p (37% lower), and 38 FPS at 4K (48% lower). The consistency of these percentages across all four settings — roughly 37% from 1080p to 1440p and 47-48% from 1440p to 4K — points to a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, where the RTX 3080's pixel processing capability dictates the framerate.

But the 1080p numbers hint at a CPU ceiling. At Low settings, 246 FPS is extraordinarily high, yet the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p only costs 45 FPS (from 246 to 201), while the jump from Medium to High costs another 46 FPS (to 155). These are large absolute gaps, but the fact that 1080p Low exceeds 240 FPS suggests the Ryzen 7 9700F is keeping pace with the GPU's output. Had the CPU been the bottleneck, we would expect the 1080p figures to cluster more tightly across settings, but the wide spread indicates the GPU still has headroom at this resolution. The true test of CPU limitation appears at 4K, where even Low settings only reach 82 FPS, and this is almost certainly the GPU's rendering limit rather than any CPU constraint.

Setting Recommendations

For players seeking the best experience per the measured rows, the data points to Medium settings as the optimal balance at 1440p and 4K. At 2560x1440, Medium produces an average of 127 FPS with a minimum of 108 FPS and maximum of 146 FPS, which provides smooth gameplay for a turn-based tactics title while maintaining visual quality above Low. The 108 FPS minimum is well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play, and the 127 FPS average offers headroom for any potential scene complexity spikes. At 3840x2160, Medium achieves 67 FPS with a 57 FPS minimum and 77 FPS maximum, which is still playable but closer to the edge — the 57 FPS minimum suggests occasional dips that might be noticeable on high refresh rate displays.

High settings at 1440p deliver 98 FPS average, which is acceptable, but the 29 FPS penalty over Medium (from 127 to 98) is significant for marginal visual gains in a game that likely doesn't showcase dramatic differences between Medium and High given its 2015 release. At 4K, High drops to 51 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS ideal for many players, making Medium the safer choice. Ultra settings are only recommended for 1080p, where the 116 FPS average remains smooth, but at 1440p the 73 FPS average and at 4K the 38 FPS average make Ultra impractical for consistent play. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for this hardware combo: it maintains high framerates at 1440p, stays playable at 4K, and at 1080p the 201 FPS average is more than sufficient for any display.

At 1080p, players have more freedom. Low settings hit 246 FPS, Medium reaches 201 FPS, and High achieves 155 FPS — all well above typical display refresh rates. For competitive play or maximum smoothness, Low or Medium would be ideal, but High at 155 FPS offers a better visual experience without sacrificing responsiveness. Ultra at 116 FPS is still viable for 1080p, making it the only resolution where the highest preset is recommendable. The measured minimum and maximum values for Medium settings (171 to 231 FPS at 1080p, 108 to 146 FPS at 1440p, 57 to 77 FPS at 4K) show consistent frame pacing, with no extreme dips that would indicate stuttering.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p High settings?

A: The system delivers an average of 98 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which is a solid performance level for a turn-based tactics game.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but marginally — the average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 38 FPS, which is playable for a turn-based game but may feel sluggish on high refresh rate displays.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 201 at 1920x1080 to 67 at 3840x2160, a 67% reduction, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the best setting for 4K play?

A: Medium settings provide 67 FPS average with a 57 FPS minimum, making it the highest preset that stays above 60 FPS on average at 4K.

Q: Is the CPU bottlenecking the GPU at 1080p?

A: The data suggests no — at 1080p Low, the system reaches 246 FPS, and the wide spread across settings (from 116 to 246 FPS) implies the GPU still has headroom, not the CPU.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: It ranks 764th out of 2,949 combos, placing it in the top 26% of all configurations tested for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system shows exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 246 FPS, which is the highest measured figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings achieve 201 FPS with a minimum of 171 FPS and maximum of 231 FPS, showing tight frame pacing. High settings drop to 155 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 116 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 53% reduction in average FPS, from 246 to 116, which is substantial but leaves even the lowest figure well above standard 60 Hz refresh rates.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but shows the expected resolution penalty. Low settings deliver 155 FPS, Medium achieves 127 FPS with a 108 FPS minimum and 146 FPS maximum, High produces 98 FPS, and Ultra drops to 73 FPS. The Medium settings at 1440p show the most consistent frame delivery, with only a 38 FPS gap between minimum and maximum. The Ultra preset at 73 FPS is still playable but begins to approach the threshold where fast camera movements in a turn-based game might feel less fluid.

At 3840x2160, the GPU workload becomes evident. Low settings reach 82 FPS, Medium hits 67 FPS with a 57 FPS minimum and 77 FPS maximum, High manages 51 FPS, and Ultra falls to 38 FPS. The 4K Medium figures are particularly telling — the 57 FPS minimum is close to the 60 FPS target, suggesting that scenes with heavy geometry or effects could cause dips below that threshold. The 4K High and Ultra results, at 51 and 38 FPS respectively, are more suited for turn-based gameplay where frame rate consistency matters less than in action titles, but they remain fully functional for the genre.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, with its 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth, is the primary driver of the resolution scaling observed in the data. The GPU's GA102 chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm process, contains 8,704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units, with base and boost clocks of 1440 MHz and 1710 MHz respectively. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s, which explains why the system can push 246 FPS at 1080p Low but only 82 FPS at 4K Low — the pixel throughput required at 4K (roughly four times the pixels of 1080p) consumes most of the available bandwidth.

The 10 GB VRAM capacity is more than sufficient for Hard West, a 2015 turn-based tactics game that likely doesn't demand modern memory footprints. The GDDR6X type memory with 19 Gbps effective speed ensures that texture streaming and frame buffer operations are not bottlenecks, even at 4K Ultra where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The RTX 3080's 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are irrelevant for this title, as it predates the widespread adoption of ray tracing, but the raw rasterization performance from the 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 compute is what drives the measured results.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 68 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,172, places it in the mid-to-upper range, but its nearest rivals — including the NVIDIA P106-100 at 23,249 (0.3% higher) and AMD Radeon RX 6600M at 23,273 (0.4% higher) — show that the RTX 3080's synthetic benchmarks are closely matched by other cards. However, the actual game performance here is far above what those rivals might achieve in Hard West, as the game's age and low graphical demands allow the 3080 to operate well within its capabilities. The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS demonstrates that even a high-end GPU from 2020 is not unlimited, but for this game, the GPU is only constrained at the highest resolution and preset combination.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), provides the computational foundation for this combo. With a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz, this CPU delivers substantial single-thread performance, which is critical for a turn-based tactics game where AI decisions and game logic often run on a single thread. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,691 and multithread score of 36,470 position it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69,996. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69,875 (0.2% higher) and Intel Core i7-14700KF at 70,163 (0.2% lower), indicating that the 9700F is competitive with top-tier processors from recent generations.

In Hard West, the CPU's role is less demanding than in real-time strategy games, as turn-based mechanics allow for more relaxed processing requirements. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core ensure that game state data is readily accessible, while the 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR5 support prevents memory bottlenecks. The 4 nm process node from TSMC, with 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die, allows for high clock speeds without excessive power draw (65 W TDP), which means the CPU can sustain boost clocks during extended play sessions.

The measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the 246 FPS average is likely near the engine's maximum frame rate or the GPU's render limit, not a CPU constraint. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect similar FPS across all settings at a given resolution, but instead we see a clear progression from Low to Ultra at every resolution. The 1080p spread from 116 to 246 FPS confirms that the GPU is doing most of the work in determining frame rates, while the CPU easily keeps up with the game's logic and draw call submission. The 9700F's high single-thread performance is particularly well-suited to this genre, where AI pathfinding and turn resolution may rely on single-core speed.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination ranks 764th out of 2,949 tested combos for Hard West, which places it in the top 26% of all systems benchmarked. This ranking is notable because the RTX 3080's individual GPU percentile is only 68, while the CPU's percentile is 94, suggesting that the CPU's strong performance helps boost the combo's overall standing. The game's low graphical demands mean that the GPU's relative weakness (compared to newer cards) matters less, while the CPU's high single-thread and multithread capabilities ensure that no bottleneck emerges from the processor side.

The rank of 764 out of 2,949 implies that roughly 2,185 other combos perform better in this game, which may seem counterintuitive given the high FPS numbers measured. However, this ranking likely includes systems with newer GPUs that can achieve even higher frame rates at 4K Ultra, or CPUs with higher boost clocks that push 1080p Low beyond 246 FPS. The data shows that this combo is not at the absolute top for Hard West, but it delivers playable performance at all settings and resolutions, with only 4K Ultra falling below 40 FPS. The 94th percentile CPU ranking and 68th percentile GPU ranking combine to produce a system that is well above average, even if it doesn't top the charts.

The nearest rival comparisons for each component provide context for this ranking. The CPU's rivals — the Ryzen 9 7940HX, Core i7-14700KF, Ryzen 9 7950X, and Core i7-14700K — all have similar average benchmark scores (within 0.9% of the 9700F), meaning that swapping to any of these CPUs would likely produce nearly identical results in Hard West. The GPU's rivals — the P106-100, Radeon Pro Vega 16, RX 6600M, and R9 M290X — have nearly identical average scores (within 0.4%), but their actual game performance would likely differ from the RTX 3080 due to driver optimization and architectural differences not captured in synthetic benchmarks. The combo's rank of 764 suggests that the specific pairing of this CPU and GPU is well-balanced for this game, with neither component dragging the other down.