Hard West

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) using a 4 nm process. It runs at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts to 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. This desktop chip sits in the 9000 series and supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and per-core L2 cache of 1 MB are typical of the modern high-end mainstream segment.

In the context of Hard West, a turn-based tactics game from 2015, the CPU's role is interesting because the title is not a fast-twitch action game. But the benchmark data reveals that the CPU still matters significantly. At 1080p Low settings, the combo produces 333 FPS average; at 1080p Ultra, that drops to 171 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 162 FPS, which is a massive range. This tells us that even at low resolution, the game engine's frame generation is heavily influenced by scene complexity and settings that load the CPU's thread scheduler.

The Ryzen 7 9700F's passmark single-thread score is 4691, and its multithread score is 36470. In a turn-based tactics game, single-thread performance often dictates AI pathfinding and logic tick rates. The high boost clock of 5.50 GHz likely helps maintain high frame averages when the CPU is the primary bottleneck at low resolutions. The data shows the CPU sits in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, meaning it's near the top for general compute tasks.

What is particularly telling is the relationship between CPU performance and the game's frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 252, while the maximum is 341. This 89 FPS spread indicates that the CPU can produce very high frame rates but also experiences occasional dips, likely from turn-based events that trigger bursts of unit calculations. The 8 cores and 16 threads are more than enough for a 2015 title, but the game's engine may not scale perfectly across all threads.

Comparatively, the Ryzen 7 9700F benchmarks close to the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.2% higher average score) and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (0.2% lower). This means the 9700F is squarely in the high-end desktop performance tier. For Hard West specifically, the CPU's strength is its ability to push frame rates to 300+ FPS at lower settings, which suggests the game is not heavily multi-threaded but benefits from raw single-core speed.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and PCIe Gen 5 support with 24 lanes are modern features, but for a game from 2015, these are likely overkill. The data suggests that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor at higher resolutions (1440p and 4K), where the GPU takes over. However, at 1080p, the CPU's capability is what allows the combo to reach 333 FPS, which is near the top of what any display could show.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p Medium settings for this combo?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings is 297, with a minimum of 252 and a maximum of 341.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to the Intel Core i7-14700K in benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996, which is 0.9% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700K's average score of 69355.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 57, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Q: Does the RTX 4090 have enough VRAM for Hard West at maximum settings?

A: The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, which is vastly more than needed for a 2015 turn-based tactics game; the data shows the combo still achieves 171 FPS at 1080p Ultra.

Q: What is the rank of this CPU+GPU combo among all tested combos in Hard West?

A: The combo ranks 53rd out of 2949 tested combinations in Hard West.

Q: How many threads does the Ryzen 7 9700F have, and what is its L3 cache size?

A: The CPU has 16 threads and 32 MB of shared L3 cache.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 228 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average drops to 144 FPS, a 36.8% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 76 FPS, which is a 47.2% drop from 1440p and a 66.7% drop from 1080p. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 4090's rendering load becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, which is expected for a GPU with 24 GB of VRAM but limited by rasterization throughput.

Looking at Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 333 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 229 FPS (a 31.2% reduction). At 4K Low, it falls to 120 FPS (a 47.6% reduction from 1440p). The fact that even at Low settings, 4K cannot maintain 144 FPS suggests that the resolution itself, not the settings, is the dominant factor. This is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting component at 4K, while the CPU can still push high frames at lower resolutions.

Medium settings show a similar pattern: 297 FPS at 1080p, 188 FPS at 1440p, and 99 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 36.7% (1080p to 1440p) and 47.3% (1440p to 4K). These ratios are consistent across settings, which implies the game's engine scales resolution linearly with pixel count, and the RTX 4090's raw compute is the primary constraint.

Ultra settings present the most extreme case. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 171 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it's 108 FPS (a 36.8% drop). At 4K Ultra, it's 57 FPS (a 47.2% drop from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result is the only one below 60 FPS, indicating that maximizing both resolution and settings pushes the GPU to its limits in this title. The data shows a consistent ~36% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~47% drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings, which points to a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions.

The implication here is that for a turn-based tactics game, players might prefer higher settings over higher resolution. At 1440p Ultra, the combo still achieves 108 FPS, which is smooth. At 4K High, 76 FPS is playable but not ideal. The RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM is not a factor at any resolution, as even 4K Ultra would likely use less than half of that capacity. The scaling data suggests that the game's visual complexity at Ultra settings is what forces the frame rate down, not memory bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces a wide range of frame rates depending on settings. Low settings yield an average of 333 FPS, which is the highest recorded in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 297 FPS, with a minimum of 252 and a maximum of 341. High settings bring the average down to 228 FPS. Ultra settings reduce the average to 171 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 162 FPS, which is substantial and indicates that Ultra settings impose significant rendering overhead even at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 229 FPS (Low), 188 FPS (Medium, with min 160 and max 216), 144 FPS (High), and 108 FPS (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, with the smallest absolute difference (95 FPS) occurring at Low and the largest (63 FPS) at Ultra. This suggests that the GPU's shading units and texture units are being exercised more at 1440p, but the CPU is still capable of feeding frames at a high rate.

At 3840x2160, the averages fall to 120 FPS (Low), 99 FPS (Medium, with min 84 and max 113), 76 FPS (High), and 57 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result of 120 FPS is still very playable, but 4K Ultra at 57 FPS is the only sub-60 result in the entire dataset. The minimum FPS of 84 at 4K Medium suggests that even in the most demanding turn-based scenes, the frame rate stays above 80 FPS, which is excellent for a game of this genre.

The data also reveals that the RTX 4090's performance scales predictably with settings. At each resolution, Low is roughly 1.4x faster than High, and Ultra is roughly 0.75x slower than High. This linear scaling is typical of a GPU that is not memory-limited. The 24 GB GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient, as evidenced by the fact that even 4K Ultra does not cause a catastrophic frame drop.

Notably, the minimum FPS values are only provided for Medium settings, and they show that the combo can maintain smooth gameplay even during intense turns. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 252 FPS, which is far above any display refresh rate. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 160 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it's 84 FPS. These minimums indicate that the game rarely stutters, making the experience consistent.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a powerhouse GPU based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process. It features 16384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. The GPU has 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores. Its base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost of 2520 MHz, and it operates with a 450 W TDP. The memory subsystem is 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth.

In Hard West, the RTX 4090's role is interesting because the game is not graphically demanding by modern standards. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is overkill for a 2015 turn-based tactics title. Yet, the benchmark data shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 57. This suggests that the game's Ultra settings might include effects that are not well-optimized for modern GPUs, or that the engine's draw calls are inefficient at high resolutions.

The RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM is never a bottleneck in this game, as even the most demanding settings would use a fraction of that capacity. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is also more than sufficient for the game's texture streaming needs. The data shows that at 1080p, the GPU can produce 333 FPS at Low settings, which is well beyond the limits of most displays. This indicates that the GPU is not the constraint at lower resolutions, allowing the CPU to shine.

Comparing the RTX 4090 to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, it scores 38194 on passmark G3D. The Intel Arc Pro A60 has a similar average score (60326 vs 60347 for the 4090), with a 0% delta. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is 0.3% slower, and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M is 2.5% faster. These comparisons are based on average benchmark scores, which may not reflect gaming performance directly, but they suggest the RTX 4090 sits in a specific performance tier.

For Hard West specifically, the GPU's role is to render the game's stylized western environments and character animations. The high pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s ensure that even at 4K, the game can maintain high frame rates unless settings are maxed out. The data shows that the RTX 4090 is capable of 120 FPS at 4K Low, which is impressive for a GPU that is already end-of-life and has been succeeded by the GeForce 50 series.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the player's display resolution and refresh rate. At 1080p, all settings are playable, but Medium offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The average FPS at 1080p Medium is 297, with a minimum of 252, which means the game will never drop below 250 FPS. This is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. High settings at 1080p deliver 228 FPS, which is still excellent, but the jump from Medium to High is not worth the 69 FPS loss.

At 1440p, Medium settings provide 188 FPS average with a minimum of 160, which is smooth for most gaming monitors. High settings at 1440p drop to 144 FPS, which is still above 120 Hz, but the difference between Medium and High is 44 FPS. For players with 144 Hz displays, High settings are acceptable, but Medium ensures a more consistent experience. Ultra at 1440p yields 108 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced scenarios, though in a turn-based game, this is less critical.

At 4K, the recommendations change dramatically. Medium settings at 4K produce 99 FPS average with a minimum of 84, which is the best balance of quality and performance for 4K displays. High settings at 4K drop to 76 FPS, which is still playable but may introduce occasional slowdowns during complex scenes. Ultra at 4K is not recommended, as the 57 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold, which could cause noticeable stuttering on 60 Hz displays. Low settings at 4K provide 120 FPS, but the visual quality is significantly reduced.

The data suggests that Medium settings are the sweet spot for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the combo pushes 297 FPS, which is far beyond any current display's refresh rate. At 1440p Medium, 188 FPS is still extremely high. At 4K Medium, 99 FPS is excellent for a 4K experience. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings are also the only ones provided, and they show that the game maintains smooth performance even in demanding moments. For a turn-based tactics game where visual fidelity can enhance the atmosphere, Medium settings offer a great compromise without sacrificing playability.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combo ranks 53rd out of 2949 tested combinations in Hard West. This places it in the top 1.8% of all combos tested, which is a strong showing for a CPU that was released in September 2025 and a GPU that is now end-of-life. The high rank is primarily driven by the GPU's raw power and the CPU's strong single-thread performance, which is crucial for a game that appears to be CPU-bound at lower resolutions.

The rank of 53 out of 2949 means there are 52 combos that perform better in this specific game. These are likely combinations with even newer GPUs or CPUs that have higher benchmark scores. However, the RTX 4090's percentile ranking among all GPUs is 88, and the Ryzen 7 9700F's percentile is 94. This suggests that both components are in the top tier, and their combined performance is near the pinnacle of what is available.

The data shows that this combo is capable of 333 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a benchmark that many other combos might not achieve due to CPU limitations. The fact that it ranks 53rd overall indicates that while it's not the absolute fastest, it is within striking distance of the top performers. For a turn-based tactics game, this level of performance is overkill, but it ensures that the game runs flawlessly on any display.

The rank also reflects the balance between CPU and GPU. At 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor, and the Ryzen 7 9700F's 4691 single-thread score is competitive with the best. At 4K, the GPU takes over, and the RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS ensures high frame rates. The 53rd rank suggests that very few combos can match this combination of CPU and GPU strength, making it a solid choice for anyone who wants to play Hard West at maximum settings without worrying about performance.